Colleen’s Rants and Rambles

Seasonitis is out of control.  If there’s anything that could be worse than seasonitis it is procrastinating on the season, which only prolongs the pain.  This is something I’ve done to myself.  Should have pushed through earlier.  I’ve got work for the next couple weeks for sure.   It’ll be better once next Wednesday hits as I will no longer be mowing.  Put me out of my misery.  Any ways………

For some reason I had this revelation about learning and doing tonight while watching Botany of Desire.  It finally clicked that people who have advanced degrees are not anymore innately intelligent than most people.  They have only put forth the effort to learn and expand their knowledge.  Yeah, I guess at some level I always knew this, but it seems much clearer now.  There was this Professor in NY in the program who was working to increase the resistance to apple scab (amongst other projects I imagine) in common apple varieties.   I kept thinking to myself while they showed clips of him that I could probably do what he does with some more training.  This coupled with my recent discovery that nothing I’ve been studying this year is terribly difficult, I think I’m probably more intelligent than I give myself the self-confidence for mentally.  Does this mean I am going to run out and get a Master’s degree or PhD?  Mmmmm probably not.  But I may be more likely to do so in the future.  This of course is negating my previous acceptance into grad school which was nixed because of visa issues (Cheers immigration). That acceptance, while I would have been more than happy to do it, actually really scared the crap out of me.  I though I wouldn’t be able to get the degree done because I wasn’t smart enough.  No, kids, I was incorrect.  All it takes is initiative, interest and motivation.  There you go.

So it’s cool to learn about yourself and the limitations you put on your own being for really no apparent reason at all.  What’s even cooler to learn is that there are no limitations.  You can do whatever you like.  And as long as you try really really hard, you’ll probably succeed.  Neat.  And on that note, I shall write my proposal for my class project now.  Cheers.

Thursday I celebrated my 4 year anniversary of being in Bend.  My how time flies.  It seems like just a couple weeks ago I was sitting in Fireside telling some people we just met that I had been here for 4 weeks and they had been here for 6 years.  And 6 years seemed like an awfully long time to me.  Now I’m at 4 years and it seems as though it all keeps speeding by.  It has been another non-stop, crazy year here.   Lots of ups and downs, but things are looking really bright now.  I’m excited for the moment and for what’s next.

For some reason I woke up wide awake at 6:10 this morning.  I think it was Piccadilly rummaging around.  But it’s good.  It’s sometimes nice to have these insanely early Saturday mornings as it seems to really calm my life.  Plus I get a lot done.  My laundry is already in the washing machine and on the rinse cycle.  I’m going to  try and skype some people today so they can see how pretty I am still.  I hope get through a couple more chapters of my tree books (all of them collectively) and study some tree id.  It’s a good time learning about trees.  I hope it’s going to get me somewhere.

 It would be neat if the ASU v. Stanford game was on tv.  I realized last night it’s in Stanford.  If I would have realized sooner, I probably would have gone to the game.  Alas, I am severely broke and wouldn’t be able to drive down there without going more in debt.  The view on TV is better any ways, but it would have been sweet to get a picture with that tree mascot of theirs.  Any ways, I was impressed with our play last weekend against UW (at least the last 20 seconds) and think we may have a chance against Stanford.  It would be a huge road victory for us and may give us some momentum heading into the 2nd half of the season.  Go Sun Devils!

Alright, I’m going to crack one of these tree books and start reading.  Have a good weekend everyone!

Oh blog.  I miss your scent.  Where have you been?  Seriously, we need to get back together.  It seems as though I have fallen out of the blogosphere.  You and I are both sad.  Let’s try and work this out.

I am supposed to be working on a school assignment right now, but I’m a little stuck as one of the major components of the assignment is not working.  Bummer of a problem.  So I’m procrastinating, trying to figure out how I can better understand ordinances of urban forestry sans the power point.  Hmmm.

So just to give you all some eye candy, I post this picture.   David is so delicious!  Yum.  WP has a new partnership with picapp and I now have access to a bunch of professional pictures for free!  Sweet.   I’ll write more soon!

Anyone want to work for me today?  We’ve got a lovely layer of ice on everything here in central oregon with more coming down as I write.  We decided to push work back a half an hour because neither me or my partner wanted to try to brave this yet.  Ugh. I’d rather have a snow day or a rainy day.

Sorry about the lack of posts lately.  I don’t know what my deal is.  Busy?  Possibly.  Been dedicating a couple nights a week to homework.  Oh this past weekend was Bend Film.  It was a blast as usual.  I saw 4 documentaries and one feature, although I fell asleep during the feature.  Staying up till midnight on a Friday usually doesn’t work for me.  The films I did manage to stay awake for were great.  It’s always fun to see what I will take away from the films.  The tag line for the fest is 4 days that will stick with you.  It’s no joke as some of those movies have made an indelible mark on my life.  This year I’ll be taking away the idea of getting into locally produced food (perhaps joining a CSA?), perhaps living a hippie lifestyle at some point and not to binge drink anymore.  Yup.

Well, I know this one is kind of random, but I must be off to get ready for work.  Stay cool, kids.  Bye Bye

Well, it’s Sunday funday, but it’s also a snow day.   And if this snow doesn’t melt itself off in the next 16 hours, I’ll be having another snow day tomorrow.  That’ll be a four day weekend for me folks.  An unintentional four day weekend.  Oh well.  I wasn’t surprised to see the snow to start falling at quarter till seven this morning, but the amount of it was pretty shocking.  I’d say we ended up with well over two inches.  We had already planned a morning breakfast at the Vic, so we trudged through the wet crappy snow.  It wasn’t really a good day to be on the road.  There was a lot of slipping from what I saw and more importantly, there were tree branches going down left and right.  With in about a 10 minute period we saw the larch trees across the street lose some branches as well as the Elm tree on our triangle.  Here at our house, we had some pretty severe limb loss on the maple next to our house.  The limbs ended up landing right on the power and cable lines into the house.  I guess the wind took some of the limbs off the line and our landlord took some of the other weight off.  Something tells me we’re not in the clear.  The forecast says more snow tonight to come.  And with the deciduous trees baring most of their leaves still, there’s bound to be more damage.  I feel pretty bad for the trees.  They are in high stress mode.

Any ways, it’s been another full week for me.  I started my class and I had a decent bit of homework to get through.  I love learning about urban forestry and arboriculture.  It’s a great fall for me for learning.

There’s not that much else going on here.  We’re staying warm inside the house today trying to keep ourselves busy with nonsense.  I just made a huge pot of chili which should feed me for the next week.  WITH CELERY!  Woot.

That’s all.  How’s the weather in your parts?

a few beers deep.  dressed up with tera.  it’s an awesome night.  i love these times……..

any ways, a suggestion.  kid cudi.  song:  make her say.  featuring yeezee and common.  soooo good.  my new hot jam of the moment.

Well, I logged on this morning to get my first reading assignment for the class I’m starting on Monday.  I decided to go ahead and get the reading out of the way this weekend since I have a free weekend to enjoy some quiet time to myself.  After finishing the first chapter of the urban forestry book I can hardly contain my excitement to get into this field.  It feels like such a perfect fit for what I want to be doing with my life.  It’s a really good hybrid of natural and social/cultural influences.  My interests have always been in the way humans interact with the natural environment and the way they can work together.  It seems as though the last 10 years of work and last 10 years of learning have really led me to this point where I can finally synchronize my interests into one field.  My knowledge in both humanities and horticulture are forming a beautiful symbiotic ($5 word) relationship!  And I really am not trying to toot my own horn, but that’s the way everything inside me feels.  I hope most people get to feel this in their life, where things are beginning to lay out in front of them.  You know where you’re going and you’re reasonably sure what you need to do to get there.  I’ll be totally immersed in arboriculture for the next few months on my way to getting the arborist cert, so if any of you out there want to talk trees let me know.

What is everyone doing out there?  I haven’t gotten any comments on my postings lately.  Shout me a holler, dogs!

Ok, so I said I doubted whether I would make it 30 minutes running.  I made it 51 and I felt as though I could make it another half hour at least.  It’s incredibly humbling to think I am allowed to get off the couch after drinking two beers and run 51 minutes.  Life is good.

Well, it was a 84 degree first day of Autumn here in Central Oregon, a 45 degree temperature swing from when I biked to work this morning.  It’s a beautiful evening.  I’m about to go for a run.  My running legs are not what they used to be.  I’ll be lucky to make it 30 minutes.

It’s been a hectic week and half.  My PLANET testing is finally completed for the weekend.  I believe I mentioned I did pass one test and I should get results for my other one here in a couple weeks or two.  You’ll be reading the blog of one of the most qualified workers at the Team.  Impressed, aren’t you?  At least I hope my clients are.  They more than likely don’t have a clue.  Oh well.  On top of that, this guy Eric wants to hang out CONSTANTLY, so I do him a favor and oblige.  It seems to suck up my nights, but tonight he’s out working in beautiful Culver so I have a bit of time to fuss about here on this here computer of mine.

This weekend looks to be a relaxing one.  There are no plans (studying, Colleen?) as of yet.  Probably the usual good times with good people.  Perhaps a beer or two thrown in as well.  I’m coasting into the Fall, with most of my “extra” work done at work.  It should be a smooth trip to the finish line.  My cash situation is bleak (purposefully)  as I am trying to be able to make it through this winter.  Does anyone have any predictions on snow fall this winter?  It would be beneficial to have a busy snow season.  With no travel plans for this winter, I’ll be more than willing to work as much as I can.  Well, from inside a warm truck that is.  My pretty hands would get too cold to work outside.

Alright, I’ll go give this running thing a try right now.  Got to keep fit, right?  Keep it real kids!

Yesterday I drove over to Eugene to take the silly landscaping test I’ve been gearing up to take for the last couple months.  I was actually kind of disappointed in how easy it was.  Really, I was expecting much more from the test, but it ended up being the same questions that were in the study guide.  It was good news as I cruised through it.  My knowledge should have been tested more intricately.  There weren’t even any pictures to identify stuff.  Oh well.  Another certification under my belt.  It certainly will not hurt me in my career path.

On my way over to Eugene I could not take my eyes off of the trees as I tried to identify all of them along the road.  I could have been way off on the tree names, but I was trying.  This was the umpteenth trip for me over santiam pass and I have never experienced the trip in that way.  It was refreshing.  I’m amped up to take my arborist test here in the next few months.  This week I will start hacking away at the study guide and soon enough try to pass the exam.  this new path down the tree road is revitalizing my whole career path.  Suddenly I feel as though I’m on the brink of a big change.  A giant step up from where I’ve been.  I’m so ready and almost prepared.  The formal certifications and such are a confidence booster for me.  I may in fact have a clue what I’m doing out there in the landscape.  And those improbable dreams (well improbable to other people) that I’ve been putting out there for myself for all these years may be closer to becoming to reality than I realize.

Any ways, tomorrow is back to the good old grind.  Fertilizing AND edging week.  Woot.  I can hardly contain myself.  Bye kids.