The End of Vacation

For the past few months, people have been asking about how the job search has been going. And I usually answered that it wasn't.

Obviously I knew I had to get a job, but I didn't want to get stuck in a meaningless 9 to 5 position that I loathed on a daily basis. I wanted a job that meant something to me; where I felt like I was doing something important with my life. And filing papers in some corporate office wasn't really going to fill that niche.

It finally happened. Break out the champagne! I got a job!

(Actually, I already did bust out the champagne and polished off the bottle Wednesday night. But more is always appreciated.)

As of Monday, I will be the newest employee in the Education Department of the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, and I couldn't be more thrilled. Actually, I held the position that I will be assuming about eleven years ago, and only left because I went back to school full time. But eleven years is a long time, and while it feels like coming home, a lot of things have changed. Hopefully I'll be able to catch on quickly and add to an already strong and vital department.

I'm also getting a new car on Monday. My mechanic, after pronouncing the death sentence upon my Tercel, remarked to my father that he had a used car on his lot that was in pretty good shape, and my parents and I have decided that it would be a suitable replacement. There's only one problem: it's a 5 speed and I have never driven a stick shift. Zappagirl took me out for a lesson last week, and I freaked out the entire time. She says I'm doing fine, and that it will become second nature over time, but I'm still wary of that extra pedal.

But since the bus that runs from Clifton to the Zoo requires a 10 minute walk (uphill) from my apartment to the bus stop, and another 10 minute walk from the Zoo's bus stop to the gate, I have incentive to learn to drive my new car as quickly as possible. Until then, I'll just be hoping for good weather and rationalizing that I need the exercise anyway.

The exercise should also come in handy since I'm starting a diet on Monday as well. I don't have much to lose, but four months of sitting on my butt eating food that was bad for me and doing my part to keep Latrobe Brewing Co. in business have taken their toll. Ten pounds or so, and I'll feel much more comfortable in my own skin. Just enough to make me happier, but not so much that I have to buy a whole new wardrobe of clothes.

So with all of these new goings-on starting next week, I've been trying to make the most of the last of my free time (or as it used to say on my elementary school report cards, "make good use of time and materials"). I spent yesterday with Rosencrantz hiking around the Cincinnati Nature Center. The weather was perfect, and all of nature is in the process of waking up to say hello. The ponds are filled with frogs and tadpoles and salamanders, the hills are blooming with flowers, and most of the trees are starting to bud. (And of course, on the way back we stopped at her house to play with the kittens. They're in my favorite stage, where they're still a little clumsy but incredibly curious about everything. Between the two of them, they managed to untie my bootlaces. Not that I did much to stop them, mind you.)

I keeping asking Ma Huang and Kismet what they're going to do without me around the house during the day. They just stare at me, which I have decided means "Sleep all day, watch out the window for birds, and have kitty smackdown matches for supremacy of the apartment. You know, the same stuff we do when you are here. What a stupid question.".

67 hours until I have to start being a responsible grown-up again. I wonder how much damage I can do in that amount of time?