Well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  It started off a little rocky. Grace said she’d work the desk this morning but didn’t show up until 10 or so, so I was literally the only worker there.  Subra was here this morning too.  He is so condescending it’s angering.  But when he asked how things had been going I told him everything that I wrote about last night.  How it was misrepresented on the FARMING website and how I was so angry that I was tempted to leave right now and that it HAD to get better.  I pointed out the incongruences between how some workers clean and other don’t and how it has created a sense of a hierarchy.  I explained how my day goes and how it is, in fact, far more than 4 hours per day and why it is nearly impossible to spend any quality time in the garden.  He thought I was ridiculous for coming out and only staying for a month, but I told him that I intended to stay the entire season but that this was not what I signed up for and so I had to move on.  Over all he was fairly receptive to what I was saying although amazingly condescending throughout.  Throughout this conversation he discovers that I am 26 and a nurse.  Well then all of the sudden I’m “important” and he’s “thrilled to have me working here” - It just proves my point further that they are trying to take advantage of traveling 20 year old hippies who don’t have much choice or the confidence to stand up to him.

Well, anyway, he did call in Lisa and Hannah to help me clean the 26 beds.  Although I cleaned 2.5 rooms to their 1, but some help is better than no help.  And then I continued to clean the rest of the hostel for the remainder of the day.  I called it done by 2 or so and applied for yet another job.  I got a rejection letter from Denver Health today.  It’s discouraging because I thought the county hospital would be thrilled to have someone with my experience, but apparently the job market is tougher than I thought it was...

By late afternoon it’s cooling off and so I went into the garden to help weed and then plant summer squash and cucumbers.  I really enjoyed that.  Gardening is so meditative. 

Then I came inside and opened my computer.  I log onto Facebook only to see that Colorado Springs is burning down.  There has been a fire burning in Waldo Canyon since Saturday, and while they had evacuated a bunch of people, all the structures had been spared.  But this afternoon the fire crested the ridge and came into town.  I’ve been texting with Kate who says that the Flying W Ranch is gone.  Rockrimmon is now getting hit.  These are the most heart breaking photos I have ever seen.  This is my home - a place I love so dearly and it’s like watching a friend die.  Nothing to do, but sit and watch and pray.  I cried as I looked at the pictures and then rallied all my hippie hostel friends outside to do a rain dance. It was actually a really beautiful thing.  Probably 7 or 8 of us were out there jumping around like fools, screaming for RAIN IN COLORADO and hooping and hollering.  We then sat down and Om’d for about 5 minutes as a prayer to the Earth to heal herself.

I pray to God it works.