The Good News

As temperatures drop in Vermont while typing with freezing fingers on this keyboard, I breath a sigh of relief bearing some good news on the job front. After about of a month from my first phone interview to now, UVM's director of sustainability was authorized by the powers that be to tell me that I got the Sustainability Projects Coordinator position. I have to wait one more day for things to be official, but things will be starting immediately as I attend some sustainability conferences starting next week.

Josh and I just got back from Bioneers, which was a bit of an adventure. First, we drove down from VT to Boston to fly out of Logan on Thursday. The flight was uneventful but we got screwed out of our room at the Marin Headlands Hostel because we were not able to check in on time (we arrived at Oakland Airport late in the evening) and they canceled our reservation even though we intended to stay for the rest of the weekend. They had the audacity to charge my card because it was their policy. Long story short...we had to spend double and stay at an airport hotel. At Bioneers, my friend and former busmate, Cori, from the Audubon Expedition Institute helped us out by inviting us to her and her partner's apartment in San Francisco. It worked out for the better because we got to hang out with Cori and another busmate Elana, and hung out with our best man to be, Pincus, in San Francisco for a night of high price drinks at the Top of the Mark.

The plenary speeches at Bioneers were awesome with Bill McKibben, Ray Anderson, Janine Benyus, Naomi Klein, etc. and some of the workshops were interesting with Annie Leonard (creator of the web film "The Story of Stuff") and Andy Revkin (NY Times writer of Dot Earth blog). The only difficulty I had was with the hypocrisy of the event...no public transit (people had to drive there), and tons of vendors with new agey stuff (alkaline water, purifying foot baths, etc.) that represented unnecessary consumption. Plus the hippie dippie liberal liberals were a bit much as they fawned over and idealized indigenous people and Asians, searching for answers on how to change individually in light of climate change. Something I appreciate about Annie Leonard is that she said that individual change is good and all, but we really need systemic change in how the stuff we consume is made and distributed.

Nonetheless, I am in rush to get all my ducks in a row. Josh and I returned from our trip tired and sick, but we are gradually getting some much need rest and on our way to going full force with our careers.