57181--after a brief hiatus

Sure I've been gone a while, but here's Hello Kitty!

So, let's see. I was sick with the flu and getting better, and on my way to jury duty. I spent two days in jury selection and was picked for the jury as juror #2. Meanwhile I still feel sickly, but jury duty is way better than work. I report for the first day of the trial, and they give us a half-hour of instructions and send us home. Later that afternoon, the court clerk calls and says the trial has been cancelled--the defendants copped a plea. I was disappointed--I even had figured out a system for organizing the notes I would take during the trial.

I had to go back to work the next day to continue working on the project that never ends. I am still coughing a lot, three weeks after I first got sick. It is probably just post-viral airway irritation, but my coworkers and I thought about what else it could be, and we decided our second choice is adult whooping cough. Anyway, I have a doctor appointment for follow-up tomorrow.

Malida's pretty much all better.

In the midst of all this, I got a call offering me a teaching job at the community college nursing program I graduated from. The program I teach for now is affiliated with this college, but I am considered an employee of the health care system. This would mean leaving the system and being an employee of the college. The pay is a lot less--just slightly more than half of what I'm making now. But there are benefits. The biggest benefit is that I would be teaching instead of working on projects. And I would have some job security. And I would love doing it.

I'm trying to figure out the long term financial implications. I make a lot of money now, but pay a lot of taxes. My take home isn't much more than Malida, who makes about half of what I do. I am also eligible for retirement from the health care organization, although it would be a lot less than if I retired at 65. But at some point I would be eligible for teacher's retirement too, so it would likely even out.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to do it. I already told my nice boss about it and she started crying. I don't think the other boss will cry. Two people have told me to brace myself for when I tell her. That might be tomorrow.

I haven't been too sick to post, just got out of the rhythm of it. Hopefully I am back in. I miss you guys!