Yes, I'm still alive.

Of course, my desire to write down the minutiae of my daily life has dwindled significantly, but I suppose it's time for an update. I made it back home for 3 weeks with Mark and Abbey in tow, went to my friends' wedding, and enjoyed the fact that the sun doesn't set until 5:30 in the winter in Mississippi. Then I was sent back to Seattle in early January, with Mark's little brother Gordon joining us for a vacation. It was rather exciting to host our first visitor. Sadly, we weren't able to do everything we wanted to because I returned to find my car had been run into, puncturing the tire. I had a spare, but didn't think that it was a great idea to drive to Canada or Portland or a ski area on it, so that was out of the question. Gordon was a real sport about it, though, and I think he had a good time.

My car is now fixed, and that's a good thing, because I'm driving regularly to tutor. So far, I've completed 2 students, both boys, who were studying for the ACT... I now have a fifth grader and a sixth grader, and will have 2 more later in the month. The work is easy and enjoyable and makes me flex my brain (ummm... do you remember the last time you did long division? I didn't think so...). My boss at Kaplan seems to like me well enough, and they named me Tutor of the Month for January, which was a great honor for me!

I also had some more visitors in January, five guys from BSC on a road trip for the January term. They were only around for 2 days, but it was so good to see old friends! However, our apartment is TOO small for 5 boys with pent-up energy from sitting in a car all day, I've learned.

My birthday was 2 weeks ago, and the day in particular was bad (my birthdays always are...) but that weekend, my friend Erin and I celebrated our birthdays at her house on the SuperBowl.... I provide a keg, and there were about 15 people there, all friends of mine... the game wasn't so great, but the company was.

On February 9th, I got to caucus for the first time (Washington is a caucus state, at least for the Dems, whereas MS and AL are primary states). It was a great experience.... 100 people showed up for my precinct, which is only 4 small blocks big, and we debated the differences between Hillary and Barack. If you didn't already know (and how could you not, if you're on Facebook), I am an Obama supporter. Now, I actually agreed with Richardson the most, and wished that he had any sort of personality or charisma so he would have a slight chance of being electable, and when he was out, I sided with Edwards, because of his great environmental stance. But, I do love Obama, and have liked him since I listened to his book on tape in Ecuador last year. At the caucus, our precinct was for Obama 5 delegates to 1, but there were undecided voters, so we debated anyway... and the only argument that the Hillary supporters were putting forward was that HRC just has more experience. But what they don't understand is that a President has to be both a manager AND a leader... and Hill is the better manager, and Obama is the better leader. But the management position is not necessarily a one person position--it's guided by cabinet members, heads of big organizations, and is bounded by the legislature. So really, I see Obama and Hillary's managerial output as being basically the same because of that.... But Leader? That can only be a one person job. And Obama clearly has the upper hand there. Plus Hillary is so divisive among Dems... you hear plenty of Dems saying they hate Hillary, but none saying they hate Obama, even if they express reservations. The republicans definitely hate Hillary more, and she would give them a reason to support McCain. But Obama has been pulling dissatisfied GOPers to the polls for him!

So I said this in the caucus, and I guess everyone thought it sounded good, because they voted me in as one of our precincts six delegates. That means that I get to go to the legislative district and county conventions in April. Technically, this also means that I could potentially get elected there to go to the state convention, and then the national convention in Denver in August, but this wouldn't actually happen. All the same, I'm looking forward to April.

I also just got an internship with the regional office of the National Wildlife Federation, which is HQed in Seattle. The regional office's Executive Director came to talk to my climate change class (isn't it nice to live somewhere where they believe in climate change?!) and mentioned something about internships at the office. So, I aggressively hunted him down, and harassed him until he gave in and gave me an internship....

... Actually it was much easier than that. He's so swamped with work, that I think he was willing to take the first person who unwittingly fell into his grasps. Anyway, the position is along the lines of policy analysis. And not for wildlife things, for climate change. Yes, this sounds weird, but apparently this office of the NWF is one of the major players in shaping climate policy for the west coast. So, we'll see what actually happens with the job, but it should be exciting and give me plenty of opportunities to meet people. And working with the NWF sounds so cool, especially to me. I've loved the NWF since I was receiving Your Big Backyard and Ranger Rick, even before I started elementary school. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Anyway, the position will keep me really busy, which is great, because I work harder the more I have on my plate. And you would think with me being in grad school and having one job, this would be the case, but it isn't really. That's because I'm taking 2 classes this quarter that aren't exactly.... strenuous. One is "Quantitative Analysis" which is a pretty way of saying "intro to stats," which means we talk about finding means and using t-tests... stuff I learned on my own the very first time I had to use a stats program, after my freshman year of college. So, I sit in the back of the class and read Vanity Fair, or update my to-do list, and bother the other students who are also in the CFR (forestry) grad program with me... other students who have also taken biology classes and already know what statistical tests are. The other fluffy class I'm taking is Budgeting and Financial Management. There is one professor for this class who seems reasonably demanding, but I don't have her. So, I go once a week and listen, and figure that I can always Wikipedia anything that he doesn't cover when I'm in a real life situation.

My other two classes are much more substantial. One I already talked about is the climate change policy class. At BSC, climate change was covered in 1 or 2 days in my Ecology class... here it's covered for 10 weeks, and we still have about 4 hours of reading for class a week. The other is a research methodology class with the CFR, and its amazing, but sadly would be more pertinent if I actually had a thesis projects, which I probably won't until next year. I came to grad school thinking I knew a lot about research, since I did it for 3 1/2 years in undergrad.... but boy was I wrong! This class elucidates many of the "unspoken basics" of ecological research... the class is based on the premise that most of us have learned how to do research by observation and imitation, but none of us actually have an understanding of the theory behind it. So, our darling, old, British professor spells out the very basics for us, and it's so much to think about!

Anyway, I'm going to go cuddle with my dog and listen to Mark play piano... take care, everyone!