penn

only Friday?

Even though I've always worked a somewhat abnormal schedule, I have never gotten used to tracking my days well. It seems that I've woken up several mornings this week and had to process what day it was in order to know how soon I needed to get moving. I suppose it doesn't help that I try to wake up between 7 and 8 on every single day of the week.

This morning is obviously Friday, and it's a scorcher here in Michigan. I woke up hot and sticky, and the temperature was 85F already. It appears that summer is finally here.

My schedule has also been hectic with the overlapping of two jobs. As I am finishing up my teaching position at Michigan (with all the attendant grading -- figures that my least favorite part of the job all got backloaded onto the end of it), I am also starting planning with the day camp. Today, we're making a purchasing run to pick up craft supplies, snacks, and games to occupy the kids. Even though we run a boating camp, we obviously can't have them out on the water for eight hours straight, so our planning and purchasing has to cover all the gaps and be calm enough to give the kid some downtime.

I hope all my blog readers have a nice Friday wherever they're at, and hopefully you're all staying cooler than I am here in Michigan.

Indicators (but not the chemistry kind that turn blue)

I don't believe in divine signs, per se, but I do recognize that occurrences in our life can be indicators of what is going on. In the past several months of job searching, I have learned to pay attention to those indicators and refocus my attention as necessary.

When I started out looking for jobs, I was hoping to find something in research or policy. I've always known that I liked teaching, so I wanted to try something new and different (a common theme in my life, to be sure). I sent out lots of application, but I received very little interest or acknowledgment from these applications. Mostly, I probably don't have the experience necessary to work in policy just yet, and my degree does not lend itself to that field. With research, I focused my efforts on US government jobs, and that may have been misplaced.

In any case, I decided to apply for teaching jobs something in April. Visits to local zoos and aquariums convinced me that this was the right decision; whenever I'm in public and around animals or plants, I have a tendency to answer random questions from strangers. When I was at the Chicago aquarium, I spent a good deal of time teaching little kids about fish. Mostly, this happens when someone poses a question and nobody around them is able to answer the question. Sometimes, I feel bad for butting in, but people mostly seem to appreciate my intervention, and I try to keep the lesson brief. In the middle of explaining clownfish and anemones to a young girl (using Nemo as an example, of course), I realized that I really, totally, awesomely love explaining nature to other people.

Of course, I came right back home and applied to several teaching jobs. I probably applied for a low-ish number of jobs (five total, and four of those were intentional. I only applied to the Huron River camp I'm teaching at this summer after another job turned me down), but I did send out applications. Today, I got another request for an interview from the last of the five jobs, which means that I was at 100% response for my teaching applications. I only ended up with three interviews overall, but I turned down two interviews after I accepted the naturalist educator position in Minnesota.

There's something to be said for this as an indicator. While I can readily acknowledge that I probably wasn't patient enough in applying for policy or research jobs, I also need to recognize that there's a reason I didn't have that patience. I do love teaching, and I am cautiously optimistic in hoping that I will continue to enjoy teaching as the next year unfolds.

And if I end up not wanting to do the naturalist gig for a career? Well, there is always policy or research, and I might just have more patience in the future if my path leads me in that direction.

Returning to a new hope

I've experienced a renewed love of Star Wars, and it came via an unexpected path. In my teens, I was a Star Wars fanatic; I read the books, owned the trading cards, and had little models of ships and people. Okay, fair admission: I still own the books, and the trading cards and models are in a box at my parents' house. It's the one thing I collected as a teen that I still hold on to other than all the photos I took.

In my later teen years and during college, I somehow lost touch with the Star Wars universe. The first episode (not to be confused with the first movie, which is actually the fourth episode) came out, and I fell asleep while watching it in the theater. I never bothered to see the other two movies, as internet and newspaper reviews told me not to bother.

In the last few months, I've had a personal resurgence of interest. I am pretty sure it's due to all the changes in my life; with everything so tumultuous, it is nice to return to some of the familiar comforts of youth. I also decided to finally watch the first three movies for the sake of completeness.

Surprisingly, the first three movies were not all that bad. I really enjoyed learning the backstory of Darth Vader and watching all the pieces fall into place. For me, I don't mind knowing the ending to a story. I still like to know how the story got there. Therefore, I weathered through the somewhat sub-par acting (which, in my opinion, was not really that bad) and came to enjoy the first three films.

Now, I am sitting down watching A New Hope (episode four, and the original Star Wars movie), and it is such a breath of fresh air. Somehow, I had forgotten a lot of little details, and it's fun to both know the backstory and watch how more little pieces are coming together. I am finding solace in this tale of rebellion and freedom from an oppressive regime (maybe related to my recent throwing off of the shackles of graduate school?). Despite challenges and setbacks (for them, they need to be patient en route to destroying the death star. Need I mention the garbage chute? For me, I need to finish this one last term of teaching), our heroes pull together and come out stronger on the other side. I still don't understand why storm troopers have horrible aim or how Leia (or Padme) manages to be proficient at diplomacy and the art of war, but I'm willing to suspend a little disbelief. Above all, it is good to know that Chewie, Luke, Leia, and Han will always be there for me.

a lovely day for a wonderful goal

Today was a really lovely day, and what better way to spend a lovely day than getting really sweaty outdoors?

I've been nursing some sore muscles for the past few weeks, so my workout schedule has not been top notch. Despite that fact, I went ahead and ran the Dexter Ann Arbor 5k this morning. That's the big race around these parts, and it certainly was crowded but fun.

I ran everything but 45 seconds (the hill was big!), and I ended up finishing the 3.1 miles in 35:05. This apparently equates to an 11:18 pace, which is better than I intended (I've been doing 11:30 paces in practice runs, but the adrenalin really gets pumping during the race).

It was super cool to run with other people, and it was even more awesome to have people cheer me on during the race. The Ypsilanti Community Band (from the next town over) was there, and they played the Rocky theme song as I ran by. A few people who lived along the race course came out to cheer us on. The best part was near the finish: several of my friends volunteer with the Ann Arbor track club, so they weren't running in the race and were able to cheer for me.

For those who love running stats, I was 914 / 1475, but my gender place was 430 / 830. I was in the 25-29 female division and ended up 74/123.

After the race, I cheered on friends who were running in the half-marathon. I then ate lunch and promptly passed out at home. Once I woke up, I went and played softball (and hit the ball! This is a new thing for me) and went to a barbecue. All in all, a wonderful outdoor celebration on a lovely day.

Oh, and the best part. I completed another goal! I am now done with goal #1.