Life Plan

Yes, so I have one. Sort of. I don't know about other people, but I have an innate need to plan my life out. I know for a fact that 95% of these plans are changed or altered or completely ignored. I don't care. I just need a path, a plan, an idea.

So here's my current road: I'm doing the vegan thing for food. That's going ok- I have cheated but I'll write more about that later when I unpack this whole vegan process. Needless to say- it has shifted my focus onto much better food- and that is successful enough for now. I did feel horrible when I screwed up the timing of dinner and forgot that I was working childcare at the church last night- so basically no dinner was made and we did a quicky soup heat up. Jason was starving and ran out and got "vegan" popsicles (with no nutritional value) and "vegan" cookies (although upon a closer look they weren't) and we ate our "vegan" weight in both. So yea- make dinner filling. Another day another try.

So we've covered food. Job- this is kind of huge and I owe my recent revelation to my good friend Nancy who has an uncanny way of seeing truth, logic, and the "duh" and is happy to share it if you give her room. So she did- and it really was a "duh" moment for me. I was telling her how I had a contact in the working world and was holding off on applying to be a substitute (in the local school system, of which half the administration and teaching faculty seem to attend our church). Nancy said the first logical thing, which was essentially "why are you holding back on an open door? You have to chase every lead!" She was right. Then even she discovered just how right she was. I mentioned that 2 things were in my mind: 1) We could be pregnant at any point now, and 2) We could move. In my mind- I wanted a job that would give me some benefits through paid maternity leave and also one that wouldn't be totally mad if I moved. Nancy then pointed out the obvious: most places don't pay your maternity leave until you work there at least a year, if that, so don't count on that benefit ever- AND if I do have a baby AND move within the year- why am I trying to get a "real" job? Do I really want to go back to work when the baby is 4 weeks old?

Good point.

And here's what made me able to hear this logic: A) Jason and I recently reworked our budget and are trying to see if we can live on his salary- it'll be really tight, but if we know we can do that- than anything I make is insurance! B) I really really really don't want to leave a 4 week old baby at home. C) I have a long-term goal- so we can make the short term work to get what I want.

What do I want? (other than to be rich and not worry about this at all- and happily pay more taxes) I want to be home with my newborn- whenever that is. I want to have the flexibility to take a sick day or a vacation without it counting against me. I want to have the ability to make some money and feel like I am contributing to my family and my community. I want to be able to work towards a long-term goal without exhausting myself with the short-term survival method. Substituting just might be the ultimate answer! So there's that.

What's my long term goal? Other than being a famous author (yea- I should make a plan for that)... I am looking into chaplaincy. I hesitate even to say I want to be one, because I don't know if I can give myself that much credit yet. Chaplaincy is hard! In order to become a chaplain- I basically have to do 2 major things: Get ordained and take 4 units of CPE. Translation for those who are not surrounded my seminarians (ppl who went to divinity school)- I need to do a boatload of hours as an intern as a hospital chaplain (by boatload I mean maybe up to 4 years!). I need to pick a denomination, then attend, then join, then start the process of ordination- and this could take 2-4 years as well.

I have: attended a UCC church (United church of Christ- the cool progressive people who don't hate gay people and believe that God is still speaking in this world). I chose this denomination because I've been infatuated with them since I was in seminary. Some cool facts: they were the first denomination to ordain women, african-americans, gay people, and they have often been in the front of the line of churches when figuring out social justice issues (for example, they figured out that slavery was bad long before many other denominations). I was inspired to become a part of a group that seems to have a knack for getting it.

So last week I went to a teeny tiny church with maybe 15 people and it was totally great and scary. The tiny part makes me nervous- because to be involved means to be completely visible and not able to hide. Cool points: there were at least 4 different races, all ages and gay and straight- this diverse demographic represented in just 15-20 people! Our church of 2000 barely accomplishes that! This week I'm going to another UCC church that is a little more established and big- so I'll let you know how that goes.

Ok- I'm exhausted and I'm sure you're bored. There's my life plan. Soon I will tell you how I feel about it. ; )