peacing out

So, here we are at the second to last post.  I say second to last because my new blog will be up on Monday, and I’m planning to post the link here!

I’ve been so flattered by all of you who have told me you miss this blog.  Believe me, I miss it, too!  And since I never intended for it to be about anything more than my life and what I was up to, it would have been perfectly okay with me if no one read it except my family and Molly (mostly because she had right of refusal for any unbecoming pictures of her I might have posted.  Let’s be honest, y’all all got to know her real well).  But read you did!  And quite loyally, too.  I kid you not, there were friends of friends who walked into my house and already knew me because of my blog!  I don’t even think that’s creepy.  In fact, it might be the highest compliment I’ve ever been paid.  And because of the pictures I posted here (and my sweet friends, Lauren and John), I ended up photographing four engaged couples and two families, and I’m shooting my first wedding this March. 

Closing the book on this chapter in Washington is exceptionally difficult.  I’m not exaggerating when I say I cried all the way back to Raleigh and continued to do so for the next week.  DC is a place I knew I wanted to live since I was in middle school, and I thought, “Even if I don’t ever work there, goodness knows I’ll retire there.”  Well, Jesus must’ve gotten a real big kickout of that one, because a) my job at ICMA was my first “big girl” job, and b) you probably couldn’t pay me to retire there. Not because I didn’t love every inch of it, but because when you’re 65 years old, I just think you’ve earned the right to not sit in any more traffic jams.  But given the right circumstances, would I have stayed?  Absolutely.  Occasionally, I would hear people say, “Oh mygoodness, I would never raise a family here.  Can you imagine?”  Actually, I think that area would be one of the most wonderful places to send your kids to school.  You’d never run out of things to do, and as a family, you quite literally would get to experience history every day. 

As it turns out, moving was one of the best decisions I ever made.  In October, I had applied for a new job with the City of Raleigh, where I had worked prior to joining ICMA.  I’m very risk-averse, so it was out of character for me to throw all my eggs into that one basket, but that’s exactly what I did.  I had decided that I wanted to either return to the City or just focus on school.  I interviewed with the Facilities & Operations division (within Parks & Recreation) in early November and found out in early December (two weeks before I left ICMA) that I had gotten the job!  You can’t even imagine how relieved I was!  It’s exceptionally hard to get a job these days, but in local government? Forget about it.  But it was where I wanted to be, and God’s timing once again proved itself to be perfect.  Because not only did I have a new job in the perfect environment for me, but I found out in early January that my team’s director at ICMA, who had been my only supervisory advocate, had been asked to resign.  I had sensed that was coming, but I never thought it would happen so soon. God took unbelievably good care of me. Why do I ever doubt?

In fact, quite a few things fell into place as I moved back to Raleigh.  Some family friends of ours had an empty condo they wanted to rent out, and my sister and I were essentially able to move our stuff right in! We’ve been able to paint it and get everything set up just the way we like it, and it surprised us how quickly it felt like home.  Confession: I’m still unpacking.  If you know anything about me at all, you are not shocked.

So, I’m finally a little bit settled, and I love, love, love my new job.  I have bosses who are not only Christians, but are willing to teach me just about anything I want to know.  What I’ve learned in my three years in the professional world is that there is little more valuable than that.  And not only will they teach me, but they motivate me to want to pick up books on sustainability and geothermal energy and electrical wiring and all those things I would have never learned from an Excel spreadsheet.

So, those of you who thought heard I’d be getting a masters in teaching are probably wondering why in the world I haven’t mentioned it yet.  Well, call me Flaky McFlakerson, but it took me approximately five hours of work in the municipal building to realize I just wanted to go back to my public administration program.  I lost some of my love for local government for a little while, but oh, did it come back.  So, my rear will be back in the classroom at NC State come August, and I’m trying not to wish the days away, but I’m pretty stinkin’ excited about it.

Congratulations!  You made it to the end of this post.  That is dedication, my friend.  And get excited about the new blog!  It has all the cheesiness of this one, but your girl has learned some html coding, so it’s about 5000% better looking.

See you on Monday!