time flies

just over 2 months before AmeriCorps is over.

just over 2 months before i pack up and head to argentina and chile.

i have 2 months to plan where i'm going, learn spanish, sell my car, and work a million hours at the restaurant (on top of minimum 40 hrs/week @ americorps) to make mad cash.

oh. shit.

(also i am starting a garden in my friend's backyard, we're working on an urban farming collective within SF! so i have an unfunded project to return to post-trip.)

(you can also find me at nattles.tumblr.com.)

Post-AmeriCorps

At some point in the past few months I decided that the money I was saving by waitressing, catering, and working for AmeriCorps would be used to send me to some other country to wwoof (work on an organic farm in exchange for food and housing).

Yesterday, with my stomach in my throat, I bought plane tickets. Here is my plan thus far:

Dec 5th: AmeriCorps ends
Dec 9th: SFO to LAX
Dec 10th: LAX to EZE, Buenos Aires
....
....
....
Jan 29th: Santiago, Chile, to LAX
Jan 30th: LAX to SFO

The .... indicate that no, I don't actually have any idea of what I'm doing in the 7 weeks between. I have a list of farms in Argentina and Chile, I know people who know researchers in Chile and salmon fishermen in Chile, so I have some places that I can stay, targets for some time periods.

Maybe I'll start in BsAs, go to a farm near Patagonia, cross to Chile through Patagonia, up to Chillan, up to Valaparaiso, out of Santiago.

My hope is that I can spend more time in fewer places rather than see as much as possible.

If anyone wants to join at any point, let me know. I can't wait to see Christine somewhere down there, and maybe Michelle too!

Secretly, I'm scared as fuck. This is not a very natalie-thing to do. Also I don't know any Spanish.

AmeriCorps: take action!

I'm copying and pasting this from an email I was forwarded:

------
On Friday, May 16, 2008, U.S. Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut will introduce the AmeriCorps Act of 2008. The bill will:

• Raise the education award to $6,185,the average annual cost of tuition and fees for an instate student at a four year public university
• Make the education award tax exempt
• Restore the Corporation's previous authority to partner with other Federal agencies to use national service as a strategy to carry out Departments' priorities
• Promote the Corporation for National and Community Service to Cabinet level status.

AmeriCorps Alums encourages all AmeriCorps Alums to support this effort, as it recognizes the importance of service and promotes access to education by increasing the value of the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award. Since its inception in 1994, more than 540,000 citizens have served through AmeriCorps to address the unmet needs of our nation. These citizens have given over 700,000,000 hours toward improving the lives of other Americans.

-------

To take action:

You can build support for national service by encouraging your Senators to join as original cosponsors of the bill. Call today; the deadline for cosponsors is Thursday, May 15th at 4:00pm.

Action Steps for the AmeriCorps Act of 2008:

1. Call the Capitol operator at (202) 224-3121 to be connected to your Senator.
2. Ask your elected official to be an original cosponsor of the AmeriCorps Act of 2008.
3. To cosponsor, interested offices should contact Mary Ellen McGuire with Senator Dodd’s office by email: MaryEllen_McGuire@help.senate.gov. Deadline for cosponsors is Thursday, May 15th at 4pm.

-----

And of course, I am NOT doing this while clocking hours (hello, lunch. jamba juice & a popsicle! apparently a predicted high of 95 degrees encourages SF to buy popsicles, even though its really like 75 degrees.)

Quick update. From the NYT.

This is one of the issues we're involved with:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/13/us/13salmon.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=salmon&st=nyt&oref=slogin

Collapse of Salmon Stocks Endangers Pacific Fishery

By FELICITY BARRINGER

Published: March 13, 2008

Federal officials have indicated that they are likely to close the Pacific salmon fishery from northern Oregon to the Mexican border because of the collapse of crucial stocks in California’s major watershed.

That would be the most extensive closing on the West Coast since the federal government started regulating fisheries.

“By far the biggest,” said Dave Bitts, a commercial fisherman from Eureka, Calif., who is at a weeklong meeting of the Pacific Coast Fisheries Management Council in Sacramento.

“The Central Valley fall Chinook salmon are in the worst condition since records began to be kept,” Robert Lohn, regional administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service in Portland, Ore., said Wednesday in an interview. “This is the largest collapse of salmon stocks in 40 years.”

Although the Washington and Alaska fisheries are not affected, the California and Oregon ones produce “some of the most valuable fish, ones that are prized from West Coast seaports all the way to East Coast restaurants,” Mr. Lohn said.

The effect on salmon prices is not clear. Mr. Bitts said the effects on commercial and sport fishermen and their communities could run to millions of dollars.

On Wednesday the council closed several minor short-term fishing seasons off California and Oregon in connection with the salmon shortfall.

Counts of young salmon, whose numbers have dwindled sharply for two years, were the first major indication of the problem. The number of fish that survive more than a year in the ocean, or jacks, is a marker for the abundance of full-grown salmon the next year. The 2007 count of the fall Chinook jacks from the Sacramento River was less than 6 percent of the long-term average, Mr. Lohn said.

The Central Valley salmon runs are concentrated in the Sacramento River, the focus of a water struggle between farmers and irrigation districts on one hand and environmental groups and fishermen on the other.

Three years ago, some conservation groups challenged in federal court an advisory opinion by federal fisheries managers that let federal and state officials increase the water drawn from the Sacramento River Delta for farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and cities in Southern California.

The opinion by the National Marine Fisheries Service said the increase would not harm the three salmon species protected under the Endangered Species Act. The fall Chinook salmon were not under the act.

John McManus, a spokesman for Earthjustice, the group handling the suit, said lawyers in the case had been told that the judge would rule by the end of March.

Federal scientists reported this month that abnormal ocean conditions might be affecting the food chain of young salmon.

----------------------------------

It's pretty exciting. We're going to Sacramento tomorrow; I couldn't go Tuesday because we had to teach in a second grade classroom.

In other news, I moved from the Mission District to SOMA (about 15 blocks, into a 'hood that doesn't really have a neighborhood feel. Like, I don't think it's appropriate to call it a "neighborhood". I live in an "area"). The day after I moved my car was broken into, again, right by my old place. Same window. One block away. "Thanks for leaving our neighborhood, bitch" I think is what it was saying...

I am so lazy.

I spend a lot of time on the internet, but none on this thing.

Life is easy. I just started my second term of AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project, this year with the Institute for Fisheries Resources. Today was my first day at the office. It took me over an hour to get there, and obnoxiously the thing that makes it so long is my walk to the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). It's during commute hours so I can't bring my bike on, and the shuttle from the BART to the office doesn't have a bike rack, so I can't cut down the commute by 30 minutes.

On the other hand, if I hadn't become such a wimp for the cold, I could ride my bike the 7 miles there in about 45 minutes.

Prior to starting at IFR, AmeriCorps WSP had an orientation/training up in Northern California, similar to last year except longer. This year we were inland enough and it was cold enough that there was SNOW. Serious SNOW. Something like a foot of SNOW. We did our swiftwater safety training in the river while it was really, really cold out. It was fun.

In other news, my neighborhood is not safe. My car was broken into down the block and my cubs hats stolen out of it. My roommate's friend was robbed at gunpoint two blocks down the street before Christmas. I need mace. I have no problem/fear riding my bike home late at night, but I don't like being on foot walking home from the BART at 11 pm or later.

Also I bought a MacBook. I love it.

Another Year in the West

While I am sorry that I haven't updated since September (or was it August?), I obviously wasn't sorry enough during these past few months to prevent such a dry spell.

Things have changed since I finished my first year in AmeriCorps. I moved from rural west Marin County to the Mission District in San Francisco and started a new job.

Moving was a huge pain. With the housing market crash, more people are renting, driving prices in this already saturated and extremely expensive market higher. I probably emailed around 40-50 people on craigslist concerning room-for-rent postings between mid-August and late-September and received 5 replies. I only saw 4 places, and the place I ended up at was the only one I could honestly picture myself living in. And thankfully, the guys who already live here thought the same of me.

I equate the Mission most closely with Humboldt Park in Chicago - it's about 50% latino, there are some REALLY sketchy parts, and people who don't live or hang out here are afraid of it. Maybe a little more Logan Square - about a third of the Mission is crawling with hipsters. Unlike Marin, where there were lots of hippie/organic -eateries all over the place, there's a taqueria on nearly every corner in the Mission.

My roommates are fantastic - I cannot imagine a better living situation. I live with 3 guys and 1 girl, Robert, Skitch, England, and Morgan. Robert and Skitch are brothers (and it's Robert's birthday today). England is from the Philippines and Morgan is from Philly. Morgan and I moved in around the same time - we met the day I moved in.

Robert, me, Morgan, and Kurt (Robert's friend and bandmate)

I interviewed for my second term of AmeriCorps last month and now that it's November, I'm just waiting to find out if I got the position or not. Right now I'm working at a restaurant near Fisherman's Wharf (though it doesn't get much of a tourist crowd) - I'm planning on making this secondary income when AmeriCorps (hopefully) starts in January. In the meantime, I ride my bike/BART (sort of like metra or maybe the purple line) to work everyday, about 1.5 miles there, and when I ride all the way home it's about 4.5 miles. So I get some kind of workout.

So, in addition to living and working at Houston's, I also usually cater about once a week, though not at all in November, and I still go back to Marin about once a week to do office work at Sea Turtle Restoration Project, SPAWN's sister organization. That leaves me one day a week off (though somehow I managed to get 3 days off in a row this weekend - absolutely amazing) to run errands, have fun, etc.

Things I love about my new situation:
-Along with the garbage and recycling bins, SF has compost bins
-I live with people my own age
-I drive ~1x per week - I'm no longer chained to my car
-I can get anywhere I want on a bike. Except Marin or Berkeley, they're too far for me
-I make a lot more money than AmeriCorps, though it's not really making me grow professionally

Things I'm not so keen on:
-No more pets that aren't really my own
-Less fresh air
-No funny ridiculous kids
-No work gossip with Mitch (the dad I lived with)
-It's dirtier and loud. Really loud. People tend to stand on our corner and gossip a lot... usually in Spanish, which makes it easy to drown out, but when it's in English it's annoying.
-I don't know Spanish.

Anyway, so that's what's happening here. I just baked a cake for Robert's birthday and I don't think it's terribly good, but I'm going to blame the cheap aluminum cake pans.

My last days of AmeriCorps (term #1)

A lot has happened in the last two weeks, all of which I’ve had grand plans of blogging about. I guess what this really shows is that I should not have a career as a blogger.

I finished my hours with SPAWN two weeks early, but I hadn’t quite finished all my duties so I was working less than full-time, taking off early here and there and occasionally taking full days off. I worked until the last day anyway.

Let’s start with the Cubs. The Cubs came to play a three game series against the Giants in the middle of the week – their only time this season in the Bay Area. I was fortunate enough to attend two of the three. Both were really exciting games, which the Cubs won in either the 9^th or the 10^th inning. Each time I was the loudest of the bunch, essentially cheering for each new (cubbie) batter. I took full advantage of this on the second game, when our seats were 3 rows behind home plate.

I supplied Heidi with a pink Cubs hat for the game.

That Friday, Heidi and I were supposed to leave work early and drive to Monterey to visit Kristin (AmeriCorps at IFR). Originally we had planned to see Wilco in Berkeley but the show sold out really early. But, that day, Heidi’s friend emailed to tell her that he found tickets for them on craigslist. After obtaining the “ok- come a day later” from Kristin, I opted to check craigslist for my own ticket. Which I found, for free – with a catch.

The catch: I had to pick up the ticket owner from his hotel in Union Square (downtown SF – like picking someone up from Water Tower Place) and drive him to Berkeley and back (so technically I could have just “led” him – ie taken public transit or the like, but I have a car and I don’t live in the city).

After considering that this could possibly lead me into a dangerous situation with a psychopath, I decided I’d rather take the risk and see Wilco than stay home. The stranger was Canadian and actually pretty cool – we got along really well, which was especially sweet because the should-have-been-30 minute drive from Union Square to Berkeley took well over an hour due to rush hour.

I like to refer to him as "the stranger"

The next day Heidi and I left for Kristin’s in Monterey. The three of us went to the Aquarium (awesome), explored tide pools on the beach, and ate a Jewish food festival. I ate the best pastrami sandwich ever. Vegetarianism does not work for me.

There are more pictures on flickr.

I returned from Monterey to find that Mitch had extra tickets for the next day’s Giants game against the Rockies. Heidi and I took off work early for another baseball game, this time sitting in the owners section, 4 rows back between home plate and the Giants dugout. The Giants win in a very exciting and close game. Like I said, I bring the magic.

And yes, I have no problem bragging about the best seats I will ever have at a baseball game. They were amazing.

The next day (we’re on Tuesday now – it has been exactly one week since that first Cubs game), Paola threw Heidi and I a potluck dinner party as a goodbye prior to our last day of work. There is no story here, I just wanted to continue the week of Awesome.

On Wednesday evening, Kristin and Nate (AmeriCorps IFR) arrive late at my house since the four of us have to drive to Humboldt on Thursday for our WSP exit celebration and paperwork. A five hour drive (each way) for 5 hours of work (plus 70s party and sleeping). Even with the carpool, it didn’t really seem like a good use of fossil fuels considering we’re an environmentally conscious organization. Oh well, it was fun.

Southern Carpool ladies decked out in 1970s gear - my dress was
worn by Kristin's mother in 1972 at Kristin's aunt's rehearsal dinner.

There were a lot of 70s outfits. Many of them actually from the 70s.

Nate may be permanently grumpy due to sharing the car with
the 3 of us (though he usually doesn't look that upset). We're
in front of the bathroom sign because of all the bathroom stops
we have to make...

So now I’m done with AmeriCorps. I logged my last hours on Friday – a few hours of paperwork and 5 hours of driving. I spent my first unemployed weekend catering for two weddings and finally had my first actual day off today, Labor day, which I celebrated by tabling for the Barack Obama campaign.

The next four months (until AmeriTerm #2) will be interesting – right now I’m catering on the weekends and helping out Mitch and Julie at their office. I’m also searching for a room for rent in San Francisco, which is not going very well. Hopefully I will find something by October 1^st, but Mitch and Julie are not pressuring me at all and giving me ample time to figure out where I’m going. On Saturday they told me I could take the bed and desk that I’ve been using as well, so now I’ve even got furnishings!

More photos on Flickr!