This neverending road to cal.....zzzzzzzzzzzpppppp
oops.. Got a bit carried away. It IS my favorite some from Les Miserables though. I LOVE that show. Know it by heart. But once again I digress...
Today is my last day at work. I am leaving the inner-city of Bridgeport for the super-duper overwealthy town of Greenwich. It's a change, and not one that is easy to make, but well, circumstances are circumstances. The job kind of stumbled upon me and when I went to check it out, they made me an offer I just couldn't refuse. Significantly higher salary, with significantly less weekends and MUCH closer to home. So with gas prices being as they are, not quite $3+ a gallon but still high, and putting 50 miles a day on my car was getting expensive. My loans are killing my budget, and every other weekend was getting REALLY tiring. I REALLY missed Shabbat. It was SO hard to give up. And yet with all that, I didn't want to leave. I LOVE the hospital, I love the trauma and burns and open heart surgery and all the awesome things you get to see and learn in a Level 1 Trauma Center, a hospital with all the interesting diagnoses etc etc. I love my coworkers and leaving them is so hard. ESPECIALLY knowing that I am leaving them yet another PT short.
But more $$, one weekend day every 6-8 weeks, and 6 miles away, round trip 12, I couldn't pass it up. All the benefits of Bridgeport just couldn't compare for what I needed to do for my financial stability, and for my sanity. Between my monthly expenses, and saving for a wedding, and hopefully being able to put a down payment on a house in a couple of years, I needed to be paid more and spending less on gas. And Greenwich hospital is REALLY great.
It's BEAUTIFUL first of all. I've had hotel rooms shabbier than that hospital. Carpeting in the hallways, wood floors in patient rooms, wood paneling on the walls... Almost all the patients have private rooms, and all of them have flat screen TV's, with direct TV, Movies on Demand and Internet Hookups. The only thing that makes it look like a hospital room is the bed. There are computers everywhere, everything is charted on the computer, so no more trying to read doctor's handwriting. And I'll have access to test results, MRI's, xrays, etc, which is REALLY useful to me and almost impossible to find out sometimes with paper charts. The staff satisfaction is awesome, there's little turnover, and the patient satisfaction in in the top 1% in the country. They are financially stable so they are able to provide so much for their staff and patients. The Rehab staff seems really nice, I like my new boss so far, and well, I get my own desk, computer, and locker. Sometimes it's the simple things that are REALLY nice. PLUS it's in the same "health system" Yale New Haven health System, so I get to keep ALL of my benefits without missing a day. Which is a HUGE plus. Being without health insurance for 3 months would have been horrible. With some of my medical needs right now, I couldn't do it.
So I made the switch. Today is my last day. I start on Monday.
I'll be around on a per diem basis, and I'm probably STILL working Christmas there, but it's my last time as a full time employee.
I am SO going to miss the staff at Bridgeport. I love working with them SO much, and I'm really close to a lot, and I'm going to miss our conversations and advice and well, just seeing them. They've all been really great though. They all understand why I'm doing it, not upset, and realize that this is a good thing for my life. And they've given me a nice send off. I didn't expect much being right before Thanksgiving. But we had a happy hour last night, and they all pitched in to get me a gift certificate to one of my favorite stores, Williams Sonoma, (tee hee!!!) which I'll probably be registering at.. which they KNEW!! Secret spys... :) And a couple of people got me small personal gifts that were really meaningful and they all got me a nice card. All standard stuff to do for someone who is leaving, but it still feels really special.
And that's that. My last day. I'll probably be bawling by the end of the day. But this is a good thing. I have to keep reminding myself of that. Change is hard, especially for me, but I need to do it. The card the staff gave me said this:
Be not afraid of growing slowly, be afraid only of standing still.
-Chinese proverb
-Chinese proverb
It's a perfect send off wish. And I thank them much for it, and all else they have given me these last few years.
Goodbye Bridgeport, and thank you. Hello change, Hello Greenwich.
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