The day before Halloween

This is the first post I've written in approximately eight weeks. It's certainly not the first time since then that I've thought about writing anything. I've thought of things I could sit down and write about, but I couldn't find the motivation. Just a couple of days, I figured I was done with this, and thought this blog would just pass into the endless sea of abandoned Internet detritus. Ever since I decided not to force myself to update on a regular basis, I think I got lazy and unmotivated. 

A lot has happened since my last post. My thirty-first birthday was this last Sunday, October 25th, and I was able to celebrate with a group of friends after church. Lunch gave me the opportunity to catch up with people, many of whom I had not seen in the area of several months. 

One downside of last weekend was the unexpected gift of a case of shingles. As a result, what was meant to be just one paid day off on Monday turned into having to take the entire week off work because I was potentially contagious to anyone who might not have had chicken pox and for any coworkers who are pregnant (of which I have at least one). I'm tentatively scheduled to return to work on Monday, but I'm taking a "wait-and-see" approach. Research tells me that shingles can take up to a month to finally clear up, and Monday is the soonest that I might no longer be contagious. 

Whatever the case, I still had a very good birthday. I received the only gift I wanted, a brand-new iPod Touch. I'm writing this post on it. It's been a little weird for me to get it, though. I used my last iPod so much, it was a pretty big loss when it was misplaced at work, but I eventually got used to not having it. It was all too easy for me to put on my headphones and just tune the world out. That wasn't the right thing to do, as I think it led to ignore things I should've been working on my life and my work with God. So, now that owning one has come back into my life, I have to recognize that sometimes, I have to put away distractions and focus on what The Lord would have me do.

Speaking of what The Lord would have me do, things have taken an unexpected turn on the course of my future career ambitions. God has brought back into my life the idea of trying to get hired as a pharmacy technician. I'd let go of the idea a few years ago, figuring that if that was what I was supposed to be doing, it would've happened already. The whole thing came back when I got a letter from the California Board of Pharmacy telling me that it was time to renew my license. I briefly considered just letting it go, having only ever renewed my license because I thought it looked good on my résumé. 

However, I went to dinner in mid-September to celebrate a friend's birthday, and got to talking with another friend of hers, an emergency doctor. When I told about how I went to tech school and got my license but couldn't get hired anywhere, he encouraged me to give it another try. I renewed my license, and now I need to see anout reestablishing my board certification, as well as renewing my CPR certification. I don't know where God will lead me from here, but He has certainly put it on my heart to act in this direction, so I would hop and pray for wisdom and that trust in Him with all my heart (Proverbs 3:5).