New stuff

Yesterday was my first day working at the Bike Gallery. The biggest change from the Humane Society, apart from the animals, is that people are happy in the bike shop. This is good since being around happy people makes me happy, too. I am still very much in the "learning the ropes" phase and have to ask 10,000 questions per day. I'm sure soon I will be a superstar and that will all be behind me, though. Another cool thing about the bike shop, as compared to selling cars, is that people are MUCH less resistant to talk to me. They don't seem to think I am Satan come up to the surface to poke them with my trident while stealing their money. Accordingly, we are expected to treat people well. Yay! Also, the bike shop is right by Laughing Planet and I have had yummy, fresh juice two days in a row...

This evening, I went to a bouldering gym. I have never climbed or bouldered before, so I spent my time on the rock that is for beginners ("We have 2 year olds that climb here.") It was fun to climb around, but it would have been more fun with a friend. What was really the best part was watching the experienced climbers doing all kinds of crazy stuff that looks impossible - yet up they go. Another big plus is that when you make it to the top of the kiddie boulder you get to ride back down to the ground on a slide. Sweet. I think I will go back, hopefully with someone else to accompany me.

A couple of days

Monday was my last day at the Humane Society, and what a day it was. Ugh. I started the day off by doing what I think was the worst adoption I have ever done. This man came in to adopt a cat. Not because he wanted a companion. Not because his kid wanted one. Not even to kill the mice in his basement. He "had" to get one because of doctor's orders. Apparently the adoption of a cat is an acceptable treatment for depression. What did this cat do to deserve this fate? Nothing. I guess most doctors are pro animal testing, so maybe this isn't a big deal to them, but I (along with all the cattery staff who knew this cat) was really upset by the whole thing. Now, I'm not saying that people suffering depression shouldn't have pets; I don't mean that at all. What I'm against is people being prescribed pets when, in fact, they don't want them at all. Why? Because part of not wanting a cat is not wanting to take care of a cat. Hopefully he will feed it and change its litter from time to time. I know he will never take it to the vet (he said as much) even though the cat was sick when he adopted it. The whole thing is terrible - I have seen the animals that come in through "humane investigations" so I know how things turn out when people have completely unwanted animals (awful, and those are the ones that get rescued). I am very disappointed that this is considered an acceptable medical practice - though I can hold out hope that it isn't and this guy just had a kook doctor...
Also on Monday, I found out that Natural Balance has recalled some of its foods, which caused me to freak out and feel really guilty that I had stopped feeding the cats homemade food. They had been eating Natural Balance, not the recalled foods exactly, but way too close for comfort (the only venison and greed pea food the company DIDN'T recall). This whole thing has reminded me why I was making their food in the first place - not just because it is much healthier, but also because dry food is a crazy amalgamation of who knows what and canned isn't a whole lot better. Suspiciously, the Natural Balance food was affected by the same chemical that was poisoning animals in the Menu Foods recall, but it was a totally different ingredient that was contaminated. Why should I take such a big gamble with the kitties health? Now, of course I know that any food, even human-grade, can and regularly does get contaminated, but I have to do the best that I can and dry kibble is certainly not my best. The cats were served raw duck this morning. Special thanks go out to Slav who took time out of his very busy day to go pick up food from the raw pet food store, which prevented me from suffering a complete meltdown.

Yesterday was a big turn-around from Monday! That is, I had a good day. Amanda, a friend from work, and her fiance, Jimmy, took me to Hood River to pick asparagus. We saw gigantic sturgeon from the Columbia River at the fish hatchery, played with the dog they are fostering, picked lots of asparagus, ate dinner out and then had ice cream (sorbet for me)! Now, I have a ton of asparagus in my fridge that I am excited to cook and eat as well as a bag of apples that are destined to become a yummy pie!

My midWeekend

What a lovely midWeekend I have had!
I came frighteningly close to crossing out everything on my TO DO list, and the things I didn't get to, I just opted out of because they were optional.
I had a good experience at the mechanic, which is something exceptional for me. I needed an oil change and to have my brakes checked. Usually, for an oil change I go to JiffyLube, even though I hate it there. They are very high-pressure and try to sell you everything under the sun. If it were up to JiffyLube, regular maintenance would include a transmission flush every 200 miles or so. On top of their intimidating behavior I am nearly convinced that I had a cell phone headset stolen during an oil change there one time. Of course, that is not a corporate policy, but it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Why do I continue to go there? The answer is simple: location. They're everywhere. This time, though, I needed to have a brake inspection done, and I don't think they do that there (but I didn't look into it). So, I went to Midas. I considered a local mechanic, but after calling a couple and getting no answer/bad answers, I called Midas. They scheduled me for the same day! The great part, though, was that not only did they NOT try to sell me a bunch of random services I don't need while making me feel like a stupid girl, they told me I didn't need to get the brakes done yet and didn't charge me for the inspection. They gave me a coupon for my next oil change free and said they would check the brakes for free again when I came back. Sweet.
Furthermore, while I was waiting for the service to be done, I called the bike shop and got a new job! I will now be able to ride my bike to work, make more money and be a part of (what seems to be) a better work environment. I'm excited to see how it all plays out; I should start next week.
Since I got the new job, I was able to spend more time relaxing and enjoying my days off. Lovely. Oh yeah, and I got to spend lots of time with:

Is this working?

I think it is.

I have a job and leads on better ones. I "have" a house in a super-lovely neighborhood. Maybe this big, scary city thing isn't going to be so big and scary after all.
The weather is getting so wonderful; today we opened up the house and the cats got to smell the out-of-doors. I think they loved it. I loved it.

I'm going to have a new website soon! You'll hear about it.

And I'm starting to learn about fascinating things like technical tree climbing!! Well, I haven't really learned about it, but I have learned that such a hobby exists. And that's something.
I also want to direct people toward goodreads.com. Please sign up and be my friend for the sake of mutual reading inspiration. Yes, I have time to read, and hopefully soon, when the job thing is resolved, I will have time for the knitting and guitar again, too!