Year in review; What's next?
Dec. 31st, 2007 06:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urbpan2007 was an eventful year for me, with a major change of job as its centerpiece.
I left Drumlin Farm after seven years, a job which in a lot of ways was my dream job, to make a career move at the Zoo, a larger organization with more room to grow. The transition was traumatic, and served as a warning: some day I'd like to move to a new region and start more or less fresh--how much more traumatic will that be. But perhaps I'll be more up to it then, than I am now. Making the change was a good experience, and working at the zoo will give me the kind of skills and training that I'll need to continue in this career. But the change was not without some self-esteem damaging experiences. Live and learn? In 2008 I start my zookeeper training classes, which some keepers scoff at, but I'm really looking forward to. Soon I'll have a pesticide applicators license, a pepper spray license, and who knows what else!
So much of my year was about work (my angst leading up to leaving, changing jobs, trying to figure out the new job) that my extracurricular activities suffered. I wasn't able to have a coherent blog theme or project, and I didn't continue with any science field work. I taught a couple mushroom classes, and led a half dozen or so Urban Nature Walks, but in general I felt helpless to keep up the exciting momentum of 2006. Then I had a blog project that was spotlighted, written about in a magazine and a newspaper, and did actual science work and even science journalism for real money. (Though I still haven't been paid for my article for Plenty magazine.) I started writing a biweekly movie review, and I really like it. I hope they let me keep doing it through 2008.
Alexis is going to change jobs soon. She still doesn't know what her new job will be, but I'm hoping she'll keep dog training on the side, at the very least. If she went into an animal related field full time it would be great for her, but the family income wouldn't be too great. I wish I made enough money that it wasn't an issue, that she felt free to completely follow her happiness and earn a living doing what she really wanted. By summer she will have moved on to whatever new position she gets. She's awesome at what she does, even if it's not what she wants to do any more, and she'll get a great reference from her boss.
The dogs are the constant in our lives, the routine element that gets us outside and taking pictures every day. I know some readers love to see pictures of them and hear stories about them and others simply put up with it. The dogs make us experience each day's weather, see the parks and our neighbor's houses as they change through the year, and remind us that play is something we need, not an indulgent luxury.
My mother went in to hospice care this year, and now is out of it. Apparently you can outlive hospice care; I had no idea. She almost certainly won't live through the year, and there is great sadness, relief, and guilt in that. When she goes for good, it will be most hard for my father, who has been visiting her practically every day in the nursing home for over ten years. I can't imagine what it will be like for him, to suddenly stop this ritual, which he honors every day, often more than once, always for hours, every day that he is around. (He allows himself to travel a few weeks a year, and is tortured with guilt by it.) I owe her a eulogy, since she inspired my love of nature, as well as everything else she provided.
I ended 15 years of vegetarianism this year. Not with scorn or drama, but with a gradual realization that I don't really object to animal agriculture. I don't wish to belabor the point, because I have a great many vegetarian friends, and I still believe it is an honorable and wise way to live. Please don't let my decision affect yours. The more vegetarians there are, the better a place the world is. What I really wish is that everyone made decisions about food based on more criteria than convenience and price--and that small farms were still the dominant paradigm, and that I could be sure that the sausage I will eat comes from pigs that lived near to me.
I became friends with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rockbalancer and her fiance Justin, nice Californians who do wonderful art. They taught me to balance rocks, and we had some good times together. We hung out with some other fun people, who are moving and getting married, and otherwise getting on with their lives. They'll move in 2008, either back to California, or to some place for graduate school. I'll miss them and we'll try to keep in touch. Alexis and I will hopefully visit them wherever they end up. I'll definitely keep an eye on their art careers.
I saw my brother, and he and my father and I were together for the first time in years. We were all together with my mother for the first time probably in over a decade, if not two. We made tentative plans to travel together next year.
I'm leaving things out, forgetting pieces of 2007. They'll come back to me tomorrow or next week, and I'll curse myself for skipping them on this post. I'll be mad that I forgot to mention a good friend like Alex, or a family member who reads this stuff with unjudging love, like Aunt Dotty.
So what of 2008? I'd like to travel in New England more, to see the White Mountains perhaps. I'd like to canoe or kayak. I'd actually be interested in learning how to hunt for my own food. I hope to continue leading nature walks, and maybe get paid for some. I'd like to see more art, especially environmental art, and continue to do some. I want to keep rock balancing, and maybe get my hands in some clay.
As for the blog, I plan to Notice the Year. Each day I will notice something about the day and record it in the Urban Pantheist journal. There will probably be a photograph with it. There will be some writing. I'll notice the weather, or the plants, or the insects. I'll notice the way the soil feels and the way the air smells. I'll notice different parts of the city, and the zoo, and when I go to another place I'll notice what I can about it. I might notice how I feel, or how people act, or what's going on. The important thing is to notice daily; the journal will change as I figure out which way I prefer to notice, or which way seems to flow better, or mean more, or tell me more. I'll compare the day to previous days with the same name in past years. 2008 will even contain a day that hasn't happened in years. And I'll notice that.
On this day in 365 Urban Species: Human, the weirdest species ever to evolve.
I left Drumlin Farm after seven years, a job which in a lot of ways was my dream job, to make a career move at the Zoo, a larger organization with more room to grow. The transition was traumatic, and served as a warning: some day I'd like to move to a new region and start more or less fresh--how much more traumatic will that be. But perhaps I'll be more up to it then, than I am now. Making the change was a good experience, and working at the zoo will give me the kind of skills and training that I'll need to continue in this career. But the change was not without some self-esteem damaging experiences. Live and learn? In 2008 I start my zookeeper training classes, which some keepers scoff at, but I'm really looking forward to. Soon I'll have a pesticide applicators license, a pepper spray license, and who knows what else!
So much of my year was about work (my angst leading up to leaving, changing jobs, trying to figure out the new job) that my extracurricular activities suffered. I wasn't able to have a coherent blog theme or project, and I didn't continue with any science field work. I taught a couple mushroom classes, and led a half dozen or so Urban Nature Walks, but in general I felt helpless to keep up the exciting momentum of 2006. Then I had a blog project that was spotlighted, written about in a magazine and a newspaper, and did actual science work and even science journalism for real money. (Though I still haven't been paid for my article for Plenty magazine.) I started writing a biweekly movie review, and I really like it. I hope they let me keep doing it through 2008.
Alexis is going to change jobs soon. She still doesn't know what her new job will be, but I'm hoping she'll keep dog training on the side, at the very least. If she went into an animal related field full time it would be great for her, but the family income wouldn't be too great. I wish I made enough money that it wasn't an issue, that she felt free to completely follow her happiness and earn a living doing what she really wanted. By summer she will have moved on to whatever new position she gets. She's awesome at what she does, even if it's not what she wants to do any more, and she'll get a great reference from her boss.
The dogs are the constant in our lives, the routine element that gets us outside and taking pictures every day. I know some readers love to see pictures of them and hear stories about them and others simply put up with it. The dogs make us experience each day's weather, see the parks and our neighbor's houses as they change through the year, and remind us that play is something we need, not an indulgent luxury.
My mother went in to hospice care this year, and now is out of it. Apparently you can outlive hospice care; I had no idea. She almost certainly won't live through the year, and there is great sadness, relief, and guilt in that. When she goes for good, it will be most hard for my father, who has been visiting her practically every day in the nursing home for over ten years. I can't imagine what it will be like for him, to suddenly stop this ritual, which he honors every day, often more than once, always for hours, every day that he is around. (He allows himself to travel a few weeks a year, and is tortured with guilt by it.) I owe her a eulogy, since she inspired my love of nature, as well as everything else she provided.
I ended 15 years of vegetarianism this year. Not with scorn or drama, but with a gradual realization that I don't really object to animal agriculture. I don't wish to belabor the point, because I have a great many vegetarian friends, and I still believe it is an honorable and wise way to live. Please don't let my decision affect yours. The more vegetarians there are, the better a place the world is. What I really wish is that everyone made decisions about food based on more criteria than convenience and price--and that small farms were still the dominant paradigm, and that I could be sure that the sausage I will eat comes from pigs that lived near to me.
I became friends with
rockbalancer and her fiance Justin, nice Californians who do wonderful art. They taught me to balance rocks, and we had some good times together. We hung out with some other fun people, who are moving and getting married, and otherwise getting on with their lives. They'll move in 2008, either back to California, or to some place for graduate school. I'll miss them and we'll try to keep in touch. Alexis and I will hopefully visit them wherever they end up. I'll definitely keep an eye on their art careers.I saw my brother, and he and my father and I were together for the first time in years. We were all together with my mother for the first time probably in over a decade, if not two. We made tentative plans to travel together next year.
I'm leaving things out, forgetting pieces of 2007. They'll come back to me tomorrow or next week, and I'll curse myself for skipping them on this post. I'll be mad that I forgot to mention a good friend like Alex, or a family member who reads this stuff with unjudging love, like Aunt Dotty.
So what of 2008? I'd like to travel in New England more, to see the White Mountains perhaps. I'd like to canoe or kayak. I'd actually be interested in learning how to hunt for my own food. I hope to continue leading nature walks, and maybe get paid for some. I'd like to see more art, especially environmental art, and continue to do some. I want to keep rock balancing, and maybe get my hands in some clay.
As for the blog, I plan to Notice the Year. Each day I will notice something about the day and record it in the Urban Pantheist journal. There will probably be a photograph with it. There will be some writing. I'll notice the weather, or the plants, or the insects. I'll notice the way the soil feels and the way the air smells. I'll notice different parts of the city, and the zoo, and when I go to another place I'll notice what I can about it. I might notice how I feel, or how people act, or what's going on. The important thing is to notice daily; the journal will change as I figure out which way I prefer to notice, or which way seems to flow better, or mean more, or tell me more. I'll compare the day to previous days with the same name in past years. 2008 will even contain a day that hasn't happened in years. And I'll notice that.
On this day in 365 Urban Species: Human, the weirdest species ever to evolve.
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