Into the Woods

For someone whose career is focused on natural resource protection, I rarely actually get out into those natural resources to enjoy the beauty and peace that inspired me to take this route in the first place. This past weekend I traveled a couple thousands miles to get back to my outdoor loving roots and to spending some quality time with the whole family, a feat even rarer than my chances to be outdoors.

After flying into the capital of the Inland Empire, Spokane, Wash., I helped the pack up the truck, camper, and accompanying vehicles with all possible provisions for a 3-day expedition into the wilderness with four kids and four adults. We headed east past Coeur d'Alene until reaching Kingston, ID, where we turned North along the Coeur d'Alene river. This is where cell phone signal ended and I started to remember what it was like to be completely without multiple digital leashes. Our destination was somewhere in the Idaho Panhandle National Forest, along a glacial creek at a campsite where we ended up being the only inhabitants.

The whole family spent a couple of days battling the bugs, eating camping food, and enjoying the frigid rivers and streams. Nothing like the great outdoors to get the whole family to agree on something - that the great outdoors can be a lot of work!

http://servicecentered.blogspot.com/

Earth Shaking

The last time I was in a real earthquake was over ten years ago, with a smattering of Central American rumbles in between. So yesterday, sitting at my desk typing away at some VERY important email, the last thing I expected to experience was a decent sized earthquake. The general sense in my hallway, as people stood in their doorways looking at each other, was complete bewilderment. I mean, we knew that it was an earthquake, but that just wasn't possible here in middle of the eastern seaboard. After the shaking stopped, there was not an announcement about what to do, so most of us returned to our desks until instructed otherwise. My coworkers crowded around my computer to witness the wonder that is twitter (a new fangled concept to most of them) as the tweets rolled in from as far away as Boston confirming that indeed, we had experienced an earthquake.

Ten minutes later, a crackly voice came over the ancient PA system, telling us to evacuate the building. It seems that that agency that houses the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS to most of you) should be able to get information to its employees more quickly than the time it takes to update all of my social media and send a few emails, but alas, not so.  That being said, the USGS twitter feed was updated much more quickly.

I grabbed my purse, anticipating that our nearly 100-year old building might take awhile to deem safe, and headed outside. The parks of Foggy Bottom were already packed with excited feds from all of the neighboring offices. The Office of Personel Management, the General Services Administration, the Federal Reserve, and the State Department all mingled with the Department of the Interior as we soaked up some sun and checked our blackberries, updating each other on the tidbits of news that were flashing across our respective digital leashes. About 20 mins passed before people started moving back inside and the Interior folks were told to grab their things, get out of the building, and go home.  Seriously? An absolutely perfect 80-degree, no humidity day in DC and the fates have granted us the afternoon off?

The Feds of Foggy Bottom gladly take a break outside while awaiting word on the safety of our buildings. 

It was too good to be true and this good fortune deserved a drink.  And I was not the only one thinking along these lines. I headed to the closest bar and met up with my partner in crime, where we enjoyed a refreshing beverage alongside a few hundred other suits, all enjoying the perfect summer version of a snow day. Word was that the metro and buses were a mess, so what was the point of trying, right?

Today my building is still closed for inspection, so I'm doing my best to work from home while preparing for a few days of vacation.  The unexpected seismic event was fortunately mild, and so a most welcome break from the everyday.



http://servicecentered.blogspot.com/

Tourist town, home

If I haven't mentioned it yet, I will admit it now that I have an unhealthy fascination with Segways. I've never been on one, but if I ever get fired from my day job (seems unlikely, but heh, these are strange times), I think being a Segway tour guide wouldn't be a bad life. Just yesterday I was totally impressed with one young man who was discussing the history of the Blair House, on a Segway, with no hands, while rolling backwards. I've definitely gotten used to living in a tourist centered town, one that sometimes feels less like a city than a cultural showcase for the U.S.A. as well as a symbolic punching bag for all the talking heads out there. Only in the past couple of years has it started to bother me that when the news reporters refer to the "problems in Washington," they are not talking about the local school systems, the poverty rate, or the fact that residents of this fine district do not have a voting representative in Congress. Nope, we are symbol for the dysfunction of all of the elected representatives that come from "actual" states.

But, D.C. is a city, a small one actually, that begins to feel more like a village the longer you live here. There are inside jokes, very good local restaurants, and even a decent coffee shop or two. And with a city chock full of overeducated young people, you also have a ton of technologically savy, socially networked Feds, staffers, lawyers, and lobbyists who share in common the place they call home. Which, after a certain amount of time, seems to grant district residents the right to a little self-mocking.  For example, the two maps below show a certain local perspective on D.C.

See this:



or this:



I'd venture to guess that the creators of either of map live in C-Spanistan (Capitol Hill) or Laptoptopia (Dupont Circle). As for me? Depending on the map, I either live at the intersection of Pandas and Oye Maje or on the southwestern edge of the The Liquorridor. I'm not going to say that either of these visualizations are right or wrong, but they demonstrate that D.C. has a lot of local flavor beyond "people who watch C-span."

http://servicecentered.blogspot.com/

Why not learn Russian? (почему бы не изучать русский язык?)

It's been over two years since I handed in my thesis for what is distressingly called a "terminal degree." A Masters in Public Administration (MPA) is the end of the line...that is unless you want a Ph.D in Public Policy (the major differences, I know not). So for 24+ months I have joyfully enjoyed the lack of any formal education, instead immersing myself in learning the ins and outs of becoming a good a bureaucrat. Things like:

• Who to CC on an email and when. 
• Who not to CC on an email and when. 
• The risks and lack of respect when using BCC on an email.
• And the politically advantageous uses for email forwarding. 

Now that I've mastered the art of strategic email communication (and if you don't believe that this is an art, there are plenty of political email flubs available on the internet for your amusement), I thought I should move on to something a little more challenging. So I racked my brain for the most challenging thing I could possible think of, and I came up with, of course, learning Russian! Because why not add another half-baked set of language skills to my repertoire. 

(Left & Above: the Moscow Subway, a work of art) 



Currently my ability to communicate in anything other than English involves: 1) high-school Spanish that gets me pretty far when in Spain or Costa Rica after 3+ glasses of tempranillo (un mas vino tinto por favor!); 2) a college minor in Norwegian that at one point allowed me to read Harry Potter and converse about UN conventions and immigration policy in norsk, but now is at about the same level as my Spanish (det er mange finne gutter her og jeg vil ha mer øl!); and 3) a Belizean mix of kriol and two different mayan languages, which depending on the context would allow me to curse out someone on the bus who just grabbed me inappropriately (madda ras bwoi!) or ask for more tortillas (mane se wa?). I also know how say the equivalent of "cheers" in almost any place that I've traveled or had exposure to (skål, prost, chin chin, salud, sante, egészségedre). As a maybe wanna be diplomat, I've found that the word or phrase that you say while clinking glasses is often the most useful. 

But with Russian, I'm hoping to move beyond the level of novelty and actually communicate, which at some point in my life would require being in Russia for a period of time. And after spending a week there last fall, that would pose absolutely no problem with me. There were so many surprising, wonderful, and strange things in Moscow and I have been fascinated by the country ever since (hence my choice of banner for this blog). Getting back there may be a ways down the road, so for now I'm loading up on Pimsleur podcasts and have enrolled in a weekly class beginning in September. Should be an interesting adventure! до свидания!

(Below Left: The Russian White House (Parliament) and St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square)