Online Info sessions & astronomy

Not that those two things normally go together, but today they do. Because I'm putting them both in my blog. Does anyone else still get those general emails from PC saying things like "get your application in soon and you could be leaving by July!" or "Life is calling, how far will you go? Attend a webinar to discover what the Peace Corps is all about"... I do. I want to send a return email saying "Thank you so much, but I got the application in some time ago and will be gone long before July, if I can help it, but thank you." I'm actually "attending" an online info session as I type this, I'm waiting for it to start. I'm hoping to maybe get some information on things I never would have thought to ask. There's another one on Monday geared towards nominees and invitees to explain things going on in this process and the beginning of service that I will definitely be listening to. Edit: the info session was pretty much what I expected it to be, but I got the chance to ask what kind of volunteer work to do now to make myself more competitive for the PO and she said anything teaching and in a classroom, but that if I have an ed degree and classroom experience (which I do) then I could do some work in ANOTHER area like health or HIV/AIDS, teaching English, something with agriculture, or even just teaching basic sanitation. Any of these would work to strengthen me as an "all around" good fit. I'm thankful for that information.

On the astronomy end of things, I went out last night to see what was supposed to be some kind of rare alignment that only happens once every 95 years or something. I had no idea what I was looking at other than a full moon, which was still pretty neat. I guess I looked pretty professional with my tripod and long zoom lens because a couple of people were asking me where to look and what to look for. One girl asked if I knew much about astrology, which I thought was funny. The moon was amazingly bright and my long exposures looked like day-time. The only hitch in the entire evening was when I returned to my car and realized that my bottle of mosquito repellant had leaked all over the inside of my purse and all over everything I had in there. My phone, a camera lens, bottle koozie, pictures of my nephews, USB drive, school board ID badge, three stacks of sticky pads, my point & shoot camera, my favorite pen, wallet... everything you can imagine. Too bad bug spray also acts as a paint thinner because it melted the blue dye off my phone case all over a new tee shirt. I was standing in my laundry room at 12:30 am when I got home with a bleach pen. (I'm smiling thinking how frivolous this will all be this time next year..)

Lastly, I got a phone call from the people at the Susan G. Komen foundation because I've registered to do a 3-day walk at the end of October. I have only raised $200 of the $2300 I need. Crap. I need to get better at this, huh?