This is real science.

Come Alive

Dear Internet,

Today I was thinking about Pinterest.I like it a lot. I have several virtual "pinboards," one of which is just a collection of photos and quotes and other images that make me happy. Then I thought: maybe you guys would like them too. So I'll put up some images from my Pinterest board every once in a while. Just to change it up. Just to spice up your day (or at least mine!)

That's all.

xoxo 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.

The Tetons!

Also Tetons

And I got to see Old Faithful!

Crater made by the Excelsior Geyser in Yellowstone

Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone

Artists' Paintpots in Yellowstone

Me and some of the super-cool people I got to hang out with
in the Tetons: Kelly, Sammie, and Michael.

That’s about it for now - in closing, a photo I took when I hiked up Mt Helena this evening:

My awesome new city: Helena

xoxo Liz

Westward Ho!

Dear Internet,

I’m writing to you from the road again. ERT has ended and Will and I are on our way West.

The last few weeks in Montana were pretty good - solid, regular weeks of building fences and bridges and watching “Modern Family” together on the evenings we were at Fleecer. Then eighteen of us said goodbye to eleven who remained behind at Fleecer - hugs and tears all around - and drove back to St Louis. We took two days for the drive, arriving late on Saturday. We had Sunday off and did all of our exit paperwork, finished our last time sheets, and checked in our fire gear on Monday. And it was over.

The last project: a snowmobile bridge at
Independence Creek.

It’s a little hard to believe, even here in the middle of Kansas, watching St Louis disappear at 70 mph. ERT was such an all-consuming thing - it was my whole life - that it’ll be weird adjusting to not having it. I can say with certainty that it changed me, in more ways than I can list. Still, I’ll try: I’m a little more outdoorsy now; I’m more willing to and capable of camping or hiking than I used to be. My body is stronger. I don’t think showers are a daily necessity anymore - more like a luxury.

Most of these changes are positive; lessons learned. I’ve learned several hard skills: running a saw, building fences and bridges, identifying plants, being knowledgable enough to control a fire or assist with disaster recovery, and so on. I think the biggest lessons I’ve learned, though, have to do with working with people. I’m not always good at it. I’m uncertain as a leader and sometimes tend to voice something that’s going on in my head without putting it into context, so it comes off as inconsiderate. And I hate being wrong or not knowing something that I feel I should know, so I get defensive

These are things that I need to work on. I’ve had an idea about what these issues are for a while, but working so closely with 35 people all year helped a lot to really clearly identify them. Hopefully I can work on these issues over the next year in a new setting.

Speaking of which... we’re on our way! There was a little tug of sadness, I admit, when Will and I rolled out of Soulard at 6am today. Once we were outside of the city, though, I knew that I was ready to go. We’re heading to Denver today, to stay with Lucas from ERT and his girlfriend, Sarah.

Tomorrow (Thursday), we’ll drive down to the Grand Canyon, where we’ll camp and hike around on Friday. The weather is supposed to be pretty rainy, so knock on some wood for us! On Saturday, we’ll drive up to Fleecer, and Sunday make the 90-minute drive to Helena, where we’ll move all my stuff in. Then I’ll drop Will off back at Fleecer - he and another ERT guy, Andrew, are planning to bike to San Francisco from there! I’m super jealous but hopefully there will be lots of photos so I can live vicariously through them. And on Monday, I start my new job in Helena!

Our trip!

As much as I’ll miss ERT (and am dreading winter in Montana), there are two big things I’m looking forward to for this year: first of all, having some more control over my own life. Sometimes I think it’s good for me to have to do things like walk up mountains carrying a heavy tool. It’s good for me. But, many times throughout this year, I did not want to walk up the mountain. Now I get to only walk up mountains when I feel like it (which might be more often than it used to be, see the “I’m more outdoorsy now” paragraph, above). That will be nice.

Also, I’m looking forward to having a little more free time and structure to pursue some things I’m interested in. In college, I had structure but no free time. I knew what my schedule would be, but all the free moments were filled with volunteer activities or thesis research or sleep. In ERT, I had free time but very little structure. We usually had weekends off, but not always, and the exceptions were relatively unpredictable. It was very difficult to plan anything more than twelve hours in advance.

This year, I will have a regular work week and free time in the evenings and weekends. There are lots of things I’d like to do in this free time, depending on if I can afford them (at a decreased living stipend and increased rent every month - womp womp). I’d like to get into canning, and audition for local musicals, and take voice lessons, and practice my guitar, and work in a community garden. This fall I’ll also be re-taking the LSAT and the GRE and applying to law schools (Berkeley is my dream school... I’m not sure how realistic my hopes are there, but we’ll find out I guess!) Hopefully I’ll also find time to visit ERT at Fleecer, and go to Glacier and Yellowstone Parks, and to go see friends in Fargo, Seattle, Portland, and Eugene. If I can do half of these things I guess I’ll be pretty pleased!

Anyway, I guess that’s all for now. You’ll hear from me again when I’m in Helena - ta ta for now from the Land of Oz, and Westward Ho!

xoxo Liz

A week to go!?

Dear Internet,

List of things I can’t believe:

1. I only have a week left of ERT.
2. I’ve already been in Montana for over a month.
3. I haven’t posted since then... whoops.

It's good to be back at lovely Fleecer!

Neighbors.

Montana has been awesome, as expected. Since we’ve been here, I’ve been doing a variety of jobs - trail work, fencing, cutting firewood, even building a ski jump at Maverick Mountain. I’ve mostly stayed at Fleecer Station, our base camp, except for one week spent in Lima, MT (tearing down the wrong fence and reconstructing it the next day... it happens).

In Lima, MT. The mountains turn red in the evening.

I spent three days in Helena (which is only about an hour and a half’s drive from Butte) for my VISTA orientation. It was cool to see the place I will live - I even got to visit my future office - and I think will help with the transition from ERT to VISTA. It was pretty basic stuff we covered - our rights and roles as VISTAs, what poverty is and means, etc. There are five or six VISTAs serving in Helena out of I think 41 who were there for training. The rest serve in other parts of Helena - Billings, Butte, Missoula, Bozeman, and other smaller towns. There were some very interesting people there, so it should be fun to serve for them - though in a totally different capacity than I’m now used to in ERT.

As a group we spent one week near Elk Horn Hot Springs for our graduation ceremony. The crew that was hired in January as permanent Joplin staff (until this December, anyway) was there, so it was cool to meet them. We had two days off to hang out and to travel to Lemhi Pass to graduate. It was a nice ceremony, with time to reflect on the year and awards handed out to people who had done exceptionally well. It was, however, a bit premature as we still had two weeks to go in the program - but that was the time that everyone could be there, so that’s that.

At graduation, after we received our Year 18 shirts, designed
by two members of the team.

We have had several Sundays off and have done a few very cool things: the Montana Folk Festival and Evel Knievel Days in Butte, hikes up Red Mountain and Sawtooth Mountains, and a day spent in Helena to scope out the city a little better than I did when I was there for orientation. I even found an house with a really nice live-in landlord/handyman that I think will work out for the next year.

At the Folk Festival in Butte.

Hike up Red Mountain.

At the top: recreating our shirtless picture from Mount Fleecer
last fall.

The ridgeline on top of Red Mountain.

Anyway, moral of the story is that Montana has been going really well. There are lots of things that I will miss next year and lots of things I won’t. With only one week left - we’ll depart for St Louis this coming Friday - the transition is becoming real to me. I start as a VISTA on the 27th of August - that’s two weeks from now, roughly.

Evel Knievel Days in Butte.

Hiking up Sawtooth Mountain.

View of Sawtooth Lake from the top.

One of the historical sites we passed one day during work:
a group of kilns used for producing charcoal to smelt iron
just down the valley.

Twin Lakes, another site we passed during work.

I’ll miss this sense of community. I’ll miss 35 people being around me at all times, even though they drive me bananas sometimes. I’ll miss the ease we all have with one another. I’ll miss the freedom of working outside all the time and leaving my work at “the office.” I’ll miss campfires and the feeling of being really tired at the end of the day. I’ll miss seeing new places and learning new skills all the time. I’ll miss chainsawing. I won’t miss the control that the program has over my life. I won’t miss some of the petty politics that goes on. I won’t miss never having a spare moment or an Internet connection.

It’s been a great year and a tough year for me, and I’ve done things I never thought I would do. I’ve learned to build fences and bridges, to use a saw, to build a trail; mostly, though, I think I’ve learned a lot about the way I interact with people and how to do it better. Hopefully that can help me a lot in the future.

Here’s to one bittersweet week left of ERT.

xoxo Liz

Montana Bound

Dear Internet,

I'm writing this from the passenger seat of Buck Hunter while South Dakota grasslands fly past my window. That's right, we're en route to Montana again, and I could not be happier about that. The last few weeks have been great, but kind of stressful and very hot. So why don't I tell you about them?

En route... mountains approaching!

After a great visit home to Virginia, I spent my first week back cutting out corridor for a trail at Poplar Bluff. It was hot, tough work (on federal land, it's required that you wear long sleeves when operating a chainsaw... yuck, in 100-degree weather), but we got to float down the river after work every day.

That weekend, I crashed Will's motorcycle into a fence. He was trying to teach me to ride it, just letting practice with the clutch, when I accidentally twisted the accelerator - those devil things are tricky - and sped off (at about 15 mph, according to Will) into a nearby chain-link fence. I ended up with some scrapes and bruises and three stitches on my chin, but otherwise not too badly off. The bike has maybe a few hundred dollars' worth of damage: a bent handlebar, smashed glass on the headlamp and gauges, and so on. All in all, it could have been a lot worse and I'm glad it wasn't.

The damage.

The next week was spent building trail at Shawnee National Forest in Illinois. It was a decent week, with not too much about it to mention except the large number of bees on the trail.

That weekend, however, all the teams except for mine were called to a group of fires near Potosi, MO. They left from project on Friday and didn't return to St Louis until Sunday evening, so the few other people from the Shawnee project and I spent the weekend feeling kind of worried and helpless, not sure if we would be called out to help (and hopingwe would be). Luckily, all our firefighters returned safely from their weekend of 105+ degree heat and we made it to Llywelyn's in time to take advantage of $2 pitchers.

This past week was spent packing out for the Montana trip. My friend June, who's donating bone marrow to a 7-year-old girl next week, held a bone marrow registry drive and most of ERT turned up to join the national registry, which was pretty cool. We were able to celebrate the 4th of July in town, taking advantage of an air show and fireworks downtown.

Soulard fireworks :)

Finally we rolled out of old Soulard yesterday morning and have been on the road since, with the goal of reaching Butte and Fleecer Cabin by tomorrow afternoon.

An overnight stop in Mitchell, South Dakota necessitates a
visit to the famous Corn Palace.

I won't say that I can't believe a year has gone by so fast. It's been filled with challenges as well as blessings, and I feel like I've changed so much that to say it happened quickly would be dishonest. It's been an incredible year for sure, one I'll remember forever.

But I'm getting ahead of myself - it's not quite the end yet. We've all - together - still got Montana and some new memories ahead of us. So for now, the mountains are calling and I must go :)

xoxo Liz

Since Then

Dear Internet,

How've you been? I hope you're good. I've been great!

Since my last post, I spent a few more weeks at Cuivre River and one really awesome week at Poplar Bluff bike trail and southeastern Missouri.

It was a weird week, to say the least. I'll show you a picture of it, to prove my point:

Saul, Warren, me, Ali, and Stephanie... completely losing it.

So, how did we get to this crazy point? Well, we were a kind of a fill-in-the-gaps team this week, helping to finish up a contract at one place and filling the rest of the week up by then working elsewhere.

We spent Monday afternoon through Wednesday working with a great group at Poplar Bluff on a bike trail. You might remember this post in which I did trail work during a frigid Missouri December. Not so anymore! We in fact had shirtless Monday, it was so hot.

But it was awesome!!

With my team and the other team that spent the whole week at Poplar Bluff, there were eleven of us camping - with a river and some very nice campsite hosts (who brought us sticky buns one night) nearby. We swung tools all day (it's pretty repetitive and it can get boring, but unlike many other ERT jobs, it allows you to work in close proximity to your teammates with a lack of power tools, so you can chat all day!) and swam and hung out around the campfire at night. What more could you want?

Swimming was the name of the game at Poplar Bluff.

Anyway, here's hoping I get to go back there sometime soon!

Wednesday evening we headed over to the team working with the Missouri Department of Conservation in the southeastern part of the state. They had been doing odd jobs all week, but we ended up spending Thursday and Friday stacking cut cedars into burn piles (for a private landowner, which was weird, but we won't get into that...).

Which brings me to the day that we all absolutely lost. our. minds.

On the way to the glade where we were working Thursday morning, Stephanie bought an energy drink. We all had a sip of it... and then we went bananas. Hanging out of the car windows, singing along to every song on the radio, bouncing up and down, punching the ceiling, and at some points just purely screaming at nothing - we lost it for no good reason at all. And it was awesome.

Every once in a while, we'd calm down and wonder what was happening to us... and then another song would come on the radio and we'd get crazy again. It was actually the most fun I've had in a long time and we all agreed that every day should be like that.

Ali, me, and Warren on Insane Thursday.

Then we got to the glade and started stacking cedars, which was way less fun than going ape s*** in the truck. Ali painted a handlebar mustache on her face with ashes, though, and painted Warren's entire face black, so that kept us entertained.

That night, we went to Lambert's - home of the throwed rolls - for dinner. We don't usually go out to eat, but this place was pretty awesome. I've never been anywhere like it. Just like it sounds, they do literally throw rolls at you - you just hold your hand up when they come out with fresh ones, and their wait staff - who must have all been pitchers in a past life - hurl dinner rolls at you. Butter explodes in your hand and runs down your arm as you inevitably squish it on impact.

Caught one!

They also come around with a series of side dishes called pass-arounds (good ole soul food like red beans and rice, though some of the trickier waiters advertise it as "fried Twinkies"). And, if you order the right dinner (as did yours truly), your dinner comes with a cigar. Yep. A cigar for dessert.

Anyway, we had a terrific time just hanging out AND celebrating the job offer I had accepted earlier that day! I guess it's not technically a job offer since I'm technically a volunteer, but whatever. Tomato tomato.

After my ERT term is up, I'll be moving to Helena, Montana to work with the AmeriCorps VISTA program. VISTA is a division of AmeriCorps, as is the State and National branch I currently serve with on ERT. VISTA positions focus on poverty, and my position entails basically helping legal aid groups around the country connect with people via technology. So I'll be troubleshooting websites and social media and so on. A fuller job description (if you're interested) can be found here.

I've been wanting to move to the west coast for a while (the stop in St Louis was a sort of unanticipated but very rewarding halfway mark), so I'm really looking forward to 1+ year(s) in Big Sky Country. It was hard to decide to say goodbye once and for all to hanging around St Louis or even doing another year of ERT next year, but I've been getting more and more sure that this is the right choice for me. I'm going to miss a lot of people very much, though. This might be my first time moving somewhere new that I really felt that I was leaving a little part of my heart behind and that things would never be quite like they were (are).

On a related note, if you want to send me warm socks or other winter gear, it's probably on sale now!

And now I'm back at home this week, watching my baby brother Ben graduate high school. Congratulations Benno!

He's in there somewhere....

Also, Will was able to change his flight home - to see his brother graduate this weekend - to come to Virginia with me! It was great for him to meet my family (albeit all of them at the same time, extended family included... sorry, Will) and for them to meet him.

On the 14-hour trek home, we were able to do one touristy thing - a detour to New River Gorge to see the famous bridge. For many years, it was the world's longest steel single-span arch bridge, and it is now the third longest. It was a beautiful day and a great excuse to get out of the car for a little bit, drive on some windy mountain roads, and visit some little towns.

Will & I at the bridge.

Anyway, I guess that's all, folks. Catch you on the flip side...!

xoxo Liz