The date was April 29, 2011. That was the official email I received from Proctor & Gamble. The email that would change my life, or so I thought. I had made it! After a screening process literally four months long, I had passed the initial questionnaire, passed the four-hour long test, and finally passed the panel interview. The email confirmed that I was placed in the hiring pool, from which names would be drawn and offered employment.
A job at P&G meant more than doubling my salary in the first year and tripling it by year five. So, for the next few weeks, I checked my email fervently. Weeks turned to months and eventually I began to lose confidence. Why wouldn't they call? Several times over the weeks and months I logged in to their website to make sure they had my correct information.
Finally, yesterday, my one year anniversary in the hiring pool arrived and with it came an end to my hopes of a life-changing job. You get only a year in the pool and my year was up.
While my personal life is probably more fulfilling than ever, professionally I have been left feeling unsatisfied. I've worked the same position at Tom Ahl's dealership, watching from the sidelines as those around me have been moved to bigger and better opportunities. I suppose I should be grateful, as I really have no boss and the arrangement allows me the time needed to write. But I don't do a ton of writing anymore and now I'm just flat-out bored. Of course, boredom is something I'd happily put up with for the right price, but that has never been one of the perks of this job and lately it's headed in the wrong direction.
I've sent out an application that looks promising and this week I'll send out some more. I've convinced myself, in my head, that this is probably my last week at Tom Ahl's rental counter and I cannot wait to move on to a new challenge. Six years is a long time to watch as others are given opportunities to advance, to watch as others leapfrog over me. I'm just about ready to go.
Of course, a year ago I was convinced that my days at Tom Ahl's were numbered and that didn't pan out. This time, with my wife pondering staying home with the kids, the time seems right to move on, where ever the next stop may be.
I don't know where I'll work, or even if I'll work at all should Valerie decide to go back to the farm. I know the next stop won't likely be as lucritive as P&G would have been, but almost anything will be more so than this place. Ideally, I'd get to do the network stuff full-time and make a decent living from home, which would kill two birds for us, but that doesn't appear in the cards for at least several months. In the meantime, I just can't see myself convincing me to go into work at the dealership everyday for too much longer. This ship has sailed.
In my head, I'm already gone.
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Monday, April 30, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
I'll Take Literary Characters for $1000, Alex
Okay, so I'm a little late with this. Like 10 days late.
After waiting for what seemed like forever, Valerie had what we hoped would be her final doctor's appointment on Friday, March 30; a date otherwise known as the due date for our PTBNL. The exam was disappointing, as Valerie was still dilated just 3cm, just as she had been for weeks. "Go home," she said, "talk a walk, have sex, do whatever you need to do. Then gather your things and go to the hospital if you feel anything at all." Still, Valerie was worried the hospital staff would send her home unless she was really in labor. We went to lunch, went for a walk, then collected the kids from school and packed their bags for grandma's house and at roughly 4:30 pm, we showed up at the hospital, ready to have a baby.
The nurses were great, both the day shift nurse and the one who guided us the rest of the way. The started her on pitocin to set the labor in motion and eventually Valerie opted for the epidural as well. Things weren't progressing much at all, however, and eventually the baby was having trouble breathing through the contractions. The nurse tried placing my wife in different positions to take the strain off the baby, but nothing was working. Finally, she had Valerie get on all fours and began re-filling her fluids, in an attempt to get the baby to "float" off of the umbilical cord. After a brutal half an hour in this position, Valerie was re-checked and her dilation was complete. From 6cm to 10 in just that half hour. Quite suddenly, it was showtime.
One "practice" push, as they called it, got the baby all the way down the birth canal. After waiting for almost a full minute to allow the doctor time to remove the monitor and all the other lines in the way, the next push produced the baby's head. A quick bit of work by the doctor unwrapped the cord from around his little neck and two pushes later, our son was born.
Atticus Ty joined our family at 12:38 am, just thirty-eight minutes past his due date. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz (two ounces less than Amity had) and was a whopping 22 inches long. His hands and feet were large and so was his head, which measured 15 inches around. Ouch.
As I said, all that happened ten days ago. In the meantime, life at home has been unusual in some ways and exactly the same in others. Atticus sleeps a lot and he doesn't really cry all that much. He seems pretty relaxed from what I can tell. His siblings seem to like him well enough, though Sebastian took a while to warm up to the idea of yet another new baby. Amity is enthralled by him.
Dad and Vickie came to town this past weekend and came to the house twice. It was as if they'd never left. Unfortunately, they left us again to head back to Florida. I'm not sure they mentioned when they'd be back again. The kids miss them. So do I. Everybody does, really. But the time we had this week was great and I can't wait for the next visit.
So far, Valerie and Atticus seem to have worked out a pretty good feeding schedule. As soon as he even whimpers, she scoops him up for a quick snack and before he even realizes it, he's asleep once again. Thankfully, she's been letting me sleep through this. In turn, I've been up to take the kids to school each day as needed. It's not fun, but it's the least I can do.
I'm not sure who he looks like. The majority say Amity, but I see some Leyton faces there as well. He's a good looking kid, I think. He just looks like Atticus. He's so tiny and yet so big. As far as the name, everyone seems to love it, surprisingly enough.
I think we did good, Babe.
After waiting for what seemed like forever, Valerie had what we hoped would be her final doctor's appointment on Friday, March 30; a date otherwise known as the due date for our PTBNL. The exam was disappointing, as Valerie was still dilated just 3cm, just as she had been for weeks. "Go home," she said, "talk a walk, have sex, do whatever you need to do. Then gather your things and go to the hospital if you feel anything at all." Still, Valerie was worried the hospital staff would send her home unless she was really in labor. We went to lunch, went for a walk, then collected the kids from school and packed their bags for grandma's house and at roughly 4:30 pm, we showed up at the hospital, ready to have a baby.
The nurses were great, both the day shift nurse and the one who guided us the rest of the way. The started her on pitocin to set the labor in motion and eventually Valerie opted for the epidural as well. Things weren't progressing much at all, however, and eventually the baby was having trouble breathing through the contractions. The nurse tried placing my wife in different positions to take the strain off the baby, but nothing was working. Finally, she had Valerie get on all fours and began re-filling her fluids, in an attempt to get the baby to "float" off of the umbilical cord. After a brutal half an hour in this position, Valerie was re-checked and her dilation was complete. From 6cm to 10 in just that half hour. Quite suddenly, it was showtime.
One "practice" push, as they called it, got the baby all the way down the birth canal. After waiting for almost a full minute to allow the doctor time to remove the monitor and all the other lines in the way, the next push produced the baby's head. A quick bit of work by the doctor unwrapped the cord from around his little neck and two pushes later, our son was born.
Atticus Ty joined our family at 12:38 am, just thirty-eight minutes past his due date. He weighed 8 lbs 13 oz (two ounces less than Amity had) and was a whopping 22 inches long. His hands and feet were large and so was his head, which measured 15 inches around. Ouch.
As I said, all that happened ten days ago. In the meantime, life at home has been unusual in some ways and exactly the same in others. Atticus sleeps a lot and he doesn't really cry all that much. He seems pretty relaxed from what I can tell. His siblings seem to like him well enough, though Sebastian took a while to warm up to the idea of yet another new baby. Amity is enthralled by him.
Dad and Vickie came to town this past weekend and came to the house twice. It was as if they'd never left. Unfortunately, they left us again to head back to Florida. I'm not sure they mentioned when they'd be back again. The kids miss them. So do I. Everybody does, really. But the time we had this week was great and I can't wait for the next visit.
So far, Valerie and Atticus seem to have worked out a pretty good feeding schedule. As soon as he even whimpers, she scoops him up for a quick snack and before he even realizes it, he's asleep once again. Thankfully, she's been letting me sleep through this. In turn, I've been up to take the kids to school each day as needed. It's not fun, but it's the least I can do.
I'm not sure who he looks like. The majority say Amity, but I see some Leyton faces there as well. He's a good looking kid, I think. He just looks like Atticus. He's so tiny and yet so big. As far as the name, everyone seems to love it, surprisingly enough.
I think we did good, Babe.