I know, I know; I promised to write FREQUENTLY, but....well, the Nature of life, work, and catching up on sleep win out too often. No more empty promises, but here we go again:

IF: you are very shy, nervous in new situations, prefer a quiet corner to hustle and bustle, and are VERY reluctant to jump into the unknown, should you be a missionary or a hospital chaplain? Well, it turns out I'm really all of the above, but once I experience a call from the Lord, and find something I really want to do, I usually manage to move ahead. This is often a joint manuever with lots of encouragement and occasional material help from the Better Half,(no exagerration in our case.)

Circumstances conspired to require me to jump right in to several half days at the larger hospital, almost before completing Orientation, and then a chance came up to work 2 entire days at their smaller sister hospital. I have not been at all familiar with that one, so while getting reacquainted with my old place, was also trying to learn the layout and regs at a new one. This is not so bad, but add in a person who has had the job a long time and tends to be territorial, and the old nerves start creating butterflies and sleepless nights.

Possible solutions:

-Toss in the towel completely and go back to running the kitchen and redesigning my husband.

-Partial towel-toss, refuse the job at the smaller hospital and never know if I could have done it.

-Dither around, consult with head of Chaplains, pray and dither, then DO IT.

I chose #3. Yesterday I put in the full day there; my energy held out and so did my nerves. I was paged to the ICU and the PSYCH ward, neither of which I was supposed to go to UNLESS I was paged. And tonight I'm on call all night at the bigger place. Might be lively with early St. Pat's Day celebrations.

Maybe a report on the new feline gentleman in the house next time.