Eye Exams Eat Ass; East Bay Enters the Fray; Exploring Expos; Extreme Evening Extensions
I went to my first eye exam since moving to Humboldt County two-and-a-half years ago, and they haven't gotten any less torturous in the interim. Man, people complain about dentists, but eyecare seems eternally entrenched in the dark ages. My particular brand of myopia doesn't handle things right in the face well, so I have tears streaming down my face the whole time, and that shooting a puff of air directly into the eye part amounts to an eighth amendment violation. All that, and my vision hadn't even changed. I initially decided against new glasses, but I think I'll drop in later this week and get a spare pair after all.
The university hosted an employment expo on Friday, and desiring employment after graduation, I thought I should at least look into it. While tooling around the links on the expo's website, I noticed that the agency that gave me my start in interpretation, the East Bay Regional Park District, needed naturalists. When I left to attend my university, I half-jokingly told them I'd return in three years, and now I could very well pull that off. The pay, permanency and benefits compare well to those of the San José position, and the location would put us even closer to
v_zerda,
sbr2004 and my brother. The announcement indicates an opening at
gwynny's old stomping grounds of Ardenwood Historical Farm in Fremont, and hints at another possible vacancy elsewhere in the district; I'll have to see if my EBRPD contacts have any idea where or when that might end up.
As for the employment expo itself, I mostly ended up showing off the Boy to people I already knew, who happened to represent most of the employers that interested me. Still, I learned of plenty enough possibilities within California that I shouldn't have to look beyond my desired borders. I swear, only in park-y professions would anybody call you "picky" for wanting to stay in-state! Sorry, I just don't feel like uprooting my little family for some $13/hour job thousands of miles away, chasing that permanent position.
The Wife, the Boy and I also had a delicious evening of pizza, brownies and stimulating conversation Saturday night at Presidio Gomez, home of
gwynny and
synchronaut. Our Boy and their kitten traded off cute tricks while we whiled away well into the wee hours of almost-morning, quite a feat for perennial losers and new parents such as ourselves. gwynny and I schemed long ago to take over the EBRPD, and we will fire our first salvo soon.