DC Week. Whoa.

Holy political overload, Batman. I know you're all interested in hearing about DC, so here goes. 

There were 6 days of intense political action that blew my mind. I took a redeye into Reagan National (just National if you're of a blue persuasion, apparently, which I didn't know at first and called it Reagan - I was semi-publicly shamed for it, so keep that in mind if you ever fly into DCA) and got in at 11am Eastern. Reiny (this year's program director) and I were on the same flight and shared a cab to the hotel in Arlington. 

We stayed at the Westin Arlington Gateway, which is a lovely hotel two blocks from the Ballston stop on the Orange and Silver lines. Great rates can be found for it on Priceline, and I recommend it as an upscale hotel just close enough to DC. Uber rates from the hotel into DC range from $15-$30 depending on what time you go, and the Metro ride is under $4 each way.

Anyway. They were very kind and let us check in several hours early, which was so wonderful, and we napped/unpacked for a couple of hours. Each of our rooms had 3-4 people in them, so it was great to have that time alone before my roommates arrived. I was in a 3 person room, but our third person didn't arrive until Wednesday afternoon, so we each had a bed to ourselves for the first two days. 

Our hotel room before it got covered in clothes and toiletries

There was a Starbucks in the lobby area of the hotel, which was where we all got our breakfasts most mornings and then congregated before we left for our totally packed days in DC. That particular Starbucks was SO SLOW that we had to get there at least 20 minutes before leaving if we wanted to be done with our breakfast when we walked to the Metro. I was so lucky to have a very courteous and thoughful roommate who was up earlier than I and always offered to pick up breakfast. Thanks Shannon!

But, that first day was a travel day and most people weren't arriving until later in the afternoon, so Reiny and I went out in search of a happy hour situation to sate our growing hunger. We were invited to join some of the fellows in the city for happy hour, and also invited to one of our fellows' family home while he cooked some of the dinner we were going to enjoy on Wednesday, but they were both so far... we ended up finding a little Tex-Mex restaurant by our Metro station with a nice patio and sat out there eating quesadillas and drinking strawberry-mint margaritas (SO GOOD!) until more of the cohort arrived and we all met back at the hotel. 

These were like candy! Refreshing, tequila-filled candy.

I went with some people into the city to a divey bar called Big Hunt, where we had a great time out on their deck with good craft beers and, randomly, pizza. Then we wandered through DuPont Circle to U Street to a couple of other locations (I heard one of my friends say their FitBit tracked us walking almost 10 miles that day) and eventually migrated back to the hotel area, where we all congregated at a sports bar called Front Page, which ended up being our home bar for the rest of the trip. 

This is the Starbucks in DuPont Circle where Kirsten and I used to hang out!

It was two blocks from the hotel, with good prices, a kitchen open late, attentive service even to our 20-person group, decent music, good patio... a traveling group can hardly ask for more. Of course we closed down the place and all of us made our way back to the hotel. The conversations we had on the patio of that bar were some of the best parts of the trip. I would also like to note that the entire day was t-shirt weather, until we got back to the hotel. I think it got up to 81 that day, but I barely noticed. 

If only the rest of the days were like that...

A Short Foray into Portland

I know everyone is really excited to hear about DC, but since I've been so bad at blogging consistently, I have to tie up Portland weekend first. Can't leave that just hanging there like a halfway-out baby tooth. Gross. Sorry.

Portland has changed a LOT since I was last there. Jonathan and I have gone to the Portland area at least once a year since we started working on houses, but we mostly go to Costco or IKEA near the airport, or Clackamas, never Portland proper. 

We stayed at a hotel that may be familiar to some of you: the Pony Soldier Inn! I got so excited when we pulled in that I had to take a picture. It's not great, but it's something.

Yes, that's still Elmer's in the parking lot!

Since I had my own rooms that weekend, I ended up in this giant king room.

I should have spent way more time in this room.

 And best of all, this picture hung above the bed. I had a set of these growing up, and I can't quite remember what they were about, but there was also one with a cat...

We went out in Portland and bar/club/restaurant hopped for quite some time, although I'm pretty sure we all got back to the hotel before closing time.

Our first meeting was a working breakfast; we sat in the banquet room at Elmer's! Unfortunately since we were in there, we were only able to order off the 3-option banquet menu, but my omelet was delicious. While we ate breakfast, we heard from Kari Chisholm, a political consultant and writer of a progressive Oregon blog. He talked about the use of email in political campaigns, especially for development purposes, and how to retain constituent engagement after the main campaign.

Next, we met at the courthouse and took the Max to the Tri-Met offices. Tri-Met is the regional transit authority in Portland, and at their offices, we learned about the history of Portland transportation and why parts of it were built where/the way they were. Because it was very hectic trying to find parking near the courthouse, people were kind of trickling in during the presentation; some of us had gotten on the Max and others ended up parking at the Tri-Met offices, which made things crazy later on in the day. 

Anyway, the Tri-Met office is pretty cool - it's kind of industrial and open with high ceilings, and they have a sort of obstacle course set up in the lobby. People who want to get certified to ride Portland's version of the Access Bus go on the obstacle course to prove they need the service, and also learn how to use the service.

My fellow Jessica took this great picture of the course:

This awesome picture is featured in Jessica's blog, FeelingElephants, at jessicadickinsongoodman.com

John Carroll, one of the men who presented to us at Tri-Met, is a developer in Portland. He is a big proponent of transit use, and has developed his buildings to reflect that. He has been lauded for both preserving the feel of historic buildings and successfully working in modern new construction that fits the neighborhood. After the presentation, he took us on a walking tour of the Pearl district, where many of his buildings are. 

This google map view is of the site of his new proposed building. We walked past this auto body shop and he hinted at an interest in it. Below is a sketch of the proposed building.

It is a very attractive area, with lovely low brick buildings and small boutique shops. Our tour ended at a food truck corral so we all got a quick bite and headed back to our cars.

My car was kind of far away, and I took a wrong turn, and I was on the wrong side of the garage... I'm pretty sure it took me a good half hour to find my car from the time we left the food trucks. That was some of the most nerve-wracking time ever - knowing I had a bunch of delicious food I couldn't eat while walking or driving, not knowing where my car was (I ALWAYS know where my car is.), misplacing my ticket to get out of the garage somewhere in my purse right after I paid for it... I haven't been that discombobulated in a long time. Oh, and I was starving. I ended up getting to eat about 5 bites of my food, but because it was so fragrant, I couldn't take it in to any of the places we went after that.

I ended up arriving at a neighborhood talk at the very tail end; I would have been better off going straight to the next location and eating my food in my car, but I didn't really know how late I was or how long we would be there, especially since it wasn't on the agenda at all. Oh well. That Thai food sat in my car taunting me all the way home to Seattle, too; I couldn't bear to throw it away, but it had been sitting in a hot car for far too long to still be safe to eat. *Sigh*. 

Anyway, I ran in there just in time for the last of the Q&A session, then ran back to my car to go to Morel Ink.

Morel Ink is a full-service union printing shop owned by a wonderful man named Bill Dickey. They print things mostly for campaigns (they will work for both sides of the aisle, but they are very sensitive to conflict of interest and do their best to only print one side of competing campaigns). Their work is beautiful, and because they are union printers (and work in other areas with a network of other union printers) you know that everyone working there is being paid fair wages and receiving good treatment. They print and ship and mail all up and down the west coast and can get your materials out to other parts of the country as well. It was really neat to see their giant old printers; they print giant posters and little postcards on those machines, and they have some super cool new printer technology as well.

Bill talked to us about the role of small business in progressive politics, which was a very welcome viewpoint. There was a lot of focus on their pro bono work for NARAL, Planned Parenthood, etc.; doing pro bono work helps to build their business by positioning them as staunch supporters of progressive values. When consultants and people who worked on those campaigns that used Morel Ink's pro bono services need paid campaigns done, they know where they can go to get the best product at good pricing. The paid campaigns, in turn, make them enough money that they can continue doing pro bono work. A big cycle of giving back.

Morel Ink (and Bill as an individual) also donates large sums to progressive causes in addition to the work that they do pro bono. While we were there, he wrote us a check for $2500 toward our DC travel costs. We were flabbergasted by his generosity, and so thankful for it. He reminded us that Institute for a Democratic Future is a pretty unique program, and that it bears supporting; the number of progressive champions that come out of the program to run nonprofits and run for office and change things for the better is staggering. So he donates to IDF every year at some point, sometimes more than once. I think the world needs more Bill Dickeys.

Bill and the Morel Ink crew were nice enough to let us use their space to invite two other speakers, Tom Powers (Oregon House Majority Leader Chief of Staff and Director of the Oregon State Democratic Leadership Fund) and Nathan Howard, Interim Executive Director of the Oregon Bus. These two guys were both my age and had done SO MANY THINGS. 

It made us all very jealous to hear how they were able to get so much done in their Democrat-majority legislature. They talked about passing their New-Motor-Voter law, which enters residents into the voter registration logs when they get their license. If they are 18, they can vote, otherwise when they turn 18 they are automatically registered. Awesome! Why can't we get that going?! Next up they are focusing on gun safety, sick leave, and minimum wage issues. They were really impressed by our Seattle Minimum Wage initiative and would like to see the same sort of grassroots campaign take place in Portland.

They also told us about Our Oregon, an organizing table around which many Oregon progressive groups meet. I haven't heard about anything like this in Washington, and if we don't have it, we need it! They all get together and decide where their energy is best focused, and WORK TOGETHER FOR PROGRESSIVE CHANGE! Whoa. That's part of the reason they are able to get so many democrats elected each cycle and in turn are able to pass progressive legislation. Seems so simple.

And that, my friends, is where Portland ended. We were all exhausted and did a short debrief, then went our separate ways from Morel Ink. Kind of a fizzle out end to an amazing weekend, but seriously, once we ran out of questions for the speakers at Morel Ink, we were all just kind of like hmm, it's time to go home. I did stop at BurgerVille on the way home to get a mocha milkshake (so delicious that I went 10 minutes off the freeway for it), but that's about the extent of the excitement.

Next up: waiting through 8 other weekend blogs before I tell you about DC. Haha! Just kidding. I'll start DC next.

Vancouver Pt. 2

After hearing from Nan, we were all riled up and excited about life. Of course, no one could be as awesome as Nan, so... there was that. But it was still an interesting day.

Next up was Jack Burkman, a member of the Vancouver city council who walked us through the history of the Vancouver waterfront area (did you know there was a huge shipyard there during WW1 that built huge boats for the war effort?) and the plan for the new Vancouver Waterfront. Click here and then click on "View Image Gallery" for some cool renderings and pictures of the current site.

Oooh, swanky!

The plans for this new development look pretty awesome, almost along the lines of some of the pier areas in southern California. With a lot of parks/green space. And very similar to the Spokane Riverfront. Like almost exactly. Apparently they have made a deal with some developers for the construction; the city is providing the infrastructure and some of the planning, and the developers are doing all the rest. Sweet! Of course, one of those fancy buildings with super luxury condos in them will be right where the Red Lion at the Quay is now, so... go stay there!

After Mr. Burkman, we heard from Jim Luce, one of "the Clark County Kennedys" according to Jason. He is leading a group called "Taxpayers for a Responsible Public Port" against "corrupt and self-serving" port commissioners. Apparently the port commissioners keep authorizing port taxes even though they make plenty of money from the tenants of port land and spending the rent money elsewhere. Also they have approved the Tesoro oil lease against major public opposition.

There is also a lot of controversy over the oil trains that run back and forth all day to the port. While we sat there we saw these oil trains go right by the window, back and forth at least 30 times throughout the day. 

This train had what seemed like a million oil cars.

We counted the oil cars on this train until we got to 45, then we got tired of counting. It took what seemed like forever for it to go by; at times it would just stop for 5-10 minutes and we would look around at each other, paranoid that it was going to just randomly explode.

The old tanker cars they use are awful; they are leaky and fragile. When they go off the tracks, they get punctured. When they are punctured, they pretty much immediately explode. The oil they transport is light Bakken oil, which is much more explosive than traditional dark crude oil. There is an interesting NPR piece on it here.

So we heard all about it, while seeing the actual volume of oil trains passing through the downtown Vancouver area. Very convincing. I wouldn't want that many oil trains coming through my city. I think Seattle averages 3 oil trains coming through the waterfront area every day. Considering some of these trains have over 100 oil tanker cars on them, that means a lot of super-explosive oil traveling through one of our biggest tourist attraction areas each day. We definitely need to push the oil and rail companies to at least upgrade the tanker cars used to transport this hyper-combustible fuel.

After Jim Luce's presentation, we went out into the world for lunch. Now, for meals we're supposed to split into smaller groups so that restaurants aren't totally overwhelmed. So we thought our group was going to a southern comfort food restaurant, but we ended up following someone who had decided to go to the same restaurant (Low Bar) as everyone else. 

More than twenty of us descended on the same small restaurant and all took our time ordering, and the server/cashier put them all on one ticket. So the first order and the last order were put in to the kitchen at the same time. It took over twenty minutes for us to order, so that was like 40 minutes after we got there, and some people in our larger group had already been there for 15 minutes.

Needless to say, most of us were late getting back to the Red Lion, even though we had an hour and 45 minutes for lunch. The food took forever. But wow, that was one of the best burgers I've ever had in a restaurant. It was perfectly sized, particularly juicy, well-seasoned, and had a great crust on the outside. Like, I want a burger right now just thinking about it. I got cornmeal-crusted jojos with it, but those were kind of disappointing after the amazing burger. 

In any case, I had just enough time to finish my burger before the last people's food came out (they had just told them to serve them to go as soon as they came out of the kitchen), then we pretty much ran back to the hotel. We were only 7 minutes late and we were the last group, but I felt terrible because the speaker had gotten there really early, and then when we walked in, the loud BING BONG! went off. Which had probably happened every time a group straggled in from lunch. Poor guy.

That guy was Matt Ransom, who was giving us a rundown on the CRC (Columbia River Crossing), a project to build a new bridge since the current I-5 bridge was meant to carry horse and buggy or Model T only. And has not been properly remodeled for the amount of car and truck traffic it has, only retrofitted as best they could. I felt bad because we were all in food coma and exhausted from having to run back from lunch after stuffing our faces so quickly, so nobody was asking quite the level of intelligent questions that we're known for.

And oh lord, I almost forgot about the drunk guy. In the middle of poor Matt Ransom (for whom really no one should feel that bad because he is very attractive, with rippling biceps and a perfectly tousled mop of blond hair) some guy wanders into our room. This man was very intoxicated and proceeded to talk to Chipalo (the one black man in our group) about his big beautiful round bald head. Then he wanted to talk to us about some other nonsense. Mr. Ransom was somehow still trying to give his presentation and then, very annoyed, stopped and asked "do you want me to continue?" because the guys in the back of the room were trying to politely shoo the drunk man out instead of escorting him out. 

This of course was the opportunity for which drunk man had been waiting: now he had the floor! All eyes were on him, so he decided to go off on a rant about being an Indian, and how he was here first. This of course made us all really sad, but we didn't want to insult Mr. Ransom more than we already had (by being late back from lunch), so a couple of the bigger guys got up and moved the man out the door. He wandered around the hall yelling and then out in the parking lot, yelling and doing a weird drunk dance while we all feigned interest in what Mr. Ransom was saying. It was both hilarious and heartbreaking; a shared awkward cultural moment that I think brought us a little closer together. So the CRC presentation continued on and drew to a close with none of us having any interesting questions to ask. Which was really all the better since we were now running about 15 minutes behind schedule.

The next presentation was from Jim Mains and Temple Lantz, two of the freeholders from the charter process we learned about earlier from Nan. They were supposed to tell us all about the charter process, but since Nan had already done that, they kind of were out of material. We ended up getting kind of a weird sales-pitch presentation about the in-house polling methods they use in their media production/consulting business, High Five Media. The business had actually made a really beautiful and effective informational flyer about the charter that Nan had handed out earlier.

The man on the front of the flyer is the county sheriff, a man trusted and respected by liberals AND conservatives.

Overall, Jim and Temple were interesting and very nice, but seemed at a bit of a loss since we already knew the things they were planning on telling us. I would have been more interested hearing about what it's like to run a small boutique communications company in a non-urban area. Obviously I should have asked, because no one else asked about that. And they probably would have been really excited to talk about that since it's what they do. I need to get better at asking questions.

Look at those beautiful infographics!

After that, Nash Jones from the Sexual and Gender Minority Youth Resource Center gave one of the most amazing awareness workshops I've ever attended. Not that I've attended that many, but wow. I have always seen myself as an advocate and ally for people of all genders and sexual orientations, and since I'm more connected to LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans* [used to be transgender, now is just Trans*], Queer) issues and activities than many people I know, I always assumed I knew how to be a good ally. Of course, being a good ally is subjective, and the main qualifications are usually keeping an open mind, asking questions if you are confused, and supporting the people that you love. It's not hard. But if you want to delve deeper into that, there's a whole world of things you don't know.

Discrimination inside the LGBTQ community is something I never thought much about - it's one community, so everybody is supportive and supportive, right? Wrong. Even in the acronym, there is discrimination. Who decided that lesbians were first and trans and queer were last? I mean, in a jumble of consonants that are all awkward to begin with, who determines what order they go in? Nash introduced us to the layers of discrimination, the importance of pronouns, what is and isn't someone else's business. It is hard to describe the level of delving we did into LGBTQ issues in such a short time. We ran late because we were all so enthralled.

I feel like I learned (some things for the first time, some just more in depth/better background) more about Trans* issues from Nash.

• Trans* issues are tricky but very important.
• Trans, for most people, has been "transgender" for a long time. (In the acronym LGBTQ, it has never meant transsexual, even though many have perceived it as such.) It has been shortened to trans*. The asterisk is to denote man, woman, person, people, etc. 
• Someone might identify as a trans man, which means they feel like they are a man, and they may not have been sexed as a male at birth. This has NOTHING to do with who they're attracted to, only how they identify their gender. There are gay trans men, bisexual trans men, asexual trans men, hetero trans men, etc. 
• Which of course is interesting because if you look at the acronym usually assigned to this community, it is based on sexuality (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer) and then trans*, a gender, is just thrown in there. 
• Trans women (people born with non-female parts who identify as female, whether or not they go through any transitional surgeries), especially trans women of color, are some of the most victimized and abused people on the planet.
• Because the term transgender promotes "otherness", there is a term for people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth: cisgender. Trans=change/cis=same. 
• Inclusion is for real, people!

After a long and very positive debrief, we all took off for our hotel across the bridge. I had to get my car from the back of the lot and ended up being the last to leave, and saw something crazy on my way to Portland; an accident in which two cars smashed into the side of the road, and a big raised truck spun around 180 degrees avoiding them, just barely missing me as I sailed past in the left lane. I would have stopped to help but by the time I processed what was going on, I was quite some way down the road. I could see flashing lights in the distance behind me so I knew someone was on the way. The stretch of road between Olympia and Portland is apparently super dangerous.

Stay tuned for Portland adventures. Jeez, this weekend is taking FOREVER to finish. Sorry.

Vancouver is... Not-So-Bad

After a very late evening out (pretty much the whole class stayed out, not just me), we had a lovely small buffet breakfast at the hotel, then checked out of our rooms, put our stuff in our cars, and came back to the hotel's restaurant to a small semi-private room off of the bar. 

Also, in case anyone has forgotten or has never been there, the Vancouver Red Lion at the Quay has a ship-themed restaurant and bar. Like a galleon or pirate ship. It is SO AWESOME. The restaurant was actually quite popular for brunch; people were still heading in there for food until at least 2pm, at a pretty steady rate since we first got there around 8:15. The hotel rooms are in ok condition, but they kind of smell musty and the AC units are old. My room faced the river and I was awoken several times starting around 5am by barking seals. It did have a lovely view, though. There is a plan for the Vancouver waterfront which will probably cause the demolition of the hotel, so if you want to see the ship restaurant, you'd better do it soon! 

Best. Bar. Ever.

So! We all sat down in groups of 4-6 in this private room and settled in for the day. There were urns of coffee and a jug of water, and most of us had grabbed some sort of fruit at breakfast to snack on during the morning's speakers. The one door to the room had a chime on it, so every time someone entered or exited the room, there was a really loud bing-bong. Which was both hilarious and really inconvenient. One of the best parts of this group is that people don't automatically split into cliques and sit together; we don't make our way to the table where our "friends" are sitting. We just find a spot, sit down, and know that the people we're sitting with will be interesting, funny, and curious. This group (even out at the bars) is so interested in getting to know everybody, that it is very rare to see the same 5 people sitting together twice in a day/evening. It's amazing.

Our first speaker, Nan Henrikson, started at 9am sharp. She's probably my favorite speaker we've heard from so far, and it was her first time speaking to IDF. Needless to say, she'll be a mainstay of the Clark County portion of the program from here on out. She's in her mid-70's and is as fired up about local government now as any starry-eyed idealist in their 20's. The big difference is she knows what she's doing! Also, she was wearing the craziest bright multi-color blazer, which was amazing.

This lady is the best!

Nan was the mayor of Camas (1983-1992) during the downturn of the mill there, and she had to figure out how to keep Camas alive in a really awkward time; the mill was shrinking but the inhabitants of the town didn't want to change any of the sleepy bedroom community feel by bringing in any new employers. At the time, the mill was providing "high school graduation to retirement" family wage jobs, and was paying 70% of the property taxes in the area. Nan knew that if the mill went under, the town would, too. Unless they diversified.

Nan had a vision of a light industrial park in Camas - "a gem of an industrial park, the pride of Washington State!" in her words. The area was perfect for high tech industry - low silicate water, a great location, an airport 10 minutes away, plenty of housing for families moving in, and a great school system. So with this vision, Nan set about finding good corporate citizens to move in, who offered family wage jobs. She found Sharp Microelectronics and Labs, and others soon followed. You should have seen the spark in her eyes as she talked about this park. 

Eventually they got the park all filled up, and got to a point where the mill was only paying 10% of the property taxes. But that's not all Nan has been up to in politics. In 2013, Clark County was dissatisfied with the structure of their government due to some shenanigans from the county commissioners involving nepotism and negligence, so they called for a freeholder process to come up with a new form of government that would work better for them. Nan ran for freeholder and won her seat handily. The group of 15 freeholders then elected her Freeholder Chair. Once again, Nan took the reins and steered Clark County in the right direction.

The freeholders, 5 from each district. Look at Nan's awesome jacket! But not as awesome as the one she wore to talk to us.

They got their charter written and approved and Clark County is more functional than ever, thanks to Nan's pragmatism, mediation skills and get-it-done attitude. When she was talking about her industrial park dream, she said something that really stuck with me, (which is reiterated by almost every speaker we hear from, but her wording is my favorite) the three most important qualities for getting things done in government: "you have to have a clear vision of what you want to do, a strong belief in your ability to accomplish that thing, and fire in your gut!" Haha! I love Nan. Obviously, since I wrote pretty much an entire blog post about her. And a ship restaurant. A shipstaurant! More to come on the other 30 speakers from that weekend soon.

Had to post another picture of shipstaurant.

Portland Shmortland? - Day One

Where do I even begin?

I guess a quick schedule rundown is in order. We left Friday afternoon and spent the night in Vancouver. Saturday's programming was all in Vancouver, then in the evening we drove across the river to our hotel in Portland. We spent the night there and on Sunday ran literally all over town.

Did you know Portland is the only city to have more restaurants per capita than Seattle? Crazy.

So. On Friday I had arranged to get out of work early. Of course, then boss man went and got himself scheduled for two shifts at his parents' restaurant. I had texted about leaving before 4pm on Friday, March 6 two weeks prior. In any case, everything ended up working out OK. I left work at 4, went home, took care of Sam, got all my things together and left. Jonathan had been sick all week with a legitimate flu; fever, chills, horrible rattling cough, etc. So mid-week I had asked Jason, the program's executive director, if I could pay to have my own rooms this weekend so I wouldn't pass along the flu even though I didn't have it. I didn't get confirmation on our Friday hotel until that morning, so it was a good thing I hadn't booked myself a backup reservation. I did make one for our Saturday hotel, which I ended up needing. Everything worked out just right!

Everything except traffic. Somehow I managed to hit traffic at every turn; stuck by Kent. Stuck in a backup that started at Wild Waves and ended after Tacoma. Stuck again through Olympia. Three accidents on the stretch of I-5 that slims down to 2 lanes. I got to Vancouver and checked in to the hotel at 8:55pm. We had a brewery tour scheduled for 9, so I was in a bit of a hurry. The front desk gave me my keys and I headed straight for my room. I opened the door and was surprised to see a lamp on. Then I heard a voice say "hello....?" OMG the front desk person had given me keys to Jason's room! At least he was fully clothed. 

So I went back down and she gave me correct keys after a lot of laughter and jokes and apologies. I dropped my stuff off and ran into one of my cohort in the hall. We jumped in my car and headed for the brewery, since by this time it was already 9:15. Reiny, the programming director, had pushed the tour back to 9:30 since there were several people running late. Thank goodness. But the brewery had hosted an unannounced large party (larger than ours - 40 people to our 30) and had run out of food and blown 2 kegs. This meant that even though they had a month's notice that we would be coming and drinking a lot and eating a lot, they barely had enough beer to go around, and only had pretzels left in the kitchen. 

One of the owners was working and gave us a tour of their brewing operation downstairs, which was cool. Hearing about the differences between macro and micro brewing (he used to work for Miller) was very interesting. I have new respect for the macro brewers; turns out they make a beer that usually takes 25-40 days of aging in a week or less, and they do it at a scale and with a consistency that is a feat. So even though I don't care for lager, I am impressed by their methods. He talked about the differences in types of hops and whether breeding your own brewer's yeast was a worthwhile endeavor for a small operation. Then the train came off the rails. He started expounding on the difficulties of paperwork and taxes for a small business owner. Then we encouraged him with some follow up questions on his political views and poof! Our nice brewery tour turned into a Libertarian rant.

After we scuttled out of there (it was closing time anyway), we went out to a local bar/eatery and finally got that beer and food!

1.75 - Interviews

So. I met some of the people who would be sifting through applications and resumes, hopefully got my face a little stuck in peoples' heads, and possibly made a bit of an impression in conversation at the networking party. Based on these interactions... I wasn't super confident I was even going to make it to the interview round, but then obviously I did get scheduled for one. Sarah and I kept practicing.

When I got in there, I was nervous. There were six people interviewing me - Jason, the program's executive director, and 5 women I had never met but some of whose bios I had read on the website (that meant they were from last year's class). Having recent fellows on my panel meant I might have a better chance since they would remember how daunting the application process was. I had already met Jason at the beginning of the networking party when he and Sarah and I were three of maybe 8 people there; we traded friendly barbs and made snarky comments about someone's outfit. Instant understanding! 

Because Sarah and I had practiced, I did not freeze when they asked me questions - I paused, pulled up the stock answer I had ready for a similar question, modified it, and spat it out. SUCCESS!!! My panel was inquisitive and curious, but in a nice way. I didn't feel intimidated by them, and in fact almost felt like they wanted me to have my best shot. They asked semi-leading follow up questions to get me to open up more. 

One of them is running for Tacoma City Council. Another is a children's advocate and lobbyist. One of them is a small business owner (Adrift Hotel in Long Beach, WA, so if you go to Long Beach, you know where you should stay!) And the others are doing equally interesting/amazing things. Suffice it to say, these people have all "leveraged their networks" which is a big catchphrase in IDF. Everyone in my interview panel was inclusive, engaged, and supportive. I was SO lucky.

My answers weren't perfect. But they were good enough. My panel laughed. They were slack-jawed when I spoke of my friend Matt's death under a wind farm turbine as the reason I'm excited for the Eastern WA weekend (touring a wind farm is on the agenda for that weekend). They encouraged me to speak more on things they found pertinent, things that might help me better get in.

And it worked! Here I am, spending half of my time running around with these new people - once strangers, now quickly becoming friends.

1.5 - How much I hate applying for things

Applying for things is hard! I am so not about putting myself out there. I am terrible at writing resumes, bad at writing cover letters, and only barely better at securing letters of reference. I am also not good at writing answers for application questions. I have great difficulty writing things that strike a balance between trite and casual. I can either write like this, or write really annoying stuff that sounds like it should be in a pamphlet for why you should vote Rand Paul. sigh. So applying for IDF, which I had started to actually care about, was especially tough.

I wrote three resume drafts and about five different cover letters. I managed to beg a letter of reference from my most recent professor (which was difficult, because she was doing a fellowship which happened to be taking place at Harley Davidson in Milwaukee and was pretty busy) and would have gotten one from Sarah except she and her fiance were finalizing the purchase of their first home. I researched and wrote passable answers for the application (sample question: Where do you disagree with the Democratic Party and why?). I got together with Sarah to practice for my interview. 

Side note: why have I never practiced for an interview before? I go into interviews flying by the seat of my pants! Like, well if they don't like my personality then they can rot. But how are they going to know anything about my personality if I'm struggling to answer their questions? So right there I learned a lot. And the questions asked in most interviews are the same, so if I can get those answers down, then I can show people a bit of who I am in the way I answer them. So obvious, but I was so unwilling to do work before. But I digress.

I went with Sarah to a networking party put on by IDF for prospective applicants to meet current board members and IDF alumni. I was terrified. How did I get so bad at shmoozing? I used to be able to charm the pants off anyone! Also I just thought (maybe for the first time?) about what that means. Hmm. Anyway, we practiced. Sarah and I actually practiced answers to what I might be asked AT A PARTY. And we practiced ways I might introduce myself or horn in on conversations. I have never felt so socially inept in my LIFE.

But as the evening progressed, I did better and better. I met an IDF alum who is now running for City Council in West Seattle, and she is amazing. If you see her name on your ballot, I urge you to vote for Brianna Thomas! I met one of my current cohort (of course, at the time, she was just a prospective applicant) there and was immediately attached (her name is Brynn, she works for the ACLU, she's smart and interesting and adorable and showed up BY HERSELF - the cajones on that one!). 

Actually I think I only met two or three people there who made it into the program. The prospective applicants included: a guy who worked for Fish and Wildlife (with an IDF alum, who wrote him a reference. He made it in), three lawyers who really seemed like they had it together and had political chops (didn't make it), two WA State legislative session aides (didn't make it), a slew of local political organizers/campaigners/dooorbellers (didn't make it). Probably 30 or more politically active prospective applicants. 

So, I felt super out of place (no political experience to speak of, although I DID post signs for Gary Locke with my Girl Scout troop in 7th grade? I think?) and totally outclassed among a group of what seemed to me at the time like shoo-ins for the program. We ducked out after Sarah had introduced me to most of the people who were important to my acceptance into the program. Stay tuned for 1.75, in which I actually finish this post.

How is it spring already in February?

And now for a little light reading. Since I'm going to be pretty busy this weekend, you're probably not going to get a whole lot of real content. But you can look at some pretty pictures! The beauty bark is full of green shoots - some crocus, some mysteries, and a lot of tulips. I'm very excited to see what they look like since I've never seen this house in spring! 

Look at these goofy crocuses!

I don't remember what this is called, but now it has pretty pink flowers. Are these sillies?

Last weekend we went to the zoo!

Jonathan and I love the zoo. We bought each other memberships for Christmas this year, and we decided to go to the zoo last Sunday while Sam was at the groomer's. (He smells like cookies now, BTW.) Here are some of the amazing animals we saw!

One hippo was using the other as a pillow.

There are two new lion cubs. Adorable!

Prepare yourself for many pictures of the Tapir. I LOVE the Tapir. He is the most awkward animal at the zoo.

He came up right next to the glass and showed us his butt.

Then he scamper/waddled over to that tree to scratch his face on it. What a weirdo. Hah! 

I don't love the elephants, but since we might not have them for much longer, we looked at them. This little guy was hanging out outside.

Just dancin'.

There was a large family (parents + two litters) of otters, and they were very playful. We stood there and watched them for a really long time.

Those penguins sure are lazy.

The wolves were the most active I've ever seen them; I'm pretty sure they switched them out while we weren't looking. Also weren't the wolves red/gray? I know their coat changes from winter to spring, but last time I saw them was winter and I remember them being much darker. Also, there's no snow to cause them to be white.

How a customer at Bus Stop convinced me (through two years of nagging) to change my life, or: An Entire Blog Post About Sarah

If any of you have spent more than half an hour at Bus Stop, you've probably met Sarah. She's a regular and has been for years. I think I met her in 2009 when I first started hanging out there again. She's tall and blonde and totally amazing. She's really got her stuff together and knows how to get things done. If you've been paying attention to Seattle news, you've seen her work - King County is starting to change the way restaurants display food safety scores, and that is because of Sarah. She has gotten E. Coli twice, once in the Jack in the Box fiasco, and again a couple years ago from eating at a restaurant that is now closed. So she is understandably big on food safety. Anyway, she started a petition that got the attention of King County and is now the only person on their exploratory committee that is not involved in the restaurant industry. She knows 50 billion people and is a fantastic sounding board for ideas, both building on them and playing opposition for them.

So. Sarah is connected and knows how the system works. How did she get that way? Well she started off political, moving from Oak Harbor (yes, she's an island girl - her family owns a clothing store up there that has been around for 3 generations) to Seattle to DC after school. She spent time in DC learning the national political processes and meeting people that would help her start her own projects for non-profits and government agencies. Her focus is on open government and transparency, which are words that get bandied about in the political sphere that no one seems to know how to implement. Sarah knows how. In fact, she's writing a handbook on it. In any case, after DC, she moved back to Seattle, where she didn't know many people in local government or quite how to navigate it, as apparently it operates in a slightly different way. So she did IDF in 2006. Now she knows 50 billion people, and knows how to get things done here.

Sarah and I have become friends over the years, bonding over shared woes after political defeats and shared joys at progressive political victories or ideas. We've had countless debates with other customers over policy and oversight and government spending. We've had some heated ones about climate change and the depletion of our oceans. And last year, Sarah really got after me about applying for IDF after my diatribe about the Washington Health Benefit Exchange. Of course, at that time Jonathan and I were remodeling the kitchen with plans to add a bathroom, and I was not keen on giving up my weekends to spend time running around Washington with 30 people I didn't know. Plus there was an application, and I'd have to revamp my resume and get references and write a cover letter, and it was hard to do that during football season, and I wanted to finish my degree so I knew I'd be working on homework and reading and any number of other legitimate (and not) reasons why it was not a good time for me. But she kept talking about how much fun she had, and what great friendships she forged, and how much she learned, and how it set her up for any number of job offers...

I guess what really got me was the prospect of job offers. Selfish as that may seem, IDF sounded like a wonderful way to both better myself as a political citizen and get a real career going. Sorry Elias, but we all know I can't work at Bus Stop forever. So I decided when she started talking about it again this year (Sarah's prepared - the inundation began in late September) that this was going to be the year I started trying to get into IDF. 

What are you doing at IDL/IBS/ISS this weekend?

Since I suddenly decided I wanted to participate in the world outside of my narrow path from home to work and back, everyone has been asking me what in the world this thing is that I'm doing. It is called Institute for a Democratic Future. Its acronym is IDF. Yes, that is the same acronym as the Israel Defense Forces. (Did you know they have a blog?) It's also the same as the International Diabetes Federation. (They kind of have a blog. More like they feature a few blogs.) And the International Dairy Federation and the Intel Developer Forum and the Immune Deficiency Foundation. 

Anyway, the IDF of which I am a part (which doesn't really have a blog) is an organization dedicated to "educating, motivating and inspiring future democratic and civic leaders in Washington state", according to the group's alumni page on LinkedIn. Honestly, that's the best description of it I've seen so far; much better than the description on the organization's own website. Just to clarify, this is not an internship, or a class, or volunteering. It is a fellowship. How that differs from those things... well it seems like a fellowship has way more street cred. Haha... no seriously though, it is way cooler. Fellowships are for fancy people. So now I'm a fancy person.

Basically what we do is get together a couple weekends a month and learn crazy amounts of local (although usually applicable more broadly) political processes, ideas, and a little insider info from experts in the field. Last weekend we met the city attorney and the mayor, then heard from a panel of marijuana experts. But that's for another post!

There are also travel weekends, where we spend the weekend in another part of the state learning about issues that are important to those areas. This coming weekend we will be doing the "suburban crescent": all of the cities around Seattle. Saturday we start in Everett and work our way to Bellevue, Sunday we start in Renton and make our way down to Puyallup. We also have a presentation to do for our projects some time on Saturday, so that should be exciting. Jeez, I'm realizing just how many other posts I need to write. Note to self: write post about project.

This program has been really eye-opening for me as it shows me just how much I don't know. I am learning so much in these really compressed sessions and I am still so amazed and proud and grateful that I made it in to begin with! That, I guess, is also for another post - if I get into that now, this post will not be an easily readable length and it will not be about the real subject at hand.

Also, I love my cohort of fellows. You can read their bios here. They are a wonderful, curious, smart group of people with diverse backgrounds, interests and areas of expertise. I have yet to form a distaste for any of them (you all know that is HIGHLY unusual, so this speaks volumes for them) and a few of them have quickly become some of my favorite people. Of course, if you're reading this, you're probably in that small circle and don't worry, your positions will not be usurped. Hopefully some of the connections I make through this program will help me to land a career job... where I make lots of money helping people. HAHAHA! Well a girl can dream, right? 

Anyway, stay tuned for posts about:
1. How a customer at Bus Stop convinced me through two years of nagging to change my life
2. How miserable it was being sick during the first IDF weekend and still forcing myself to go
3. How we are the first IDF cohort to have HOMEWORK WTF BOO
4. Olympia Weekend!
5. Last IDF weekend
6. Next IDF weekend!

Whoa. I have a lot of writing to do.