A Day in My Life

I wake up around 6 am (getting on 6:30 now as the sun rises later and later). I have time to myself in the morning that is spectacular. I may exercise, read in bed, read in my hammock, bathe, do random things around my apartment, or all of the above!

I start work at 8:45 by opening the visitor's center and work until 5:15 or so with a 30 minute break for lunch. Most days are split between fee collection/visitor inquires/bookstore sales in the V.C. and roving around the monument to the various pueblos or other cultural resources that we protect. I am assigned to do the former in either the morning of the afternoon and I get the unassigned half of the day to rove and do other things I might need to do, like plan a talk for a school group, do paperwork, learn more about the sites and read read read. Sometimes, spontaneous things come up and we deal with those and cover for each other as need be.

Every couple weeks, I have a project day or some other training-type day. This has included reinforcing my knowledge and interpretation of the Crack-in-the-Rock backpacking trip by hiking the route back with the entire staff and practicing route finding and landscape reading by hiking a portion of the route with my coleader for next weekend, Linda, and my boss, Mary.

The sun is setting earlier and earlier, and so I tend to go for a brief bike ride or maybe walk or exploration at the end of the day. I will soon start working on projects like my canoe paddle and axe head hanging. These will be good when it is dark at the end of the day.

I make dinner, watch a movie or listen to a PodCast or read some (not enough! I want to read more!), check up on my Rainbow Swiss Chard plants, etc. I go to bed anytime from 9:30 to 11 pm, and wake up early the next morning and do it all over again.

I posted pictures--some repetitive, but I will add more in the future-- at
http://picasaweb.google.com/vicki.wupatki