four things

redwood_kestrel — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 19:34:00 GMT

Well, I've been enjoying reading everyone else's, and since this is WAY better than those stupid MySpace surveys that I refuse to do, here we go: Four jobs I have had in my life: 1. Outdoor School Naturalist- Santa Cruz mountains, CA 2. Division of Wildlife Field Assistant- Colorado 3. Summer Camp Director- Boulder Creek, CA 4. Birding Specialist/Canoe trip Leader/etc. for the Mono Lake Committee- Lee Vining, CA (there are way more! These were just the most fun out of all of them.) Four movies I've watched more than once: 1. Rockers 2. Harold and Maude 3. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 4. Almost Famous Four places I have lived: 1. Lafayette, CA 2. Vancouver Island, British Columbia 3. near Philadelphia, PA 4. Arcata, CA (and lots and lots more places) Four TV shows that I watched: 1. 90210 2. Space Ghost Coast to Coast 3. Six Feet Under (on DVD) 4. The Brady Bunch Four places I have been: 1. all over Baja, Mexico 2. most of the states, including Alaska and Hawaii 3. Catalina Island 4. British Columbia four people who e-mail me: 1. my students 2. my parents 3. my sister 4. BTS four people I wish would email me: 1. old friends, especially those from college 2. JamBase telling me I've won one of their contests 3. some awesome marine research program that wants to hire me 4. investors four of my favorite foods: 1. veggie Indian food 2. mangos 3. things picked from gardens and eaten right away 4. sushi four places I would rather be right now: 1. Baja, or pretty much anywhere where Spanish is spoken and it is warm right now 2. at a BTS show dancing with the family 3. the Santa Cruz mountains 4. Death Valley or Joshua Tree four things I am looking forward to in the next year: 1. Bobolink 2. High Sierra 3. possibly seeing an end to grad school 4. Las Tortugas III four people who I think should take this survey: 1. you

I've been tagged!

redwood_kestrel — Thu, 13 Jul 2006 01:17:14 GMT

I was tagged by Chris, a fellow bold kick-ass female who doesn't mind going to shows (or even festivals) on her own! **RULES - Once you've been tagged, you have to write a blog with 8 facts/things/habits about yourself, saying who tagged you. In the end you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. No tag backs. Okay, here it goes, my first blogging attempt: 1. I was born on Earth Day, under a full moon. Though I'm not all that knowledgeable about astrology, I've always thought that combination was auspicious. Especially the Earth Day part, as I am a certifiable tree-hugging soil-loving vegetable-growing gal. 2. Though I live here now and was born and raised in California, I spent my college years in Pennsylvania, right next to Philadelphia. Lots of folks are surprised to hear that, but after living in the same house for 18 years, I was ready to get out and see the east coast. While I worked my butt off in school, I definitely made sure to travel, and went up and down the Atlantic coast. While there are beautiful spots and amazing bustling cities over there, more than anything my time on the east coast made me realize that the west coast is truly home. 3. Music and art are two HUGE parts of my life. Definitely the two things that keep me sane and well-balanced. As most of you know, I LOVE live music, especially the kind I get to dance to. I totally don't mind going to shows alone, in fact I kind of relish it because then I get to meet all sorts of great folks, like most of the people I know here on Tribe. Making music is important to me too, and I play guitar and mandolin and sing songs. I'm working on becoming a kick-ass bluegrass mandolin player. I've sung in choirs and choruses all my life, and started taking piano lessons when I was six. As for art, while drawing and painting are the two art forms I currently do most often, my true artistic expressions are black and white photography and ceramics. Hopefully sometime soon I'll have access to both a darkroom and a pottery studio so I can get back into them. 4. For the past six years I've been a naturalist at outdoor schools in the Santa Cruz mountains. Fifth and sixth grade kids come to our school with their classes for a week at a time, and we teach them about nature and the environment, and, most importantly, their connections to the natural world. We go hiking in the redwoods, work in our organic garden, explore the tidepools and coastal marsh, go on a night hike, make tons of music and sing songs, plus a ton of other great activities. It's the most amazing and important job I've ever had, and the people I work and live with have been the most beautiful community I've ever known. It's been a hard transition leaving. 5. I'm about to move to Arcata to begin the Masters in Biology program at Humboldt State. My undergrad degree is in Biology and I've always loved spending time in the field doing research (ecology being my emphasis). While it's hard to leave my job and friends in the Santa Cruz mountains, I'm excited to get back into field research again. At HSU I'll be focusing on coastal ecology, specifically communties and species interactions, either in the rocky intertidal or in a saltwater estuary ecosystem. 6. I love traveling but haven't been to very many places (yet). The places I have gone though I've spent a good amount of time at. I loved Alaska and can't wait to go back. I lived for four months on Vancouver Island studying sustainable coastal resource development, and have some incredible memories from that place. In 2004 after a 6-month stay in Lee Vining (where Mono Lake is and where I first danced to Blue Turtle Seduction!), I traveled all over Baja in my car, from Parque Natural del Desierto Central to Bahia Magdelena down to Los Cabos at the tip, up and down both coasts. I LOVE Baja, the people are friendly, the skin diving and kayaking are incredible (espeically on the Sea of Cortez and Bahia Concepcion), I like the challenge to my Spanish skills, and it's cheap! I've been yearning to go to a Spanish-speaking country again, so hopefully Central or South America will by my next journey, whenever it happens. 7. I believe in the goodness of people. I can't imagine going through life being afraid of people I don't know, no matter what they look like. For this reason, I've always been willing to pick up hitchhikers even when I'm driving alone, I'll always talk to people who approach me on the street (or anywhere else, for that matter), and I never turn down the chance to make a new friend. I've met some really amazing people through these random encounters, and my life is richer for it. 8. My dream in life: to someday have a beautiful piece of land (maybe in the Pescadero Valley?), where I can put up a yurt with a wood stove, have a garden to grow lots of food, a composting toilet and an outdoor shower. Plus enough space to have any and all of my friends come and put up their yurts or strawbale houses too, and we'll have a wonderful little community. Anyone want to join me? 9. (the bonus fact) I just recently started spinning fire. Haven't caught myself on fire, yet, though I'm sure it certainly will happen some day! Okay, I tag: Arin, Aspen, Trisha, Paul, Dominic, and Garth

my soapbox

four things

I've been tagged!