Heather's New Job

Yesterday I started a new job. It was a good day, and I think the switch will be good in the long run, but changes for me in general are difficult. I like my routine.


I won't go into detail about the time I spent agonizing over my decision to take a new job. It was tough. Nothing in my life ever seems to be black and white. It's all in the very gray realm. However, after much prayer, I feel like I have made the right decision and now can move on in my life.


Part of the distress of my job-hunting experiences is what is known in the dental field as the "working interview." It's where you go work in the office for a day or more and just try each other out. There is no committment on either side, and it gives you a chance to see if you can mesh together or not.


I usually have crazy things develop when I am doing a working interview. I have had kid emergencies crop up at really inconvenient times, and once a car accident on the way to the interview, making me over an hour late. Gee, that leaves a great impression.


When I was interviewing at my last job I developed a sudden and severe allergic reaction during lunch. As my lips and eyes swelled up to huge proportions, I was downing Benadryl like you wouldn't believe, but it wasn't working. I had to go back to work, completely embarassed about my appearance and the situation. They were super nice and one of the girls drove me to the walk-in clinic so I could get an epinephrine shot to stop the reaction. She waited with me there for over an hour as they were observing me. After that fiasco, I thought for sure that I would never hear back from them. Crazily enough, I got the job, and it's been where I've worked for the last five years!


So it wouldn't be overlooked, this recent interview also had its crazy moments. The doctor took me and their other hygienist to lunch. It was a great teriyaki place, but unfortunately it was about six or seven blocks away from the office....and we walked. Of course by the time we left the restaurant, there was a freak rainstorm outside. I don't know how many of you have been in a true Washington rainstorm, but it's intense! You feel like buckets are literally dumping on you! The streets flood with rivers of water because the drains can't even keep up. And they always seem to hit all of a sudden! Needless to say, none of us had umbrellas, or even hoods on our jackets! We had to run all the way back to the office, and got so completely drenched it was ridiculous! I may as well have jumped into a swimming pool. I scurried into the bathroom and tried to fix my plastered hair and streaked makeup into something presentable. I still had three more patients to see. Everyone said I looked fine, but I was mortified! I ended up having to throw out my purse because it was so waterlogged. (This included all my essential paper items: my dayplanner, my checkbook, all my doctor's business cards, etc. It was traumatic!)


But now I'm working there....


I guess the sticky starts are all par for the course for me. Who knows, maybe these events even help seal the deal, because I am certainly not going to be one of the applicants they forget anytime soon! After all, how many times do you meet an abnormally petite gal with puffy eyes and streaked makeup, who has a tendency to rear-end irritating lolly-gaggers at traffic intersections?