ME, Mushrooms and a New Job and Stuff!

Can you all tell? I've lost 40 pounds this year (I am just over 6ft tall and now weigh my ideal at 167lbs) and I feel really great about it! It really brings out my eyes. LOL. This shot was taken last weekend on Larch Mountain (Just outside of Portland) in the Cascade Mountains, on one of our many mushrooming trips this year! It has been an AMAZING year for our bounty. We have even harvested the highly desirable MATSUTAKE this year. Quite a lot of them, actually. Enough to make a mortgage payment. Also, the usual suspects: Pacific Golden Chanterelle, King and Admirable Boletus, Lobster Mushroom, Pigs Ear Gomphus (also known as the Violet Chanterelle) and this year we finally found the mother-load of White Chanterelles, which many connoisseurs of edible fungi believe to be superior to the more common (but still highly prized) yellow or golden varieties. They make a very decadent white sauce, for sure. I have an entire table in our office dedicated to the drying and jarring of mushrooms. Our dehydrator has been running non-stop for the past month!

Also! Not only am I a full-time student studying English, and Linguistic Anthropology with a minor in German, but I just got a pretty cool new job that is going to change Joshie's and my lives. It isn't glamorous, but I landed a good paying position at a a good company, doing high-tech work. Mostly administering networks for a bunch of huge multi-national corporations. Behind the scenes work, just like I prefer, so I'm not working with the stupid fickle public! LOL. The money is decent, but beyond that the benefits are fucking killer. Full medical/Dental/Vision + a Tri-Met subsidy for my monthly transit (Subway/Lightrail/Bus/Trolley and Streetcar) pass AND a bike buying program where they match you dollar for dollar in a pre-tax account so you can purchase the bicycle of your dreams (Portland being the #1 bicycling city in the country for over 10 years now, in addition to being the greenest city, the friendliest city, the best street vendors in the country, the most vegan city and so on and so forth, LOL) for half the price and without having to pay such a huge amount of your salary out in taxes first. Today was day 2 and I really enjoy it. Two of my friends already worked there (A&P, the couple we always go mushroom hunting with and also on several berry picking and camping and hiking excursions with, as well), so we all carpool, which is really super-great, and I have people to lunch with, aside from my immediate team of geeks (cool geeks).

Life is mostly good right now, despite all of our recent stress (I had a nervous breakdown a few weeks ago and checked myself into the loony-bin...I'm on Ativan now for anxiety, but aside from that, they told me I'm not nearly as crazy as I was afraid I was), plus Josh's rigorous university schedule, because of his senate position, all of his crusades (right now we are working on identifying services that are needed in order to serve a growing homeless college/university student population, which after doing some research, we are finding that it is slightly higher than the national average of 1% of the US population. Since his studies are in the area of community development and civic leadership AND he is a business major, we are looking to start a non-profit within the next 7 years to bridge the gap between schooling and other homeless youth services and those needed by the young adult/college/university student population that is also experiencing homelesness)have kept us very busy and apart more than I like.. I strongly encourage all of you to find some way to contribute to a WORTHY organization in your area that provides EDUCATIONAL and RECREATIONAL or ART services to homeless youth. Education is the key to solving the problem in our country. Sending your dollar overseas does nothing to support the few million kids that live on the streets of the US. Kids that largely identify as gay, lesbian, trans, bi, queer and other sexual or gender minorities. The statistic for these youth is that over 60% (it's nearly 70%, actually) will NEVER MAKE IT OFF THE STREET to live productive, drug-free lives, without an educational program in place to support, nurture and expand their horizons. Josh and I volunteer at a local homeless youth school called p:ear (YES THAT IS A LINK, CHECK IT OUT!).

Joshie was a homeless teenager, into massive amounts of drugs (meth, heroin, cocaine...anything to kill the pain), he was a thief (a "legitimate" way to survive on the streets when your parent(s) disown you, and tell you that they hope you die painfully of AIDS when you tell them you are gay at the age of 13. This happens hundreds of times a day in the United States) and he was good at it. Because of p:ear, and the services they provide, he was able to graduate from high-school while living on the streets of Portland. He was able to attend cultural events like the ballet, the Oregon Symphony, opera, Broadway plays, as well as participate in art programs (p:ear runs a gallery that participates in Portland's First Thursday, one of the hottest monthly celebrations of art in the country). By the time I met Josh (although, looking back, I can remember seeing him on the streets of Portland; this is a big city, but it is a very close, big city) him and I had both fallen flat on our butts (I went from making a VERY large amount of money, to being unemployed and essentially homeless in a matter of months in the early 2000's) and were staying. temporarily, with our parents...both in Eastern Washington *shudder* (Read: Dry, brown HELL). There was something about Josh that was magic, though. There still is. He is stubborn and pigheaded, he is loud and mean and can be crude and/or crass (I'm often afraid of what he might say in a public situation, whether it be among friends or complete strangers)...but Josh has this energy surrounding him that just sucks you to him as if he were an electromagnet. Josh may be all of these scary things I've mentioned, but he also has one of the biggest hearts I have ever encountered and I am grateful for every second that I get to spend with him. Josh is a born leader and I believe with all my heart that he is going to change the world. He's changed mine, for sure.

When I walk down the street and see the nasty-dirty kids sitting on the street, asking for a couple cents for bus fare, for a beer, for their drugs (I appreciate their honesty, at least) or for the small fee they have to pay for a warm bed that night and a crappy meal at the mission or wherever, I don't look away in disgust and utter some mean comment about them "getting a job" (You try finding a job WITH an education and good references. Not easy in the current economy!! Now think about having had your parents throw you out of the house because your mom was a crackwhore or your dad's new girlfriend simply hated you for existing and he followed his dick instead of caring for his child, and you are now doing the only thing you know to survive.) I give them a couple bus tickets, I buy them a 99-cent sandwich at the closest fast-food joint, or I give them a couple bux so they can fix themselves in the closest public restroom....but I ALWAYS give them the information to a local non-profit that can help them. I've been pleasantly surprised to see them take advantage of the services, and even more pleased to see them take it further, and really get into the program and do something with and for themselves. I'd like to think that I'm helping to whittle down that 60+% statistic.

Josh's goal is to bridge the gap. Get those homeless youth more than a diploma (which, let's face it...in todays world, you really need a more advanced education to get a leg-up). He (WE) wants to get them into college, get them into a 4-year university and prove that you can go from nothing, to something...just like he has (although, I'd argue that Josh was NEVER nothing, he just needed the tools). 10 years ago he was in prison for one of his countless petty crimes that were essential to survival. Today he is my best friend, my husband. But more than that, he is a leader and a pioneer, and together....well. Just keep looking for us on the cover of Time, Newsweek and eventually maybe even Forbes. As it is we are getting local media attention, and before long, I feel like this is going to turn into something bigger than either of us imagined.

All of this cuz I wanted to tell you about my new job. Well....now you know.

What have you been doing lately?