Aug 1 in 2021

I feel like there’s something about August that always brings me back to this place. I think it’s usually in August when I attempt my “10 minutes a day for a month” thing. This month is no different; this month feels like I want to come back here and try again. So here goes 10 minutes.

• My big boys go back to school Aug 11 and I ordered school supplies last night. Today I started looking forward to that time at the end of the month when you know the season change might maaaaaaybe be coming soon. When the angle of the light shifts and you can feel a slight change in the air even though it’s still a million degrees out. This summer has flown by. Even the boys commented it has felt so short.

• I hate this time of year with our garden. Its hot as heck and everything looks crappy and I kind of give up. I should have prioritized going out and weeding and cleaning up all the fallen nectarines (they weren’t good to eat, I try every year and get so frustrated. I’m pretty sure I’m letting us cut it down this fall, it’s not a good tree, was never cared for and is in a terrible spot). That being said we still have things that are alive in the garden and still getting quite a few tomatoes and I feel proud of what I managed to achieve my first real year of attempting the garden myself. The biggest win was getting the drip line set up properly so things can get really good watering. We legit can’t water by hand here because it’s SO hot and everything gets so dry that you can’t even saturate the ground at all unless you do long slow steady drip. I also planted some other plants that have thus far survived and can’t wait to see if they’ll do even better come next Spring.

• I have a new job!!! That may be a surprise and it’s a long story but in the end Dr B made it clear to me (After the new nurse got Covid while vaccinated, got tested the day she was at work, I asked what policy they were following to confirm we were Ok to be open the next day since only 4/12 in the office were vaccinated.... this was in April I think?) that we were never going to see eye to eye on how he handled Covid concerns and I could get over it or get out. I chose to get out. Then it got worse because in the next breath he told me how good I am at what I do and it would be hard to replace me and asked me to give as much notice as i could. Once I had things moving forward with the new job I gave him 4 weeks notice. He accepted it and I worked hard like normal the next day. He called me in at the end of the day and told me to not come back the next day, he’d pay me through the end of the next week and if I didn’t want to be there anymore he didn’t want me to be there. It was so gross and absolutely 100% the final nail in the coffin that I needed to leave there. I feel such a weight off of me not working for someone so skeezy anymore. I miss my coworkers but I do not miss the actual work I did there. I had gotten to be very good at it but I didn’t have my heart in surgical derm in any way. I just went and kicked ass for 3 days a week and lived for my days off.

• New job is working on a nearby air force base in the active duty clinic and I am shocked by how much I enjoy it. I mean I knew I always wanted this job but didn’t realize HOW much I wanted this job. It’s a contract position (currently through the end of February but they’re fairly certain they’ll extend another 6 months at least, just waiting for the budget), I am making 2x as much money as I was for Dr. B because I’m actually working 40 hours, and the environment is great. The clinic and whole MTF actually is kind of a mess right now and they are super open to trying to fix things and receptive to my comments and suggestions. My experience as an advice nurse is invaluable and made it a super easy transition for me. It’s a lot of the same work except sometimes I Get to see my patients in clinic and I get to work in person with our providers and techs. The three other nurses I work (one is active duty, one is also a contractor who started 2 months before me, the third is our nurse manager and he’s also active duty) are ALL male and it’s such an interesting dynamic change for me. It’s a little more of a commute, 40 minutes, but a large part of it is 2 lane highway and then back country roads and just means I get lots of time for audio books. I don’t mind that at all. The only really hard part is working Monday-Friday. I think it’ll get easier once the kids are back in school but right now it’s felt a little tough. Plus it’s a big adjustment for how our household runs because before we’d just manage for 3 days and not really care if things went to heck with the house because I’d get it all right as rain during my 4 days off. I’ve been there 6 weeks now and we’re getting more settled.

-Weirdly this also means my sleep is getting better because I’m getting up at the same time 5 days a week (4:55 am…) and the other two days I don’t sleep in much, MAYBE 7 max but usually earlier especially because it’s been so hot so I wake up early to get laundry and dog walking done before it’s gross. I also have been going to bed crazy early, like if I”m asleep shortly after 8 I feel WAY better for the week but the latest I stay up is 9. I get a good workout in before work, quick dog walk, and then feel good about the day.

OK ten minutes was up a few minutes ago so I’ll same more for the next 30 days!

MSR