Back from Portland

Well, I don't know how many of you knew, but I was recently in Portland for a work conference. It was the regional (Oregon, Portland, Idaho and Alaska) meeting for the TRiO programs. TRiO is the program at the Dept. of Ed. that the Educational Talent Search program falls under. I left the Saturday after Thanksgiving and returned Thursday evening. The meeting didn't start until Sunday evening so I had some time to do a little shopping on Sunday morning. There is the Pioneer Place shopping center about 8 blocks from the hotel I stayed at. They also had a movie theater. So naturally I had to watch a movie. I decided that I wanted to see Twilight. Excellent movie, but not as good as the books. I'm addicted to the series. I'm currently about 1/2 to 3/4 through Breaking Dawn (the 4th in the series) and am dreading finishing it. As of right now there are no more books in the series after this one. The had a Ross Dress for Less and I went a little sweater happy. During the winter I like to dress warm, but I have a hard time paying full price for anything - hard time paying full price, but yet I pay about 2x as much for things living in Bethel?????? Anyways, I got 6 different sweaters that I plan on wearing alot!

Back to the meeting. We stayed at the Marriott Downtown. I helped with registration check-in and met some nice people. We had some good sessions on our different TRiO programs (Talent Search, Upward Bound, Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity Centers). I got to meet one of our big supporters in Washington, DC with the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE). Angelica Vialpando (who is actually from Laramie, WY) is a great asset out there. Since she grew up in Wyoming, she understands the rural, small town thing. They are trying to talk me into Policy Seminar in Washington, DC in March to talk about my unique situation out here. We'll see.

On Tuesday night we had our Banquet and Silent Auction. I made a qaspeq for it. A qaspeq is a short-pullover type of top that the Yupik Alaskans in this area wear alot.

This is one that I made for myself to wear for our Thanksgiving potluck at work, but I also took it to Portland to wear at the meeting so I could show everyone what the qaspeq actually looked like.The qaspeq only brought in $35, but that's okay. It's all for a good cause. It goes to scholarships for TRiO students.

I spent all day Thursday either in airports or on airplane, 8:00 am to 9:00 pm. I'm now enjoying what little is left of my weekend before I have to go back to work tomorrow!