"It's A Beginning"

These last few months have been productive, but stressful. I've gotten the hang of nursing school-- my test grades have increased with the last three tests, and I'm feeling good heading into the final. On the other hand, our financial road has been rocky. We hadn't counted on Kim being unemployed for nearly six months.

There were definitely some breaks we got, with no small thanks to President Obama: were it not for the health insurance COBRA subsidy that the federal government provided, that expired today, we would not have been able to continue the insurance we got from Kim's last job. As the end of that loomed-- and the end of Kim's unemployment benefits-- we were getting nervous, and trying to figure out a way for me to stay in nursing school. Fortunately, Kim got a new job, with good salary and great medical benefits, a couple of weeks ago.

We're still not out of the woods. I'd hoped to keep working my waitering job for another year and a half while I was in school. The money is generally good and the hours work out so that I can work around my school schedule and still spend time with my kids. Last week, we discovered that the owners have put the business and building up for sale.

In this economy, it might be a while before they sell. Still, I'm going to begin looking for a new job immediately; I don't want to be in a position of having to find a new job with a week's notice. I'm barely holding my head over the financial water as it is.

Today, I realized that the stress was getting to me. And I decided to fall back on an old stress-reliever-- running. A couple of my favorite bloggers (Skyler's Dad and Churlita) and also one of my study partners, who are all in my general age demographic, have inspired me.

So tonight, after finishing some schoolwork, I put off my nightly couple of glasses of red wine and dug the sweats and pair of Reeboks that had been gathering dust in my closet, put on my Ipod shuffle and got out and ran nearly two miles. When I got back, my daughter mentioned that I hadn't been gone that long. I told her that I ran a little over a mile and a half. It wasn't much, I pointed out. But it's a beginning.

And now I'm enjoying that glass of red wine.