[written during my lunch break at work as I sat on a bench outside in the shade of a tree like a true native of Phoenix]

Day one of my new job. The environment is familiar, a kind of amalgam of the corporate morass I've slogged through before and the frenetic drudgery of warehouse shipping and receiving. But it is work, and it pays well enough that I can work less during the school year.

I cannot anticipate the amount of personal satisfaction I might find here. I wonder if it will compare to the pet shop. Yesterday, I found a home for an abandoned ferret. I assisted a lady whose hamster had lost the use of its hind legs. "If it's a congenital disease then there's not a lot we can do for it but it could also be a deficiency of vitamin D3 and we have a supplement that might help." Another ferret came in with respiratory problems. The owners told me that they had bought some cheaper pine bedding which is bad for any critter with delicate lungs and a small home. I gave them some oil-free and dust-free bedding and sent them on their way.

Now I leave the pet store with another bundle of random knowledge and move to the next job. I wonder what I will learn here.