2.24.2011

thank you

i can hardly keep up with myself these days! more changes are in store, and it's been a rough past couple of weeks (nothing tragic, just stressful). but the point of this blog is to thank all of you that have been showing me the love. you have been so incredibly supportive and validating. i've even gotten new socks out of all this. ;)

i can't wait to graduate.

2.14.2011

session day 36

whoa, people at the capitol are into valentine's day! all day long i heard people saying "happy valentine's day!" 75% of the people i saw were wearing pink or red. there was candy on my chair when i arrived this morning. and i got cookies for hearing out the legislative agenda of occupational therapists. feels like elementary school! except i am working on cost-benefit analysis and researching federal food safety. even better!

i apologize that i don't post pictures any more. i started taking the shuttle to and from the parking lot. aside from that, i don't make it outside very often these days. and, trust me, you don't want pictures of what i'm looking at all day. something exciting- i attended the senate hearing for the death penalty elimination bill last week. it blew my mind to see some of these senators in action- in an unsettling way. people, be careful about who you vote for. make sure you let your legislators know what are agenda is. seriously! i was glad i was there to witness it though. and, the house has introduced a companion bill. we'll see how far we get this year!

additional exciting news: daylight! it starts getting light around 6:45 am and doesn't start getting dark again until about 5:30 pm. this is hours more daylight than we were getting just a month ago. even if i don't catch it while leaving the office, at least i get to enjoy my drive into work!

2.13.2011

i'm still here!

we're about one third of the way through session here, and i am still struggling to get my bearings. it's been hard- really hard. everyone is stressed to the max, which results in bad moods among some. it's hard to work with such drastically different personalities and give everyone what they need- right NOW! i must say it has been an interesting session, despite the drama. i've already learned a great deal about the processes involved in making and amending state policy. i can't say i haven't thought about how wonderful it might be to go back to united way. with each passing day i am more and more grateful for the thought my supervisor at uwkc put into make my time there worthwhile. these days i'm particularly concerned about what it will take to get a good recommendation out of this and, most importantly, a J-O-B.

it's such a relief to come back to seattle. in fact, it makes it almost too hard to do anything besides rest. i am so far behind on school work! it's excruciating to think about adding anything to my schedule- including trips. we had been thinking about visiting denver over my spring break, but it's just too much. too much money and too much energy. we're both just about at our max these days. actually, we're probably significantly over our max. we did get our tickets to cleveland for a wedding in april. and with the bahamas in may, graduation in june and oregon for independence day, it's looking like we won't get back to denver until mid-july (we have a boulder wedding on july 16th). kind of a bummer, but such is life right now. if you're thinking about visiting, please wait until may or later. by then our house will hopefully be a little more visitor friendly too! we're trying to do some re-decorating and re-configuring in order to make our home more amenable to having friends or vacationers over. it will be a slow process, but i'm hoping to get the bulk done by mid-march. stay tuned for pictures- maybe. :)