Blue Skies

This morning I went down the the Seattle Municipal Building and went up to the 17th floor. I spent 2 hours stuffing envelopes and chatting with the staff of Department of Neighborhoods, P-Patch. This was the last of my 8 hours (actually puts me at 10) of volunteer time for the P-Patch that we have to put in each year. While I was there, I was able to get them to change the picture on the Ballard P-Patch website so that it was no longer the wrong location--something I had been talking about with the site coordinator for months, but we just couldn't seem to get done. Now I have the right contact so I can also update the blurb. So much can get done when you are in the right room!

Another thing struck me while I was there. Working at Seattle Public Library, I am also a city employee, although it is somewhat different. We have a different bargaining unit, since we have a different union, but many things are the same. I mentioned the library several times in my conversations with the p-patch folks, but never came right out and said that I work there. They all asked which p-patch I belong to, though. It felt weird to be there for 2 hours without telling them that I also work for the city, but it never felt right to come out and say so either.

I met my dad for lunch down at the Pike Place Market after volunteering. We met at the pig and ended up at Cafe Campagne. Dad got the pre fix and I chose the cassoulett. Everything was really good. The cassoulett was a stew of white beans, sausage, pork, duck confit, and lamb; perfect for a cold day. We left there and went in search of a cookie. After only half a block we smelled something delicious and went into Le Panier (I know, a french kick...) and got 2 slices of fruit tart. We took them over to the benches overlooking the waterfront. Starlings begged for crust and we sat chatting about life, love, work and politics. It was a nice day. The sky was blue in the morning and it just started to spit rain as I headed home.

Chocolate and Roller Skates

Yesterday I went to The Theo Chocolate Factory for a tour and had a wonderful time--I recommend it for all of my friends and family that like chocolate, whether you live in Seattle or just come for a visit. Actually, even if you don't like chocolate--just abstain from the many lovely samples given out--it is still an amazing tour.


I went with the University District Youth Center, where I volunteer. Usually my day is Monday, but I start work at noon every other Friday so thought I would tag along on this. I had wandered by the Theo store during my ramble in April and thought that I should take their tour at some point and there was my opportunity! And I got to hang out with some lovely, down on their luck, teens. It is deeply satisfying to help this group, so if you have some time between Monday and Thursday 12:45-4, to help out, call Brynn at 206.526.2992. /plug.

Tonight Dr. T and I are going to a Jet City Rollergirls bout to see DiBrarian roll. It will be my first time and I really have no idea what to expect beyond tough girls on roller skates. Should be fun!

Dancing Around (The Subject)

So I am back, and I made it through 4 full days of work without going insane. It was difficult, but I did it. This was the first vacation I have had where I wasn't even tempted to check work email. I barely even thought about work. It was awesome. And nothing exploded while I was gone. I had the Google Maps class last night and it went swimmingly. People even showed up! The only bad thing was that I forgot to do a survey. Again. You would think those would be first on my brain, but somehow I always think "I should have had a survey" hours later when I contemplate the various ways that people could have found out about the program. You know what would have fixed this wondering???? A SURVEY!

And I am done with Twitter. I tried it, it bored me. It was nice to be able to update from the road without a computer, but in reality, I just don't have time for that horsepucky.

When I got back from vacation I had one day left to do with as I pleased--after I took The Boy up to school in BFD way early in the morning. What did I do with that day? Well, after my 4 hour nap, I read in the sun for an hour, sipping an iced coffee I made with my own spresso maker, the spent a couple of hours getting the p-patch ready. Weeded and fertilized and watered. Tomorrow I will go back and plant some corn, green onions, collards (we'll see which plantings win, inside or outside), then maybe I will get some volunteer time in--we have to do 8 hrs a year, which isn't very much unless you start in June and have to be done in October.

Before I left for vacation, I took pictures of a certain business of ill repute that was closed around a year ago and recently sprouted amazing amounts of graffiti. Please excuse me for feeling pride in something that I only took a picture of:



I told Dr. T that I was going to clean tonight, but now I just feel like curling up with my book. I don't even feel like eating dinner.

Mentoring, Researching and Programming

Today my mentee is getting out of juvy. I don't know if she wants me there, but I am going to her release meeting at the Juvenile Rehabilitation Center, where she meets with her parole officer and members of the community who support her. A woman from the Orion Center will be there, and a drug and alcohol counselor. These are two parts of her life that she hasn't told me about, I don't know if it is because she thinks I won't respect her, or if she just doesn't feel that comfortable with me yet. I am both excited for her and scared, because so much can go wrong at this point. But she is out, and ready to start her life. She has to be an adult now, for her child. She has the right attitude for sure, and hopefully she will be able to follow through. I hope I can help.

I had a nice lazy day at Casa de la Dr. T, yesterday. I spent most of the day researching the Virgin Islands. It snowed here, and today it is sunny, but only 28 degrees. Something has soured the research process for me today, so I need to give it a day off before I make the plane reservations tomorrow. Edit: We gave the gift back. There was more information to be found about the situation, and we decided that it was more important for the grandparents to be there than us. We will likely take a trip this summer to Las Vegas that all of us can enjoy.

The Reading Marathon went great. We had between 70 and 100 middle schoolers all in one room, bundled up in sleeping bags and blankets, reading. There were many periods of complete silence, where everyone, including me, the teachers and the parents that came, were reading. We took breaks for snacks and pizza. I had an embarrassing moment when the first round of pizza came and it just wasn't enough. There wasn't a piece for every kid! The teachers banded together some literacy funds and ordered more, and I had a few more come later, so everyone got fed. I have half a page of notes on how to change it for next year, and number one is "order more pizza". The other branches doing this also had good turnout; 50 at one and 40 at the other, so the schools were pretty evenly represented. I feel like I got a lot of good face time with the kids that come into the library after school. They will feel more comfortable coming up to me now. I wonder how many new ones we will see.

Snow! Again!

This is little car. I call her that a lot. She gets me around and I have been loving her the last couple of days with the way she has gotten me around in the snow. She may be old, but she is a pretty gal, has lots of room and gets great gas mileage. I hope to keep her for(ever) a long time.



This is our street all covered in snow. I can barely tell in this pic that it is snowing, but there are tiny ice particles falling out of the sky. They are covering everything and making the compact snow and ice very slippery. I am glad we got home right after this started.



Looks like a great place to have a garden party. Oops, forgot to bring in the cushions... It was really cold, so seeing the light through the window reminded me that I don't really need to take pictures right now.

Earlier today, I made the trek out to Lake Stevens to pick up The Boy from his dad. The Boy's dad does deliveries of stock to stores, luckily of a rather recession-proof commodity, and The Boy helps sometimes on the weekends for a bit of spending cash. I hope he does better than he does on his chores around here... Then we drove to Snoqualmie Falls area to visit my mentee with the Juvenile Court system. The Boy had to wait in the office while I went, so I didn't stay long. I did get to deliver some cookies and books that I hope she will like and we talked for a little while about her options after she leaves Juvie. This is my third month knowing her and I think she is a good kid. She has a bad temper and hasn't had the best upbringing, but she is trying to right the first one and making plans to overcome the latter. I hope my visits and influence help.

New and Old

In this building, on the very left in the picture, there is a new comic book store coming. When I walked by, there were shelves and shelves full of manga and comics and a sign on the door just said "Soon!". Located on 11th and 47th, I hope they get enough traffic, but then, we have so many great comic stores in the U-district already, what will make this one different?




I saw this lovely bus when I was out in Wallingford the other day. It was just so srcsmgrl-like that I had to take a picture. Looking up Mean Recess on the internet, I found that it is a band but their player wasn't working, so I have no idea what the music is like.

There will be snow tonight, I can feel it.



Tonight I volunteered at the UDYC holiday dinner. I mostly sat around, ate some really good food and chatted with the youth that come into drop in. Most of them headed over to ROOTS shelter afterward to stay out of the cold. Talk was mostly of how cold they have been and several said they hadn't slept in a couple of days. They were in really high spirits though and the atmosphere was a positive one. I hope everyone gets out of the cold tonight. It is always at times like this that I wish I could do more.

Kids on the Ave

The sun is struggling to come out now, but it was certainly cold this morning when I went running. That's right, running, for the second time in 3 days! Lets hope I can keep it up. A little exercise can go a long way to improving my mood and sometimes it is sooooo hard to get started. I hope the sun wins the battle today, because I would dearly like to have it around for a bit longer.

Yesterday I participated in a class called Homelessness 101, put on by the University District Service Providers Alliance (or UDSP). This class is required for staff and volunteers in the different agencies that provide services to homeless youth in the University District. Their goal is consistency and to not duplicate services (except of course where more of a service is needed--I am sure they would love to have more shelters, for example.) The class covered the different reasons why youth are homeless, what life on the streets is like for them, what is appropriate or not appropriate in program (drop in, shelter, etc). We watched a documentary called Kids on the Ave, which was made by a former Vista volunteer. It was really good, I recommend it if you want to know what those "street rats" are really up to. I look at them in a whole new light. The only bad part of the class is that my butt still hurts from sitting on the folding chair for 4 hours...

The lunar eclipse on Wednesday was beautiful. I wasn't able to take a picture--it probably wouldn't have turned out anyway, but here is a link to a local ballardite's Flickr page who took some amazing photos. (pilfered from the MyBallard site.)