New Stuff

So I am counting down the days now...seven days until I'm heading back to the beautiful NC. It is a little harder to work this week because I find myself looking so much foward to our fastpacking trip this weekend, as well as really excited about coming home and going to Mo's wedding!
It is easy to get an attitude like, "ok, i'm almost done, I've done my programs a ton of times now, I can just cruise on through to the end" But, I don't want to fall into that. Even though I may only do my program one more time, I still want to try new things and make it better.
I had some great feedback from a wonderful British lady with a sweet family the other night at my climbing film program. She suggested that since the film was a little dated, it needed to be more interactive for the kids and needed something to bring more understanding about the sport of climbing to people who have never done it. Especially bc the film talks about "petons, cams, nuts, protection, etc"....so why don't I have those things to show what they are???
DUH, I should have started out with an introduction of what they were going to be seeing, having actual petons on one side and cams and nuts on the other side- my talk neededs something tangible! So, next time I play the film, I am going to incorporate climbing props since I have them available for my use!
Also, I am playing around with my star program conclusion to have more of a "so what" at the end, talking about what our part is in preserving dark skies, and having some practical ways that people can get involved and care.
Yesterday I go to do a good bit of informal interp. I went out to the Lower Yosemite Falls trail with Jen and Jenna and we did some family activities about the watersheds in Yosemite. I liked it a lot. When doing informal interp, you really have to know your stuff bc people ask all kinds of questions! You also need some good hooks to keep people interested.
No one showed up for my Wee Wild Ones last night so I just ended up laying out the bear skin, skull, and paw and letting people come up and check it out, and tell them cool bear facts, and answer questions. I really had a lot of fun with it, and I even got tipped $12! It was awesome!