Well, as I'm certain many of you have been following my Dilbertesque work sagas that I blog about every so often, I am pleased to announce a very positive change in my life! I have a new job! It's actually a part-time position at a clinic-based pharmacy allowing me to keep weekends at my favorite current location uptown (I'd miss the patients and the staff there too much to leave!!), but the great news is that the benefits are going to be much nicer. Medical and dental start out at 20 hours/week so if I wanted to take a class or two, I could do so without spreading myself too thin.

One of the coolest things about my new job is the benefit for working moms. No, I'm not a working mom, but if I were a working mom I'd be taking full advantage of this: let's say you are supposed to be at work and your child is sick. Daycare won't take your child due to illness but you don't want to miss work and neither does your employer. Well, this company has a program where you can call in for registered nurse to come take care of your child for you while you are at work. You pay the RN $3/hour...the company picks up the remainder! Is that cool or what?

OK, ideally, we women would all be at home raising our children while our husbands are at work, but unfortunately, that's not the way the real world works most of the time. I think this is a darn good compromise!

Oh, and the best thing about my new job....no more customers rudely interrupting me with "Where's the shoe polish?" while I'm trying to help a patient or concentrate on verifying a script. All of this begins next week, just in time to ring in the new year.

Other news...I got a bread machine for Christmas. On the forum, Cocky has a great spelt bread recipe that I'm eager to try out! I also got some awesome Wustof knives from my dad. And some cast iron cookware. Dear Lord that stuff is heavy. I gotta get my butt back to the gym just so I can actually cook with this stuff!!!

The building biology stuff is coming slowly but surely at my new humble abode. It's an expensive project but as a pharmacist, it's easy to budget for it with each paycheck. Even so, the more I learn about this, how can one afford not to do this to one's home?

Christmas, Christmas, I don't want to talk about Christmas. It never goes quite right for me. My favorite intern/tech and little buddy Elana is inviting me to light the menorah with her and her honey. Maybe that's a sign. Hey, I've already given up pork due to the BTD. It's really wouldn't be a big deal for me if I one day decided to convert, just a blow to my Irish Catholic side of the family, haha. Well, it's a thought anyway. Amazing how our tribal forces within our upbringing can inhibit personal growth and instill a deep sense of inner conflict. Well, my family all thinks I'm a weirdo anyway so would it really be that much of a shock? Hmmm....

In fact, in my mom's annual holiday letter to friends and family, she basically gives a reader's digest version of each family member's year in review. Mine went something like, "Erika is continuously trying to convert us to organic living. But I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be using this bottle of flaxseed oil she gave me on my salad or my dermatitis."

With that thought in mind, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!