Needing a Break

Tonight, I find myself barely able to comprehend what has gone on in the last week. I've hit the wall, my friends... at 90 miles per hour without any brakes!

It was a little over a week ago that I started back to work, after 4 months of leisure... stressful in and of itself, right? Three days later - we're gearing up for a major hurricane.

Lived through the storm that, I swear, wanted to terrify even the biggest cynics about hurricane preparedness. I think it'll be a loooooooong time before anyone in the Greater Houston area shrugs off a hurricane again.

Since the hurricane - John's family has been staying with us, which by itself isn't bad - but it is very different from what I'm used to... 6 extra people in the house for a couple of days is a lot to handle when you're used to it being just John and you.

Susan and her family have since gone home because they've gotten power restored at their place... but in the midst of that we found out that John's grandmother was sick... so last night we went to the hospital to check on her.

I had to go back to work this morning, which I'll tell you about in a minute... but John's grandmother had brain surgery this morning too - which was stressful for me because I desperately wanted to be at the hospital supporting my husband and his family during a tough time. Being so new to a job though - it wasn't a good idea to rock the boat just yet.

Going back to work has been eye opening and draining. We are the largest human service organization in the Greater Houston area - we have 60 different service locations providing everything from senior care to childcare... and our clients are in some of the hardest hit areas from Ike. So, my office is helping to coordinate some of the FEMA relief efforts among other relief efforts as well.

While I was carrying on my day - there were people running all over the place worried about getting our centers back up and running to serve the public, but also to help make sure that the population gets the help they need to start getting back on their feet.

Today, I truly became a useful part of the team though - they finally had a critical need for my position and I've been working nonstop all day on a project that lends itself well to my expertise. They have been very happy with my work so far (thank goodness!) and it was nice to be busy for a change... it certainly passed the time!

The work is so much more in line with things that I'm good at and interested in - so it was really nice to have things to do and not loathe the projects like I did at my last job. I hated it so much there for so many reasons that I just couldn't bring myself to do the work some days... I don't think that will be the case here... it's MUCH more in line with my interests.

So if I can't teach right now - at least I'm doing my second favorite thing, right?

That's pretty much the last week in a rundown - and the rest of this week and weekend don't show any signs of slowing down much... I might be brain-dead by the time we get done with church on Sunday...