Creatures of the Night and Why it's Been So Long

Hello again friends and family.  

I recently read a blog entry by my current favorite fantasy author Patrick Rothfuss.  He had reentered the blogosphere after months of absence and expressed exactly what I've felt for the past 3 years.

I feel like I used to love to come here to express myself.  Emotions good and bad. Life mundane and interesting. 

It was good practice for writing and a good brain exercise.  But for the past several years life has felt heavy.  Like I was dragging myself through the same mundane tasks over and over again.  Waiting tables, living in Columbia, same old same old.  I felt as if there was nothing interesting enough to put in an entry that people might read.  And any time I had a spark of inspiration I would start an entry and then the idea of completing that entry in the same state of inspiration it started in became exhausting and cumbersome.  I couldn't do it.

Then I moved to Utah.  Exciting, right?  So many new things to experience, so much beauty and variety to spark the imagination.  A new home, a new life, surely there would be so much to share!

But when I got here I found myself in the same drudgery that I had left back in Missouri.  I'd actually taken a step back. I was working at a PIZZA BUFFET. 

(Shakes head sadly)

Those were dark days. 

In any case to sum things up, life was tough when I first got here and the last thing I had mental energy for was writing a blog entry.

Fast forward almost a year to RIGHT NOW!

I have my dream job which builds me up rather than breaks me down.  On top of that for the first time in years I have a fairly regular work schedule giving me late afternoons, evenings, and most weekends off. I live in a good place.  Ogden is just waiting to be explored by me. The mountains are beautiful and inspirational.  I can't wait to build up my outdoorsey muscles.

More importantly I finally find myself in a head space where creativity is a things I strive for again. 

So here I am, starting small so I can work up those brain muscles. 

Below are a few photos I've taken recently of the mountains in Ogden and of a really fun Halloween event we held at Ogden Nature Center called Creatures of the Night.

It's a family friendly, no scare event for young children with a couple food trucks, hot cocoa, "carnival games" (in quotations because they resemble carnival games but are nature/Halloween themed and are all hand made by us), an evening hike called the crepuscular creep (where staff member dress up as creatures active at dusk and teach about those creatures), a few other really fun activities, and ME.  The fortune teller. I think my costume turned out well.  I had on owl puppet that I used sometimes.  I called him Bartholomew.

Children entered my tent and I sat at a table, welcoming them to Madame Greentree's tent of fortune.  There were some lights strung up for effect.  I would ask them some easy, cute question like "what is your favorite thing about Halloween" or "what is your favorite candy".  After they answer I tell them to reach in the cauldron and draw out a creature (there was an assortment of small, mostly African critters made of rubber.  The kind you can buy in bulk.).  I see what they pulled out and then tell them I must consult the spirit of the creature they drew.  I close my eyes and maybe put my hands to my head or something-then I tell them a scripted "fortune" based on the creature they drew.  All the fortunes were based on what that creatures represents as a spiritual totem.  This information I just looked up online.  But it was fun and cute.  I wasn't telling specific futures per say but I would say things like "The spirit of the bear tells me you have great strength" and throw in something silly like  "and that you like to sleep all winter long..., wait...that's not right.  The spirits must be confused".  The I go into something like "the spirits tell me your are mindful and that in your future it will be important to save your energy for when it is most needed."  Something silly like that.  I might tell them a few other traits they have or will have based on the bear.  If they are older I can give more specific fortunes.  Then at the end I would task each child with a quest.  Their quest was to use the power of their animal (the bear, the giraffe, the tiger, etc.) for good and not for evil.  To use it to help their friends and family.  And if they accepted they would receive good luck, good fortune, and much candy in their future. They get to keep their little animal figurine.

It was cute.  It was fun.  I loved it!  (Except when I had a string of 6 teenagers come through...it felt weird giving them childish fortunes they had to know were fake.  One kid asked me if he would be a businessman...I said I couldn't tell future specifics.  All I could do was read auras.

Below are some pics.

I hope you enjoyed this little window into my life.  Look forward to more in the future.  Madame Greentree foresees it. 

My tent made up of carefully clothes pinned sheets and blankets.  It did little to protect from the cold of those two nights.

My cauldron set up.  I really wanted to add dry ice but no one else seemed excited about that idea so I let it go. 

I really wish this owl puppet looked more real.  It would have been more fun that way. He looks very muppety. 

Apparently I have the perfect face (and face shape) for this role.  At least that's what someone told me.  Clearly I am in the wrong profession and should be making my money conning people as I tell them their fortunes.  

There's been some snow on the mountain tops as a little moisture arrived.

Blogs may not be what they used to be, but I'm still here.

Hello again world!  

Family, friends, random person who accidentally finds themselves here, I come to you after 3 years of silence (and another sporadic 3 years of on and off before that) to once again share with you my world.

Such as it is.

Not for popularity or recognition.  Not for validation.

For connection. 

Also because I'm a little rusty in the writing department and I figured dusting off the old blog might be good practice.  

The clacking of the keyboard has a sense of familiarity.  But the flow is slow and sluggish.  

Maybe a quicker wit, a larger vocabulary, and awesome extended metaphors will come back to me again.  For now, I just wanted to take some time to say just how thankful I am for my life right now.

What a blessing it is to even be able to say that.  To recognize all the good.  Because let me tell you...

...Things leading up to this were tough. 

But lets save the toughness for an different reflecting period.  

Today, let me tell you about my job.

(skipping the journey of getting there for now).

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think a high percentage of people would say that working for a non-profit, making next to nothing, having to be a jack of all trades, and wrangling children is their idea of a dream job.

Well.

Let me tell ya. 

It's been mine since 2011.  

Working for a nature center has been my goal since my first taste of it working in Maine at Merryspring Nature Center.  

And if I had any doubts that this job would be just as amazing, they have been since quieted. 

This job at Ogden Nature Center is literally my dream.  

I get to go to a 152 acre nature preserve every day, work with a bunch of other kooky naturalists who love the outdoors, and EDUCATE!

Now if you had asked young Sarah if she had any plans of teaching, like...at ALL, she would have laughed in your face.  She was going to work with animals and own 100 brown puppies and 100 white puppies, dang it!  She was going to be an animal trainer for movies.  Or a Zoologist.  (Or maybe a special effects artist...that was a random one).  

Sarah Lambson an educator?  Nah.

Funnily enough, pretty much everyone in my family has done some educating of some kind or another (formal or informal) and the fact that it runs in my blood is rather encouraging.  

And when I realized I loved it, I ran with it.

And so here I am.  

For anyone interested I'm gonna outline my job below (feel free to skip if you bore easily).

I would try to outline a day in the life for me but the fact is, every day is different.  

For clarity's sake I will say that I was hired because of a grant through iSEE (Informal Science Education Enhancement).  The grant qualifications were that we created a curriculum for first graders that followed along with Utah testing and curriculum standards, teaches science of some kind, and that we attempt to reach every first grade classroom in the state of Utah in three years.

So that's a big part of my job.  Maybe about half.  This half of the time is spent driving all over Utah, going to schools, and teaching the same program about classifying animals into birds, mammals, and reptiles to all first grade classes. We use animal artifacts (pelts, feathers, skulls, etc.) to help teach about the traits different animals have.  And we always bring a live animal (usually a snake). So far we've gone to Park City and Logan.  And let me tell you: The drives are stunning. 

Driving in canyons is my new favorite thing. 

Another 25% of my job is helping with field trips.  These are for schools that want to bring their classes (K-5) to the nature center for a seasonal program.  Right now the have the option of a program called Field Ecology (where we collect bugs, learn about the food web, and explore predator/prey relations).  The second is called Living Close to the Land and teaches about the indigenous peoples of Utah (we built a giant teepee, we show them how to make corn cakes over a real fire, it's cool).  There can have up to 100 kids and we split them into groups and several of us take them around to the different activities around the nature center.  It's exhausting work but it's outside and it's a ton of fun.  

I would say about 10% of my job is other various outreach.  This usually means going off site with various activities to interact with the community.  I've helped out at the farmers market, gone to a block party at Weber state, taken paper making to a middle school, and taught veterans about aquatic macro invertebrates.  Some time in October I'll be helping out with an owl themed outreach and I'm really excited. 

What are we up to, 85%?  

Another 10% is helping out with events.  As a non-profit we do a lot of community fund raising events.  Some are fancy, some are more relaxed.  The one we have coming up that I've been doing a lot of prep for is called Creatures of the Night.  A non-scary, nature/Halloween themed weekend of fun times for kids.  I've helped put together several carnival games (pumpkin golf, skunk tail ring-toss, Bat/Moth), and put together a fortune teller costume for myself at the fortune telling station.  This event seems like a lot of fun and I'm excited for it.  The others I've helped host have been strictly 21+ and have been geared at the big money types around Ogden.  I mean...we don't make money here so we want wealthy people to give it to us, right?  So we throw fancy fundraisers.  I get it, I just wish I didn't have to dress all fancy and be there for it.  

The last 5% of my job is (hopefully) helping the nature center come up with more programming ideas and way to reach out to more and more people so we can continue to expand.  My goal is going to be to create programming for the middle school and high school ages.  My director isn't a huge fan of that age group so I'm not sure she'll be on board.  But I love the chance to reach out to that age and really connect with them on a more in depth level.  I think we could do a lot of good here in Ogden with that age group.  Working with kids that age begins the next generation of environmental stewards and that's kinda the point of a place like this.  

So there you have it. It may sound boring at times (heck, it IS boring at times all those phone calls and writing/re-writing curriculum).  But essentially I get to play games with kids, do arts and crafts, and watch magical connections happen all day.  It's a blast.   

For those of you who weren't sure what I do for a living these days, this is it.  I wouldn't have it any other way right now.  I hope to be here for several more years. 

Stay tuned for more little updates coming soon (like moving into my new place!)

Friends and family, I love you all and I wouldn't have made it here without all your help and support.