2018 Year in Review

Our year in review 

This year had some major peaks and valleys

January

I got a new job. My first legit full-time job before I even graduated. Important work, a great team, benefits.

February

I was learning my new job and handing off my old job. I had committee comments that I spent a few months responding to, and a lot of Feb was spent setting up a response system so that each committee member could see how I responded to their comments.

March

Got approval to defend my dissertation. This was a month of last minute edits and formatting changes.

April

Defended my dissertation and became a doctor! Yahoo!! NO REVISIONS!! Even the formatting was done, so besides a few more tiny hoops, I was done. Should be able to sit back and enjoy my new job, right? Well, the Monday after the Friday that I defended, I got an email about a new job opportunity-more responsibility, more money, better benefits. I had to jump. So I spent the rest of the month deciding to apply and applying-along with my normal job. I only took one extra day off in April, and that was the day before my defense, when we traveled to my school for my defense.

May

My graduation! We all went to my graduation and it was an amazing moment. No time for rest though, because the Monday after the Saturday that I graduated, I had an interview for this new job.
May was a flurry of interviews and follow up interviews and letting my supervisors know that I might be leaving.

June

I spent most of the month in limbo: background investigation! Deep, probing, long-spanning questions about my life. And interviews and phone calls with the investigator. Meanwhile, I am (for the second time this year) handing off my current job and wrapping up my projects. But this time I don’t really know if I am ultimately going to get the job. So June was a super depressing month.
To top it off, The Dude lost his job in June. Finances were even tighter, and he entered the realm of the Unemployed.

July

My beloved canine companion passed away on July 1.

And I got the job. So the first half of the month was spent grieving my lost dog and feeling the elation of a new job and the sadness of leaving my old job.
And then, the day before the last day at my old job, the Dude checked into the hospital with diverticulitis. He went into the hospital on Wednesday, my last day was Thursday (I worked full-time, alternative schedules and had every other Friday off). I started my new job on Monday July 30th and asked to leave early so I could go to the hospital while he had his first operation. And that is how I finished off July, in a new job and staying at the hospital.

August

A blur of a hospital stay, more surgeries, at home recovery, and learning my new job.

Oh, and having to say goodbye to our other beloved canine companion.

August was not a fun or easy month.

September-December

We start to climb out. My job is great. The Dude is slowly but surely recovering. Our finances are a mess. We have begun to face the facts and clean up our act on a couple of areas: housekeeping and finances. Neither are fun to deal with, but we are scratching a small dent in them. The Dude is working a temp job that is going well.

In January, he will have a surgery to reverse the colostomy. 4-6 weeks of healing from that, and hopefully we will be operating at 100% by next summer.

This year has been long and tumultuous. It has been difficult for our country in so many ways, and for our family it has been riddled with highs and lows. But we have learned and grown a lot from it, and we are here at the end of the year, intact and ready to face the new year.

Happy 2019 everyone. I hope it brings peace and joy.