Hyman's Seafood Motto

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude...I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our ATTITUDES. -- Chuck Swindoll

This paragraph got me through the first 9 months of my present job, which were indeed a trial to be reckoned with. I had it taped to the back of my clipboard. The paper is worn away, and it occurred to me that it needs to be typed here where I'll be facing new challenges with nothing but my attitude and a handful of skills that need testing and temporing.

UPDATE: took mental health day that actually turned out to be a real sick day (woke up sick). Got very little done in the last 48 hours for the move, but have finished Christmas shopping. Ran out of newspaper, or I'd be still packing my kitchen (the project I picked and then abandoned due to lack of packing material). Will pick new project after I finish making Grandpa's Irish CD on the computer.

Goodwilling I will go!

6 bags of clothes to goodwill, 5 bags of trash to the dumpster, 4 crates of clothes marked "summer", "dress up", "size 12", and "take".

Am I the only adult out there with enough dress up clothes to make a crate out of them? 3 Halloween costumes, a ninja outfit from my martial arts days, an old clubbing outfit I can't say goodbye to cause it's just way too cool, my old letter jacket....

Sigh. Went through an old box of pictures from when I was a kid. Too bad no scanner to post them-- I was such a tomboy at 13. Found a keychain with the highschool gang in it-- too bad there's really no way to replicate that picture. Called my oldest bestest friend who's in the key chain and presently lives 30 minutes away from me (not for long though), and talked for several hours while sorting clothes. Found some pictures of my baby brother when he was still sucking on his fingers and a letter from my older brother suggesting recipes for my pet rabbit. All were saved.

I'm not close to being done, but I am accomplishing a great deal of purging. It's a good question.... what's important at this stage, what do I see being important in the future, and gee, there was a time when I thought THAT was important? (clunk, in the trash)

Tomorrow I purge the office. Oh SHREDDER! Just kidding. Reports will be written, duplicated, filed twice and cleared off my desk in a timely fashion (I hope). Best bring the radio.

Diving into Dumpsters and Swan-diving Swans

Yesterday I went and got a colored vision test at Walmart necessary for my job in January (???). I have no idea why, unless everything's color coded. The cheap eye doctor had a good laugh at my expense. First he had to show off everything he knew about color vision (hey, he was only charging $10 so I let him ramble). Then he starts the test which consists of different colored bubbles where you can see numbers written in the contrast. About 7 pictures in I stared at a yellow and red one and felt a moment of panic. All the other pictures jumped out at me, but this one kept its hidden number stubbornly not-visible. I finally looked at the guy with a bit of panic and said, "um, I can't see a number". He started to laugh and admitted it was a dummy. Why the heck put a dummy in the middle of a color vision test? How the hell are you supposed to cheat on it? If you cheat and memorize the numbers in order, don't you think you would remember to cheat and say "gee I can't see that one"? It was a cruel moment-- Walmart eye doctor has to get his kicks, I guess.

Then I went dumpster diving! Wheeeee! I pilfered several dumpsters behind stores for decent boxes-- found some great ones.

Today I woke up at 4am with an incredible amount of energy. Must have been the Vodka-lemonade I sipped on last night. I always wake up happy after I've been drinking-- why am I not an alcoholic yet?

I packed my rabbit collection, my textbooks, and started on my fun books today. I also packed my DVD boxes and moved all the DVDs to a file folder for CDs to carry with me. And I dusted. Note to self, just because you can't access a spot doesn't mean that spot isn't being covered by dust.

I also managed to break one of my good plates and a glass swan barometer today. I was, luckily, contemplating throwing the swan away anyway, but he swan-dived past that decision by shattering himself over a 3 foot range in my main walkway. Very fragile, very thin and hard to pickup pieces of glass. Stupid swan. The plate-- well, I'll try to ebay a replacement. I was bound to screw up my only perfect plate set eventually.

Tonight I have Medicaid recerts that were due yesterday (no really , due on Dec. 10th). I think I'll pack one more box of knick-knacks before bed. I had planned to work through the clothing tonight, but that will have to be done another night. You don't sort through 3 tons of clothing starting at 6pm on a Sunday night-- that's a weekend affair!

Work-- well, you know you made the right decision when you keep saying to yourself "Self, smile and keep walking. You are leaving this place in less than 20 days."

Ouch, Needles still hurt

Monday I called the license board and confirmed my supervisors signature was NOT necessary. Then I called my recruiter who reminded me that December started on a Thursday, the Maryland board meets ONLY on the third thursday of the month, and all material must be in their hands 1 week prior to the board meeting. In other words, get that puppy done.

After work Monday I went to my Cardio Kickboxing class and had lots of fun. Then I went to Kinkos only to realize all my paperwork was still in my therapy room at the hospital. Opps. So back I headed to the hospital in my sweaty old work out cloths at 9pm. When I arrived I decided just to sit down and complete the last license requirement, a law exam, that ended up taking over an hour and a half. They apparently are REALLY serious about laws regarding SLPs in Maryland. Back I went to Kinkos to copy everything and FedEx it overnight. At least my company gave me their routing number so I didn't have to pay! I arrived home after 11pm and collapsed on the couch-- still in my workout cloths-- and fell asleep.

I had also emailed my doctor regarding immunizations, but there was no response.

Tuesday I called around the hospital. My kingdom for a doctor willing to stick me with several needles! Come on, there's got to be a doctor who wants to hurt me! I finally found out about a cancellation for the next afternoon and reserved it over the phone.

Today I headed to the appointment at 2pm. I was told I was "not in the computer". The clerk must have noted the slightly postal look in my eyes because she worked me in. Then I sat in a room for 45 minutes, fully aware that my 3pm child was coming in for therapy and he's got an intense mom who will not tolerate tardiness. Finally I stuck my head out the door and talked the nurse into drawing blood.

Then she couldn't find a vein. So I sat, pumped my hand for a full minute, and told her "stick it right...there". She went in blind, complaining all the way, and hit my artery or vein or whatever she needed to hit. Took 4 vials from me and then said she'd be back with the tetanus shot. I received the page that my patient was sitting upstairs and stuck my head out again. Gee wiz, they were out of tetanus shots and it would "take 20 minutes so sit tight". I saw a doctor I knew, explained what was going on, and she turned to the nurse and said, "she can come back at 5pm for that, right?" Off I went at full run to get to my therapy session. Only 3 minutes late.

I came back at 5 for the tetanus shot. I do remember that hurting a lot more when I was a kid. Didn't even pinch-- what's up with that? It is a bit sore this evening, but I'll take a tylonel and that should make it all better.

So my forms are signed. The blood results will be back on Friday-- plenty of time to get a booster if any of my levels are low and still get it in by Dec. 19th. My license info is well in Maryland's hands (wil call tomorrow to make sure). All is good. Still need my color vision test, my drug test, my apartment cleared and moved, my reports completed, and Christmas presents bought-- but one thing at a time!

Reminds me of that song that goes, "life might make you crazy, but just don't let it drive you nuts!" (Jimmy Buffet)

Preamble

In September of 2005, I became frustrated with my lack of personal and professional growth in Augusta, Georgia and made several calls to traveling therapy agencies in the U.S. A friend had been "traveling" for a year and a half, and had experienced the joy and frustrations of traveling. I spoke to Sunbelt staffing and was impressed by a man named Josh who actually interviewed and quized me on information. Reflecx staffing was also very nice. Soliant seemed distant and disinterested; they could not give me a firm answer to questions regarding benifits. CompHealth was the company my friend was working for, and she was thinking of leaving them due to the abundance of Nursing home placements she was getting.

October first I made the decision and sent my resume and checklist to Josh. Two weeks passed with no word. I called and spoke to Julie on Oct. 17th who informed me that Josh had quit. A less than wonderful beginning. She assured me that she would get to work ASAP to meet my personal goal of resigning by Nov. 15th and starting new employment early January (thus giving me 2 weeks at Christmas off). Nov. 3rd came with no word so I called and Julie told me she would get to work on it. November 11th came, and I had not had an interview. Wednesday before Thanksgiving a phone interview that was expected, did not come. I threw my hands up in the air and told myself I'd start looking again in February and sit tight. Monday night following Thanksgiving I got a message saying I had an interview the next morning at 7:15am. A subacute care hospital in Baltimore, MD called the next morning and I spoke to a pleasant person regarding the nature of the assignment. Then the interview I had expected the week before called at noon offering me a school assignment. I immediately called Julie and expressed a stronger preference for the subacute care hospital, and thus shook hands over the phone for my first assignment.

Wednesday I sent in my contract. Thursday, at 11am, I gave 30 days notice. My first resignation from the place that I had started my career. Everyone was lovely and sad, but were excited about my adventure. Friday was super busy and I had slight panic regarding license challenges. Friday night I drove to Columbia, SC and delivered some flowers to grandma and mom. And said hi to a visiting Aunt. And looked into storage options in Columbia. A climate controlled 10 X 10 can be rented for $104 / month and would fit all of my stuff. Saturday I drove back to Augusta, GA and filled out my application for Maryland license-- which for some reason needed a notary and photo. It also needed my CF supervisor signature, which seemed a bit strange so I planned to call Monday to check that out.

Tonight is Sunday and I've looked over the packet for Sunbelt. Mild panic again due to the amount of STUFF I need to collect. Most alarming is all the immunization requirements-- which I 'm not sure I have! I know my tetanus has expired, but Hep B and some other ones are needed. Tomorrow's plans: call MD license board to check if I need to do CF signature stuff, call Sunbelt to check on needed immunizations and if they will pay for them, and email my doctor regarding my tetanus and titer checks. I will also get copies of my TB test result and yearly physical results. And see my full patient caseload which includes a difficult-to-work-with family who have an augmentative communication device-- they usually tire me out! After I blog, I'm going to head into my bedroom, do 30 minutes of clothes sorting, and crawl into bed.

I'm worried about all my patients. I'm worried about who will take them on. I'm worried about the rapport I'm breaking with them. There's one kid I've had for more than 2 years-- he's a trip and a joy to work with. I think I'll spend the rest of my life wondering if he's doing well. Another we're just getting starting on what will be a long process. Another shares my love of music and will be great with her new therapist- but her mother may murder me! I'm going to be upbeat with my patient's families. Change is good. Change can be very good. New therapists will bring a new perspective and will challenge the commuication of the kids. I've enjoyed being a chapter in all of the kids lives and mark them a very special chapter in my own life. Each child and patient I have worked with has challenged my views of the world and has added a special page to my chapter in Augusta, GA. It will be hard to say goodbye.