End-of-the-month distraction!

One week ago I started my bookstore job. It's been marvelous so far, and I wish I could relate to you all the cool stuff I've learned, but (a) there's far too much to tell and (b) the handbook warns us against disclosing store procedures and policy. So until my blog posts have worked their way through both Corporate and my lawyer, I'm going to be pretty mum about my job. I will try to keep my faithful readers occupied, however, starting with this picture of a cat with a Far Side mug:



If there's anything the Internet needed, it's more pictures of cats.

From Georgia With Love

Just as a head's up, my brother has started a blog about his travels to the Former Soviet Republic of Georgia, Sweet Saqartvelo Brown. He's there to teach English.

You should all check it out and follow his blog. There's sure to be some post-communist hilarity!

Oh yeah, and I've been published

2011 is turning up Peter.

Just a few days ago I had an essay published in the latest issue of Electica Magazine. You can follow a direct link to my article here. This is my publishing debut and is just another example of how sometimes hard work can pay off.

Take a look at some of the other stuff in Electica, too; you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Requiem for the Zoo

When I restarted this blog in June, I figured I'd be writing about my experiences at the zoo through August. October, at the very most. Somewhere around Halloween, when I was still scooping ice cream at the dairy store, I resigned myself to the fact that I would be at the zoo indefinitely, possibly through the summer of 2011.

All that's changed. After being called off from work on account of weather one too many times, I decided to search for another job...and found one. At a bookstore.

I handed my application in and was called on the very same day to schedule an interview. Two days later, after the interview, I was told to expect to wait two weeks or so to hear if I'd been given the position. Just 48 hours later, I got a call offering me the job. Now that's turnaround!

Next Monday I start at the bookstore. I will be doing an assortment of tasks, including working the cash register, restocking the shelves, and sorting the used books customers want to sell. I've always considered books my passion and looked on my high school library job as an ideal workplace for someone with my tastes. Perhaps this job will be even more meaningful, because customers at a bookstore want to keep what they find for much longer than three weeks.

So: "Wandering As A Cloud" is undergoing its third thematic shift in as many years. From England, to the zoo, and now to a bookstore. I will keep you updated.

Note: the picture is a rare look inside the Beloit College Library stacks. It's the only photo of bookshelves I own, but I knew I took it for a reason.

The Best Books of 2010

Happy New Year!

According to Shelfari, which I use to keep track of my reading, I read 45 books last year (holy crap!). In recognition of this fact, I am going to move away from the zoo for just a moment and list my favorite books of 2010. These are not necessarily books that came out in 2010, but books I read in the calendar year:

1.) The Yiddish Policemen's Union by Michael Chabon. (Incidentally, the book that convinced me to write my own novel)
2.) Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer.
3.) Monster of God by David Quammen.
4.) The Tenth Parallel by Eliza Griswold.
5.) The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi.
6.) The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.
7.) Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday.
8.) Apples Are From Kazakhstan by Christopher Robbins.
9.) Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky.
10.) The Spy Who Died of Boredom by George Mikes.

And now, for a little reading analysis: of those books, only three are fiction (Chabon, Diaz, and Mikes). This is roughly in line with my own reading habits, which involves mainly nonfiction (especially history). According to Shelfari, I read 19 fiction books and 26 nonfiction books.

I think this also aligns with the American public as a whole, which tends to favor nonfiction. I'm not sure what the reason for this is, but I think it has to do with people preferring subjects they already know something about, and not having to get invested in a book with unfamiliar characters, plot, and symbolic imagery.

Final zoo anecdotes of 2010

I won't ever work at the zoo again. In 2010, that is.

Today produced the following interactions with zoo patrons:

--A customer told me she saw a visitor bring a seeing-eye dog into the feline house. Bad idea. In her words, "the cheetahs were hopping and the lion king was looking at lunch." Wish I could have seen it.

--Mother to her daughter: "I saw on TV this morning that spiders have fuzzy legs. That's how they stick to the ceiling."
(Child mutters something)
Mother: "Did you know that when I was your age they hadn't even invented spiders?"

--When I was sweeping near a table, a young girl asked her father what I was doing. The father turned to me and said "I don't know, what do you call that? Sweeping?" Holding my broom and taken aback by the question, all I could respond with was "Um, sweeping, yes."

--A very excited boy yelled to me, "Thanks for the food!" Then he ran over to me and proudly showed off the pressed penny our machine had made for him, pointing to a smudge he claimed was Abraham Lincoln.

And I didn't learn this today, but: did you know that the hoofed mammals are not allowed outside in the winter? It's because if an ungulate slips, he or she is much more likely to break a leg.

Happy 2011!

Social experiments at the zoo

Today I had it in my mind to play Santa Claus.

Recently, I've been going through some of my old toys to see which ones I could throw out/give away and which ones retained some sentimental value. I have a vast collection of toy cars, and after sorting through them I found a few dozen I could part with. Since the Salvation Army and most other outlets apparently don't want used toys (and who would want decades-old Matchbox cars, anyway?) I decided to find creative ways to give them away.

I took one bright green Lamborghini (pictured below) to the zoo in a gesture that was half altruism and half curiosity. If I left a toy car in the dining area two days before Christmas, in a place guaranteed to host lots of little kids, would it still be there at the end of the day? I placed it near the trash bin (where everyone inevitably goes) before 9am. Then I waited.

At 1:30, as I returned to clean up the dining area, the car was still on top of the trash bin. It had definitely been moved since 9am, but no one had taken it. Part of me was upset. Was this a judgment on the type of toys I grew up on? Were today's four-year-olds more interested in things with microchips?

My mom later said it was likely some kid did pick up the car, but was told by his/her parents that it may have been left there by another kid -- in other words, Put it back! This is probably what happened. Let it be known: people who visit the zoo two days before Christmas are not inclined to take something that's not theirs, even a toy with no apparent owner. I'll have to get rid of my old toys through a good old-fashioned rummage sale.

I brought the car home. It survived getting snatched up at the zoo; I might as well give it a reprieve and keep it around.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!