Irish Festival

It's amazing how quickly the summer is passing by. I didn't really enjoy the first two months because searching for a job is similar to waiting for impending doom. Not in the sense that I don't like working - you just can't enjoy the time off because you never know how long you need to make your resources stretch. I feel like the coming of fall will bring the reality that we are really in Milwaukee for awhile. Everyone here talks about how much worse Minnesota winters are - I hope they are right. I officially signed up for my Biochemistry long distance learning class this week so there is no pretending that the summer will go on forever.

We have had almost nonstop rain since Friday. Despite that I still wanted to go to the Irish festival. It's the biggest in the world and the Trinity Irish dancers are well known world wide for producing the greatest dancers. So I got my mom and Emily to volunteer to come out with me and armed with umbrellas we headed out. (Milwaukee is known as the city of festivals. All summer long there are festivals each weekend ranging from music concerts to many ethnic festivals.) We stood in the rain for over two hours watching the Irish dance schools perform. It was definitely worth it - until the dancing ended and I was shivering uncontrollably. We searched for a comfortable tent but only found space on the outsides and finally left soaked. Due to the rain we left our cameras - sorry there aren't any pictures. To add to the excitement I left our lights on (which were on in the middle of the afternoon due to the overcast weather.) After several pleas we finally found a nice gentleman who helped us jumpstart the battery. (Jason bought this super cool emergency car kit so I had my own cables and lots of other stuff if I needed it.)

In other news I began a second job this week. I had a working interview on Monday afternoon and began Wednesday. This clinic is also in Glendale about a mile from our home. The office is two years old and new from top to bottom. I can't say I'm the biggest fan of their digital radiographs - their kind of an awkward transition between the old films and the new sensors but I'll get used to them. All of their charting is digital - I love that! I've been having a great time figuring out the software and trying to utilize all of it. They have an intraoral camera too which I'll get to use. This job compliments my job at the perio office which is Monday morning, Tuesday and Thursday. It makes for a ten hour monday but I still have Fridays off. Between the two jobs and the Saturdays I have lined up for the winter I should be averaging about 32-35 hours a week. Plus I might be able to pick up an occasional Friday temp day. It may have taken much longer than Jason and I would have liked, but I feel like it's been worth it to find offices that I am happy with the people and the quality of dentistry practiced there. (Especially if I end up working there for more than a year.) Due to my part time status at each office I have to carry my own benefits - but there are worse things in the world.

In other news - I'm married to a zombie, and I mean that in the nicest way possible. Jason mentioned that he hates the four am shift. For the most part I like it. I actually get to remember seeing him when he comes home between eight and nine pm. Unfortunately, due to the lack of sleep, conversation at the dinner table isn't exactly captivating. It beats the other shifts though, we'll see how we feel a couple of weeks from now.

Here's my dental school update: schools are beginning to send me notification that they have received my first application. Hence, they are politely asking for more money and more essays. Couldn't I just take another test? Actually, that wouldn't be much better. My goal is to have all of these redundant essays completed by the end of next week. Wish me luck, it involves documenting every single extracurricular I have participated in within the last seven years as well as talking about what an asset I would be to the school and the professon. Should be fun.