>For the past two weeks I have worked five shifts. The week before that ended with four shifts, so I figured that in the past 18 days, I have worked 14 of them. Two of those days were spent in church (get off work at 8am, drive straight to church, drive home at noon, crash for three hours, then back to church til 7pm, then crash into bed), so those days don’t count as “days off.” One of the remaining two was spent at the birth-control-like Children’s Museum of Indianapolis (think of a building that recreates the atmosphere inside your typical Chuck-E-Cheese or an average “bounce house.” A vasectomy clinic right next door could do amazing business there. New promotion: “Get a two year membership, and get a 20% off vasectomy coupon!”

All that to say that in the past 18 days I have had one day off. Ick. Well that changes today. Sure I have to go to the hospital, and sure I’m going to clock in, but it’s just to sit in a meeting for 2.5 hours and then get some blood drawn (Hepatitis B titer, if you must know). but that’s it for the day. And I don’t have to go back to work (either job) until Thursday night. Unfortunately I skipped church last night. Kim says she tried to wake me at 3:30pm, but I wouldn’t even wake up. All I remember is waking up at 6:15 and thinking, “Oh. Guess I missed church.” What this means is that I got about five hours of sleep, which is enough for my body to think that I’m still on a night schedule. Went to bed last night, and couldn’t sleep. I finally got up and came downstairs. I caught up on a few shows that we had on our DVR from the past month (White Collar, Chuck, and Little Couple).

Sidebar: Incidentally, does anybody else think that TLC should maybe change their name from The Learning Chapnel to The Little Channel? They have The Little Couple, Little People Big World, The Little Chocolatiers, and I just saw an ad for a new one, “Our Little Life.” Really? Are dwarves that interesting? Speaking of which, my favorite line from any of those shows was from “The Little Couple (the only one we really watch). Bill (one of the main characters) is about to play golf, and a (normal sized) guy asks him, “What’s your handicap?” to which Bill replies, “Dwarfism.” ROFL! You can’t make this stuff up!

Ok, so now I’ve watched some TV, thought about exercising (I might go to the Y later, but it’s too cold to jog outside just yet….35F? No.), and I’m now typing this.

What’s going on with school? Today the kids’ spring break ends, and they go back to school. Our youngest went to school for the first time this year, and I have to confess that I got used to them being gone during the day. I love the little anklebiters, but when they’re here constantly, it wears you down. It has been refreshing to be able to spend hours alone with my wife. We golf, go to stores, movies, etc. It’s like we don’t have kids for a few hours each day.

Oh, you meant MY school? Well, I’ve thought about it and prayed about it, and at least for now I am not going to pursue any kind of degree. I am currently taking statistics and children’s literature at IUPUI. I signed up for them as prerequisites for IUPUI’s FNP program, which I have been shut out of (see prior posts). The only reason I’m finishing these two classes is that if I don’t I get a ding on my transcript, and should I ever wish to get another degree, these would be negatives. Also, my job pays tuition assistance, and if I finish the classes I get a check for $1600-ish in May or June. I hope.

I realized that I could either work like I am (maybe a little less), and pay off my debts for the next four years, or I could slog through graduate school for four years, working over full time all the while, barely paying our bills, and come out the other end with a degree, $10,000 more in student loan debt, and be no closer to paying off our debts.

So the choice seems to be: get a degree and become a FNP, or pay off our debts and go back in the ministry. I believe God has called me into the ministry, so, just as I abandoned my dream to be a Naval nurse (because it would require a committment of time that would keep me from the ministry if God paid off my debts), I am now resigned to being a staff nurse for the duration. At least that’s what I’m thinking for now. If they come up with some kind of program at work where they pay me a full time salary to go back to school, then I’ll do that, but that doesn’t seem likely.

This post seems long enough for now. Except one last thing: I took care of a patient this weekend who was a 100 year old Navy vet. He was an officer in WWII. His family told me that he’s the oldest surviving Naval officer, but I have no attribution for that. He was a very interesting man. At one point he apologized for being “so much trouble.” I told him, “Sir, you served our country. You have nothing to apologize for. I come from a Navy family, and we have to look out for each other.”