Stuff

Yesterday the rest of our belongings arrived with the movers. So while Jessica directed them on where to put each of the boxes, I strapped Ferguson to my back and walked around the neighborhood to get him out of the way. Celia was happy that one of the first boxes off the truck contained her Lincoln Logs and she set to playing with them intently on the front porch. Her quote of the day was ,"this is just like Christmas."


Indeed it was comforting to be around more of our personal possessions. I took great joy in unpacking my kitchen gear. I didn't realize how much I missed my salt shaker. And my whisk. And my rotary cheese grater. There they were again, in my hands, ready to bring pleasure once again. I remember opining about how I didn't really miss much of my stuff. But maybe that was just my short-term memory in action. It definitely is nice to have more than four pairs of socks. And once again having a radio in every room of the house will bring me joy.

But here's the sad news, folks. I know you all have been wondering about my espresso maker. Unfortunately, it seems that the Gaggia Carezza didn't do so well traveling all the way from Alaska. I had excitedly bought some Illy coffee beans the day before, expecting to brew my own once again. But when I was all ready to pull a shot, my machine couldn't make the water go down the right holes. There it was, hot water leaking all over the place, none of it dripping through my well-ground and expertly tamped coffee grounds.

Alas, I must keep visting my local barista and paying too much for my caffeine fix (gotta keep that dementia at bay...). At least I found a good one only three blocks away - A Fine Grind . Turns out there are at least two businesses here in Portland that specialize in espresso machine repair (figures, don't it?), so I'm hoping to get it fixed soon.

Yesterday I also participated in an all-day meeting of the Alaska Suicide Prevention Council. I've applied for a seat on the Council (one reserved for an adult affiliated with a youth-serving organization), and it seems that my appointment by Governor Palin could be in the works. It hasn't officially happened yet, but I was invited to attend the meeting in anticipation of the announcement. The body meets four times a year and was in Juneau for a daylong meeting followed by a day of visiting with Legislators. The council is set to sunset this year and legislation is pending to extend the life of the council for another four years.

For those that don't know, suicide is happening at staggering rates in Alaska, particularly in rural Alaska. The statistics are horrifying. In parts of Northwest Alaska, the rate of suicide rate is more than seven times the national average. During my years in Alaska, I've know far too many people affected by suicide, particularly that by young people. If you'd like to learn more about this epidemic problem, you can visit the council's webpage here. I feel very strongly about doing what I can to combat the problem. I'm particularly interested in using research to get to the root cause of what's happening here.

Today, I was on campus and had a meeting with my mentor Tom Keller. We spent some time going over one of his research projects which I'm hoping to help analyze. He studied 27 school-based matches in an in-depth study a few years ago. We want to go back into the data and see if there's anything we can find regading the youth and mentor's individual characteristics and how these affected relationship quality. He gave me a copy of the data set and I will be excited to start poking around there. We're going to meet again tomorrow with one of his graduate students and talk more about our other project, looking into data collected in the Summer Institute on Youth Mentoring.

Today I also proudly joined the many cyclists in this city who commute to work. I'm amazed by the number of people riding bikes in this town. My commute is perfect - about 15-20 minutes. Just enough to get the heart pumping, but not too long to make you completely sweaty by the end of the day. I also became a member of the PSU bike co-op today, a totally cool thing. You get access to all their repair tools, and they even have a mechanic on duty that can coach you and sell you cheap gear.

Before I retire for the evening, I'm going to say some more prayers for little Hailey. She's five-year old girl in Celia's daycare back in Juneau. Normally, she's full of joy and life and her eyes sparkle with a special brightness. Right now, she's in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, medivaced there after being in a head-on collision with her mom and little sister. I'm not sure I believe in Justice any more, but can't there be a little piece of it somewhere around, to help this little girl and her family pull through this ordeal?