MorninNoonanNight
posted by
Barbara
@
2:48 PM
This blog begins with me starting a whole new phase of my life. Last week I relocated back to Seattle after enjoying my life as an artist/student in San Francisco for 5 years. We've returned to our favorite city to temporarily live with my boyfriend's sister (my best friend) in her home. There's plenty of room despite the 2 cats and I've cornered off a section for studio space so I can continue to paint.
But first - the long version of my bio wouldn't fit behind that link in the upper right of this page - so here's a little bit more about me...
It's hard to know where to start but here's a short description of my life. After following the traditional career path in Medical Technology, I moved to Seattle where I could work and hike on the same days. I was ready for any place that had mountains and water within close range. Well working in a laboratory inside - especially urgent care - left me frustrated, and so I did the typical thing.... I took a leave of absence and drove tour buses in an Eskimo village 30 miles above the arctic circle in Alaska. I can still hear my mom "You are paying for your student loans how?" Thus became the initial realization that change can be really healthy.
The company who owned the buses also owned small passenger vessels in Tahiti, Panama and operated cruises in Southeast Alaska. I brushed up on my Spanish which didn't work since I was sent to French Polynesia. Oh well - I'm now skilled at teaching Tahitian dance lessons, making flower leis, and giving snorkeling instructions. Add to that the education and growth of living on a very small ship with French, Tahitian and Americans that are willing to work and play hard.
Fortunately the next vessel the company acquired cruised to the Caribbean and also along the Eastern US waterways. Count me in! I continued to meet crew that I'm still in contact with after all these years. They were core to my education and growth - as travel can be. Next it was giving natural history bird watching tours on an island in the Bering Sea. There I lived two summers and was referred to as... "the other white woman with glasses". Imagine being on an Aleutian island between Russia and Alaska (pop 600) and when the beautician arrived once a month, every woman had the same perm within a week. But the minute one or two of them didn't like the haircut, the hairdresser was voted off the island.
When it came time to return to the land, I felt like a marine iguana not knowing if I should be living on land or on the sea. I ended up in Human Resources and provided others the opportunity to go to work aboard ships. I felt like I had been handed a magic wand and I could touch them and change their lives. Bankers, medical supply salesmen, teachers, travelers, students.... from all over the US applied and after careful screening were placed on the ships. Many of them are still in touch and I read their blogs now.
Eventually the binds of working in an office returned and I started taking art classes to breathe again. It was a newfound skill that I've enhanced and taken to a new level over the past few years. I love being a student and will continue to be one the rest of my life. There you have it, I've gone from Director of Human Resources to Dog Walker and can't wait to see what I end up with next. Hopefully the pay will be better and I won't have to carry plastic bags in my pockets all the time.
My goal this next few months is to re-enter the world of job seeking and with any luck locate something as unconventional as most of the jobs I've enjoyed in my life.
So typically where do you start looking for work? Sunday's paper - and here's the first classified I found that I had to share....
Dance Instructors Ballroom, Latin and Swing No exp necessary. Fast growing school needs energetic, well groomed individual for FT teaching positions. Free training provided. Must love people and be career oriented. Interview req'd. Call M-F 2-6pm.
Hmm - has potential though the interview is typically during my nap time.
It's exciting to be back in Seattle where greenery surrounds you, as do the mountains. This is the perfect time of the year when the days of summer are still lingering and the Japanese maples are beginning to turn red. As a photographer I'll be bringing you along with many photos though not immediately. Remember when you first move and realize that all those creature comforts you had like a printer and internet access were things you took for granted? Well I'm here to say that the library system in Seattle has been very kind to me.
After so many years of living on ships and traveling, I'm fascinated at discovering cities and their inner workings. I've learned that the world gets smaller all the time. Three days in Washington state and I was having lunch in a small town south of here and stumbled upon an art group painting a model. The only person I met happened to post her artwork the next day on an international artists web site to which I belong. So we met again only this time in cyber space.
In the mean time, I'm planning a trip back to California to pack our final items. I have my final Open Studios art show on Oct. 15 & 16th at Fort Mason and then drive back north to start anew. Hope you can join me.
But first - the long version of my bio wouldn't fit behind that link in the upper right of this page - so here's a little bit more about me...
It's hard to know where to start but here's a short description of my life. After following the traditional career path in Medical Technology, I moved to Seattle where I could work and hike on the same days. I was ready for any place that had mountains and water within close range. Well working in a laboratory inside - especially urgent care - left me frustrated, and so I did the typical thing.... I took a leave of absence and drove tour buses in an Eskimo village 30 miles above the arctic circle in Alaska. I can still hear my mom "You are paying for your student loans how?" Thus became the initial realization that change can be really healthy.
The company who owned the buses also owned small passenger vessels in Tahiti, Panama and operated cruises in Southeast Alaska. I brushed up on my Spanish which didn't work since I was sent to French Polynesia. Oh well - I'm now skilled at teaching Tahitian dance lessons, making flower leis, and giving snorkeling instructions. Add to that the education and growth of living on a very small ship with French, Tahitian and Americans that are willing to work and play hard.
Fortunately the next vessel the company acquired cruised to the Caribbean and also along the Eastern US waterways. Count me in! I continued to meet crew that I'm still in contact with after all these years. They were core to my education and growth - as travel can be. Next it was giving natural history bird watching tours on an island in the Bering Sea. There I lived two summers and was referred to as... "the other white woman with glasses". Imagine being on an Aleutian island between Russia and Alaska (pop 600) and when the beautician arrived once a month, every woman had the same perm within a week. But the minute one or two of them didn't like the haircut, the hairdresser was voted off the island.
When it came time to return to the land, I felt like a marine iguana not knowing if I should be living on land or on the sea. I ended up in Human Resources and provided others the opportunity to go to work aboard ships. I felt like I had been handed a magic wand and I could touch them and change their lives. Bankers, medical supply salesmen, teachers, travelers, students.... from all over the US applied and after careful screening were placed on the ships. Many of them are still in touch and I read their blogs now.
Eventually the binds of working in an office returned and I started taking art classes to breathe again. It was a newfound skill that I've enhanced and taken to a new level over the past few years. I love being a student and will continue to be one the rest of my life. There you have it, I've gone from Director of Human Resources to Dog Walker and can't wait to see what I end up with next. Hopefully the pay will be better and I won't have to carry plastic bags in my pockets all the time.
My goal this next few months is to re-enter the world of job seeking and with any luck locate something as unconventional as most of the jobs I've enjoyed in my life.
So typically where do you start looking for work? Sunday's paper - and here's the first classified I found that I had to share....
Dance Instructors Ballroom, Latin and Swing No exp necessary. Fast growing school needs energetic, well groomed individual for FT teaching positions. Free training provided. Must love people and be career oriented. Interview req'd. Call M-F 2-6pm.
Hmm - has potential though the interview is typically during my nap time.
It's exciting to be back in Seattle where greenery surrounds you, as do the mountains. This is the perfect time of the year when the days of summer are still lingering and the Japanese maples are beginning to turn red. As a photographer I'll be bringing you along with many photos though not immediately. Remember when you first move and realize that all those creature comforts you had like a printer and internet access were things you took for granted? Well I'm here to say that the library system in Seattle has been very kind to me.
After so many years of living on ships and traveling, I'm fascinated at discovering cities and their inner workings. I've learned that the world gets smaller all the time. Three days in Washington state and I was having lunch in a small town south of here and stumbled upon an art group painting a model. The only person I met happened to post her artwork the next day on an international artists web site to which I belong. So we met again only this time in cyber space.
In the mean time, I'm planning a trip back to California to pack our final items. I have my final Open Studios art show on Oct. 15 & 16th at Fort Mason and then drive back north to start anew. Hope you can join me.
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