Thrihyrne

So you remember that post about me being worried about having to dumb myself down and wondering how long it would be before I was able to place myself into a job/career that would be challenging and exciting and I could stay with for years? Well, less than a week since I replied to someone on Indeed (she'd reached out to me back in November but I didn't see it. When I discovered it last Sunday during a casual job title search I assumed they'd hired for the role and just asked her to hold onto my resume and information should a similar role open up again), I accepted a role that ticks every box as a job I will be able to make mine in a way I haven't since working at Nashville Opera.

Thursday morning I felt compelled to check my spam folder and discovered a bit to my horror that the woman on Indeed had replied that day (Sunday) and forwarded on my information to her successor (she's retiring this month). I'd also heard from Donna (the successor), that day (Sunday). So I apologized profusely for being late in replying but said yes, I was interested, and sent resume and cover letter. Within an hour or so Donna wrote and asked if I could interview that afternoon. I said I needed to give a bit of notice, so I took a 7 a.m. interview slot yesterday morning. I sent her my references after the interview (which went very, very well, though I love interviewing and know that I tend to interview well no matter what, but I was particularly excited about the role and situation itself), and then got a call around 4:45 from a number I didn't recognize, so I didn't answer it. Due to celebrating a Friday and just not checking my phone again, I didn't check my voicemail until 10 o'clock. It had been Donna, really wanting to talk with me about the job.

As of around 10:00 last night, I enthusiastically accepted the role of Medical Billing Specialist at Columbia Pain and Spine Institute where I will be part of a small team of 3 specialists and one supervisor (Donna), building an in-house billing and support team from the ground up. Donna is hand-selecting her team (she just started in this role with the purpose of building the team) and I clicked with her immediately during our chat. We seem to be very much on the same page in terms of professionalism, having an agile mind and wanting to create a team within this clinic that, within a few years' time, is seen as a model for other clinics who choose to do/bring their billing in-house and on site. So not only will this role be a Kristi-shaped one, as when I was the one person ticketing department for Nashville Opera, a role that hadn't existed until I was in it, but the entire team will all be coming together at the same time. It's not an exaggeration that I feel like I've just joined an elite force and I will truly come into my own in regards to my profession and being able to really bring all of my skill set to the table. In no way did Donna ask this, but I would enthusiastically sign a 2-year minimum contract to be a part of this new team. I have the instinctive and intuitive sense that this will be the place and environment that is ever-challenging (without it being like Airbnb hypergrowth challenging of nothing EVER staying the same in a frenetic nightmare, but professionally challenging in terms of me able always to learn more, draw on current and future resources and professional groups, and actually challenge *myself* to throw myself into a job I actually believe in and where I will get to learn SO MUCH) where I will want to stay for a very long time. Perhaps until I retire!

So... I've had a lot of busy brain as this all came to pass so quickly, but I'm trying to slow today down back to regular time and remind myself that I've worked to get to this place. I tend to want to see a lot of serendipity and Universe gifts and this certainly falls into that category, but the other very real part is that I've done the work to get here. Despite throwing so much of 2017 into the toilet with my then-unrecognized pattern of creating chaos to start over, I did complete my Medical Coding and Billing certificate online course, I did pass both the CCA and CPC-A national certification exams last March, I did thorough and consistent job hunting to secure a Medical Billing Associate role at ZoomCare and was there nearly 4 months, and continued searching to get placed in the Patient Associate role at CenterLink. I'm the one who decided to write to you, my friends and supporters, when I was despairing about having to dumb down to be safe, ie: living in a post-alcohol environment for myself, and took your belief in me that what I was doing as temporary to heart. I've done what it takes to ensure that I have my disulfiram prescription and Evan and I are in a partnership about me taking it every other day. I'm on buspirone, and also have the Wyld gummies which are subtle yet have been a positive contributing factor to my feeling at 0 on a scale of 1-10 in regards to stress. My brain is healing, I'm living authentically, I feel my core values are far less misty and becoming ever clearer to me, and none of this is a struggle. For that reason alone I know that all of these decisions and this extended period of transition is, without a single doubt, what I am meant to be doing at this time in my life. I believe that the ultimate gift of 2019 will be my year without fear.

Right here, right now, I no longer fear myself.

Oh, and I've been in my post-alcohol phase since 1st December, so today marks 6 consecutive weeks of making that choice. This is nearly always when I get really squirrely, but with all of the other tools I'm actively using at this time, plus the mega excitement of this new role, means that I can safely celebrate (if I feel the need to put that label on it) with the gummies and not immediately put all of these extraordinary opportunities at high risk. What an incredible gift all of this is. I'm awash in gratitude.

I've known that Evan was my duprass since early spring of 2012; as of today, our partnership is public and official. We're now betrothed and will get married at some point in the future yet to be determined. While in many ways this doesn't change a thing, it's joyful to be able to call him my partner and fiancé.

Photo op from Mt. Tabor at early dusk after the proposal below!

I haven't posted in DW/LJ land for quite some time. In the interim I've gone on FMLA again to ensure that I'm getting my medications completely under control, I went to Hawaii for a week to challenge myself in almost every way possible, and now I'm 2 days into an amazing 9 day period of getting to spend every day with Evan at home because BHFT has a weekly shutdown for the July 4th holiday. Today I had quite the to-do list and I've done a tremendous amount of it. One element included getting out my sewing machine and making curtains to replace the 2 blankets that we had clothespinned to a curtain rod to keep our one room cool (we have a portable air conditioning unit that we keep in the living room, which is where our bed is) since we have crazy hot weather in the 90s and possibly 100s for the next two weeks. I also made a kitchen curtain to do the same kind of thing, with these amazing heat reflecting and light/sound blocking liners that we hung up in the living room a couple of months ago in anticipation of summer. Photos are below!





I finally got back to my Reggie/Kelp sequel, as the one major thing I'm demanding of myself to be completed by the end of Evan's week off is to have the final 2 1/2 scenes written. I want to be able to send the first draft to a couple of betas by the weekend. Tomorrow marks the 2 month mark of the release of Surprised at Nothing, and one of my projects is to use social media to have a giveaway of a copy and to drive some traffic to my author blog. I also created a Facebook page to do with the Sinclair Method and people in the Portland area. I'm basically trying to create my own recovery group since it doesn't already exist. It's a lot of energy, but I owe it to myself and anyone else in this geographic area who may feel s/he is doing this alone for us to find each other and share experiences.

The past week has been incredibly positive in so very many ways. I'm back on track with basically everything; I applied to 2 companies with interesting jobs and have revisited my prior haunts of universities and will apply to everything that seems appropriate in the next 72 hours just to keep momentum going. I don't mind returning to Airbnb, but it seems pretty obvious that the culture and I don't go together very well unless I can stay at home all the time. I'm thrilled that I was able to buy 2 original works by Nicole Maki last Tuesday, and am really looking forward to hanging them on the wall in the next day or so. My other dream is to be able to buy a piece that my college roommate, Honor Marks, has done. She's an artist in Charleston and has been showing at Spoleto for years now. She had her first child last year on my birthday (thanks for that, roomie! I'll always remember his birthday!) but it just exhausts me to think about her having an 18 month old at age 45. Egads.

Sorry I haven't been around much- if there are things I missed or if you'd like to email me, please do!

So this was new: being sent digital files of marketing material for my e-book release, when I'm not even sure of the date! The whole thing is new, since I'm used to maybe making an honorary icon for a story, or way back, a kind of movie poster for a much longer work. So let me share!

A bookmark:



And the cover:



I'm not planning a book tour, nor is it likely I'll be going to conferences and the like to warrant printing swag, but still. Seems like this is really happening!! :D

What a difference a week can make! The week after Evan's birthday was very challenging for me in my usual challenging way, but I got back on track with a renewed commitment to several months of working on staying in my own skin. This weekend was particularly wonderful; a Saturday both leisurely and social, including a very fun sushi dinner with grrlpup and sanguinity. I also started out the weekend with a really uplifting conversation Friday evening with emansil_12. We don't usually talk at that time of day, but it was the perfect jumping off point for a positive and quite productive weekend. I worked Sunday but as part of that also managed to hand wash a couple of sweaters, scrubbed the bathtub, washed dishes, sewed on my owl culottes, and worked on my what I'm calling my Dreamspinner fic, but I may route it elsewhere once complete. We'll see. These days I'm feeling much more like my usual self, though yesterday I'll admit to feeling slightly manic because I felt so good physically and wanted to make up for lost time. The challenge of finding balance will probably always be with me, and that's okay. I'm still definitely in the reward phase of my life. :)

Oh, and my left shoulder is giving me issues again; this isn't the now-unfrozen shoulder, but a possible injury that's raising its head again. I'll need to be careful at Mod Physique this week.

Since my last post, I realized that I have two stories that could be completed and submitted to this online press. One is the wholly unique monk story, but also an HP story I'd started in the summer for a fest, but didn't get very far in writing. I had most of it in my head, and I've recognized that I can change it up very easily in order to get it out of Rowling's version of magical and into something different. So I've begun revamping the first few thousand words and going in a more relationship-centric manner I'd shied away from when writing it for the fest because at that time, I'd decided to make it completely genfic. Now I can add some eroticism and make the new protagonist and his world unique enough that if there becomes a following, he can have other adventures in sequels. Not to project forward too much, lol.

But it's been great to be writing again, and getting re-engaged in this story line that I'd been excited for since the summer, but lost steam on. I'm writing! It feels great to have the characters come to life for me, rather than me having to poke at them to do something. I'm very, very happy about this development of events. My thanks again to snottygrrl for knowing how desperately unhappy I was in my prior work role and who volunteered me for this press in terms of being an able proofreader. I've done my quota and have let them know of my keen interest to do more in-depth editing, so we'll see about that in the future. :)

So it wasn't my birthday, but evannichols's 51^st on Saturday. There was very yummy breakfast-eating at Slappy Cakes, kilt wearing (him, not me), a wander around the beautiful campus of his alma mater, Lewis & Clark College, and then being taken out to birthday sushi by sanguinity and grrlpup. And that was just Saturday!! I worked my usual shifts of 1-10 on Sunday and yesterday, but Evan was around much of yesterday so I could enjoy his company. And then my friend Jen stopped by during my break yesterday on her return trip to Eugene, so that was an additional highlight. Just a really wonderful, delight-filled set of days.

So here's a link to the photos, for those who don't follow me on other social media!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/88838401@N03/sets/72157633011385798/

I'll be picking up my copy of Unfinished Tales this week and hope to get kick-started on some writing while on my business trip next week. :)

Two new changes that will make a tremendous difference in my world:
❶ I bought an office chair! For $20! And it's purple! This is a tremendous step towards me having an ergonomically satisfactory working life. Evan brought it in when he dropped me off this morning and already I can tell how much happier I'm going to be.
❷ Evan and I are going to move in together. We have a place! Closer in in SE, very close to our original stomping grounds— for both of us, interestingly enough. It's a complex where he's lived before and really liked it, managed by the same people, and we can move in by December 1^st. OMGYAY. Not only of being with my beloved every day, which is huge, but also that really for the first time in my adult life, I will be in a space that I co-create and in which I have my own space. Even when married my stepchildren had their own rooms, and I had nowhere to go to retreat if needed or desired. This is an incredible psychological moment for me. We are engaging in a very conscious choice to blend our lives and days in a thoughtful, respectful and joyous manner.

I could just about explode from the happy. :D :D :D :D

I've finished two knitting projects this morning. So of course there are ( pics!! )

The rest of today will focus on making a crazy amount of buttonholes in my convertible riding pants, making 20 covered buttons, packing for being away from this home for a week, and at long last putting a zipper in my Samus cardigan again so it's a proper cardigan. Plus I have Charlie's Angels "Full Throttle" from the library to entertain me while I hand-sew a zipper into a sweater. Yay. :D