Last Change, I promise! I think….

I realize that the continuing changes in my life have been a bit hard to keep up with, but that's life. Even I have trouble keeping up with myself sometimes…But I'm hoping that this is the last big change for a while…I've taken a different full-time job which starts on Monday. Yeah, I know. So many jobs. But this means I'll no longer have to work more than one job or guess at how many days a week I'll be working. The main reason for the job change was that the other family that I was going to start with in January has had to push their maternity leave back until like the second week of February which means that I'd still be doing just part-time with them until she goes back to work. I just cannot keep doing this. I can't keep searching for other part-time or temporary jobs to supplement the two days a week I'd be working with them. So, that's the latest installment in my ever-evolving life.

One of my favorite things about this new job is that it's in the city! I'm going to be working in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco and I'm super excited about it! So, I'll still have to commute, but now I have the option to BART into the city instead of drive. For those of you unfamiliar with the Bay area, BART is the public train system that runs from the East Bay into the city and south of the city. It's cheap, it's easy, and I won't have to sit in traffic every morning. I will have to walk about 20-25 minutes from the station to their apartment, but ya know what? I welcome it with open arms. A mandatory session of exercise? Yes please! It won't be a short commute, but with the morning traffic getting over the Bay Bridge, it will honestly end up taking the same amount of time either way. And it is so much less stressful than freeway traffic…I could read on the way to work and that's so much more fun than getting mad about it taking 20 minutes to move 1 mile on the freeway...

Also, this family is actually from Atlanta. How exciting is that?! The mother is younger, probably only a few years old than me, and grew up in Atlanta and has family in Birmingham. We both jumped for joy when we realized that we were both Southern girls :) I went over to meet everyone today and the little boy I'll be hanging out with everyday came down the stairs and just jumped on me with a hug. We're off to a great start :) We played a little, helped put his Halloween costume together, talked with the mother and grandmother who happened to be in town, and the father (they're no longer together, but he is very much still involved in the child's life and will be interacting with me fairly frequently). I'll be working from about 8:15am to 5:15pm Tuesday through Saturday, which is odd, but it works. Having Mondays off may turn out to be amazing, we'll just have to see!

Like I said, I would normally be working Tues-Sat, but they are moving from Larkspur in Marin County (the county where I've been working for the last month) to Nob Hill on Monday, so I'm going to go to the old place Monday morning and hang out with the little one (he's 3, by the way) while mom moves and gets everything settled. I'm totally happy to be helping out and getting started so quickly! Before we ever agreed to anything, I told her about my trip to San Diego for Thanksgiving with John's family (oh yeah, I don't think I mentioned that. That's happening :) and my trip home in December for Christmas and New Year's and she was totally fine with it. That was a big relief since I'm starting so close to the holidays. Look at that, life just falling together again.

Seriously, once again, my life has fallen into place in an awesome way and has been much less stressful. I've gotten so lucky so often lately and I could not be more grateful! I feel like everything that's happened in the last month has been  what was supposed to happen all along and that it was all in the Plan from the beginning. The live-in job got me out here, brought me to John, and gave me an experience to learn from. But this is where I'm supposed to be. I feel secure in my job, have a great house with a roommate I still can't believe that I found, and finally feel independent again. I hate to leave the family I've been helping on the weekends, but I'm looking forward to no more sleeping away from home for work. I'm going to miss it :( But she did tell me that she has some social events coming this month that she could use my help for and I'll definitely jump on those opportunities! So, even though my life keeps changing and evolving quickly and suddenly, it's all been for the better. I literally have nothing to complain about.