I GOT A JOB!!!

Thank God! As it turns out, someone must have been talking out of turn because I still have not heard from the medical billing company. That's just as well though because if I had been forced to choose, I would have chosen the pest control company. As it turns out, such a choice was not necessary and on my second, and more in depth, interview yesterday, they offered me the job. I, of course, excitedly accepted it. I had to go pee in a cup for a drug test yesterday, and they are awaiting the results of my criminal background check. If the results from those come in by Friday as planned, I'll start first thing Monday morning. I can hardly wait! Everyone there is so nice, and I'm so excited to begin learning something new. And having a paycheck again. Also, I'm excited to get to be working with my cousin. As children and teenagers, we were so close, as I have mentioned before, and in our adult years we have drifted apart. Seeing him and talking to him this past week has been awesome, and now I'll get to see him everyday. His wife told me yesterday that she was glad that I was going to work there because I could spy on him for her. She was joking of course... I can't think of a woman I know who has a sweeter husband than he is. He and two of his buddies, and my soon-to-be-coworkers took me to lunch after the interview yesterday. Those two guys are really nice too, and they crack me up. They are also very good at their jobs (all three are in sales). After lunch, I went for the drug test. Now, let's explore what torture that is to a weak bladder. I have to relieve myself considerably more often than the average bear. But I also sometimes have a nervous bladder and being able to go when I'm instructed to is not always easy. Keeping this in mind, I sucked down about four glasses of water with lunch. By the time I got to the testing site, I really had to go. I waited in the front waiting room for about 15 minutes. Then I was called back to another waiting room. The pressure was building, but then the urge to go was completely gone. In this new waiting room was a water cooler and disposable cups. I drank about four more cups of water the first ten minutes I was in there. 45 minutes later, my name still had not been called and my eyeballs were floating! When they did finally call my name, I had to go to the room and watch the lady fill out all the papers... Lady, can you not just give me the cup and then do all of this? I didn't actually say that out loud, but I wanted to. Finally I get the cup and go. I hate that part too, but I'll spare you those details. Other than this: you're not allowed to flush the toilet when you're finished. I completely understand the reasoning behind this rule, but it took every ounce of energy I had not to instinctively flush. The whole time I was going I was telling myself "do not flush do not flush do not flush!" When I finished, I still turned around to flush and then had to mentally scream "NO" to myself. It was kind of funny. There was also no sink in there, and I'm a germaphobe about such things. I had to go to the public restroom up the hall to wash my hands, and the lady acted like it put her out to have to wait on me. Big deal, Lucille... The hands will be washed. After that, I went to Cato's and used a gift card from Christmas to buy a new outfit. A winter-white long skirt, and a pretty gray sweater. The cool thing is that both items can go with just about everything else already hanging in my closet. Those two things and a pair of earrings, and I still have $1.27 left on the gift card. And may I just say how ridiculous it is to me that they couldn't just destroy the card and give me the change. Completely ridiculous.
In other news, for the first time in more years than I can remember, I got scared of the weather last night. The wind was yelling through the trees, which doesn't normally bother me, but last night there was an intensity to it that I haven't experienced since the last tornado I suffered through. The power was blinking on and off. The rain came in hard, with no signs of stopping. I could hear things slamming up against my house, not to mention how I could hear the house itself creaking and popping with the wind. Though in the midst of my freak-out I said a prayer of thanksgiving that I have a house because some people were probably toughing that out under a bridge somewhere last night. Anyhow, it was in the eight o'clock hour when that all started. At about 9, I heard a terrible noise, and I knew that somewhere very close to me a tree had gone down. Sure enough, when I took Scruffy out this morning, there was a tree, snapped off at ground level but not uprooted, laying across my landlord's front porch. It didn't penetrate any windows or walls, but it did do some roof damage. When I heard that noise, Scruffy went ballistic, and I carried my happy-tail to the bed and covered my head with the blankets. I did sleep peacefully though. After covering up my head, I don't remember another thing until I woke up this morning. Going to sleep in a storm like that always reminds me of a sermon my dad preached one time entitled, "Can you sleep on a stormy night?" And yes I can, because as much as the thought of dying scares me, the thought of my afterlife in Heaven excites me. What an awesome and indescribable peace that is in my life.