Seattlejo.com first began as Chicagojo.com in 1997. The small launch pad for someone named jo, this is her base for taking over the world one small coffee shop at at time.
Roller Derby!
Seattlejo January 21st, 2012
Roller Derby!
Resolving 2012
Seattlejo January 1st, 2012
I get the email from 43 Things sporadically, reminders of semi forgotten goals that I decided to give up on officially years ago. I haven’t removed the goals yet, afraid to admit failure for things I didn’t really want to do anyway. They just sounded good during a particular time and place. After all, can you really see me Walking a Marathon? and Biking a Century isn’t a bad goal until yourealize that my bike has not been out of the shed in 2 years.
Resolving to reduce my responsibilities.
Yet it’s the New Year, the time where we are supposed to be making new goals and revisiting the things we want to accomplish over the next year.. To be honest if I end up being as happy next year as I am right now, then it will be enough.
I am taking the idea seriously though, and looking at what I have to accomplish in the next year and what I’d like to accomplish in the next year. Some of the things I have to do have concrete timelines.
Graduation is at the beginning of June. I can’t change that. I have to apply for graduation next quarter, again a solid deadline. I’ll have to find a job over the summer. (My internship ends in August.) I will have to move when Aron and Leah do, (I can’t afford the house all by myself. )
Other items have soft timelines and responsibilities. I’m starting a new foodblog. Since this is with friends, I can fit the work in around my other work. I want to travel to visit family, but this can wait until I know where I’ll be after my internship. I want to tackle one of the many projects in my “could be interesting pile” These can wait or be piloted as bandwidth allows.
I’m going to reduce my expectations.Get less done and be happy with what I do accomplish. I don’t have to be a great writer, a perfect homemaker, 30 lbs lighter or an athlete. All removing resolutions does is remove the expactations, not the opportunity. I’d never resolve to dance in the rain, but if there is the opportunity and I’m up for it, why not? If anything, I’m resolving to live life in the moment and let the experiences present themselves.
Is there a bottom line?
In light of this, I’m hibernating this blog. It’ll become a picture log of what I’m seeing, but to alievate the guilt of not writing, I’m giving myself permission not to write. It doesn’t mean I’ll never come back, it’s just not a priority right now.
With the new foodblog coming this spring, I’m also closing FatandCrafty. It’s been dormant for too long, and I’ll need to focus on the new endevour. Personal updates will be filtered through other social media Google plus and Facebook mainly. It’s not really a change, just a more official acknowledgement of letting go of responsibilities.
“Whilstle While You Wait” -Marian Call
Out with the old. (2011 Retrospective)
Seattlejo December 31st, 2011
2011 is coming to a close. It’s been a year of travel, adventure and new connections. I’ve started to build community, and have new friends who are close to my heart.
Travel
This year saw me boarding a plane to Indianapolis, Chicago, Houston and Anaheim. I saw travel delays, TSA agents, and exotic airport vendors along the way. I took shuttle buses, stayed at the Hyatt, Marriott, Hilton and with family. I was down in Portland half a dozen times, with trips ranging from a little over 24hours to a full week.
I’ve heard tell that whatever you do on New Years Eve is what you end up doing through the New Year. I’ll be traveling New Years eve, training up from Portland to Seattle. I wonder what that foreshadows for the New Year?
Adventure
Part of my adventure this year has been rediscovering family, meeting new friends, cultivating new relationships.
In March I competed in a business case competition with 2 classmates. We didn’t get first place, but we made a name for ourselves. I learned a lot about presenting in a professioal context, and I know how to approach a business case now. I also became closer to my classmates and have formed one of those friendships that will last, even after the program ends.
In August I flew down to Houston and watched my cousin get married in an beautiful ceremony. Everything is bigger in Texas and the event highlighted for me how big my family is, and how generous they are.
Also in August, I took a road trip with Sunnie where we tackled Glacier National Park and nearly hit cows in the wilds of Montana.
Instead of attending PAX this year I was on vacation with Sunnie. This meant when my Portland friends Jason and Car came up I only had a couple of days with them, a chance to meet and get acquainted, the kindling of a friendship that is helping anchor my community in Portland.
I hit the convention circuit in August, hitting 3 conventions in a row. GeekGirlCon’s inaugural event, SteamCon III and then Blizzcon. All three were amazing in their own right, from awesome musical guests at SteamCon and GeekGirlCon, to awesome costuming, and simply awesome people. While Blizzcon may not have been the networking event i meant to make of it, I did meet new people. I will be visiting Disneyland in March in attempt to get to know one of those new people better.
Community
Who do you hang out with, what corners of the world do you call home? I’m spending more time in the company of academics, muscians, writers and gamers. I’m attending game days, have a regular homework date with a favorite classmate and attend the occasional concert. I have offers to collaborate on conference papers, I have friends to cook with, and I have friends ready to teach me most any game I want to learn.
So the year has been crazily social and It’s a good way to be. There are some twinkling stars in my social landscape, people who made this year amazing. My Partner in Crime (Ryan) and his attitude of adventure , Jason and Car’s unfailing hospitality in Portland. Kim and her patience while attending class with me weekly (and taking me to Blizzcon!). That’s just to mention a few. This year would not be the same without Smrit, Peter, Betse, Joseph, Marc, Susan, Leah, Sunnie, Jasmine, Norma, Patrick.
The usual suspects this year, those ones leading me down the path to adventure and awesome include the following folks.
Kim and Hector, Sunnie, Aron and Ryan.
There were others, but I am sadly lacking photos of them. If you see these people, be ready for awesome.
2012
What does 2012 hold for me? Well like I mentioned before, there is more travel. Back down to Portland for regular visits, hopefully a trip to the Bay area as I look at employers, and the aformentioned trip to Disneyland. I’d like to go to Victoria with Aron for my birthday, and am planning on Alaska with Sunnie in a continuation of our adventures. I’d also like to visit Chicago again. (I’ve found that many of my friends are planning trips to Chicago over the summer for various convetions. I’m not interested in going with, but feel weird about them exploring my home town without me. )
I’ll be finishing my degree in June. This will involve a giant project done for a corporate sponser, a poster session and a 30 second presentation.It’s a big deal, and I’ll share more about the project as it happens. I’m working with Yahoo and a team of students in Texas. The project manages to challlenge my tech skills while appealing to my project management expertise.
By August I’ll know where I’m going to be living for the next few years, and be able to plan further adventures from a new base of operations. Ideally this will be Portland, Seattle, California (Bay area or Irvine) or Chicago. Listed in order of preference, with some metro areas extended, though if I end up in CA or Chicago I don’t have much of a social circle built up and will need take that into account when accepting an offer. My goal is to take have a challenging job that uses my skills and makes me feel valued.
As I face the new year I’m fresh faced and optimistic.
It’s been a happy 2011 and I hope for more of the same from 2012.
Santa came to work.
Seattlejo December 16th, 2011
Santa came to work.
Greenbean coffee
Seattlejo December 12th, 2011
Greenbean coffee
Glacier National Park. Day 3.5 &4 : Where the Wild Bovines Are
Seattlejo September 12th, 2011
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| From Glacier Raw |
We didn’t just drive to Alberta to cruise into Montana, we also stopped by Cameron Falls in Waterton, then over to Lake Cameron. We’d thought of doing paddle boats but it was a little bit late. Lake Cameron was beautiful, and incredibly still. They had a telescope so you could try to see bears in the surrounding mountains. Sadly with my glasses these don’t always work.
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| From Glacier 2011 |
Speaking of bears
Let’s talk about wildlife. So far we’ve seen 2 bears, a chirping little chipmunk at Logan’s pass and a deer in Waterton. See
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| From Glacier 2011 |
Chipmunk Who chirped like a bird.
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| From Glacier Raw |
The deer in Waterton paid us little attention. We decided it was time to head back to the cabin. We started back hit the border and were given a verbal warning “Watch out for Cattle” Sure whatever. We’d seen the signs about cattle on our way in but there were no cows to be found. On the way home, it was a different story.
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| From Glacier 2011 |
This is the first batch of cows. As we continued along MT 89 we ran into 4-5 herds of cows hanging out along the road with very little incentive to move. At one point after traveling along a very desolate stretch, we finally saw another car, coming the other direction. As we neared we slowed down as did he. It was a bit narrow so it was just the responsible thing to do. Then he flashed his lights, and we saw 3 cows sitting in our lane, just hanging out. The dusky brown color and the dark of the early evening had made them impossible to see. I think we might have hit one had that car not come along. We did make it safe back to safe back to the cabin where we promptly fell asleep. Here is the driving that day.
View Larger Map
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| From Glacier Raw |
The next morning we woke up, cleaned up and packed the car. Breakfast at the West Glacier Restaurant and then on the road to home.
It was a fabulous weekend, and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. One more post coming, with the final mileage, contact info and links to my reviews of the places we stayed, tours we did.
Glacier National Park. Day 3 : Driving Relaxation
Seattlejo September 10th, 2011
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| From Glacier Raw |
A couple of things to remember while reading this. 1 Sunnie did all of the driving. yes I paid my share of gas, but she did all of the hard work. 2 Summer was really late in Glacier. The passes opened late due to snow, and they have not had their normal growing season for berries etc, so wildlife was prevalent.
I mention the driving because day two Sunnie and I went from West Glacier to Logan’s Pass from there to Waterton Alberta and back down through East Glacier to West Glacier. It was a long day of driving again, but this was slow sight seeing driving.
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| From Glacier Raw |
Driving to Logan’s pass we saw a bear or rather we were stopped in the middle of the road by a bear. He approved of the wide trail we humans have paved for him. He ambled along for a while then finally
moved enough to antagonize oncoming traffic. Driving to Logan’s pass you are treated to curves and switchbacks, views of canyons and waterfalls. The amount of work it took to create the travel infrastructure can not be underestimated. I hypothesized that some of the work was done bu Ccc camps in the 1940s and that was confirmed during one of our tours
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| From Glacier Raw |
Logan’s pass was alpine meadows and expansive views. The station at Logan’s pass had information on local trails, a number of them were closed because of bears. Sorry Yogi, we’re not sharing picnic baskets with you. (In reality, Yellowstone has had 2 bear related deaths this year.) We nixed our plans to go huckleberry hunting.
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| From Glacier Raw |
While at Logan’s pass we got a view of the red buses. We actually saw these a number of times along our drive. These first appeared in Glacier in the 1930′s as a touring service. Today you can still hire them for a tour for $35-$60 dollars. The top comes down, they have modernized the shocks and there are 5 doors for easy exits for everyone. Next time we do glacier, we’re doing one of these tours. (Also, there is a free shuttle that drives through the park. that means you can take the train out and still do camping/hiking etc. That said, the train is expensive. $400 per person each way, driving was $80 each in gas.)
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| From Glacier Raw |
From Logan’s pass we can back down, through Saint Mary out of the park through Montana and into Alberta Canada. (My enhanced ID worked perfectly well both ways.) This side of the mountains was dryer and flatter, much more sparse on the vegetation.
We, or rather Sunnie, saw the second bear as we entered the Canadian side of Glacier. She saw the tips of his ears as we drove by. We circled around and reached Waterton, a town at the heart of the Canadian version of the Glacier National Peace Park. Waterton is small, cute and touristy. Here we visited the Prince of Wales hotel for high tea, and took another excursion.
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| From Glacier Raw |
The Hotel
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| From Glacier Raw |
The excursion we took was a boat ride on Lake Waterton into Goat Haunt Montana. Yes we drove from Montana to get to Alberta to take a boat to Montana and back
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| From Glacier Raw |
It was incredible. The guide was good natured and funny, he told a great variety of stories about area history and geology.If you wish they will leave you there, you can walk back over the border, and go hiking around goat haunt.
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| From Glacier Raw |
Our little boat.
It was a very full day, but I’m going to leave it there. This is picture heavy and i want to be able to tell you the tale of the true rampant wild life out near glacier.
Glacier National Park. Day 2 : Floating Away
Seattlejo September 9th, 2011
One of the best things about traveling with Sunnie is that she and I are both foodies. This combined with us both doing a paleo diet meant that we packed in plenty of food to sustain us over the short weekend. It is not that we thought we wouldn’t find food in glacier (though to be honest the vegetables were lackluster) it was an opportunity to stretch our cooking muscles and experiment. See this is what out fridge looked like.
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| From Glacier Raw |
Plus another bag and a full picnic basket. If you starve on a trip with us… Well it is your own fault.
Breakfast was pancakes and bacon, with coffee and tea. Yum.
While at Dairy Queen I had seen a brochure for a white water rafting company. We had not had any formal plans for Saturday, and I suggested we might check out a scenic float trip. The outfitter was right in West Glacier and after a brief inquiry we signed up. This was a great choice.
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| From Glacier Raw |
It was a three hour 8 mile float down the middle fork of the Flathead River. The guide, Chris Pruitt was knowledgable and struck a great balance between chatter and peaceful quiet. We spent some time discussing forest fires and prescribed burns. He did a great job of educating but remaining neutral on the issue. (Remember my undergrad was heavily focused on environmental restoration)
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| From Glacier Raw |
While one of our boat mates confided to us later that she was bored to tears, Sunnie and I enjoyed the opportunity to slow down and relax. We want to try a whitewater adventure next year, but this was the perfect pace for the day.
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| From Glacier Raw |
From there we went into Apgar Village, and Lake McDonald. We watched a retriever and his family play in the water, wandered around the village and settled on dinner in Apgar.
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| From Glacier Raw |
From there it was back to our cabin to read. I ended up falling asleep at 9pm reading my book. I woke around 10 and we wandered over to the bluff by our cabin to look at stars. It’s funny being in the city I don’t give much thought to stars and light pollution. While in glacier the night sky was amazing. We looked into one of the astronomy programs but didn’t hit Apgar early enough to get tickets, and we had other adventures in store for Sunday.
