Positively Glorious!

I used to work in Portland at the Watershed Management Division of Oregon DEQ. It was probably the best job I’ve ever had– mostly because the people who choose to work at DEQ are, for the most part, amazing. They are the type of people who you can easily work next to for 20 years and at the end of it thing “Wow, where’d all that time go?”

Despite that, I was having a hard time.

A lot of the difficulty was that Jessie and I were living in Hood River– we’d moved there for her job when I was still working on my thesis. That meant that, including the commute to work, I had a 13 hour day. I’d wake up at 5am to leave, and be home about 6pm. That was hard enough, but what added a lot of difficulty to that was the lack of– for a better word– beer.

I’d just come from doing my dual master’s degree in Biological & Ecological Engineering and Resource Geography at Oregon State and I was having a really hard time making the leap to a cubicle. It was bad enough sitting there, alone, surrounded by 6 foot walls of moldy fabric that were built in the 1950s and thrown away by 13 other organizations before being picked up out of a dumpster and put in the DEQ offices. It was worse because there is often so little social aspect to The Daily Grind™.

Graduate school was a place where there was always someone to hang out. There was always someone willing to go out for drinks, or pizza, or frisbee golf. In grad school, there was always someone who wanted to do something social.

At The Real World™, after work, everyone just went home.

One day, though, I had a really good idea.

The Mixing Zone

One day I was sitting at work thinking “how the hell do I make everyone go out for drinks with me?”

Yeah, most people thought about things like “water quality” and “hydrologic modeling.” I like to focus on what’s important in life however.

Suddenly, I realized that a lot of my graduate school buddies were working in the field of water and engineering in Portland. So I had the bright idea to send them all an email message saying “Hey, let’s all get together for drinks!”

And as I wrote the email, I thought “hell, there’re a lot of other people in Portland who might want to have drinks too.” And after I thought that, I thought “wow, it would be cool if someone would organize a regular gathering for people to get together and have drinks.” And then I remembered what my father used to say to me when I said things like “someone should do something about that.”

He’d say “You’re somebody.”

I guess a lot of things end after the first or second thought. Sometimes, though, they go straight past thought and dive directly into action. That’s what The Mixing Zone was. It went from a quick thought about emailing some buddies to a regular happy hour for water and environmental professionals. And it was pretty darn popular. People as far as Seattle, Spokane and Burns had heard of The Mixing Zone and would try like hell to make it to one whenever they were in town.

The Mixing Zone was a really good idea.

Eventually, I took a  job in Hood River and stopped working in Portland– and I stopped organizing The Mixing Zone. Over the past few years, I’ve missed the camaraderie of things like The Mixing Zone, and have increasingly felt isolated from my peers and fellow water professionals. Here I sit, in a tiny office in Mosier, Oregon, looking at water quality data from the Columbia River… all alone.

So, a few days ago, I had a really good idea.

The New Mixing Zone

That’s the scoop.

I’ve decided to re-invigorate The Mixing Zone. Mostly because I’m living a depressingly lonely professional life and want an excuse to have drinks with people. Previously, it was a monthly gathering, but I think it would be good to take a page out of Beer And Blog’s book and make it a weekly gathering. Over the next few weeks, I’ll figure out a good timing and location for The New Mixing Zone, and when January rolls around, I’ll start hosting a new weekly happy hour for water and environmental professionals.

This time, it’s more than just an email list, however. This time, there’s a website, and plenty of schwag on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. And you can even add it to your Google Calendar, or add it to any calendar for that matter using our iCal feed.

This time, there are lots of ways for water geeks to connect and get together!

So head on over to The Mixing Zone’s new home, vote for the best day of the week,