Unemployed in a Small Town

humbled

2012-01-01T20:49:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year friends! I wish each and every one of you a fabulous and wonderful 2012, filled with happiness and adventures! While I know that I should not focus on the negative, I have a bit of unloading today, but I promise I will end on a positive note.

I had a bad day at work today. That is rare for me, but sometimes it happens. I should explain that my vocation of the moment is hostess and bar tender at a family restaurant at a ski resort. Today I was hosting and it went badly, not because we were overly busy or overly slow, not because of anyone in particular or any one thing; today was bad because a lot of factors were working against me. I am over tired from working noon to 1am yesterday, and to make matters worse I spent my morning on a (much needed and well enjoyed) 2 hour hike straight up a mountain. At work everyone was tired from the crazy holiday week we just worked and everything was that much more difficult because we were all feeling a little burnt out. So there we all were putting on happy faces and greeting hungry customers while in our hearts we all just want to be in our beds having a quiet and relaxing Sunday night.

All of this, added to the fact that things were not as busy as they have been in the recent past, created a bit of negative energy in the dining room. You see the hostess (myself on this lovely evening) is the one who determines who sits where, and ultimately which servers get tables and when. Now if I make a mistake in my rotation, or if a group requests a different table than the one I have in mind, or if there are a lot of large parties that can't fit just anywhere, or if families don't want to sit in the pub, or if everyone wants to sit in the pub; all of that effects the flow of restaurant traffic. And tonight that happened, I sat someone out of turn on accident, and then when I tried to seat the next server no one wanted to sit in the pub, people moved tables, we had several huge walk-in parties, and in the end the numbers were wildly uneven and several servers were very grumpy.

Grumpy servers have only one person to blame, because they can't blame the guests for wanting to sit elsewhere, and they can't blame their manager for putting them in one section or another, so they blame the host. I remind myself frequently that it is not a personal attack, it is just a venting of frustration; but still at the end of the day, it hurts when it feels like someone is attacking your ability to perform your job. When I left tonight I spent my 25 minute drive home reflecting on how the night went and I realized that being a host is a more difficult job than I had thought. It seems so simple and straight forward but the happiness of not only the customers, but also the servers and even, at times, the kitchen, depends on how you do your job. This realization was very humbling for me. Hosting was supposed to be a cake walk for me. It was supposed to be my easy job to fluff up my paychecks in between bartending shifts. It has instead become the stressful half, and worse, I can justify that stress.

I'll just come right out and say it, tonight some servers made me feel like I am bad at my job - which hurts because I try so hard to be good and proper about how I distribute the tables. I thought about it and decided that the servers just might not know how hard it is to tell people where to sit and expect them to stay put, and that in turn made me feel as though I could have at some point made someone else feel as though they were bad at their job because I had written their job off as easy when I didn't really know. So here I am, humbled by the fact that I might not be the greatest at hosting but also learning that not all simple jobs are as simple as they seem.

It's a new year and I'm not going to make a resolution I can't keep like finishing my one photo peer day project or losing 10 pounds, but I do resolve this: I will do my best in 2012 (and beyond) to never criticize the performance of a person whose job might include complexities that I don't completely understand. Everyone has their own hurtles and making someone feel small or inadequate is not going to help them perform better at work. Kindness and understanding are infinite resources with much more power than many people have ever realized and I promise to be generous with both.

Happy 2012 everyone!

Taiwan and belated thanks givings...

2011-12-02T12:28:00.001-08:00

Here I am, home again, after a whirlwind of adventure in Taiwan to celebrate the engagement of my brother, Cory, and his girlfriend (who is now his fiance!), Hsaio-Han. I had a great time on my trip and I learned a lot about Taiwanese and Chinese culture, which I have had limited experience with in my adventures thus far. We had many family meals with Hsiao-Han and her extended family, including lots of authentic Taiwanese food, Japanese food, Thai food, and more. I continue to be blown away by the hospitality and generosity of each new culture that I experience. I had a wonderful time getting to know everyone and was very glad for our gracious hosts who translated for us, showed us around, and right from day one, treated us like family. We'll have some big shoes to fill this spring when it is our family's turn to host them. It is customary in their culture for members of the family, such as uncles, aunts, and cousins, to want to treat the guests of their family members to a meal during their stay. We were spoiled, truly spoiled, during this trip and when it was time to leave I had no words that were worthy of the thank you I wish that I had been able to articulate.

In my travels and adventures through life thus far I have seen families in Africa host friends and family members to the point that they could barely afford to feed themselves, go miles out of their way to walk me to work when they had only to walk half that distance to get to their own, give up their own plans to help keep me safe in mine. In Taiwan I watched family help family by loaning an apartment for us to stay in, loaning our hosting family a van for our transportation, treating us to dinner, helping cart us all around, and most of all never making us feel like an imposition. In Saint Thomas friends brought me fresh fruit and veggies while I was working the desk, gave me rides or allowed me to borrow a car to get anywhere I needed to go, treated me to many meals and drinks when money became tight for me, and generally appreciated and treated me like family, all by people I had known for all of a month (and also by Nicole, whom I have known and loved since we were assigned to be roommates freshman year in college...love you apple-bottom-whiskers!) In California I was offered several different home-stays while searching for a place to live, I was picked up and put up by friends when my car broke down in the middle of the road, I was given rides and places to stay, taught the area and shown around by almost strangers just because I was new and had no one else to rely on.

Traveling never fails to remind me how lucky I am in all ways - I have fantastic parents who will take me in whenever I run low on money and want to live without rent for a bit. I have fantastic family members who will get up at 4 am to drive us to the airport without batting an eye. I have fantastic friends who have taken care of me so many times and in so many ways I don't even begin to know how to list them all. I have had the opportunity and the freedom to go to college, get an education, find what I am good at and find what makes me happy. I have the freedom to live at home and bar tend on the weekends for a few months in order to be able to turn down high paying jobs that bring in to question my moral values. I have created a life for myself that allows me to move and travel and try new things whenever I want to, that has allowed me to find my passion, and to work my way towards it. Sometimes I take that for granted, I try to reach beyond my means because I am so used to being caught before I fall, so its important that every once in a while I stop and take a look around and realize how much I have been given, and how much I should be thankful for. This Thanksgiving I was on the opposite side of the world, so far removed from all the "normal" Thanksgiving traditions, and yet the day still managed to remind me to give thanks for all that I have. So thank you, to my hosts, my family, my friends, and to everyone who has helped me along my way. I know that I never hesitate to ask for help from friends and family when I need it and I hope none of you will ever hesitate to ask me for anything either.

Some pictures of my fabulous trip to Taiwan:

The Mother Land

2011-11-11T07:33:00.001-08:00

So here I am, home again. Back in Vermont for some R&R followed by who knows what...the world, once again, is my oyster.

I had a fantastic time in Florida, we went parasailing and watched dolphins play and got fake tattoos. We visited the sponge docks (like little Greece!) where sponge harvesters collect sea sponges and hang them from their boats to bring in and sell. We had lunch at a Greek restaurant that was DELICIOUS even if I did pronounce everything on the menu incorrectly. We went out to see Footloose at the movie theater and I tried to wear Becky's high heels and failed miserably ("You look like a dinosaur!") and then got a little footloose myself and walked out of the theater barefoot. The whole trip was amazing, I'm so glad I got to be there for Becky's birthday and hang out with her for a whole week! I miss her terribly again already though...maybe I'll just have to move to Florida!

Next on the agenda after Florida was a night in Plattsburgh (my old stomping ground!) and I got to spend the day with Miss Jillian, whom I love dearly and really enjoyed seeing, but I wish I could have spent more time with her. I met up with my lovely friend Jen in the evening and we met our other wanderful friend Merry out for dinner that night. Then Jen, Merry, and myself attempted to do some dress shopping, I failed miserably but Merry, who had no occasion to buy a dress for at the time, found a beautiful red one that she HAD to get because it looked amazing on her and was on sale....so thus came about my formal Christmas party! I'm going to have to throw a party this year so that she can wear her dress and I can wear mine, and hopefully so that I can see all my friends. Plus, I can bake up a storm and we all know how much I love to bake!

Anywho, after Pburgh I headed back home to good old VT where I have been job hunting, semi unsuccessfully...yeah, I did get some positive responses, yeah, they are unpaid. Why is it I can always land the jobs that don't pay but somehow can't get a well paying job for my life?! You'd think with all my volunteer work I would have earned one by now...although I guess I did get one almost without trying and I pretty much turned it down because the good money is in the work I just can't see myself doing. Case and point: oil field work. Nope. No thanks. Not super interested.

So here I am, at home, taking pictures, baking bread, walkin dogs, applying to schools and jobs, and getting ready for a trip to Taiwan. I'm so excited, this is going to be a blast! And I get a sister (in-law) out of the whole deal so that's exciting...I've always wanted one of those! Anyway here are some pics from VT so far, Taiwan pics coming soon (early December, when I get back!)

Full moon, long shutter speed, sweet tree!

Dog's head falls, where the dogs and I spent the 70 degree day we got this week.

Josey, cooling off after our 6 mile trek on the rail trail.

Rail Trail!

We've never been this far before, so many new places to explore!

Onward and Upward

2011-10-25T11:46:00.000-07:00

I have officially departed St. Thomas. Bittersweet as always, I look forward to moving on but if I wasn't sad about leaving than I would have done it a long time ago. I had a great time with a lot of great people whom I will miss intensely. I learned a lot about hotels and hotel management and island living, and so much more. I get a little misty every time I think about the fact that I can't just pop over to St. John on my day off anymore, every time I think about what I'm going to miss this winter (Gremlin's Birthday first and foremost, but also the beginnings of my friend's new business, all the boat trips, discovery days, and local events), whenever I think about all the fantastic friendships that I made there, and every time I consider how freaking cold it's going to be at home!

So here I am, unemployed and adventuring once again...first big question I need to tackle: to go abroad again or stay in the US...or maybe another US territory...Guam anyone? Next: to grad school or not to grad school? And finally, if yes on grad school, what exactly do I want to study? I know I already have plenty of options open with just a bachelor's in engineering and if I study something different but similar it would open up new doors without closing existing ones - so for me that would be ideal, the more doors the merrier! I love doors! Options are my favorite, except for times like now, when I am paralyzed with indecision at all the options that I do have. I think the most important thing I need to remember right now is that all of my options are not going to pan out, that's life, so perhaps I should just apply for every single thing I am considering and see what I get before I get too caught up in making up my mind. For that I will need a list of everything I want to do (or what I want to do the most right now because I'm pretty sure making a list of everything I want to do is impossible...because I would like to do everything eventually...) So here goes:

Grad School - either here or abroad, in an environmentally or developmentally relevant field either in the state or abroad....if I go abroad I would like to go to either England, Ireland, Australia, or perhaps Poland or Belgium or somewhere else entirely....

Job - entry level environmental engineering job...sounds tempting but also very scary because that had the ring of career to it, and if I'm finding something career worthy I damn well better love it. So in this area I have every right to be, and definitely will be picky.

Volunteer - You all know my Peace Corps term got cut short...it was pretty devastating in the moment, but now that I've had a few years to work and travel and generally work towards recovering from that, I think I might be up for another go...I also adored AmeriCorps and would be just plum thrilled to do that again for the right opportunity as well.

Short Term Job - temporary solution, all about having money in the here and now. Tempting, as something to hold me over in the moment, but also tough to commit to because it can make things so easy in the moment that its hard to move on to the bigger future-making and goal-relevant type ventures. I have done this a bunch of times (ie. Seasonal trail guide, UPS holiday helper, sales person at pet store, grocery store sale tag changer, etc) and every time it gets me through the moment but also slows down the real hunt for my next adventure (with the exception of the grocery store one, I hated that job so much it made the hunt for a new adventure more furious and I put in my notice 3 weeks early because I just couldn't wait).

And those are just the broad categories of options, within those categories there are a million possibilities! I love potential, it's like all the things you are capable of being and doing quietly waiting for you to reach out and pick one thing to strive for. The important thing is that whatever I do next I give it all I've got, and learn everything I can from it, because that is what life is all about!

Wondering what I'm doing now? Hanging out at my friends place in Tampa, FL, dreading my return to the great frozen north, and playing with her puppy dog while she's at work. Got a few excellent shots of little Gizmo yesterday...included below. Taking pictures is my favorite. Someday I'll make that my job, when I win the lottery. For now - Gizmo glamour shots are still a hobby!

New Adventures!

2011-10-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

As usual, my enthusiasm is building for new adventures and the possibility of more fulfilling work. I always start a job hunt with such optimism! Of course there is no other way, optimism is essential to surviving the semi-employed life. I took (and totally owned) the GREs on Thursday and while I don't get my official scores until November, I'm (as usual) pretty optimistic. I'm hoping to meet with professors at a number of different grad schools until I find a program that will (1) let me work outdoors for the rest of my days, I just can't bear to be a full time desk jockey for any kind of long term assignment, (2) inspire me and encourage me, I just want to do good, rewarding work. Is that so much to ask? And (3) not double my student loans, ideally I'd like to get rid of those suckers some day, and unless I stop adding to them that may never happen. So, onwards I go, to work or grad school, or to study and take the FE in the spring and then get an engineering job, or to do or go wherever else the wind might take me. I can't wait.

I'm leaving this beautiful little rock in the middle of the ocean known as St. Thomas in just under 2 very short weeks to go celebrate a friends birthday with her in Florida and then on home a week later. I'm looking for work in Vermont so I can put some money away while I am living at home and keep working on my student loans. Money down here has gotten quite tight and it was certainly time to throw the towel in. So now, during my final 2 weeks, I am trying to get as much last minute adventuring in for as little cost as possible, all the while also trying to work as many hours as possible to put away a bit of cash for Florida. My life is a fabulous give and take resting on a delicate balance of funds and possibilities that I just adore. I have never once gotten in over my head, I have learned my limits and limited my spending and worked hard to become as financially independent as possible and loved every minute of it.

So now, back to the old job hunt and back home to bake some bread and walk my doggies, and to try to work my butt off, if I can find a job that will let me. See you soon Vermont, in all your below freezing glory. Goodbye beautiful Caribbean, white sand beaches and shiny sunshine...you're amazing, but just not for me. I can't wait to have seasons back!

An Airplane over Charlotte Amalie Harbor

Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

2011-09-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure where September when, but today's date assures me that the month is pretty much over, despite my disbelief. And with the close of September comes the close of my time here in St. Thomas. I have made the extremely difficult decision to leave (despite several lucrative offers to stay) after completing a person budget and coming to terms with the fact that living here at this stage in my life is not a wise financial decision (damn you student loans!). So, once again, it's home for a regroup and new plans coming soon. This time, more than any other, I am seriously considering grad school as a possible option (because I obviously don't have enough student loans already...) and have even gone so far as to sing up for the GRE. I'll be one of the very first lucky idiots to be taking the new revised test, so grad school admissions folks - if you are reading this keep in mind that scores ALWAYS go down after a major change in the test, I'm smarter than my score will most likely make me look. Reassuring right? Not.

So, here I am, as per my usual, standing at the precipice of some new big adventure, waiting for the fog to clear and show me just exactly what it will be. For now it's memory sharing time, here are the things that St. Thomas allowed me to check off of my bucket list:

Live on an island. Self explanatory, awesome, enough said.
Take a picture of a lightning bolt. We all know I'm a photography nerd so this was a very exciting development for me.
Snorkel in the Caribbean. Spotted eagle rays, brain coral, sea turtles, starfish, tropical fish, urchins, and awesome-ness.
Night Snorkel in the Caribbean. Bio-luminescence is amazing, underwater flashlights are fun, and big shiny silver tarpin fish are not sharks. Phew.
Island Hop! St. Thomas, St. John, Jost van Dyke, Tortola, and more. Boats are fantastically fun toys in the islands.
Enjoy fresh Coconuts, straight from the tree. And watch very talented West Indian Rasta guys scale palm trees like they're playground toys.
Experience a tropical storm/almost hurricane first hand. Exciting, except not, when you work at a hotel these things usually mean canceled flights, equating to a very busy night in the office checking in disgruntled travelers in howling wind and pounding rain.
Hiking to gorgeous views and plantation ruins, read about the history of the ruins and the islands. Did you know that slavery was abolished in the USVI several years prior to it's abolition in the states, but several years after it was abolished in the BVI (British Virgin Islands). Brave souls used to build rafts, steal away in boats, and some even swam the short distance from St. John to Tortola; anything for freedom.
Share this adventure with my mom! Very cool for my mom to get to come down here and experience this crazy place with me, it's the first time on of my immediate family members has been able to visit me on my travels and it was a really neat thing to share.
Ride a ferris wheel on top of the world. Or so it felt, swirling around on the edge of the steep hill that is paradise point.
Night swimming; swimsuits optional. Late night skinny dipping on secluded beaches with silly friends to cap off a fun night out? Count me in!

I'm sure there's more but I'm too lazy to continue - the point is, I've had a very good run here. Nothing sad about it ending, I'll come visit again someday and for now I have nothing but new and exciting things to look forward to. I'm a lucky lucky girl.

Me, Myself, and Irene

2011-09-03T14:34:00.000-07:00

Time for my monthly blog update - St. Thomas + me + blog = failure. I just can't seem to update this thing regularly, despite the fact that I'm sitting at a desk in front of a computer for close to and sometimes over 40 hours per week. Anyway, here I am now, halfway through a grueling 12 hour work day with almost nothing to do at all, and I thought maybe I should put some time into updating this thing. By the way, when did it get to be September? My goodness where is this year going?

A lot has happened lately, happy and sad. Irene came ripping through Saint Thomas and all my friends and family up north were calling and emailing to make sure I was alright, then, not even a week later she hit the north and I was emailing and calling all of them. Somehow I thought down here in the warm Caribbean waters I would get the worst of the storm but it seems she was just getting started down here and she really did her damage far to the north. Fortunately my family is all fine, and none of their homes were destroyed. Unfortunately my friends in NY were not so lucky. The town of Keene was hit very hard and had significant flooding. The AuSable River, normally flowing at about 220 cubic feet per second this time of the year, reached an incredible 48,500 cfs in under 18 hours (check out the impressive hydrograph here). The damage was catastrophic. In Keene roads were wiped out, the fire station was washed away, homes were lost or buried in mud, families were stranded as their roads and driveways washed out. In Willsboro power was lost and roads were washed out. In Vermont entire towns were flooded, homes lost, downtowns under water. My dad is up in Waterbury for the day volunteering and I dearly wish I could be there to help him. If you'd like to help him, or folks in your town, here are some places you might look:

In New York State: The NY Red Cross is coordinating volunteer efforts in all the towns in desperate need, contact them to find out more: www.nyredcross.org

In Vermont: You can always contact the Vermont Red Cross (http://www.redcrossvtnhuv.org/index.asp?IDCapitulo=44W8UXGL8L) but my congressman also sent me this great little site, a blog created to coordinate volunteer efforts and offers of housing, ways to donate, etc: http://vtresponse.wordpress.com/

As you may have guessed from my time in Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, volunteering is a really big deal to me, and it's killing me that I can't be there for my friends and neighbors to shovel some mud and haul some sand bags. Since I can't, I am begging those of you that can to help in any way you choose.

I don't think I ever thought I would be sitting here in the beautiful Caribbean dreaming of shoveling mud back home, but life surprises you sometimes.

Outside of that I have had plenty of other little excitements. My mother came down for a whirlwind birthday weekend of fun and we adventured around the down town, spent a day in St. John, and laid on the beach. It was such a pleasure to be able to share my new home with my mom, I've never had many visitors at all the crazy places I move to so this was a particularly special treat. Somehow the place seemed more magical when I was explaining it's virtues to her than it ever had before.

I have also begun the job hunting process once again. It seems I'm always "starting a serious job hunt" for about a month or 6, right up until I find something else temporary and exciting that distracts me from growing up and getting a big kid job. That being said I'm (hopefully) once again on the big kid job hunt, so if you find anything feel free to send it my way. I am being picky about my jobs this time around - #1 I want to be outside as much as possible at work. #2 I like to work hard, in fact I love it if I am completely exhausted at the end of a day at work. #3 I would ideally like to find a job I can feel proud of - something to do with helping people, animals, or the environment would be best, but I'll settle for one that avoids hurting any of those things if I have to. I have had a lot of jobs I did and didn't enjoy and I think my travels and transiency have taught me a lot about what I want in a home and in a job, so even though the job market is still pretty terrible I think I'm going to take my time and be picky. I have plenty of wonderful adventures to keep me busy in the mean time.

Anyway that's my life at the moment, a little Caribbean island hopping, a little momma visiting, a little beach laying, a lot of hours spent in this office. Not half bad.

Son of a Beach

2011-07-31T09:24:00.000-07:00

Another month later...

Updating my blog regularly is harder than I had thought it would be in St. Thomas. Not because I'm so busy or even because I'm away from my computer or anything like that, in fact I'm quite far from busy and I'm on my computer at least a time or two a day. Its not even from a lack of things to write about, that is not the case at all. Since my last entry I have: witnessed carnival in St. John, seen a sting ray snorkeling, eaten my first genip and fresh (literally directly out of the tree) young coconut, had two friends visit from home, attempted a boat trip to Virgin Gorda (and ended up at Jost Van Dyke because of weather concerns), gone late night skinny dipping on the rocky shores of hull bay, gotten stuck in the sand in my friends jeep, been smashed by a giant wave on Magen's point, seen dozens of rainbows, faced off with a baby iguana, and that's just in the past month. No, I don't thinks it's from lack of content that my blog is suffering, I think its from the island seeping into my blood. I move slower, I nap more, I spend a good portion of each day just relaxing. I'm sleepy right now actually.

My life is so utterly chill most of the time here that I lose track of time, days slip by without me really even noticing. I've already been here for 2 and a half months? When did that happen?

At any rate its time to wake up, there is a storm brewing off the coast that could at any moment turn into a cyclone (read: hurricane potential) and preparations are necessary. I am working a double today (in the office from 8 to 8, not my favorite way to spend a day but I chose it so that I can have the next day off) so I'm just sitting here at this computer refreshing the NOAA Hurricane Center website even though its not going to update again until 2. Its kind of exciting and kind of scary to know a hurricane might be headed your way but this building has been here a long time and I have no reason to believe it will blow away this time. An interesting side note, if this does develop into a tropical storm or hurricane the next name on the list is Emily. I know that might mean nothing to you, but to me it means that this is my fault. You see, yesterday was my good friends and former Peace Corps sitemates' wedding, and I decided my financial situation was such that I could not go, despite the fact that I realllly realllllllllllllllly realllllllllllllllly wanted to be there. Today there is a big storm fixing to swirl its way right into Hurricane Emily and yesterday I skipped Emily's wedding. I'm sorry Caribbean, I have brought down the wrath of Emily on you all. All that I can do now is grovel and apologize and hope she calls the whole thing off.

The stormyness of late has made for some fantastic sight-seeing off of the Mafolie Restaurant Deck and the other night I snapped a photo that I am so very truly extremely proud of, lightning in action. Check it out below and let me know what you think! See you on the other side of Hurricane Emily!

sandy toes and island blood

2011-06-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

Obviously I have not been keeping up with my blog like I should, but I return from my brief (month and a half long) hiatus refreshed with new stories and a new home to write from. Since my last update on Mother's Day a few big things have happened: first and foremost, Father's Day happened, just this Sunday, and while I'm not home in the lovely green mountains to cook my pops the kind of fabulous breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert that he deserved, I did send him a "card" of sorts and lots of love via the telephone. In other news, I moved to the Caribbean just over a month ago and have been living on the US Virgin Island of St Thomas ever since. I live in an apartment with the best harbor view I think I have ever seen in my entire life, and probably the best I will ever have the pleasure of living in front of. I work at a beautiful little boutique hotel where I meet all kinds of interesting people. I play on white sandy beaches and snorkel over coral reefs in 70 degree water. Life's rough.

Each morning, as I drink my cup of tea out on the balcony, watch the iguanas climb to the tree tops to bask in the sunshine, and do a bit of yoga before it gets too sweaty to move, I reflect on everything that has brought me to where I am. I've had a pretty crazy ride, and I'm just starting to truly appreciate the places my rather impulsive decisions have brought me to.

The island is fabulously beautiful, the views absolutely breath-taking, photo-ops abound. I'm learning a lot about the inner workings of a small hotel, and we all know how I love to collect new skills. My thousands of bug bites are just starting (knock on wood) to dwindle down to an acceptable level; I have been told that the bugs on the island love fresh meat and will bite and bite and bite new kids on the block. I definitely found that to be the case, but what is even more surprising is that they seem to be backing off a bit now. It could be that the whole population is decreasing, but I can't help but wonder if its because I'm no longer "fresh meat." Is there some change that happens after you've been here for awhile that makes them bite less? Some islandy-ness that gets into your blood? Do I have some St. Thomas in me now?

People keep saying to me the same thing they said in Tahoe - "I came here temporarily too, 20 years ago." The thing about living in paradise is its pretty easy to get stuck, and that's okay as long as 20 years later living there is still making you happy. Only time will tell how long I'm going to last in St. Thomas, but for now it's home.

Life's a Beach

Dusk on the Pool Deck

View from my Balcony

Dancing, Greening, and Baking on Mother's Day Weekend

2011-05-08T19:34:00.000-07:00

This was a big weekend for me for many reasons. It's Mother's Day and I'm a pretty big fan of my mom, so thats always a big deal, but it was also Vermont Green Up Day on Saturday and the JSC Dance Show on Friday. This means that Friday I attended a dance show with some friends and then went out dancing to various live shows around town after (a band called "The Thang" embarrassed me into holding still at the Hub so I headed out to Moog's in Mo'ville to watch Chad Hollister play solo-definitely worth the trip-where I danced my butt off). Then on Saturday I spent my morning picking up garbage along the Rail Trail where I walk my dogs, scaling a steep hillside up towards the road to pick up old skoal cans, McDonald's wrappers, and to try to steer clear of at least this years bags of deer guts (at which I was mostly successful). Saturday night I first made a triple layer chocolate cheesecake/mousse dessert for both my friend Holly and my mom for mother's day and then in the later hours I made spaghetti dinner and garlic bread for dinner followed my preparing my mom's mother day breakfast after she went to bed. This consisted of maple walnut cinnamon buns from a recipe I found in a magazine and adapted to my needs. Then on Sunday I finished up the cinnamon buns and sliced up some fresh fruit for a surprise breakfast for my mom that was ready just as she came downstairs in the morning. The bun recipe was from a magazine but I'll post the cheesecake concoction recipe below, but first: Pictures.

Sunrise outside my window, I love the silhouettes of trees in the foreground

Instead of pictures of garbage from Green Up Day, you get pictures of things that are already green, because they're really what it's all for anyway....

I am in love with baby leaves.

Sunshine on new leaves...nothings better

Fiddleheads!

Baby fern

Morning Dew

Mother's day Breakfast!

Cheesecake concoction: I made this cheesecake, then covered it with ganache and topped it with this chocolate mousse...wasn't crazy about the cheesecake recipe but all in all I think it turned out alright.

Then I made chocolate chip peanut butter cookies. What a weekend! Goodnight all!

yeast breads, count downs, and heavy rain

2011-05-03T10:43:00.000-07:00

I'm not feeling like myself lately, the anticipation of my big move, the rather sudden (and flood induced) end of my previous job, and my tight finances are causing a shortness of temper and bouts of negativity that I am rather uncomfortable with. I see it happening and so I am looking for ways to control it, deep breathing, long walks, lots of "me" time. These things help; they're great actually, but inevitably something will trigger a new frustration: my dogs barking over and over again because of the roadwork happening outside (the same beeps and thumps and scrapes happen again and again and every time they go off as though there is an army at the gates); feeling the financial pinch and trying to decide if i can pay my student loans, car insurance, fill my gas tank, attend any of the weddings that are happening this summer, and still be able to eat; making important medical decisions (rushing around to get cavities filled, new contacts, and fill my prescriptions before my departure date); learning my phone won't work at my new home but also that I can only suspend my service for 3 months at a time, meaning sometime in the middle of my stay I will have to re-suspend it, somehow, since I won't have a phone. These things make my heart pitter-patter, make my brow furrow, and my mood darken in a way that only bread making can cure.

As you may or may not know, I have been dabbling in the art of yeast bread baking as of late. I am enjoying it immensely, although the results started out inconsistent at best, practice has helped. I have found a whole wheat bread recipe that I adore and have edited it until I started getting more consistently pleasing results, and have begun baking two to four small loaves a week for my family and to give as gifts. Yesterday I felt the need to expand my horizons and, adapting a recipe from the January 2009 issue of Vegetarian Times for Whole Wheat Honey-Walnut bread, I created my favorite bread that I have baked to date. I call it Maple Walnut Swirl Bread and it is of course whole wheat (because thats the only kind of flour I buy). This recipe results in cute little loaves that make terrific gifts and yummy breakfast toast. Here it is:

For the bread:
1 c Maple Syrup
1 1/2 tbsp dry active yeast
2 c warm water (~90 degrees F)
1 stick melted butter
2 tbsp salt
5-6 c whole wheat flour
1 c walnuts, chopped

For the swirl:
3 tbsp maple syrup
3 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp melted butter

1. Dissolve the yeast into the warm water and add the maple syrup. Let sit for 10 minutes, until yeast foams at the surface. Stir in melted butter and salt.
2. Begin adding flour one cup at a time until dough forms a ball. Turn out dough onto well floured surface and knead, adding additional flour until dough no longer sticks to hands. Knead for a total of about 15 minutes.
3. Knead in walnuts until evenly distributed. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl and cover with oiled plastic wrap or a damp towel and leave in a warm place to rise for 1 hour.
4. When dough has doubled in size punch it down and let it rise again. When dough has doubled in size again (about another hour) remove from bowl to a clean lightly floured surface and break up into three chunks.
5. Flatten the chunks into tapered triangular shapes so that one end is about as wide as your loaf pan and the other is about half that width. In another bowl mix together the swirl ingredients until they for a lump paste and brush it onto the tops of the triangles.
6. Roll the triangles up around the sugar mixture, starting with the narrow portion and ending on the thicker side. Pinch the ends together and place resulting roll into lightly oiled small loaf pan.
7. Cover and let rise for about another 45 minutes, until slightly less than doubled. Bake in preheated oven at 400 F for 35 - 40 minutes for three small loaves, or 45 - 50 minutes for 2 medium loaves.
8. Let cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Yummmmmmy.

So this is the bread that saved me from my foul mood yesterday, and today this bread is helping me ignore the rain and the barking dogs and the road construction and all of my money woes and all of my doctors appointments and everything. This bread is reminding me that someday I'll have my own bakery and will have my hands in bread dough all the time. So thanks to this bread, I'm going to go do some yoga and take a nap, maybe cuddle with my barking dogs, read a book, and drink some tea; this bread just looks like everything is going to be alright.

Craftsbury Sunsets

2011-04-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

Last night I spent the evening in Craftsbury, VT with a good friend of mine and right as we got to her home the sunset was just hitting its peak. I grabbed my camera and messed with the white balance and settings until the colors looked right and man the results were spectacular. I'm learning to love this camera; it took me awhile to get the hang of it after having nothing but cannons for so long, but this pentax is pretty damn fabulous. Fabulous camera + fabulous VT country side + fabulous sunset = fabulous photos. So much of photography is all about right place, right time. I love it when the stars line up and I'm in that place at that time...because this is what happens:

Bread and Amazingness!

2011-04-11T18:23:00.000-07:00

Today was a great day. I woke up before my alarm to a swiftly darkening sky followed shortly by an epic thunderstorm and torrential downpour. The snow is mostly gone, the world smells like the wonderful smell of spring in Vermont, that wonderfully earthy smell of rain and mud and changing seasons. I had a strawberry banana smoothie for breakfast and then got started on the days baking challenge: whole wheat bread with milled flax seed.

Now theres something excellent about making your own bread, and if you've never done it I suggest you try at least once or twice. Baking bread is so relaxing, its a fabulous contrast to say, cooking dinner for 3. Dinner usually involves multiple skillets and 3 to 10 things happening at once - add the butter, sprinkle with salt, turn the heat down on that one, thats too think now, thin it out, the meats not cooked through, etc. - whereas baking bread is downright leisurely. This particular wheat bread involved scalding milk and then stirring in butter, honey, and salt in a saucepan, then waiting for it to cool. Mix the yeast with warm water and then wait a few minutes for it to activate. Add the yeast to the cooled milk mixture and then add milled flax and flour until the dough reaches the correct consistency and then knead for 10 minutes or so. Kneading in itself is very therapeutic, watching and feeling the dough become elastic and waiting until it just feels right. Then place in a buttered bowl, flip it over so its buttered on all sides, cover with a towel and let rise for an hour in a warm place. See what I mean by relaxing? Bread baking comes with a built in nap, this particular recipe even called for two - after it was risen punch it down and let it rise again.

I used my built in recipe break to take the doggies for a walk in the freshly washed world. Rushing water provided the soundtrack to our trek through the woods and the sun even graced us with its presence for a few glorious minutes. Too soon though our walk was over and it was time to punch down the bread dough. This has to be one of the all-time greatest bread-making moments - go ahead, bury your fist in a bowl of warm bread dough and watch it deflate and try not to smile. I wager that it cannot be done. Anyway next comes more rising, another hour; another built in break. I read The Mountain Ear, a local arts and culture magazine, and then attempted some sudoku during this one. Next you knead the dough some more and then separate it into loaves, and set it on an oiled pan for more rising, this time only about 30 to 45 minutes. When the loaves have almost doubled pop them in the oven at 375 for 45 minutes and thats it. You have bread. There is nothing frantic about that recipe, in fact you almost have to be utterly chill to get through it, because if you are in any hurry at all bread-making is the wrong activity choice. Just bake a batch of cookies, they are far more instant gratification, but way less gratifying. Here is my pride and joy, my wonderful, tasty, fabulous bread:

This is by far the best loaf I've made to date; I think it was all the happy thoughts I kneaded into it! Anyway after I finished the bread my Momma came home early and we had lunch and then did some shopping. When we got home that evening I started right in on dinner. Tonight was calzones. I made some whole wheat pizza crust from this recipe (subbing whole wheat flour for white) and while it rested a bit I chopped up a wide array of fixin's and then set up the dough into 3 little calzone shaped rounds on the pizza stone. Everyone made their own then we closed the dough around them, wrapped them loosely in tinfoil, and baked at 375 for 30 minutes, removing the tinfoil for the last 5. While they baked I warmed some dipping sauce and set the table. They were done just in time and heres the result:

Calzone fixin's: fresh mozz, basil, orange bell pepper, chicken, mushrooms, sharp cheddar, olives, shredded Italian 4 cheese mixture, and sundried tomatoes

Super easy, super delicious, and way wayyy healthier than take-out calzones.

After dinner I felt like I had maybe over indulged just a bit and the lump of calzone was sitting heavily in my belly so my Pops and I decided to take a walk down to the falls to check out the roaring Lamoille River after this mornings rain and warm temperatures. The walk was just what I needed at the end of a lovely and relaxing day. I love to feel just pleasantly tuckered out at the end of the day, especially when it is the result of baking bread and dog walking and not work. On that note I shall leave you with one final shot of the engorged Lamoille. Good night!

cook-bookin

2011-04-06T18:11:00.000-07:00

I am in the process of reading the book Julie and Julia by Julie Powell - you know the one, girl starts blog chronicling her adventures cooking her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child and it eventually is made into a book and then a movie. I got the book for Christmas from my mom a few years back in the gift pack (meaning the novel came shrink wrapped to the cookbook that inspired it) just a few days after I saw the movie. Now I have to say, I found the movie to be...well disappointing; that is why I sort of subconsciously put off reading the book for so long. I have always found books to be better than movies but that movie just didn't strike me as something I would want to put the time it takes to read 359 pages into. I've been meaning to, because I mean to read every book that I receive as a gift, but I hadn't gotten around to it until now. The cookbook, sadly, has scarcely seen any action either. It inspired my French-themed potluck very early in the Tahoe-Potluck days (which failed miserably by the way, not that it wasn't a blast, but the theme was butchered with no one except for me all that interested in French cooking we ended up with about 5 loaves of French bread, 3 cheese platters, some Pilsbury crescent rolls, and even some French Fries - arguably the least French thing there, even with their very "Frenchy" name - on the menu) and since that fateful potluck I have done little more that cart it back across the country and stick it back in the pile with all of my other cookbooks to be forgotten when I arrived home and had all of my mothers vast (compared to mine at least...) collection of cookbooks to play with.

At any rate that brings us to now, I am only 93 pages into the novel and already I am dying to share two things - one, that I now want to cook my way through Julia Child's cookbook and two, that this book is miles better than the movie with more likeable characters, sillier narration, and a whole lot of humor that was completely lacking in the movie. Julie explains where her obsession with Julia started (something to do with the resemblance of Mastering the Art of French Cooking to the copy of The Joy of Sex she discovered hidden in her home as an adolescent) and how finishing her cooking project had more to do with her stubborn-ness than a real commitment to the cause, giving background stories that make me like her a whole lot more than I like the Julie character in the movie. I understand her a little better now I guess, her silly crass jokes and self-deprecating humor make her a little more relate-able to me than the whiny little woman of the movie who couldn't seem to get through a single recipe without an emotional breakdown and had none of the wit and smart-ass-y-ness that I am finding to be characteristic of the woman in the book.

Ok, I'm making up words so I think its time for me to change subject; I'll share pictures and recipes from the book when I try them but this week I have been cooking recipes that I had saved before I started reading it. The first was recommended by my grandmother who saw it on PBS, made it once and lost the recipe. Through the glories of the internet I found a recipe, potentially even the same one, for artichoke chicken from a PBS cooking show and printed it out to give to my grams (who was very suprised - I guess she had assumed I would forget - oh ye of little faith!). I had to sample it of course so I made it for the family tonight and I quite enjoyed it. The recipe is posted here but I took a few liberties with it, as usual. First I used a boxed couscous that came pre-seasoned and took only 5 minutes to make. Easy, delicious, and made up for the fact that I had already thrown out the wilted shallot greens that were supposed to be tossed into the couscous had I made it plain. Next, I used bagged, dry sundried tomatoes (about $2.99) instead of the kind bottled in oil as the recipe calls for (about $6.99) and let them soak in olive oil that I already had for 2 days before I used them. Finally I didn't measure anything and made the recipe to serve 4 instead of 1. I was starving when it was done and it smelled so good I just wanted to dig in so the photos might have been a little rushed, with not much attention to detail, but here's what it looked like:

Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to my book about some crazy girl with a blog about cooking. seriously who does that?

April Fools.

2011-04-01T07:41:00.000-07:00

As a cruel April fools joke on us all the powers that be have caused a small spring snow storm to white out all of the wonderful dirty-ness of spring on April first here in Northern Vermont and I'm not what you might call thrilled. April is about warm rains, mud puddles, and my doggies finally being able to play in the river again without fear of being swept away under ice. Snow is not included, nor is it welcome, in that description. In an effort to cheer myself up in the few remaining hours before I have to go to work and sort sale tags for 5 hours I have decided to visit my favorite website and make a list of some new recipes to try for spring. Recently I have been in a chocolate chip cookie rut, baking a batch every week or so with a few different recipes but always fairly consistent results. Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with chocolate chip cookies, but I feel that it's time for a bit of a change. Last week I went for oatmeal cookies using an old fashioned cranberry oatmeal cookie recipe from one of my mothers cranberry cookbooks and I was VERY disappointed. My cookies came out way too cakey for my liking, not nearly chewy enough, annnddd the first batch cooked faster than anticipated and set off our mind-blowingly annoying smoke detector system when the bottoms got only ever so slightly burned.

No pictures of those because they were a great disappointment for me.

The day before yesterday I set about making cookies to bring to lunch with my Grandma and again, in an effort to stray from my chocolate chip cookie rut, I attempted a new recipe. This time butter cookies with a thumb-print full of blackberry jam or chocolate in the center. These came from an old Betty Crocker cookbook and turned out much better, but still not as satisfying as I might have hoped. Pictures below, but no recipe because to be honest, they just weren't that special.

Now onward, to new and exciting things. I have realized that I am going to need to work a little harder to get out of my plain old chocolate chip cookie rut and so I will be branching out much further than simply other varieties of cookies. The possibilities are endless, but here are some of my favorites thus far:

Peabody's Really Bad Day Fix-It-All Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake - A new and cheesier way to enjoy chocolate chip cookies!
Homemade Samoas - Yep, thats right, make your own Girl Scout Cookies. I'm there. Samoa's are my favorite so naturally making my own is the next logical step...unless I decide to make these instead:
Samoa Truffles - So everyone knows I love truffles. Love to make them, love to share them, love to eat them myself, play with new flavors, coatings, fillings. Samoa truffles? Yep, this is definitely going to have to happen.
Cinnamon Raisin Brown Rice Pudding - This just looked all warm and delicious and it is snowing out so naturally warm cinnamony-raisin things would have to make the list.
Bri's Sweet Pretzel Cookies - A super twist on traditional chocolate chip cookies, these pretzel and berry and chocolate chip cookies look to be anything but boring. Still in the cookie comfort zone, but with all kinds of new flavors. I'm intrigued...

So there you have it, my "I spent 5 minutes on tastespotting and already have more recipes than I could possibly need so I have to stop now before this gets out of hand" baking wish list. Now if only I could find people to share with...

Eventually I will most likely try them all but if anyone has a preference for which one I should try first, like if you're planning on stopping by my house and would like to find some Samoa Truffles all ready for you, just let me know. I would be happy to take requests.

There, that brightened up my April Fool's Day!

updates and pictures of food...

2011-03-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

I feel like I need to update this because I have been terrible at it lately but I have little to report. I guess I'll give you a few cursory updates and then some pictures of food.

Final plane tickets have been purchased, I head to Florida on May 14th and then onward to St. Thomas by way of Puerto Rico on the 17th. I am so absolutely excited that its not even funny. I'm moving to a tropical paradise and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it to the fullest! Many pictures will be posted when I get there. Its going to be amazinggggg. Just you wait. Other than that I have mostly just been working (I got "promoted" to sale tag person) at the grocery store and cooking (at least one meal a week for my parents, I'm missing my potlucks, so I'm happy to have some fabulous people to cook for here!). I work 5 days a week, but only get between 20 and 30 hours, which is probably all I could handle there anyway. I'm thinking about picking up with my old trail riding gig in Stowe when they re-open in April too. That would mean working 7 days/week but I think it would be good to put away some cash before I move, plus at least one of the jobs I truly do enjoy.

There is one other thing that I'm really excited about, of course it doesn't really apply to anyone but me but I'm still excited so I'll share. On Thursday I am meeting with a quilter to talk about making some of my clothes and left over fabric from Africa into a quilt - a magical quilt of memories! I am really excited, I'm pretty sure I'm going to cherish it forever and ever and ever. Sooo surely some photos will follow if the project comes together, only time will tell. Anyway enough about me, here are some pictures of food:

My mini dinner plate sized three layer chocolate devils food birthday cake.

Three cheese bacon mushroom quiche; I would give you the recipe but I completely made it up based on what was in the fridge. Couldn't make it again if I wanted to...

homemade chunky broccoli cheddar soup with fresh (but sadly store-bought) sourdough

The soup - all up close and personal. Made of course with Cabot Seriously Sharp White Cheddar. Made with this recipe, except that I skipped the puree part and left it chunky and I used about 2 extra cups of shredded cheese, because I love it.

Just a beautiful view from an evening walk with Papa and the pooches

Homemade Mediterranean olive bread, served with greek salad and this pasta dish that are not pictured

Emeril's Chicken Marsala (sort of, I may have done some editing - mostly I just made extra sauce and instead of finishing the chicken in the pan with the sauce I transferred it to a crock pot and simmered the whole thing with extra broth for about 3 hours so that the chicken was falling apart moist and delicious and the sauce was this and creamy) served with salad and whole grain bread.

And naturally no post would be complete without a pic of my beautiful doggy. My favorite snuggle-bug; I'm going to miss her terribly when I leave her AGAIN to head for Saint Thomas. I hope she can find it in her heart to forgive me, but of course she will because thats what dogs are all about.

That's about all I've got, I've also made chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, onion and cheese bread, coffee cake, banana trail mix muffins, homemade hearty new england clam chowder, guiness beef stew and leak and cheese casserole (for St. Patty's Day), and probably a few other things that I was too hungry to take a picture of before I ate them. I'll try to be a better updater and a better photographer with my culinary exploits in the future.

home and such...

2011-03-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

I have had a lot of jobs in my life, I've been a camp counselor, a telephone surveyor, a horseback trail guide, a Ben and Jerry's ice cream server, a hostess, an in-store product rep for HP, an intern at an engineering firm/construction company/bowling alley/etc, a peace corps volunteer, a general barn hand, a UPS driver helper, an AmeriCorps member at not one but 2 (well technically 3) different organizations, a sales person/cashier/internet sales/stock clerk/etc at DogDogCat, and a cashier at Grand Union, and more probably...sometimes its hard to remember them all. I've lived a lot of places, VT, NY, Rosso and Selibaby Mauritania, Placerville and South Lake Tahoe, CA, and potentially now St. Thomas. I've impulsively moved across the continent twice with little more than a few weeks notice, I signed up for Peace Corps without even really knowing where Mauritania was, and I've just signed an employment agreement to work at a hotel I've never been to, for a man I've never met, in a place I've never seen (but commmme onnnn, it's Saint Thomas and to be fair the guy is a friend of a friend so its not like he's a complete stranger...).

The thing is, I'm considering a move that might be a little bit crazy, even by my standards...a solo move to the literal opposite side of the earth, for (up to, but very possibly less than, because of pesky weddings getting in my way...) one year in New Zealand (mostly, because as Andrew puts it, its beautiful there, thats where the lord of the rings was filmed and that movie was downright gorgeous) and possibly Australia as well. This one might take a little more planning...with the young person's visa I can't work any one job for more than 3 months so internships and such will have to be worked out ahead of time, as will the visa. I wouldn't go until probably late November, 2011 and I have no idea when I would come back, but thats not really important right now, because now is the present and in the present i'm 59 days away from my flight to Florida and just over 60 away from St. Thomas and thats just unreal. I quite literally cannot wait. I'm ready to get on a plane now. Seriously. Does anyone want to come? Go early? just see the sites and such? I'm free tomorrow. Lets do this.

Speaking of tomorrow, and my serious attention deficit disorder apparently, Happy Saint Patrick's Day! There's another place I have always wanted to go - Ireland. Maybe I can sneak that into the travel itinerary for the 2012 season...only time will tell. Well time, but also (mostly) finances. So to celebrate one of my favorite holidays I will be dancing my butt off with my dear friend Holly at the only bar in this teeny tiny town, where people will undoubtedly recognize me as that super awesome cashier girl from the GU...jealous? Why don't you join me. I dare you, friends in NY and VT alike. Make the drive, I can't promise Johnson is worth it, but I'll do my best to make sure that I bake something that is! Plus you get to see my numba one gal - Miss Josey! Ain't she a cutie?

This is her "I hate you Shelby" face. Precious!

and shes such a lady too!

Okay kiddos, gooooood night and such. New updates to come as the mood strikes. Peace, Love, and Ice Cream!|

stories from the road and a few photos...

2011-03-10T18:31:00.000-08:00

I love traveling! Its like a drug for me, I feel so free when I'm on the road, not a care in the world. I could go anywhere, do anything. Its like a dream. So, as you know Nicole and I left South Lake Tahoe on the 12th of February and hit the dusty trail - destination: Vermont...but first San Francisco (where we found a sculpture made out of a graveyard that played music with the rising tide), Big Sur Coast (where we couldn't stop stopping just to look at the beauty and the big fat elephant seals!), Santa Barbara (to walk on the beach, admire the palm trees, and search for Sean and Gus...), Grand Canyon (to have a quick look, fix a quick sandwich, and continue onward), Phoenix (to visit Jess and Allison, climb a mountain and visit botanical gardens), Austin (to visit Becca, explore the city, and do some yoga in the park, and decorate our windows), New Orleans (just to experience the magic of it...and the pandemonium that is Bourbon Street), Tampa (to see Becky, Saint Pete's, more beaches, and fabulous sangria), Orlando (Ashley and Justin awaited us there...not to mention Disney, wine bars, and Stepford....I mean Celebration), Ocala (breakfast with Nicole's grandparents), Charlotte (for dinner with Cory, nighttime tour of the city, and a close encounter of the streaking kind), Baltimore (To visit Emily, John, and Maggie and a serious Mauritania memory sharing session, not to mention a visit to the Ace of Cakes), then bad weather at home and a serious desire for the trip not to be over, we headed to Hershey, PA (to take a realllly cheesy free but totally fake tour of the candy factory and spend some time in the gift shop) and then to New Jersey (to drive an hour and a half out of our way to go to a Victoria's Secret outlet - worth it) and then into Albany at midnight when the weather had calmed down. 2 nights there and then I was on the last leg flying solo - to Vermont 2 weeks after I left my last home I was pulling into my new one.

Now I'm back at home, coming down from the high of the trip and realizing I came here with really no plan; I pretty much just left for the road trip. So here I am, living with my parents, turning 25 in just a few days, and working as a cashier at Grand Union for minimum wage with a bunch of highschool kids. Pretty sweet. Guess I didn't really think this one through, but it was worth it for the trip. On the bright side I have already made new plans! I'm proud to announce that I will be moving to the Virgin Islands this May to work for 6 months as the front desk person at a little hotel on St. Thomas. Then I'll be off to Taiwan for a week with Cory to visit Hsaio-Han and if I'm feeling crazy I might just go straight from there to Australia and New Zealand for a visit or a year, depending on my enthusiasm and my ability to obtain a visa. Big plans! Big plans! I'm excited! I have a purpose and a plan and now I just need to work work work so I can save save save...

Anyway now that I've spilled my guts about all my plans I'll follow it up with some of my favorite pictures from the road trip!

Sand Harbor - Tahoe

Sunset in Cali

Sunset in AZ

Phoenix

on the road

Bourbon Street in a nutshell

Fireworks at Epcot

Ace of Cakes, Baltimore

finally home with my love - Josey!

Wow.

2011-02-28T08:50:00.000-08:00

Here I am, sitting in my parents house in Vermont, looking back on the last year of my life...epic road trip part two completed. Between February 2010 and February 2011 I:

*Moved 4 times, 2 of them cross country (6, if you count moving into and then back out of my car during the 2 weeks I spent homeless)
*Completed a volunteer term with AmeriCorps
*Drove well over 10,000 miles and visited 27 states

Ok, I'm done boasting about my instability now. Long story short, I'm back in Vermont looking for temporary employment somewhere in the Johnson/Morrisville area, and living with my parents.

Epic road trip part deux was fantastic, I truly enjoyed the southern route, all sunshine and sandals, with the windows down and the sunroof open. No weather woes for me! I visited lots of friends that I hadn't seen in years and got to get all caught up with the girl I made the trip with, my college roommate Nicole, whom I hadn't seen more than a handful of times since graduation. I had a wonderful time and I'll post pictures very soon but they are all on a harddrive that is out in the car and lets face it, I'm pretty lazy; and also its snowing so screw that.

Anyway, here I am! So if you're on this side of the country give me a call, I would love to see you! Sorry for the lack of updates from the road, we had a pretty action packed schedule that involved a lot of exploring cities, crashing on couches, and trying out interesting foods and beverages but not a lot of wireless internet connections. I hope all is well with everyone and I'll write more soon!

a few more sun sets and rises and minor panic attacks

2011-02-03T09:41:00.000-08:00

I'm very excited for my trip, but I'm also nervous and a little overwhelmed. Its going to be so much fun, this much I know, but its also going to be expensive and lotsss of driving. I'm glad we're giving ourselves a few weeks rather than a few days this time, because I would really like to be able to enjoy all the new places and sights this time. Not that I didn't last time, we just seemed to always be enjoying them from inside the car, with my one gloved hand hanging out the window taking pictures as we go. So yes, this trip will be great. And warm, and fun, and truly enjoyable.

Saying good bye to Tahoe is getting harder and harder...with the date approaching I'm truly appreciating all of the friends that I have here, all of the good times we've had, and all of the amazing things I've experienced. I've been out and about almost every night of the last two weeks, taking a cruise on the Tahoe Queen, taking Salsa dancing lessons, watching sunsets and rises, having dinner with friends, potlucks, and so much more. I have to keep reminding myself not to idealize this place because I know I'm leaving. I don't belong here, and I know that, so why draw it out? No, I'm leaving. Staying is too easy, it doesn't make sense. Not to me. so its onward, to new adventures and such...all very exciting and just a touch scary. Anyway here are some more pictures of sunsets and rises and beautiful Lake Tahoe.

(these are all kinds of out of order because I didn't upload them right, but you get the idea, and i'm still counting them allllllL!)

Last Sunday sunrise from Kingsbury Grade

Monday night sunset over the lake

Last wednesday sunset from the ski run marina

Tuesday morning sunrise over emerald bay

morning sun drenched mountains of emerald bay

Another shot from the kingsbury sinrise

Wednesday afternoon walk at the marsh

posted: 250

left: 115

sunrises and triple chocolate tiramisu

2011-01-20T15:26:00.000-08:00

Life moves fast, and i'll be out of here before i know if, so I'm trying to get out of the house a little more and enjoy myself while i'm still in Tahoe. In that spirit, Matt and I got up and watched the sunrise again today, this time from emerald bay (the same place i went to this summer when i watched the sunrise with Reyna). Below are some pictures from this morning and it is followed by the photos of the tiramisu that I made for italian night potluck last night with the recipe. Enjoy!

taken with old reliable - my canon point and shoot

taken with new and exciting - my pentax dslr

Posted: 244

Left: 123

Triple Chocolate Tiramisu

made from the recipe here, except garnished with shave white and dark chocolate instead of unsweetened cocoa powder, I also used chocolate covered coffee beans when I served it, but theres no picture of that.

Start by lining the bottom of an 8x8x2 in pan with lady fingers and then drizzle with coffee or espresso:

Next combine heavy cream, mascarpone, sugar, vanilla, and chocolate liqueur and beat until it forms stiff peaks:

then spread half of it over the lady fingers in the dish:

next sprinkle it with white and dark chocolate shavings:

another layer of lady fingers:

more coffee:

Then the rest of the cream mixture followed by some more chocolate, cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hrs:

Then enjoy! it came out pretty delicious, and was much simpler than i had anticipated to make. Some tips: I bought the lady fingers, piping and baking them was too much work for me. To find lady fingers at the grocery store ask at the bakery counter, they had them in the freezer and had to go back and get them for me. Also, mascarpone cheese is much harder to find than i had anticipated. Call around and figure out who has it before you start shopping so you don't have to do what I did and go on a three grocery store long epic grocery voyage to find it. I eventually found it at a Raley's, not with the other cheeses in the cheese case or near the ricotta, cream cheese, or cottage cheese but by all the fresh salsa's and dips in one of the other refrigerator cases...of course that could just be Raley's because pretty much that whole store makes no sense to anyone who grew up with east coast grocery stores that have logical order. Also, if you can't find mascarpone then there are a few substitutions that i've heard work. I stopped at home to look one up on my way to the third grocery store on my epic voyage so that if I could not find it then i could at least buy a viable substitute, this is the one I picked: 8 oz of softened cream cheese, plus 3 tablespoons of sour cream, plus 2 tablespoons of heavy cream (liquid, not whipped)

give it a try, let me know how it goes.

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left: 122

cookies and big decisions.

2011-01-18T09:45:00.000-08:00

I don't know where to start but i'm going to try to spell this all out for whomever still reads this and for myself. Recently, after a few glasses of wine, I got to thinking about what my life would be if I stayed here in Tahoe for another year, like I have been planning on doing for a few weeks now. I made the decision to stay but the anxiety about what I am doing with my life didn't go away; it didn't feel like anything was solved or going away, it felt like I might be making a mistake. Don't get me wrong, I love it here and it is quite possibly the most beautiful place I have ever been in my entire life, but it just doesn't feel quite like the right fit. I love my friends and of course potlucks are amazing, work is going well and I know I would have been content with another year at the conservancy BUT I feel like thats what happens to everyone here...once you get here its easier to stay and barely scrape by money-wise, and make do with the work and social life that you have instead of going in search of better because it is so beautiful here that its intoxicating. When I go out and look at the mountains and the lake I can't believe I would ever leave this place, its truly an artist's and a photographer's dream! The only problem is thats its just not me, I just don't fit, and how long am I going to put up with feeling like a square peg in a round hole because its easy and pretty and because so many others feel that same way and have put up with it for years? I'm a woman of action and when things start to get uncomfortable or less meaningful or no longer ideal I do something about it. I'm not going to wait for things to become meaningless or even painful before I go, the idea is to leave yourself wanting more, not less. So its goodbye Tahoe for me, because I do love it here, but thats not enough anymore. Now when I have a few glasses of wine I feel no anxiety, its sad that I'm going, and I'll miss everyone here terribly, but I know I'm doing what I need to do and I'm blazing a new path and and seeking out new experiences...and it feels right. This is what I do, I keep looking until I find just what I want and then I go for it, its who I am, young and completely free, following my heart. It feels right.

Sooooooooo with that said I will be peacing out of beautiful South Lake Tahoe come mid-February and hitting the dusty trail on a second epic cross country road trip...to visit friends and new cities and find out just where I want to go next. Last night I baked cookies and this morning I got up to watch the sunrise, its time to start living up my last days here. So here are my cookies, Ultimate High Altitude Chocolate Chip Cookies from this recipe, which came out great because I used a high altitude recipe (it'll be pretty sweet to be able to just bake things again, without fear of collapse or oily mess...). Here are the resulting cookies:

Yayyyy cookies! I have tons of them now, even though I made them HUGE soooo if you are in South Lake Tahoe and you want a cookie or 2 gimme a call and i'll be happy to share!

This morning Matt and I got up at 6:30 to go watch the sunrise at the upper truckee marsh, it was so beautiful but not the best viewing spot, so perhaps tomorrow we'll look for a better one. Anyway here are my favorite shots from this morning, not bad but I'm still getting used to my new camera and I'm pretty sure I can do better...so stay tuned, I'll definitely be taking more photos in my final weeks here because I want to take as much of the beauty with me as i can!

First rays of dawn

Sunrise behind the trees and mountains

hey...its me!

Epic shot of Mr. Matt

The sun sneaking over Mount Tallac

Sooooo gorgeous!

Sun kissed mountains and lake and protected Tahoe Yellowcress habitat...this is the only place it grows in the WHOLE WORLD! sweeeeeeeeeeet.

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Left: 124

if you can dream it you can do it

2011-01-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

This week's potluck theme was "if you can dream it you can do it!" and for it I decided to challenge myself a bit and make something I have never made before. I opted for Baked Alaska and the results were pleasantly surprising! So heres a recipe with some photos so that maybe you can enjoy this too sometime!

I got the recipe from the Ghirardelli Chocolate Cookbook that came out in 1982 (I ave the revised second edition) that I found at the thrift store in North Lake Tahoe this summer. Ghirardelli is a San Francisco based company so all of the recipes have a California theme and this one was called "Mount Shasta Baked Alaska" which seemed pretty appropriate. To start you bake a sour cream cake:

Chocolate Sour Cream Cake

2 oz Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate

1/4 c water

1/3 c butter

1/3 c white sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 egg + 1 egg yolk, beaten

1/2 c sour cream

1 c cake flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

melt the chocolate and water together stirring constantly over low heat and set aside. cream the butter and sugars together and then add the vanilla and eggs and beat until fluffy, mix in sour cream and set aside. add all the dry ingredients together (sift them together if you can). next alternate adding the chocolate and dry ingredients to the sugar/butter mix until all is incorporated, batter will be fluffy and stiff. I used a 9 in spring form pan, buttered the bottom, then laid down wax paper and buttered that too. pour the batter into the pan and bake at 350 for 30 minutes, let cool completely.

butter and sugar; dry ingredients; chocolate

adding chocolate mixture to the batter

adding dry ingredients

the finished batter

Now I baked this dish over the course of 2 days so i'm counting these photos as one day...

Posted: 240

Left: 125

Next its time for the Alaska portion...for this you need a pint of ice cream, flavor of your choice, and you need to let the cake cool completely because that is one of the steps that I botched. I chose vanilla ice cream and softened it and stirred in some blackberries. Then you heap it on the middle of the cake, leaving about an inch of cake bare around the edges. Throw the whole thing in the freezer and let it harden. This is where I went wrong, my cake felt cool, but still had some residual heat in the center which melted the ice cream into a puddle in the top of the spring form pan even in the freezer. I recovered quickly though, scraping the ice cream and blackberries off the top while it was still mostly liquid and into a tupperware. I left both in the freezer overnight and then tried again with much better results in the morning. I left it in the freezer all day until potluck, then I brought the cake/ice cream combo, a bowl, electric mixer, spatula, measuring spoons, half a cup of egg whites, half a cup of sugar, some vanilla, salt, and cream of tartar with me over to Geoff and James' house for potluck. Right before we were ready to dig into the desserts (of which there were mannnnyyyy) I whiped the egg whites up to soft peaks, added cream of tartar, salt, and vanilla, then while continuing to mix I added the half cup of sugar and continued until it formed stiff peaks. This is scooped out and dalloped all over the top of the cake and ice cream to make it look like a snowy mountain top. I pooped the whole thing into a preheated 450 degree oven for 5 minutes and serve. Here are the results:

ice cream and cake pile...you can see the mess i made when i melted it...

The Final Product

Yummm. Yay for potluck!

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Left: 126

today, the day before yesterday, and the day before that...

2011-01-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

I have been taking photosss, I am just so out of the habit of posting them on here that i forget completely. I'm getting back into it though, and I'll get to 365! So here is Wednesdays photo:

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Left: 128

Here is Thursday's photo, from a walk I took along the river:

Posted:238
Left: 127

And heres one for today, this is the first loaf of yeast bread I have baked at altitude, I was very intimidated at first because I am a little intimidated by yeast breads anyway, but this one came out very well! I made whole wheat oatmeal bread from a recipe in the Vegetarian Epicure cookbook that my momma gave me. I'm pretty proud of how well these loaves turned out! Take a look for yourself, I can share the recipe and more information about the cookbook if anyone is interested!

Posted: 239

Left: 126

deep breath...

2011-01-04T22:39:00.000-08:00

Hello friends...I have been so absolutely terrible about updating this lately that I'm pretty sure no one still reads it, but for those of you that do I've decided to post a little update (and of course a photo!). Its a new year already, holy moly how time flies when you are having fun! I have made a resolution to finish my photo project (which I can hardly call one photo per day anymore can I?) in 2011 and dagnabit I will! I have also made a resolution to get better at applying for jobs - I have been slacking a bit lately, applying to new opportunities with the same tired resume layout that I've been using since August and its time for a new look and some new luck, so a resume face lift has begun! In other news I have a part time job now at a cute little dog and cat boutique called DogDogCat here in South Lake thats helping to hold me over on my expenses until I find out whats next, but really anything could be and thats the scary part. I can't survive on what I'm making for long, so its job or home to mommy and daddy where I can hide from real life expenses like rent and utility costs until I get back on my feet.

The stress of being completely unstable 3000 miles from home with a steady income that can't support me and the looming end of my loan forbearance, not to mention the recent end of my AmeriCorps health insurance and Blue Cross is still reviewing my application for my new plan, added to the stress of finding something that I truly want to do next, instead of just something that pays the bills has tied the muscles in my back up in painful knots and now i'm spending most of my down time wrapped in heating pads with my eyes closed taking deep breaths and assuring my subconscious that everything is going to work out just fine. Today I slept in until 11, worked on my new and improved resume in bed until 1 and then finally got up to clean my room, wash the dishes, shovel the driveway, and walk to the grocery store, only to be back in bed by 8. I am trying to slowly go through my belongings and trim off some of the excess weight with thrift store donation piles so that if a trip back across the country does become necessary, I can still fit my life in my car. I love Tahoe, but do I love it enough to go bankrupt trying to stay here? No, I really don't. I can already feel my muscles tensing up just writing about it all, its time for a change, and all change is good change in my book; its all about finding your next adventure, not matter how bumpy the road that leads you there.

Heres to hoping all of you are ringing in the new year in a (hopefully) less stressful but equally exciting way! Much Love, Shelby

Posted: obviously not enough
Left: too many for having been at this as long as I have. That should all be changing sooooooooooon!

choose your own adventure

2010-12-15T00:21:00.000-08:00

sometimes i feel like my life is one big giant choose your own adventure book...except i'm stuck on a choosing page paralyzed with indecision for weeks and months at a time. I alternate by days, hours, minutes, one instant positive that I want to stay here in Tahoe and look for a job/accept one of the options i have, and the next instant positive that i'm ready to go, move on to someplace new, scream F YOU south lake tahoe post office for telling me that my address was all set and then sending my christmas presents back to my parents...sorry, i'm a little bitter about that one. I haven't been updating this lately because every day would say the same thing: i don't know what to do. I'm grumpy and stressed even though I really don't know why....I have a job, i'm working on health insurance, and I have friends. Just because I don't have a future doesn't mean I never will. Patience pays in this world and I'm patiently waiting for something to come forward and fit. You know, just feel right.

It's snowing out here, about 10 inches had fallen by 10:30 tonight, so now its time for bed and dreams...cross your fingers for me that I can even get to work in the morning. Might be time for me to finally cave and buy chains, i'm unimpressed with their snow removal in this town. Good night!

another bump in the road

2010-11-29T18:24:00.000-08:00

Hey kiddos...so sorry for the long hiatus. Heres whats been happening in my life lately: First - my attempt to fund raise failed miserably, but I didn't put a lot of time into it since I was so busy with work, so its probably my own fault. Those of you who purchased a photo - if you would like some of your money back just ask, I can no longer afford my portion of the training so I have had to lower my expectations and sign up for a few shorter and smaller trainings instead of the environmental specialist training I had been hoping for. This is because of surprising new financial developments in my recent life. In case you didn't know, I went home to Vermont for the Thanksgiving holiday to surprise my mother. I spent a wonderful week at home with my family and puppies and then headed back to Sacramento this past Saturday. I landed at around noon and learned through a series of phone calls that the pass i needed to take to get home to Tahoe was under chain controls and sadly, i do not have any chains. Instead of risking life and limb I opted to call some friends in Placerville and the surrounding area to try to find a place to stay, and when I did I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a bottle of wine and some snacks to give to my friends as a thank you for their last minute hospitality. As i pulled out of the grocery store my car stalled in the middle of an intersection. A good Samaritan stopped and helped me push it out of the road and then a police officer stopped and offered to call a tow. I tried and tried to get it to start but I was unsuccessful and eventually yielded and allowed the officer to call a tow for me. My friends that I was going to stay with came to pick me up and we followed my sad little vehicle to the garage where I had to leave it in the pouring rain...all alone...poor Rosie (thats her name). The tow truck driver informed me that in the future I should not allow the police to call the tow for me, as it costs nearly twice as much because of some agreement they have. Thanks officer. And that was right after I told him that I'm a full time volunteer whose contract runs out in December. Unemployment here I come!

So there you have it...the bump in the road that makes this training impossible. After the repairs (I was quoted just under $500) and the tow (just plain wayyy too much) and all the favors I bummed to have a place to sleep and a ride back to Tahoe, plus the bus ticket to get back to my car, and the cost of chains so I can get it back up here...its all just too much for me to be able to spend money on non-vital things like trainings and such. I am not broke, don't worry, my father is helping me out a great deal, I just don't think I'm in a place where I should be asking for any more favors. I feel like I've used up about a years worth in the last 3 or 4 days. So thats that. I'm just going to lay low for awhile, do a lot of reading, working, walking, sleeping, and various other activities that don't require the spending of money. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me out, to my parents, to Doug and Melissa for picking me up and giving me a place to stay and driving me up the hill, to Lauren for getting up early and putting the chains on her car just to drive over the summit and get me, and to everyone else who helped or tried to including Officer Helpful and his very expensive tow truck friend - I know you had good intentions, I just wish I had known better for myself. Lesson learned. Anyway my car should be fixed by tomorrow and as soon as I can catch a bus or find a ride I'll be off to go get her. Until then I'll just be getting lots of exercise, with about 2 feet of snow on the ground walking to work is an interesting daily challenge!

UPDATE!

2010-11-08T18:26:00.000-08:00

I made a listing on my Etsy store for these very special $25 photos, so you can easily purchase one there and I will send it your way! No muss no fuss! I posted a few new options on Etsy as well and I'll post a few more previously unposted photos here too so you have tons of options! Make sure you make it clear which photo you would like in the note to seller on Etsy, if it is from the blog give me the date it was posted and the caption underneath it, if it is just one you know that I have somewhere then email me or call me or message me one way or another and we'll talk until I know exactly which on you want! Thank youuuuu! Also a special thank you to Allison, for being the first one to offer to purchase one, I would be nothing without my friends and family and you all mean the world to me!

Valley Sunrise

Utah Mountains

Goldrush Rafting Co. - Coloma, CA

Check out the listing on my Etsy shop for more:: http://www.etsy.com/listing/61229952/25-dollar-and-no-shipping-8x10-photos

THANK YOU!

Furthering my career!

2010-11-08T10:31:00.000-08:00

Hello friends and family and other friendly folks who happen to read this!

Boy do I ever have a special offer to make to you today! As you all know I have been looking for jobs and considering different options for furthering my career. Currently I have $250 left in my AmeriCorps training budget given to me by the Conservancy that has to be used by the end of my term in December. I have been looking for training opportunities that might be interesting and look good on a resume, and today I think I found the one that I want to do (EPA Campus Certified Environemntal Specialist Online Training)...the problem? Its $500, meaning that I have to dig $250 out of my own pocket to match the conservancy's contribution. This would be no problem if I weren't a full time volunteer...but since I am, things are a little bit tight. Here is my proposal to you: If anyone would like to make a $25 donation to my class (not tax deductible, sorry, I am not 501-3c...although I am practically a non-profit since I have not made any money in 2 years) I will send you an 8 x 10 print of any photo of your choice from this blog or any other one that you know I have (feel free to ask to see others) as a thank you gift. If just 10 people do this then I will only have to cover the cost of printing the photos, which would be excellent, but even if only 5 people do, I could probably scrape together the rest of the money if I needed too as well and that would also be great. I'm not looking for someone to pay for the whole thing, nor do I want anyone to contribute thats as hard up for cash as I am, and I hate to ask for my friends and family to bail me out since you have all already done so much for me, but just a little leg-up would be awesome.

Heres how it would work: If you are interested in a one of a kind, shelby original photo print with a personally signed thank you note from the artist herself then please send an email to shelby.perry@gmail.com or post a comment on this post and let me know that you are interested, what your mailing address is (unless I already have it), and which photo you would like - or if you don't know, what kinds of things you like and I'll find one for you. Then I will send your photo and you can mail me a check (made out to TRCD - The Tahoe Resource Conservation District, who manage my contract) when you have recieved the photo in the mail and are happy with it! Thats it! How easy!

Think about it, let me know, in the mean time, here are some photos you COULD be the luck owner of if you so chose :-)

And sooooo many more!

New Adventures!

2010-11-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

Well helllllo there...did you miss me? I have been doing a terrrrrrrible job lately of keeping my blog updated...things have been just plain crazy busy! Between Halloween celebrations, pub crawls in Reno, NV, work, and potluck Tuesdays (a weekly themed potluck dinner that I started having in my old house before I moved and am happy to say has grown into a regular weekly gathering of fantastic people and tasty food!) I have barely had time to settle into my new place, let alone update all of you on my comings and goings! So here comes a long winded one, certain to have some priceless kodak moments captured for your enjoyment out there on the other coast...gosh I miss being even in the same timezone as my family!

Anywho, as you all know, my AmeriCorps service year is coming to a close this December (oh soooo soon! I'm not ready!) So I jumped right back up onto that job application bandwagon that includes roughly 10% of all Americans these days...my heart goes out to those who have not been as lucky as I have. I have met plenty of college graduates with impressive resumes waiting tables and working seasonal temporary jobs only to spent the other 6 months of the year unemployed to know that I have been plenty lucky to end up where I have getting the experiences that I am. I have not ruled out the possibility of finding a "real job" as my pops and brother put it ("Shelby...don't you think its time for you to get a real job?" - the easy answer is no...) as I know that a steady income and comfortable home cannot be discounted, and believe me, I'll get there, as soon as I'm good and ready and find what I'm looking for. I have applied to several federal jobs, dozens of private jobs, and a few temporary placeholder type jobs, and I'm in a somewhat similar position to the one I was in last year at this time. I'm running out of time to make a decision though because this time I have bills to pay, I'm 3000 miles from all the people that would put me up for free until I do find something, and my health insurance is expiring (a terrifying thought in America today). So, because I know you are all curious as to what may come next, I will tell you. I am considering, quite seriously, completeing a second term of AmeriCorps out here with the Conservancy. Now before you go jumping to any conclusion about me taking the easy road, shirking responsibility, and staying so damn far away from everyone, keep in mind that I am a responsible and rational person and I have never done ANYTHING that I didn't know was the right decision, and while I am not completely settled on this yet (so yes, please keep sending me jobs if you see them, and thank you so much to those of you that already have!) I do know that if I go for it, it is because it is absolutely what I want to do.

For you doubting-thomases out there, here is why I believe that I will have made the right choice. First and foremost, this job has been the luckiest result of my first job falling through that I could have asked for, I have learned a whole new skill set in environmental monitoring, I have learned of a whole new possible career path in restoration (where environmental engineering tends to clean up after and/or regulate the damage irresponsible (and really all) humans do to the environment, restoration aims at returning the natural environment to its pre-influenced state, a subtle but significant difference), and I have met a group of incredibly smart and kind and interesting people, full of knowledge and happy to share; you cant ask for a better work environment! More than that, with AmeriCorps I have the flexibility of making my own schedule, running my own days, and coming and going as I please, which I love, but has not once slowed me down...still working the occasional 60 hour week mostly because I enjoy what I do and don't mind putting in the time it takes to do a good job. Today, with the economy the way it is, so many people have been forced to work jobs that they can't even stand going to just to pay the bills. I'm young, I have no major obligations, I can afford to live in the low income manor of the perpetual volunteer, and for now, I don't mind. This seems a small price to pay for a job I enjoy, meaningful experience, and incredible learning opportunities. All that seems like enough, and it is, but theres more! I live in what might be one of the most beautiful places in the entire country, Lake Tahoe. There are tons of recreation opportunities and I have already fallen in love with backpacking and hiking in the Sierra Nevada, and these are mostly free once you collect the gear you need! Plus I get a $5,000 education award for each year of service...meaning that after 2 years of AmeriCorps plus my brief one year in Peace Corps I will have knocked out $13,500 worth of my student loans. Now I'm not an accountant, but I think thats probably significantly more than I would have paid off had I just taken one of those job offers at graduation and started with regular payments.

So there you have it, my justification for my life that no one has asked me to justify, but sometimes you just need to explain these things to someone else as a way to explain them to yourself. Anyway, its been quite a ride thus far and I'm not quite ready to give up the possibility of finding a job that actually pays AND makes me happy...but until then I will settle for ones that I love that don't pay, because happiness is more important than money, and I truly believe that. Here are some images of my adventures, a recap of some of my favorite old ones and some new ones, a celebration of all I've done since college:

Dusty evening in Mauritania

Ramadan Fete with my Host Family...I miss them so! Plus I was good friend with that sheep, so sad that he ended up in my tummy, vegetarian no more!

Epic battles with insanely large spiders

Back to Vermont winters with my wonderful parents and adorable doggies!

A road trip across the entire country with my Papa Bear

A few months spent learning to live alone and finding new friends in Placerville

Exciting new adventures in a beautiful new home in South Lake Tahoe

And more recently: Watching the Kokanee swim upstream only to lay their eggs and die, while the mallards stand by to eat those eggs that the fish gave their lives for as soon as they are left in the gravel

My first trip to the biggest little city in the world, and my first pub crawl dressed as a zombie too!

So this is what I think I would look like if I were among the walking dead...

Hope you all had a fantastic Halloween weekend and a wonderful week, and I promise I will start to update more often again (sorry for the delay Momma!). Sorry for my long-winded explanations but I can't expect you all to continue to support me in my adventures without explaining to you why they mean so much to me. So I hope you are looking forward to more stories to come, because I'm not done living yet! More pictures and adventures to come, I promise!

Much love and happy thoughts to all who read this!

~Shelby

updates

2010-10-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

11 days and 5 houses, 2 couches and 3 beds. I'm 11 days into couch surfing and while I am not the biggest fan (I am a total homebody and not having a home doesn't really agree with me) I'm getting better at it every day. I have been keeping busy, getting out of my little Lake Tahoe Basin comfort zone! I have been applying to jobs like crazy. Last weekend I headed to the Bay area with a bunch of ladies to hit up Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in Golden Gate Park, which was a blast! Then this weekend I went visiting my old Placerville haunts on Friday, then hiking on Saturday and off to visit Bodie on Sunday. I've wanted to get to Bodie since I got out here, so thats one more thing I can check off my California Bucket List! After Bodie we made a few side trips around the Eastern Sierra to admire the freshly snow covered mountains and the changing leaves of the Aspens. Here are some pictures, because thats what you really want to see!

Hardly Strictly Bluegrass with the Lovely Sarah

Mountian views from Saturdays hike

More Saturday hike...

Bodie - took most of my pics in Sepia tone because it only seems appropriate for a Ghost Town

Restroom break?

Very creepy old jail cell

Empty houses everywhere...would have been SO creepy if all the other tourists hadn't been there to keep us company

Cruisin

Old hotel billiard hall and saloon

Aspens

Mono Lake at dusk

Thats all from me for now, hopefully I'll have a housing update soon. Until then, keep your fingers crossed for my low riding little car, shes doing her best packed with all my things but shes not all that big!

brief hiatus

2010-10-01T10:12:00.000-07:00

As you may or may not have noticed, I have not been posting lately. That is because this week has been a headache of epic proportions. Work is going great, and so naturally something else would have to go wrong right? right. On Sunday night my room mate Reyna's cat was accidentally let out of the house after I went to bed and before she got home. Reyna has had this cat for 5 years and she has never gotten out even once until about 2 weeks ago, when doors were being left open and Jicima started getting out with alarming frequency. Conversations were had and notes left, but the problem did not resolve itself. At this point we hold out little hope of ever finding Jicima (Tahoe offers many predators that make the hope of finding pets after even a few days almost futile). This has been the last in a string of difficult personality differences between us and our third room mate and we gave up hope on that too.

The beautiful Jicima, may she someday find her way back to Rey.

Last night, against my better judgement, I followed my heart out the door and, with the help of a few friends, moved out of the house in a matter of hours. Reyna and I stayed with a friend last night and will be spending the weekend in the San Francisco Bay at Reyna's family home. We will be house-sitting and couch-surfing for most of the month of October and then will hopefully find a room to share somewhere. Sharing a room will hopefully let us save money and recoup the losses we are taking on this move, the loss of our security deposits and the bills that we have already paid.

Anyway, during this period of limbo I will have trouble updating my blog regularly as I won't have consistent internet access, but I will do the best I can. I am going to be getting my etsy store up and running again hopefully. I have posted some of my photos, all old ones, but I'm hoping to get some Tahoe photos up there soon too. If you would like to buy something from my etsy store, send me a conversation on etsy saying that you read this blog entry and what you would like and i'll make a new listing for you with a $1.00 discount on the item (this offer expires at the end of the month).

Anyway, thats my life update for right now, and as I sit here in a little Cafe and drink my coffee and look out the window at all of my worldly possessions piled in my very small car, I feel oddly free. I have nowhere to go and nowhere to be and my life (well most of it...) still fits in my honda civic. I have my reservations, but I still think I made the right choice for me. Its time for a new adventure, and despite the fact that I no longer have a kitchen to bake in or a bed to sleep in, I have some great friends and some big plans...and everything will be all right.

weeeeekend

2010-09-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

What a looong crazy weekend! This is how my weekend went:

Friday: I opted just to relax and slept in, went to the beach, and then played silly games with silly friends for the evening...as for my photo of the day? I totally and completely forgot for one entire day to take a single picture...oops!

posted: 235 (same as last time - fail.)

left: 130

Saturday: This was the Great Sierra River Clean-Up - an event that the South Lake area AmeriCorps volunteers partnered with Clean Tahoe, South Tahoe Refuse. Cal Trout, and a bunch of other great area organizations to put on. We hosted clean-ups on 14 river and lake sites in South Lake and has a turnout of nearly 200 volunteers who collected over 2300 pounds of trash! Hurray for clean and healthy beaches and streams!

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Sunday: After the clean-up on Saturday I picked up my stuff and left on ,my first ever wilderness back-packing overnight with a friend of mine in desolation wilderness. We hiked out to Ralston Lake from Echo Lakes on Saturday evening, made a warm dinner of soup and tortillas with cheese and then curled up in our sleeping bags for a night under the nearly full moon. This morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then took off climbing up Ralston Peak from the lake. Our route zig-zagged up the face of the mountain, over huge scree fields and through the little stream breaks then up the ridge line to the trail to the summit.

Taken Saturday on the hike in, the sun is setting over Echo Lakes

Sunrise from camp

Ralston Peak...we climbed right up what you're looking at.

Scree Field!

View from the top

I made it!

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small strings

2010-09-23T22:22:00.000-07:00

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more small things

2010-09-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

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small things

2010-09-21T22:17:00.000-07:00

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apple blackberry jam

2010-09-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

tonight i took the blackberries and apples i collected yesterday and I made them into jam so that I can make my pb & j's for the week. I started with diced and peeled apples and a few handfulls of frozen blackberries and a bunchhh of sugar and I boiled it into jam....here it is...start to finish:

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Sunday Brunch!

2010-09-19T22:32:00.000-07:00

Today I made brunch with a friend of mine, we had stuffed french toast, fresh strawberries, orange juice, and coffee. Here is our spread:

The stuffed french toast was delicious and extremely easy, from a recipe given to me by a friend a few months ago. You simply cube some bread, put half in a pan and save half out, then mix up some eggs, milk, and spices (I used cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla - my favorites for the fall!) and pout half on the bread on bottom Then warm some cream cheese and combine it with a bit of milk and some maple syrup until its smooth and spreadable. Spread the cream cheese on top of the bottom half of the bread, top with the remainder, and then pour the remaining milk and egg mixture over that. Let sit for at least an hour (the recipe said over night but I didn't have that kind of time) and then bake for 45 minutes at 350. Enjoy with or without syrup,,,it'll be pretty sweet either way!

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emigrant lake

2010-09-18T23:08:00.000-07:00

No better day for a beautiful hike than today! We took a trail from Caples lake dam, along the side of the lake, and then up the ridge to the pristine and beautiful emigrant lake (pictured behind all the green but before the snow below, and behind all the people below below).

first view of the lake

our whole hiking group, taken by me with my mini tripod and self timer. We're all laughing because shortly after this picture was taken the very wet (and antsy) dog started jumping up and getting everyone rather wet

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2010-09-17T19:20:00.000-07:00

i've done it again, missed a bunch of days....but I did take a picture for every day and so i will post them all now.

First...the cheesecake! It came out great (in my opinion....) and it didn't look half bad either...

(this ones for wednesday)

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Next is for thursday, which was the CTC 25th anniversary party on commons beach, where I snapped this shot:

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next is today, sunsets and sand.

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Locals Season!

2010-09-14T22:43:00.000-07:00

Today was our last day of BMI (water bug) sampling at work. We were way up on the West shore of Lake Tahoe in a little creek that will be a project site next year collecting pre-project data. When I dropped the meter into the water at 8:00 this morning the temperature read 8.4 degrees C. Thats about 47 degrees F. I know that doesn't sound that cold...but it felt pretty cold to me. That temperature meter told me that for the next 2 hours I would be up to my elbow in 47 degree water, digging through rocks and algae and trying to collect little water bugs in my net. Thats a long time, and let me tell you, it gets pretty cold. So after our first 150 meter reach of frigid water and slightly disgruntled bugs, we took a break for "elevensies" (which is like lunch but at 11:00, and usually followed by an actual lunch) and to wait for the feeling to return to my fingers. We were all chatting and the consultant we have been working with mentioned that this cool air (and water!) means that Autumn is really here and that it is what is affectionately referred to as the "locals season" here in Tahoe, when the weather turns cool, the hiking is great, and the tourists go home. The Autumn-y-ness of today inspired me to make an Autumny dessert for the dinner we're having here tomorrow night. Soooo I opted to make a peach spice cheesecake. I sorta made up the recipe as I went along, starting with a peach and chardonnay reduction seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg and some sugar (which I totally made up and don't know if it'll be good on the cheesecake, but it tasted good when it was cooking), then I made a plain cheesecake (about 16 oz of cream cheese, 2 eggs, a dash of vanilla, a cup of sugar, and a bit of nutmeg and cinnamon) and blended in a bit of the peaches to that. Poured it into a graham cracker crust (butter, graham crackers, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg) and baked for 35 minutes then let it cool for 10 and then poured on the rest of the peaches. Tomorrow I'll make some fresh whipped cream with the left over cream from the truffles. I'll let you know how it goes...anyway here are some (not that good...) pictures. When I get better at taking more appetizing pictures of food, then I'll become a REAL food blogger!

Cheeeeeesecake!

Homemade Peach Sauce!

Okay, that looks gross in this picture, but wait till you see it tomorrow, all cut into slices, it'll be great...i hope....

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i betchu wonder where i've been!

2010-09-13T22:18:00.000-07:00

You're probably thinking "one photo a day project? I don't know how to tell you this Shelby, but its been several days since you posted a photo, and you didn't even warn us you'd be gone. You probably totally forgot about updating this...didn;t even mean to miss all this time!" And to that I would say "wow...I'm honestly surprised at how much you care, in fact I didn't even think people read this!" and then I would change the subject away from me forgetting to update for...what has it been? 5 days now? Goodness...and I have been trying to be so good about it! At any rate, I took some pictures over the course of the weekend I promise, but because I took a hiatus without warning, I will impose a penalty on myself, and I will count them all as only one. Soooo without further ado, some photos:

Thursday: Beaver officially deceived! The white pipe is last years construction (deemed too small and not effective enough) and the barely visible black pipe is what we installed. I'm going back in a few days to see if he has rebuilt and if the deceiver has been effective.

Over the weekend: I made mint chocolate truffles to donated to the Tahoe Resource Conservation District Autumnfest Silent Auction to benefit the Tahoe Demonstration Garden. I also made chocolate peanut butter pillows (same as the ones I made here) and mini sized chocolate chocolate chip muffins (recipe here, slightly adapted for a mini muffin tin) for the bake sale at Autumnfest. A few recommendations: The muffins would probably have been better if I had not used whole wheat flour, which while healthy, tends to add a bit too much of its wheat-y flavor to these little muffies. The pillows were far more challenging this time because for some reason the chocolate dough on the outside was super crumbly (not at all the case the first time I made them) so instead of flattening a ball of the chocolate dough and then wrapping it around a ball of the peanut butter dough, I mushed the dough into little cups (that I should have take a picture of, sorrrrrry!) and dropped the ball of peanut butter in the middle then crumbled the sides of the cup down over it and called them chocolate lava cookies because the peanut butter oooooozed out through the cracks in the chocolate dough like lava. Still tasty as ever, slightly more annoying to make, but all in all a good solution.

This is a little moth that was hanging out on my screen, I liked him so I took a picture. PHOTO OF THE DAY!

How many have I taken? Lots more than 226, but thats ok.

How many do I have left? Roughly 139...thats lots!

Sorry for the delay Ace! But now I'm (going to do my best to be) back in business and on time! Hurray!

just another fine day at work....

2010-09-08T23:14:00.000-07:00

So today we spent most of the workday dismantling a beaver dam with an ax and our hands. Obviously my photo of the day has to be that, because it was pretty fantastic. Here are some of my coworkers showing us how its done!

**PS. No beavers were harmed during the making of this photo. We are simply removing an existing dam to put in a Clemson Leveler (Beaver Deceiver) that will allow some of the water to travel through while still making the beaver feel like he's dammed the river. He wil be able to build it all back by tomorrow night...and we didn't take down that big one behind them, just the one in the active stream channel.

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surveying

2010-09-07T21:55:00.000-07:00

Today I learned to survey cross sections on Trout Creek. I snapped this shot through the viewfinder of the autolevel across the creek and into the willows.

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"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."

2010-09-06T22:28:00.000-07:00

Its only appropriate to start this one out with a John Muir quote, as he traveled to and loved all the places in the Sierra that I'm about to show you (and many others that I haven't had the opportunity to visit yet...), but more than that, he is quite possibly the reason many of them still exist today.

Friday:

Spent the morning at work, that afternoon packing, and the evening on the road to Mammoth. Here's a shot from my morning at work, taken of Lake Tahoe from the Upper Truckee Marsh...if you look closely you can see a raising hot air balloon in the center of the photo:

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Saturday:

My first day in Mammoth! We spent the morning on the Owens River (me learning to fly fish, everyone else successfully fly-fishing...) after a few hours I got impatient with the wind impeding my learning and read a book instead. So as not to feel as though I was wasting the $12.50 I had spent on a fishing license for that day I gave it another go before lunch and then threw in the towel after lunch and we took off to check out some local attractions:

The Owens River (aka. our fishin' spot)

Convict Lake (where we went after, so named for a gang of fugitives who escaped Carson City Prison in the 1870's and holed up in the mountains around this lake)

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Sunday:

After getting up early to hit the dusty trail, we hiked into the John Muir Wilderness and out to Sherwin Lakes, then to a pond, followed by Valentine Lake. We met a couple on the way who warned us that Valentine lake was small and disappointing, all grown in and not that exciting. We think maybe they made it to the pond and mistook it for Valentine Lake...What do you think?

John Muir Wilderness!

The Pond (still pretty beautiful...)

Valentine Lake (even more gorgeous than this picture in person and, in my opinion, well worth the 10 mile hike)

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Monday:

That brings us to today! Another morning spent fishing by the Owens but since my fishing License was expired I spent it reading a book and painting in the beautiful river valley. After we left Mammoth at lunch time we headed off to Lee Vining to see the famous Mono Lake (a Sierra salt lake whose glassy surface and unique "tufa" make it a California favorite) which I found to be incredibly beautiful despite its large fly population and pungent odor. Next we headed home over Monitor Pass and then it was "back to life" time and I spent the evening unpacking and unwinding and getting ready for work tomorrow.

Mono Lake

View from the top of the Eastern Slope of Monitor Pass

View down of the Western Slope. if you click and enlarge you can see smoke in the middle of the mountains from what we can only assume is a small forest fire...apparently they are commonplace to these parts but I'll never find then anything short of arresting and unnerving..)

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break

2010-09-02T22:57:00.000-07:00

My life has gotten sneakily stressful lately because of the approaching deadline to determine what I will be doing next and the added distress of my inability to contact my African host family out of fear and cowardice. I have done and redone my resume about 12 times and looked at plenty of options, but been very picky about applying. I will not be forced to apply to a job that I don't want just because I can! So with all that in my head I have decided to take a little break since this whole "job-hunting" thing has been really cutting into my leisure time. I was invited to join a friend of mine on her trip out to Mammoth to meet her brothers. Because her brothers will come visit her and I can't get my family out here for my life, I have decided to join her and borrow her family for the time being. This means I'll be leaving tomorrow evening and probably not coming back until Monday, and I'm not sure if I'll have access to internet but I'm thinking either way I'm not going to bring the computer. SO a photo will be taken every day, but it is fairly likely that none will be posted until Monday night. Thanks for your patience, and since I'm back on the job hunt, please send me any ads you see for jobs that you think I might enjoy! thanks all!

Todays photo:

Epilobium Brachycarpum

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souvenirs from better times

2010-09-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

I missed a call from a friend in Africa the other morning and I realized that its been over a year since I left and I have still been too much of a coward to call my host family and just show them that I care. Its not that I got here and forgot them or didn't need them anymore, its just that its painful to think that they're there and i'm here and there's probably very little chance that I will ever see them again...ever. And that hurts too much to make it real by calling them and hearing them and talking of hope and ending with "see you soon" and pretending that i'm not collapsing inside with grief while we greet and pretend our lives still make sense to one another.

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fail.

2010-08-31T22:31:00.000-07:00

I took a picture yesterday, but I forgot to post. I forgot to take a picture today, but I remembered to post. I'm in the midst of an existential crisis, so you'll have to forgive me if I get a little scatter-brained. Here is my dilemma: I was thinking of doing a second year here, in AmeriCorps but I just found out that the job I have this year didn't get approved for a second year (not all that surprising since they wrote it for me when my first job fell through, but a let-down none the less). That leaves me a few options: I could aim for a different AmeriCorps position and stay in Cali (and be poor but probably pretty happy) for another year, I could go home and job hunt from Vermont while living with my (hopefully happy to have me again...) parents and hope for the best, I could stay here in Tahoe and put in my dues as a waitress or cashier or something until some job comes up here, or I could do something totally off the wall and move to Tampa or Austin or Ireland (for a job if there is one, or grad school, if I can decide what to study and justify the new loans). So many options! I keep telling myself that these options are something I should appreciate while I have them but all the uncertainty certainly takes its toll.

At times like this I start to feel a little less at home where I am every day, until I figure out where i'll be next and can finally relax again. I paid nearly $200,000 for my degree and yet I can't seem to find something to do with it that would make me happy. Is life about learning to settle? Am I supposed to be learning that an office and a cubicle and several 400 page documents about wastewater and erosion control BMPs is the best I can do? I hope not. I won't settle for money and the mundane! I want something that makes me feel good, I want to be proud of what I do, I want to be broke and happy...not financially sound and mentally miserable! I hate that I live in a time and an economy when that is almost too much to ask for. Perhaps another round of AmeriCorps is the best I can do right now...but i guess thats not so bad...

Photo for thought:

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day of rest

2010-08-29T22:14:00.000-07:00

today was my whole weekend, and man did i need it! I slept in (all the way until 8:30!) and then I took a little walk to see if I could see the snow (rumors told me that it should be not far up in the mountains). This is what I saw:

But then later, when I went back out I saw the snowww! Yep, thats right, snow. In August. Ick. And here it is below, up on the mountain!

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Crazy week(end)!

2010-08-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

I just might have missed a few days in the daily photo thing recently, but its so hard to tell because I have just been so busy that all my days are running together! This week I started my macroinvertebrate monitoring (only the thing I have been planning for since I moved up to Tahoe in May) and we are working SO much faster than I had planned, getting 8 entire 250 meter reaches done in 3 days (not to mention closing up day three early to go pull invasive weeds in the Upper Truckee Marsh to support another AmeriCorps volunteer in his event)! Sounds impressive right? Well it kind of is, but it also involved 2 twelve hour days and one 11 hour day, but thats okay. That was Monday through Wednesday, and then on Thursday our AmeriCorps training starting with trail building on the Tahoe Rim Trail which involved an early morning and some hard work (fortunately I was able to leave early for that work picnic I made the pie for and the pie was a pretty big hit!) Then we headed off to the beach to meet up with the rest of our AmeriCorps group to have some dinner.

That brings us to Friday, a full day of training on like after AmeriCorps (job hunting, resume building, interviewing, etc). The most important lesson I took away from that was to keep in touch with everyone you meet ever because you never know who might prove to be a great contact later on (plus you know, having friends is pretty cool...). That was a rewarding but very long day that ended with a reception for the Sierra Nevada Alliance Conference attendees and AmeriCorps volunteers which was very cool. I met and spoke to a science teacher who is also a GLOBE trainer and was utterly fascinated by his stories! It brought back wonderful memories of some of my science teachers that really inspired me back in the day (shout out to Mr. Grotto and Mr. Mitchell!)

Anyway that was yesterday and that brings us to today, when all of us AmeriCorps folks got to be conference attendees for the day which was a very cool experience! I learned a lot, met some VERY interesting and amazing people, and learned that my Mom isn't the only one who reads this blog! (which gave me all sorts of guilt about having not updated for a few days...) I handed out all sorts of business cards that I knew I had printed for a reason, and felt very inspired at the end of the day, after hearing about all the wonderful things all these organizations are doing! The conference officially ended for me at 4:30 pm and now I'm home, and it really feels like weekend, which I needed after this week because its back to monitoring on Monday and while it is amazing and fun work (can't complain about playing in rivers all day), it is thoroughly exhausting and we are getting reports that it will be cold enough to snow here tonight as low as 7000 feet (that is unconfirmed rumors of course, my favorite information source!) and that could make Monday extra frigid!

Anyway today I have taken several photos to make up for my few days of silence, and I figured it has been a long time since I gave my Mom a garden update so here are my little kiddos:

Basil Flowers

Yellow Tomato Babies, even though I bring him in out of the cold every night he's still having a very hard time figuring out how to redden up his tomaters!

My Snap Dragons, now so tall that they are bent over and flowering upside down!

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peach pie!

2010-08-25T23:38:00.000-07:00

So today I made a pie from this recipe but I don't get any until tomorrow because I made it for my work picnic...so I'll let you know how it goes, but I can tell you that it looks pretty delicious! Here it is, my photo of the day:

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Happy Birthday Mom!

2010-08-24T21:55:00.000-07:00

Gotta start with a Happy Birthday to my Momma! I wish I was home so I could bake her a big fancy-schmancy cake! Another Happy Birthday goes out to my former co-worker, Miss Sara! Hope it was wonderful!

I have been working so much lately with my bug sampling finally in full swing I hardly have time to take a photo of the day, so heres a work photo because thats my whole life these days. This is the river I spent 9 hours playing in today...not so bad when you consider most alternatives (cubicles don't hold a candle to this!):

Next I have a semi-recipe for you...well its a whole recipe really, but I just used it to jazz up left-overs. So a few days ago I made that big bowl of pasta (recipe posted here) which I was hoping would last me through the week so I wouldn't have to worry about any more cooking. Well it has, but I'm getting a little tired of the same thing for one to two meals a day and I had some left over ingredients I needed to use up to this is what I did: I sliced and sautéed the remainder on the onion in olive oil, when it was translucent I added a splash of wine and some of the left over veggie broth from the pasta. I tossed in the other bag of sun dried tomatoes I had bought and let it simmer for a few minutes to soften the tomatoes. After that I added another can of chopped olives and one of sliced mushrooms, and a fresh farmers market eggplant sliced and then quartered. I poured it all into a wok and added the rest of the chicken broth, cooking it down until there was very little left. This was good on its own, and would probably make a good side dish, but instead I tossed mine into the leftover cold pasta and tadaaa! Same flavors, so it all fits, but just different enough to be new. Also, I dusted it with some crumbled goat cheese just like before and yumm...it did not disappoint.

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feather

2010-08-23T20:09:00.000-07:00

Found this at work today, when we were bug sampling in the Upper Truckee River.

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a photo and a recipe

2010-08-22T17:44:00.000-07:00

I started my day off by getting caught up on some things i was supposed to do for work...sounds worse than it is, mostly I just walked around this meadow (below) and wrote down ground water depths at monitoring wells. It was more like a morning walk than work really...

Anyway after I finished up at work I stopped into the grocery store and picked up what I needed to make this pasta dish I remembered making (and loving) a long long time ago with Miss Merry. I found this recipe, which was close to what we followed, but not quite so naturally I edited it to my liking. This is the recipe I used:
Boil water for the pasta and while you're waiting heat a bit of olive oil and butter in a saucepan and add a few cloves of chopped garlic. Sauté until it smells great but don't let it burn. Add about half of a medium sweet onion and sauté until translucent. At this point I also tossed in a few chopped mushrooms too. When the onion is done add a splash of dry white wine, chopped sundried tomatoes, and some vegetable broth and cook on medium heat until it reduces to about half the amount of liquid. Then toss in drained artichoke hearts, capers, and a small can of chopped olives. Cook until all ingredients are heated through and add directly to cooked pasta and toss. Serve immediately, the recipe calls for fresh grated Parmesan, which I'm sure would be delicious, but I used fresh crumbled goat cheese instead, amazing! Below is the result: warning, its strong stuff and requires no extra seasoning, but if you are a fan of capers and sundried tomatoes then you will love this dish!

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minor setback

2010-08-21T16:44:00.000-07:00

I inadvertently left my camera in a friends bag for a few days...but now its catch up time...and yes, I did actually take a photo each day for the ones that i've missed.

Thursday:

The meadow by my house, on my evening walk

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Friday:

Mt. Tallac as soon from a sailboat in the middle of the lake!

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Today:

Motley...(too hot for his socks)

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the most beautiful day at work

2010-08-18T20:25:00.000-07:00

A few of the sites i saw at work today....

This flower i can't ID...hard to find because its so average looking...

These ones are a little more interesting....these are called Pine Drop - Pterospora andromedea

And these are called Columbian Monkshood - Aconitum columbianum

This is the view from the rock we climbed to eat lunch.

And this is the view from the road/trail we walked back to the car. What a beautiful day!

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Tahoe Summit

2010-08-17T21:42:00.000-07:00

Today I spent the morning at the Tahoe Summit in Sand Harbor on the East shore of Lake Tahoe. I was going to write about the speeches made by Senators Reid and Feinstein, or the opening prayer led by an ageing Washoe Elder whose family members have roamed these shores since long before there even were senators, or the way the lunches we made in compostable containers with compostable plastic cups, but the syran-wrapped cookies were made in Texas (how sustainable), or even the disappointment I felt when I heard the prosperity plan for the coming years here in Tahoe involves trying to stimulate a feeling of community because well, tourists like a feeling of community when they come to visit places. I was going to talk about all those things, to address what they referred to as a "lack of young environmental professionals in the area" (A lack? Environmental professionals are everywhere up here. Nearly everyone on the CTC crews, building their fencing, seeding their soil, cleaning up their urban lots, all of then have at least 2 year degrees in environmental fields. Forest Service crews are filled with experienced environmental degree holders just trying to make ends meet. The AmeriCorps program in the Sierra Nevada and here in Tahoe has become so competitive that people with masters degrees and doctorates are competing to volunteer up here. There are plenty of young environmental professionals here, more than I've known anywhere else in my travels, so whats the matter? There are no jobs. These people are all working their butts off for 10 hour days doing little more than labor just to make ends meet and only to get laid-off every fall and hope to god they get their job back every spring. The tourism industry up here has created an extremely variable and seasonal economy, I know so many people up here that spend their summers working long hours on a crew and their winters living off of unemployment and skiing, thats not a recipe for success. Theres only so many years someone can comfortably do that before they have to find something year-round, before they need to get out of the tourist clogged streets of beautiful lake Tahoe, before they can't handle being asked by some other idiot stopped in the middle of highway 50 on a busy day where the lake is. Tourism has created a transient town here, a group of people who come and stay for a few years, can't find real work, and move on to another place that offers them more opportunities, thats why you don't have a community. Tourism is not the answer to Tahoe's economic woes, it is part of the cause. Thats just my opinion though, and maybe thats because I am a young environmental professional with a decent resume and a respectable degree here in Tahoe looking for a full time job and being offered a second full time volunteer year, haven't I volunteered enough already? Haven't I paid my dues? 2 full years of living at the poverty line for the experience has been worth every minute, but how long do I keep working for free before I recognize that I have $35,000 in student loans hanging over my head that I will someday need to pay off. You want to hang onto people like me Tahoe? Give us jobs that pay real money to do real work, don't demean us by making us work for free for years or laying us off every fall. But thats just me...)

Anyway, I was going to say all of that but when I got out my computer to start writing my roommates cat came into my room and peed on my brand new comforter and just-washed sheets while I was actually in my bed and I got too angry to want to do any writing at all. Heres a promise I need to make to myself and actually keep: when I move out of this house I will NEVER live ANYWHERE with a cat again. Period. End of story.

So heres my photo of the day, not a good one, but acceptable. The Senators up on Stage in front of the Shakespeare on the Beach backdrop at Sand Harbor:

But mostly, the backs of the guys in front of me's heads. Okay I'm done whining. Thanks for putting up with me!

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native or non-native

2010-08-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

Ever since my work sent me to an invasive weeds training a few months back I have been constantly checking out the plants I find in the field and on the lookout for invasives. Sometimes they are easy, like thistles (there are 2 that are native here, both of which are very distinct), sometimes they are harder (like the native daisy, shasta daisy, and the invasive daisy, oxeye daisy, which differ mostly in proportions of petals to flower center), and sometimes they leave me downright lost (like the one described below). I just might have finally figured it out.

Sulfer Cinquefoil is a non-native invasive plant to the Tahoe Basin. It has leaves that resemble pot leaves and light yellow butter-cup like flowers. Slender Cinquefoil is a native plant to the Tahoe Basin. It has the same leaves and the same flowers, except the flowers are a much brighter yellow. But wait...theres more! There is another similar flower, whose name I'm not familiar with, native to these parts, pale yellow flowers, leaves like strawberry leaves. This is not bad either. IDing any of these plants before they flower is damn near impossible for me, but today, invaisve weed book in tow, while out at some property doing monitoring for work, I found this guy:

A beautiful example of Slender Cinquefoil. I think I might have it down now...but we'll see....

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watercolors

2010-08-15T23:12:00.000-07:00

A friend and fellow SNAP volunteer recently asked me would I be interested in possibly doing some watercolor illustrations for some interpretive signage their organization is creating. They want 10 in total, of invasive and native species of the foothills where the signs will be placed. They want some samples of my work so that they can decide if they like it enough to put it on their signs and so I decided to try to practice with a few of the species this weekend to see if I think I can really handle it. Well I can certainly draw/paint what they are looking for, but I'm not all that impressed with my final products. I made these in only a few hours, so if I put a great deal more time into it maybe I could, but I'm not sure I have that kinda time right now. Anyway, these are what I created, the first is English Ivy (Hedera helix) and the second is Himalayan Blackberry (Rubus armeniacus), both of which are invasive to those parts. I'm not overly impressed with my blackberry painting skills, but I guess i can do leaves okay...

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Rubicon Trail

2010-08-14T20:15:00.000-07:00

I forgot to post a photo yesterday, but I hiked a hike today that was so sooo beautiful that I think two from today is better then some old stinky yesterday picture anyway.

We hiked the Rubicon Trail today, which extends from Rubicon Point in D. L. Bliss State Park all the way into Emerald Bay, to Vikingsholm, and then back out the other side to Eagle Point Camp Ground. It was about a 6.5 mile hike, of mostly flat and easy terrain. We took a looong lunch down by the water in an area that was sandy for about 15 feet and then abruptly drops off about 1000 more after a certain point, which was very neat. We called it the abyss and were absolutely terrified of what lay beyond it...all the treasures and terrors floating around in the bottom of Lake Tahoe.

Then last view of the lake on the hike, right before we hit Eagle Point Campground.

A crooked, self-timer shot of Reyna and I at the beginning of the

hike, at one of the first look out points.

A lighthouse at the very beginning of the trail, built in 1919, this was once upon

a time the highest elevation lighthouse on a navigable body of water in the entire world!

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snowballs?

2010-08-12T21:42:00.000-07:00

These are called Ranger Buttons....but I call them snowball flowers! Aren't they fun?

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botany!

2010-08-11T20:30:00.000-07:00

Today I helped my coworker finish up some vegetation monitoring and learned some more plants. I'm making myself a sheet with common names, descriptions, Latin names, and photos of all the plants that I have been IDing, here are a few of the new ones from todays plots:

Common Horsetail

Mule's Ear

Brewers Daisy (Surrounded by Green Stipule Lupine)

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just another day at work...

2010-08-10T20:46:00.000-07:00

I have reached 200!!! YAY! Only 165 more photos to post until I'm done! So anyway todays photo was taken at the top of eagle rock, a CTC parcel where we were working most of the day. So again...just to reiterate...this is my job. I climb mountains, through streams, around forests, and I love it. Teeter-tottering at the moment as to whether I would like to serve another year or not. Another year here, at this great job, doing work i love? Awesome. Another year spent completely broke on the opposite side of the country from 80% of my friends and family? not awesome. grrr.

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pinecone

2010-08-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

pine cone is code for i spent all day in the office and didn't get to take a picture until my evening walk around the neighborhood...so i took a picture of a pine cone. I know, its a long and obscure code, but it is what it is...what can ya do about it?

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pillows!

2010-08-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

So i know, i haven't posted a recipe in a whileeeee and i'll tell you why...because my last 2 attempts at baking at altitude have been epic failures, first with collapsing cookies and then a collapsing zucchini cake...very disappointing for me. I made cookies and cream cheesecake cupcakes again for my roommate for her birthday, but since i had already posted the recipe I didn't feel the need to put that one up again. So today, for a friends birthday, a friend who recently gave up eating dairy, i finally got to make a recipe I have been looking for an excuse to make for AGES....andddd it worked perfectly, even at altitude! I'm so happy! So without further ado, this is the recipe and these are the cookies:

Yummmmmm!

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doggy beach day!

2010-08-07T22:10:00.000-07:00

i know i know...i forgot to post one yesterday...but mister wilson here is so cute he makes up for it i think.

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California...land of lupines!

2010-08-05T22:31:00.000-07:00

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beachhhh

2010-08-04T21:09:00.000-07:00

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"I always fall in love with an open door"

2010-08-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

half way. what next?

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bluesplosion!

2010-08-02T21:22:00.000-07:00

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Wanderlust

2010-08-01T20:46:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend on hiatus at wanderlust, a music and yoga festival up in Squaw. I volunteered and worked all day on friday and a half day on saturday. I had a great time and spent friday up at high camp at the top of the cable car on the tippy top of squaw mountain checking people in for their yoga classes. I had sunday off for yoga etc, but I was so very tired from the other two nights of music that I left a bit early and took a nap. Sorry for missing a few days, but in return for your patience, you get the view from the top of Squaw:

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I MISSED ANOTHER DAY!

2010-07-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

So sorry i forgot another day, but i posted like a billion the day before (i exaggerated only slightly there) and todays makes up for it, because while it isn't a wonderful picture, its awesome in that its a bear. thats right, i hung out with a bear at work today. He wandered toward us for a minute, then off the other way. Here he is, leaving us be:

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working hard..

2010-07-27T21:14:00.000-07:00

I hug trees. Especially 100 year old incense cedars.

I found this guy today...its a Misumena Vatia I think; they can change colors to light yellow and dark yellow depending on the surface they're on. This guy was on a Tiger Lilly, so he was bright!

Wildflowers! I can't identify these, but they're perrty!

A beautiful doe stopped by to say hello too!

This is my job. I walk around in the woods and make sure streams are healthy. Then I try to ID flowers and bugs for fun!

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full moon

2010-07-27T00:04:00.000-07:00

howl on.

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Aloha!

2010-07-25T19:39:00.000-07:00

Today we hiked from Echo Summit trailhead to Lake Aloha in the Desolation Wilderness and back, around trip total of about 10 miles. Aloha is beautiful and I recommend the hike to anyone; coming in from this trailhead is not only beautiful but also less strenuous then the Glen Alpine trailhead and MUCH more beautiful, skirting Upper and Lower Echo lakes for the first 3 or so miles. We did hit some bits of rain and passing thunderstorms on the way out as well as the way out, but magically, the sky cleared up when we got to the lake and the sun shined for our fabulous swim in those blue waters. The best part: swimming in Aloha, for sure. The worst part: the aptly named "mosquito valley," a shaded and moist area where you will be snacked upon by dozens of mosquitoes!

Looking back at Upper and Lower Echo Lakes

The beautiful Lake Aloha, yes there is still snow at this elevation, no it did not keep us from swimming.

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ponies

2010-07-24T21:25:00.000-07:00

when walking the dogs this evening we found these beautiful ponies out in the meadow. This is my super grainy. super high ISO attempt at getting a shot of them under the (almost) full moon.

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TOMATOES!

2010-07-24T00:13:00.000-07:00

After months of nurturing and loving and watering my little tomato babies....finally i have some little green tomato babies! Annnnddd here they are!

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beach?

2010-07-22T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today was a fabulous day of work, involving floaties and measuring the depth of a pond on a property that we had to hike out to. Then lunch at the beach and a quick swim (to get all of the pond scum off) and then back to south lake to take ground water readings at another project site....but unfortunatly I took no pictures during all of that SO you get photos of the beach where my roomy and I rode our bikes after work:

I love that this is a 5 minute bike ride from my house. Tahoe is Awesome.

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Project Tour

2010-07-21T22:28:00.000-07:00

Today at work I spent the latter part of the day on a project tour, looking at upcoming and completed project sites. This picture is a successful restoration project; the creek you can see had been diverted when a sewer line was installed in the meadow. The water pooled around the manholes and created such a draw that it dried out the whole meadow. This channel was completely constructed and has raised ground water levels and restored the meadow to its original moisture content and therefore vegetation, habitat, and hydrology. Very cool!

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big day

2010-07-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

today was a big day: at work i did rapid stream assessments and hiked cascade creek from 89 down to Tahoe in an effort to locate any unhealthy areas that might need attention. Then after work I bought a craigslist cheapo mountain bike (not awesome, but far better than what i had). And then, while we were in the garage playing with my new bike i looked out across the street and saw first a coyote and then my first Tahoe bear. He was slinking across the neighbors yard, right across the street! Silly boy didn't notice that the neighbor was sitting in his chair in his driveway, not 10 feet from the bear. When I said "is that a bear?" to my roommate he turned around, jumped up, and chased the big lug off his property and up a tree in the vacant lot next to his house. Sadly I didn't get a picture of the bear or the coyote, but I did take this one at work:

and its alright i guess....not a bear or anything though...

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resto crew

2010-07-19T20:36:00.000-07:00

Today I worked with the restoration crew all day at work. I really liked working with a crew; the crew leader figured everything out and told us what to do and where to be and it was a wonderful departure from our normal work existence of frantically trying to get way way too much work into one day. Plus...we built this fence!

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sushi sunday

2010-07-18T21:28:00.000-07:00

Sushi night! Yay! Caterpillar roll. Good stuff.

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life is a beach

2010-07-18T02:20:00.000-07:00

I spent today at the beach, putting on buckets of sunscreen and still accidentally getting sunburnt. Here it is, Nevada Beach, Stateline, NV.

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jello

2010-07-17T04:23:00.000-07:00

this about sums up tonight, and why i'm not updating this until 4:30 am, and everything. Jello. Shots. Goodnight!

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without further adoo....

2010-07-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here is that flower I promised you oh so long ago!

and here is todays photo:

ahhhhh! its kittttttty!

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long day!

2010-07-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry, I forgot. I didn't send the flower photo to myself but PERHAPS I will remember tomorrow! To be fair, of the 10 and a half hours I worked today, I spent only about 45 minutes of it in the office. All the rest was out "in the field" as we like to call it. I spent the day mapping trails on a CTC parcel and working on estimations of volume of fill needed to repair a badly eroding trail. The bright side: the trails led to the top of a rock overlooking the lake that was downright gorgeous. The down side: I probably hiked the equivalent of climbing that rock 4 times in my efforts to GPS all of the trails on this particular property. Anyway, because I have forgotten again to get a hold of yesterdays picture, today you get a bonus picture; because 2 is better than 1. Here are TWO lovely photos from my day, taken from the top of Eagle Rock overlooking Lake Tahoe.

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problem...

2010-07-13T22:14:00.000-07:00

I did take a photo for today, I swear! The problem: I took it on the work camera, made plans to email it to myself, and then promptly forgot after heading from the room where I have to upload the photos back to my own computer....SO I have a really cute photo of a wild lily for you folks, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow. Sorry!

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annnnd more veg monitoring..

2010-07-12T22:47:00.000-07:00

Another day at work....today I spent all day here:

completing our final veg transect (and therefore all of our spring veg monitoring for the year!) at one of the CTC projects. HURRAY! I will not miss veg monitoring, it involves lots of activities that really hurt your back, like sitting on the ground and cutting and sorting every scrap of plant life in a 2 by 2 foot plot. This one below took me 2 hours

So yeah, pretty psyched to be done!

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eye spy

2010-07-11T21:55:00.000-07:00

BUSTED! I did lots of cool things today (camped out on some friends lawn in Kings Beach last night, we to the beach first thing in the morning and then to greenfest put on by the Sierra Green Business Council, followed by watching the world cup game at a bar with a million other loud and rowdy fans, went to a craft fair on the way home and even did my laundry!)but I didn't take any pictures during any of it...sooooooooo heres a last minute picture of my eyeball.

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Suzy Lake

2010-07-10T16:25:00.000-07:00

This morning Reyna and I hiked up to Suzy Lake in the Desolation Wilderness. It was a beautiful hike to a beautiful lake that was a lot more secluded than Lake Tahoe. The best part? We packed in Reyna's inflatable raft and small hand pump and floated around in the lake on a little boat!

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Beetroot Hummus

2010-07-09T16:57:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I posted recipe and today didn't turn out anything like I had hoped it would, so I did what I always do when something doesn't go my way, or I'm unhappy, or stressed, or bored, or happy, or excited, or disappointed, or thrilled, or whatever, and I cooked. I bought some beets at the farmers market on Tuesday and was going to make my award winning roasted veggies (they really did win an award once, but I have since lost that recipe and made up a new one because its really only about the spices with roasted veggies, all the rest is easy. Well, the spices are easy too...but I digress. Anyway I opted out of the roasted vegetables because that feels more like a fall food so I scanned the web for beet recipes and found this little gem for Beetroot Hummus. I've never made hummus before so I figured I would give it a go. I did a few things differently from the recipe, first, I didn't measure the beets or the chickpeas, so my ratio could be way off, but it looked good to me. Second, I used canned chickpeas so as to skip the soaking them overnight step, and also because I already had them. Oh and one more thing, I don't have a blender or a food processor, so I used a little electric mixer that I picked up at a thrift store, sorta like you would to make mashed potatoes. Lessons learned: Beets are much tougher than potatoes and don't "mash" quite so easily, and also, hold a plate or towel over the bowl while mixing unless you want your kitchen, clothes, and face to be speckled pink (aprons also highly recommended). So mine came out slightly chunkier than traditional hummus, and also a rather alarmingly bright magenta color, but it was still pretty tasty none the less. Some photos:

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mural

2010-07-09T00:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight my roomy and I went to a little cafe called Free Bird and watched ET outside projected on a white sheet. We rode our bikes there and then haphazardly rode them home in the dark after with only one headlamp between the two of us (mines still in Africa, with allllll kinds of my other stuff) Anywho at the building where we watched the movie there was a mural. Try to figure out whats part of the mural and whats not:

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Mr. Motley

2010-07-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

This is my roommates dog (other dog, I posted a pic of Wilson here) looking for all the world like the giant puppy that he is! What a cutie pie!

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yesterday and today...

2010-07-06T23:45:00.000-07:00

this is a little bit confusing, but I hiked Tallac on Sunday, July 4th. I posted the picture at 1:00am, when I got home from the fireworks, so it says monday, but it was sunday, and I forgot to post one on monday. In fact I didn't even take one (for shame!) so now I am posting 2 from today to make up for yesterday...if that makes sense...anyway heres one I took first thing this morning, not my usual style, but pretty funny none the less:

This is my lovely coworker Lauren, modeling the old leaky waders that we cut the boots off of. Pretty hobo-tastic, wouldn't you say?

This is a shot of the fresh lavender i picked up at the farmers market today to make my room smell nice, and boy does it ever!

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Mount Tallac

2010-07-05T01:00:00.000-07:00

Today I hiked Mount Tallac, the tallest peak bordering lake Tahoe. I've never stood at 9735 feet above sea level before this afternoon. Then I watched fireworks and now i'm going to bed because i'm sore (i have blistered feet from my old, falling apart hiking boots...they've been so good to me over the years but it might be time to break in a new pair) bed time.

(Emerald Bay and Cascade Lake and Lake Tahoe as seen from the summit of Mount Tallac, and that white stuff in the foreground? snow. On the 4th of july!)

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