5.22.21 - Joy status: Jack's nursing job

**Jack has a nursing job.**

Since last September he's applied to perhaps 40-50 positions in California with no response (aside from an occasional generic "position is filled"). He started applying in Missouri about 5-6 weeks ago and on Thursday one of the main hospital networks in the area (SSM) offered him a position! It's in their new grad onboarding program on the medical-surgical unit, which is great because the position (a) involves plenty of training and (b) is more generalized experience, both good for someone starting out. He starts three days after we unload the moving truck!

3.14.21 - Super efficient day

 The day was efficient both for getting work done and for spending quality time with the kids (two things I've recently been a bit anxious about).

This morning the girls woke up before Calvin. I heard some feet pitter patter into my room while Jack and I were still asleep. I didn't move or open my eyes and for a moment tried to see if I could tell which kid it was. Then I heard the empty Diet Coke can on my nightstand (from last night) lift up and get put back down, and I knew Clara had tried to see if there was any Diet Coke left to sip. I opened my eyes and was surprised to see both girls. Clara decided she wanted to go to the kitchen table and draw me a surprise, but Jane got in bed with us and lay there peacefully, awake but quiet, while I dozed with my arm around her. I think Jane in particular really benefits from cuddles. 

Eventually Calvin woke up and called to us from across the hallway. I picked him up and we all went into the living room. I had to avert my eyes so that I wouldn't see the surprise drawing Clara was still working on for me. I brought Calvin--all bundled up in his beloved blanket--to the couch, and he cuddled next to me on one side while Jane cuddled next to me on the other, and they both watched me do a jigsaw puzzle on my phone. Jane kept giving me helpful suggestions for the puzzle. Eventually Clara proudly presented her drawing for me - a pink butterfly with orange spots - and explained we have to save the drawing to put on the wall in May, not April. For some reason.

Then the girls went to play together in their room, and managed to do so peacefully for at least twenty minutes. And the entire time they did that, Calvin just leaned against me and watched me work on that puzzle. He was entirely content, not even wiggling around. It was great.

Later in the morning we got out the dress up clothes, and after both girls got decked out we played the freeze dance game for awhile, first on my phone with Spotify, and then through an official app with Alexa. Clara loved it. Alexa plays different styles of music and asks the kids to dance like robots, queens, turtles, and other figures before they have to freeze. Jane mostly watched Clara and smiled shyly, but when they said to dance like a queen she suddenly stood on tiptoes and jutted her chin in the air, held up part of her dress elegantly with one hand, and toddler strutted around the living room. It was awesome. Even Calvin put on a purple necklace and wiggled around with them a bit.

Later in the day I locked myself in my room and got a lot of SPL work done, which always puts me in a good mood.

Then in the afternoon, one of our new babysitters, Mariah, came over with her7-year-old daughter. Since Mariah hadn't been here in several weeks, and only once before, we decided Jack would leave to work on the job hunt and I would stay and let the kids get used to her. But only about half hour in they seemed very comfortable--and in Clara's case, really really happy--to hang out with Mariah and Abrielle, so I went in my room and left the door open while I did some more SPL work. That worked for about 30-45 minutes until Calvin remembered I was there and wanted to hang out. I reset him in the living room and shut my door, and he handled it fine. I got work done the whole time they were here, and meanwhile I could hear them having a wonderful time. They played with Alexa and then practiced expressing different emotions and other games, and by the time I emerged everyone except Calvin was sitting on the floor in a circle, feet touching, and bounching a ball to each other while they made animal sounds. Clara and especially Jane were laughing so hard. In fact when Jane saw me, she asked me to go away, lol. (Exact opposite of how she usually reacts.) The evening was a huge success.

And as I type this, I can hear Jane happily singing a song (that it sounds like she made up, which she does a lot lately) in the other room.

2.18.21 - Joy status: sun rising earlier

It's *also* now light out by the time I arrive to work.

2.17.21 - Joy status: sun setting later

It's starting to be light out when I leave work.

2.11.21 - Joy status: upcoming Valentine's party, potential childcare help

Not one of my children woke me up last night. I feel so rested. One of our managers gave me a sweater that was too big for her and it is incredibly soft and cozy and I'm wearing it to work today. I went ahead and posted a job through care.com and I've had a lot of applications in my price range, so I'm hopeful Jack and I will start being able to go on dates again soon. My manager put me in charge of updating our company's website, and I'm enjoying the project. Finally, we are having a tiny Valentine's party for the kids on Sunday. My only specific idea was to make heart-shaped cookies, but their grandparents also sent them Valentine's gifts so they will have some things to open too. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

1.27.21 - Joy status: Losing weight and making professional progress

I'm very very close to finally reaching my pre-pregnancy weight! Also at work I passed my qualifying test for body fluid analysis, which means I should be able to start assisting (some of) the analysts with (some of) their casework. And I signed up for a genetics course I need in my long term prep to become an analyst myself. Productive day!

1.8.21 - Joy status: I love my commute

It's amazing to me how what was once one of the worst parts of my week--my ridiculous 80 mile commute to and from work--has become one of the best parts thanks mostly* to technology. I've come to really enjoy the time to myself as I either "read" audiobooks of interest or catch up with friends (live or through video messaging).

The child-free time of my commute has directly resulted in more substantial connections to some of my closest friends. I have a pretty great weekly and monthly rotation of "commute contacts." I think I would enjoy this in any case, but the added socialization has been especially helpful in the last year when in-person interactions are more difficult.

*I say "mostly" because another factor was my schedule change--I now commute only at times when there isn't any horrendous traffic, so that makes it a lot more peaceful.

12.9.20 - Joy status: SERI Christmas luncheon

I was sick last week and my lab rescheduled our Christmas luncheon just so I could be here for it. We had it today, and first did Secret Santa. It was pretty cool seeing what everyone got each other and watching people try to guess who thought of each gift. Whoever had our boss bought him the world's tiniest violin so he could hand it to people when they complain to him, lol. We also ordered Italian food to be catered to the lab. We didn't actually all sit and eat together because of our covid protocols but I did get to work on a puzzle in our newly finished "meditation room" while enjoying eggplant parmesan, and it was very relaxing.

9.15.20 - Joy status: email back ASAP

Work joy inventory: when people email me back right away.

8.13.20 - Joy status: desktop pics of the kids

I created a folder of a bunch of my favorite pictures of my kids and now use it to automatically rotate my work desktop every 30 minutes. So all day I get to stop and look at my desktop and think how cute my kids are and it makes me pretty happy.

8.12.20 - Joy status: break from the heat

My lab is far enough south from where I live that it gives me a welcome reprieve from the oppressive Sacramento summer weather. It's typically at least 25° cooler, often more, and there are a lot more clouds, which I really like. Nice to have a cloudy day here and there even though in Sacramento it probably won't be that way until at least late October. Now if it would just rain...

7.22.20 - Joy status: my job makes me feel supported

My job makes me feel supported both professionally and otherwise. Multiple analysts are helping train me to qualify for more complicated tasks. People frequently bring in bagels or homemade baked goods to share with everyone. Most of the lab is now saving their non-confidential extra paper for me to take home to Clara (who produces like 10+ drawings a day now). And yesterday my boss asked me if I'd like his previous laptop (for free!) I really get along with all my coworkers and it makes me look forward to going to work.

5.21.20 - Joy status: Glad to be back at work

My lab is doing a "soft" reopen for the rest of May (where we work at half staff to catch up before our full reopen June 1), and I am so glad to be back. I've got my standing desk, coffee, sunny view of big trees and wild turkeys, and Spotify. Ready to go! I'm also really glad to see my coworkers again (even at a masked distance) and just to have another location to go to. I hope you guys--especially my extroverted friends--are getting to experience the same now or soon.

2.29.20 - Joy Statuses

12.31.19 - joy statuses

11.30.19 - joy statuses

10.31.19 - joy statuses

 

10.16.19 - Back to lab

Today was my first day back at lab since going on maternity leave. It was great.

It was nice getting to visit with Erin on the drive to lab. I had gotten used to chatting with her for hours every week and I missed it while I was home.

And when I got to lab pretty much everyone welcomed me back as they saw me. The lab manager, Angie, yelled "Welcome back!" as soon as we walked in. Several people asked me how Calvin was doing and how it was at home, and I showed them these two pictures to illustrate how it's going:

Jane shares one of her favorite toys - the fake birthday cake - with Calvin.

The administrative manager, Ledia, even hugged me when she saw me. They also had this cute note on the In/Out board.

Apparently today is National Bosses Day, which means Ledia brought in all these gourmet "cronuts" (croissant donuts). There was cappuccino, lemon, chocolate, almond vanilla, maple bacon, and cinnamon sugar. I tried a little of most of them. They were wonderful.

And best of all, Ledia and Alisha had prepped a room for me to pump. They added a comfy chair and table lamp. They put butcher paper over the office window so it would be private (but left some uncovered window near the ceiling so people could easily see if the light was on inside). Best of all they made me these laminated signs to post outside the door while I'm using the room.

I was pleased to see how quickly I remembered the job. They had left plenty of evidence for me to deal with so it was good to cut my teeth on and get back into the groove. I had enough work to get done all day so the day went quickly. It's nice to be able to focus on just one thing (work) and it actually relaxes me because for at least 8 hours I don't feel like my mind is being pulled in a million directions. I feel like I can actually focus and get something useful done.

And it was great sitting at lunch with everyone again. It's one of my favorite parts of the job, because everyone gets along so well and seems to genuinely enjoy each other's company. Gary returned from testifying in court this morning so he was all dressed up, and when he saw me he patted my shoulder and said welcome back and told me he'd dressed up just for my return (haha). The place has great camaraderie.

Pumping went smoothly - no one bothered me, I got to watch Sneaky Pete, and some evidence actually did come in while I was busy but Zach just took care of it. Such a supportive team.

And then we drove home and Erin and I got to debrief about what's going on with lab and talk about a timeline for me pushing to get into the actual lab. She is confident I will learn quickly and she believes everyone else is confident of that too, which makes me so happy.

Overall it's a great job. I told her on the way home getting this job has been one of the best things about this year.

9.30.19 - Joy statuses

7.31.19 - July joy statuses