As of last week I joined the ranks of the unemployed. In fact, 4 of us were let go, fired, laid off – call it what you like. Of the four, 3 of us were per diem nurses. Per diem nurses make more money and cost facilities more. I believe that is the reason we were “let go” even though they found some bogus reasons to do the deed.
So here I am – unemployed. Initially, it was a depressing moment. But I’ve picked myself up and have spent the last few days recovering and recharging, catching up with laundry, actually fixing meals again and cleaning my sewing room. I’ve even cleaned out my closet.
The funny thing is that it never occurred to me to apply for unemployment. A friend asked me the other day if I had checked into that and I was astonished that it had never crossed my mind. Like most everyone else who is like me, personal responsibility is utmost in my mind. I don’t think about how I can be saved by the government, Publishers Clearing House or some dying relative who is leaving me a minor fortune. It’s not how my mind works. All I think about is how do I solve this situation as quickly as I can.
A couple of weeks ago I had seen the writing on the wall and the pattern of nurses being “laid off” where I was working. I really knew it was a matter of time before I would be next on the chopping block. So I started a half-hearted job hunt then and applied at one of my old (and favorite) facilities. They didn’t seem real anxious to take my application so I wrote that off as a waste of time. And then surprise! today, they called me for an interview next week. And as off today, I have a line on 2 other job possibilities.
But honestly, if none of these jobs pan out for me, I’m fully prepared to go back to clerking in a bookstore for minimum wage or sweeping floors at Taco Bell. Minimum wage is more wage than I have now. And working is important to my ego, my outlook and my self image. Being unemployed could be fun but in the end, I think the fact that I’ve had a lifetime career and then not, would become a real downer for me. I’ve always had a job and I just can’t imagine not.
Now on a high note and for those who don’t believe in miracles – meet me. My last appointment with my oncologist, post MRI, was excellent. No tumor growth, at all… none in 4 years. My doctor can’t tell me why it’s stopped growing but so far, it has. The miracle started the night I had the seizure that alerted me to a brain tumor which I had at work with 3 other nurses who knew what to do and how to care for me until the ambulance arrived. That seizure could have happened 2 hours earlier while I was driving to work and I could have killed people. But next to an ER, God couldn’t have put me in a safer place to seize in.
Three job opportunities in less than a week of unemployment and continued no growth brain tumor, 2 healthy children and a first grand baby on the way. God can’t bless me too much more than this.
Miracles continue. . . just watch for them.
Diary of a Mad Conservative 