August 2005 Archives
Around this time last year I wrote about the excitement of hurricane season and how part of me lusted for the excitement of experiencing nature's fury. Right now I'm eating those words.
Since Sunday night I've been glued to CNN. Watched the news leading up to the storm, heard the talk of how this could be the end of New Orleans. Woke up Monday morning to the news that the storm had shifted, and now towns further to the east were getting pounded, but it looked like the Big Easy had been spared. While my sympathies are most certainly with the people of Biloxi and other coastal areas, a big part of me was very very happy that this vibrant, soulful, colorful city had weathered the storm, so to speak.
I woke up this morning to much different news. News of rising water, people trapped in attics, and complete and utter disaster.
Its heartbreaking. I grew up on the Gulf Coast and know the area fairly well (altho not really as far north as Louisiana). If I had to pick (and I would never want that job!) ONE city or town to be demolished, New Orleans would be last on my list.
I am angered by the people who keep referring to this as "our tsunami". Of course this is an event of epic proportions in America, there is no doubt about that, but to compare this to the tsunami is preposterous. People had several days warning that the storm was coming. We have a huge country with a large infrastructure in place to deal with this sort of thing. The face of our entire economy wasn't changed in just one day. And the number of fatalities is staggeringly different. No doubt this is the biggest natural disaster we have experienced in a long, long time and the long term implications of this will be huge ... but its not the tsunami.
Hopefully this will make people think about how our cities are developed. About the steps we take to protect our towns and homes and families. About where we locate our cities. Obviously, New Orleans has been around for a while, but there is something to be learned from this from a planning perspective ... its time to reexamine the use of levees to control the smaller and more regular floods that maintain the natural soil conditions. Its time to take steps (and god knows I don't know how to do this) to prevent chemicals from our factories from leaking into the water supply in these types of situations. We need to take seriously the threat of these types of disasters. This time it was New Orleans ... next time it could be Miami or Key West or Panama City. Or it could be tornados ripping across the prairie or earthquakes rocking the west coast. What can we do to keep this kind of destruction from happening? I have an infinitely huge respect for mother nature's power .... how can we build cities that can withstand this sort of force? What can we learn from this??
I'm just rambling.
On a related ranting note, I watched the MTV VMAs (yay for watching trashy tv on the trainer!) Sunday night before being sucked into CNN. I was appalled appalled that no mention of the hurricane was made during the show, aside from "I'm happy to be here in Miami tonight ... glad the storm missed us!" ... NO well wishes for the people in NOLA, NO updates on what was going on. Nothing.
My thoughts are with those people who have suffered, and will suffer for a long time from this. I wish there was something I could do ...
Its time to start thinking about next summer's work situation as the OCI (On-Campus Interviews for the non-legal types) process begins next week. Some of the firms/organizations/etc. that will be interviewing at my school sound ok but nothing has really tripped my fancy, largely because of the location of a lot of the offices. I'm going to go through the OCI process on campus, but I'm also doing a ton of research to find other firms/organizations/etc. in other parts of the country that sound interesting. While I would love to stay in the small town I'm in now, I know the chances of that actually happening are slim to none, and the nearest big city is nice but not the kind of place I really want to settle down long term, so I'm branching out.
Part of me is thrilled. Part of me is scared. Largely, I feel overwhelmed.
There are just so many decisions .... what kind of office do I want to work in? Where do I want to live? Is it the kind of place the boyfriend will be able to find a job?? And then, of course, all this rests upon whether or not they actually hire me.
I'll be VERY happy when its all figgered out!
Throughout my life I have paid several visits to my grandparents' fantastic cabin on the river. It was on one of these visits during my freshman year of college that Hatfield landed at my feet.
My mom and I were sitting on a swing when we heard something thud on the ground below us. A tiny bird had fallen out of its nest way, way up there. Being the big-hearted animal lovers we are, we decided to take this little guy home and see if we could raise him till he was big enough to be on his own, not at all certain that he would make it. He was grey and ugly with the spiny beginnings of feathers sticking out all over his body.
Getting him to eat took a lot of trial and error. We eventually found that if we mashed up baby bird food with water and put it deep in a clenched fist he would stick his head in and eat it. He had a great appetite and for the first few weeks I was getting up every couple hours during the night to make sure his belly stayed full.
He quickly grew into a beautiful and healthy looking turtle dove and we decided it was time to let him go... but he had other ideas. It took a long time to get him to finally leave the deck and when he did he didn't go far. One day our neighbor came over with this crazy story about this weird little bird that followed him around the yard while he was mowing the lawn. Hatfield had no fear and an affinity for people and dogs so we decided it was best if we brought him back inside.
His little baby bird cage was upgraded to a much nicer one and he was given a prominent spot in the kitchen, surrounded on two sides by enormous picture windows that overlooked my parents' wooded backyard. He was happy there. Most mornings at my parents' house if it wasn't the dogs romping around, it was the noise of Hatfield cooing in the kitchen that woke you up. The yellow dog knew his name and when you said "Where's Hatfield?" he would go sniff his cage and wag his tail.
He was never very coordinated (which may have been why he ended up out of the nest and at our feet in the first place), and the longer he lived in the kitchen, the more his wings atrophied. Every once in a while, a hawk would spot him and run head on into the window trying to catch him and Hatfield would topple over off his perch. During the winter he would look out the window at the birds who were not so lucky as to have a nice warm house to stay in ... oblivious to how pampered he was. It was a good life for a bird.
He always loved me the most. When I would get close to his cage he would coo like crazy and the minute I opened the cage door he would jump up on my hand.
For seven years he has been a very real presence in my parents' house ... sitting prominently in the kitchen next to the dining room table, providing dinner music with his constant cooing. My parents returned home today to find him with his head in his water bowl ... he never was the most coordinated bird and in the end, it did him in. Its funny how we always sort of looked at him as this silly uncoordinated totally non-street smart bird that we were stuck with ... I don't know if anyone realized just how much he was a part of the family!
RIP Hatfield. You'll be missed!
Man I've sucked at blogging as of late. I don't know why I haven't felt the need lately to share every little detail of my life with the world. I'm not trying to hide anything. I think I've just been lazy.
Well, not really lazy. Classes started again and I'm working my butt off. So far so good. I'm really really enjoying my ag law class and realizing just how little I know about where our food supply comes form, how its availability is secured and what steps are taken to ensure that farmers can continue farming. At least half the class grew up on farms of all different sorts and its already been way cool to hear all these unique perspectives. In a lot of ways, I feel like an ignorant city girl. But I'm learning. Or trying to.
Its not just blogging I'm behind on. I have a long list of emails waiting to be answered. Many from friends and classmates offering advice on the question I posed the other day as to how much free time I will have next summer - and which race I should sign up for. After going back and forth for many many days I bit the bullet, listened to the very wise Madeline, and realized that a place that wouldn't let me off work for a few days to do a freakin Ironman is probably not the kind of place I would want to work anyway. Its back to Coeur d'Alene next summer. And I couldn't be more excited with my decision.
Question for any lawyer types who happen to mosey over here from Legal Underground or some other lawyer type blog ....
How busy were you 2L summer? Assuming you had some sort of lawyer type internship, what were your hours like??? Was there any flexibility?? Would it have been possible to miss a day or two of work???
I'm trying to plan some things for next year ... trying to make some decisions and need to have some idea of what my schedule will look like ....
Classes started again today and I can't tell you how thrilled I am to be back. And no, that wasn't sarcasm.
While I most certainly had the coolest summer ever, its nice to be back in the routine and its really nice to see everyone again. I have learned as of late that I maybe enjoy being around people more than I care to admit. The hustle and bustle of the law school today was oddly appealing.
Now that I'm in school and not training for anything I really don't know what to do with myself. My next "big" race is a long 13 months away leaving me plenty of time to do *gasp* other types of sports ... or the same type of sports but in different and less intense ways. I'm going to see how much mountain biking I can get in between now and October and maybe enter a couple fall mountain bike races or off road duathlons. We'll see.
I still haven't really written about my experiences in Europe and I'm sort of feeling out of practice at this whole blogging thing ... I'm sorry if I've been unfocused and rusty ... its almost overwhelming how many stories and revelations and experiences I have to tell!
Well, I arrived back in the Middle America last night feeling tired and very very happy to be home. I crashed into bed with the intention of sleeping till noon and then spending the day lounging around and doing laundry and watching all the stuff my Tivo has thought I would like to watch.
Its 6 a.m. in the midwest and I can't sleep. So now I am sitting here, hungry, waiting for the grocery store to open so that I can go get some food. I'm still on Austria time.
I had a blast with my family in Germany the last couple days and will tell you about it soon. It will be nice to get back to blogging as usual.
Today is my last day in Innsbruck. The last week or so has been marked by a hormone induced funk, which is unfortunate, because I feel like I didn't really get to enjoy my final week in Austria. And none of this was helped by the cloudy greyness of the weather lately.
Fortunately, the black clouds in both my mind and the mountains had lifted this morning and I have been able to enjoy a beautiful sunshiney day. I took a very easy final, ate at my favorite pizza joint, lazed by the river reading my book, wandered thru town aimlessly, had a latte ... and now, I am considering beginning the process of packing.
All in all its been a wonderful experience that I don't think I will be able to truly digest until its over and I am home recounting my stories over capuccinos at my favorite coffee shop.
Many many stories to come ... stay tuned.
Its a rainy day in Innsbruck and I am thus spending more time on the computer than I have previously allowed myself.
I checked bloglines for the first time in forever and found a post pointing me to this website. I had seen it before but for some reason it really struck me this time.
What would my secret be? What about my boyfriend? My best friend? My parents??
Well, its Monday of my last full week in Europe. On Saturday I will pack up my belongings and head for Germany where I will spend what I hope will be a relaxing 4 days with family and then on Wednesday I head for home. As much fun as world travel is, I am definitly looking forward to being back in middle america where I will drink as much free water as possible, and load it all with cupfulls of ice. I miss ice.
This weekend was relaxing. On Friday I somehow ended up at the train station where I decided to hop on the first train that sounded interesting (ah the joys of an unlimited Eurail pass!). I got off in Kufstein where I wandered around for an hour or so and had a cappucino and then got on another train headed for Salzburg. Riding the trains with no real destination in mind was really fun ... the possibilities were endless!!! I had been to Salzburg before and really liked it so I was excited to go back. Unfortunately it was really hot ... like, Africa hot ... and there was NO air conditioner ANYWHERE. I visited a medieval fortress, had sausage and wine by the river, wandered around and listened to street performers ... and sweated like a pig. Finally I decided enough was enough and headed for the train station figuring that at least the trains were airconditioned.
Well, some of them.
Mine wasn't and I proceded to sit there miserably hot (and completely and utterly dehydrated) until the sun went down and it cooled off considerably.
It wasn't all bad tho, not even close! I got to see two more super cute Austrian towns, not to mention the beautiful scenery from the sauna of a train. I could ride the trains all day .... I love sitting there gazing out the window watching the world fly by. God bless public transportation!
Saturday and Sunday were spent lounging around in Innsbruck. I hadn't really been here on a weekend yet and it was nice to just relax. I spent a lot of time sitting in cafes, sitting by the river, and wandering aimlessly. Unfortunately, it rained both days so activity was somewhat limited, but it was still a lot of fun.
And now, I have to figure out how to make the most of my final days ...!
