I absolutely enjoyed my time at the White House TweetUp on Tuesday and felt honored to have been invited. If you want to see me there, here’s the video of the panel.

And here’s me, staring down the camera:

A view from my seat:

Strangely touching: look at how many bikes were locked up in the internal courtyard of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at 11pm at night:

I met some new people I look forward to getting to know better through their feeds, got to talk to some current White House interns about how they like the gig, and best of all, I realized that I now know three of the people in this photo from the Oval Office from listening to them speak in person.

Talk about feeling connected to my government.

Inspirational Quote:

“The moment one gives close attention to any thing, even a blade of grass it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.”–Henry Miller

Inspirational Quote:

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent.”–John Donne

In all the flutter and hustle of arranging for transport and a couch to sleep on with a few days notice, preparing myself in the big ways (researching what I can expect from the President tomorrow, what he’s said in the past, what folks want him to say, what dog whistles to listen for) and little ways (deciding which pants and jacket, which shoes, which hoes) I feel incredibly rooted. This is the kind of work I enjoy doing; this is the place I want to be.

Reading over the bios of the panelists, I can feel myself making a commitment, taking notes as to how they got there, how they scrambled their way to a place where they could make national policy. I could feel myself deciding to do those things. Giving myself a timeline, an end goal, a plan.

Tomorrow, I’ll be at the White House.

It’s where I want to be.

Inspirational Quote:

“You know that in nine hundred years of time and space and I’ve never met anybody who wasn’t important.”–The Doctor

No protesters.

There was no one there. Usually there are half-a-dozen older men and women wandering around with hand-written or mass-market signs. My shoulders settled down, I pull my head out of my massive hood and looked around. No one in the alley. No one on the corner. No one to dodge or skirt or avoid as I walked into the clinic.

I waited inside the clinic while our fantastic security guard shoveled the inches of snow and salted around our part of the sidewalk. The other escorts showed up, fortified with multiple layers and coffee, but no protesters came. We waited over an hour, but only clients came to the doors.

I don’t think abortions in the future will be stress-free for all women. Any physical exam, any minor surgery, for me any visit to any doctor, is a little stressful. Stress keeps me awake, keeps me aware of my surroundings, keeps me tuned-in.

But for the first time in 5 years of escorting, none of the clients were terrified, or crying, or crouching, trying to hide their ears from the cries of “Mama, Mama, don’t kill me!” and “You’ll regret this.” and “Don’t kill your baby.” and “We see women come out of there, they hurt women in there!” and their faces from the cellphone and video cameras the protesters use to document who goes into the clinic.

The patients just had to hide their ears from the 20 degree weather and their eyes from the snow. Once inside, they don’t have to avoid the glares coming through the glass and can focus on our security guard’s instructions as they walked through the metal detector. They could focus on what they came here for, had external quiet to do their own internal thinking, were permitted to feel only what they were feeling and not react to screaming and crying and bloody signs and shoving.

It was perfect.

Inspirational Quote:

“The emphasis must be not on the right to abortion but on the right to privacy and reproductive control.”–Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg

1. Show up. Not just physically, but mentally, to every interaction. Come with goals, come with questions, come with ideas.
2. Follow up. If your mentor gives you a contact, send the email that day. If someone helps you, send a thank you email. So few people in the world truly follow-up, you’ll be outstanding if you do.
3. Read up. My grandmother is a working artist and was a professor of art for 30 years, so I say from stolen memory that constantly researching your field, your colleagues, and your competitors is the name of the game for an artist who wants to get paid. Get in the habit of reading the blogs of other art students, reading the reviews of your professors’ shows, writing your own reviews on your own blog or tumblr or twitter account or for the Tartan or the Cut. [Both CMU student publications]

Anyone with more experience as a mentor or mentee have anything to add?

Inspirational Quote:

“Remember, if you’re headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns!”–Allison Gappa Bottke

In case you get the wrong impression, I do not like snow. As a Californian, I neither understand, nor appreciate, weather. I believe snow is something you visit, not that visits you. And I will not enjoy wearing 5 layers of clothing to escort tomorrow.

But I like finding evidence of night-hopping bunnies, of dogs, of butt-sledding children. I treasure the idea that weather can hold static the impressions of our casually lead daily lives, storing them for the equally casual pleasure of strangers who pass by. Their marks in the show give me the shape of my neighborhood and the pattern of my co-residents’ days.

Inspirational Quote:

“When snow falls, nature listens.”–Antoinette van Kleeff

Given the choice, I will be silly in public. Also, I will never use bullet points on a slide show. My presentation had 2 pictures: one of Dumbledore and one of Athena as Mentor. I took 45 minutes to cover the basics of mentoring, shamelessly plugging my Mom’s work running Sun Microsystem’s mentoring program for 10 years, introducing the mentors to their mentees’ resumes, and showing them the resources they can connect their mentees to. I used two slides and lots of web browsing.

At the very end of my presentation, I showed the mentors one last resource: the tumblr I’ve developed for the class I’m teaching for the second time, “How to Get a Job.” Here was the first image they saw:

First day of class—don’t be scared.

“Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” 

Comparing the lion in this video to how college applicants see their interviewers:

It’s not all drama and gloom. I may be putting all of my silly on my class’s blog and all of my serious here. I’ll try to mix it up in the future.

Inspirational Quote:

“A person without a sense of humor is like a wagon without springs. It’s jolted by every pebble on the road.”–Henry Ward Beecher