My First Blog
Getting to know me, Christel

Hi everyone. I guess I am past due with starting the blog that is supposed to help current and future readers better understand me and my passions. With that, let me start off by saying that I am an environmental scientist/engineer by trade and training, and I am a living, breathing Liz Lemon, who truly believes in the "I can have it all" mantra, so having a beautiful, well thought out website is a bit beyond me at this point in time. Ah, already I think I have the premise for my second blog - the art of balancing, work, life, and all the things in-between. But, I digress.

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I will try to keep this short, like me. Yes, I am really short, as in just sub-five feet, so if you are reading this now, and by happenstance we end up meeting, we at least have this fact out of the way. Oh, another blog idea! The "joys" of being short... especially being in a leadership role in a male dominated industry! That will be a fun one! 

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I have been in the wastewater/ water quality industry for just over 20 years, and this industry is purely fascinating. We take a waste stream that would otherwise pollute the environment, and recover water, energy and nutrients in the process. If you are a young reader trying to figure out a career path, and you want to have a direct positive impact on your community and surrounding environment, look into the the many fields that surround wastewater treatment. I could nerd out on this topic all DAY! And to tie in to the topic of the environment, I also enjoy organizing and participating in shoreline and beach clean-ups.

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As with many people, I LOVE animals, hence the book Lemon and Cedar. While I wish I could say I have a pet rabbit and red wolf, more realistically speaking, I currently have two dogs. Baxter is a Pitbull, but he is the goofiest most loving creature, and I hope his breed eventually overcomes the long standing misconceptions as being an aggressive breed. Raven is a lab, hound mix who is feral as all get out. This floof is the one you have to keep your eye on when interacting. And she literally was feral - her and her sister were found in the wild of a neighboring town. 

 

When I am not at work, or tag teaming with my husband to get our son to and from all things baseball, I am either in the garden or at the gym. I am currently focused on Olympic Lifting, but I also take CrossFit classes at my favorite local gym. I like to consider myself an elite scaled athlete. That is not a real thing, but I try my best, given the day. I guess what I am really saying is that most classes I am just there to say I moved for an hour, but moving is better than not!

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So there, I have this monkey off my back as my first blog. I will try to have a new blog posted monthly, unless my publisher or others recommend otherwise. If you hung in there and read all of this. Thank you! And I am open to feedback (but please be kind).

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Kindest regards! - Christel