Portland Oregon and sloe gin fizz

Finally back home! I should be working my applications now, but I thought I'd update this quickly since it's been a while. This past week found me driving over 8 hours in the dark, rainy Pacific northwest to Bellingham, Washington where I attended a two-day gathering of Community Land Trusts. It was fun, enlightening, networky, and beautiful. Aaron was in Portland for a continuing development training for VISTAs from Oregon and Washington, learning about grantwriting and attending the Oregon Micro Enterprise Network's annual meeting. He had a lot of good VISTA bonding time, I hear, while I had a fun time bonding over ground leases and condo dilemmas.

We then spent the weekend in Portland with our VISTA friends, watching Michigan win the game against Iowa at the Thirsty Lion again and walking around Portland - a lot of Portland. It's a great city and I think Aaron might be up for living in a similiar city some day, which is good - I think I'd like to live in an urban area for at least a while, if not for the long term. Today we went with the crew of VISTAs - Matt, Phong, Rebecca, Kris, and Matt's partner Katie - to the Plumper Pumpkin Patch outside of Portland where we flung pumpkins with giant slingshots and watched others shoot off huge pumpkin catapults and cannons.

I am really going to work on this essay now.

Peace out,
Allison

So, this is becoming more sporadic as I wait for Aaron to update before I do, so here I go. Blogging as I want, on my own schedule. Sometimes long posts, sometimes short. I DO WHAT I WANT.

Today, bullet points. Some are of more importance than others, but I will type as they come.

* Today Aaron and I went for a walk in the "open space" across the road from our apartment. Basically this is a big forest with informal paths running through it. We're not sure who owns it , but we think it's owned by a big lumber company for some reason and they just leave it natural. While we were hiking at dusk, we ran into this guy who was making hooting noises...and owls were hooting back! We talked to him for awhile, and as we were talking, two great horned owls flew up to the tops of nearby trees. We could see them silhouetted against the sunset sky. He's been visiting these owls almost every day and claims that they come to his house to say goodbye before they fly to a different part of the valley in the summer. Who knows? But it was pretty sweet.

* Yesterday and today have been the days from hell at work. People not telling me things I need to get ready for meetings, changing things back and forth, blah blah blah. It's not that I need to have everything perfectly set for the meeting - it's impossible! - but I've been working hard on this and I don't want people to get the wrong impression of how this land trust thing could work because I didn't have time to properly prepare for their questions. I knew there were going to be questions, because we need to discuss these things more - what resale formula, what sort of restrictions, how it's going to work in practice - before we approve them in concept. It's stressful for me because I don't want to simplify it down, and it feels like some people want to. We're not at that point yet. We're in the messy stage, and it's going to be messy.

* I owe people letters. I'm sorry.

* We played bridge again this past weekend - had a blast - and had a great dinner to boot. Delicious braised chicken stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, sauteed green beans and tomatoes, salad, smashed potatoes, and homemade apple tart. Our hosts are good cooks and we benefited.

* Michigan football rules. Enough said.

* My dad and Ann are moving to Arkansas as soon as this spring. Our house is going on the market. My dad's plant is closing and they are retiring, moving south, and building a new home on a new lake. In the middle of nowhere. I'm sad. I don't want to lose my house. I am going to have a party over Christmas so we can relive all the good memories there. Be there or be square.

* Mountain biking tomorrow - whee!

* We found a cool place in Corvallis last Friday that's a multicultural literacy center. Aaron wants to volunteer there to teach English and learn Spanish. The best part is that everyone is committed to teaching and learning, so it doesn't feel patronizing or awkward. Everyone has something to give and receive.

* We finished building our dresser. I hope to have a picture soon. Did I already say that?

* We opened an online stock account the other day. Scary, investing. And how can we do this on our poverty level wages, you ask? Well, we eat cheap - real cheap - and we don't have to pay for our car. So, we're investing as much as we can - probably a good plan considering Aaron's going to be in debt crazylike after law school and I am going to be income-less for 7 years while I get my degree, so we might need to start saving early for a house or some crazy adult thing like that now.

* Speaking of grad school, I am applying right now. (That has certainly added to the stress...) Here are my schools: Harvard, Yale, Duke, Berkeley, NYU, Chicago, and UPenn. These are all super competitive, highly ranked schools. I don't really want to go to someplace that doesn't support what I'm doing, both financially and academic wise, so no safety schools. These all have great slavery profs...and are hard to get into, so if I'm crying come March, you'll know why. Although Chicago and Duke both accept a fairly large number of people for a history program (like Yale accepts 15 or so, while they accept around 30), it depends on how many people apply for 19th century US history. It's not too common...I hope.

Anyhow, time to ride the bike (inside). I'll poke Aaron to get him to write. And, I think my next entry will give you some more details on my work projects. But you'll just have to wait and see, won't you?

P.S. Check out this link - Cats that look like Hitler!

Hello hello

I'm sitting here by myself at 10:24 PM because Aaron is on his way home from a microbusiness class in Albany - the first one of this series. It's weird to be in the apartment by myself but it's kind of nice. I thought he was going to be home about an hour ago, but I didn't know this class was 3 hours (the others are 2 usually) so I made dinner and now it's sitting here, staying warm. Oh well. This has happened more than once that I've done a "surprise nice thing" and it ends up being diverted because my surprise wasn't based on any actual reality of time.

Today I worked - a lot - and got a lot done. I kind of feel like I'm working in circles - it's been such a long time since I've worked closely with others who have their own agenda I'm frustrated by having to drop what I'm doing to fit in with them. I guess that's what this job thing is all about.

BUT the best part of today was when I went to my volunteer orientation at Heartland Humane Society. I didn't actually get to pet any animals but I did get to see a bunch of snuggly fuzzies. They have quite a nice place, and although there were tons of people at the orientation they seem to really need volunteers. I said I would work with dogs, cats, small animals, and help train dogs and work at special events. Basically I just sign up for whenever I want and what I want to do. Hopefully I can learn their doggie training method and then when I get my own dog I'll know what to do.






I leave you with two fuzzies - Ralph and Jake - on this chilly, rainy Oregon night!

~Allison

Life at the office

Hello all! I'd like to fill you in about what our office is like, and introduce you to some of the people we work with. I'll try to give you a virtual tour, so to speak. To start at the beginning...


Here's the door off the street to our office. It's pretty easy to miss, and there has been discussion of late about trying to improve the signage we have on the street for clients. Admittedly, Allison and I nearly missed it when we walked by for the first time about a month ago.



Here is the stairway up to the second floor, on the other side of the door you just saw. It's funny; because Allison and I frequently ride our bikes to work, the sound of our shoes clanking on the stairs as we carry our bikes up reverberates through the whole office. Apparently, everyone is now used to knowing exactly when we arrive.



This is the reception area. The glass doors straight ahead are to the classroom where many of our educational programs are held. To the right, around the corner, is the hallway.



This is said hallway. Down at the very end you can see our executive direcor, Jim, working at his desk. This shot is actually taken facing toward the reception area you just saw. My office is that first door on the right. We'll get to that later. Right now, we're going to turn around 180 degrees and head toward the breakroom area.



Hmm, pardon me while I clean up this dish that Allison so carelessly left out.


There, that's better! This is the breakroom. We keep our lunch here in the fridge, and we usually eat our lunch here, too. It's cozy, and well-stocked with tea.

Well, now that we've seen that, let's head down to Allison's office. She's all the way back down the hall, in the anteroom to Jim's office.


Hi, Allison! (She's getting better at hiding her "spider solitaire" games on the computer) Hope you find that book, uh, interesting. Seeing as you're so busy, we'll let you get back to...work.




Here's another office! I'd like to introduce you folks to my two coworkers (well, supervisor and coworker), Brigetta and Matt. I work with these two everyday. We've gotten to know each other pretty well through all the important meetings we have together. Bye guys! Hope that grant application pans out ok!



Well, it's back to work for me. Won't be long and I'll have another significant meeting, major assignment, or....oh excuse me, it appears I have an urgent phone call! Thanks for joining me, and I hope you had a good time seeing our office!