Where'd the Sun Go?!?

It's officially fall in Portland.  I actually feel like we skipped fall all together and have blasted straight into winter.  The nice weather lasted for so long into October that I wasn't quite prepared for the cold, rainy weather to come back.  Instead of the usual crisp cold with sun, we're getting frosty morning windows and rain.  The only thing keeping me from feeling like it's the dead of winter is the gorgous leaves on the trees.  I can't wait until the tree in our front yard gets those bright red leaves! 

Bryann is determined to keep the heat off until November, but I complained enough on Tuesday (the house was 59!!!) that he turned the gas pilot light back on and let me turn on the fireplace.  He also, begrudgingly, let me put the flannel sheets on the bed.  :-)  Add and an extra blanket on the bed - on my side only though because somehow, even when it's 50 degrees at night, B still manages to start sweating - and some heat to the house, and I'll be ready to snuggle in for the winter. 

This has been a rough few weeks getting settled back into the swing of working full-time.  B has classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, and I have choir rehearsals on Tuesdays while B goes to board game night, Plus google chat is disabled on my work computer so we really only see or talk to each other for about an hour before we go to bed on those days.  It's been kind of nice though.  We stay up later than usual talking and laughing in bed, trying to go to sleep, but always thinking of one more thing we didn't get to tell the other person during the day.  :-D

We really need to figure out a new meal plan.  B doesn't usually come home between work and school on Mondays and Wednesdays and Tuesday is a huge rush between getting home, eating, and going to our respective events.  We've been getting stuck with no real dinner, and no leftovers for lunch the next day.  I think I've OD'ed on Mac & Cheese (a travesty, I know) and B usually ends up skipping dinner before his class and comes home starving.  We're thinking if we do a big meal on Sunday (or a crockpot if we have evening plans) that could carry over for lunches and dinner on Monday.  Then crockpot for dinner on Tuesday and leftovers for Wednedsay lunch and dinner.  There's a couple slow-cooker blogs I like and can find tasty recipes from, so we're going to try meal planning for all of next week, getting all of next week's groceries this weekend, and see how that goes. 

October has been rough, financially.  I stopped claiming unemployment when I got hired at Providence but that left us with 3 weeks without income this month.  We're trying to cash-flow Bryann's MBA program and not go into any more debt, so our payments for each term are spread out over 3 months.  The anti-lock break system in the truck went out, so that was a huge chunk of our emergency fund, plus it's time for both of our vehicle registration renewals.  Plus my car has started vibrating and we're taking it in next week to get checked out and fixed.  Other than the unforseen vehicle expenses, we've done pretty well with the budget this month, but the rest of this fall is going to continue to be tough.  We're losing John as a roommate so we're thinking of finding someone else to replace him, and keep that supplemental income. 

I know we'll figure it all out.  In spite of our ongoing financial woes, we're really happy.  Even with all the hustle and bustle, this month has been full of fun activities and quality time with loved ones.  I often find myself marveling at how blessed we are. 

Month in review to come next week!

New Beginnings

All that I know of tomorrow is that Providence will rise before the sun

-Jean Baptiste Lacordaire

(I am the most dreadful blogger.  If I leave too much time between posts, I get overwhelmed with all of the things I want to write about, and then I go into overload paralysis.  This is my attempt to break free.. again...)

The last thing I wrote about was that things were looking up on the job front.  When I wrote that post, I had a few interviews in the works but hadn't heard back with an offer yet.  The day before, I had an interview for a trainer position with Providence Health & Services, and that Friday I got a verbal offer for the job!  It took more than a month to get everything settled, and I didn't want to talk about it because I didn't want to jinx it.  (I'm still a 4th grader at heart who believes in the power of jinxing things.)  But over the course of 5 weeks, I got the written offer, went through salary negotiations, completed a background check, a health and drug screening, and a bunch of nire hire paperwork.  And now that I've been working for 5 days, I think it's finally safe to talk about my new job! 

I'm the new Credentialed Trainer in Epic Administration (though I'm not credentialed yet...)  Providence switched to using Epic - an electronic medical records system - with the help of government stimulus funds, and I'm going to be teaching hospital staff - providers, surgeouns, OB's, therapists, and a few other support professionals - how to use the Inpatient application of Epic.  I'm really excited about the switch from K-12 Education to Healthcare and I'm happy that I still get to teach.

I even get an ID badge!  

I started this week with a full day at the Providence Office Park with the generic new employee orientation along with about 100 other new hires from all different departments and backgrounds.  It was an interesting day and I'm glad they start all new employees off with the orientation.  And it was really weird at the same time because I was treated really well.  I know this is probably standard with most businesses, but there was a breakfast buffet, free lunch at the cafe, snacks brought in during the afternoon sessions, and hearing about all the benefits and perks of being an employee just made me feel like Providence really values their staff.  I made some new friends at lunch - just like it was my first day of school - and talked to quite a few people who were returning to Providence after hating their other jobs.  People who'd worked at insurance companies, or even competing hospitals like Kaiser, and were tired of working in the corporate world.  So it was encouraging to hear the stories from people who'd left and came back because they think Providence is such a great place to be.  After my last work environment, this is a breath of fresh air and a relief that the people who work here are happy. 

For the rest of this week, I've been at Providence Milwaukie.  I'm not actually in the hospital, I'm working in a house right behind the hospital that Providence owns, and which they call a satelite office.  My days are a little bizzare for now, and will be for the next few weeks because I don't actually start my training until November 13th.  Intially I was going to start my Epic training on October 1st in Montana, but the hiring process took too long and they couldn't get me onboarded in time to start the program.  But they didn't want to loose me, so they got me started and I'm going to be doing random stuff until I start my training program.  I'm still a little mixed up on who's who and what's what.  I've met a few people working on the Epic project but some of them are private contractors from out of town only here for a few months, and some of them work for Providence but don't live in Portland.  I haven't met my supervisor yet, and I only met the project coordinator briefly on Tuesday because she lives in Renton.  I have a feeling that after my training program is complete, I'm going to be traveling a lot.  :-) 

My "office" aka the living room of an old house

The people that I have met so far have been great, and super helpful.  I don't have a lot of direction and I don't work with any supervisors in the building so there's no one around to tell me what to do.  I've just been trying to be helpful for others on their projects, and in the meanwhile, trying to learn Epic and some medical terminology on my own.  I'm meeting my supervisor and getting hooked up with a CT buddy on Monday so hopefully I'll have some more to write about in the coming weeks.  For now, even though I don't have a lot of direction, I'm really happy with my new position and am looking forward to learning new things and becoming an expert in my field. 

Congratulatory flowers and wine from Bryann  :-)  

Job Updates

Things have taken an upward swing on the job front.  After about 3 weeks of applying to mass amounts of jobs online, I met with Willamette's Alumni Advisor and career counselor who advised me to stop applying to mass amounts of jobs online and start networking with people. 

She told me about a Willamette grad of '84, who ran around the Seattle corporate world and ran job-seeking conferences now and then promoting her "100 cups of coffee" theory.  Don't try to Google it - you'll only get bloggers prowling for men.  But the theory is kind of the same.  If you network with enough people and put yourself out there, eventually something good will come along.  In the job scenario it's a bit more like a pyramid scheme.  You grab coffee and network with 100 people, and those 100 people keep you in mind in the future, or start mentioning you to their hiring manager when open positions come along, and pretty soon you have people approaching you about jobs, instead of the other way around. 

I decided 100 cups was a little daunting, so Paul, my friend and pro-Bono career counselor (yes, getting me a job is for the public good!) helped me break it down into more manageable weekly and monthly goals.  It soon because Project: 50 Cups and the rules bent a little.  I've been meeting with people face-to-face, but more often than not the conversation happens gradually over the phone or through a series of emails.  And it's been working.  I started talking to friends, neighbors, Linked-In connections, and some old connections from other jobs, and they've been connecting me with other good people to talk to, and lately I've been getting job postings sent to me.  I'm on my 26th contact and I've been seeing some good results this week.  I've had a few calls for interviews and I'm starting to see things turn around.  

I recently started temping as an Office Assistant in a small furniture distribution company in Tigard.  I'm enjoying having something to do everyday (and I think Bryann enjoys me not moping around the house all day, still unchanged and un-showered when he gets home, feeling sorry for myself.)  I'll be honest, the computer was quickly becoming my nemesis, so I'm glad to be out of the house and making myself useful.  Things have started to pick up, so I'm optimistic that something more long-term will happen soon. 

Questionable Ethics and the Anger that Follows

One of my ex-co-worker/friends called me yesterday and had news he wanted to make sure I heard from him and not through the grapevine.

Apparently the layoffs were all a lie.  They're hiring other teachers.  They hired another math teacher, but with a math/science endorsement.  Perhaps they wanted a different staff with overlapping endorsements.  Perhaps they wanted a younger, less experienced staff so they didn't have to pay them as much as the people they laid off with Master's Degrees.  

They found out that Matt, the friend that called me, had been applying to other jobs, so they posted his position on CL and are making him reapply...  Does this sound crazy to anyone else?  They're making Matt REAPPLY to his OWN job because he was applying to other positions.  Is that legal?!  

They did the same thing to another ex-co-worker/friend two years ago after half the staff quit on them.  They called her and asked if she was looking at other jobs.  She made the mistake of being honest with them and admitted she had been, just keeping her options open.  They posted her job and made her reapply.  

I'm still not sad to be out of there.  You can see how completely preposterous and unethical the business practices are at that place.  But man I'm angry as hell.  I'm so angry that it's an anger that's buried and I've lost the words the describe how angry I am.  It's an anger that kept me up all night.  The people that run that school are sneaky, deceptive, unethical, and manipulative.  And I'm angry that I couldn't leave on my own terms and tell them where to shove it.  

Life in Limbo

(Prologue... Yes, I know it has been a long time since I posted.  Yes, I know that my adoring fans have been waiting with bated breaths for me to resume cataloging my every thought.  I got a bit overwhelmed with life in general since February and couldn't really bring myself to make time to write about it all... You'll see why in the coming post...)

Before I start actually blogging about specific topics, I think I need to just give myself a chance to close my eyes and just type away.  That's usually when I can write about the things that have been weighing on my mind.  Just a stream-of-consciousness type of writing that tends to get everything that's been bottled up, out in the open, and frees up my subconscious a bit.

I used to write a LOT when I was in my formative years.  I had a super nice sprial notebook - two actually - that I used for my journal. With thick paper and the stiff cardboard cover.  I'd write almost every single day from 8th grade onward.  It was usually just jibberish that I could never bring myself to read later on because it was either too embarassing to be face to face with my raw emotions, or it wasn't a reflection of how a truly felt.  But writing always made me feel better, like working out, or deep-cleaning my house.  It released a blockage that allowed me to be freer.  Happier?

So I guess that's why I blog.  Not because I have anything particularly interesting that I want the world to know about.  But to free up my mind.  I know I could do this in private - some posts do end up going in the private bin - but I also like knowing that there are people out there that are interested enough in my life and my thoughts to check in and read my out-there inner monologues.  Hi mom!  Hi Reezy!  :-)

Anyway... Life in limbo.  I guess since February, things at work started getting pretty awful.  Things had been going pretty well before then, but suddenly administration got really angsty and uptight and started the whole passive-aggressive administrating routine that almost drove me to quit my first year there.  It turns out, budgets got cut in every school district that we did business with, so our budget got cut, so 4 out of 7 teachers got laid off - myself included.  Which I hold is a good thing for me.  I didn't want to work there, but I was having a hard time finding a way out.  Now I'm out, with stellar references, and unemployment to hold us through until I find another job!  I was hoping to make it another year there, so Bryann and I could finish paying off our loans, but that was just not to be.  Hopefully it will turn out to be a "blessing in disguise" sort of a situation.

Thank goodness we started paying off our student loans when we did!  Since we got really serious about becoming debt-free, we've paid off nearly $30,000 since November 2011!  If we hadn't, our minimum payments would have been nearly unmanageable at this point with me out of work and surviving on Bryann's salary and unemployment.  But as it stands, we only have $150 loan payment, and one loan left!  Here's the board update:

We had hoped to be completely debt-free by May of 2013, but I think that pay-off date has been pushed back by quite a bit.  Bryann has been strongly considering going back to school to get his MBA, so if we cash flow that, it'll be another year after he graduates in 2015 until we can payoff that last student loan.  There are a lot of things still up in the air, but I'm happy with where we are, and I'm proud of us and all of the sacrifices we've had to make in the last year in order to make this happen.

In the meanwhile, I'm job-hunting.  Paul is being super-amazing and is basically being my job-hunting coach. He's meeting with me weekly to help keep me accountable to someone and to offer whatever insights and advice he can.  The theory we're working on is that the more applications I have out there, and the more people I get connected to and talking about their companies, the higher my chances of landing a good position and not working at a gas station.  My goal is to apply to 30 jobs this week, and I'm at 18 currently.  (I'm procrastinating and writing this blog post because I got real tired of copy-pasting my work history over and over again on applications.)  I don't have a particular job narrowed down.  I'm looking at Training, HR, Admin, Accounting assisting, Analyst assisting, and Education consulting.

How am I doing?  That's a great question.  It's been difficult to get out of bed and get moving.  I'm half-way through the 4th season of "Dawson's Creek".  My house is a disaster and looks like college boys have been living in it for months.  Currently it's 3:51 and I'm still in my pajamas and I haven't showered.  But I'm making progress, I guess.  I think being laid off, or being without work has the same stages as grief.  Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance.  Maybe I'll throw in another one - Drive.  I'm currently still in the Anger phase, mixed a little with Bargaining ("If only I could just go back in time and do it again, I'd pick the 'right' major, and start my career on the 'right' track") and Depression (see current state at 3:51 pm.)

But I know I'll get through it.  Left-foot, right-foot.  It just super-sucks in the meantime.  As much as I promote myself as an adventurer and free-spirit, I hate the unknown.  I like to have things planned out, and have life be predictable.  I like to know what the next step is.  And right now, I don't.  I just have to put myself out there, be vulnerable, prepare myself for a lot of rejection, and have faith that there are no mistakes.  That everything happens for a reason.  That my life will be the better for the challenges that I've survived, and the trials that I've faced.

Until then, here's a cute picture of my dog (taken while still in bed, watching "Dawson's Creek" this morning...)

Debt Snowball Update

For those interested in our progress on becoming debt-free, I have an exciting update!  The refinance on our house went through, and we now have a 15-year, 3.25% interest loan.  We cut 13 years off our mortgage (should we stay in this house forever) and cut what feels like a bazillion dollars in interest payments and PMI.

Refinancing our home also helped us out a lot with our student loan payoff goals.  Because of the timing of the refinance, we don't have a mortgage payment this month or next month.  We also got a few hundred dollars back, which I realize just gets tacked on to the loan, but it sure did help boost our debt snowball this month...

With the extra money from the mortgage, plus our tax returns, we were able to do some huge things this month.  Instead of paying the next biggest loan - the $2,800 Gate student loan - we paid off a $5,200 private loan from Willamette, which also had the highest interest rate on it!  Woooooo!!  We paid it on Valentine's Day just before going to sleep.  We pressed the "Send Payment" button together, and it was the best Valentine's Day present we could have given to each other.

It also looks like summer school is happening, so I'll be able to count on a paycheck in July.  Which means... the money we've been putting aside to get us through the summer is going toward another loan this month....  which means....  we're also going to be able to pay the $2,800 Gate loan that we'd planned on for this month after all!!!  It will feel sooooooo good to erase those debts from the whiteboard and write PAID instead!!

That will leave us with one last Gate loan at $4,900, my student loans at about $10,500, and Bryann's whopper of a consolidated loan at about $23,000.

Whooo those are some big numbers.........  We still have a loooong road ahead of us, but we've made such amazing progress even in these last 4 months.  Our goal is to be done by Bryann's 29th birthday, and with our progress so far, I'm pretty sure we can do it!

So keep encouraging us not to spend money and to have zero fun.  :-P  Just kidding.  We still have fun, and we still splurge every once in awhile.  Case in point, Bryann just bought a board game, and I just bought a water proof rain jacket for Alaska.  Oh yeah, and we're going on a cruise to Alaska with our friends in June.  :-D

Valentine's Firsts

There's something special about firsts.  If I know a first is coming up, I try to do something memorable for it. It's become harder and harder to do traditionally memorable things with such a strict budget but we're getting pretty creative.  We're going to keep the budget strapped down for another year and half, and we have a lot more "firsts" in our first year of marriage!

This past weekend was Bryann and my first Valentine's weekend as a married couple.  Since Valentine's Day is on a Tuesday, and I have choir practice tonight, we decided to celebrate early.  And in the spirit of keeping our spending down, we headed out to Pacific Blue and spent the weekend frolicking on the beach.  We drove up to Cannon Beach on Saturday and found a neat spot at the edge of town where the river runs into the ocean, and played fetch with Sam there for awhile.  I'm sure the river was freezing, but he was so happy jumping in and swimming around for his bright orange ball.

We had lunch at our favorite Cannon Beach Brewery - Bill's Tavern - which serves a splendid Blackberry wheat, and where we teased each other about the beginnings of grey hairs and wrinkles, and talked about what Valentine's day might be like in 5 years or 10 years.  Then we went to the outlets in Seaside to get Bryann some more work shirts and did some more beach frolicking.  :-P  The weather cooperated beautifully.  It wasn't summer weather, but the sun came out a few times and it didn't rain on us at all.

Lots of Bingo cards to keep track of!  

Then Saturday night we decided to be adventurous and check out Bingo night at the Lion's Club.  What better way to celebrate being married than to act like old married people!  We spent a whopping $20, played over 3 hours of Bingo, and were lucky enough to win a round for a $4 total profit.  We even made friends with another old married couple who loaned us their Bingo Dabbers and taught us how to play.  (I know you think you know how to play Bingo, but this was a more intense Bingo than I'd ever dreamed!)

We plan on going back to play Bingo whenever we're in town.  It was soooooooo much fun!  Even if we hadn't won, it was a nice way to spend the evening - doing something new with my hubby and laughing all along the way in our usual fashion.

On Sunday, we left a bit early (after a walk and one more round of fetch on the beach with Sammy) and stopped at a few wineries on the way back up to Portland.  I'll write more about those on the Wine & Dine Portland blog in a few days, but we enjoyed the February countryside at Tualatin Estate and a wine and chocolate pairings at Appolini Vineyards.

The vineyards are still gorgeous even in February

Enjoying my first wine and chocolate pairing

I'm not sure what the next 5 or 10 or 20 or even 50 years hold for us, but I love adventuring out with Bryann.  Frequenting our favorite joints, and throwing in a new activity here and there.  Life is always interesting with Bryann, and I'm so grateful to have him in my life and to be able to say I'm still madly in love with him even after almost 8 years together.