Didn’t think I’d actually do it, did you?
Category Archives: Me Me Me!
This is all about me. Posts in these categories are personal reflections, updates, narcissistic ramblings, and whatever else I choose to be self-centered about. So there!
Random Acts of Kindness…or…Internet Stalking?
So something kind of odd happened to me last weekend. I came home to find an Amazon.com package sitting on my doorstep, which I thought was strange considering that I hadn’t ordered anything in a while, yet the package was addressed to me. And when I opened it, there were six CD’s in it that I had on my Amazon music wishlist. Apparently, the CD’s were a gift order from someone in Florida who appreciated a review I wrote for Amazon, and the CD’s were a “thanks for participating” gesture. In fact, the note on the packing list read “Hi Marci. You don’t know me, but I appreciate your reviews on amazon.com. This is just a “thank you” gift for your participation – Jim”. Kind of weird, huh? I mean, I only wrote one review, for a product that cost about $40. And the CD’s he sent totaled about $65, not including shipping. But, he picked out some good CD’s from my wishlist – a couple of Prince’s earlier albums that I didn’t have, the latest Black Eyed Peas, K.T. Tunstall, and the soundtracks to 50 First Dates and Napoleon Dynamite. Sweet! I’ve popped a little thank-you note in the mail for the CD’s, but am still a little perplexed.
So what gives? Is this a genuinely nice person who randomly does cool things to brighten complete strangers’ days? If so, that’s awesome. I aspire to be similar in nature. Or is this an Internet stalker who was attracted to my exquisite taste in movies and music, as defined by my Amazon wishlists? I’m not difficult to locate, on the Internet or otherwise. He could be reading this RIGHT NOW. Anyone have some insight? Anyone? Anyone???
P.S. – If you’d like to see for yourself how exquisite my taste in movies and music actually is, there’s a link to my Amazon wishlists to the right. And speaking of easy to find on the Internet, I just opened a MySpace account, also linked at right (yes, I finally caved under peer-pressure!).
Wow – I even have my own cave…er, I mean, office!
Yesterday I started my job as a Fish and Wildlife Biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Woo hoo! At this point, I’m a little overwhelmed by everything – there will be a lot to learn, and I’m not just talking about the names of the 53,000 people I met yesterday. The lingo, the acronyms, the inside jokes, the important serious regulatory stuff…
But, everyone seems very nice, and I even have my own office. Ok, so it doesn’t have any windows, which makes it more like a cave, but it is my own space. Yesterday I spent some time moving furniture around in an effort to not have my office configured “totally evil” according to Feng Shui standards. I’m slowly but surely bringing in odd little fun objects (e.g., my leopard-spotted devil ducky from my CLC job), but am trying to go about this process in a way that won’t scare my co-workers. And I’m scouring the internet for free wildlife posters to put up on my white white white walls (with some success – the EPA is a great source!). When I get a check from my consulting job I’ll be going to Target to pick out some spiffy office supply things and maybe a plant or something three-dimensional to break up the cube-like feeling of my cave (I mean office).
Today they had me accompany another biologist on a trip to a local site that currently contains an endangered plant species. The site had been mowed and disced which had damaged a lot of the plants, so everyone is trying to figure out what to do in terms of righting the situation (I can’t really say anything more about this). Anyway, it feels really great knowing that I’ll be contributing to preserving endangered species – I have a feeling that this will be a really rewarding, fulfilling job! It will also be challenging – I have A LOT to learn, and I’ll admit I’m kind of intimidated by all the smart biologists working in the department. Perhaps eventually I’ll be one of them though! Something to shoot for, I guess…
As an alternate, you can’t just yell out "GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY!!!"
Previous to last week, the only experience I’ve had with jury duty revolved around how to get out of it. However, seeing as how I’m kind of in-between jobs I decided what they hell, I might as well see what the whole jury duty hype is all about. I was summoned, so I went.
On Monday, I sat around in the jury lounge for a while until it was revealed I had been randomly selected as one of 35 potential jurors for a short trial. So I continue to sit around until 1:30, when we were all finally called up to the court room for jury selection. It was kind of interesting – out of the 35 of us, 18 were called for questioning about what their jobs were and what their past experience with police was. The judge reminded me of Jerry Springer. Finally, 12 jurors were finally decided upon by both attorneys…and then…and then…and then…
Yup, they needed and alternate. Which was when my name was called. So picture this – I get all the responsibilities of being an actual juror (taking notes, paying attention, not falling asleep), but none of the glory of actually deciding upon the verdict. It’s ok though – I’m not working, and it will still be kind of interesting seeing the process. Which it was, I guess.
The case was not complicated – we had a day of witnesses; the defendent was pretty much charged with trying to prevent a police officer from doing his job. Basically, the guy was stopped for not wearing a seatbelt and the cop found out that he had a suspended license and an arrest warrant, so in the process of being arrested, the defendent started fighting the cop then ran off. He was finally found in a trailor park and it took four cops to restrain him. His defense was that the cops were using “excessive and unreasonable force” during the process, which was total crap. As soon as deliberations began (around 11:30 on Thursday), they kicked me out and I had to wait in the jury lounge (because, as the alternate, I couldn’t participate in the deliberating). At 2:30 they called me back up to the courtroom and I was all excited because I was sure the case was over – it seemed pretty straight-forward so I wasn’t expecting it to take a long time.
However, my hopes were quickly dashed because the jury apparently wanted three hours of the court reporter’s notes read back to them, which I did have to be present for. Anyway, that carried over through Friday morning, and THEN the jury finally decided on a verdict. Guilty as charged! Woo hoo!
It was kind of interesting, but man, if you ever find yourself up for jury duty for a case that is going to be long and complicated, don’t ever allow yourself to be the alternate. I suggest that you start twitching uncontrollably and mumbling about how you hate cops (talking to yourself, in general, will keep you out of trouble) near the beginning of the jury selection process to avoid the pitfalls involved with becoming an alternate juror.
Justice man, she’s a saucy manx!
You know that scene from Alice in Wonderland?
You know, with the door mouse, the March hare, and the mad hatter? That’s right, Alice was celebrating her un-birthday at that crazy tea party, but I got to celebrate my 32nd birthday in style at the Courtyard Cafe and Tea Room in Fallbrook, CA. It was smashing good fun, too – each of us had a pot of tea (ginger peach for me, thanks), fresh-baked scones with Devonshire cream and jam (not clotted cream, thank goodness), and an assortment of finger sandwiches, quiche, salad, and fruit. And for dessert: lemon cheesecake – a triumph! It was all very good, and the tea room was really cute – a little bit country cottage, a little bit rock and roll (well, much more contry cottage than rock and roll, but I thought I’d throw that in for fun). Nik and Jackie were kind enough to arrange the entire event; I’d never had a full tea service before, and at thirty-two years of age, I’d say it was about time!
I’ll let you figure out which of us were Alice, the March hare, the door mouse, and the mad hatter. Hee hee hee! 🙂
Another chapter ends…and I’ve listened to my last recorded phone call!
Friday was my last day as a temp at CLC. Which was sad, because I grew to really like everyone that I worked with. But it is also good, because I have a new job to start, and new adventures on my horizon. It was a nice send-off though; they decorated my cube for my birthday, got a “Happy Birthday and Good Luck” cake, and even bought me some essential letterboxing supplies. Out of all the temp jobs I’ve ever worked, this one was definitely the most fun – not because of the work but because the people were so awesome. I will miss them, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep in touch with at least a couple of the friends I made there.
Here’s a picture of everyone, each with their own personalized rubber ducky. From left-to-right, we have Alyssa, Matt, Tricia, Tom, Peter, and Russ in the back row; and Erica, Joan, Marci, and Raquel in the front row. Sadly, Marnie was out sick on Friday but that’s her pink duck I’m holding.
Click here to get down and funky with a farewell dance for Marci!
Happy Birthday to me!
Yes, today is my birthday, but I’ll tell you that the last few days have all been good. This post will concern the events of Thursday, which was the day…
…insert drumroll here, please…
…that will be marked as…
…the day when…
…are you ready yet?…
…the U.S. government decided I was worthy of being put on their payroll!!! Woo hoo!!!!!!
Yes, I have finally been offered my first real job, as a Fish and Wildlife Biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service based right here in Carlsbad, CA. I interviewed with them about a week ago and they called me Thursday to offer me the position, and you can bet I snatched that right up. I’m happy to report that I will have a comfortable salary, complete with the satisfaction of knowing that I’m doing something that will utilize my education AND allow me to contribute to a good cause. In a nutshell, my position will be mostly regulatory – I’ll be reviewing development proposals and making sure that they are in compliance with the Endangered Species Act. I start my job on March 20, which gives me some free time to do a small consulting project and then kick back for a couple of weeks (and serve jury duty, but that will be another blog entry). I’m going to probably start apartment hunting during that time, and maybe even go to Mexico (or at least somewhere) for a little fun. Sound good? I’m pretty excited about the whole thing!
Anyway, I have some pictures to post but that will have to happen tomorrow (at the earliest). I’m off to play with my Sims, who have been neglected for the past few months. Cheers!
Fine. I didn’t want that job anyway!
Like, whatever! I didn’t get the Educator Guide position at the Wild Animal Park, but I was going to turn it down anyway. I think the main issue I had was that first, the hours were REALLY variable – between 4 and 20 per week, with no set scheduling, which would make it hard to plan other work. Additionally, the job announcement wasn’t really accurate – I wouldn’t be handling animals, giving animal presentations, or VIP tours. The main duty was helping out with programs for REALLY little kids – as young as 2 – and I’m sorry, but I’m not a babysitter. So there. I think I probably didn’t get the position because I don’t have experience working with such little kids, nor do I want to have that experience. So it’s for the best.
In other exciting events, all of you out there should TOTALLY CALL MY CELL PHONE!!! I’ve got custom rings programmed for all you guys, so when you call, instead of boring ringing you (yes, YOU, not me) will hear other fun things. So you should call me and find out what ring I set up for you! Hee hee hee!
Seriously though, I want a job.
So today I had an interview with the US Fish and Wildlife Service for a biologist position I applied to about four months ago. It was nice though – only 20 minutes away in Carlsbad, and I didn’t even have to take a freeway to get there. I think the interview went really well – no real stumpers, and the people interviewing me seemed nice enough. The position is more regulatory in nature, dealing with development proposals and evaluating what the impacts might be on endangered species.
Did you know that San Diego county has the most endangered and threatened species out of all the other counties in the United States?
So the job is definitely conservation-oriented, and based on what people told me, it’s a real opportunity to actually affect things and help protect endangered species. Pretty cool, I think. They said it would be a few weeks until I hear anything, and not to get discouraged. I’ll call in a couple of weeks for some (hopefully) good news!
Tomorrow is my interview at the Wild Animal Park for the Educator Guide position – part time, but very fun. I guess I’ll have to choose between whatever opportunities are presented to me – hopefully there will be a few options!
Make that a torrential downpour…
P.S. – The Wild Animal Park called today for an interview for the Educator Guide position. And, I’ve also applied for the Education Specialist opening they have at the park / CRES facility. I think that job will be my preference, but we’ll see what happens. Woo hoo!!!
Fuzzy Undertones 
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