Mine? Mine? Mine?

Speaking of jobs...

As many of you know, since I do not possess children to delight in myself, I spend a considerable amount of time each week delighting in other's children... at that perfect age when they are cuddly and warm and don't talk back and are completely satisfied with simply having something (anything!) stuck in their mouths... AKA less than 48 hours old. The best part is they actually pay me to do this! Well, not just that, only for the wee hours of the morning when I am working night shift and don't want to do actual work so I hide in the nursery snuggled with a randomly chosen baby. Yes folks, I am a labor and delivery nurse. Or at least, I want to be a labor and delivery nurse (currently I am a labor and delivery nurse technician). For the past three years I have had the delight of coming home at 7:00 (AM or PM, you pick) smelling of amniotic fluid and placenta, and for some reason (unknown to my husband), I want to continue this tradition.

So, in this quest (And being the good-little-almost-graduated BSN student I am!) I carefully constructed my cover letter and resume and filled out an application for a full time R.N. (that stands for "real nurse" in my world!) position in the Birthcenter at Kadlec Medical Center. I was called back for an interview two weeks later, so I carefully picked out an interview outfit and practiced answers to the ridiculous questions everyone is asked in an interview situation (What are your strengths? What are your weakness? If you could be a food item commonly found in the refrigerator, what would you be and why? Who comes up with these questions and why? Seriously people!) and lined up the appropriate references.

A week before my interview, I stopped into my manager's office to have some paperwork signed prior to the interview and she asked me "What is your back-up plan?" My heart dropped. Back-up plan?!? I don't have a back-up plan! I hadn't even considered applying to other places of employment. I spent that final week before my interview mulling over this predicament. By far my favorite suggestion for a back-up plan came from Dr. Ortolono: Night cook at Denny's. As appealing as that idea was, I decided that my back-up plan would be stay-at-home wife. Jim told me he supported me in this, but I think secretly he would have been disappointed to not have my impending salary :)

I'm not exactly sure how to share the interview story, so I'll just post the basic transcript (slightly edited to allow for time). Prior to my interview, I was sick to my stomach with nervousness over how it would go.

Daja arrives for her interview ON-TIME (yay for me!) and enters her manager's office. Manager and assistant comment on Daja's attire (very professional) and invite her to sit down.

Manager: Why do you want to work here?

Daja: Umm.... Umm... I like it here? *sweating and fidgeting nervously

Assistant: Oh my gosh, don't be nervous! We love you and want you to stay here and work for us forever! You totally have a job! Don't cry!

Manager: Thanks, you totally gave away our hand. Remind me to never take you to Vegas.

Daja: ... *hyperventilating due to combination of nervousness and relief

The next 15 minutes we spent discussing whether or not I should renew my nurse technician license in June. And that was it. Moral of the story folks... Daja has a full-time job. In labor and delivery. As a registered nurse. This is also very exciting has it seems that everyone we know is getting pregnant. Yay for job security!

Young and old? What are you trying to imply?

I have spent the better part of this morning sitting in a classroom listening to my classmates plot and plan for the cumulative result of our semester long research project... a poster and 11 minutes to ramble about it. The more I think about the time I have devoted to this project throughout the semester and the end result of ALL this work, the more depressed I become. So instead, I have chosen to surf the internet and nod occasionally at my classmates to indicate that I am paying attention to whatever they are stressing over... and by the grace of our Great God I stumbled over the "blogspots" (-Is that the right word? Help, I'm an amateur blogger!-) of many of you who are now reading this and I was impressed. Heck, I was inspired. I wanna be cool like the rest of y'all! So here I am... rambling (-Sorry Tami, I know that's your word!-) on and on about the pathetically small issues occurring in JimandI's life (-No Dad, not "Gemini"!-).

And now I feel that I must address the unconventional title of this blog since I am sure there will be whisperings/rumors/posts in the prayer bulletin to follow if I don't. And also because the other day at DOXA practice, I parked in the "New Parent Parking" spot at Quinault and Jeremy Eder asked me if I was trying to imply something... "Young and old" does not mean that I am pregnant, or adopting, or trying to steal a child anytime in the near future! I chose this title because a) as many of you know, I am "young" and Jim is "old"... and don't ever let him forget that! and b) if God allows, EVENTUALLY I would hope there would be "young" Browns running around (at least younger than me!). But at this time there are no future Browns to be had. I say this with caution, knowing that when I plan, God laughs. He always does. I'm pretty sure God takes great pleasure in wrecking my carefully thought-out plans (Hello, Jim? Really God?)!