One chicken, two chicker .... stop that!

Don't count your chickens before they're hatched. However ...

I think the interview went pretty well. The job ad that I saw did not mention that they were looking for someone with Windows certs. But, they were hoping to get someone with Windows certs. They didn't focus on that for very long though. I think I came off pretty strongly. I even offered up some well received security recommendations for some situations that came up off handedly. I won't go into details, but I think I scored quite a bit on at least one observation and one suggestion.

Now, here's hoping that no one else came off as well AND that they can afford me. They have a good sized IT staff, and the position reports directly to the CIO. So, it their salaries are at all competitive, it could work out just fine.

... three chicken, four chicken... STOP THAT! (grin)

Me, Obsess?

OK. Today is the day. I took off from work to get myself in the right mind-set and to make final preparations for THE interview. I will definitely post tomorrow on how I felt it went.

I have been exercising somewhat regularly. I have gone back to using exercise bike to as dedicated fiction-reading time. That is a pretty good motivator for me.

As of this morning I am down THIRTY POUNDS since the beginning of the year. I am very pleased with myself on that front. My short term goal is to drop another nine pounds in the next month (before our vacation). While this may seem pretty ambitious, I will feel so much better about being lax with my diet on vacation if I can hit that milestone first.

Since I have been stressing about my current job, THE interview, school, my weight, my finances, and the price of tea in China (not really but you get the idea), I decided to treat myself to an "unwind day" tomorrow. I'll be spending the morning at a day spa getting a body wrap and a facial. Really looking forward to that. Unfortunately, I'll need to lose a bit of ground on the serenity front in the afternoon meeting a deadline for some school work. Still. Spahhhhhhhh.

Serious Study Weekend

My interview with the hospital is on Wednesday. I plan to spend the better part of this weekend prepping for it. I have a lot of reading materials on HIPAA. And, I need to take some policies and procedures that I've written for my current job and transform them into a shareable format (ie., no protected information can be revealed).

Several people from the office have offered to write me letters of recommendation. And, while I'm nervous about this interview, many of my friends have been VERY supportive. Thanks, folks!

I also applied for another health-related IT job on Friday morning before leaving for work. The recruiter contacted me within the hour!!! I am hoping to snag an interview out of that one once the hiring manager has reviewed my resume. While it would be a great opportunity, I'm looking at it as a "backup job" to the hospital position.

Come on Karma Fairies, help me out here. Don't you think I'm due after 5.5 years in my current (withholding all the negative adjectives) job?

No guts, no glory

I'm prepping for an interview with a hospital in 10 days. The postion would be in charge of data privacy and security for the entire hospital, including creation of policies and training staff. This is exactly the job I went back to school for. However, I thought I'd have to go to school for two more years to be qualified. I'm kind of stressing about it. But, no guts - no glory.

Trying to look at the interview as an opportunity to see what such a job would actually require. On the other hand, I REALLY want the job. On the other other hand, it might be frightening to actually get it and have to live up to that responsibility. Plus, I'm pretty sure that the salary is going to be pretty pathetic, and I can't take that big of a pay cut right now. The plan was to take the cut in two years. Then again, jobs like these don't grow on trees in my neck of the woods. (Oh, and it's less than ten minutes from my house.)

Child proof silliness

I'm sure we've all had at least one frustrating experience with a child-proof medicine cap. The joke is, "if you want to get into a child-proof bottle, just ask a child to open it for you." In point of fact, I know a number of kids that can easily open those things. It's a skill they pick up around age 5 or 6, I think.

Today, I was trying to open such a bottle. It contained lactase tablets, a necessity for those of us who can't ingest milk products without dire side effects. Since I didn't have my glasses on, I was having a hard time lining up the arrows on the cap and bottle. Then, out of the haze of my frustration, it occured to me. Why do lactase tablets need to be child-proofed? If a child were to get into a bottle and ingest all of them, what would happen to them? From what I've read online it's nearly impossible to "overdose" on an enzyme.

Maybe we should put child-proof tops on other things, like alcoholic beverages or high sugar breakfast cereals. Then again, as I joked earlier, most kids over the age of 6 can get into that packaging without a problem.

Maybe what we really needs is adult-proof packaging. What things is it ok for kids to have and not adults? OK, I'm back to the high sugar breakfast cereals for starters. How about anything high in sugar, fat, sodium, or cholesterol. Think about it: adult-proof bacon packaging!!! Adult-proof pickle jars.

What if it were suddenly ilegal for anyone over the age of 21 to buy food that was bad for you. Imagine going to the grocery store and trying to buy a half gallon of Starbucks Espresso Ice Cream. The cashier asks you for ID to prove that you are under 21. Or, anticipating this, you hand your child the money and the booty in the frozen food aisle and ask them to go purchase it for you.

When K and I went out for ice cream on Friday night, he remembered that I was both on a diet and lactose intollerant. As I started to eat my "no sugar added" treat, he suddenly looked at me very seriously and asked, "Are you allowed to have that?" I justified it with its low sugar content, and also noted that I'd taken some lactase before hand. He was somewhat satisfied, but he still gave me a bit of a disapproving glance.

Our kids always act like they know more than us. Wouldn't it be funny if they were the gatekeepers for our unhealthy consumptive habbits?