Morning Routine

Park visitors really like me I think, especially the older ones. It makes me happy when I can give them a lot of good information and make them laugh too. Still no updates from PC, I'm checking every day and getting more and more anxious.

Laura- I'm ready for you to get here!!!

hours of my day

I spend several hours of my day at work blogging (like now) or checking my email or reading Peace Corps Blogs and checking my placement status for updates (there aren't ever any). Working at the front desk is slow- and I hate being idle. I'm getting paid to do nothing- I ask what I can do and my boss says nothing really, or gives me 1 minute easy tasks. I'm reading a very powerful blog of one woman's experience in Nambia. http://africanspirit.blogspot.com/
Her life sounds so tough- working with households where the head of house is sometimes only 10 years old and is completing all the duties of an adult- finding food for the younger children, cooking, cleaning , clothing the children. She is making a big difference in their lives. They are like the children in the book I've been reading, the Lost Boys of Sudan- the book is called They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky and I definitely recommend it.

Peace Out

July 21st already

Seems like it was the 4th of July yesterday and now its already the 21st.

The family came down this past weekend and that was really wonderful.

I've got this really cute song stuck in my head:

"If I was a flower growing wild and free
All I'd want is you to be my sweet honey bee.
And if I was a tree growing tall and greeen
All I'd want is you to shade me and be my leaves

All I want is you, will you be my bride
Take me by the hand and stand by my side
All I want is you, will you stay with me?
Hold me in your arms and sway me like the sea."

BARRY LOUIS POLISAR

My hands burned so much last night I couldn't sleep at all- it was from the jalapenos I used to make some salsa. Now, I'm sleepy.

Karl Rove

I met Karl Rove today. I volunteer at the library in town and I helped him set up for a children's story time. We didn't talk about politics, but we did talk about the joys of small towns and open spaces- and rumps- both the kids and Karl Rove thought 'rump' was a particularly amusing thing to say.

I almost didn't get to put on my program tonight because I accidentally locked the projector in the office, but I found Maria at the last minute and she gave me the key to get it- and of course I'm so happy I got to put the program on-- there were a whole bunch of people again (like 35) and tons of fun inquisitive kids and I've been catching lots of critters and other people have been catching critters for me so I had lots of cool live stuff to show the kids. When I first realized I locked the projector in the office I was excited, just because I always get cold feet before the presentation and don't want to do it, but again, I'm glad I did.

I feel very 1920's tonight- I think I'm going to start a new Fitzgerald book tonight.

Yesterday my co-workers got me worrying about my finances- so I went to the library and got some books and I made myself a budget and some goals- its quite exciting to be grown up and doing this sort of thing.

Peace Out.

Night

Ft. Davis is the only town I've ever been in where I have to turn my brights on when I drive down Main Street at night. It is so dark everywhere.

Sighting

Mountain Lion sighted in park. Alright!

Julie and Julia

Today I went on a all day very long hike. This weekend I did nothing neither productive nor exciting. I did nothing toward fulfilling my obligations or enriching my life or meeting my goals- I just watch movies and hiked around- and ate a silly amount of cookie dough. I am a very goal oriented person- I'm always doing something and there are always 5 billion things I should be doing- hence- it feels both very nice and very unsettling to have done nothing this weekend.

I talked to all my besties on the phone and I didn't think it was going to happen but (hopefully) they are all going to come visit after all in a big happy bunch... I can't say how excited I am... I can't wait!

I don't know how to recognize any tracks at all- I thought I saw some bobcat tracks but I really have no idea- that'll be a fun project to do if/when work gets slow.

Peace Out.

Change of Plans

Today I was going to go camping down at big bend ranch. But I ended up staying up late last night arguing with a friend and decided to sleep in and just do some hiking around the park over the weekend- and watch twilight- woo hoo! The folks and hayley are coming up saturday- I'm really excited to see them all- yay! Shout out to Mike and Johann- I lost your email address but I'm going to try to get it from my dad- I was thinking about you guys today- miss y'all!

Dinner Party and Flash Flood Wedding

Davis Mountains is considered semi-desert, a sky island surrounded by hot, flat desert. But- its been raining here ALOT. My friend whos a ranger here said that in his 2 years of working here he's never seen the dry creek bed that runs through the park ever have any water in it.

There was a wedding here on Saturday and the bride and groom and wedding party have been camping out all week partying and getting ready. To get to half of the campsites and the ampitheater where the wedding was taking place, the road crosses the dry creek bed. Out of no where at about 6pm we get an incredible flash flood- like nothing I've ever seen before. The creek goes from about 3 inches of water to 3.5 feet and racing fast. The wedding was supposed to start at 7. The groom was on one side of the creek bed and the bride trapped on the other! In her beautiful dress with the preacher and all the brides maids- just looking at the torrent of water that was crashing down between her and her groom. I think it was a laugh to keep from crying situation for her and we all just laughed sooo hard and joked as we waited for the water to go down. She invited all the campers who were also trapped on the wrong side to the wedding and several of them came. After about an hour and a half the water receded far enough to carry the bride across and commence in the ceremony. They will have the best story to tell their children.

Same night, Saturday, I had a few friends over for a culinary adventure- we had quinoa and falafal and some other stuff- we were a merry bunch and I had a lot of fun.

Out of Order- July 8th

Today I remembered why I wanted to be a Park Ranger. Today is Thursday and that meant program night for Laura. Now as a recap- last Thursday 5 people came to my presentation and I had thrown it together that day. I worked on my program all day long today and I’ve been thinking about it and planning it for the past week. 50 people showed up!!! I had my act together and it all just went so well. There were so many people, kids were sitting on the floor and people were standing in the back and all kinds of crazy stuff. I was so thankful that there were lots of young kids too- they asked a lot of questions and got excited about all the creepy crawlers. I think everyone learned something and had a good time. This is the whole reason I wanted to work at the park- to teach and learn and inspire… really get people to take a closer look at whats around them and think about how beautiful insects can be, not just scary. I am so so excited about this- I don’t know what else I could be doing that I would possibly enjoy more- except maybe be in the field learning more so I have more to report back on. Its really funny too because when I woke up this morning- honestly- all I was thinking about was ways I could get out of giving this presentation- thinking I could fake sick or “accidentally” delete my presentation. Sandy and I are really good salespeople I guess- after I told half a dozen families about the program I started getting excited myself. Its no at the stage that I feel confident in it and proud enough of it to ask my colleagues and my boss to come and see it. That’s absolutely all I did today- I was in uniform from 8am til 9pm working on this program. After the program was over a family and I went out searching for some bugs right outside the interpretive center- we found a female black widow under a rock that and that really made the night. Possibly the most fun thing I’ve done so far on my adventure!

In other news…

My radio call sign is 238

There was an unconfirmed report of a mountain lion on the land directly adjacent to the park being circled by 3 coyotes, seen from the top of skyline drive in the park. I want to believe this is true, but we’ve got some feral hogs out here that can be as heavy as 150 pounds and from a distance might look an awful lot like a mountain lion. Who knows, maybe we’ll have another sighting.

I don’t know if I mentioned it but last time I was down at Balmorhea State Park I got to snorkel down the channels and pick up any litter that ended up in there. The channels are filled wit fish and catfish and softshell turtles and some harmless watersnakes- it was beautiful.

I’m getting a little tired of working in the office. Just days like today when no one comes in and its really slow and there isn’t a thing to do. I’ve been in the office for a few weeks now and I’m hoping pretty soon I’ll move on to do something else or at least combine office work with other things. The wildlife biologist for the area came in yesterday to talk to me because Maria asked him to. That was really neat to get to talk to him and learn about his job. It took about 5 seconds to realize its not something I would want to do for a career, but it still seemed like a very exciting gig- he does lots of surveys for the game animals in west texas- lots of being in airplanes and helicopters doing deer counts and elk counts and ram counts and things like that. Pretty awesome! He is going to put me in touch with the regional diversity biologist who does stuff that I think might be more up my ally- less oriented towards hunting.

Remember to be open minded but don’t be afraid to take a stance when its important.

p.s. This cot that I’m sleeping on is awesome! I haven’t even realized how awesome it is because I never notice it- I just have pleasant sleeps every night with no trouble at all. Thank you grandma!

238 Clear

Monsoon Season

It’s the rainy season in the mountains and boy its really been coming down. Everything is very very green and our dry creek bed in i On and off for almost a week now. Poor soggy campers and poor wedding party that’s trying to have an outdoor ceremony here at the park at 7pm tonight- I’ve got my fingers crossed for them that it’ll at least pause long enough for them to say their vows. It really would be beautiful to have a wedding here- if the weather was nice. I went on a jog into town yesterday and got rained on for about 3 miles- luckily I saw Jason and Uncle Bucks and he gave me a ride back. If the roads down at Big Bend Ranch are navigable I’m going to go down there this weekend.

4th of July

MOST FUN SO FAR!!!

I had the most amazingly fun time on the 4th of July. I went to the town dance on the night of the 4th. My friend Aaron asked me to go. People of all ages went- people my age and young people and older folks and the live band was pretty good. I two-stepped all nigth long (with alot of cute cowboys)!! It was the unique social scene of a small town that I had never experienced before but fell in love with.

Some People are Jerks

I suppose there are ignorant jerks everywhere but there sure are alot of them here in Ft. Davis. If I hear one more joke about black people I'm going to cry and punch someone in the face. It makes me so darn mad. I just start to get to know a group of people who seem totally fun, nice folks who were real quick to get to know me and let me into their group of friends- but then they go and make some of the most racist, intolerant, ignorant comments i've ever heard in my life. I don't care if I don't know a single soul in Ft. Davis- I'd rather be alone than associate with such mean spirited, intolerant, hateful people.

Not everyone is like this- of course. There really are a lot of real decent folks here and I've got a handful of them I like to hang out with and be around.

Slight Total Panic

The Secret Life of Insects. That is the name of my program that I put on here at the park on Thursday evenings. Last night was my first go. All day yesterday I was just running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to get ready for the program. Slight total panic. It was really hard to put together, because it had to be able to work for any possible audience, young or old. Actually, it went really well, I think everyone who came enjoyed it and learned something. Not a lot of people came… it was raining and there weren’t a whole lot of children. Tonight is the Ft. Davis fire works show!!! That’ll be fun. If it isn’t raining. Hurricane Alex is bringing sleepy, drizzly weather to the Davis Mountains- I love it. There is also a another program at the park tonight and Priscilla and Elgin are putting on- about the local flora and fauna. Sweet! Lots of fun stuff ahead for the day. I saw a huge snake slithering across the road 2 days ago- it had 2 huge bulges in its belly- probably a couple of fat dead rats. Nothing else new really- I’ve decided I’ve been too busy- going to start doing fewer, more relaxed activities.