My work, my ideas, my faith, my life
In December 2006, I graduated from Concordia University in Portland, Oregon. I received a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree. As part of my senior year, I decided to take voice lessons for senior credit. My teacher was Konstantin Kvach. He was magnificent. (more…)
When I was about seven years old, my stepbrother would take me around to the neighbors and bet them that I could spell any word they asked me to spell. Fortunately, his friends weren’t scholars by any means, so I never got asked anything I couldn’t handle.
One of them asked me if I could spell “radioactivity”, which I obliged easily. I doubt any of them knew for certain that I was right, but I knew it and I was proud.
Despite my stepbrother using me as a side show, he was not particularly happy that I was so smart. He had trouble in school and somehow I got punished for it.
Between the ages of 5 and 9, we lived in Norwalk, California on Oracle Street. It was an interesting place to live. Across the large street was the California State Hospital for mentally ill patients. We would often get late-night visitors at our back door, inmates who had escaped and climbed over our brick fence.
It was both scary and exhilerating. I remember one night, some man was banging on our back door, yelling, “Lucille! I know you’re in there. Come out of there or I’m coming in.” We called the police and it was a patient from the hospital.
We eventually got a German Shepherd, or as we knew it then, a Police Dog. His name was Chief Sacagawea of Echo Valley, but we just called him Chief. He was AKC registered.
We taught him to attack anyone who came over the wall. The nocturnal visits from patients of the hospital ceased after a few butts got bitten. Good times.
In March of 2007, I took clients to visit Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River between the states of Oregon and Washington. I took some photographs and videos of the dam, visitors center, power house, and locks. I put them together into this little film. We were fortunate that day that the locks were being closed the next day for repairs. It meant there was a lot of traffic coming down the river trying to get through the lock before it would be closed for two weeks. We happened to catch a barge full of wheat going through the lock. There was just inches between the sides of the barge and the sides of the lock, but the pilot boat inserted the barge into the lock with only one very brief and minor touching of the sides. It was very impressive. The barge also barely fit lengthwise, but the pilot stopped at exactly the right spot for the gates to open and close. (more…)
I was recently diagnosed with Type II Diabetes. The nutrionist said I could have the occasional sugary soda as long as I count it as a carbohyhdrate exchange and not exceed my carbohydrate allowance. Well, that doesn’t help much if you go to a a fast food place with friends or to a theatre to catch a movie. Your choices are limited to diet cola and water. Do the cola companies, Coke and Pepsi, have some kind of monopoly going here? My problem with this choice is that the colas have caffeine and I don’t want caffeine. (more…)
It seems to run in my family on my mother’s side that children begin life small and very thin. All of my cousins on that side of my family and all of my aunts–my mother’s sisters–were so thin as children and adolescents that people thought they were undernourished. It is also a trait of these same people, when they reach the age of about nineteen, to balloon into being as overweight as they were underweight. It was exactly the same for me, though not universal among my cousins. Some of them remained very thin. (more…)
In 1980, I was working at a warehouse job. I went out to the dock to receive a case of cash register tape. I was standing on the dock and a truck driver was handing it up to me from the ground level. I felt a twinge in my back, but continued working the rest of the day. (more…)
I’ve always had an affinity for people and the things they deal with. My mother thought of me as mature beyond my years, and it’s probably true. I still was a child when I needed to be, but I’ve had a sense of social justice and tolerance that would have made for a good social worker. (more…)
