Here's to you 2009
I feel like I always want to start these posts out the same way- haven't updated in awhile, don't know where to begin blah blah blah. So let's just jump right into a story shall we? I totally busted myself up Wednesday during the day. My friend Sarah arrived on Tuesday (I had to have Cory drive to pick her up at the airport because I was _hungover_ after having four beers at happy hour/trivia night even though it was over the span of 5 hours- curse you human body!) and we decided to go for a hike in Boulder on Wednesday. It was nice to enjoy the warm weather we were having and do something of a more physical nature. The hike up to the flatirons was awesome and the only treacherous part was going over some rocks that were still very icy. I managed going over the ice rock death trap while wrangling two small dogs quite well if I do say so myself, both on the way up and on the way down. But that's where I got cocky. We are trotting down the mountain in an area where there was absolutely no snow or ice or anything and all of a sudden I feel my foot get caught. I thought for a second that I was going to catch myself but the rock my foot caught on had a little overhang that held on to my foot and instead I went ass over teakettle and landed on my back with my head going downhill. I'm not entirely sure how I ended up in the position but at first glance it seemed that I only scraped a small, deep portion of skin out of the corner of my right hand. This was a bit of a underestimate as later in the shower I discovered that the front of my left leg from my ankle to my knee was a massive bruise along with a nice big one in the middle of my left butt cheek. So now I ask, what is the point of all this yoga if I can't even keep my balance walking downhill?
I am currently and for the foreseeable future- jobless. I quit the Sec. of State job and while the people there were sad to see me go none of them could blame me for being done with it. Almost every person I told that I was leaving said something to the effect of "Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to do that job for as long as you did. It sucks." Yes, yes it did. I am currently registered with 3 temp agencies and I have a friend that has said he would get me a job at his work in Longmont so I'm hopeful about that part but that's just the temporary. What about the career path? I was not asked in for an "oral examination" for my dream job which sucked and with the job market the way it is I think I will be lucky to get a temp job so that's what I'm aiming for. I found out about a BLM internship program that I'm going to apply for (that's actually what I am supposed to be working on right now...shhhh) . The interns are paid $11,000 for a 5 month internship which is not too shabby for an internship and it gives me a chance to make contacts in the government sector of my discipline. Also I am keeping my eyes open for temporary jobs with CDOW for the summer. Most likely that would be more beneficial than the BLM internship because it's here in Colorado and therefore creating a network of contacts in the location I wish to live. One concern about the BLM internship is I have to get 3 letters of recommendation with knowledge of my skills and abilities in conservation work so....that means I need my advisor to write me a letter of rec and maybe he will but then again maybe he won't. I guess it can't hurt to ask though. Another possibility that I have been considering is signing up with Americorp to do Teach for America. They assign people all over the country but Denver is one of the options and you can put in a request for a certain area. I figure I would put in a request and if I didn't end up in Denver then I would just decline the offer. The only problem with this is I'm not sure I'm ready to give up on my biologist dreams just yet. I think if I take 2 years away to do teaching then I will be setting myself up to become a biology teacher permanently and maybe that's something I would find satisfying but more likely I am lowering my expectations of my future prospects and I don't want to do that too easily just because the economy is shit. Obviously at some point that will need to happen. If 3 years down the road I am still writing posts like this then it will definitely be time to choose a new career path but for now I think I will hold steady with the current one.
I started a new weekly event and so far so good. I have wrangled some people into doing trivia nights on Mondays. Cory was none too excited at first but enjoyed it much more than he thought he would. It's a blast and it creates all these topics of conversation so that you get a chance to hang out with people and talk to them and you can bring different people together and not have the awkwardness when someone doesn't know the other people very well. We'll see how it goes but so far we have placed fourth, third, and fifth (we've only done it twice but the second time we had 10 people and you are only allowed to have teams of 6 so we had to split up into 2 teams- we split the teams into boys v. girls and the boys placed third bah).
I have been playing the hell out of Fable 2. I love it. It's an RPG and I think it's really well done. I think it's perfect for me because use of the controller is not complex so I don't get confused when I'm trying to fight an enemy (A-B-LB no wait A-A-B-LB...ahhhh) instead A does one specific thing, B does one specific thing, etc. Plus the writing is cute and witty. If you have an XBOX I definitely recommend this game. I have also been watching a lot of football because it's the playoffs! Woo! And miracle of miracles 4 of my teams made it to the playoffs (fuck yeah!) and two of them have already won their first playoff games (Eagles and Chargers). I don't know what I'm going to do next weekend because the Chargers are playing the Steelers and the Eagles are playing the Giants so it will be tough to see two of my teams drop out but it should be fun. Also we have been watching (yes we have been watching too too too much tv...this week I am going to the gym as regularly scheduled because my back and legs were starting to hurt from sitting around all the time) the first two seasons of Weeds. Damn I love that show. Plus each episode is only about 30 minutes so it's really easy to make it through a season. Go check it out. And Battlestar Galactica as well...can't wait for the finale of season 4 (!) even though it means the show will be over.
I think that about covers it. New Years was awesome as usual and I think 2009 is going to be a great year. 2008 was an absolutely amazing one for me so maybe this year I will get lucky and the final piece to my life puzzle (dream job) will fall into place.
I am currently and for the foreseeable future- jobless. I quit the Sec. of State job and while the people there were sad to see me go none of them could blame me for being done with it. Almost every person I told that I was leaving said something to the effect of "Yeah, I wouldn't have been able to do that job for as long as you did. It sucks." Yes, yes it did. I am currently registered with 3 temp agencies and I have a friend that has said he would get me a job at his work in Longmont so I'm hopeful about that part but that's just the temporary. What about the career path? I was not asked in for an "oral examination" for my dream job which sucked and with the job market the way it is I think I will be lucky to get a temp job so that's what I'm aiming for. I found out about a BLM internship program that I'm going to apply for (that's actually what I am supposed to be working on right now...shhhh) . The interns are paid $11,000 for a 5 month internship which is not too shabby for an internship and it gives me a chance to make contacts in the government sector of my discipline. Also I am keeping my eyes open for temporary jobs with CDOW for the summer. Most likely that would be more beneficial than the BLM internship because it's here in Colorado and therefore creating a network of contacts in the location I wish to live. One concern about the BLM internship is I have to get 3 letters of recommendation with knowledge of my skills and abilities in conservation work so....that means I need my advisor to write me a letter of rec and maybe he will but then again maybe he won't. I guess it can't hurt to ask though. Another possibility that I have been considering is signing up with Americorp to do Teach for America. They assign people all over the country but Denver is one of the options and you can put in a request for a certain area. I figure I would put in a request and if I didn't end up in Denver then I would just decline the offer. The only problem with this is I'm not sure I'm ready to give up on my biologist dreams just yet. I think if I take 2 years away to do teaching then I will be setting myself up to become a biology teacher permanently and maybe that's something I would find satisfying but more likely I am lowering my expectations of my future prospects and I don't want to do that too easily just because the economy is shit. Obviously at some point that will need to happen. If 3 years down the road I am still writing posts like this then it will definitely be time to choose a new career path but for now I think I will hold steady with the current one.
I started a new weekly event and so far so good. I have wrangled some people into doing trivia nights on Mondays. Cory was none too excited at first but enjoyed it much more than he thought he would. It's a blast and it creates all these topics of conversation so that you get a chance to hang out with people and talk to them and you can bring different people together and not have the awkwardness when someone doesn't know the other people very well. We'll see how it goes but so far we have placed fourth, third, and fifth (we've only done it twice but the second time we had 10 people and you are only allowed to have teams of 6 so we had to split up into 2 teams- we split the teams into boys v. girls and the boys placed third bah).
I have been playing the hell out of Fable 2. I love it. It's an RPG and I think it's really well done. I think it's perfect for me because use of the controller is not complex so I don't get confused when I'm trying to fight an enemy (A-B-LB no wait A-A-B-LB...ahhhh) instead A does one specific thing, B does one specific thing, etc. Plus the writing is cute and witty. If you have an XBOX I definitely recommend this game. I have also been watching a lot of football because it's the playoffs! Woo! And miracle of miracles 4 of my teams made it to the playoffs (fuck yeah!) and two of them have already won their first playoff games (Eagles and Chargers). I don't know what I'm going to do next weekend because the Chargers are playing the Steelers and the Eagles are playing the Giants so it will be tough to see two of my teams drop out but it should be fun. Also we have been watching (yes we have been watching too too too much tv...this week I am going to the gym as regularly scheduled because my back and legs were starting to hurt from sitting around all the time) the first two seasons of Weeds. Damn I love that show. Plus each episode is only about 30 minutes so it's really easy to make it through a season. Go check it out. And Battlestar Galactica as well...can't wait for the finale of season 4 (!) even though it means the show will be over.
I think that about covers it. New Years was awesome as usual and I think 2009 is going to be a great year. 2008 was an absolutely amazing one for me so maybe this year I will get lucky and the final piece to my life puzzle (dream job) will fall into place.