Friday, February 1, 2008

High Profile?

Ok - so the mysterious AOL reader contacted me via e-mail today.

She's legit - not a local advocate that was building a case against me based on my ventings here, as I'd feared (and for good reason too - but can't get into that here...not censoring, readers, just covering my butt and keeping my day job!) - but an ordinary mommyblog reader. And I'm so totally ok with it - I myself have done the same thing when I've found bloggers I liked, I've gone thru their archives and gotten to "know" them better.

Phew....I loves me some internets, but I worry sometimes that people who know me IRL will punish me for what is in cyberspace...aside from my family of origin that is. I just take it as a given that they will punish me, lol. I'm misunderstood by them a lot.

So yeah, I'm starting to get a following - which makes me think that perhaps someday the dream will be realized?

And this following isn't just for my writing.

Remember last spring when CU-Denver interviewed me for a poster child piece in the SPA magazine? Well, they still haven't just posted , the mag to their website - but until yesterday I hadn't gotten a hard copy, thus, it was kind of out of sight, out of mind.

Somebody had said something to me about it in "passing" in my online class this fall - but me being me, I was just like, "Oh, yeah...cool." When I fell behind on an assignment, I let the prof know, and he was all, "That's ok, I know you're not a slacker." How could he know that? I wondered.

It wasn't until later, when everyone flocked to me after I put a request for a partner out there re: the suicide paper - that it finally started to click...aha! LOL....I'm pretty smart, but when it comes to self-recognition sometimes I am very, extremely s.l.o.w... Again, I let it go to the back burner - I mean 15 minutes of fame and all, right?

Until last week when a woman who used to work for a local non-profit contacted me via e-mail.

Hey Heather,
I've been considering the MPA program at CU-Denver and saw you as one of the profiled students in their magazine. Can we meet so that I can pick your brain about the program?.

I told her, yes, of course I would love to chat with her - and when we met up, I gushed about the program. She and I are exactly the same age - something I hadn't realized before - and very likeminded about wanting to do good, but realizing the system is very, very broken, and thus, people like us need to get smarter, more credible, and then set about eliminating barriers. That's the goal anyway - no delusions of grandeur here - I know that it will be complicated, and that my youth and gender are working against me, rather than for me - but hey, challenge is my middle name, right?

Isolated incident, right?

No.

Yesterday I drove up to Denver to see what the folks at the Bell Policy Center had to say about the fiscal forecast for the Colorado State Budget. You see, we've only slightly screwed it up with 6% growth caps, TABOR, Amendment 23, and other legislative mandates that make the state budget extremely difficult to balance.

Upon arriving, I noticed a woman who looked REALLY familiar - but I couldn't quite place her. She was talking to the SPA rep sponsoring the presentation. She wasn't a student, but was interested in the domestic violence concentration for the MPA program, she currently worked in womens health. When she finished with him, I introduced myself, noting that I worked for the City of Loveland.

"Oh! I live in Berthoud!"

And at that, all the memory synapses in my brain fired. Rapidly.

"That's where I know you from! You work for the Coalition right? Doing a, uh, rural women's health initiative, right? You came to a Northern Front Range Continuum of Care meeting about a year, year and a half ago. I KNEW you looked familiar!"

She seriously dropped her jaw. "Damn, you have an EXCELLENT memory! Holy crap, I am impressed."

Then, "Hey, wait a minute - Heather Meyer? Aren't you in..." she pointed to a hard copy of Views. (p. 22 - and ew, yuck, gross, I hate that picture of me - thanks for asking!)

"I think so - I haven't actually seen it yet. It was the funniest thing, you know..." as I did my thing, trying to downplay the whole deal.

The presentation was about to start. "Well, with you in my back yard, I might just call you sometime to pick your brain."

Hmmm....should I be charging a recruiting fee?

After the presentation, I went up to some of the staff and faculty who were there. I offered my hand and said, "Heather Meyer, I'm in the MPA program," and I got, "Hi..." then a lightbulb look, "Oh, yes, of course! How are you?"

And that was just weird - like I'm some sort of celebrity or something, lol. You know, OF COURSE! Of course you are Heather Meyer, and of course that name means something to me!

It is surreal to watch one's status as a person change quite like this...like a book I read last semester called the Tipping Point.

I'm so textbook.

1 comment:

  1. First off, you're adorable and the picture shows it. Secondly, I LOVE that you're getting recognition left, right, and center, because you are totally awesome and you deserve it.

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