Thanks Susanne!!

Well, I think I'm finally posting under my own name. For those of us who are technologically challenged, being able to post on a blog is a monumental task. Luckily for me (and the rest of us) Susanne is very technologically savy and willing to help. Thanks Susanne!

The life of Margie is a bit shaken up these days. As some of you know, I interviewed for a job out in Forks about a month ago. The drive out there was breathtakingly beautiful, and I felt so peaceful while I was there. The Washington climate fits me perfectly. My favorite day is 55 degress and raining, or at least cloudy. Forks is a very rural town, and I had a good time while I was there. I could definitely see myself living there.

Then, the interview....was HORRID!!

I'm not even kidding or downplaying it. I was awful. I said really stupid things and didn't sell myself at all and asked the most ridiculous questions you've ever heard, like how many days off would I get and why do you people live in Forks. I think some of them liked me as a person, but didn't think I was qualified for the job.

Here's just a glimpse.

They said I would have to be on call one 24-hour period a week and one weekend a month or every five weeks depending on staff. I would be part of the crisis team. I said, "So, would I go to the calls as a team or just by myself?" The director (there were five people interviewing me) looked at me like I had asked him to take all his clothes off and dance naked on the table. Then he said, "You would go alone." When he said team, I wondered if two people went together because who wants to answer a domestic violence call to the home of drunk Native Americans at 3 a.m.? Then he said I wouldn't be expected to go someplace dangerous, and there would be police accompanying me if it were a call like that.

Sheesh!

Then I said, "I have no crisis experience at all. None."

Yeah, hire that girl.

So, that year I volunteered at the domestic violence shelter and took crisis calls and went to the police department and picked up bleeding women who had just been beaten up by their husbands or boyfriends and took them to the shelter and did intakes and talked to them and stayed with them the entire weekend.... I didn't think that counted. Or I forgot all about it. Or something. Who knows? And the eight years I worked at the child abuse prevention agency and dealt with crisis calls and newly removed children (when kids got taken from their homes, they were brought straight to me) didn't count in my feeble mind either. I have no crisis experience at all. None. They also asked me if I had any experience working with Native Americans. I said no. None. Then I told them about how Charlie had experience, and he told me about it.

Brilliant.

Then the director said, "What about all that time you spent in Paraguay?" Oh, yeah. Those natives.

I left there and was a bit embarrassed. On the way home I thought about it and got even more embarrassed. Then I moved on.

I applied for a job in Klamath Falls, Oregon. It is a private nonprofit clinic working with children and adolescents. It is a great facility with a lot of programs and resources. It uses the wraparound model, which interests me a lot. Plus, the benefit package is phenomenal, six weeks paid vacation per year beginning on your date of hire for example. I liked the staff and felt I would fit in. The supervisor is an LMFT, so supervision would be included.

The interview went well. I was terrified they would offer me the job and I would have to move to Klamath Falls. The desert. Snow. Can't pump my own gas. No shopping. I'm not a shopper, but I'd like the option. : )

They called last night at 5 p.m. and offered me the job. I accepted. I start Aug. 13. I'm moving to Klamath Falls.

This morning the Forks people called and offered me that job.

I am in decision hell. At times like this I wish I were a good decision maker.

I'll let you know what happens.....

Margie