A New Era

I acquired something today that I've never had before; a real job. I had summer jobs, part-time jobs, "volunteer" jobs (Americorps), I've TA'ed while in grad school, paid myself to build my house, and stayed at home full-time to watch the kids, but I've never had a full time job with a corresponding salary.

It's actually a temporary position, but will be a full time commitment for the next 15 months or so. I'll be working for the Floodplain Management Section of the VT DEC River Management Program. It's a position that's at least in part funded by FEMA. They are working with the DEC to update the states floodplain maps, and I'll be working on this, and with local communities who are enrolled, or who are trying to become enrolled, in the National Flood Insurance Program. These communities need to set regulations for development within their floodplain areas, assisted by DEC, and DEC reviews permits for potential projects that are built in these areas to see if the conform to regs.

It's a good career-related job, and it's within the ANR, which was the foremost organization I've been tracking employment opportunities in. It also turns out that I'm not unemployable after a 3 year lapse on my resume, so that's nice. The kids have already been slotted back into their daycare at Turtle Island. Coincidentally, it turns out that day care costs not a whole lot less than an entry-level salary for a guy like me, but Evie gets to start going to public preschool two days a week starting in the fall, so that's nice too.