Sometimes I get competitive

My room mate has started a blogger. By the competitive nature of myself, I now have to keep mine updated. That's where the problem comes in; I have nothing to write about. Nothing really interesting has been going on in my life recently. Expect, in the context of my blog's life, a lot has happened!  I think I should write the story of the last year of my life. A year ago, I think just about to the day, I moved to Arizona to work at the Phoenix Zoo. I guess I can write about that adventure so I don't forget every little last bit. I've already forgotten a lot, so I better write down what I remember!

hello square one, nice to see you again

I'm back to applying for zoo jobs again. I took some time off from it for a while because I craved some consistency and stability in my life after 4 and a half years of a seasonally nomadic existence. I wanted to sit still and stay on one place for a bit. But while I really like my current job, it's not something that I can do for long, and I don't want to put down any really firm roots here (like a year long lease or something), so I'm back to trying to get a job I want for a while. So far I have applied to three zoos:

Lincoln Park Zoo (Chicago, IL) for a seal keeper position
Dallas Zoo (Dallas, TX) for a mammal keeper position
Jackson Zoo (Jackson, MS) for a general keeper position

I really hope I get one of these jobs. I just need to get a foot in at a zoo, go there, work for 2 or so years, then if I don't like it I will have the experience to try to get a position I might like better. Ideally I would like a job around the Midwest so I'm not moving really far from my family, but Texas and Mississippi are both better than Oregon, and I've been there. Wish me luck!

In other news, I have not had any chocolate yet. This is actually quite impressive for me since I have dark chocolate squares and chocolate covered espresso beans in my room.

Sometimes I even look like a girl

Today I didn't have to work.
Plan for day:
get up at respectable time (8:30am)
feed cat
take shower
get dressed
don't sit on the computer for hours
make bed
gather laundry
go to parent's house to do laundry
buy groceries
go to Home Goods
get recipes from Grandma
go home
sew

How day went:
Cat woke me up around 8am, so I fed him, shut my door, and set my alarm for 10am since I got less that 5 hours of sleep the night before and I was tired. After Viktor ate, he came to my door and started meowing annoyingly, but in true tired parent fashion, I ignored him and went back to sleep. Got out of bed around 10:20am, discovered fanfic, took shower, more fanfic, got dressed, made bed, left for parent's house around 2:30pm. On the way I got coffee and stopped at work to get my schedule for this week. Since all my jeans were dirty, I had put on dark purple tights, light khaki capris, and a cute pair of boots. I also did my make up, put on earrings, and wore my cute coat. usually I go to work with my hair in a pony tail, jeans, black t-shirt, no make up and tired looking. The cute look went over well. Now, if only there were any available guys at my work. But alas, there are two males, the rest are girls.

Finally got to my parent's house, put laundry in, went to Grandma's around 3:30, left there around 5:30, changed laundry, went grocery shopping, had dad change laundry while out, got back to parent's house, got laundry, finally got back to my house after 9pm, put all my stuff away, had a salad, and now we're here. Ah well, at least I got the laundry and grocery shopping done. I bought fruit so I won't die of scurvy.

Now my cat in climbing in my closet and it's bugging me. I would close the door, but then he just plays with the door which is also annoying since they swing and make noise.

I finished Torchwood yesterday. That is one dark show, but I love it to pieces and must buy it at my first opportunity. Ianto is the best ever, and I love him and Jack together. I believe that's all the rambling I have in me tonight. I love my new computer.

Reasons I Like Going to Work

-my job doesn't suck
-they put me in FL more often, and I like it there
-when I'm having a bad day, it's not hard to find a dog to snuggle to make it all much better
-the people don't suck
-there's a cute boy that's really really nice to look at
-especially when he wears his skinny jeans
-Shady
-Yarkko
-Cow & Moo
-All the Lucys'
-Beaglepalooza
-I get paid
-I get paid to do something that I actually like
-cute boy
-cute dogs
-I think I'm losing weight

Cons:
-sometimes I start at 6:30am
-sometimes I start at 6:30am and they put me in NY with the crazies and I have a headache and am tired and cranky and just want to go home
-can't think of a third con

i will never be without bookmarks again!

I love this whole Delicious thing! I am a bookmarking, tagging fiend over here man! It's so nice, I will never be without my bookmarks again! That's gonna be one of the worst things abut changing computers or ever just internet operating services. When I switched computers, I obviously lost all my bookmarks/favorites, and now I will always have these. It's so nice! I've been bookmarking up a storm, a STORM I tells you!

Tonight mom dad and I went to see Zed Leppelin, the Led Zeppelin Tribute Band at the Lake Harriet Band shell. Then we rode the trolley. It was a very enjoyable evening. Good music, beautiful evening, brought food along, it was great!

I still don't have a second job. I had my working interview at the doggy daycare, and expressed my interest in the job, but nothing back yet. That was Tuesday. If I don't hear anything by the time I leave for work tomorrow, I'm gonna give them a call. The girl told me to think about it and email her, which I did. And then I sent a follow up email to make sure that my first one actually got there, but that one didn't get a response either, so looks like I'm gonna have to call. I hate calling people.

I wrote up a rental agreement last night because this whole situation is getting annoying, and no one else was going to get around to doing it, so I had to take the reins on that one. Big surprise there. Oh wait, no it's not. Mandy took it to her mom to see if that would work out, but she's not back yet. Hopefully it does, in which case we will all be paying $125/month in rent, which is a massively good deal. Not as good as free, but pretty much as close as you can get, considering we're living in a house, not a puny little apartment.

I think that's pretty much all that's new in my life. Well, and my birthday is in 9 days, on September 2nd. I will be 24. One more year before I can rent a car without incurring age penalties and fees. I'm gonna go read some HP fic I found again while I was updating my Delicious. Laters!

Quite the quandary

Must sleep, would much rather read fanfic, will regret fanfic decision in the morning, much more concerned with instant gratification. This is quite the quandary; which will win, sleep or reading.

...

I'll give you a hint, sleeping never wins

Maybe I should post some actual content

I've been posting a lot of nonsense and drivel lately. Not that it terrible matters because no one really reads this except me. But if I'm gonna have to look at it, I might as well put something here about my life. I applied to a few more jobs a week or so back. On of them was at a doggy daycare called Downtown Dogs. I emailed, then got a response saying "Hey lazybones, come in a fill out a app, dork." So I did, then got called back and set up an interview. First interview time ended up clashing with work, so I called back to reschedule. Person who I needed was in a meeting, and didn't call me back that day. Just as I was going to call yet again the next day, she called back, and we rescheduled for Monday the 10th. The she called me back again saying that Oops, I have something that day and time. So NOW I have an interview there on Tuesday at 3pm. Hopefully it doesn't go more than an hour because I have to work at 5, which means I like to be out of the house and on the road by 4. But I will be a little closer to work coming from the interview rather than my house.

Hopefully I get this job. It's working with animals, and is pretty much a job I've done in the past. Well, more of a conglomeration of various jobs I've done. If they don't hire me, they're crazy. I am totally qualified! Hell, I'm probably over qualified, but hopefully they'll hire me anyway. The I can push back my JoAnn's jobs to fewer hours and not have to drive all the way out to Maple Grove quite so often.

In other news, my roomie Mandy's cousin had a baby girl, and Mandy's mom bought two onesies and a hat off of me. Yay! She got these three:

Oh dear God

Knitting is usually a nice relaxing hobby for me. I spend a movie or two calmly knitting together some sock or lace shawl or other, and come away from the whole experience feeling some sense of accomplishment and relaxation. Well kiddies, NOT TODAY!

Let me just tell you, knitting for 13 hours on a deadline is possibly one of the least relaxing things you can do while not risking the potential of grievous bodily harm at the hands of fate or some horrible person who wants to torture you. And we all know, fate is a cruel bitch. I am tired and I am sore, and at this very moment, I want very much to never pick up a knitting needle ever again. ...Well, no, that's not true, well at least the part about not wanting to see a knitting needle. But I am sore. My hands hurt, my arms hurt, my back and knees and head and neck all hurt. And I'm not done yet! I have to do this all again tomorrow...errr, later today. Why did I knit for so long today if it wasn't fun, you may ask? I did it so my room mate's mom can bring the comfort shawl I'm knitting to her friend in the hospital. And hopefully she'll only be there for a few more days, so I want to get it done by tomorrow night so Meg can give it to her friend. And so I can get monies. No no no, I'm not doing this for free. I'm also not doing it at cost. I am broke and there are many things I would have rather spent my day doing, than knitting almost two skeins of Homespun. I have about 24 more rows left in the second skein, but I just couldn't do it any more. My hands are really starting to revolt. Though if I find enough to read on the comp tonight, maybe I'll go get my work from the living room and see if I can finish that last skein up.

But hey, I watched some movies, and some of Wonderfalls, that was fun at least. Got to see Karl Urban wearing pretty much nothing and swinging swords around. (bonus points if you can name that movie) So now, I am going to read some lovely Star Trek fic, and then go to bed. Then I'm going to get up, shower, knit if I have time, go to parents house, go to musical, come home, and finish knitting. It should actually be done by tomorrow night...hopefully. If it's not done by midnight, I'm going to bed because I have to work at 10am on Monday, which means I have to get up by 8am. Oi.

I got a nibble

So I applied to some more zoos. One of the places I applied was the Lee Richardson Zoo in Garden City, Kansas. I sent in the app probably about a week and a half ago. They called me yesterday to set up an interview, but I was at work and didn't get the message till everyone there was gone for the day, so I called back today and have a phone interview set up for tomorrow at 1pm. I hope it goes well, I could really use this job. They pay well, and they have benefits, both of which I need. I would have to move to Kansas, of all places, but at least it wouldn't be Texas. I applied for a job is Texas and Tennessee both. Kansas is probably the best choice of the three. Wish me luck!!!

Fresh paint

The change is near, I can see the light and I don't think it's a train! There is an open window, and it's not to throw myself out of but to let the fresh wonderful air of change in. Now I just need to get that job and I'm home free for a while. Hope along with me people! Because either way, I'm gone! (And I really need the money)

And after that:

Work is a four letter word

I applied for five jobs yesterday and today. Four of them were application bu email, which is nice. The other I had to send in. I will be compiling another and sending that as well in the next day or two (probably tomorrow).

Of these 5, now 6, jobs, none of them is in Minnesota. For those of you reading this who don't know (unlikely that there are any) I live in Minnesota. I applied for two jobs in Ohio, one in Colorado, another in Iowa, and the last in Texas. The one I will apply for tomorrow is also in Ohio. These are all zoo jobs. They are at the zoos to follow:

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo , Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden, Cincinnati, Ohio.

The Toledo Zoo, Toledo, Ohio. (And seriously, that giraffe pic on the home page? CUTE!!)

Blank Park Zoo, Des Moines, Iowa.

Houston Zoo, Huston, Texas.

Any of these would be fine, I'm sure, but I'm rooting the hardest for Colorado an d Iowa. Iowa because it's close to home, and Colorado because it's pretty. And I think I would like Colorado. I liked it when we drove through. You may not think so, but you can get a pretty good general feel for a place simply by driving through it. There are places I know I would never like to live. Houston would be crazy hot and humid and full of giant bugs, and Ohio is...Ohio. Ohio is probably fine, but one of me Ex's is from there, which instantly turns me off of it. But we'll see. Hope and pray for me guys, I need a job!!!