Now that I'll be living in a place in five days that is cat-friendly, I have a cat! I didn't plan on having one until the actual move, but he sort of dropped into our laps six weeks ago and has primarily been living at Amanda's vet clinic until we can take him to the cat-friendly place. What happened: a little (3 month old) orange tabby kitty from the shelter came to Amanda's clinic to be neutered before an adoption, which is a common occurrence. It turned out he couldn't be neutered yet (in short, his balls hadn't and still haven't dropped), and the vet did an exam and discovered he has a fairly severe (Grade 3 on a 1 - 6 scale of abnormality) heart murmur. The potential owners decided not to adopt him. Because nobody really wants a kitten with a heart defect, the shelter was going to put him down. Because he had such a wonderful temperament and I love orange tabbies, he came home instead. The shelter was so glad we took him off our hands we didn't even have to pay the adoption fee! His name, because he is going to be a scientist someday, is Darwin. Even with the heart murmur, he should be able to live a normal, hopefully not shortened by heart troubles, life as an indoor cat. However, because of the heart issues, he's going to be a small cat (he's now almost 5 months old and barely over 4lbs) and slow to mature, hence the inability to get him neutered yet. I'd actually wanted to get a special needs cat that likely wouldn't have otherwise had a home, so I don't mind. (Previously I'd been planning on getting a cat with FIV - feline AIDS when I moved, but she found another home.) Now that he'll be legal in the next apartment, I'm very excited!

I'm also sad because our albino rat, Ruby, had her third operation in two months. She's had two tumors and an abscess, which is a lot of health issues for a rat who's only 16 months old. (Female rats are prone to tumors but not usually until after the age of 2 or so.) If she gets another one, I don't want to put her through surgery again - hence, she'll probably just be kept comfortable until her quality of life becomes poor.

Yesterday was my last day at work! It was difficult to say goodbye to the clients but exciting that I'm moving on to something more fabulous. My coworkers had a party for me last night, which I paid $40 for the privilege to attend and mostly seemed to be an excuse for my new boss, who just took her kids and separated from her husband, to get plastered and hit on men 15 years her junior. Meh, it's over now. The equine therapy center, where I've been volunteering Saturdays for the past year, is taking me out to dinner tonight. Yay. :-) After that, I have a ton of moving crap that I'm not looking forward to doing up until the big day, Thursday. I can't wait to be out of her in a few short days.

Kacie,

Thanks for attending

&

thanks for the doll with the bit off finger & the gouged out face. Also for the doll with the drawn on forehead.

What the heck? =)

Misty

I've been so busy gushing about going to / getting into Berkeley on the lj lately that I haven't been updating about general life stuff. I'm inspired by Amanda's first updates to her journal since I moved to SLO and thought I'd update more as well.

The first big news is that I have a new car, a blue Toyota Prius. I have obtained the car through traumatic means. In February (a few days after my entry about getting into Berkeley), I was in a fairly traumatic one-car accident about 20 miles outside of Santa Barbara. On a twisty 2-line highway my car hit some rocks, either from the mountains in the highway or rubble from the construction zone in the opposite lane, spun out of control, and skidded across the two lanes into the hillside. Luckily, Amanda and I escaped unhurt, but my beloved car was totaled. Insurance paid for me to have a rental car while I got a new one, and my mom arranged to come to SLO two weeks later to help me look. Between the VERY good settlement I got from the insurance and the generosity of my parents, who split the difference between the settlement and the Prius as a 24th birthday present, I have a nice new car with great mileage. This is probably the first thing my parents have agreed on since their divorce!!!

In related news, Amanda's '83 Oldsmobile has all-but-died, and she'll be getting a nice '01 Honda Civic on Thursday. Finally, a car we don't have to worry about breaking down anytime it gets driven anywhere.

My laptop is also almost dead, which is why I haven't been online much and am posting this from Amanda's laptop. It started dying at Christmastime, when a huge crack appeared in the screen. Since then, bits have just started... falling off ... and now the shift key sticks 90%, and parts of the keyboard don't work anymore. Unfortunately it looks like I need to dip into my savings and purchase a new one. If Amanda gets into Davis, she'll have to buy a new laptop for the school, and I'll be buying her really nice, under-a-year-old laptop from her. Otherwise, I'll need to invest in a new one.

Last but DEFINITELY not least, my six-month performance review at work is sometime next month. Things haven't been perfectly smooth sailing since I began, so I'm pretty nervous. Here's hoping it goes ok. *Crosses fingers*

After a rough few months, I'm finally employed. For reals.

A few weeks after my last post, I started to go broke. So I posted on craigslist for various jobs, not expecting much to happen. But, to my surprise, I first got a petsitting job (that has since become an every-couple-weeks gig), and then I got another phone call. That turned into a full-time two week babysitting job for a couple of ten year olds in a really posh house. Since then, I've been babysitting part-time and going various odd jobs that have involved helping people pack, clean, and even scraping the dirt out of windowsill cracks for 6 hours one day. Pretty much anything for cash!

Then it finally poured this past week. First I got a part-time job offer, not ideal because it was only 15 hours a week (and no work during school holidays) and almost 30 minutes away. But then I got a bunch of job offers in succession - one working with an 8 year-old with down's syndrome, one as a tutor for a boy with autism, one as a teacher for severely abused 2-year-olds, and one at Escuela del Rio.

I ended up accepting Escuela del Rio because it was full-time, the autism job required me to work a lot of weekends, and I really don't like 2-year-olds. At Escuela del Rio, I'll be working with developmentally disabled adults in their Core program (their largest program, for moderately functioning adults) with basic living skills, obtaining minimum wage jobs, community service, and creating fun classes. I'll be working 8-3:30 starting October 1st, after my physical and fingerprints clear. And I started working a couple evenings a week with Tyler (the 8 year old with down's syndrome and possibly autism) to flesh out a full 40 hours since my job is going to be 35. Once I get fingerprints and child cpr certified, I'll also be able to work on an on-call basis with other families with special needs children.

So things are working out and I am happy and looking forward to the jobs. And glad I don't have to do any more babysitting!