The Summer of Transitions

This summer has turned out to be much different than I anticipated. It started off with a bang with graduation and our family cruise. In May when I spoke with people from my future VA job, and we set a tentative start date of July 7, assuming I could get licensed as a pharmacist by the end of June. However, by the end of June I was still waiting to even get the authorization to test from the State Board of Pharmacy, so I was stuck in this weird limbo between intern and pharmacist. Thankfully, I was, and am still, able to work nearly full-time at Walgreens during this in-between period. However, as a grad intern at Walgreens I was still doing the same job I was before, so I was ever so anxious to begin being the real pharmacist on duty. I was finally able to be licensed July 15, gave the VA a copy of my license the next day so we could move forward with the paperwork, but I'm still working at Walgreens. I knew that the VA takes months to complete the hiring process, so initially I planned on not being able to start until September or October. However, I participated in a program last year that allowed me to be hired in a non-competitive manner which was supposed to move me through the system a lot faster. Also, since they gave me that early start date of July back in May, I stopped planning for such a long wait to start the job. So, this limbo period was much more extended than I initially anticipated.
One of the reasons I chose not to do retail full-time was the schedule. It's very hard for me to build a life around a random schedule. I've been working generally either 8-4 or 2-10, but sometimes 12-10 or even 9-9 shifts. Sometimes I'll work 8 days in a row, sometimes I'll have 3 days off, and I'm constantly using Mapquest just to figure out where in the world they are sending me. I've definitely been to many more parts of Tucson than before and seen lots of the scary ghetto parts. I'm a woman of routine, and without it I'm a bit of a bum. I've also had to go to Phoenix to work for one week, and I'll have to again next week, because there haven't been very many extra pharmacist shifts in Tucson since they hired so many new grads. I'm only going to be per diem in the future, so obviously the full-time people get shifts first. Going to Phoenix hasn't been bad since I can just stay with my parents. If I stayed home and had no hours I'd go absolutely insane. I've had plenty of time to accomplish more than I have, but I thrive on routine, so I'm basically waiting for my 8-4:30 job to start to establish what my next phase of life is going to look like. Until then, I basically watch Olympics and read in my spare time.
Meanwhile, Daved quit his "day job" and his currently rehearsing at Gaslight Tuesday-Saturday and is gone from about 12-5 every day. So he is in a big state of transition as well. The show at Gaslight starts I think a week from today, but he will only be performing Tuesday nights in this first show. He is going to have a LOT of time on his hands in September, but once rehearsals start again for the next show he'll be more busy. We have been wanting a dog for quite a while, but we didn't want it to be home alone all day long since we used to be gone at least 10 hours a day. We're going to start actively searching for a dog next week so that Daved can use all his time off to start training the puppy.
So that's it. Team Wilkins is in limbo.