fencer_x | How I spent my summer vacation

Well, how I WILL spend it, at least.

Finally got tired of waiting for my liason in California to get back to me with details about the Cali job, so after dropping

arisugawajuri off at the Houston airport yesterday, I decided to make use of the fact that I get free long distance on nights and weekends, and called the lady myself. To my surprise, she answered, so we chatted.

Apparantly the breeding season for the owls is lasting longer than usual this year, and since I know you all find that fascinating, I'll add that that means I'll still have plenty of work to do even if I don't get out there til mid-end of May. It'll be me, her, and one other girl on her team in a dorm-like apartment space, complete with--ooh la la--a KITCHEN area. *gasp* Haven't had the pleasure of one of those in my college career.

Days will be in the field, tall grass, biting insects, long pants, sweat, all the stuff I usually hate but will EMBRACE because hey--this is what I wanna do. The job isn't based in Merced, CA itself, I believe, but a little town a few miles away. I won't be at a disadvantage without a car, because there's nowhere to drive. Most everything's in walking distance or biking distance, and if there's a day we wanna go do something, they've both got cars. Work weeks, she says, will be pretty flexible. We have a quota to meet, and if that means two or three long days and the rest of the week off just because we feel like it, then she's fine with that. I LOVE JOBS LIKE THAT.

That part of the job will last til the end of the breeding season, which'll probably me mid to end-July. After that we all hitch a ride with her up to Washington University and play around in the lab for the rest of the summer. She has an apartment and lives ~5 minutes from the campus, apparantly. Also, if it looks like 3's a crowd in the field, she said there's also the option of just driving me up to Washington and letting me crash at her place and work in the lab while she finishes up in the field--there are summer class going on, professors and other scientists in the lab, so it's not like I'd be alone.

All in all, looking good! I called and talked to my parents after I finished this phone convo, and hopped online to look at ticket prices--$150 out of Dallas for a one-way to Sacramento XD My mother seemed to like the sound of that as well. Now it's just a matter of getting everythign set in stone.

My mom's supposed to go out to Cali as well at the end of May to see an aunt give birth and help with the baby a little (she never gets to see any of my cousins as newborns, because they all live in California), so I may just end up going out there with her for a week or so before heading up by bus or something. Angi--you said you lived kinda near Glendora/San Dimas? If so, IS IT AMY YET?

I'm so psyched now, I can' wait for this year to be over--in less than a month I'll be on my way to my career, and that's thrilled me more than anything. Despite my tendency towards procrastination, I LIKE having all my ducks in a row, where all I have to do is wait, everything in place. So being comfortable in knowing that what I'm working towards is DEFINITELY what I want to do, which I'll hopefully know after the summer, will be a great weight off my shoulders.

In a month, I'll know if thinking I've wanted to do this since 7th grade was correct.