Peace Corps Update part VI/New Orleans

Peace Corps update, part I
Peace Corps update, part II, III, IV
Peace Corps update, part V

I went on facebook a few days ago, and it prompted me to fill in my work information. While I hate when facebook tries to tell me what to do, I do love my job and was feeling pretty good about my life, so I clicked on the little box to fill it in. This happened:

I don't even know what creepy internet magic lead to this happening, but man did it break my heart to be see it. I'm not going. I KNOW. Ok, facebook? I know. Thanks for the reminder. You know, I would have left in March. I could already be two months into my service. I could already be using my education and experience in a productive, meaningful way. I could already be exchanging ideas and learning about a new place and doing my best to share what I could with people there. I could already be gaining the veteran status that would have been really, really helpful in landing the job I want. But no, facebook, I'm not doing that.

I realize that if I had left in March, I wouldn't be doing anything of the cool things I've been doing lately: exploring the southwest, working in a job I love in a place I love, doing soil surveys, seeing Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band, seeing Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band (yes, I know I wrote it twice), and gearing up to move to Louisiana.

I still have this ghost of Peace Corps haunting me but I am trying to focus on these sorts of things.

So, Louisiana. This will sound totally cliche, but out of the awful experience mentioned above and previously came a lot of soul-searching and head-clearing. I ended up contemplating three futures, and everything just fell together so easily and beautifully in favor of New Orleans.

On August 19, I head to Stony Point, NY for orientation. On August 26, I drive to New Orleans. I'm planning to do the drive in two days, stopping halfway in Kentucky to stay with my awesome cousin and her beautiful family. I've already driven on all of those roads in Pennsylvania, and I love that drive through western Maryland, and this will be the first time I'm in West Virginia in daylight, and this will finally be my first time to Kentucky finally, and I've drive across Tennessee east to west so why not north to south, and Alabama will also be a new state, and...

...and I get easily distracted when I think about roadtrips. Too bad I need to hurry down there and can't really do much besides Interstate Highway travel. I admit if I had more time I would probably just drive through northern Mississippi instead and try to roughly follow the trail the fellows take in O Brother, Where Art Thou.

Focus, Colleen. (Sometimes when I'm nervous about things like moving to a new place and building a new community for myself and meeting new people, ugh, I get really excited about the things I do have control over and am familiar with instead.)

What will I be doing in New Orleans? I'll be working through University of New Orleans and Presbyterian Church of Bayou Blue with a program called CHART, which does a lot of work with natural hazards and wetlands. The original goal was to have someone in this position to help with outreach and education, which I can totally do, but my conversations with the director have been wonderfully productive, and it seems like I will have the opportunity to get more involved with fieldwork and research, connecting with my beloved NRCS and other conservation efforts.

I've never been to the Gulf Coast, so this will be a very cool chance to check out a new environment and a different culture. I'll be living in a house with seven other ladies who will be doing good work in and around New Orleans (four of us are from New Jersey, two of us are Mary Washington alumni, so that's neat). The neighborhood looks pretty sweet and since many people I've talked to about this have been to NOLA, I've received plenty of excellent advice about what to check out. I'm excited about the music scene and the opportunity to see some new trees. Also, this program includes health insurance (TAKE THAT, RSD).



I can't wait to share this adventure with you.

It's a long way to heaven, it's closer to Harrisburg... or York...

Still pretty excited about recently meeting some of my favorite musicians on the planet, I was talking with my friend Abi in my office yesterday. Pretty much as long as I've known her, we've talked about catching a Josh Ritter show together. Jokingly, I asked her how far she'd be willing to travel for a show.

She said three hours.

Last night there was a show in York, PA, which is 2 hours and 50 minutes from camp.

Too bad it was sold out.




Sometimes I wish I could take a step out of my own life and watch it, because it doesn't feel real. I sent a message to the band's guitarist, Austin, half-jokingly asking why the show was sold out. He actually responded shortly thereafter letting me know that he put me on the guest list, so I should come out. Wait, what?

For whatever reason, I'd gone to the office an hour and a half early yesterday morning, and this was so crazy and exciting that the powers that be didn't mind me leaving early. We quickly showered off the incredible humidity that has already overtaken this part of the state and left Johnsonburg about 4:30. We made it in just about three hours, just in time for doors-- slight rush hour troubles but overall a pretty pleasant drive together that did not feel nearly that long. That's what happens when friends take roadtrips that they are excited about, I suppose. I joyfully reflected on the absurd amount of Pennsylvania that I've seen in the past week.

Historic Downtown York was kind of pretty, and really quiet. We actually didn't go too far into downtown, just to the Strand Capitol Theatre, which had a parking garage right across the side street from it. Everything was old and made of bricks though, which I think Fredericksburg, VA (did you know there's one in PA too? I did not, though I did know about the one in TX, I digress...) really made me appreciate.

The theater was lovely. We checked out the merch table and asked their guy where we needed to go with said passes. And he said, "Oh! You're Austin's friends."


Yeah we were!

The show was great (duh, that's why I keep going). We were surprised they didn't play Harrisburg, since we drove past Harrisburg to get there, but I guess that would have been too predictable. One of the things I love about seeing this band (aside from the fact that they are just. great. performers.) is that I keep seeing them in different places with different friends. I'm so thankful for my friends who get me into great music, and it's so much fun to be on the other side of that, too.

So then, after the show. Right? We had these after show passes that we didn't know what to do with. Poor Austin, I sent him about a million messages before we left camp (ok, really, like three) begging for further instructions because I am just not the cool kid. I don't get put on guest lists for concerts. I don't know what to do! But, Austin was busy setting up or eating dinner or whatever, so we just waited after the show until someone told us to keep waiting-- ok, we were good at this part. And of course, the longer we waited, the more my stomach turned in knots and the more my heart raced and the more I contemplated leaving and letting Abi enjoy everyone's company with me-- and then in walks one Mr. Josh Ritter.

There were two other couples left in the theater, so we gave the first one space while they spoke, and then he came over and said hey. And when I explained how excited I was to get Abi to see him, and that I saw him in D.C. with my roommate about a week and a half before, he actually kind of remembered our conversation and guessed where I was from within about 20 miles (so we know which member of the band actually has geography skills). We talked about summer camp. We got pictures. It was awesome.


This guy just smiles and smiles and smiles. He is so cool. 

 

But of course, Austin was no where to be found! Seriously. The guy hooks us up with tickets to a sold out show and then hides from us. Josh had one of the crew members go look for him on the bus, and he did actually come out to say hello. We'd interrupted his meal, but he assured us it needed to cool anyway and spent some time talking to us. This time I didn't give him any crap for geography, because instead he asked me the geography questions (where are you from? to which I replied, my gypsy ass?). I mentioned that I was moving to New Orleans so we talked about that for a while.

I swear, soon I will talk about New Orleans here. But not now. Except that we talked about NOLA for a while and he recommended a vegetarian restaurant and promised it'd be a cool place to live (not that I doubted that, but I am a little nervous about moving).


I wouldn't smile much either if someone interrupted my miso soup, but he's still a pretty cool dude.
 

Abi and I were exhausted but excited. The drive back definitely felt way longer, but we made it alive into the very humid, foggy hills and forests of Warren County. We barely slept before we needed to get up to work, but we survived the day and are still riding high on the fact that we got to hang out with these people-- and again, for me. How awesome is my life? So awesome. Seriously.


Route 22 at 2:45AM 

That brings the mileage total to about 2000 in 11 days, a lot more time spent on highways in Pennsylvania than I would have predicted, but well worth the time and gas (and besides, those last 300 were on Abi's car). My gypsy ass indeed.

Red Oak

Remember my little trees? I once rescued a trio of kittens from the woods and then named them after the local biogeography: Hemlock, Tulip Poplar and Red Oak.

For various reasons, Red ended up in a shelter near Pittsburgh a few weeks ago. She was originally dropped off with a three legged, half blind orange cat called Simon, for whom she'd been acting as a seeing eye guide. It took me a few weeks, but I found them on the shelter's website, listed as Jewel and Jersey.

While I definitely appreciated the orange cat being called Jersey, I could not live with my little Red being called Jewel. What is this, Lillith Fair? No. No no no no no.

I needed to adopt these cats.

I called the shelter to inquire. "Jewel" was listed as having this brother Jersey, but he was not listed on the site. The woman who answered the phone seemed kind of startled that I was able to so accurately describe him to her, but alas, he'd already been adopted.

What kind of person adopts the three legged, blind, weird cat?!

A good person, I suppose, and I'm glad to know he's in a good home.

Somehow, this did not deter me. My original intention was to keep. them. together. But knowing Simon was adopted, possibly as Jersey, possibly renamed again, I still couldn't get Jewel Red out of my head. Mike and I had talked about getting cat(s) after he gets back to Arizona from his summer break back east, and I just really, really, really wanted this cat back.

So I did it. I adopted her. The people at the shelter were actually very kind and actually listened to my story, and did not think of me as a crazy cat lady (or at least, did not act that way to my face or over the phone). And so: roadtrip. Because driving to Virginia over the weekend wasn't enough driving.

It made sense to take the last two days off from camp, now that I'm back working there, because stuff was going on this weekend. Thankfully, all of these years of working at camp have left me with a pretty great network of friends scattered all over, including the amazing Emma Neischloss out close to Pittsburgh. She was a wonderful host and we had a great evening catching up. Visiting her made me feel slightly less crazy about driving a 700 mile round trip for this cat.

Man, I am not helping myself here. I sound like a crazy cat lady.

I hadn't done quite this drive through PA before, and it was strange to me to see mountains covered in grass and trees after my experience with mountains out west this year.

Whatever. Red is great. She is a sweet little love, and slept almost the entire drive home. She is happily exploring her new digs, and not deterred by her less than warm welcome from our other cat (who I kind of thought liked other cats, but I guess she's still a bit confused and lost over the recent changes to the population of my parents' zoo-- the addition of a very loud small dog and the loss of a cat who, as aloof as she was, was kind of her friend). I went back and forth with feeling silly about the effort I have made to rescue this cat, but it's going to be really nice to share this with Mike, and to know he has some company out there, and have this little thing in common as we spend the next year apart.





 

Oh yeah, I still owe an explanation of New Orleans. I promise it's coming soon. Really.

yet another whirlwind roadtrip to VA/DC

My favorite things about whirlwind trips to VA and DC? Whirlwind. Roadtrip. Virginia. Washington, D.C.

Even better when it involves college friends, cousins and a Josh Ritter concert!

And even better yet when I get to start the weekend with a crazy soil survey in a glorious part of New Jersey, although let's be really honest for a second, I think just about all of New Jersey is glorious.

 

I met my soil scientist friend in Woodstown in Salem County to go dig and describe a few pits in a nearby wildlife management area. It was a gorgeous day. The sun shone strongly, but we worked under the cover of the forest so it wasn't too overwhelming. We didn't see many birds, but we definitely heard them. I saw clear evidence of a lot of the chemistry stuffs I've been reading about in a generally confused fashion.

After a good day of digging and texturing and trying to decide how to define the strange colors of the soils made of prehistoric fish poop, I drove to Virginia. It was so nice to already be halfway! I went out toward western Loudoun County, enjoying the Jeep bouncing down these lovely, unpaved, curvy country roads, winding and winding up to my dear friend JT's house in Purcellville. When I got out of the Jeep, I suddenly remembered what humidity is...

Good company, good pizza, good visit there, and the next morning brought me down more winding roads to my cousins in Nokesville, a town with one traffic lights and many horses. My cousins are great. We got to visit Janet at the greenhouse at school, where I acquired a Janet Spain original sweet basil plant that she grew for horticulture. Laura and her mother and I went out for lunch, and I even got to see their dad before heading onward and eastward.

This was my first time visiting Brittany and Adam's new place in Burke! I was really excited, not just because they're grownups and have a sweet townhouse, but because Brittany and I had some awesome plans for the evening.

And then the long drive back, so I could actually be home for Mothers Day, plus I had a beer to bottle, plus I needed to get to camp the next morning to begin another stint as Program Assistant.

But a very good weekend, as per usual. I love visiting Virginia.

Joy to me too!

 

Something I've been looking forward to for a while, was that Brittany got us tickets to see Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band at the 9:30 Club. So this happened last night.

There is exactly one thing in my life that I'm totally, hopelessly fan girl about. (All right, fine, that's not entirely true, but the all of the other things that get me giddy excited are stuff like champion trees, and charismatic geomorphology, and soil surveys.) I've been listening to Josh Ritter since the end of college, and went to my first show just about three years ago. This was my sixth time seeing Josh Ritter, fourth time backed by the full band. These shows are just awesome. Josh is a great performer, witty and gracious and always so positive. The whole band is brilliantly talented, and always look like they're having such a good time.

In addition to being an all around beautiful person, Brittany has this uncanny ability to actually meet and speak with all of her favorite musicians-- Hanson, Rhett Miller, Ben Kweller, Joe Pug. So not only do I get to have a blast at a great show with this girl I adore, but I also have someone encouraging me to find and actually speak with Josh and company.

The show was awesome, as I expected. After, Britt and I waited for the crowd to clear out a little, scored a couple of Josh Ritter's guitar picks from the stage crew, and went to wait by the tour bus that we noticed parked on the side street when we walked in earlier. And after about an hour of standing around being giddy and ridiculous, we watched as Zack Hickman and Sam Kassirer (bass and keys, respectively) walked by, slightly aloof, trying to see what was going on around them but avoiding eye contact as they hurried on the bus. But then, there was Austin Nevins (guitar among other things).

He walked around the corner with a bag in his right hand, and shifted it to his left hand. Brittany's eyes lit up-- she took this as a sign! He must want to shake our hands! And he did. Austin stopped and talked with us for a while. Trying my best to not be totally anxious and awkward, and trying to keep the conversation going, I asked where were his favorite places he's played. I quickly realized in my head that I was asking that question looking for answers about places and travel, but kind of hoped he took it as a question about venues, because I didn't want to get all hyped up about geography and be even more anxious/ weird/ awkward. But he answered: Japan. Cuba. Europe.

Europe?! Europe is not just one country. And of course, I had to open my mouth and say something about that. And then rant on about people constantly referring to Africa like it's one country.

And just as Austin exclaimed with a smile, "Are you giving me shit about geography?!", Brittany laughs at me, "Less than five minutes before we're talking about geography!". Oh no. I am so weird. My stomach hurt. My brain was short circuiting at this point. Well, that's not entirely true. My brain was short circuiting the. entire. time.

So just as this is going down... Josh Ritter walks around the corner. We want to keep talking with Austin because he was really cool, but we also didn't want to miss this opportunity. Brittany and this other guy who was hanging out with us kept talking with Austin and-- something about being around Brittany made me really, really brave-- I reached out my hand as he walked past, and rambled nervously, "Wait, can I thank you? Can I thank you for your music?"

(Amazingly, this is a significant improvement in communication compared to the first time I saw him in concert, and ran into him on the stairs after the show, literally ran into him, and just kind of smiled idiotically and stood there in the way.)

And he stopped. And kind of paused. And shook my hand. And thanked me back.

Thank goodness for my wonderful, amazing friend Brittany. While I was being dumbfounded, she asked if she could get a picture. Josh put his arm around me and we got the other guy hanging out by the bus to get a photo of us with Austin, too. And this was all just happening, really happening.

I was really disappointed to lose Austin in the shuffle, because he was so kind to just stop and chat with us a while. But Josh was also kind, and just as gracious and joyful as I hoped he'd be in real life. Like, these are real people, who are really excited about what they do, and excited to talk about it with other excited people, despite how nervous/ anxious/ ridiculous/ etc. they were trying desperately not to be.

By "they" I mean me.

So awesome. So, so awesome.

Here's my heart.

Yep, I changed the name of this. I never really gave a care one way or the other for "Girl on the Go", and this finally just came to me (only several years after I started documenting my various adventures). I really like the hymn it comes from, and it seems appropriate.