Hire Me! (Please?)

Guess what? Your favorite blogger has a summer job!

If you had asked me about a week ago what my summer plans were, my answer would've been "a whole lot of nothing." I wanted to enjoy my summer, dammit. But then I spent an entire Saturday doing absolutely nothing and realized that if I tried to spend the whole summer that way, I would be stir-freaking-crazy. Not to mention the fact that I would blow through what little savings I have managed to accumulate since coming home from Europe.

So I decided that I might want to be employed this summer after all.

First, I thought of jobs I'd previously held: the last two summers, I worked as a campus tour guide and answering phones in the admissions office at Towson. But since I'm no longer a student, neither of those is an option anymore. My next thought was returning to the daycare that I worked at for the two summers prior to the tour guide gig. But since I'll already be working with children nine months out of the year, doing so in the summer was extremely unappealing. And I've heard so many horror stories from friends who work in retail or restaurants that I had to rule those two sectors out as well.

I might be getting a job, but I'm not getting one that will make me miserable.

Around the time that I was brainstorming possible not-life-sucking summer jobs, Evan and I were planning to do the "treetop adventure" course where his sister works. Serendipitously (is that a word?), she mentioned that they were hiring. So I sent in my resume, and within five days, I was hired.

Trust me, I'm a professional.

I feel like I'm getting used to the whole interviewing thing. Which isn't to say that I don't still get nervous; of course I still get nervous. But it's no longer the debilitating, burst-into-tears-in-the-hallway-beforehand brand of nervousness. Now it's just a little bit of tension; once I actually start answering the interview questions, I'm actually fine. Fake-it-till-you-make-it: surprisingly effective!

As for my school-year job prospects: I've been on about eight or so interviews, but so far...nada. The typical timing for a new teacher getting hired is sometime in July. As in next month. As in five whole months after I sent in my application.

So. Much. Waiting.

I just want to know where I'm going to be and what grade I'm going to be teaching, that way I can start planning lessons, getting things for my classroom, and--oh, I don't know--figuring out where I'm going to live starting this fall. *sigh*

I know it's all going to work out. I'm not worried, per se...I just feel very in limbo at the moment, not having any of that figured out.

Hopefully the employment gods smile upon me soon.

What's the Opposite of a Green Thumb?

Answer: Jess's thumb.

My track record for gardening is rather grim: I kill pretty much every plant that I attempt to grow. Sometimes I forget to water them for days at a time, but usually what happens is I water them too much, worried that I forgot to water them the day before.

Cause of death: an excess of love.

Because you always want what you can't have, I want SO badly to be a successful gardener. I have this mental image of myself wearing a floppy straw hat and overalls, carrying baskets laden with homegrown fruits, veggies, and flowers as I walk barefoot through neat rows of flourishing plants.

I know. I'm ridiculous.

I think part of it is that I love productive hobbies. I took up knitting while I was traveling partially because it was something to do on all of the trains, buses, and planes I spent hours on, but also because I had something to show for it around Christmas time.

See the scarf my aunt is wearing? Yeah, I made that. (No big deal.)

Gardening is another one of those productive hobbies: you put in the work, you get yummy food and pretty flowers. Bam.

My great-grandfather had a substantial garden, which my grandparents and great-uncle still maintain. When I was younger, we would spend a few days there every summer, and we would be put to work, pulling weeds, watering, and harvesting the produce. Each night, we would eat the fruits (and vegetables) of our labors.

My family has a decent-sized backyard garden these days. More often than not, it's been kind of an overgrown mishmash of squash, bean, and tomato plants, all of which produce far more than we could ever eat by ourselves. We've also had a few incidents of accidental gardening: the seeds from something in the compost heap sprout in the garden, and the mystery plant thrives amidst all of the intentionally-cultivated plants.

To me, there's just something so appealing about growing your own food. You're so connected to the process: you know exactly what went into the food that you're eating. Fruits and vegetables from the grocery store are always a bit of a question mark in that respect.

Homegrown foods also just taste so much better than mass-produced, sat-on-a-truck-for-500-plus-miles, grocery-store produce. (Saving money is just an added bonus.)

So I'm giving this gardening thing another shot. I'm currently attempting to grow carrots, sunflowers, peppermint, spearmint, and wildflowers in my family's garden. The sunflowers are doing the best so far (they're fairly hardy plants, thank goodness), but the mint isn't doing too bad, either. The carrots, well...too soon to say.

Stay tuned to find out whether I can break the curse of the non-green-thumb! Feel free to share any gardening tips or stories that you have. ☺

Run, Jess, Run

Well, that was fun.

I can say that now, because I'm done. At the time that I was running, especially the last mile, "fun" probably would not have been my first choice of word to describe my 5k.

The morning dawned overcast and humid. It wasn't too hot, though--thanks for sparing me that much, Momma Nature. I got up at 6:00 to eat some eggs and toast (breakfast of champions!), and then went back to bed for another half hour or so of shuteye.

I arrived at the course at 7:45, thirty minutes before the start. Twenty minutes of that were spent in line for the bathroom (of course I forgot to go before I left the house), and then I did a quick little warm up and some stretching before taking my place at the start of the course.

Not having done a race in over two years, I kind of forgot how much of an effect the race-day vibe has. It was exciting! The music at the start, all of these people running together...it was great!

Here we go!

The first two miles were on level ground or downhill, so I was feeling pretty great. I was passing people pretty easily. My running app clocked my pace at 8:20/mile, which was a bit faster than I'd been aiming for--which I partially credit to race-day adrenaline--but since that pace was feeling good, I went with it.

I sort of regretted it when I started the final mile, which was ALL. UP. HILL.

I mean, on the one hand, I'm glad that I pushed the pace a bit when it was still feeling good, but maybe I should have saved a little bit more so I could tackle those hills. Instead of passing people, I started getting passed by a few.

By the last quarter mile, I was breathing none too quietly, and I'm sure my face was none too pretty. But as the finish line came into view, I decided that I was going to chase the guy about 25 yards ahead of me, and beat him to the finish. Which I did, before promptly flopping down on the grass in the shade of a large tree.

Post-race bagel: essential.

Evan met me at the finish and took on the role of my unofficial photographer as I got my race results, and my medal.

That's right, I got a medal.

1st in my age group (females 20-29), 8th out of 40 females overall, and 35th out of all 96 5k-ers.

Bam.

Time to start training for the next race!