Thursday, August 21, 2008

Unspectacular Quirks

Okay, I am going to respond to the tag, but I am not going to tag anyone else. I will have to explain that further for quirk one.

1. Most of the blogs I read are written by people I don't know. I have generally stumbled across them by accident. Such as, reading a comment they left on another blog and following them to their own blog. I follow about six such blogs by following one to the other. It is interesting. However, it means it would be weird for me to tag the folks because they don't even know who I am or that I read their blogs!

2. I am a neat freak...at work. I hate my work area to be junked up. My biggest pet peeve is when another nurse leave medication wrappers on the counter instead of throwing them away. I end up cleaning up after them as well as myself. The biggest irony to the quirk is that I am NOT that way at home. I cleaned my desk off the other day and can actually see it for the first time in about a month (or more!)

3. I don't like dealing with strangers on the phone. If a number shows up on my caller ID as unknown or I don't recognize the name/number, I won't answer the phone. That is why I have voice mail. If they really want to speak to me, they can leave me a message and I will return their call. I am more comfortable having a phone conversation with someone if I know who you are and why you are calling.

4. I am an amazing grocery shopper (just ask my husband!) Between coupons and sales, I can get a huge amount of groceries for a relatively small amount of money (which is good with a large family.) My hubby used to be blown away when he would see what I would bring home, he would ask me what I spent (fearing I had gone way overboard) and I when I would tell him, he couldn't get over how I got so much for so little.

5. I am terrified of snakes. Not slightly scared, but deathly afraid. I can't even go into the snake house at the zoo, I can't see them on television, or even see pretend rubber snakes (can you say, hyperventilating anxiety attack?) I have only had to take care of one patient with a bite (a ten year old boy) and I had to go into his room every hour to take measurements on his leg. Seeing the area where the fang marks were scared the crap out of me. I have managed to avoid caring for anyone with a bite since then, thankfully venomous snakes are very uncommon in Vermont.

6. Recipes are good things. I like recipes. I follow them to the letter. No experimentation at all. Ever. Of course, every rule has an exception and mine is my spaghetti sauce! I make the most amazing spaghetti sauce (and that is other people's opinions, not just my own.) But, again, recipes are good things and they should be followed exactly (except for spaghetti sauce.)

Okay, so I am not going to tag six people, but if anyone reading this would like to do it, leave me a comment and I will come read yours.

Job Hunting and School Starting

Job hunting is STRESSFUL! Especially when I am job hunting because I am not happy in my current position. I like most of my co-workers, which is nice, but I am not thrilled about the job in general. I am not going to rant here about all of the issues I have with my job, because I have been through them enough as it is.

Now, job hunting....I have applied for about six or seven positions at the hospital where I currently work. I have heard back about two of them and am in the process of interviewing or setting up interviews. The others? I can't imagine how it can be three weeks with no word at all. If they aren't interested, then let me know. But just leaving it hanging is not very professional, which makes me really think I may not want to work in those areas anyway.

I have also put in an application at another facility. While I am not very impressed with their human resources department (or at least the individual I was dealing with,) I really enjoyed my brief conversation with the hiring manager. I spoke with him to set up the interview and he seemed very nice and very pleasant. This is good. Of course, the interview will hopefully tell me more, but my first impression of the manager was very good.

On to school starting. I am very ready for the kids to be back in school, they are going stir crazy. Drew says he isnt' ready to go back, but I really don't think he is being honest with himself. I think he is more worried about being a junior in high school, it is getting time for him to figure out his future and that is scary.

Sam is going into first grade. The first day of school is probably going to be very stressful for him. He doesn't deal well with change and has a hard time making the adjustments. However, the second day of school will be so much fun for him as he will know who is in his class and he will have some idea of what to expect from his teacher.

Olivia is so excited about starting kindergarten that she is about to jump out of her skin! She was in pre-K for three days a week once we moved to Vermont last year and she LOVED it. She was so much in her element in school. She is so giddy about school starting that she makes me laugh. We are now counting down the days until next Wednesday.

Well, the kids are in bed and all is quiet, I think I am going to enjoy the lack of noise :o)