I love all my pets. Though I have been known to put my dogs in sweaters from time to time I have not gone all out crazy, putting them in little bikinis to prance around dog beach in. It’s common to find those that are crazy about their dogs and cats but for the first time in my life I found people that were crazy about their turtles. Friday night Ryan and I went to a lecture on the extinction problems of tortoises.
As a side note, we found an amazing Peruvian restaurant called Casa Inca on Warner in Huntington Beach, we ended up being slightly late for the lecture because we wanted to stay at the restaurant and keep eating, the food was just that good.
Anyway, I guess we were expecting something like the SCHA meeting…it felt like the complete opposite. So there was one woman who had a red eared slider turtle. During the meeting she took it out, set it on a blanket to get some of the extra water off and then proceeded to hold it like a baby on her shoulder. We were talking after the meeting and she told us how he has the run of the house including free rein on the bed. Since the group had some events that were coming up I thought it would be a great opportunity to write about them. So I introduced myself to their PR woman. Here is how the conversation went:
Me: Hi, my name is Diana; I write for a website called Examiner.com, I was hoping I could get some information for your upcoming events so that I can write about them, maybe help generate some publicity.
The Woman: So you would like to advertise us?
Me: No, I’m a writer. I would like to write about your group
The Woman: What newspaper do you write for?
Me: I write for a website.
The woman: So you want to advertise for us?
Me: I’m a w-r-i-t-e-r (at this point Ryan was standing behind me helping me emphasize the words)
The woman: oh can you publish our past articles from our newsletters?
Me: No.
At that point I thanked her for her time and walked away. By the time I got in the car I was doubled over in laughter. Really? I mean REALLY??? I’m sorry by my 86 year old grandmother can understand that when I say I write for a website, that hey I write for a website. Plus, what part of the fact that I am a writer makes anyone think for even a second that I would want to post someone else’s work in my column??? Besides the fact that I like my column and would like to keep it, I have an ego to maintain and it wouldn’t be happy if I post someone else’s work.
The lecture on the other hand was really good. I didn’t realize what kind of effect that the pet trade has on tortoise populations. For example there are no more tortoises in Vietnam, they’ve all been smuggled out. There is one medium size tortoise that goes for $10,000 a piece. The tortoise’s sanctuary has to be secured by armed guards 24/7 because one tortoise gets a poor farmer a year’s worth of wages. Some are taken for food but so many others are taken for people’s pet collections. Apparently Russian Tortoises that can easily be found in pet stores is on the brink of becoming endangered because of the pet trade. I will be writing about this more in my column this week.
It’s time to get used to going to school again. Tomorrow I start my Certified Paralegal prep course. I plan on taking the test in May so I will be studying my bum off between now and then. They call the exam the bar exam for paralegals. I get tested on four areas of law, I have decided on three so far: estate planning, administrative law (ie: social security administration, DMV etc) and family law. I still need to choose my fourth. I am debating between criminal law and contracts. I am leaning towards contracts because I have had a class on that already, so the studying won’t be too bad. I’ve only covered criminal briefly. Given the fact that I am taking this class and a law office management class it should still be a fairly easy going few months education wise.
Thursday, I have my application meeting with the Daughters of the American Revolution. I am looking forward to joining the group. I have to go through a serious pedigree check to make sure that I am actually a descendent of a revolutionary war soldier. After we finish my application it gets reviewed and then hopefully accepted. They really don’t mess around with their members; I’ve heard that they were a tough group to get in with so hopefully things will go smoothly.
Well it’s time to go to bed and get ready for the week. I am so happy to finally have a job that I enjoy. It’s nice to not have to dread Monday morning and resenting Sunday evening.
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