Legally Liz: The Queen City of the Rockies: A Week In

Dear Internet,

Well, I’ve been in Helena for a week now and things have been going pretty well! But first I’ll back up and tell you - or just put up some pictures - from Will’s and my road trip here.

On the Road, Arizona!

Bright Angel Canyon, a tributary canyon of the Grand Canyon
which Will and I hiked down (2.5 hrs) and back up (3.5 hrs). Ouch.

A canyon most grand!

Me & Will (respectively).

The Great Salt Lake (it was pretty gross)

Temple Square in Salt Lake City,
a.k.a. Mormon HQ.

Okay, cool. So my first day of work, my supervisor, Brian, showed up wearing all black, including a kilt and combat boots. I had been warned about the kilt but not the black or the boots or anything. So I knew it would be a good job.

My job is confusing to explain. I’m funded by a Technology Initiative Grant (TIG) from Legal Services Corporation (LSC) and I work with the Legal Services National Technology Assistance Project (LSNTAP). The office I work at, and that sponsors my hiring through VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America, by the way) is Montana Legal Services Association (MLSA). Lawyers love acronyms. Jeez.

Basically I work with legal aid organizations to help them reach and serve low-income people better, via technology. So this entails monitoring a help desk and listserv of email addresses, blogging, and helping with social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube...). It’s a lot of computer time, and I didn’t realize how tough that would be for me.

On the plus side, it’s decently interesting. I deal more with the tech side of things than with the legal side of things, but I hear a lot of what goes on in the office at least - attorneys dealing with clients who have housing or domestic violence or a host of other issues that they otherwise would not be financially equipped to deal with. It’s pretty cool and I’d feel worse about eavesdropping if the attorneys bothered to close their doors when they were on speakerphone.

I’ve also re-re-rediscovered how much I like to write. Blogging is probably my favorite part of my job. So far I wrote a piece on captioning YouTube videos and am now working on one about different options for video conferencing. It’s not terribly exciting stuff for me - I’ll never be that much of a techie - but I’ve enjoyed the process of putting it together. I think I’m better at teaching in print than out loud. I’m not sure if it’s the research that I enjoy, the writing, or what, but writing posts is sure better than combing Facebook for legal aid organizations to “like.”

Overall, I think the job might take some warming up to. At this point, I’m used to being outside all the time, hanging out with at least three other people at all times. In this job, there isn’t a whole lot of human interaction, which I guess I didn’t realize how much I relied on to feel like I was really doing something. Out there in cyberspace, it can be hard to feel like you have an impact. This is a good thing to know about myself in the long run, I think; in the short term, I’ll try to keep perspective and remember that whether I see them or not, the information I’m disseminating to lawyers around the country is helping them to help a lot of people.

Beyond the job, life has been pretty great! I think I will love living in Montana, aside from the winter, which my roommate Justin assured me “is not as bad as it is in Bozeman.” I’m from the South. Your normal winters are my apocalypse... not to be too dramatic.

Anyway, the first week I was here was the last Alive @ Five in Helena (yeah, I do lots of links now). I was able to meet up with one of the girls I met at my Pre-Service Orientation (PSO) back in July, Jillian, and her friends at Blackfoot River Brewery, a local institution, before heading over to the festivities. Then I got to hang out with a few other people from my PSO at Grand Teton National Park that weekend (Labor Day weekend, as luck would have it)! Both were great experiences and it was kind of reassuring to know that I can still have a social life even though I don’t live at the over-populated and under-cleaned apartments on Shenandoah anymore. It’s a different way to meet people and make friends, but it can still be done.