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| I credit the end of my mid-life-crisis to this tiny friend |
Life didn't stop after Willa started school and I got a tattoo, believe it or not! And it didn't even get particularly more busy but somehow, I let my normal life schedule get the better of me. Not really for any specific reason, I just took less time to take care of myself I guess. Not eating quite as well, not working out enough, interspersed with some wacky night shifts at the hospital that I don't normally work and I just kinda lost it. I had a few grumpy weekends, which extended into grumpy weeks and I nearly freaked out and quit my job at the hospital. A few times. Here is the lowdown on my job at Bryan LGH. I have been a mental health technician on the youth mental health units for over 10 years now. I LOVE the nature of my job. There was a long stretch of years there where I would have just plain said "I LOVE my job!" but it has gotten to the point where some of the politics of the organization have made the actual job not as enjoyable. I don't know enough about the behind-the-scenes of the issues to go into specifics but things have changed there. I still love the kids. And my co-workers. About 4 years ago, when my cleaning business started to grow into an actual thing, I changed my schedule slowly from being a full time day shift worker at the hospital, to working part-time, and doing most of my hours at night. This allows me to have more days free for cleaning, and has allowed for using up a little bit less of my parent's weekday hours watching Willa. Also, there is a shift differential that makes working nights a little bit more appealing. I don't dislike working nights, but there is almost no interaction with the patients, which was my favorite part of the job. And, it leaves me pretty tired sometimes. Especially on the days when my schedule doesn't allow for me to head straight home and fall into bed. And even on the days that I do, I think any night shift worker will agree that there is just something not quite as restful about sleeping during the daytime hours. I must give major props to my family, as they are always super considerate of me when I am sleeping during the day. Lots of times, Brad will take Willa out and about, just to make it extra quite for me. Not that she is loud. No, never:)
Anyhooters, I got a little bit extra tired and overwhelmed and a little bit frustrated with my job, so I almost quit. Quite honestly, we would probably be ok income-wise without my tiny hospital paychecks, now that I am only part time. The big kicker is, we get all of our insurance through the hospital, and it is stellar insurance. Like, we don't ever pay for anything. Like, when I had Willa I paid about what I would pay for a few new pairs of jeans. (Well, maybe a little bit more than that, but you get the picture.) There are no insurance options for Brad at Star City. And I checked into private insurance a little bit, and I just don't think our budget can handle it right now, at lease not if I want a maternity option. So I had a mini-melt down. A mini-mid-life-crisis. I didn't do anything too crazy, like the folks in the movies do. I didn't run off anywhere tropical with my personal trainer (I don't have one. If I did, he would have been fired so I could afford insurance:) I didn't buy a sports car or get a boob job. (Would rather have a Prius and haven't worked up the nerve yet:) Instead, I was crabby, whined a lot to Brad and anyone who would listen, and then tried to go to bed earlier. And guess what? Things are better now! Don't get me wrong, I would still love to quit working at the hospital, but for now I think I can stick it out at least till I've had another baby on their rockin' insurance and maybe I've paid off a few more bills. Build up my 401k. Have I said before how much I despise some of this grown-up stuff we have to deal with?!?
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| And if I'm being completely honest, most of the rest of the credit goes to coffee. |
