Kathleen and I went to Spencer today. Kathleen runs the Household Hazardous Waste program in our department - working with facilities around Iowa to provide grant money and support their work in collecting toxic stuff people no longer want.
Kathy is quite a character. I've known her for 6 years or so, ever since she took over that program. She is a 40 something single mom of 2 teens and lots of pets including a rat with a tumor. She has very short hair that she never combs. I believe she must have been quite an athlete in her day- she played softball at the University of Arizona.
Our trip today was to Spencer to talk to the nice folks there about integrated solid waste management and Kathy's grant program so they could open a hazardous waste facility. So we had a long time to chat - 3.5 hours each way. She's led an interesting life and has lived several places and worked lots of jobs. She boasts a bachelor's degree and 2 master's degrees and lot of student loans that she's still paying off - so it seems she lives paycheck to paycheck. I love her laugh.
Kathleen is a vegetarian and is gluten intolerant. So she brought her own food with her today - gluten free pancakes for breakfast and little pb&j sannies for lunch. I stopped at Subway and ate meat with a gluten-filled bun right in front of her! I know - evil.
We rocked the meeting and the attendees are now dying to start up awesome solid waste programs. They want to open a wonderful hazmat collection center. It was a good day and now I'm tired.
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