Let's Play Catch-Up!

A few weeks ago, I went for an interview at Cook Children's Hospital in Ft Worth. At the time, they had two jobs I was interested in: a 6 month contract in the NICU and a full time (permanent) position in the NICU. After visiting with the nurse manager, I decided that it was best to take the 6 month, contract position as a way of 'easing myself' back into being a full time staff member at a hospital - something I left over 2 years ago and haven't really missed.

Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy working in a stable environment (i.e. not moving around every few months). I also enjoy the friendships made when working in this type of environment. I do NOT, however, enjoy some of the 'politics' involved with being a staff member again. It's so hard to avoid being dragged into disagreements and/or 'discussions' at work when you don't have the excuse of saying "It doesn't involve me . . . I'm not staff here!" :-)

So, my thinking is, try this out for a while and see how it goes. Then, as I told the nurse manager during my interview, if we all still like each other at the end of 6 months, we can talk about a full time staff position. It's the best of both worlds!

This is the beautiful bouquet of roses I received as a congratulations on the new job! :) How sweet is that?!?

The only drawback of taking this position was that the start date was set at October 6th . . . by the hospital. This means, there was no room for negotiations on my part. YIKES!! So much to do in SO little time!! So, the race against the clock began. . .

The weekend after accepting the position, we headed off to Fort Worth in search of an apartment that I could rent and move in the following weekend. This is a pretty tall order for the middle of a fall semester in a college town! (and by 'college', I mean a few colleges and medical students, too!) As usual, God stepped in, and provided a nice apartment at a price I could afford. AND, I could move in the following weekend. Cross this task off the to-do-list!

The next week was filled with setting up phone, utilities, cable, and the move itself. HOW QUICKLY I forgot all the details of moving. The past 2 years I have been completely spoiled by the nursing agency taking care of everything for me. What a shock to the system!! :-) For example, while setting up my phone, I had to deal with a faulty phone tree! Yep, you read that correctly . . . the phone tree for the phone company (which shall remain nameless) did not work. I wound my way through the various options given - none of which were what I really needed, which was to set up a new land line - until I actually got a human on the other end of the line. This only took about 40 minutes. To be completely fair, she wasn't the 1st human I'd spoken with, though. I was sent to the phone repair section multiple times for some reason. Each time someone answered, I explained that I was trying to set up a new line; at which time they asked me, "Why did you request (saying this like I had a choice in the matter) the repair line?" Good question!! They would then transfer me to the appropriate department - which meant they put me back to the beginning of the phone tree. GRRRR!!!! (blood pressure beginning to rise at this point . . .) Back to where I was - I was actually speaking with a person in the correct department for about 5 minutes (YEA, ME!!), and I was suddenly put back to the beginning of the phone tree. I'm still not quite sure what happened there. I started punching the buttons to try to get back to that sweet lady in 'new customer services', and I was hung up on by the phone tree. Now, at this point, most people would quit & try again the next day (or maybe even just forget the entire idea altogether!). Not me, though! I'm MUCH TOO STUBBORN for that option. It's the principle . . . I will NOT be bested by a phone tree!! :-) So, I call them back and try again. This time, though, it only took about 20 minutes to get a person in the correct department. And, I got a phone line! Good times with moving . . .

Movers were hired, and my stuff (that's been in storage for SO long!) & I spent the night in my new apartment 1 1/2 weeks after accepting the position! I don't recommend putting that type of time restraint on moving and getting settled, but be assured . . . it can be done. (with LOTS of help!!)

My sweet parents and Papa Joe came over the Saturday after the movers brought my stuff to help me get settled. There aren't words to express how grateful I am for their help! I'd forgotten how much stuff I have! I must admit, though, it was like Christmas opening each box to see what treasures it held. The convicting part of this action was realizing that I've lived a perfectly happy life the past 2 years without all this stuff. That's just what it is . . . STUFF. It made me keenly aware of just how blessed I am - especially thinking about so many of my friends in the Houston/Galveston area who just lost so much. Very sobering . . .

I've taken some pictures of before & after in my apartment. Here's the reveal :

So, here I sit on Sunday afternoon in my completed apartment just in time before my job starts tomorrow morning. I'm SO looking forward to getting back with my babies! I'm also looking forward to exploring the Fort Worth area. Even though I grew up about 45 minutes from here, I've never done much here. This will be a fun adventure seeing what the area has to offer. The best part about taking this position is that I'll be close to home for all the fall/winter holidays! So fun!!