I had a terrible week at work with stupid foot pain. For some reason, it hurt if I had anything touching my foot, so wearing a sock and shoe was miserable. I wasn't sleeping much at night and the pain was the non-stop, annoying kind that made me incredibly irritable and impatient. Fortunately, Thursday was Thanksgiving Day and a short day where 5 keepers go in and do 3 hours worth of feeding, watering, medicating and basic cleaning. We were in at 6:45am and I was home by 10am. The great thing about working holidays is that I am wide awake and ready to take on the entire day, but suddenly get to go home and have the rest of the day off still early in the morning.
My bad week took a sudden turn for the much better. I would probably never buy a turkey, but I get a free one from work. Usually I donate the bird, but this year I decided to make the whole Thanksgiving feast for my family. I've made a few turkeys before, but this was the first time I actually remembered to remove both the neck and the giblets before cooking. This was also the first time I basted the bird rather than using one of those plastic bags and I must say that it turned out fantastic. The white meat is tender and juicy and the legs were falling off the bird when it was finished. I also made real mashed potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie (made by Kaylin.) We also had Stove Top Stuffing because the kids won't touch it anyway and jarred gravy because the one time I made real gravy from drippings it made me gag and I couldn't eat it. (Everybody else liked it, so it tasted fine, it was the gross process that got to me... I love that I scoop poop for a living but can't handle making gravy. Such is life.) Anyway, it turned out to be a really relaxing day hanging out with Gene and the kids. It was exactly what I needed. Everyone enjoyed the feast and Kaylin's pie was excellent.
Today we're hanging out together at home. Everyone got to sleep in and I even slept almost 8 full hours in my bed. That feels like a record. I then hung out all early morning watching TV in my recliner while both dogs and both cats took turns sleeping with me. At one point both dogs had Princess sandwiched between them and we dozed like that for a good half hour until Scout couldn't take it anymore and chased Princess off. I escaped their altercation with no injuries, but they've been having a standoff with much barking and hissing for the past several hours. Gage plunks down like a bag of sand and sleeps through everyone stepping on him or trying to shove him off. Tiger is bigger than the other pets so he just stands his ground like a brick wall and everyone eventually leaves him alone. They keep the peace by their indifference :)
Gene and Logan might go to the driving range later, but I think I'll just hang out and rest. I'm definitely not going shopping anywhere except maybe Kroger. I think we'll have a day of leftovers and pets and video games and relaxation. I'm going to try to keep off my feet and keep calm. I can't believe it's almost December and almost the end of the year. This year is just flying by!
Friday, November 29, 2013
Thursday, November 14, 2013
November Update
Again, time is flying and I have so many other things to do I completely forgot about the old blog. Since my last entry, the kids went trick-or-treating on a rainy Halloween night and scored ridiculous amounts of candy that I am still munching on almost daily. Both kids decided they were too old to go out and then at the last minute decided they needed to go. I had already worked in the rain all day, so Gene was kind enough to take them. I had my 41st birthday and was not using a walker or any other old people device. 40 pretty much sucked, so I'm glad to have it behind me. Logan celebrated his 11th birthday with everything Minecraft. I am so sick of this stupid game that both kids play endlessly and has no beginning, end or point.
Logan received a metal detector as his birthday present from my parents. His new thing is treasure hunting. We've been out three times and he hasn't found anything of value, not even a penny, but he loves everything he does find. Fish hooks, sinkers, random pieces of metal large and small... He is accumulating a large collection of useless junk. I bird and look for rocks and stuff while he digs up his latest piece of rusty barge. It's pretty fun and gets us out of the house and into the great outdoors.
My foot. I don't even know what to say about it. Every time I feel confident that it's getting better, it flares and puts me in my place. I'm currently going through a series of alcohol injections that are supposed to help or even completely end the nerve pain from my surgery last year. I usually just have some tingling and numbness below my pinky toe, but for some reason the pain started flaring again a few weeks ago. The shots themselves are no big deal, but for hours afterward it feels like what your mouth feels like on Novocain. Then I have several days of pressure pain that is pretty bad the two days after the injection and slowly gets better over the week until my next injection. Actually, I'm awake right now because the weird pain and itching from yesterday's injection is keeping me from sleep. I hopefully only have one more injection, but may have up to four more. Ugh. Stupid foot.
I've got a bunch of other stuff I'm working on and will probably not post again anytime soon. It's a busy time of year, I guess.
Logan received a metal detector as his birthday present from my parents. His new thing is treasure hunting. We've been out three times and he hasn't found anything of value, not even a penny, but he loves everything he does find. Fish hooks, sinkers, random pieces of metal large and small... He is accumulating a large collection of useless junk. I bird and look for rocks and stuff while he digs up his latest piece of rusty barge. It's pretty fun and gets us out of the house and into the great outdoors.
My foot. I don't even know what to say about it. Every time I feel confident that it's getting better, it flares and puts me in my place. I'm currently going through a series of alcohol injections that are supposed to help or even completely end the nerve pain from my surgery last year. I usually just have some tingling and numbness below my pinky toe, but for some reason the pain started flaring again a few weeks ago. The shots themselves are no big deal, but for hours afterward it feels like what your mouth feels like on Novocain. Then I have several days of pressure pain that is pretty bad the two days after the injection and slowly gets better over the week until my next injection. Actually, I'm awake right now because the weird pain and itching from yesterday's injection is keeping me from sleep. I hopefully only have one more injection, but may have up to four more. Ugh. Stupid foot.
I've got a bunch of other stuff I'm working on and will probably not post again anytime soon. It's a busy time of year, I guess.
Monday, October 28, 2013
Another round...
Once again, it's my favorite time of year- parent-teacher conferences!!! The kids' school offers conferences on Thursday evening and Friday morning. Friday is my day off so I have always gone Friday morning. Well, this year with two kids and 10 different teachers, I made Gene come with me Thursday. The school has two gyms (the smaller one is used as a cafeteria) so 5th and 6th grade teachers are in one gym and 7th and 8th in the other. The teachers sit at a table with 2 chairs in front and you line up and wait. And for the chatty teachers, you wait and wait and wait and wait and wait and it takes all of your self-control to not just walk out and go get ice cream instead. It's an awful system, but it works.
Thursday morning as we were driving into the school parking lot for drop-off, Logan told me I'd probably be disappointed with his grades. I was teasing him and asked if he'd been playing too much Minecraft and not studying enough? He completely flipped out and yelled "STUDY! I DO NOT STUDY!" Then he muttered a bunch of stuff about how ridiculous I was being to think that he would study and then it was his turn to get out of the car. I drove to work, part laughing, part stunned and part a little scared of seeing his report card. We never have had a follow up conversation about studying, but I'm going to have to guess that my general definition of "study" that was encompassing all aspects of homework is NOT Logan's definition. His report card was excellent other than his science grade and that was due to one late assignment and few grades overall.
For meet the teacher night in early September, Gene went to Kaylin's classes and I went to Logan's. We switched for conferences. Gene said that all of Logan's teachers said he was great to have in class. He participates and isn't disruptive and does a good job. (Haha, they will never know that he absolutely does not study!) Kaylin's teachers said the same things I've been hearing since 3rd grade. She's very quiet in class, very smart and understands all the material. If she doesn't have an A in the class it is ALWAYS because she failed to turn in assignments. She does the assignments, she just can't seem to locate them when she needs to.
My biggest annoyance of the night was when I got home and showed Kaylin her report card. Her first comment was "An A in gym? I wear Crocs every day and sit on the bleachers with my friends. I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing." Obviously, that's a terrible attitude, but how can I argue? Seriously, if they are going to give her an A when she doesn't participate at all but she's not disruptive, she might as well keep doing what she's doing. The gym teachers probably don't even know her name. Whatever. Another thing to add to my list of why I don't believe report card grades mean anything.
I'm glad conferences are over for a few more months. I had no surprises about the kids and no teachers physically touched me in any way beyond a handshake. Success!
Thursday morning as we were driving into the school parking lot for drop-off, Logan told me I'd probably be disappointed with his grades. I was teasing him and asked if he'd been playing too much Minecraft and not studying enough? He completely flipped out and yelled "STUDY! I DO NOT STUDY!" Then he muttered a bunch of stuff about how ridiculous I was being to think that he would study and then it was his turn to get out of the car. I drove to work, part laughing, part stunned and part a little scared of seeing his report card. We never have had a follow up conversation about studying, but I'm going to have to guess that my general definition of "study" that was encompassing all aspects of homework is NOT Logan's definition. His report card was excellent other than his science grade and that was due to one late assignment and few grades overall.
For meet the teacher night in early September, Gene went to Kaylin's classes and I went to Logan's. We switched for conferences. Gene said that all of Logan's teachers said he was great to have in class. He participates and isn't disruptive and does a good job. (Haha, they will never know that he absolutely does not study!) Kaylin's teachers said the same things I've been hearing since 3rd grade. She's very quiet in class, very smart and understands all the material. If she doesn't have an A in the class it is ALWAYS because she failed to turn in assignments. She does the assignments, she just can't seem to locate them when she needs to.
My biggest annoyance of the night was when I got home and showed Kaylin her report card. Her first comment was "An A in gym? I wear Crocs every day and sit on the bleachers with my friends. I guess I'll keep doing what I'm doing." Obviously, that's a terrible attitude, but how can I argue? Seriously, if they are going to give her an A when she doesn't participate at all but she's not disruptive, she might as well keep doing what she's doing. The gym teachers probably don't even know her name. Whatever. Another thing to add to my list of why I don't believe report card grades mean anything.
I'm glad conferences are over for a few more months. I had no surprises about the kids and no teachers physically touched me in any way beyond a handshake. Success!
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Slow down, October!
Wow, once again I have fallen way, way behind on blogging! The rest of my zoo keeper conference was fantastic. They turned up the temperature in our main conference hall and it was cool but comfortable the rest of the week. We spent one entire day at the North Carolina Zoo which was huge. Most of the animal enclosures (at least for the hoofstock) were enormous, which is great for the animals, but the layout of the zoo was such that you walked and walked and walked between exhibits. I compared it to if Peoria Zoo kept our same number of animals but increased the size of the grounds by about 10 times. I would say about 80% of the time you were walking through the wooded grounds with no animal enclosures in sight. I probably would have loved the zoo if not for my bad foot. I mean, I DID love the zoo, but I didn't love walking the zoo. Someone said it was 5 miles from one end to the other, but I have no idea if that is true. It felt like 5 miles!
I missed the kids and Gene was planning to take them to a White Sox game in Chicago for the weekend, so I drove home in 15 hours on Friday. It was a loooooooong drive all at once, but I was glad to be home all day on Saturday. The White Sox plans went all wonky and Kaylin ended up staying home but spending the night with my parents and Logan and Gene went to the game but only on Sunday. The boys had a great time at the Sox game where they got free tickets and $10 parking. Their Sox game ended up being cheaper than a Chiefs game!
I returned to work on Sunday, September 30th. I hadn't worn my boot cast since the last day I worked a week and a half before, but my doctor told me I should probably put it back on when I went back to work. I did and it was a big mistake. By lunch my calf was so cramped I could hardly walk. I took off the boot for the rest of the day, but spent the rest of the week stretching and massaging the knots out of my calf. I've now completed two weeks of work without the boot and while my foot is far from perfect, I can make it through the work day without icing. It seems like my tendon tear pain is completely healed and gone, but my foot is still weak overall and the nerve pain by my pinkie toe is still flaring. It's not ideal, but I've worked with much worse pain and it seems to get slightly better over time.
Work's been a bit crazy with preparing everything for the cold season and the zoo preparing for Howl-Zoo-Ween. I had to round up the budgies in the aviary to bring them inside for the winter. After a week of preparation, feeding the birds mostly inside, adjusting doors and waiting for cool night time temperatures, the majority of the ~200 birds were locked inside last Saturday night. My boss worked late at a special event and snuck down after dark and shut the door. It was a surprisingly good catch! I only had ~50 more birds to round up outside. On Sunday, I hung sheets across half of the aviary and several coworkers came down and we netted birds until there were only 8 remaining outside. I then set a food "trap" in one of the double-doored vestibules the zoo visitors use to enter the aviary. It was basically like putting all their food into a closet. I came in early Monday morning and all of the birds were happily eating. I shut the door and then just had to net them in the small area. It was sort of fun and definitely gave a sense of accomplishment when complete.
Kaylin and I worked at Howl-Zoo-Ween last night. Our zoo keeper group was selling glow necklaces as a fundraiser and Kaylin came along to help. I bought 450 necklaces online and felt it was a major financial risk. Thursday night was for zoo members only and only 50 necklaces were sold. I about panicked wondering how much money we would lose because of MY purchase. I need not have worried. The event was PACKED last night and the six of us working sold ~325 of the remaining necklaces, with ~25 defective and unsellable. I'm sure they will have no problem selling 50 necklaces tonight! Even if it pours rain and no one shows up, we will still make a good profit! It was fun to see all of the costumed kids and Kaylin and I even had time to walk the trick-or-treat trail for candy.
Otherwise, almost everything is pretty normal. The kids are doing their school thing and the pets are doing their pet things. Gene had a lay-off week from work last week and will have at least one more before the end of the year. I'm still keeping my eyes and ears open for other career opportunities, but am very much hoping to be able to remain a zoo keeper for a while longer. I suppose only time will tell. I was somewhat encouraged this week because while I was scrolling through some online want ads, just seeing what is available, I was interested in 3 different jobs I would currently qualify for and another job I had never thought of that I would probably only need a few classes to qualify. I know competition is probably fierce and just because I'm interested doesn't mean I would actually get the jobs, but it is an incredible feeling to know there is something out there.
I missed the kids and Gene was planning to take them to a White Sox game in Chicago for the weekend, so I drove home in 15 hours on Friday. It was a loooooooong drive all at once, but I was glad to be home all day on Saturday. The White Sox plans went all wonky and Kaylin ended up staying home but spending the night with my parents and Logan and Gene went to the game but only on Sunday. The boys had a great time at the Sox game where they got free tickets and $10 parking. Their Sox game ended up being cheaper than a Chiefs game!
I returned to work on Sunday, September 30th. I hadn't worn my boot cast since the last day I worked a week and a half before, but my doctor told me I should probably put it back on when I went back to work. I did and it was a big mistake. By lunch my calf was so cramped I could hardly walk. I took off the boot for the rest of the day, but spent the rest of the week stretching and massaging the knots out of my calf. I've now completed two weeks of work without the boot and while my foot is far from perfect, I can make it through the work day without icing. It seems like my tendon tear pain is completely healed and gone, but my foot is still weak overall and the nerve pain by my pinkie toe is still flaring. It's not ideal, but I've worked with much worse pain and it seems to get slightly better over time.
Work's been a bit crazy with preparing everything for the cold season and the zoo preparing for Howl-Zoo-Ween. I had to round up the budgies in the aviary to bring them inside for the winter. After a week of preparation, feeding the birds mostly inside, adjusting doors and waiting for cool night time temperatures, the majority of the ~200 birds were locked inside last Saturday night. My boss worked late at a special event and snuck down after dark and shut the door. It was a surprisingly good catch! I only had ~50 more birds to round up outside. On Sunday, I hung sheets across half of the aviary and several coworkers came down and we netted birds until there were only 8 remaining outside. I then set a food "trap" in one of the double-doored vestibules the zoo visitors use to enter the aviary. It was basically like putting all their food into a closet. I came in early Monday morning and all of the birds were happily eating. I shut the door and then just had to net them in the small area. It was sort of fun and definitely gave a sense of accomplishment when complete.
Kaylin and I worked at Howl-Zoo-Ween last night. Our zoo keeper group was selling glow necklaces as a fundraiser and Kaylin came along to help. I bought 450 necklaces online and felt it was a major financial risk. Thursday night was for zoo members only and only 50 necklaces were sold. I about panicked wondering how much money we would lose because of MY purchase. I need not have worried. The event was PACKED last night and the six of us working sold ~325 of the remaining necklaces, with ~25 defective and unsellable. I'm sure they will have no problem selling 50 necklaces tonight! Even if it pours rain and no one shows up, we will still make a good profit! It was fun to see all of the costumed kids and Kaylin and I even had time to walk the trick-or-treat trail for candy.
Otherwise, almost everything is pretty normal. The kids are doing their school thing and the pets are doing their pet things. Gene had a lay-off week from work last week and will have at least one more before the end of the year. I'm still keeping my eyes and ears open for other career opportunities, but am very much hoping to be able to remain a zoo keeper for a while longer. I suppose only time will tell. I was somewhat encouraged this week because while I was scrolling through some online want ads, just seeing what is available, I was interested in 3 different jobs I would currently qualify for and another job I had never thought of that I would probably only need a few classes to qualify. I know competition is probably fierce and just because I'm interested doesn't mean I would actually get the jobs, but it is an incredible feeling to know there is something out there.
Monday, September 23, 2013
Lemurs!
I just spent nearly 10 hours in the most freezing cold conference hall imaginable. I did have a 30 minute lunch, but was still cold when I got back. I would have like to have stayed for the 5:30-6:30 presentation, but was so miserable I decided to come back to the room to warm up before the 7-8:30pm presentation. I can look out my window and see countless restaurants, along with a huge shopping mall with a food court just across the parking lot, but I'm so cold I'm eating crackers and peanut butter because I can't stand the thought of going out into the cold hallway. I really need to ice my foot but that is just not going to happen. I think I have my Carhartt winter work coat in the trunk of my car and I may have to go get item. I wonder if JC Penney sells footie pajamas and big fuzzy slippers because that's what I want to wear under my coat. I think my bibs are in my work locker or I'd wear them too.
Okay, I'm done complaining about the cold. Otherwise, the conference is great! Today lots of the topics covered animal welfare issues. For those not in the profession, animal welfare is the scientific approach to animal care covering everything from proper diet to proper housing to emotional state. This is opposed to animal rights which is the philosophical viewpoint that animals deserve the same rights as humans. Anyway, I learned some great stuff I'd never considered, along with lots of differing ideas. I also attended the meeting for chapter leaders and I best be going over our chapter's constitution and bylaws ASAP. We also had speakers from Lewa, the International Rhino Foundation and the cheetah organization that Bowling for Rhinos helps fund. It's been a long day and I'd probably be exhausted if not for all the coffee I drank trying to keep warm.
Yesterday's trip to Duke Lemur Center and the Durham Science Center was fantastic! The lemur center had acres and acres of wooded areas where troops of lemurs roamed free. We got to go in 3 of them. One had a group of sifakas along with some other lemurs I can't even remember because being inches away from multiple "free-roaming" sifakas was so cool. The next yard was full of a large family of ring-tailed lemurs. There were many babies of different ages and all would run right over your feet. The dominant male went right up to everyone. We then saw several pairs of breeding lemurs who were in enclosures rather than huge free yards. Finally, we got to go into the nocturnal building which housed aye-ayes, pygmy lorises and gray mouse lemurs. Before I saw my first aye-aye at Omaha Zoo, I thought they were tiny. They are actually the largest nocturnal primate and one of the largest (maybe the largest, I can't remember) lemur. Anyway, they are crazy-looking and super, super cool. They have to have tons and tons of enrichment and can only have fleece cloth because they pull apart everything. They also can make a small hole in an orange or a nut and perfectly clean out the fruit, leaving the shell/skin intact. I don't think I've ever seen gray mouse lemurs before, or if I have, I didn't get a good look. There are adorable! They are probably the cutest primates I've ever seen.
The Durham Science Center was also way better than I thought it would be. They had a really nice butterfly and insect house. We got a behind the scenes tour of the black bears and a keeper did a demonstration with one of the bears in the squeeze cage. Meanwhile, two of the other bears came right up to the fence and we were an inch away from them. We also got to see the wolves and farm animals up close. Last night was the conference ice breaker at the Greensboro Science Center. The Greensboro Science Center is also an AZA accredited zoo and aquarium with a large ray touch tank. The food was a fat girl's dream with a mac and cheese bar (yes bar) and a huge selection of dips with home made chips. There was also a table with vegetables and cheeses. Delicious food followed by a ray tank with no children. Pretty awesome!
Ugh. I have 10 minutes to make it back to the meeting room and I'm still freezing. I guess I'll come back and take a hot shower.
Okay, I'm done complaining about the cold. Otherwise, the conference is great! Today lots of the topics covered animal welfare issues. For those not in the profession, animal welfare is the scientific approach to animal care covering everything from proper diet to proper housing to emotional state. This is opposed to animal rights which is the philosophical viewpoint that animals deserve the same rights as humans. Anyway, I learned some great stuff I'd never considered, along with lots of differing ideas. I also attended the meeting for chapter leaders and I best be going over our chapter's constitution and bylaws ASAP. We also had speakers from Lewa, the International Rhino Foundation and the cheetah organization that Bowling for Rhinos helps fund. It's been a long day and I'd probably be exhausted if not for all the coffee I drank trying to keep warm.
Yesterday's trip to Duke Lemur Center and the Durham Science Center was fantastic! The lemur center had acres and acres of wooded areas where troops of lemurs roamed free. We got to go in 3 of them. One had a group of sifakas along with some other lemurs I can't even remember because being inches away from multiple "free-roaming" sifakas was so cool. The next yard was full of a large family of ring-tailed lemurs. There were many babies of different ages and all would run right over your feet. The dominant male went right up to everyone. We then saw several pairs of breeding lemurs who were in enclosures rather than huge free yards. Finally, we got to go into the nocturnal building which housed aye-ayes, pygmy lorises and gray mouse lemurs. Before I saw my first aye-aye at Omaha Zoo, I thought they were tiny. They are actually the largest nocturnal primate and one of the largest (maybe the largest, I can't remember) lemur. Anyway, they are crazy-looking and super, super cool. They have to have tons and tons of enrichment and can only have fleece cloth because they pull apart everything. They also can make a small hole in an orange or a nut and perfectly clean out the fruit, leaving the shell/skin intact. I don't think I've ever seen gray mouse lemurs before, or if I have, I didn't get a good look. There are adorable! They are probably the cutest primates I've ever seen.
The Durham Science Center was also way better than I thought it would be. They had a really nice butterfly and insect house. We got a behind the scenes tour of the black bears and a keeper did a demonstration with one of the bears in the squeeze cage. Meanwhile, two of the other bears came right up to the fence and we were an inch away from them. We also got to see the wolves and farm animals up close. Last night was the conference ice breaker at the Greensboro Science Center. The Greensboro Science Center is also an AZA accredited zoo and aquarium with a large ray touch tank. The food was a fat girl's dream with a mac and cheese bar (yes bar) and a huge selection of dips with home made chips. There was also a table with vegetables and cheeses. Delicious food followed by a ray tank with no children. Pretty awesome!
Ugh. I have 10 minutes to make it back to the meeting room and I'm still freezing. I guess I'll come back and take a hot shower.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
North Carolina
I'm in North Carolina for the next week for a zoo keeper conference. I'm excited for countless reasons, but the main ones are that I love road trips, I've never been to a national level conference before and my doctor said I don't have to wear my boot as long as I'm not doing anything strenuous. I've been wearing the boot for the past 7 weeks, including all week at work last week. I'm sick of it! Back to work went really well. My first day back I was in so much pain when I got home I thought maybe I made a mistake. I iced my foot and then used my heat wrap and was a lot better in the morning. I then started icing my foot during my morning break and lunch and the difference at the end of the day was huge. By Thursday (my Friday) I was much better than I was on Sunday. My foot still hurts, but it's not the unbearable pain that kept me out of work. I went off all my pain meds ~6 weeks ago and switched to all natural options. I'm taking a specially formulated joint pain vitamin pack along with an herbal anti-inflammatory. I would normally assume the holistic approach is a bunch of hooey, but it seems to be working at least as well as the prescription that was giving me all kinds of nasty symptoms.
Back to North Carolina... I left Friday morning after I dropped the kids off at school. I took my time and drove without any real goal in mind. I stopped at interesting rest areas and landmarks. I found a really cool Audubon center near Dayton that had a great sitting room overlooking a large bird feeder area with a water feature. I enjoyed the scenery and pulled into Charleston just as it was getting dark. I would have liked to drive another hour or two, but I decided that I wanted to be able to see my surroundings. It was a wise decision because the drive through West Virginia and Virginia was one of the prettiest I remember. The never ending foothills covered with green trees that were just starting to change. West Virginia's slogan is "Wild and Wonderful" and it certainly was. I was meandering through North Carolina, sort of sad my drive was almost over when I saw an exit sign for Mt. Pilot. Wait, what? Mt. Pilot? Like from Andy Griffith? There really is such a place? Indeed there is! And there is even a restaurant called Aunt Bea's. I've been there. I also stopped at Pilot Mountain state park and drove to the summit. Today was foggy, windy and drizzly, but this is the time of year for hawk migration and it turns out Pilot Mountain is one of the counting points. If next Friday is a little nicer, I will be going back to count hawks!
The convention center/hotel in Greensboro looks like it was built in the 50s. It has one large tower and two small ones. There are more than 1000 hotel rooms and countless conference rooms. My room looks like it has been recently updated. It's nice, but the bathroom is weird. Specifically, the shower is weird. There is no tub, just an enormous shower stall with only a half sheet of glass floor to ceiling and no door. The shower head is mounted to the ceiling and rains down over the drain. I have to step completely out of the water to adjust the faucet. There is no towel bar convenient and no curtain rod or side of the tub or other place to hang a towel. The toilet is right on the other side of the shower glass so the only place for a towel (other than the rack all the way across the large room or the bar behind the toilet) is the floor in front of the toilet. GROSS! The way the shower is set up with a huge area out of the water, there is no floor mat. I had to lay a towel on the floor in front of the toilet to set my clean towel on. Weird.
Tomorrow I'm going on a pre-conference trip to the Duke Lemur Center. It's a place I've always wanted to visit and now I get to go AND go behind the scenes. Tomorrow night is the conference ice breaker at the Greensboro Science Center that is also a zoo and aquarium. Monday through Thursday are conference days with a trip to the North Carolina Zoo thrown in at some point. I've got a few extras planned for the evenings. It should be a fun week!
Back to North Carolina... I left Friday morning after I dropped the kids off at school. I took my time and drove without any real goal in mind. I stopped at interesting rest areas and landmarks. I found a really cool Audubon center near Dayton that had a great sitting room overlooking a large bird feeder area with a water feature. I enjoyed the scenery and pulled into Charleston just as it was getting dark. I would have liked to drive another hour or two, but I decided that I wanted to be able to see my surroundings. It was a wise decision because the drive through West Virginia and Virginia was one of the prettiest I remember. The never ending foothills covered with green trees that were just starting to change. West Virginia's slogan is "Wild and Wonderful" and it certainly was. I was meandering through North Carolina, sort of sad my drive was almost over when I saw an exit sign for Mt. Pilot. Wait, what? Mt. Pilot? Like from Andy Griffith? There really is such a place? Indeed there is! And there is even a restaurant called Aunt Bea's. I've been there. I also stopped at Pilot Mountain state park and drove to the summit. Today was foggy, windy and drizzly, but this is the time of year for hawk migration and it turns out Pilot Mountain is one of the counting points. If next Friday is a little nicer, I will be going back to count hawks!
The convention center/hotel in Greensboro looks like it was built in the 50s. It has one large tower and two small ones. There are more than 1000 hotel rooms and countless conference rooms. My room looks like it has been recently updated. It's nice, but the bathroom is weird. Specifically, the shower is weird. There is no tub, just an enormous shower stall with only a half sheet of glass floor to ceiling and no door. The shower head is mounted to the ceiling and rains down over the drain. I have to step completely out of the water to adjust the faucet. There is no towel bar convenient and no curtain rod or side of the tub or other place to hang a towel. The toilet is right on the other side of the shower glass so the only place for a towel (other than the rack all the way across the large room or the bar behind the toilet) is the floor in front of the toilet. GROSS! The way the shower is set up with a huge area out of the water, there is no floor mat. I had to lay a towel on the floor in front of the toilet to set my clean towel on. Weird.
Tomorrow I'm going on a pre-conference trip to the Duke Lemur Center. It's a place I've always wanted to visit and now I get to go AND go behind the scenes. Tomorrow night is the conference ice breaker at the Greensboro Science Center that is also a zoo and aquarium. Monday through Thursday are conference days with a trip to the North Carolina Zoo thrown in at some point. I've got a few extras planned for the evenings. It should be a fun week!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
Boo-freakin-hoo
Well, I'm pretty sure I'm in my final week of being off work for my foot. I have been doing so little for the past 6 weeks that pretty much the only thing I could have written about would have been my woes about not being at work. When I look back to what I have accomplished during my time off, it seems like I should have done a whole lot, but I really did next to nothing. Of course, I've been trying to keep off my foot and allow it to heal, but that's probably no excuse for my son's bedroom being a complete pigsty and the rest of the house having 1/4 inch of dust everywhere.
I went to lunch with my dad and aunt Sharon last week. I hadn't seen Sharon for a while and was filling her in on my foot. Dad told Sharon that I'm looking into changing careers to something less physical. He then went on to state that I'm "taking it very well." Uhhhh... I don't think that is true at all! The truth is that I am completely devastated! I love being a zoo keeper. I love working at a physical job outside. I absolutely love working with the animals! There are certainly things I don't love about my job, but most of those things involve something going wrong with the animals (illness, injury, old age, death) which is extremely stressful sometimes, but ultimately makes the job more meaningful and special.
I have needed most of my time off to just process the thought of leaving the zoo. I've had very productive days where I've made phone calls and gone to appointments and worked hard on my resume. They are usually followed by days curled in my chair, doing only what I'm absolutely forced to do. I'm not very good at showing emotion or letting people know how I really feel. I hate drama and really don't cry or rant or anything. My plan as of this second is to go back to work next Sunday and work until at least January 30th- my work anniversary date when my retirement vests. If my foot is perfectly fine, I will continue at the zoo for a while and give myself more time to research (and hopefully find) other jobs. If my foot is bad, I will probably quit soon after my anniversary date. I'm certainly no closer to finding another job than I was 6 weeks ago, but I'm in a lot less denial and have a lot more ideas. I'm not there yet, but I'm slowly coming into acceptance. I know I'll eventually be okay. Seriously, scooping poop is not the only thing I can do.
I went to lunch with my dad and aunt Sharon last week. I hadn't seen Sharon for a while and was filling her in on my foot. Dad told Sharon that I'm looking into changing careers to something less physical. He then went on to state that I'm "taking it very well." Uhhhh... I don't think that is true at all! The truth is that I am completely devastated! I love being a zoo keeper. I love working at a physical job outside. I absolutely love working with the animals! There are certainly things I don't love about my job, but most of those things involve something going wrong with the animals (illness, injury, old age, death) which is extremely stressful sometimes, but ultimately makes the job more meaningful and special.
I have needed most of my time off to just process the thought of leaving the zoo. I've had very productive days where I've made phone calls and gone to appointments and worked hard on my resume. They are usually followed by days curled in my chair, doing only what I'm absolutely forced to do. I'm not very good at showing emotion or letting people know how I really feel. I hate drama and really don't cry or rant or anything. My plan as of this second is to go back to work next Sunday and work until at least January 30th- my work anniversary date when my retirement vests. If my foot is perfectly fine, I will continue at the zoo for a while and give myself more time to research (and hopefully find) other jobs. If my foot is bad, I will probably quit soon after my anniversary date. I'm certainly no closer to finding another job than I was 6 weeks ago, but I'm in a lot less denial and have a lot more ideas. I'm not there yet, but I'm slowly coming into acceptance. I know I'll eventually be okay. Seriously, scooping poop is not the only thing I can do.
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