Posted 11:53 PM by Ben
Two important lessons learned today:

1) Sometimes you get what you want, but you have to be patient about it. When I left Ivey's Grill fifteen days ago, nobody made a big deal about my last day. Sure, Ed the line cook dumped a huge pile of manure on my car, but that was in response to my smearing ketchup on his steering wheel. Not really a goodbye thing.

Rick, my boss, said goodbye but seemed more interested in seeing my reaction to the manure. That's understandable. It was a big, smelly pile, and I had to push it onto the ground and then get the car washed. But leaving my favorite worksite ever felt very anticlimactic.

Rick had offered Katie and I a free dinner if I got a teaching job, so we took him up on it today. We showed up and Rick's wife (and my other boss) Stephanie came over and chatted with us for a while.

I ordered a tasty tempeh salad and an amazing cup of chilled cucumber soup. Katie made my day by loving her spinach ravioli -- I've figured out that Ivey's has the best food in Gainesville, but this was the first time she was really convinced. We finished the meal with some fluffy chocolate chip scones.

Everyone was really nice and seemed happy to see me. I went back and gave Rick and Stephanie a Dave Brubeck CD and a letter thanking them for the summer. Rick shook my hand and cracked some jokes with me. Earlier, on the phone, he'd said they missed me and were sorry I had to go. I gave Stephanie a hug and told them teaching horror stories.

The free meal was incredibly generous and one of the best meals we've ever had. I'm going to miss Ivey's a lot, even though I know we'll be eating there every once in a while. More importantly, though, I got my closure and I feel good about it.

2) Sometimes, you've gotta take your cat to the vet. Mia got her rabies vaccine this morning and had been tired for the rest of the day. When Katie and I got home from dinner, Katie noticed that Mia was especially sluggish. She seemed unwilling to move her hind legs or do anything besides stare at us through glazed eyes.

Katie was freaking out and wanted to take her to the emergency vet. I didn't want to set a precedent of shelling out money every time Mia sneezes funny. Katie won, and I have to admit that Mia did look pretty bad.

Turns out she has a fever. The doctor gave her anti-fever medication and she seems better already. It even turns out that the visit was free, since our vet co-owns the night clinic and the fever was a reaction to the rabies vaccine she got this morning. I'm glad we took her in, and I learned a lesson from it.

So that was my night. Thanks for checking back even though it's been a few weeks since I've updated. Teaching has been okay -- a lot of good times interspersed with several traumatizing times. I think next week will be better, but I need to plan like hell.

Have a good night. Thanks for reading.