Oh it's on now...

The job hunt, that is...

Have you ever hit a point in your life where you just realize, suddenly, that you want a complete and total career change? I suppose they call it a mid-life crisis. But what is it called when you're 25? I hope this isn't my mid-life crisis, because what's going to happen when I'm 50?? Will I be dead or something?

Lots of people I know have been going into nursing - either they're in the program now, or they're starting it in the spring. I really wish right now that I had never left the medical field - I love it so much, I love the knowledge that comes from working in the field, I love the feeling of really making someone better.

I don't know - it's hard to explain. I haven't even had the conversation with John about it yet. But I want to talk to him about how much I miss the medical field - even if it's to work as a medical assistant! I'd do that if I had too, if we couldn't afford for me to go to nursing school or become a surgical tech. Both of those programs are two years at the NH Tech school, which is great - because I've done a lot of the lower level classes to get my Bachelors from UNH already.

It's so weird. I wish I just knew what I wanted already.

A little better now

I'm doing much better now than I was in my last post. So that's good. Yesterday Kim and I went to the Christmas Tree Shop - I got all kinds of Christmas decorations and whatnot, so that was good. Oh, and wrapping paper. Which is always a good thing to have. I LOVE wrapping Christmas presents, and I can't wait until I can start. I guess in theory, I could start now, because I have some gifts that need to be done. I'd feel weird wrapping Christmas presents before Thanksgiving though, so I'll just have to put it off for another two weeks. It'll be good to be done with it though.

Anyway, Kim and I had a BLAST shopping - or at least I did. We had this wicked scary waiter when we went out to lunch at Ruby Tuesday, though. I don't remember his name, but he was just scary. I ordered a Sprite, and Kim said she'd have the same, so his response was "do you want hers or do you want your own." Kim and I are like "huh???" Yeah, we weren't poised to think on that level. I'm never poised to think on that level, but especially not when I have to do it from a waiter. I know that it's a hard job and you've got to do something to lighten your day, but making your customers feels stupid is NOT the way to do it.

Alright. Enough about that. I get to have a good, relatively relaxing weekend finally! We have some yard work to get done today, and we have to vacuum the house. Otherwise, that's about it. Oh, and grocery shopping. Yeah, food is good. I like food.

Not a whole lot to report on today, other than to say that I had so much fun with Kim yesterday - I hope the Christmas Tree Shop in Portsmouth goes through! Then we can go shopping AAAAANNNNNNDDDDD go out for milkshakes at the Friendly Toast!

Is it over yet?

I need to find a way to go to my happy place. I've been in such a horrible mood all night, and John just got home, is in the shower whistling that fucking song from the Polar Express soundtrack, and I just want to go in there and punch him. Not because I'm mad at him, but you know how when someone does something that for no particular reason just pisses you off like it's nobody's business? Yeah, that's how I feel about it. He's been home for all of 45 minutes, and I've done nothing but look forward to seeing him all day... It doesn't help that I've had dreams about him cheating on me lately, and I've just been so rediculously down on myself that I can't even stand it. I so don't want to go to work tomorrow either, for fear of flipping out completely on someone. Did you know I have 27 cases on my caseload. Yeah, you read right - TWENTY - FUCKING - SEVEN. 9 weeks and counting until my year is up. I'm DYING to get out at this point. Like you have no idea. It's like I keep saying - I have tons of respect for the job, and I totally believe in what people in my job do. But I can't do it. I can't! And I'm sick of pretending that I can, or trying to tell the world that my job is great and wonderful and I love it. I don't love it! I don't love the awesome responsibility that comes with it (and I don't mean the awesome like the "Hey cool!" awesome), and I don't love the fact that I never know if I've made the right choice.

Anyway, I need to stop ranting for tonight. I have to. Or everyone will start to think I'm nuts.

Going to my happy place now. Wake me up in February.

My new glasses...

So I have a whole new look =) I got some new glasses today, which I'm exceptionally excited about. They're much different than any that I've had before, which makes me happy, but they're not totally wacky looking like some that I tried on today. I don't have any photos of me wearing them, yet, but when I do, I promise to post. But I'm really excited about them, because I'm going to be wearing them much more often. Granted, I will still be wearing my contacts, but my contacts can be really expensive, so I'm trying to mitigate the cost slightly by wearing my glasses more, so I had to get some I really wanted to wear. John says he likes them, which is important to me, because no one wants to be married to someone who doesn't want to look at them anymore!

Our basement has finally stopped flooding, as well, which is exceptionally exciting! My father in law is going to be coming over to help John with the pump on Friday (I'll be far, far away, shopping at the Christmas Tree Shop with Kim!) and hopefully that should be the last of it. John wants to wait until the end of November to put the room back together, but I say the sooner the better! I found this new flooring online that looks like it could be a good idea. One of my moms coworkers daughters used it in her basement, and they love it, because if anything happens to their basement, they don't have to pull it up and it doesn't get wrecked. So I think we should look into that.

John and I are a little upset about the way plans for Christmas have been unfolding lately. We were discussing with our respective families this weekend about how we are having everyone over for Christmas (I know, it's early to be planning yet, but it's good to know where everyone will be for the holidays) and right away his mom starts in with "Well, how are we going to do gifts, what if Melissa's parents get us something?" and so on and so forth. So then I'm talking to my mom, and she's all "Well, we'll just give you your gifts another time, and we'll just have a nice dinner and visit on Christmas." And I'm all "HOLD UP!" This is NOT how Christmas is supposed to work. Tell me if this makes sense: Have Christmas with your respective immediate families (opening gifts, whatever it is you do), then everyone gets together and opens presents together. The Streeters don't buy for the Cardins, the Cardin's don't buy for the Streeters, and John and I are just left in the middle. Does that make sense to everyone else?

Anyway, I'm going to go watch the Patriots game now. Catch y'all later.

Working on being better at posting

I'm trying to get better about posting in this thing more regularly. How'm I doing so far? Too bad none of them have been real updates.

Have you ever had those times in your life where you're just so... down on yourself? Like, you feel like you suck at your job, that you can't wait to get out, but it doesn't look like you have any options open to you? I've started applying for jobs that come up in the school systems in our area - I've applied to a guidance position at Farmington High School already, but no word on that. There was a school services coordinator position here in Rochester. I didn't apply for that, because I asked them to send me a job description, and I wasn't qualified enough, but my father-in-law sent me an e-mail yesterday saying that they're still hiring because he saw it in the paper. So since they've been looking for a few months, I think I'll go ahead and apply for that too. You never know, I might be just what their looking for!

I've also been looking into work at home options, such as medical transcription, but my God! medical transcription courses are REALLY expensive! Over $1,000, and I've seen them as much as over $3,000 in some places. We just don't have that kind of money. I wish I could just take a typing test and be certified in it. I took a typing test to see how fast my typing is, turns out I type 61 WPM with an accuracy of 94%. So I'd probably be much faster if I weren't so damn accurate =)

But anyway, I started having a conversation with John the other night about what part of the problem is about me going out to work. His logic? You have to be comfortable in your work environment. For what ever reason, I can't get comfortable outside of home. So he's been supportive in me trying to find a work from home option. Plus, when we get around to having children, that will be a much better option, because we could save a ton on daycare. Plus, I wanted to be a stay at home mom, but with the prices of things necessary to live, it just wouldn't work.

So I guess that's about it... Maya (aka "Kat") is moving out today, which is a good thing. As sweet as she is, and as much as I like her, she does nothing but terrorize my pets. So I find myself getting mad at her more than not, because she's made Molly and Maggie so skiddish. But it'll be good, she's going to live with my aunt, so... yeah.

Alright, time to let Kane out for the morning. This time change is going to really screw him up.

Just a quick update

For those of you who haven't looked, my homepage has been totally revamped, stylistically (is that how it's spelled?? I have no idea.). I will be transferring old posts over there for a while, but that's not totally done yet.

For those of you who heard about "Kat", we have found her a good home - she will be going to live with my Aunt Pat in Concord. She moves again this weekend. Her new name is Maya, and I'm sure she'll do well over there. She's a super sweetie, and I wish we could keep her, but John is adamant that we not have another cat.

I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday. I am SO ready for the weekend.

Carpet in the basement

Last week was a rough one at work, and it's only going to get worse. I've been filing on a lot of families lately, and I actually have to trials to testify in next month. Not excited about that at all.
Friday night I got home from work and let Kane out of his crate, only to discover that our carpet in the den in the basement was totally soaked - and I mean soaked. We went into the unfinished part of the room and there was water everywhere, but we couldn't figure out where it had been coming from because it was all in the middle of the room. So we spent a good portion of Saturday night drying it out. We were up until 11:30 or so working on it. We had FINALLY started to make some headway, so we went to bed. The next morning I got up, went to let Kane out, and SPLASH!! Right down into the den. Oh. My. God. So I let Kane out, and the floor is TOTALLY soaked again. I mean absolutely DRENCHED. Fortunately nothing has been ruined, except maybe the carpet. So we go to church, then we went to Home Depot to get a new wet/dry vac, because we were borrowing my dads. His didn't have any attachments with it, so we sent it back to him with my sister that night. John sucked over 14 gallons of water out of the carpet alone, and it was STILL soaked. And I should add that it wasn't even the whole carpet that was wet, just around the edges of the room, but it was coming out from the wall like 2 feet or more in some places.
We can't figure out where the water is coming from or anything. So we called the insurance company and we had these people over today to dry out the basement. They said we did a good job mitigating it, but they ended up ripping up the carpet so the floor could try out, as well as the walls. They'll be back on Wednesday to pick up the 5 industrial fans and the industrial dehumidifier. I can't wait to see our electric bill for October. Ugh.
Anyway, I'll keep the world updated when I find out more from the plumber. I need to go pick up some stuff before he gets here.