Epilogue

I can't believe it was an even 90 weeks...huh, anywho. So the Monday after graduation I was flying away again to the exotic location of....Lincoln, NE. Well, I'm from the mid-west, so you can imagine the chance to be back there when I saw the job post was tempting! I had my interview at the Lincoln Children's Zoo and they hired me on the spot! Everything went great and I think I'm really going to like it there! I will be caring for a string of animals including: Amur leopards, North American river otters, Chinese dwarf crocodiles, wallabys, and most importantly, Humboldt penguins. The penguins are to be the new star attraction for the zoo and they will be my responsibility to have ready for some amazing keeper talks. After some web searches, I think I'll be trying to break some new training ground with these very ADD birds, so we'll see how all this goes! My life is in an uproar right now trying to scramble to get myself out there. Hubby is unfortunately staying behind until he finds a job, but that shouldn't be long, I hope. Anyone wishing to see the success of an EATM grad should stop by the zoo and see me! The penguin exhibit won't open until maybe September, so come see me then!

Week 90: Paco-less Graduation, AKA: IT'S OVER!

Coming home felt great after two weeks away. I had to kill time at the zoo again this week, and there was still a whole lot of nothing for me to do! The first years will be fine and I feel OK with leaving them now. We did learn that Ghost will have a new plan for the rest of his life. He is no longer being manned and will have a new outdoor extension of his mew built so he has free access to outside. From there they will work on re-training him to function without equipment and be more of a free-working bird, which will be really neat for the public to see as well, so I expect great things for him in the future. I also learned that Paco, the white nosed coati, passed on the week before as well. Very sad, but she was also on the edge of her life-span. On Thursday, I had family come in for my graduation including my mom, one sister, and the in-laws. We had a great time together and they all really enjoyed seeing the zoo and all the festivities! Friday starts off with "family circus", a show where we can show off to all our friends and family all the cool animals we've worked with that come out to do shows. It was a few hours long, but we managed to keep everyone's attention just fine! After that you are free to do what you want until the ceremony. The ceremony its self was wonderful! There were lots of tears, but what do you expect? In addition to ending the best two years of your life (so far), we had to remember all we had lost this year too. All the speeches were wonderful and better than I could have hoped for. I was proud and happy when Dr. S called my name to receive my certificate. Hubby thinks I got one of the best compliments given when she called me. It was an emotional day, but it was also an emotional two years, so it was fitting! Another class of 50 is graduated and off into the world from EATM! (Pics: Paco in my lap, family circus [me with Nuez], graduation)

Week 89: Cat Ambassador

I found myself quickly on a plane and jetting into Cincinnati, OH where the wonderful zoo there has a wonderful program called "Cat Ambassadors". Basically, think cheetah show. The main feature is of course, 5 cheetahs, but they also have an ocelot, a fishing cat, servals, dogs, a red river hog, and house cats. They had just moved into a new building with a new yard for them to put their summer shows on in. Because they had JUST moved, there was still lots of construction going on that I could see in progress and how that whole process works out. There wasn't a lot of training going on as a result, but I still had tons of fun hanging out with the cheetahs and all the other animals. I didn't get to see a full run practice either, but we did let a couple chase a wiffle ball around on the end of a lunge whip, so it was close. Great week overall that I wouldn't trade for anything! (Pics: Me and Chance, Cheetah runs, up close)

Week 88: ABMA

I spent my first project week at the Animal Behavioral Management Alliance (ABMA) conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I gotta say the city wasn't that great, and we generally found the customer service to be incredibly poor across the board in that city. Sorry to any natives, but it's just not the same friendly atmosphere there that I've grown accustomed to. It was my first big journey to the east coast, that I can remember at least. The week was filled with paper presentations and small workshops (which is code for more lectures). There were quite a few people from my class that did attend, as well as our staff members Gary and Cindy. I didn't meet a lot of new people, but the few that I did were nice and helpful! I was glad to find that we Moorparkers are a bit ahead of the training curve from what I got out of the presentations. I really enjoyed seeing the Pittsburgh Zoo and Aquarium as well as the National Aviary. The big highlight was when we went to the animal shelter and got to work with their animals to help make them more adoptable. News crews came out and I actually made both the news cast and the local paper! I was working with some of their cats, and got some high praise for some of the work I did with a very shy kitty! The whole time I was also paying very close attention to things because I was also a judge at the conference and at the end I was surprised to be rewarded with a nice etched glass paperweight for my contributions. I think it was lots of fun and I'd love to be able to attend more of these in the future! Unfortunately, I was in such a rush when I left, I forgot my camera, so maybe I'll be able to steal some nice pictures off of my friends...

Week 87: Harrison's Out of Chance

Been a pretty slow week, really. I only have to put in fifteen hours at the zoo, over four days, so I'm mostly kicking it at home, relaxing and job hunting. Vegas did not pan out for a project, but still a possible job. On Wednesday, I got surprised by a bunch of physicals going on for some animals and I ended up helping out, sort of playing vet tech for the day. I really enjoyed it! That's something I've always kicked-around doing, but that means yet another two years of school...bleh. Probably not going to happen, but possible. Unfortunately, as a result of one of those physicals, we decided it was Chance's time to leave us. It appeared that his liver was not functioning at all, or at least very little. That sucked. He was the best, and I will miss him dearly. More shockingly, on Friday morning, Harrison was found dead in his mew. Causes are yet to be determined, but it was totally unexpected. Crazyness. I really hope that was the end of the deaths for our class. There's at least not any more that I really see happening for sure soon. (Pics: Chance (binturong), Harrison (Harris hawk))

Bonus: Job Rant/Ramble

I figured since I'll be gone for two weeks and unable to post, I'd go ahead and make a little bonus post, but it's not gonna be a pretty one. As I am using this blog-thingy as some what of a diary and place to put my personal thoughts, I'm gonna go ahead and do this here, but be warned, some people might not be happy after reading this. I'm sorry in advance, but these are my true feelings, and they just need to be out there. I'm sure if you put yourself in my place, (which you'll better be able to do after reading this perhaps) you'd feel the same way or at least understand. I'm not hating, I'm just venting in the best way I know how.
Jobs. Jobs suck. Fundamentally, everyone knows this, yet everyone needs one/wants one. I am at the point where I am both. I do want a job, I desperately want to work in this wonderful world of animals, and yet, it is very hard to even get an interview it seems. The main reason I've spent the last two years of my life here is to give me an edge and get ahead in the job market, I'm sure it's helping, but I'm not sure by how much. I have applied for several jobs, all over the country, doing several different things, and yet, no dice. I unfortunately don't have the luxury of taking a seasonal or unpaid internship position as many of my classmates do. The married life is great, but I'm definitely better understanding the whole "ball and chain" bit. Every day I check the job boards and put myself out there for something new, find myself asking if that's something I even want to do or if it's some place I even want to be. Now, as graduation is nearing, I find myself caring less and less about the gritty details and more about just getting something that pays me money. I'm driving myself crazy. While I seem to be applying willy-nilly across the nation, I also have to consider the hubs and what he can do where. He will make more moneys than myself, that is for sure, so it is very important to consult with him along this super crazy journey. It's rough at times, there have been a few minor tiffs, but nothing major, and really I think we're kind of ignoring it until something concrete pops up (like an actual job offer, or even an interview at this point...). The even worse part is that it seems that his job market is getting just as difficult as mine. Jobs are tight everywhere for everyone, and that's no secret anymore.
As if I wasn't taking all this pressure from myself (trust me, you don't want to be in my head, I'm a real bitch, even to me...) and the hubs, and hearing about all my classmates' job ventures/possibilities, I'm getting it from all other imaginable sides. Anyone else related to me in any way has their own opinion on what I should do (OK, it's mostly the where, they could likely care less about the what), and that's totally understandable. In a perfect world, everyone who means something special to you in any way would all live just a stone's throw away and we'd hang out all day long and have picnics, etc. I cannot deny the fact that it would be amazing to live near the people that I love and miss and have been very separated from for two amazing years, however, I also must deal with the reality that all of those people live in very different places and so no matter what happens, some one loses (in a sense) and there is no possible way to please everyone, so I'm taking the road of pleasing myself (in this case, that also includes the hubs, since, by marriage, he is basically an extension of me). Even pleasing the self is proving insanely difficult. I very much hope that I can end up somewhere where I'm near to at least someone I know, let alone someone related to me that I care dearly about. This is all of the difficult and crappy things that are going through my head and every time I hear another, "when are you moving out here?", or "how about that job in _____?", or "why on earth would you want to live there?" I just want to explode with all of these thoughts in their faces (or ear holes, depending on if they're on the phone...). If I start talking about a place that makes no sense, rest assured, I have a good reason, maybe because there's some super-awesome job that would make me immeasurably happy is hiding there. For those of you that care, (that are hopefully still reading this...) don't worry! I'll take care of me/us and we'll figure it out together. Too many cooks spoil the broth (or something like that). This time the broth is our life, and we'd like to make it together. Rest assured that all of you great crazy lovable people in our lives are also thought of in every decision that we make because you are all a part of us too! (otherwise we wouldn't be so crazy and lovable ourselves...)
Yeah for writing therapy! I hope that wasn't too harsh for anyone, but I hope that everyone reading this has felt like this at some point too. My intention is not to hurt feelings or push anyone away, but to allow everyone to follow along in my crazy mental journey that is quickly becoming an anxiety attack! Thanks for reading, I know writing all this out has actually really helped me a lot.

Week 86: School's Out Forever!

All formal classes (which was just the vet classes) wrapped up this week! We took our finals and then celebrated by throwing an "Outbreak" party. We all brought food and watched the great movie, Outbreak. Pretty simple. A few people also left this week on their projects. Some are not to be heard from again...which is great for me! Slowly now, people will be gone over the weeks, most are coming back for graduation, but not all. All of my first years are good to go, and I feel alright about leaving the animals with them. In EATM tradition, we exchanged gifts this week. We got gifts for them to use with the animals and they got their buddy's something nice to graduate with. Mine (yes, I have 2) were sweet enough to give me some good prints of pics I only have electronically and to blow up and frame a really cute one of me with the Pegs. I also got a gift card to buy a frame to put a pic of me and Ghost into. Such good buddies! I'm sure they're in for an interesting summer, but what class doesn't go through all that drama? It's a right of passage or something. Still waiting on official word about doing a Vegas project, but I'm optimistic! Now I'm just relaxing, until I start traveling! (Pics: Sundance's fluffy feet (duing knock-down), Spring spec pics)