poof!

what a couple weeks it’s been. it’s gone by so fast which frightens me a bit because what’s made it fly by is my office job. yikes.

okay, so yes, i got hired by a really really cool company, but the job sounds a lot more romantic than it is in reality. i’m so busy i don’t hardly have a moment for anything else. even lunch ends up feeling rushed. and all i’m doing is answering the phone, answering peoples mostly asinine questions (and mostly the same ten or so questions over and over again), and matching up office paper work. the herbs feel far, far away.

i’ll get more variety in a couple weeks. i’ll get taught how to process checks and credit cards and how to do the books once a week. WHEE!

don’t get me wrong, i’m not ungrateful- i’m still really excited to have the job and amazed that i got hired so quickly here where it’s the norm to search for a job for 7 months and still be unemployed. i’m not looking my gift horse in the mouth, no not me, no way.

i’m just a bit…. disenchanted. i had hoped for something more soul enlivening and not soul depleting. i’m really a happier healthier person when i work, say 25 or 30 hours a week and not 40 or 50. or if i get to be outside and getting some exercise. but hey, like i said, the company is awesome, their products are fantastic, the pay is decent, and i have a shot at benefits. benefits!!!

so i’m plugging along.

and it’s all worth it to do the herb apprenticeship with Howie in the spring. did i talk about that already? Howie Brounstein and Steven Yeager (who works at Mountain Rose with me- he’s the super smart lab guy) run an apprenticeship program every year as well as a whole host of other classes. they only accept 18 people a year for the apprenticeship which involves entire days out in the natural world learning to wildcraft, identify, pick and make medicine as well as bunches of lectures. it’s an incredible program and i’m so honored to be accepted. i wish i didn’t have to wait till spring for it to begin.

Robert has totally hit it off with this cool guy named Mazzi who is the son of the woman i met and visited here at the Waldorf school. Mazzie runs a Biodynamic farm (which Robert is studying very intently), runs a bakery (which Robert used to do), and is also very interested in blacksmithing. it’s a match made in heaven!

or Eugene anyway…

along with taking up a new hobby/job of fixing old sewing machines, Robert is also busily researching transition town initiatives. transition towns are cities that have active groups of people preparing for and educating people about the end of petroleum and how we will survive and adapt. both Portland and Ashland are already official transition towns, but Eugene surprisingly is not. so it looks like Robert may start his own. he found a girl on the internet who was looking for people interested in starting one (she had posted her interest some 6 months ago), but she wrote back to Robert and it looks like they’ll probably meet up.

what else? oh! i finally learned how to use my spinning wheel! i had been puttering with it here and there and feeling just mostly frustrated, but after getting a few pointers from a guy on an alpaca farm something finally clicked! i’m getting better by the day and it’s really fun and exciting. Julie, you’d be proud. and the timing is great because one of my housemates just brought home some 200 pounds of lovely sheep fluff. it’s all icky and needs to be cleaned and processed, but that’s great cause i wanted to learn that too.

and… i bought a car! well, technically Robert’s parents bought it and i’m paying them back. i really didn’t want a car again, but with my job almost 15 miles away and me taking on that apprenticeship it just made sense. (if i drive during that class i get paid a pretty decent chunk o change in return and i prefer to drive because i get carsick).

it’s an 84 diesel hatchback VW Rabbit. super cute! it reminds me so much of my old bug which i’ve been missing a lot lately. only it gets around 45 miles to the gallon. i really don’t know why diesels never caught on in this country.

other random things:

*i miss the climbing gym in Denver in the most dreadful way. i ache for it.

*i miss riding my bike to work but can’t commit the time right now to bike 30 miles every day.

*i’ve been feeling quite homesick lately for my dear Denver friends and Robert’s parents. *i’m a bit lonely too cause Robert is gone right now visiting his Grandpa with his dad.

*i made a shit load of hot sauce (it’s so much because i screwed up and added too much water. boo. but the peppers were hand picked by Robert on Mazzi’s farm)

*i learned from my herb class that more than 80% of the American population is Magnesium deficient, which, among other things, is what our bodies need to make energy. so i started taking Magnesium supplements and i feel amazing! i notice it mostly with my sleep. i need less of it and i wake up SO much easier in the mornings- often before the alarm even goes off which for me is unheard of. it’s even happened when i’ve only had 6 hours of sleep. wild.

and… oh yeah! our house almost got an eviction notice! HAHAHAHAHA! trust me, you don’t want to hear the whole story, it’s ridiculously long and complicated and full of stinky smelly oily BULLSHIT, but here’s the uber condescended version:

the landlord is a young guy and is completely crazy- seriously, he admitted to my housemate that he’s taken WAY too much acid and it shows. he’s bipolar and not all there upstairs- the cute kitty cat that hangs out here used to be his and you know what he named it? Dose.

yeah.

we’ve renamed her Sophia. she’s lovely and deserves a fitting name. asshole.

anyway, basically the landlord is a power-monger control freak who spends his time picking on people and decided ALL OF A SUDDEN, against everything that had led up to this point that he was going to change things on the lease. when it was pointed out that that was illegal he went for the stuff that had been verbally agreed to in good faith and wasn’t written down on the lease and slapped a $350 non-refundable pet “deposit” on the house for the second dog. battle ensued. he posted a non-compliance violation with threat of eviction and sent a nasty letter (well, to be fair, those were sent both ways) that said all kinds of ludicrous things and also said that we could no longer have chickens which he originally said we could. Superintendent guy seems also to be not quite put together correctly and perhaps an alcoholic. he was very nice to begin with and has had a complete about-face for no apparent reason that we can see except that maybe he got in trouble for having been too nice to us from Acid Head. it’s all a big disgusting power struggle and a couple of pathetic weak males that can’t have a girl tell them ANYTHING that they didn’t tell her first. this refers to Chrystal because she is in charge and has refused to take their shit. so they’re ganging up on her. but then! yes, Acid Face, we discover, has a crush on other house member Lisa. she meets with him and all of a sudden we’re NOT getting evicted and the dog is OK (it’s her dog) and he’s rewriting the pet agreement. hmmmmmm.

see? even the short version isn’t short. i’ve left so much out. basically, the lovely house energy that Chrystal wanted to cultivate has been shat upon and we’re trying to decide the best course of action. Acid Dude obviously can’t be trusted which means we can never feel completely at ease. and so, even though the anger is momentarily dispelled, one must wonder with this guy, what next?

of that i’m not sure… i just want to be left alone really, but i trust and respect Chrystal immensely and would support her in any decision she makes from here.

(you know what she just did for me? i couldn’t get my check cashed at first to buy the car and the people i was buying it from had already waited around for me for a week so she took the cash out of her own bank account and lent it to me. she hardly knows me! i’m really touched)

and Aaron is fixing the alternator belt on my car for me on his day off! i am really lucky for the handful of people i’ve met here. not including Acid Brain of course.

i’ll post some pictures of things that are cool when Robert returns with my camera J

ta ta for now

~ by dreamofgreen on October 20, 2009.