Coming Out Of Hiding!

The tales of Andi Bean are now available for all to consume.  We've been, oooh, just a skosh busy.  We recently relocated across the continent to Georgia, where we are losing years of moss off ourselves with all this glorious sunshine.  It's been a wonderful transition, and our mood o' meters have definitely perked up!  Everything here is bigger!  Bigger houses, more options of things to do, and bigger temperatures!  Yesterday, after Andi Bean got on the bus, Daddy Bean and I went for a morning walk.  We were out at 6:20 in the morning in short sleeve shirts and shorts.  No  joke.  We were practically skipping down the sidewalk pathway, giddy with our new environment.  We talked about it, and although we agreed that Portland has cleaner air and water (minus the peein' hoodlum... I'm just sayin'!), we wouldn't go back.  We are home.

Now this new home is about 2.5 times the size of our home in Portland.  Dang 1924 house wasn't built to fit a Bean!  With this new found space, the Bean has taken to independent walking all over, including up and down the stairs.  One of the first things we purchased upon arrival was a set of baby gates for the top and bottom of the stairs.  But we determined that she could handle them, and so we returned those baby gates and bought her some short-sleeved shirts and shorts instead!  Andi is attending a deaf/hard-of-hearing PreK, in Roswell.  It's not the closest school, but we have the bus picking her up (at 6 a.m.) and dropping her off (at noon).  It's a long day for our almost four year old baby girl.  She's been walking the halls holding someone's hand, and she's loving it so far.  She still misses her friends back home, but I think she's adjusted amazingly well here.  I can tell she's even grown, perhaps all the walking and natural vitamin D!!!!

With the move, we've completely switched insurance programs.  We are now on Daddy Bean's insurance.  I think walking a tight-rope after having several glasses of vodka, over the grand canyon without a net, would be less scary than switching insurance and set of Dr's.  I've asked for a copy of our medical files, and they are having to mail them.  No, they're doing me a huge favor.  HUGE!  At almost four years old, Andi's medical record is 400 pages.  My record is 90 pages, and I've been in that system for 18 years.  Uhm, Y-E-A-H!

Also with this move, it has been determined that it's time for me to go back to work full-time.  I've been with the same company for 18 years.  They are my family.  I'm scared witless and thrilled at the thought of tackling a new adventure.  But... my o' my how things have changed since I last sought employment.  There wasn't an internet.  There was me, a word-processor and pre-Kinko's store with a fax machine.  It's different. A lot different.  You need profiles on various sites. Everyone wants you to create a profile on their site to even apply for their job listing.  There are a gazillion "e-recruiters" which are jobs emailed to you based not on personal opinion, but something a computer spits out at you.  You can easily make it a full-time job just looking for a job.  And the whole trying to sell yourself gets really, really old.  Yesterday, I found myself starting to write as my cover letter, 'why not me?!'  A simple protest of how tedious and obnoxious this whole process is.  Super sorry, I haven't allocated a lot of time to my LinkedIn profile... you want to hear how great I am...?! let me have you talk to the professional references I've hand-picked that will vouch for me.  Gone are the days where you can just push forth a piece of paper in the mail in a crisp envelope.  Now it's like you have to juggle knives, while balancing on a ball, in the nude with little tassels covering your private parts.  I mean, it's beyond ridiculous.  In all this though, I have listened to my Oprah-speak and determined that all things going the way I want them to, I would like nothing more than to write, create, and be a part of a team doing something fun. There are SO many directions I could take my career. I have been doing so many various things over the years. But the thing I love most is to write.  I really should finish my book.  I tried incorporating the blog, and it's sort of overwhelmed and stifled the process.  There's SO much good writing in this blog during the darkest, heaviest days -- I really want to use it, showcase it.  That energy was undeniable, and so, so, so creative & full of my personality.  It is a must. My title is still perfection... so, really, I must make the time for it. 18 years in publishing, I have to know some one that would publish it... ...don't I?!  *crickets!*

So, we're back online and reemerging from life transitions.  It's nice to be freed, and found basking in the sunshine of the south.