'Daddy got a new job!'

Yesterday’s trip to Norman proved informative. I found out OU’s massive journalism program – centered in a state-of-the-art facility built by the trust of and named for Oklahoma’s Edward Gaylord, family publisher of The Oklahoman – has no online courses.


What?

At a time when journalism is depending on the Internet to endure tough economical times, I found it a bit ironic that the school that teaches this very concept has yet to move any of its classes to the World Wide Web.

So, my options will be to drive to Norman once or twice a week for two or three years or look for a university that is closer and/or offers more online courses.

I’ll be visiting UCO tomorrow with Joseph and his two buddies, Shane and Duane, so I’ll check out what UCO has to offer.

I’ve also contacted Dr. Joey Senat, who I know through our membership to FOI Oklahoma. He is a professor with OSU’s journalism program. He contacted the journalism department chair, Dr. Stan Ketterer, and I am to get a hold of him soon for a tour and meeting. Hopefully, I can schedule this within the next couple weeks because I need to start making some decisions.

I must admit, I’m growing fond of the “free” lifestyle. I’ve told Jeromy about four million times I don’t feel like I have an identity anymore. I can’t seem to transition my schedule from going, going, going, doing, doing, doing to staying at home and taking care of things here.

I feel guilty for taking time out of the day to exercise. I feel guilty for taking time for myself. I feel like I need to be contributing financially to our household.

Alas, my husband keeps reassuring me that he’s got things covered. He keeps saying, “Do what you want, and don’t feel guilty about it. Go to school. Go tour. Write all day long if you like. I will take care of everything.”

Where did I find this man? Well, I found him at a karaoke bar in Ponca City, but we always joke about how God sent us both to the bar on the same night. God sending people to bars? Sounds odd, but we believe it’s true. At that time, a bar was the only place we would have found each other. Since then, we have probably been to any bar less than 10 or 15 times, and that was when we first started dating and early in our marriage. I honestly can’t remember the last time I was in a bar. Homecoming two years ago, maybe?

Jeromy did go uptown last year during homecoming. I opted to stay home. He found himself in the midst of a poker game and managed to visit with everyone until nearly 4 a.m.! I teased him for several days – as it took him about that long to recover. We’ll see what homecoming brings this year. hehe.

Yesterday, while I was in Norman, he called to tell me he was starting his new job. Since I’ve known him and since we’ve been married, he’s been self-employed with his construction business, which keeps him more than busy, and then he ran the lumber yard, which was like 12 jobs all rolled into one.

For the first time in about 15 years, my hubby has a “real” job. He is now the maintenance superintendent at Servant Living Center. He said his first day felt like retirement. He loved it!

He thought he would feel guilty (and secretly, I think he did) for not breaking his back all day, but he still loved it. Today will be a huge hurdle for him. He has to go to Blackwell to buy materials to fix the roof at the nursing home. He said last night it will be weird to shop on someone else’s dime. He’s used to eating a lot of that mileage and time – and sometimes money – to pick up the necessary materials it takes to complete a job. Now, he will be getting paid to do that. I told him to consider it a HUGE blessing, and he does.

I’m very proud of him for taking the job. I know he wanted to, but I know he also felt like he was throwing away his construction business. I keep reassuring him he is not.

He will continue to do handy work and help those who need “fix-its” here and there. He just may not be able to take on big jobs that require weeks of all-day work. This is what he struggles with. He likes those big jobs. They provide him with a feeling of stability and good-doing (not sure if good-doing is an actual phrase, but it’s an adequate description that makes sense to me).

I probably shouldn’t be blogging about him. It drives him nuts when someone asks him about something I’ve written, and he doesn’t have a clue I’ve written anything.

So, I guess I’ll stop with just one more comment: the girls are even excited about dad’s new job. The first thing they said to me when I walked in last night was not, “Mom, we missed you!” It was, “Mom, daddy got a new job!”

Justine told me again first thing when she woke up this morning. I’m glad they’re excited. It’s nice having some normalcy around here.

And since my husband is off taking care of us, and I have been told I can do whatever I want whenever I want, I guess I’ll get to that dreaded bookwork. It’s not really what I WANT to do but is, unfortunately, a necessary evil our household requires.

Tomorrow, I’m off to UCO and then to Midwest City for the Oklahoma Press Association Mid-Winter Convention, so I may not blog for a few days. If not, I’ll be back Monday or Tuesday with updates of the weekend.

Until then, have a great week!

Readings:

Matthew 12:38-50
Acts 18:1-17
Psalm 29
Exodus 16-18