The Return of Ranger Tiff

While it feels good to get on my feet again and adopt a new daily routine, I must admit that I am quite exhausted after two very fast-paced days of park ranger training at the Lincoln Home National Historic Site! I can't wait to start giving tours along with all of the other responsibilities I will have, but it overwhelms me a bit to think about it all at once. So I will remember Mom and Dad's good advice for starting a new job, semester, or anything else: just take things one day at a time. I am very grateful to have had my job at the Natchez National Historical Park before working at the Lincoln Home because things were much more slow and casual in Natchez than they will be here in Springfield. So Natchez was the perfect place for me to start working with the National Park Service. A really busy day in Natchez meant 50-100 visitors; whereas on a normal day at the Lincoln Home, 1,000 people go through the house!!!! That is a significantly larger crowd. In Natchez my supervisors were extremely casual about our uniforms. We always had to look nice, but as long as we had our NPS shirt and pants on, we were fine. Wearing a uniform at the Lincoln Home means that you will always have shiny shoes, you will wear your hat outside at ALL times, and the name bar you wear on your shirt will be exactly the width of a nickel above your right front pocket. I'm having to learn some of the nitty-gritty park uniform etiquette, but it shouldn't be too different from how I dressed before anyway--I just didn't know that I had to dress a very specific way before. But it's all good--the park superintendent here just likes to maintain a very professional appearance. I am one of nine new employees being hired, making a total of 26 interpretive rangers. That is a few more than the total of eight rangers we had at Melrose! As I mentioned, I am slightly overwhelmed, but luckily I have been interested in Abraham Lincoln and his family for a long time, so I at least have some background on all of the material I'll need to share with people.

Yesterday we mostly did administrative things. We had loads of paperwork to fill out, and then we learned about the proper way to wear a uniform, etc., etc. We spent most of the day today walking around outside in the rain learning the layout of the Lincoln neighborhood. We also walked to the Great Western Depot from where Abraham Lincoln left for Washington and gave his famous "Here I Have Lived" speech. Even though the NPS does not own the depot, the company that does pays the NPS to have a staff member over there every now and then. Tomorrow we will be learning about park safety issues. I am especially looking forward to officially meeting the park ranger puppy! I have seen him walking around with his cute little ranger badge on his collar, but I haven't gotten to actually meet him yet.

As part of our training we have been watching a number of NPS promotional videos. The big thing these days is to tie Abraham Lincoln to the Civil Rights Movement--which is completely understandable because he did indeed pave the way for the freedom of African Americans. All of the promo videos show pictures of Lincoln sights which then fade into footage from Civil Rights marches, etc. That is cool, but what has bothered me a bit is that the footage from the Civil Rights marches then fade into footage from gay rights protests and pro-abortion rallies! Ummmmm, those are completely different ballgames. Lincoln did work to free the slave--not to liberate gay people or make abortion legal. It concerns me that people (even the National Park Service which prides itself on being politically neutral, etc.) associates Lincoln with all kinds of protests. Slavery is morally wrong; abortion is morally wrong; so you can bet that Lincoln with his anti-slavery ideals would have anti-abortion ideals!! But anyway, few people have had as significant of an impact on history as Abraham Lincoln. I am truly looking forward to delving into the life of the Lincolns in Springfield and helping visitors understand how his time here in Illinois shaped his character and prepared him to become our 16th President and lead our nation through one of its darkest hours.

Global Warming!

Wait a minute, this is not global warming. Where is the global warming??? We could certainly use some here in Illinois; and I know that they would probably appreciate some in Utah too! And wasn't there a big blizzard in North Dakota last week? Hmmmmm. It reminds me of the day at school in Charleston last year when it had to be at least -10 outside. The wind was blowing, it was snowing, and my liberal classmates and I were having lunch and watching CNN. On TV they were showing Al Gore receiving his Nobel Peace Prize for his work in bringing global warming to light. All of my classmates were nodding in agreement and saying, "It's about time he gets recognized for all of his work." All I could do was laugh and say, "Are you guys kidding me? Have you been outside today?" But anyway, this winter wonderland is what we awoke to this morning. Sigh. I thought (or maybe hoped is a better word) spring was here to stay.

Speaking of my Charleston classmates, I just spent a couple of days with them this weekend. We all get along a lot better after having had several months apart. :-) On Friday I drove down to Charleston for our internship reports. We all had to give presentations to our professors, a number of alumni, and this year's students about our internship experiences. Then we went out to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant: Los Potrillos. After dinner we went to the Tilford Dudley House (oh, the memories) for a reception to kick off the Historical Administration Program Association "Symposium Weekend" festivities. After getting everyone safely back to their hotel (many alcoholic beverages were consumed by my classmates throughout the evening), I was able to go stay at the home of my favorite Charleston family: the Stowells! They are such a fun, kind family; and it is so nice of them to always let me stay with them when I am in town. The symposium began bright and early yesterday morning. During breakfast I ended up at the same table with the Illinois State Historian (who was one of our speakers). It was a little stressful trying to make good conversation with him (I got the idea that he is not a big fan of the National Park Service), but I survived. :-) All of the speakers were very interesting. It is always nice to be reminded of why we crazy history people have chosen the museum/historical profession. One of my favorite presentations was by some EIU HA alums who now work at the Wisconsin Historical Society. They talked about their new exhibit: "Odd Wisconsin," which is a very cleverly packaged museum exhibition. Every museum needs good marketing people to come up with such ideas! Museum artifacts that might not have created a lot of public interest by themselves become big attractions when they are put together like that. After the speakers finished, it was time for the HAPA membership meeting during which Dr. Small gave everyone an update on how last year's class (my group) was doing. I got major props for writing my Zion book! I guess that not very many HA alums publish books. Unfortunately the employment situation is pretty bleak, and I was reminded again of how fortunate I am to have gotten the job at the Lincoln Home. Speaking of which, I start tomorrow! I was able to go back to the Stowell's house for a couple of hours before the evening banquet began. The kids showed me their new art museum which is very impressive. Sterling won first place at his school for a picture he drew of Abraham Lincoln! Poor Brother Stowell just had leg surgery a couple of weeks ago, and after seeing his leg with all of its staples and stitches, I will not complain about my little incisions anymore. They are such a wonderful family! Then it was time for the evening HAPA banquet. Thankfully I was able to sneak out after dinner and before the auction to raise money for the program began. As I learned last year, the auction quickly becomes an alcohol fest, and then everyone leaves and goes out to drink some more. As I was driving home in the pouring rain I was questioning my decision to have left Charleston last night , but since it ended up snowing during the night I'm glad I drove home when I did. Today at church we are going to have a combined Priesthood/Relief Society lesson about preparedness, and the bishop asked Greg to talk about funeral planning, so he's getting all ready for that. Hopefully some global warming will come and melt the snow!

Terrific Two!

Today is Eliza's big #2 birthday! Happy Birthday Eliza! I remember the day she was born. She was so cute, and for a while she had her funny little perma-frown. She was very suspicious about this new world. And now she is all smiles! One of my favorite memories of Eliza is from Thanksgiving 2007. I flew from Chicago to South Carolina in the evening, so she was already in bed by the time I arrived at Sarah and Joel's house. I slept on the couch, and Eliza started to cry kind of early the next morning. Joel went to get her up, and when she saw me out on the couch in the living room she got the biggest smile on her face. It was so cute! I am lucky to have four of the most adorable and sweet nieces in the whole world.

The Red Brick Path

This morning I went to the doctor for my post-operation check-up, and Orlando Icaza says I look good. I can't lift anything heavy for six more weeks, but I don't typically go around carrying really heavy things anyway. He pulled off all of my steri-strips except for the one in my belly button. He said I should pull that one out in the shower (which I did this afternoon). My belly button incision and the two incisions on the lower right side of my abdomen are really small, but the top incision--the one right under my sternum--is big and gross. I'm thinking that is where the gallbladder came out. Dr. Icaza said that this incision will probably ooze for a while but that I shouldn't be alarmed unless it starts to look infected. (I am actually alarmed every time I look at it.) He showed me a description of my gallbladder--the "specimen labeled Tiffany Bowles" (that's really what it said)--and it turns out that it was "chronically inflamed." So it's good that we got rid of it!

This afternoon I was poking around in the yard and discovered a secret hidden brick path through the garden area. Some of the bricks along the edge were sticking up--that's how I knew the path was there--but the entire inside of the path was covered with a layer of grass and weeds. Greg and I worked in the yard for a while this evening, and we decided that we're going to uncover the whole path and plant our garden on either side of it. We got about half of it uncovered this evening. It's pretty awesome! In the early days of Athens there was a mill located where our house is today. These bricks that we've found throughout the yard definitely look old enough to have come from the mill. We are quite excited about our planned garden area. We also tried out the fire pit this evening, and it works splendidly. I am currently enjoying a delicious cup of Greg's hot cocoa which my pre-surgery diet forbade me from having. Life without a gallbladder is wonderful!

The Easter Bunny

Yesterday I saw a couple of interesting things. The first was this--the Oscar Meyer Mini Cooper. It looked pretty funny to see it driving down the street--especially since the hot dog part is twice as big as the car part.

The next funny thing I saw was at the mall. I was trying to kill some time between lunch and my post-op doctor's appointment, so I went over to the mall in Springfield and was just walking around. I was looking down, lost in my thoughts, and then I glanced up and saw someone waving at me out of the corner of my eye. It was the Easter Bunny--bow tie, purple vest and all. Hello, Easter Bunny. He was sitting in this big throne chair waiting for children to come have their picture taken with him. If I was a child I would have been thoroughly frightened. He was gigantic, and had these huge fake eyes and big teeth. He was definitely not the real Easter Bunny.

I had a very enjoyable lunch with my friend Linda and her mom yesterday. Linda's mom volunteered to take care of me after my gallbladder surgery if Greg got called away to work--and she didn't even know me! I was very happy to meet her. Just like Linda, she is an incredibly sweet lady. I planned to then go to my post-op appointment at the surgical center, but the doctor's office called right before I left the mall and told me that Orlando Icaza was still in surgery; so they would need to reschedule. Like Mom said, at least he wasn't still in my surgery! So I will go see him tomorrow instead. I am hoping that maybe he will remove my steri-strips. They are getting quite itchy. Supposedly they fall off on their own, and they have started coming up around the edges, but they are still quite firmly attached to the incisions. Speaking of the incisions, Greg and I discovered just the other day that one of the incisions is in my belly button! That's kind of weird. I thought it was below my belly button, but the steri-strip came off a little, and there was no incision below the button, so I guess it's inside. That kind of grosses me out. I'm still trying to figure out how they actually removed the gallbladder if it was full of gallstones and I only have four little incisions. Maybe they pulled it out through my belly button?

Today was Greg's day off so we went and played catch at the park which was very fun. We are excited for the upcoming baseball season and are hoping to go to a St. Louis Cardinals game in April. It's fun to live so close to the home of a professional baseball team! I then went to the library with Alice to work on archiving some of the Athens Rotary Club materials, and someone came and took our picture for the famous local newspaper: the Menard County Review. Greg has his picture in the Menard County Review every day with the funeral home advertisement, and all of the Athens ladies are always telling me how handsome he is. I agree!