Full weekend

What a full weekend! I spent yesterday with wpark - we went to Sauvie's Island, had dinner at Sal's, and then went to see Spiderman 2. The weather was spectacular and we found this wonderful wonderful place called the Blue Heron Herbery. It's one of the most peaceful and gorgeous places I've seen in a long time. We hung out there for at least an hour, just soaking up the atmosphere, chatting, and relaxing.

Today, I did some reading and then went to the peace rally in the north park blocks. It was such a wonderful rally - a *lot* of different groups and people were there but there was a calm sense of purpose that was good to be part of. This is one of the things that I love about Portland. Even without a big 'marker' (holiday, anniversary, etc), hundreds, if not thousands, of people will show their support for such an important cause.

I then spent 2 1/2 hrs with my faculty partner, dwillia, going over last week's class and making some changes. We decided to tweak this class in order to include as much local political action as possible. Portland has not only several politicians up for re-election but there are six ballot initiatives up for vote, along with two others referred back to voters by legislators. We want to bring discussion of as many of the ballot measures as possible into the classroom. So now I'm writing this teensy little post, watching the movie Taking Lives, and getting ready to start some of the reading for my class tomorrow night.

On an unrelated note, doing some serious thinking about the type of project I'd like to do for my master's. For the record, a project isn't required in the MAT program - I have to take an oral and written examination. However, I feel very strongly that, in order for this program to be as meaningful as possible, I need to bring all the theory into practice. Also, I don't think exams bring quite the oomph to a master's that a project will. It'll be good to have something concrete and real to show for my work.

I haven't decided what to do yet, but I'm considering proposing a senior capstone for the University Studies program. I have spoken to a couple of my advisors and gotten some recommendations for people to talk to. I'm going to start contacting them in the next couple of weeks, even though the project itself probably won't materialize for several more months. My initial thought is something around "Conscious Peacebuilding" or "Peacebuilding Dialogues". I feel calmer now, like things have shifted into a little more focus.