New Year (happiness pending)

We all know that the new year means very little in actuality other than a month of writing the wrong year on pretty much everything and that taxes need to be done. It is only a theoretical demarcation, but notable nonetheless as we celebrate it as it were some turning of the page. Whatever bad juju hounded us the year prior can be cast aside. In some ways, this year will be just that. Or like the rest of the world, I can at least hope that anyway.

I am officially no longer a triage nurse. I can put the experience distinctly in the rear view mirror. It was an odd day to say goodbye to be sure, or perhaps more or less what I considered normal for my time there. Just two nurses on triage as it has so often been, then a mad dash to the finish line over the last 90 minutes or so when everyone collectively realized 'hey, I bet they aren't open on Friday' and proceeded to bombard us with requests. It reminded me of what I liked and did not like about the job in one short burst. However, there is a distinctly different flavor to the experience, any experience, when you know you won't be repeating it. A certain Teflon like feeling that allows even the most irritating of situations glide up and over you. The way I wish I could have felt all the time. Of course, that is hard to do when you know that Monday brings much the same as Friday and on and on. So, it was a fitting finale. Unfortunately, there is no real intermission before the next act.

Speaking of the next act, there is still much uncertainty there. The situation is clear enough, but what remains murky is who is training me and for how long (and, the question I have been endeavoring to avoid thinking of, IF someone has been assigned those tasks whatsoever since I have not heard back regarding my inquiries on the matter). Not much to do but wait and see. Fretting about it will change nothing.

Of course fretting does have its place. I am just saving it for moving (again) by the end of January. We put in our notice and are waiting to hear a response from management, but have already opted to take a hard stance about paying a penalty. We now have verified pictures of mold growth and, as anyone who has dealt with mold knows, what you see is merely a fraction of what exists. Unfortunately when we turned our notice in (going down in unison to discuss the matter), no one was there. So we slip the note under the door along with our rent check and now we wait. I am both anxious to hear and fretting a bit. I will post when I hear.

Which leads us directly into the other half of the moving process, finding the destination. We have thus far had rather poor fortunes, though it has not been a sufficient period of time to call it a streak. We have seen three places in person and written inquiries about 2-3x that many more, until to dismiss them for not meshing with our wants. Some are startlingly small, though they don't note that in there ad (a new one bedroom home with no prior occupants that was built to less than 500 sq ft). Others are poorly maintained, though in the nicest of areas (a place we saw in Ladds Addition that was sadly beaten down). And yet others are confusingly laid out like the place we saw by PSU that had no closets whatsoever and was set up like a reverse loft. Or they are just plain confusing like the place we saw in the Overlook neighborhood which had more doors and rooms than a house 3 times its modest 900 size (meaning each room was also much less capacious than one might hope). The one place we did really like ended up going to people who could move in a bit earlier and did not have pets. The most alarming thing is more that each of these places are swarmed upon. So, we not only have to find a place we like, but find it before anyone else. More to come as the search continues.

Happy New Year!