Day to day...

Yay! My favorite day...and I have to work...until 8:30. =o(

My life: still working at Care Animal Hospital. I am the webmaster. Visit my page at http://www.careanimal.com. I'm getting better at my work there, but still don't feel like I quite belong. What should I do with my life? Why does everybody else seem to know what they want to do with theirs?

I picked up the clarinet the other day and it sounded quite good. I just need a stronger embouchure and I'm good to go. Had I practiced at all in the last, like, 5 years, I might get the praise of "how amazing" that I used to.

I'm going to a jam session to play celtic fiddle later this week. Fun stuff.

After a while I decided to update my LJ but it didn't make a lot of sense since I haven't touched it in almost a year. Also, it seemed too emotional, like I was only writing when I felt absolutely awful. That's not what a journal is for, is it?

For the past 6 months I've been working for a veterinary hospital in Arvada, Colorado. I started as a volunteer and am now doing some combination of volunteer work and part time work as an exam room assistant (that person who takes you back to the room and asks you lots of questions about your animal). I'm enjoying working with the pets, and the higher status afforded to a non-clerky kind of person. You wouldn't believe it, but you get treated a lot better when you're not asking anything at all related to "would you like fries with that?" What a strange societal phenomenon. Back to topic, I'll be working there full time in the fall. I've elected to finally take some time off from school to decide whether or not veterinary medicine is actually something to pursue. It won't make a bit of difference for my application period, I'll get used to working full time, and I'll get more experience working with animals and clients.

I quit my job as a clerk at the Butterfly Pavilion to become the only staff member at a small museum in Golden. It's an indoor and outdoor place, with several 19th century buildings to tour. I enjoy dressing up in the fancy Victorian clothes, talking to visitors, and giving presentations on spinning fibers to school groups. However, the fact that I can never take breaks in an 8 hour day in endless summer heat is somewhat exhausting, and is causing some health problems. I am currently counting the days until the position ends so that I can take advantage of federally "guaranteed" employment rights elsewhere. 41, I think. Also, I'm somewhat annoyed by the large numbers of people who ask me, "so are you a volunteer?" I don't know any volunteers who would work out in the heat 40 hours a week, but I guess it's akin to asking me whether or not I'm the curator of the museum, which has also happened.

I haven't played clarinet in a long time, mostly because I'm trying to fish myself out of debt by working a lot, but working a lot gets me stressed and I spend more money. I'm also still supporting Neal, who hasn't been able to find a job in a year. My relationship with him (whatever it is) has been stresed for a long time. I'm not sad about it anymore, but am hoping that it goes away altogether soon. His mother also thinks that he still has something to offer me, and therefore that she can treat me badly. Last week, she complained that I must be doing all of my laundry at her house because Neal washed my work uniform for me one day. I was thinking that he could take it to the laundromat since I donate almost my entire pay to his living expenses, but hey... Sheesh. He's moving back in with his parents, so I think I'll be seeing less and less of him as his mother tries to steal him away regularly. That's good news. The only thing that I'm worried about is his cat, who he takes miserable care of. Hilly went into the veterinarian's office again today due to owner refusal to convert him into an indoor cat. An outdoor cat is one thing, but an outdoor cat who really can't defend himself is a whole other ballgame...

I've learned to cook on a woodstove this summer, and I'm a mildly convincing fiddler. I've been borrowing Neal's violin to do the trick, so I tried to purchase one from the same place that he got his. When the new stock they sent me arrived, the carbonfiber bow was excellent, but I could have gotten the violin at Wal-Mart for $5.00. I guess I actually have to save money for a good violin after all.

Everyone in my life waited forever to see the travelling exhibit Body Worlds 2, which is an exhibit of plastinated human corpses. I now am attending with various people at 5:45 Saturday morning and at 6:00 Sunday morning because those were the only spots available. Ick.

I was looking on the CSU Vet School list of textbooks, and tried to find the books cheaper on Amazon. They are all EXACTLY the same price. How does that work?!