Here we go again...

Yay, more stress!  So...the economy still sucks...we know that.  The fun part is that with the way things are going, I can't really afford to stay at my current job.  But it's damn expensive to move, not to mention the whole finding another job, which is easier said than done at this point in time.  Right now, my student loans are in forbearance...yay me.  So, I'm good until next February.  But what happens then?  If the economy doesn't perk up, I have to try for another forbearance and hope the feds approve it.  

Then, there is the thought of trying to find another job, something I really really don't want to do.  I'm happy where I am, aside from the reduced pay.  I don't want to have to learn a new clinic and get to know new co-workers and meet new clients.  

And the housing...as of a couple days ago, the people who own my house at the moment are trying to sell it and wanted us to be out by the end of June.  Two freaking months...ugh.  Which was throwing a real monkey wrench in the idea of finding a new job, since my contract goes through July...assuming I would be moving to some other state with a new job, that means I would have to try to find some place here to stay for a few weeks since I would have to be out of the house.  Then, we hear yesterday that they have an investor interested in buying the house who would actually like to keep the current renters in the houses so they don't have to find new ones.  Well great, except I was still planning on trying to find a new house to rent anyway...something closer to work and a little cheaper... *sigh* 

Before the idea of looking for a new job ever came up, the plan was to continue our lease here for a couple months (we had a month to month option with the current owners after the original 1 year lease was up) while looking for some place closer to work, then move in the Fall.  Now, with new owners, I don't imagine we'll get that option, so if we stay, we'll have to sign a year lease.  And if we move, we'll probably have to sign a year lease.  So then, I'm definitely stuck in the job that isn't paying enough at the moment since I can't afford two leases/rents.  Huh..what now?

If I resign my contract, which unless a job falls from the sky, that looks like it's happening, I don't know if they are going to want me to sign for a lower hours per week deal (right now they are technically in breach of contract since it says full time is 40-42 hours and I'm working 30-32 hours), so they might fix that on the new one.  And I want a clause that says I can break contract and quit with a 30 day written notice because if the economy doesn't pick up, I'm still going to be looking for a new job...which still messes with the housing idea too!  Because we'll probably be stuck in a 1 year lease no matter what we do.  My mom is going to talk to the new owners and see if she can negotiate a similar clause...30 day written notice to break lease. 

So...my options are looking something like:

a) Resign contract at work, stay in current house with new owners and 1 year lease and hope to God the economy improves...

b) Find a new job and have to rent a room from someone for a month in July to finish my contract at work...

c) Resign contract with easy out clause, still look for another job, and stay in current house with an easy out clause for if I get another job (looking like the best and most likely option at the moment)

d) Resign contract, move into a cheaper/closer house, look for a new job, and hope I can break lease...and have to move twice in less than a year...

e) Quit life and join the circus.

So yeah.  Oh, and in more work-related news, we have had a kinda crappy, kinda messed up, kinda weird couple of days at work.  Weird illnesses, cats that should be put to sleep and the owners aren't ready/don't care/don't get it, crazy owners, crazy cats, too many major crises happening to co-workers...meh.  I'm not going to get into all of that right now...I've done enough griping as is for now.  Anyway...I promise the next time I get a happy something from work, I'll update about it!!  :)  Enough rambling for now...

Another Day in the Life...

And here I am...with 3 days off.  Yay!  Work has been...challenging lately.  Yeah, we've had the physical exam and vaccine appointments...and the kitten with upper respiratory disease appointments...and the old cat dying of kidney failure appointments...but we've also been seeing a lot of weird random cases.  Or hard to treat cases.  

I had one the other day that scared the crap out of me...7-weeks pregnant (almost full-term) barn cat came in for being attacked by a dog.  Only wound (amazingly) was a hole in the skin of her belly near her back legs.  But it was infected and big and needed to be cleaned up, have dead tissue cut away, and stitched shut before she had kittens.  And we can't use...pretty much anything in our clinic...to anesthetize a pregnant cat safely.  So we had to weigh options and just go with it and fix her as fast as humanly possible.  Which I did.  And I had no way of knowing if I had just killed the kittens to save the mom or if they would live.  And then we get a call the next day that she's gone into labor.  Oh yay.  But somehow she pulled through, and so did most of the kittens.  She had 7 total - 5 are still alive, 1 was stillborn, 1 died a day later.  Minor miracle in Washington folks!  

Then, I have a weird vomiting cat who has weird blood work changes that I have absolutely no explanation for.  And the owner has no money to persue.  The cat could have parasites, allergies, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, who knows?  So...we tried some Pepcid (yep, same stuff you and I take for heartburn...works nice in cats too) and apparentely I worked wonders with Pepcid.  Because the cat hasn't vomited in 3 days, and it's been vomiting 3-4 times a day for the past few months!  I still have no frickin' clue what's going on, but at least the cat is feeling better.  So we'll see what happens...*sigh*

And of course on top of the weird cases at work, there is the stress from the economy...especially since contract renewal time is rolling around...no indication that I might lose my job, but the thought keeps floating around the back of my mind.  I guess we'll see what happens in the next month or so...

Oh, and my car went retarded the other day and one of the little indicator lights came on.  Turns out the thermostat was going ka-put, so they had to replace that.  Only $400... -.-  And my mom's van had an indicator light come on too!  I mean honestly?  Can we not get a break somewhere along the line?  If I believed in the big man upstairs, I would say that I pissed someone up there off royally...  My mom's turned out to be her catalytic converter trying to die, so we are having to replace that to the tune of ~$350.  Oh, and did I mention my realtor might be trying to sell the house I'm renting out from under me?  Ugh...

But in some good news, the weather is getting nicer again, so maybe I can start checking out some stuff in the area...maybe.  My mom is trying to get me to join some sort of...something...locally, like a hiking club or whatever, to try to meet people...think she is almost as tired of me being single as I am.  Unfortunately, my work schedule doesn't mesh well with something that is a regular weekly/monthly/whatever sort of meeting, as I am never working the same days every week.  Maybe I'll just take the ballroom dancing lessons I wanted to take.  

Anyway, in spite of all my griping, life is going OK.  I'm OK, Mom's OK, cats are good.  Hopefully things stay at least "OK".  :)