eleven hours later & i'm home!
Tuesday afternoon I left work early ready for Columbia and partially ready for my interviews, which were scheduled for Wednesday morning. Got in at a decent time despite the thunderous rain through Micanopy/Gainesville/Starke and practiced interview questions before bedtime. Bright and early the next morning I nervously showered, nervously got dressed, nervously put on a pearl necklace, and nervously asked Josh which shoes I should wear. Tara called me around 8:30a to quickly tell me her engagement story (YAY YAY YAY!) which actually calmed me down quite a bit before meeting my recruiter, Andrea, at 9:00a. We reviewed pay rates, benefits, health savings accounts, and then talked about each manager I would be speaking with that morning - she told me what I should and shouldn't hone in on and kind of just gave me direction. First interview (MICU/MSU) at 9:45 and lasted about an hour. No position directly offered, but instead deferred me to e-mailing Andrea after the second interview. Second (Medical Telemetry) lasted about two hours and was with both the nurse manager and assistant nurse manager for the floor. The unit is new, patient ratio is 4:1, all private beds. I was introduced to other employees, given a full tour of the floor. Position was offered, and I said I would get back to her after discussing with my fiance. Weighing one over the other? Not exactly easy -- MT would be a natural position to ease into, the Mgr/ANM were great & friendly & comfortable; MICU/MSU would be a lot more challenging, but not impossible, the Mgr was more stand-offish and very hard to read. I don't even know if MICU/MSU will offer me a position, but I e-mailed Andrea and should find out tomorrow... Meaning, tomorrow I should be accepting a position at the hospital. This is great and makes me feel soooo much better than I did a week ago. We'll see.
Afterward, Jonathan & I met for lunch and headed to Pleasant Garden (NC) to check out the wedding venue, which I hadn't yet visited. I LOVE IT. Yesssss. Looked @ the hotel prospects, ate dinner, got to Chapel Hill just in time to enjoy both the comforts of pie in the oven and Glee with Mona and Cheryl. Went to bed delightfully exhausted. (:
Thanksgiving Day we woke up to watch the Macy's Parade; left right before the end to explore UNC's campus and play in the leaves; came back at the end of the dog show and began an It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia marathon. Several hours later, Mona's friends from the program started showing up each with a dish in tow.. Thanksgiving dinner was amazing and delicious and comfortable. It started raining that night and I threw leftover corn-on-the-cob to squirrels below (because I missed Ashley).
The next morning we headed to Polkton to see family and play with horses. That evening we baked ready-made lasagna, watched G.I. Joe and Aladdin, cuddled, worked on invitations, and fell asleep early.
On Saturday we attempted to find groomsmen clothes (and failed miserably). Instead, we successfully completed 100 invitations (only 34 more to go!), watched a ton of football, ate leftover lasagna, and met with Michael/Donna/Scott @ Ale House that night after USC's victory.
Today I woke up with a migraine, left South Carolina later than planned, sat in four hours of traffic to get out of SC to sit in three hours of traffic to get out of GA, had my phone die around 4:00pm (so so so early), listened to a lot of NPR, made lists during the 0-2mph traffic, got home on one tank of gas (no clue how), and am now going to plop under my quilt.
Long story short: good vacation, hello real world.
