Livin' the Dream

I did it! I was very nervous when I gave my first tour of the Lincoln Home on Sunday, but as I gave more tours throughout the day, I relaxed and the tour started to feel more comfortable to me. Six tours later my feet were tired, but I was happy. Except for when the bolt of lightning hit somewhere in the neighborhood. As you know, I have a deathly fear of lightning, so when my group was in the last room of the house and a crash of thunder shook the windows, I was a little flustered. The visitors were nervous too, so we waited on the back porch of the house until we felt like we could venture out into the yard without getting zapped. Sunday was a very rainy day, but I enjoyed my first official day as a ranger at the Lincoln Home.

Each tour lasts about 25 minutes, and though each ranger develops their own tour, we have a themed outline to follow. The theme of the tour is "The American Dream." We talk about how Abraham Lincoln went from living in a one-room log cabin (which was about the size of the kitchen in the Lincoln Home) to being President of the United States. We also emphasize that he believed all people--regardless of race or gender--should have a chance to be successful in life if they were willing to work hard enough. Originally when I was contemplating this theme, I was thinking that maybe our world is so messed up these days that the American Dream is kind of getting reversed--as in the case of the Connecticut firemen who were denied promotions that they had earned because their city was worried about getting sued by minority groups for not promoting a more racially diverse group of men. But then as I thought about things for a while, I realized that even though there are some unfortunate exceptions, the idea of the "American Dream" is still alive and well--especially when we consider all of the opportunities available to people today in comparison to the rampant discrimination of pre-Civil War America. It is indeed true that Abraham Lincoln not only lived the American Dream himself, but also made it possible for others--including all of us today--to live it too. As I walked past the Lincoln Home on this crisp spring morning, I realized that I am truly livin' the dream--I have my dream job!

Unfortunately the Small Town Mayor Dream did not come true for our back yard/across-the-street neighbor who ran for mayor of Athens. The results just came in this evening, and the winner got 225 votes; the runner-up got 212 votes; and our neighbor got 6 votes.

More Adventures

Well, it has been quite the week! I am enjoying my one day off before I head back to work tomorrow and start my regular Sunday-Thursday schedule. I tried to get the Monday-Friday schedule, but unfortunately they told me that I have to work Sunday-Thursday for now. I figure that if I work very hard and earn their trust as an employee, maybe they'll let me switch so I can have Sundays off sometime down the road. But since I will be working on Sundays for a little while, at least the federal government gives you Sunday Premium pay. I just truly feel fortunate to have gotten this very good job--my dream job--during a difficult economic time when unemployment rates are high.

My head is spinning with all of the information they gave us this week, and I am trying to process everything so that I can hopefully give a coherent tour of the Lincoln Home tomorrow! We'll see how it goes. Tomorrow will be my first day in uniform interacting with the visitors, and I am quite nervous but also excited.

The worst part of the whole deal is that I currently feel as sore as I did right after my surgery! I was healing quite nicely, but then my big incision started bleeding and looking rather infected early in the week. By Wednesday evening the incision had kind of opened back up, and I was squeezing greenish/yellowish puss out of it. Greg and I were puzzled by something black we could see inside the wound and wondered if we were looking at the internal stitch. I called Dr. Icaza's office on Thursday morning, and they wanted me to come in to have it checked out. So I had to leave training a little early (which wasn't a problem after I told my supervisor that my stomach had popped open) to head to the medical center. Orlando had me lie down on the examination table, and then he too started squeezing the incision. More puss was coming out, and he said, "Hmmmmm, well I think I'll need to just open this up a bit more." WHAT???? So he pulled it open (ouch) and then started scooping things out with a giant cotton swab. He kept holding up the cotton swab so I could see the infection he was pulling out (which turned out to be the black stuff Greg and I had seen the night before). Ewwww, yuck! After a few looks at the icky cotton swab I was feeling a little woozy. He said, "It's no problem. There are no pockets of puss, so you should be fine." Then he put some iodine on the incision and taped me up with more steri-strips and a giant band aid. I wasn't feeling so hot, but after I got a little sugar into my system I felt better.

The next morning, however, was a different story. When I woke up yesterday I had the same intense abdominal muscle pain that I experienced right after my surgery. So yesterday was a pretty long day of training since it hurt every time I moved, but thanks to a delicious employee potluck lunch they served us at the Lincoln Home, I survived. I took some Vicodin last night and got really happy and loopy before becoming really nauseous right before bed. I think I'll just stick with Ibuprofen. But I feel better today and am looking forward to relaxing and watching General Conference.

Ranger Pup

Today I got to meet the cutest park ranger ever! His name is Kaiser and he is a beautiful 85-pound German Shepherd. He and his handler Adam make up the Lincoln Home K-9 law enforcement unit. Kaiser is amazingly well-trained. He is very sweet and loves to have his ears scratched. But when it comes to bad guys, he's not so nice. The Lincoln Home has a K-9 unit because we are an urban park right smack in the middle of a large downtown area with a pretty high crime rate. Since we are the closest national park to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in St. Louis (aka The Arch), Kaiser and Adam often travel to St. Louie to help the rangers deal with issues down there. The best thing about Kaiser is that when people see him and Adam walking around the Lincoln neighborhood, they know that we don't put up with any funny business. Kaiser is also a big hit with all of the kids that come to the Lincoln Home, and he is used in some therapeutic activities for people with special needs. And after our safety training today, I am very glad to know that Kaiser is there to protect all of us. It sounds like the two biggest threats to rangers and visitors at the Lincoln Home are tornadoes and crazy people. They have a big problem with homeless people and crazy people walking through the park and bothering visitors and/or rangers. But it's okay because the three law enforcement rangers (including, of course, Kaiser) are always on high alert.

Tomorrow we get our golden ranger badges, and I will give my first (and subsequently second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.) tour of the Lincoln Home on Sunday! It will feel good to gear up in my ranger gear again. Poor Greg has been busy this week too! People keep dying around here. It's good for business, but it keeps him running all of the time. We are both pooped but happy.

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!