The Interview

The day started with check-in at 8:30 and a program presentation at 9:00.  We had an opportunity to visit with current first year students before the presentation and I learned a lot about the schedule and what to expect with the workload.  After the presentation my group had a Q&A session with students where we were able to ask questions and learn even more about the program.  After this I had my interview.  I have to say that it was nice to have the interview right away, but after having a chance to talk to students because I didn’t really have a chance to get nervous and I think that helped a lot.  Plus, the interview was over and I was able to focus on the rest of the morning.  I didn’t really know what to expect with the interview.  I mean, it’s an interview so there are always things that are given, but I had heard a few horror stories from previous students so I didn’t know what to expect.  There were two interviewers; one was faculty and the other a PA from the community.  This year they decided to go a different route with the questions and asked all the students the same 15 standardized questions.  I felt that the questions were fair and pretty much just different ways of asking “tell us about yourself”.  The first question of course was why do you want to be a PA, and even though I was ready for the answer, I wasn’t sure how in depth to go so I rattled on a bit and was hoping they would ask follow up questions if they needed, but they didn’t really and just moved on to the next question.  I feel like I answered each question honestly and just tried to be myself.  The interview itself didn’t see to take too long, and afterward we had a student presentation that talked about the program from the student’s perspective and of course it made me fall in love with WSU even more.  After the presentation we had a tour which was led by one of my physics classmates from a couple years ago!  She is such a cool person and she was very helpful.  She said it took her a couple of tries to get in, and the main reason was because she didn’t have patient care experience.  She said that if she would have had even a certificate, like a C.N.A license, it would have bumped her up into the acceptance pool because just having a license gives you an extra 10 points.  This made my heart skip!  The one area I was lacking in and the most worried about, might not be as dire as I first thought!  I mean, even if I don’t get in I still have a job lined up to gain that experience, but it would sure be nice to be accepted this year and not have to go through another year of applying. 

After the tour we had a short wrap up session where we had the chance to ask any other questions and then we had a little personality assessment we had to fill out and we were done!   Now comes the longest two weeks of my life – waiting until the week of the 28^th to stalk my mailbox. 

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. And some other stuff....

So, I say this every time I post, but it has been a hellacious month.  Let me begin my starting where I left off – my birthday.

The Good:

The Wednesday before my birthday I got a call from the radio station I listen to saying that I won tickets to the Chevelle concert the Saturday after my birthday!  I was pretty excited because I never win anything and I completely forgot that I put my name in the drawing.  Then, Friday (my birthday) I received another call saying that I also won a “meet and greet” with the band before the concert!  Say what?!!!  Brad and I got to meet the band and have a picture taken along with a personally autographed band photo.  How cool is that?  The concert was awesome and it was definitely a great birthday present. 

I also finished off the semester with two A’s, woo hoo! 

The Bad:

Well, even though the concert was awesome and it was a great experience, Brad and I didn’t have as much fun as we should have due to some other issues with Brad’s work.  People that we thought were friends turned out to be really big assholes who were only out for themselves and to destroy Brad due to jealously and revenge.  Some people were trying really hard to get him fired and the Monday after my birthday and the concert was a big meeting, so we had other things on our minds.  The good news (sort of) is Brad still has a job.  On top of everything else going on at his job, the new truck he has been driving for almost a year started to breakdown.  This meant that Brad did a lot of sitting while it was being worked on, which meant less money for us to put towards the house and closing.  The truck went into the shop twice and acted up a third time, so Brad was to take it to the shop again and get in a spare truck until it was finished after the holidays.  Which brings me to -

The Ugly:

Because Brad was behind due to all the sitting around he had to do, he decided to work through the weekend before Christmas and come home Monday night and I decided to go with him over the long weekend.  Well, I met Brad on Friday and first thing Saturday morning, some jackass truck driver decided to pull out right in front of us.  The bastard didn’t even stop at the stop sign, just pulled right out and made a left turn.  The problem?  We were in the right lane coming straight at him.  There were two options, hit his trailer full of cotton or hit the ditch.  Thankfully due Brad’s quick thinking and skillful driving I am here to write this post.  Brad took the ditch route and we hit the approach went up and over it, through a fence and came to a stop.  We both had our seatbelts on and no one was hurt, but the truck was a mess.  I immediately looked at the truck and to my amazement, the fucker kept driving.  I picked up my phone and started running after him and tried to flag down a car because I knew if he left and we didn’t get a license plate or something, he would be gone and it would be a fight with the insurance company.  To my amazement, no one stopped.  Thank God we were not injured because I think we would have died out there waiting for someone to call for help.   So, after a very long day and the guy we were delivering the hay to was sweet enough to drive us to Amarillo so we could rent a car and drive home.  Not only was the accident a major event on its own, not having a truck to drive also meant that Brad was not going to be earning extra money which put us in another state of worry.  The only good thing about the accident, yes, I said good thing, was Brad caught a cold Monday and I think it turned into bronchitis.  So even if he had a truck to drive, he wouldn’t have been able to.  Plus, it gave us time to get the flooring in the new house put in.  So, even as messed up as it all was, it sort of worked out.  The cops did end up catching the other driver, and he maintains that he didn’t see anyone coming (no shit!) and that he wasn’t there when we went into the ditch.  He says we were going too fast for the corner and went off into the ditch.  Now it’s up to the insurance companies, but I really hope Brad’s company insurance doesn’t let that one slide by. 

The Other Stuff:

Due to the accident and Brad’s illness we spent a quiet Christmas at home and went over to a friend’s house for dinner. Christmas didn’t really feel like Christmas this year and after a really crappy December I was just ready to get onto the New Year.  We spent the first week in January laying the floors in the new home and I finished up the tiling last week.  I was so tired afterwards!  I know that there are quite a few spots where I messed up the cuts, but I think did ok for the first time.

And with all of the above going on, I had an interview with an assisted living facility after Christmas and got a job offer last Friday.  Orientation starts on Monday and I’m not sure how many nights I will be working a week, but it’s nice to know that I’ll finally found a job.    Oh, and I also had my PA interview last week, but I will go into that in a separate post.  :o)