Sunday, March 29, 2009

Beautiful Spring Weather

The weekend started off great. Friday and Saturday were beautiful and I spent a majority of both days outside. On Friday afternoon I spoke with Simi, my green building professor, (I am her research assistant) about my teaching experience at YouthBuild Holyoke. There has been a number of calls coming into her office about this program we have going...and a lot of people are really thrilled wih us. This is great news and it got me thinking a lot about continuing teaching after this first module is over (it ends in 2 weeks - I only have 4 classes remaining). There may be more opportunities opening up as Springfield, MA is also interested in starting up this program. It will be interesting how it all plays out and it's stuff like this that really makes life exciting (not knowing what lies ahead...)

I also got to listen to Sheila Bair speak on Friday afternoon - she is the chairman (not chairwoman, as she didn't want to spend all the money it would have cost to change all the paperwork to say chairwoman) of the FDIC (the federal agency that insures all of our money, up to $250,000, in banks across the U.S.). Forbes Magazine ranked her the second most powerful woman in the world so it was pretty cool to hear her speak. The room was packed - luckily the fire department didn't come in because it definitely would have been a fire hazard. Reporters, film crew, professors, students, business people - old and young - everyone turned out to hear her speak. It was a very good speech and we had great seats (my roommate James and I snuck into the Greek Mythology class which was taking place before Sheila spoke, in the same room, so that we wouldn't have to wait outside with the hundreds of other people and press).



However, I couldn't help but realize, sitting in a room full of business people, in my former college of business that I was enrolled in for 4 years, that I no longer fit-in there. I now surround myself with people who talk more about the environment and less about the business / financials that affect the decisions we as people make. And I'm very glad I attended this lecture and realized this because I am much happier now being where I am, in Holdsworth Hall at UMass, not the Isenberg School of Management. Don't get me wrong, business is still a big part of me and it will be used in whatever I do in the future, but I like the people who I'm surrounded with now as we are much more in-tuned and on the same wavelength.

Whew - rant of a paragraph.

Then I sat outside on the porch of my couch Friday night and had some drinks, listened to good music, and had great conversations with some friends of mine. It was great coming home around 7:00 at night to see my roommates all doing yardwork and making our front yard look INCREDIBLE! The yard looks spectacular now - we all pitched in (them more than me) and we hauled away all the leaves and dead branches that were cluttering our garden and front yard. I will take some pictures of it this week and post them for you all to see.



Some good lookin dudes that I live with. A damn good lookin yard, too.

Saturday came and went but I definitely practiced my living-in-the-moment attitude. We finished the yardwork, played around with jump ropes, doing hand stands, running around, playing soccer and frisbee, and generally having a good mental-health day. In between I got some work done, sent out a TON of letters / e-mails about big brothers big sisters, and then we started barbequing around 6:00. Some friends came over and we had good conversations at the house, ate good food, and biked over to a bar in town before it closed. Great time it was.

This post is getting long so I'll wrap it up with a few things. First, the big brother big sister fundraiser is next Saturday so I'm asking everyone now for help! If you are reading this, I'm sure I have already contacted you by now, but leave a comment or send me an e-mail if you haven't heard about it and feel like donating (iamharb@gmail.com). On Wednesday, Sam and I will be selling lemonade in downtown Amherst. I'm going to have signs, two tables, and hopefully a lot of help from friends to make this a fun and successful few hours. I'll be calling local businesses / supermarkets to see if they are willing to donate anything for Wednesday. I'll post pictures from Wednesday when I have them. On a sad note, our bearded dragon passed away last Monday. She was good for the week+ that we had her, but I blame myself for not having proper ventilation in her environment. Sorry little dragon. If we get another, it will be better prepared the next time. Ok, on to the pictures from the weekend!


Craig raking what looks like a tumbleweed but is just leaves and dead grass.


James and his pile of sticks. We are going to have a pretty big bonfire sometime this week with all of those.


Lunch break - eating our carrots so we can see all the leaves we missed (carrots improve eyesight I'm told)


A whole bunch of ants working together (and on top of each other...) building what seems to be a massive colony. It was really fascinating to watch and if you click any of these pictures it will make them much larger - so check it out if you are interested!


Getting some work done, or trying to, when the weather is super nice. I look comfortable.


Craig looks very wise.

1 comment:

  1. I love reading your blogs. You have a wonderful way expressing yourself and make me want to read. Lots of humor and great information. Will see you soon.

    Love Mom

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