A Paddler's Gratitude

One crisp Sunday morning, the crimson sunrise peered over Fremont's Peak while its gentle sun rays awaken Monterey Beach.  As a child, I imagined a Cinderella castle nestled atop this mountain with a winding trail to its draw bridge. Now, as an adult, I felt the warmth of the rising sun as my closest paddling friends and I guided our 40' Hawaiian canoe into the Pacific Ocean.  In that moment, I thought how fortunate I am to belong to an ohana, a family that believes our environment, our Spirit, and our God are intrinsically combined. And how I wished the underserved could someday have this experience. Mahalo.

Reassessing Where I'm At

Good morning Blogspot. Now that I'm totally back in California, it's a bit overwhelming. Just looking at the amount of boxes and "stuff" I've accumulated is astonishing. Oh, a bit of history. I've graduated with a MSBA from Colorado State in 12/09 and left my apartment contents in a storage facility. If you could image graduating a week before Xmas during snow season and clearing out an apartment. Needless to say, I threw my personal belongings into storage, flew back to central California for the holidays, flew back to CO to maybe find a job but didn't, then drove back in my Honda with my cats to start again as a single, educated, middle-aged, childless, Pacific Islander woman. I swore I'd come back some day when I could afford it to get my 'stuff' from Colorado.

Fast forward: Through a comedy of trials and tribulations, my stuff made it from CO to CA and finally to the dining room (this could be a movie!). Yes, da dining room. I've got 3 different sizes of boxes, excluding cardboard boxes covering the patio window. My roommate Stacey is going to have a fit when she gets back from her working vacation. What the hell was I thinking when I went off to grad school. Well, I was going through a divorce in 2008, needed to get away from CA, and immersed myself in my education (people, planet, profit)...something I should have finished a few generations ago. Better late than never, because going nowhere ever is where I felt where I was going. Retirement? What's that?

In taking a step back from the materialism of it all, these were things I thought I needed. In retrospect, the correct word is wanted. Heck, I haven't seen this stuff in over 1.5 years. Okay, I admit, I really missed my comfy bed and my cats remembered it too. Many of my items are nice-ities and some of clothing I can't fit into. That's a bone of contention with me because I can't afford what I really want and the stuff I do like...well, you know already.

Then it occurred to me, I've lost that inner spark, plain and simple. Just being honest. It's the truth to my stalemate. What gets me going are the true friends and family that surround me. I'm very fortunate to live modestly in the beautiful Monterey Bay and am open to relocation wherever my new career takes me.

So, what I'm really saying is I'm sick of being sick on many levels. One of those levels is clearly shown in the movie "Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead" by Joe Cross. My part time career as an educator is personally rewarding but nowhere close to break even financially. Well, there's hope. My latest fortune cookie says "Remember three months from this date. Good things are in store for you." God help me. I believe she works wonders!

Folks, yesterday was 7-7-2011. Even rhymes, just say it out loud. Let the adventure begin.

Year 2010 in Retrospect

My 2010 kicked off with a bang in Palm Springs! When reality set in, I was soon looking for a job. First, I was between CA and CO in the first half of the year. Then by March, I was somewhere driving between my brother's place in Silicon Valley and the Central Valley. Spring was certainly mentally exhausting. By summer, I spent a month in Pacific Grove looking for a job in the Monterey area. A couple of trips to southern CA and a Lost Hills venture filled my summer time. For exercise, I paddled and placed in a California Outrigger State Championship with my team, Ke Kai O'Uhane (Spirit of the Sea). An unforgettable 500 meters, all out power, 40' - 6 person canoe turning on a dime (250 meter mark). Still needed a job and I couldn't even get hired as a part time driver for Jamba Juice. Perhaps I should take my master's off of those applications.

By late summer, the chairwoman, Dr. Shockley, hired me on part time at CSU - Monterey Bay to teach an introductory business computing class. I guess one could say I've 'somewhat' settled down in the Monterey, California region. Just when I thought I left school, I'm on the other side of the podium! On the first day of class this is what I was thinking "OMG, what am I going to say/talking about/do in the next two hours? All I've ever done was give 10 minute MS PowerPoint presentations." I managed to learn how to teach, I think, because from the student projects, the majority of the students learned something. Transference of knowledge maybe an inherent trait for parents, but I tell you my cats only listen when they want to.

Suffice to say my part-time teaching contract at ends January 3, 2011 and I will become a free agent again...that is unless I'm rehired (I'll know on that day). The semester has ended, papers and presentations are just about all graded, and I need a rest. Not fun having laryngitis during the week of finals.

Although I look forward to teaching again part-time, but my heart is still set on pursuing my social entrepreneurship ventures: (1) Online community based network (TBA soon), & (2) Coffee / Tea venture in Ethiopia. An interesting thing happened while I was deleting files teaching at my other adult ed class -- I came across the brochure from our Ethiopian coffee partner! Wow. Imagine that. Amongst all the computers in the huge state of California, I just happened to be in the right time, right place to find where the brochure was created 3 months before I received my first copy (created March, received June). It traveled all the way around the world and back, only for me to discover it in the same exact spot of creation. I must be doing something right or just maybe I really am following my passion.

Now to get this kicked off the ground: Coffee is ready! Starbucks and Peets bought the last batch from our Ethiopian partner, so we must have something good. Another story: So, there I am, at my local Starbucks, buying a traveler coffee box for my CSUMB students 8am class/Monday. It's the day of our Excel Exam (mid term if you will). As I wait for the box, I look up and low & behold -- a bag of Ethiopian coffee, organically certified, and from the Limmu region is sitting on the shelf. I'm cracking it open on Xmas but Jimbo, if you're reading this, I'll send you a picture. Holy Buckets!

Tea -- under development. Sample leaves are at our master blender. In addition, we are in need to have the coffee leaves tested for ORACs (http://www.antioxidants-4-life.com/superantioxidants.html). My partner, Jim, is back from Ethiopian, after having completed a six month internship with OxFam (I believe). I look forward in furthering our development early next year.

My old project team, AYZH International, has become a business and has won numerous awards. I am very proud of this team (http://www.ayzh.com) and my education that has brought me to this point.

In retrospect, I could not have gone through this year without the love and support of many friends and certainly my family. Countless Internet hours, faxes, and heartache were spent searching for a job. Next year, I'll be using a much different active search method.

Although January 3rd starts off with my hula class and hopefully a job, I look forward to this entire year in anticipation to do a little bit of good for a whole lot of people.

Mahalo, and thank you all from the bottom of my heart!

~Janell

Update: End of a Journey, onto the Next

India: For those who wish to view my summer internship to India, please search my first/lastname in Facebook and I'll add you as a 'Friend.'

Final semester: We are in our 10th out of 16 weeks at Colorado State. Just finished draft I of my thesis. It's first snow and I'm feeling pretty weak. So I'll be staying home and nursing myself back to a healthy state.

After this semester: I'm considering putting together a non-profit organization that teaches people how to measure their 'sustainability' efforts. So in other words, does the paper recycling you do make a dent in the amount of paper products you consume? How about, does the amount of times you ride your bike to school/work compensate for the one plane trip to take for your vacation? Simple things like that. So, I'm off to do some research on metrics, databases, etc.

Certainly, if you know of an uncomplicated measurement tool that a common person who does not need to have a PhD to understand what they're reading, heck, I'd love to hear about it. Might save me sometime or reinforce my theory.

Your thoughts and constructive criticism are most welcomed!

Trek to India: Another mad dash

On Sunday afternoon, we arrive at 3:30 pm in JFK International Airport, NYC as opposed to 4:30. Immediately, I call Russell, a good friend of mine for the better part of 15 years, to let him know we’re here. Earlier I arranged to have dinner with him and his fiancé, Nancy Kelly. He’s heading into his senior year in biochemistry at Columbia while Nancy is a RDBMS person and going to Columbia part time. Kellen came along too (pics & video to follow)!

When Kellen and I got to JFK airport, we headed for Qatar Airways to get our boarding passes. Earlier we couldn’t get them because their doors were closed. As we walked to the main area where they were, we bumped into their business section that didn’t have a line. The ticket agents prompted helped Kellen. She asked if I could accompany her into the business lounge because we were traveling together (I was traveling economy so we weren’t sure); and they said yes! Sweeeeet. We had about an hour or so to kill before boarding started and we could see where they were boarding from where we sat in the business lounge.

Probably because it was so late at night, there was hardly anyone there. The cosmos drink we had back in Queens was pretty weak and Kellen suggested another one. Yummy. We loaded up on some snacks while we were there. Being that I am going into a Muslim country, I went into the restroom to put a Indian top on that Nandini gave me (Thanks Nan!).

Next thing you know, Kellen is screaming at me, “Come on Janell, we gotta go! They just called us to board the plane and we’re the last ones again!” Off she went. OMG, not again. Crrrrap! I powered down the laptop, stuffed by bag, searched for my boarding pass, and made like rabbit in my Indian getup.

Oh yes, the trek continues...

Trek to India: A mad dash to catch a flight

On Sunday, June 14th, Green Ride Co picked me up about 6:10 am. As the driver opened up the trunk for the luggage, he turned to me and said, "Now you look familiar. Where you at the Northern Colorado Entrepreneur's Network recently?" My answer: Yes, I presented our water filter, SHEBA, to a crowd of over 100 people. As a matter of fact, I'm going to India to study rural women and their needs and that bag you're holding contains the surveys me and my collegues will be using.

So, off we go to the Denver Airport. I'm hanging out at McD's typing away and passing time waiting to board; soon Kellenmy team mate, meets up with me. She's telling me about her morning and how she got the timing mixed up a bit. Two minutes before the closing time, she barely makes it in for the baggage check in and the Delta folks were kind enough to let her in through the employee's line. Just as she said that, we hear our names being called for last chance to board our Delta Flight to JFK. Kellen makes a mad hatter's dash to the goal line while I'm scrabbling like an idiot to the power down my slow laptop, find my ticket, & zipper up the carry on. She makes it and I follow suit.

The trek to India and our adventure continues...

Am I seeing things? Thunder, lightening, funnel clouds, oh my!

Yesterday, on my way down on Hiway 25 to Denver to pickup a girlfriend, I could have swore my right eye had issues with flashing lights. More of a nerve thing. I ignored it and continued singing with the radio.

Then, all of the sudden, just like those radio broadcasts when a period of silence followed by a static sounding announcement of the American Broadcast System, "If you are in South Weld County (which I was) there is a tornado watch in effect for the next 30 minutes; and there are severe thunder storms in Denver" (Courtesy: The Denver Channel). Nice to know that my right eye is in tact. Would have been interesting to see flying cows, like the movies (what's that movie name?)...

By the time my girlfriend and I made it home to Fort Collins, the ground was dry, the sun was shining, the clouds were very turbulent, and I was still singing to the radio.