Santa Fe

I spent my first week with WildEarth Guardians in Santa Fe, where the main office is located. I got to know some of my colleagues and had a week-long immersion into my new job. I was working most of the time and didn't take many pictures. I did love the Santa Fe water though; my hair looked fabulous without any frizz.

All of the buildings around downtown were adobe and I think it's a pattern that continues throughout the city. I got a shuttle ride one morning and was told there's a requirement to build with adobe in the historic parts of town or at least cover the buildings so the facade looks adobe.

The hotel I stayed in had a very Santa Fe look. The bedspread really tied the room together. The southwest theme was all over town and a little too "in my face." I don't think I could live there but I enjoyed it for the week.

One thing I loved, was when I was looking for souvenirs, I came across something that reminded me of my grandparents. My paternal grandfather loved the southwest and the people who traditionally lived there. They traveled a lot and I remember their home being filled with art and artifacts from the region. While I was in a fabulous souvenir store, I came across a display with Storytellers. I was immediately transported back to my grandparents' home and the hours I spent there as a child. I used to make up stories in my mind about what these women were telling the children. I did a bit of research and these came around in the 1960s.
They are now very popular:

As time went on, more and more artists started making their own storyteller dolls, each adapting their own unique style and implementing their own beliefs based on their heritage. Today, the term storyteller refers to any human or animal figure that is covered with smaller children or animals. They have become one of the most collectible and sought after forms of clay art.  - PuebloDirect.com

It snowed my first morning in town, which was odd to see in the desert. That evening, I was offered the opportunity to hear a talk by our River Program Director and jumped in. We drove up to the hills and it was beautiful to see the snow speckled hills and spots of green trees.

Never having been to New Mexico, I was surprised at the amount of green. It's mostly the trees but there was more than I expected. I soaked up the sun on my lunches and realized how much I've truly missed vitamin D. Portland winters seem to be getting longer and drearier with each year we live here. Santa Fe was a nice respite from the gray of the Pacific NW.

I explored the foods of Santa Fe for lunches and dinners. I normally eat out once a week or less, so it was a lot of rich food. I was glad to have Brandt's home cooking when I got back. All of the places I went were great but the one worth taking a picture was a little place near the office. I got a lamb burger (going out of my comfort zone) and it was locally raised lamb, house-made English muffin, house-made ketchup, and duck fat fries. It was great! I'm a ketchup-aholic and didn't care for the house-made ketchup at all. The fries made with duck fat were great but I didn't like the reminder that I was eating duck fat. They were so delicious that it wasn't hard to eat them though. The presentation was great too!

The airport was super tiny, and adorable. It was a nice throwback to when TSA didn't destroy our lives and make us wish shoe bombers, underwear bombers, and the like, still didn't exist. I was able to show up an hour before my flight, check in right away, and then I got to play on my new work laptop.

Santa Fe doesn't have any flights directly to Portland (and vice versa) so I had a layover in Denver. I was impressed with the plane back to PDX. They had screens that folded out and had our safety instructions. They also played a TV show, but it was with Steve Harvey and he's a little hard to watch because I think he's always over-acting. I'll watch Family Feud all day because I'm awesome at guessing the answers but anything else with him, I avoid. I was able to plug in my headphones and switch to various "radio" stations and get in a good nap.

To end my story of my first week at Guardians, I want to circle back to my first day. We went to a taste test for the Gala, which will take place in October. My allergies had come back due to the temperature change and one of the staff brought me a sinus-cleansing tea. Each tea bag has something on the paper on the end. Mine is worth sharing and perfect metaphor for my new job.

Making My Dream a Reality

As far back as I can remember, I've always been passionate about animals and nature. I spent summers outdoors and loved playing in the creeks that wind through Cowley County. I wasn't afraid to climb a tree in a dress or pick up a toad I found in the garden. I loved getting dirty and still do.

I've always gone out of my way to recycle and I've been hounding Brandt to use reusable bags (we're almost there!). A primary reason for moving to Oregon was my desire to live in a place that values the environment as much as I do and hopefully get a job working to save the natural world. In April, I finally made that dream a reality and joined WildEarth Guardians as their Membership Manager.

Guardians' mission is protect and restore wildlife, wild places, wild rivers, and the health of the American West. We believe in respecting and valuing nature, which has always been my personal belief. We focus on protecting public lands and rivers as well as the wildlife that live on them. We're fighting to keep national monuments public and prevent any more oil and gas leases on public land. We're passionate about the Rio Grande's right to its own water and fighting to keep it from drying up, as it does every year due to over consumption. We're currently fighting Colorado Parks and Wildlife's new policy to kill bears and mountain lions in a "study" to see how it affects mule deer populations. They're shooting the carnivores from helicopters, using bear traps, chasing them down with hounds, and poisoning them. Not only is this inhumanely killing the bears and mountain lions but it's not truly a study because they don't know how many are living in the wild and there's science showing the mule deer aren't repopulating as fast as CPW would like due to loss of habitat, not predation. The kicker is that citizens have come out in force against this plan and CPW has gone ahead any way.

We have offices based across the West and some people who work from home if they don't live near an office. Our staff retreat a few weeks ago offered me my first opportunity to meet everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting my colleagues and learning about our programs. I'm proud to join an organization of people who are as passionate about saving our natural world as much as I am. They're intelligent, strong-willed, and will do what it takes to speak for the wildlife across the west and their habitats.

We speak for the voiceless and I've wanted to dedicate my life to restoring and saving nature before humanity completely destroys it. This job gives me the opportunity to dedicate my career to that which I am most passionate. I am truly looking forward to standing up for the native species, rivers, and lands in the West.