A working stiff once more

The wind is gusting today near 50 mph, apropos of my own thoughts swirling around my head.

I'm rejoining the ranks of the working stiffs after 18 long months that felt like 18 years and that is big news for those who know me personally.  Even after four days, I wake up each morning forgetting I now have a job.  I will spare the details because it's a new position at the UW hospital and I myself don't really know what's involved yet beyond being in a support position in advanced nursing practice for the pediatric clinics and that the position is non-patient care (otherwise known as the "pumps and pearls" track).  Taking a step away from patient care is maybe a risky thing at this point in my career but Chip assures me after listening to me for the last three years that maybe giving kids and their parents a break from Nurse Ratched is a kind turn for mankind.  I do love kids.  really.  I do.  It's the parents that give me the agita.

There's not even a chair with my name on it yet let alone an office as this is a new nursing position, so beyond my urinalysis drug test this afternoon (no poppyseed bagels this weekend...but what about the metabolites of the contact high from the Jimmy Buffet concert in July?) and a mountain of paperwork to complete, I'm still a little bit hazy about my own position.  More on this as I embark on the journey.  All I know for sure is, honey, Chip gave me a clothing allowance.

WIAA sports prohibited running so the girls were delighted to gossip and walk

The Labor Day weekend was spent like most Labor Day weekends of the past with one exception.  A benefit called Suzy's Walk to assist and honor children with cancer and their families, something we all wish didn't need to exist.  Suzy Favor Hamilton, formerly Suzy Favor the Olympic runner, hosted the event and really could not have been nicer.  As we registered, she greeted our family warming with a smiley "Thanks for coming!" to which Ally gave the international teen facial expression "Who's the wacko?" She was pleasantly surprised to learn that the smiley lady in the tiara was in fact, the host of the walk.  She's a good doobie, that Suzy, and we were happy to throw a little coin her way.

We walked for the parents of three families in our world whose kids have walked through the fire of leukemia treatment over the past five years and Ally and her friends walked for their softball buddy. Madi.

We played golf on Sunday to avoid a block party.  There, I admit it.  I can't live under the weight of my lies any longer.  I didn't want to make a covered dish and I didn't want to face the old bitch who hates my cats.  There.  I said it.  Don't judge.

We played 18 holes with a cart, my new favorite golf accessory.  We played with one other guy who had intimate knowledge of the course and helped Chip, aka Skip, unlock many secrets of this course that Chip/Skip had yet to discover.  Meanwhile I hacked away like Elmer Fudd off the tee with my now much despised old fashioned tiny- headed woods but putted very well, even draining a 25-foot putt for par on a par 5 hole.  What an incredibly stupid stupid game.

And so Labor Day for me this year meant the end of a labor free era.  I'm happy for the time off that I've had on this job search but very ready to get back to the frantic pace and balance of work and family paired together.  Lately I had felt myself slipping down that slope of helicopter parenting....and I was weakening by the day.  No more waiting at the kitchen counter for the children to come home.  No more me, wine in hand, and the dog looking at each other at 6pm wondering where everyone is.  No more Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, Dr. Drew or Dr. Oprah.
Organization, procedure, routine....the NEW REGIME.
Oh, who am I kidding?