A Needed Update

I know I’ve been a bit absent lately but it’s only because TJ and I have been trying to find the perfect routine and work hasn’t been allowing me to do so up until now.

Most importantly my new job is AMAZING! I love my job so much. I’ve been enrolled in training since early January which took me all over Indianapolis and Carmel. Traveling around the circle city took a major toll on us and princess Rory. The way a typical day would work would be to wake up around 5am with the goal to leave by 6:20am, especially the days when I would drive to Carmel. I would drop off TJ at work then commute to Carmel and do the reverse. We normally wouldn’t get home until 6pm. 12 hours away from home was so taxing on us and Rory. Then we’d be back in bed around 9:30am in preparation to do it all over again.

Just this past Monday I got “the call” that pulled me from training and officially made me a downtown Indy career woman! This week I’ll be training solely downtown and starting Sunday (Valentine’s Day mind you) I’ll begin my normal hours as an intake specialist. My hours aren’t that of a typical worker, I work Sunday-Wednesday 7:30am-6pm and every other Wednesday I work half a day. I think this is a great schedule and allows me to do all the shopping and cleaning I need to do without TJ around. TJ and I are going to have to continue sharing the one car so he needs to find a few activities to preoccupy himself while I’m at work and he’s not. I suggested he get an iphone or take his laptop to starbucks and watch movies, TV, surf the web while drinking a hot tea! He wasn’t so interested.

You might be thinking “what exactly do you do as an intake specialist?” Well my friends the easiest way to put it is like this: I basically am a 911 dispatcher for kids who have allegedly been abused or neglected. I take a report, and then I have to decide if it meets legal grounds for an investigation and how quickly the investigation needs to begin. This is very challenging because the laws are quite vague and are open to great interpretation. I love this job because I’m able to problem solve and think critically and I’m not stuck in a rut of routine. The other awesome bonus is that I CAN WEAR JEANS EVERYDAY! We’re allowed to wear casual clothing everyday of the week! It’s like the best job I’ve ever had!

Other than work TJ and I have been trying to eat organically and cut our meat dependency down quite a bit. All last week we ate vegetarian lunches and organic dinners. Then our lovely snow storm hindered our newfound weekly trip to Whole Foods and we were stuck with visiting our local “what’s organic mean” grocery store. We’re going to try and continue with the vegetarian lunches and smaller portioned dinners. What was funny is that we decided to be bad and hit McDonalds today for lunch, and it didn’t have that delicious meaty/cheesy taste I remembered! I could totally taste the processed meat composition and it wasn’t all that tasty. TJ said all he could think about when eating his chicken nuggets were the poor chickens that couldn’t stand up in their closed cages. Now, I’m not saying that McDonalds is bad or anything, I’m sure sometime in the future I will crave a double cheese burger and eat one happily, but my point is that I wasn’t expecting organic eating to manipulate my taste buds that drastically…especially in one weeks time and it’s changed the way I think about food. I’m hopeful that once a week I can hit whole foods and Trader Joes and start buying all organic meats and dairy. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Also, as noted from last weekend’s adventure to Whole Foods, DO NOT EAT THE RICE DREAM ICE CREAM SANDWICHES! Oprah had Alicia Silverstone on last week and she raved about these ice cream sandwiches, we tried them, and they’re not so good.