Life’s been a little crazy over the past couple weeks.
The conference was really interesting. It covered topics ranging from removing arsenic from the water supply in Nepal using local tools and labor to building a certified green fab plant in Texas. I found much of it fascinating and another large portion of it boring, but it certainly drove home the need for focus if I want to pursue any sort of a career in environmental topics. People who are broad but shallow on environmental issues are a dime a dozen. (people who are broad but ignorant or incompetent are even more common). I have several topics which interest me: green building, ecosystem restoration, behavioral change, renewable energy, sustainable neighborhoods and transportation probably top off the list. See what I mean? Narrow and focused I ain’t.
Carnival was great. Good to see familiar faces after a long time. Too much happened to recap here, but thank you all for a great time.
The day after I got back from Pittsburgh, I flew out to DC for work. The testimony I worked on got a team “above and beyond” award, which I didn’t really feel like I deserved. Sure, I worked weekends and evenings, but I got time off for that already. (Though the extra two days time off that came with the award certainly doesn’t hurt. =) Had sushi for dinner with supervisor and her husband just east of dupont circle which was quite an experience.
Back in Chicago, multiple going away lunches for my local supervisor. Last saturday was the continuation of the Chicago Conservation Corps training. (I like the people, but I’m not really feeling that engaged in the training. Probably because it’s pure lecture, with interspersed demonstrations. No hands on work. No collaboration or team-building. I’m definitely learning facts about chicago, and little bits about environmental concerns in the area, but I don’t think that was my primary problem. Learning to talk to people who don’t care much about it may be my biggest concern. *shrug* Skated from there to gymnastics, then went home for some WoW-time. I followed that up with a mini-bar crawl with a gaygamer guy. Board games on Sunday.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a great deal about what I want to do with my future, but that’s for another post.