Current Mood: exhausted and a little hungover
1:51 p.m. - 04/02/2008
Ducklings and Dinner
So let's talk about exciting stuff that really happened yesterday. The day started out with me, the 3 keepers, and 2 maintenece guys who just happened to be around trying to catch 11 ducklings that hatched in the moat in one of the lion/tiger yards. Apparently every year the ducks lay eggs there and every year the cats kill them, or they die on their own because its such a bad environment. So we decided to catch them and take them down to kids farm. Speaking from a dorky zookeeper POV it was a lot of fun, and it was so rewarding when we finally caught all 11 of them. They were absolutley adorable. We tried to catch the mother too, but she was too quick to fly away anytime a net got near her.
So I had a long day of cleaning cages and preparing diets, you know the usual, but for some reason I was completely exhausted by the time I left the zoo. So much so that I really fell asleep on the train and someone had to wake me up when we got to the last stop. When I got home I didn't have time to take a nap because me and Kate were going to James' restaurant later that night.
So Andre joined us for dinner, and invited his mom and her coworker, which I thought would be awkward seeing as how James didn't know Andre was coming, but he didn't seem to mind. He was so pleasant all night. Totally unlike what I'm used to. the food was delicious, although their vegetarian options are minimal, I had this vegetable plate that was fabulous! I don't know what James did to them, but I don't think I've ever had better. I also had a really good Onion soup. And for dessert I ahd the creme brule trio. Oh and we ordered a bottle of sparkling wine, and James bought us over a bottle of red wine and guess who ending up drinking most of it? Me. Cause Andre had to go to work and Kate had to drive. We also ran into Peter Miller from high school there. All in all it was a really good night. It was so good to see James again. I haven't seen him probably since around November or so. And given the current situation and the changes he's made to his life, he is a lot more pleasant to be around. (Not that I didn't love hanging out with him before.)
It was so rough getting out of bed this morning. I ending up not getting in until 9 and I'll proabably leave early. I hate this place so much. I sat in a meeting earlier and they were talking about how limited our office is on staff and how we need to advertise more positions, blah blah blah, but what I got out of it reeally made me kind of angry. The fact that because of their lack of staffing they are giving me who gets paid crap GS 14 level work. They don't even want to advertise a position at a 13 level because of what the work entails, and here i am, not anywehere near a double digit gs level, filling in the gaps of their staffing which should be filled by a 14. I'm so sick of being taken advantage of. And again its really all of that stupid Rick Smith's fault that I feel this way. He shows no appreciation for what I do, he just expects it. And he gets all nitpicky about small things like me doing some schoolwork even though I've finished all of my OCI assignments. What a jackass.
Anyway, on another note, I'm going to Bethany with kate this weekend and I'm very excited about it. It'll be fun to get away from DC and hang out with people reminiscent of my tally friends. I can't wait to drink and party the weekend away (as if I don't do that in DC lol.)
�
�
