A Hard Day's Night

So the next step in the game of life has occured for me. I just landed my first real job. It looks like I'm a grown-up now! I applied at Archbold Medical Center in Thomasville, Georgia. They quickly called back and I went the 40 miles north across state lines to check out the hospital. Everyone was very nice, and were interested in me coming up there to work. I came up a second time to shadow on two different floors. One floor I did not like at all, and the other one was great. The manager of that floor seems wonderful and the staff were excited to have me shadow. I came up a third time to interview with the manager, and before I could even say anything, she told me not to be worried, because I already had the job. I spent about 2 hours with her anyway just talking about what I wanted out of the job and what she expected out of me.
The floor is the Cardiac Progressive Unit, or CPU. It is a step down unit for patients that need to be monitored, but are not acute enough to be in the Intensive Care Unit. I will be working nights, 7pm to 7am, 3 days a week. I think this will be a good start for me. I need to get some medsurg nursing under my belt and build my foundation as a nurse. I take my board exam on March 1st.
So for the next few weeks, I will be taking a physical exam and drug screen, filling out paperwork, and orienting to the hospital. When I actually begin working, I will orient to the floor and take classes on critical care for 3 months.
So here's to beginning a new era in my life. I think it will take me some time to adjust to a new lifestyle of working, no homework, and working nights. I'm feeling positive, though. Part of me would love to just sit at home and make money doing nothing, but I know that would only lead to overdosing on Dr. Pepper and watching too much Reba. This is a good choice for us. It will be nice to have an income too. So here we go. Hope I don't kill anyone....just kidding.

Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack!

A funny thing happened today. Jessica, Ashley, and I bundled up to go out and watch the FSU/Tennessee baseball game. Weather for the first pitch was around 40 degrees and cloudy, with a bit of a breeze to boot. The conditions were certainly not optimum for baseball. We entered the stadium and sat in the right field bleachers. During the bottom of the second inning, a collective whimsical "Ooooh" went up from the crowd around us. Snow was falling. In Tallahassee, Florida.

At first, I thought it was someone having fun with a crushed styrofoam cup. Then we saw that it melted on our hands and were convinced. Ashley grabbed a phone and quickly called home to brag because she has NEVER seen snow fall, having lived almost her entire life in Florida. We also were sharp on the draw and whipped out the camera for undeniable photographic evidence of said snow. See Jessica's left sleeve for the proof.

Mind you, this lasted all of about three and one-half minutes. The flakes were more like pellets and neither the ground nor the air was cold enough to really sustain the snowfall, but it did snow and we were outside to experience it. Perhaps one of our meteorologist buddies from FSU (Phil, Brett, Aarolyn, anyone?) could give us specifics, but we know what we saw.

After I ran to get some hot chocolate from the concession stand, we moved into the grandstands to sit next to our friends, Louise and Dr. Dan. The 'Noles built on their early lead and relief pitching closed out the game efficiently, sealing the 4-0 victory. Tomorrow, they go for the sweep of the Vols and attempt to start the 2007 season 3-0.

As for us, we retired to the house for the evening, got some take-out, built a fire, and settled in to watch The Princess Bride.

"Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam..."

Back to Life. Back to Reality.

It's been a whole month since the wedding. We've been chipping away at unpacking gifts and settling into life together. And life together is amazing! We are experiencing a fun new reality and adjusting to all that marriage is teaching us.

The last time we saw some of you, we were running through a maze of sprinklers and pretending to be graceful at it. Since that time we have been on a honeymoon trip to Key West, finally seen the end of the wedding cake, been to Panama City for the Gulf Coast Getaway, got the TiVo up and running, and geared up for Seminole baseball season. If all goes well, we may experience another blessing soon in the form of a new job for Ashley. That will take another week or so to determine, we think, so check back later for developments.

In the coming days, we'll begin to piece together some thoughts, photos, and tales of our adventures together. For right now, we'll point you to the answer of the burning question we're hearing frequently from our loved ones: Do you have your wedding photos yet? Mark Bass Photography has them hosted on his site and you are free to login and peruse. If you're so inclined, you may also order prints from the website.

Here's how to see the images. Navigate to Mark's site and click the 'view your photos' option in the top menu bar. Select 'Wedding' on the next page that loads. Input the event code as 'ward', the email address as 'ashley_childs@comcast.net', and the password as '123006' on the succeeding pages. You may view any of the images in a variety of settings, such as black & white or sepia, so go crazy and let us know any fun results you come up with.

We've got some company visitng this weekend--Ashley's mate from the College of Nursing and famous kayak-buddy, Jessica. If the three of us make it to the Lemonheads show on Saturday, we'll give a full report here.