One sick family

I got some things in the mail from my mother and this little hat was among them. Of course, Katie had to try it on. Or, should I say, mommy had to put it on her..

Katie and I are both sick. It's been awful! She got a nasty cold and then gave it to me. It's been so bad that I broke down and took her to the doctor, something I never do with myself. But it had been 10 days of hacking and sniffling, and I had had enough of my poor baby being miserable. I was ready to hear, "It's just a virus" since she had only had a mild fever a week ago. The nurse practitioner said, though, that it was perfect timing for us to come in because 10 days was just too long. So now Katie is on some medicine--provided free by Publix pharmacy--and I hope she gets better soon. I also hope that I get better.

This week was orientation at work. Woah, Nelly! The benefits are awesome. More later. I need a nap.

Back to Work

What a week! The past 10 days or so have flown by as my brother and his wife visited and then work began. I am blessed to have found this job because it is with a department full of smart people. What I really like is that nothing is considered obvious--it's all laid out for me. Even "how to check your voicemail" is something they go over. I've had too many jobs in the past where it felt like we were just thrown in the deep end and then judged harshly for not knowing which way is up.

Taking Katie to daycare, though, was the most traumatic event of all. But I had nothing to worry about! She is having so much fun playing with all their great toys and participating in all the activities that she barely misses me. I do get to see her at lunch time. Thankfully, the center is just across the parking lot from work. It's been hard pumping enough milk...i'm still working on that. However, I have plenty of time to pump and a clean, private room where I go twice a day. That was a relief.

The biggest change has been that I am very exhausted at the end of the day, and so is Katie. She plays very hard and doesn't want to nap at the center, so she's a limp rag by the time we get home. I hope she starts napping soon.

Pleased with myself

An end and a beginning

The past week has been hectic. After months of a humiliating job search, I am finally employed. Before now, jobs have usually fallen into my lap. It was tough when I moved to Colorado right after Sept. 11, but I found a really fun job at Coors Brewing Company as a tour guide, and that was enough to pay the bills. After that, if I interviewed for a job , I got it. Or with my teaching job, I didn't even really have an interview. My friend referred me to a substitute teaching position, and after working for 2 days, I was hired for the rest of the year with the intention of being hired full-time for the next school year. It's all been easy.

Not so this year. By now, I've been of "working age" for 7 years, since I graduated in 2001 from Johns Hopkins--with the oh-so-useful degree in Philosophy. I have a varied resume with most jobs lasting about a year. All have been teaching/training/educating. But I thought my educational credentials would be a blessing and that my personality would make up for any holes in my resume. Unfortunately, they worked against me. I applied to well over one hundred jobs, got immediate letters of rejection from about a dozen, and interviewed three times unsuccessfully before landing this job. I revised my resume many many times in hopes of downplaying my talents, overplaying them, looking smart, looking practical...It was very difficult to figure out what I needed to be saying. I sent bare bones cover letters for low-end jobs, and thoughtful ones for more advanced positions. Sometimes, I'd be rejected for a job within 20 minutes of applying. Since I often sent in applications (that took at least an hour to fill out) at night, that meant no person ever laid eyes on them. Instead, a computer filtered through looking for keywords. So I tried using invisible fonts to insert keywords I thought might help. That tactic didn't work, but I thought it was clever if I do say so myself.

The job I am starting on Monday is a dream job. I will be training adults who work for large companies as they go through a conversion to my corporation's system. So I get to learn technical stuff and teach it. I went through 2 interviews and this time, I was able to be myself. And it paid off. Katie is starting daycare onsite--it's a fabulous place and I'm excited about being blessed enough to get her a spot. It'll be hard to adjust at first since I've been with Katie for months. However, now I'll be able to start paying down debt and building a future for my daughter while working at a job that I hope is personally fulfilling. That'll be a first for me. It only took 28 years for me to start a career.