Apparently, I am in a once a month writing mode. It could be worse. Again, wish I could say that I have been writing my little heart out, creating that book, writing articles, whatever, but, again, I haven’t been doing that at all. What is my main aversion to writing these days? I have no idea other than feeling overwhelmed by the day-to-day stuff. The laptop goes into the cupboard since it is so damn cold here lately and promptly gets forgotten about. Ok. Not forgotten about, just not something that comes to mind all that often. The times I have pulled out my laptop have not been for writing or anything related to it. sigh I guess it is what it is. I am writing right now and I guess that is better than nothing.
I gave two-week notice to the woman I have been working for. She immediately counter offered a pay raise and asked me if I want to handle the interviews for new applicants for the position and train them, paid for both of those. I can do that. So far, there was one woman who was supposed to meet me at a clean for a working interview but she never showed. We shall see how this goes.
So, my back has been getting worse. It seems to take less and less for it to start making it difficult to move without intense pain. I have stated about a million times by now that I need to find work that is not labor intensive. The downside, major downside, to this is that everything I know how to do is labor intensive in one fashion or another. Finding work outside of the industries I have experience and skills in looks a whole lot like a huge pay cut. That doesn’t feel productive. I know it would grow back up with time but…well, I’m not sure how many more blows to my pride I can take before I start to lose a sense of me. No worries. I have a solution.
I went to Tacoma Community College last week to see what programs they offer that take one year or less. This ended me up at the WorkForce building across from the Admissions building. WorkForce specializes in worker retraining, WorkForce, the Opportunity Grant, and Bfet programs. Basically, they help you train, retrain, and/or go to/back to school to find a career, get into a new one, and they fund it or help you find funding to do so. I attended their workshop, talked with the ‘navigator’ they assigned me to, then took all the info I had gathered and let it stew for a couple of days.
Originally, I wanted to take Tacoma Community College’s Medical Diagnostic Sonographer/Ultrasound Tech program, a two-year degree program. Honestly, I still do want to get that degree but I think I have put together a great game plan for getting there. A stepping stone program that will give me some of what I will need for the Sonographer course, give me skills I can utilize to bring an income in while going to school and will cost me nothing but time. Sure, it’s going to take more time to get to that end goal, but I think it will go more smoothly and be worth the added time. So, what is this stepping stone program? Medical Scribe.
The course is about 3 quarters long, but, with the classes I’ve already taken while getting my Criminal Justice degree, it’s looking like the Medical Scribe course may only take me 2 quarters, which would be awesome. Starting national average median salary for Medical Scribe? Almost $27000. Yes, less than what I had gotten used to but still not bad and completely enough to stay alive on, especially if my husband is working too. I have an appointment tomorrow with the person that runs the class to finish getting everything set up.
After the WorkForce workshop last week, I went to the job search sites that I had already signed up with and changed my search to Medical Scribe jobs, just to see what might be available in the area and common salary amounts. So far, everything that has come in has left me feeling pretty good about taking this path.
One of the things I like about both the Medical Scribe program and the Medical Diagnostic Sonographer course is that they are not labor intensive but also not a desk job. I would still be moving around, not stuck in a cubicle. That really is key for me I think. The very idea of being in a sedentary job depresses me.
So, yeah, that’s the plan. Keep your fingers crossed for me that all turns out well and the college and I are capable of getting everything put together, along with the funding package, by the end of the day tomorrow, the funding deadline for Winter quarter.
Dragonfly Gypsy USA 