Re: Decisions, Update, and Strange Turns.

I’ve gotten all of four shifts in my casual position since I started. Four shifts.  I was led to believe that they were in desperate need of people and I had a great chance of getting a reasonable amount of hours.  Apparently not so much.  Either that or the hours they need people for just so happen to be the hours when I’m in classes, meaning that they don’t call.  I did turn down one shift.  Well, two. The first was because they called me to work a time I had already said I couldn’t, so that doesn’t count. The second was a day I said I could work but was still in Vancouver for Christmas.  My fault on that one, though I’d like to blame it on BC Ferries taking a bloody long time to get me home.

The lack of work was fantastic for visiting with family and friends over the Christmas season.  I have been able to go to all of my Christmas parties and able to visit with friends in town only for the holiday season.  On the other hand, the lack of incoming funds is seriously damaging my bank account.  I had to wait a couple days to buy textbooks because I needed to transfer money into my debit account from my savings.  That always hurts.

Speaking of textbooks, I’m taking three classes this semester.  Only one of them I absolutely need (organic chemistry), but the other ones I thought would be quite useful when it comes to nursing: anatomy and biomedical ethics. Knowing about the human body and its systems if fairly useful in the medical profession, or so I’m told.  Not to mention I get to take anatomy with a good offshore buddy.  My ethics text I’ve been able to borrow off of a friend (Thank you, Eric, every penny helps!) but the texts for the other two classes are worth their weight in whatever the most expensive thing imaginable is.  I’m looking at $400 for two classes.  Yikes!  Both profs have said we can use previous editions (so if anyone has Organic Chemistry by McMurry or Anatomy by Martini, Timmons, and Tallitsch kicking around, I will love you forever) but these previous editions are virtually untraceable.  I’ve got my eye on a super cheap copy of Organic Chem at Alibris, but am not sure if I can wait the “7-14 but up to 30 days” shipping.  I’ll have had 2 quizzes by then.  I suppose there is always the library reserve section…

Back to the topic pre-tangent: work.  I went back on the pavement on Monday, applying at a couple places.  One call back thus far (which prompted my embarrassment and a prompt revision of every single version of my resume) for a position which I have a feeling isn’t a great fit for me or them.  So, I have sucked it up, swallowed my pride, and called the place I used to work.  Not the one of the aforementioned decisions, but the one I used to, used to work at when I first moved down to this lovely city.  I’m not really sure why it is even a pride thing except for perhaps I quit and therefore I feel like I can’t ever set foot inside again.  Which is BS, because I have.  I’ve even bought sunglasses there and had them repaired twice (they didn’t like the boat life very much, especially not smashing into the fore boom. Come to think of it, my head didn’t like smashing into the fore boom much either).  The people I worked for and with there were, for the most part, wonderful people.  In fact, I’m still in touch, sporadically, with some (even though they don’t actually work there anymore).

So all of this was to say that perhaps I will join the more regular workforce in the future.  Near future?  I sure hope so.  At any rate, I have learnt a lot about budgeting in the last few weeks/months which is likely a good thing.