Real World: My desk

You know you’ve got a freak job when…

I was looking around here at work, and realizing that nonprofit arts jobs just don’t have quite the same office style as the rest of the world. The Chorale folks all have turtles… lots, and lots, and obsessive lots of turtles. My boss has a Valkyrie-style horned helmet hanging on her coat rack, and the Sharpei Shrine on her credenza. And I’ve got bottles of fragrance oils, a picture of one of my box turtles, some hand-thrown pottery, random pieces of artwork… and the silkworms.

There just happens to be a convenient mulberry tree here at the office, so I can feed them here all week… they’ve actually been delightful to have at the office, because they’re such a conversation starter. People stop and ask what they are, and end up petting them, talking about them, and learning something new. I think sometimes that I am a science/art teacher as a hobby… I’ve done that kind of stuff all my life.

I wonder if I’ve gotten in over my head with the ones at home, though… they were the same price ($10) regardless of whether you get 200, 500, or 1,000 eggs… so I figured, what the heck. When they started hatching, it was like looking at the top of an anthill somebody had stepped on… there were SO MANY of the little tiny hairy brown bodies!! I was doing some mental math yesterday and figuring out how much space they’ll take up once they get large, and I’m definitely going to have to get some new deli tray boxes.

Arts jobs don’t command top-dollar salaries, but they make up for it in attitude… we have dogs here at the building, and we’re feeding a stray cat that someone’s going to adopt next week, and my little silkworms are munching happily away. I think they’re glad to have an arts job, too.