About Me

This is a gift; thank you to the blogger-gods, for a place to post my nonsense. I call myself a writer, so I should probably put it out there and see what happens. At worst, I am talking to myself. And at best, some conversation somewhere mentions "Team Ailene". 

I am entering a national essay contest through Lane Community College and the topic is

Education Not Incarceration. I know a little bit about both. OK. A lot about both.  I got a transfer degree at the community college and now I go to Portland State University. My goal is a PhD or an EdD in some kind of Social Science area like prison reform. I want to work with post-prison populations or something like that.

What inspired me to follow this career path was the two years I did in prison on drug related charges. While I was in there, I was a GED tutor. I currently work as a tutor at school, and I  love it. I also love cars. So, three days a week I work at the Northwest Auto Auction and I love that job too. I like to buy cars on craigslist and sell them. And I also picture someday owning a car lot or something like that. 

I  love my kids. They are each little aspects of me and sometimes that's not good. Why did they get the bad parts of me and not just the good? They're probably equal parts good and bad qualities of me. My girls are 19 and 17 and the boy is 9.

My friend thought I was going to blog about cooking. I do love to cook, but not enough to write about it all the time. I think what I'll blog about is mostly what's going on at Team Ailene. It is interesting, at least as much as most of what's on TV. Our lives are our careers. It's hard work being me, but I'm doing things I feel good about and following my passions.