Estes Park, CO

Many things have happened over the past few weeks. The most exciting for me is that I was offered a job at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater as an AODA Educator & Behavioral Intervention Case Manager. I won't go into the specifics of the job save to say that I will be helping students make healthy choices regarding drugs and alcohol and helping to manage mental health and safety issues. I will also likely be serving as a conduct administrator and will have the potential to gain some grant writing skills. Even though it's a 50 minute commute from our new little home, I don't mind at all. Everyone I met and interviewed with seemed great and I think the job is a spectacular fit with my interest in the field of student affairs.

Accepting the job was an exciting moment and also a big relief. We weren't planning on taking a vacation at all this summer, but once we knew I'd be employed and we had the time together we decided to take off on a road trip. This is our third annual summer road trip. Our first was to Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Kentucky. Our second was to Idaho, Washington and Oregon. This trip will be to Arizona via Colorado. We set out with no real plan except to visit my alma mater Northern Arizona University and to see some old friends.

We're currently winding down our second day in Estes Park, CO where we've done some absolutely awesome hiking in Rocky Mountain National Park. We made no reservations but managed to snag a 1920's era studio cottage on the Big Thompson River. It's cute and clean and reminds us of a place where people might have honeymooned in simpler times. We have a back deck that we share with our neighbors overlooking in the river.

Yesterday we explored town a bit via the car and lunched at the Estes Park Brewery. The town is very touristy but still relatively tasteful with great peak views. Nonetheless, we decided to stay away from the masses as much as possible, so we didn't peruse any taffy, chocolate or t-shirt shops. That didn't last long when we visited the Stanley Hotel (built in 1909) which was said to be part of the inspiration for the movie The Shining. There were a million families with teenagers there running around with ghost fever. We finished our day with a short hike up a trail in RMNP to Nymph and Dream Lakes.

We rose early today to hike to Chasm Lake which lies below Long's Peak (a "fourteener" to use my beloved's speak). It was the most strenuous and spectacular physical feat I have ever accomplished. The trail starts at approximately 9,400 feet and ends at a lake in a huge cirque at 11,760 feet. A vertical gain of 2,360 at such an altitude and 8.4 miles total is nothing to sneeze at. It was freaking hard! Especially catching my breath at altitude and scrambling straight up rocks at the end to reach Chasm Lake. However, there were amazing views, alpine flora up-close-and-personal (columbine, indian paint brush and lupine), waterfalls, beautiful green melt pools and lots of marmots. It took us about six hours, which was a little slow toward the end because I twisted my ankle on the trail trying to dodge a teenager who was on her way up fast, fast, fast. One of the most impressive and sweet things we saw was a family with two young kids (3 and 4) doing the trail all the way up. The parents were patient, the kids were having fun and they were dedicated. I hope that we can provide such an awesome hiking experience for future little ones, showing them that exercise can be beautiful and fun.

We came back to our cabin and passed out for a while before heading out for some italian food. Doing the vegan thing on the road has been pretty impossible. We've stuck to our vegetarian guns and managed vegan when we're providing our own snackies, but not in restaurants. I'm alright with that, especially after such a work out. I felt no shame about seriously noshing on caesar salad and fettuccine alfredo. No surprise here, but the winning food of the trip has been my homemade almond, cherry and dark chocolate granola bars and homemade garlic hummus on pitas in the car. We are utterly spoiled by good food at home and restaurant food never seems to live up to our expectations. We've remedied this by lowering our expectations to something like, "hey, it's food". Today's physical activity proved that hunger is the best sauce! We were so famished by the time we got to eat dinner that everything tasted great.

First Day Of Freedom

Yesterday was my last day at work. For now I'm embarking on a little unknown journey. Where it will take me, I'm not sure yet. I just recently had two campus interviews (final round) and hopefully at least one of them will work out in my favor. Last night I celebrated a happy hour with my former co-workers and today Ry and I enjoyed the day together. Since he's been taking classes this summer and I've still been working, we decided it was important to spend a day with each other to mark this momentous occasion.

We started out with coffee at the Alterra Foundry on 1st street. Next we visited the West Allis Farmer's Market where we purchased a complete vegetable bounty for only $13. Then we took a long country drive on the back roads to Backyard Bikes, a bike shop and cafe in La Grange, WI. Our final destination was a 3 mile hike on the Scuppernong Trail in the Southern Kettle Moraine area. It was a lovely and easy hike shaded by large pine trees offering filtered light and one overlook view.

All in all it was a great day. Nice to just be able to spend time together in the beautiful sunshine free of any responsibility.


Celebrating with some of my co-workers at Sugar Maple in Bayview.


With Kelley, my Hall Director neighbor.


Beautiful flowers, a present from my co-worker Renee.


Vegetable bounty. Potatoes, garlic scapes, pickling cucumbers, mint, leeks, green beans and broccoli.


Colorful Ba'hai sign outside of La Grange.


Outside Backyard Bikes.


Flowers and lawn ornaments.


Enjoying Mexican organic lollipops.


Trees lining the Scuppernong trail.


A big fat mushroom on the trail. Ry was impressed!

The Holy Grail of Chocolate Donut

I haven't written in a while, that much is clear. I'm both excited and challenged by the transition upon me at the moment. My current job is ending next week and I have nothing lined up. We have moved into our house and the lack of permanency, even after a month, is starting to gnaw at me a bit. I can't shake the feeling of "I should be doing more" or "we should be further along by now".

We're in month two and half of our vegan experiment. It's been hard. We're not experimenting with our cooking as much as we did with our first-time-around-vegan-month-challenge last year. We've been super busy. We've also let go just a bit by incorporating one dairy day into each month. I find myself wondering about the purpose of it all and what lessons I'm trying to reinforce for myself. What is the benefit and learning I intended when I first devised this idea in my mind?

But most of all I find myself fantasizing about two things: a springy donut with lots of chocolate frosting and a cheese pizza. It's marginally ridiculous how much I cannot get these two dangerous foods off my mind. I wonder...have I lifted these silly things up on a pedestal? Is not eating them and desiring them making them too huge? If I allowed myself to eat it, after having learned lessons of moderation in the past two months, would I be able to enact those lessons?

I'm also toying with the idea of amending the experiment further. If we eat vegan all week and allow ourselves one dairy treat each week would the spirit of the experiment remain the same? Would that teach me more...aka reward for healthy behavior? Or would that be giving up?

It's all so ambiguous when I've set the parameters and they feel fluid. And what is my purpose in this whole thing? And what would "failing" really mean if I continued improving my health? Without a true sense of vegan purpose like "I won't eat this because it's harming animals", its hard to find my bearings sometimes. I don't want to feel like I've given up or that I've failed. But truth be told, the experiment is difficult within our social confines.

So, I'm discerning what I want to do and searching for the why.

Rounding A Bend

At work I've been experiencing "chicken dinner month". That's what one of my supervisors has named the multitude of banquets we are required to attend that provide recognition and closure for students at the end of the academic year. All jest aside, they are nice events and overall it's good to spend time with students. However, instead of chicken, I've been exploring various special vegan meal preparations. They have been pretty good, so at one of my most recent banquets I made sure to pull the Dining Manager aside and thank him for the special accomodation.

Last night was our Office of Residece Life yearly banquet, where all RAs, other student employees and professionals gather to celebrate the end of the year. Of all of the banquets and brunches, this one is my favorite because it is for the hall staff that I work with on a daily basis. We share an hor d'oeuvre reception up in the President's private suite and then work our way down to the main ballroom in our Union. We share a lovely meal with about two hundred and fifty of our closest friends, there are several awards given away and recognition is given for those who are leaving their positions.

After having gone the two previous years, I knew this would mean a bit of recognition for my term of service and that I would have to come up on stage. Usually there are several Hall Directors who are leaving, but this year it's just me. Which is a nice book end to the fact that I was the only one who came in during my first year, '07-'08. This part of the banquet seemed to come much earlier than I expected and when I heard my supervisor start saying the words that I knew would call me up there, I got teary. It's very emotional to leave a position that has been good to me and has helped define my identity, especially without knowing where I'm going next. Mary looked down to my table and saw that I was teary. She said, "oh no, she's already crying". By the time I got up on stage I'd stopped and Mary turned back to the table to ask Ryan if he had a hankie. He held up a napkin from the table and all the guests in close proximity to him laughed. Mary thanked me for my service and presented me with a plaque commemorating my time in the Marquette Office of Residence Life.

She shared reflections about my character and work with students. She also talked about how I have deep insight, an uncanny way of expressing myself and a sense of humor that I often showcase in our work group. She started sharing some examples of things that sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember whether I'd shared them with her directly. Then she shared a few more, which elicited big laughs from the entire room and I quickly realized they were anecdotes from my blog, which I was fairly sure she'd never read. I was, of course, extremely nervous being in front of so many people but this pushed me over the edge. I was a little embarassed and a little shocked, but of course it was all in good fun. The tone was loving and I appreciated the kind sentiment of her words. She presented me with a wooden flower box with lovely blue and gold perennials and I made my way off the stage. It was over as quickly as it started, which is sort of how I feel about all of it. I cannot believe how fast this entire year has flown, though at times it felt like molasses.

Before we left, I took pictures with my staff and we took pictures with our Hall Director group. After the banquet some of our co-workers decided to get cocktails at Blu, the bar at the top of the Pfister. It was a nice evening full of laughs and some reflection. I made sure to send my old boss from graduate school a little text letting him know that my time in Residence Life was coming to an end. I thanked him for the ways that he helped shape me into a professional though I'd never worked in this field before. And of course, I reflected on just how far I've come since that time. I have built strong skills and made some amazing connections with people over the past five years in Student Affairs. I'm trying to think of it as rounding a bend, rathering than coming to the end of something. I'm hopeful that the next job will come. I'm trying to be patient and open myself up to whatever comes.

Lastly, I learned two important lessons last night:
1. I am a near-thirty year old woman who does not know how to use a curling iron. So, I'll need to work on that but an hour prior to a celebration banquet is not the time to try.

2. If you write something on the Internet, people will read it and use it in ways you do not intend. I'm thankful that I've generally tried to remain positive and appropriate here, so something does not happen that I regret. However, it was, in this instance, the perfect way for my co-workers to find and share some Megan's original gems.

My Res Life Photo History:


Reilly Hall '05-'06, Northern Arizona University


Reilly Hall '06-'07, Northern Arizona University


With Tara, my grad assistant in McCormick Hall '07-'08, now an RHD at MU


McCormick Hall, '07-'08, Marquette University


Cobeen Hall '08-'09, Marquette University


Cobeen Hall '09-'10, Marquette University


ORL RHD & Prostaff '09-'10, Marquette University

Keeping The Faith

The last few days candidates who could replace me in my job have been on campus. It's not surprising, I knew they would come eventually. After all, I interviewed something like twenty people for the job when I was away at the conference. But now that they are here it's been a little bit hard for me to swallow, which I didn't anticipate. Showing my apartment, showing my office, asking interview questions at the very same table where I sit in meetings, really thinking about the fact that this very person I'm looking at may replace me - all of these things are nothing short of a reality check.

I've been looking forward to this change, but now that it's nearly upon us instead of looming off in the distance, I'm slightly terrified. At this point we have no place to live and I have no place to work. I've applied to nine jobs and have been rejected from two, with no word from the others yet. I have to remind myself to keep the faith. Ryan's been reminding me, but it's difficult at times. If there's order in the world, if God has a plan, then something will come to me. Just keep the faith.