Woot!

I bit the bullet and told my boss about applying for the P&P job. And he took it REALLY well.

Basically, he said that he is never one to stand in the way of someone wanting to better themselves. If I get the job, great, he'll be happy for me. But if I don't get the job, great, he'll be happy to still have me here at dispatch.

He also asked me to keep him posted on how things go and to keep it kind of hush hush with my co-workers, which I have no problem with. I see no reason to spread it around work that I'm applying for another job, which is another reason why I made this blog private...my coworkers really don't need to be reading up on me.

Anyway, that's one more hurdle successfully jumped over, now I can relax for the rest of the day without worrying about what my boss will say.

It's Going To Be Kind Of a Long Day

For some reason, I thought our Active Shooter Training for work last night was only suppose to go from 6:00 to 8:00...silly me, it was really scheduled to go until 10:00. And, of course, it actually went until around 10:30. Bad new for the girl who has to get up at 5 am to work the next morning (aka me).

The training was fun for the most part, but I was super bummed because (thinking the training only went to 8:00) I had arranged for Nathan and I to meet up with my parents one last time before they head back to the boat on the 24th for 6 months. They came into town last night in order to leave early this morning for their yearly ski trip with a bunch of friends to Big Mountain in Montana. They're coming back through on Sunday, but they can only stop for a little bit before I go to my last performance of the play and they have to keep heading to Burns, since Dad has to work his last day on Monday. So I may get to see them for a few minutes on Sunday, but then they head to Portland on the 22nd in order to fly out early on the 24th. It's going to be really sad to not have them around, not be able to call them whenever I want/need, after getting use to having them back home for a year.

In other news, today I have to tell my boss that I'm applying for another job, which gives me just a little bit of a nauseous feeling in my stomach. I think he'll take it just fine, since I'm not going to say anything bad about this job and am just going to tell him that I'd like the chance to try for a job that is directly related to my passion (working directly with people to better their lives). I'll let you know how he reacts.

PS. Did I mention that if I get this job, I'd get to go through Defensive Tactics and Firearm training at Academy?! :D

New Hair

For those of you who have been picturing me with the short, chin-length brown hair in the last picture I had up on our blog, this might be a shocker.

I've been working for the past few months to get my hair back to the blonde that it use to naturally be, and I think I finally got it there! Then today I decided that I was tired of the ends of my hair being dry and split, so I got a quick haircut. Here it is:

Update

Yesterday I remembered that I hadn't filled out my time sheet that needed to be turned in today, so I decided to head to work and fill it out. When I got there, I saw that the Undersheriff was in his office. Seeing as P&P is part of the Sheriff's office, I decided to stop in and see if I could pick his brain a little bit regarding applying for the P&P position. We ended up talking for about 45 minutes about various things, everything from what it takes to be a P&P officer to what it takes to be a dispatcher. He told me that it would be a big loss to the county to lose me as a dispatcher because I'm shaping up to be one of the better dispatcher...to which I almost had to laugh, because that was the first time I've heard anything like that from anyone.

But talking to him really solidified some of my wants and needs in terms of a job/career. I'm tired of having a job that requires me to sit in one place idly for hours upon hours. I want a job that allows me to work face to face with people and make a difference in their lives. And I've realized that this job as a dispatcher has had a lot a negative influence on my self confidence as an employee. I miss feeling competent and like I'm good at what I do. At this point, I feel like I can still salvage some of that self confidence, but I don't know how much longer it will be before I start thinking that I'm completely worthless as an employee...and darn it, I'm better than that!

So today I went to the P&P office and had the chance to talk to the P&P office supervisor, Will. It was a good talk, for all that it was short because he was sick and heading home. He gave me a better idea of what a day in the life of a P&P officer looks like, which was great. Essentially, the majority of the job is paperwork, follow up and investigation into possible violations by clients. Other parts of the job include 1-on-1 meetings with clients, home/work visits, working with the Parole Board, making statements in courts, and if necessary, arresting clients.

I think the investigation part would be really fun, and I would love to have a job that keeps me busy all day long instead of one that keeps me insanely busy for a few minutes and then ridiculously bored for the next couple of hours.

Anyway, tomorrow I get to take on the lovely task of telling my boss that I'm applying for a new job. If it were a bigger city, I wouldn't bother. But this is Baker, and the job I'm applying for works closely with my current job. I figure it's better for my boss to find out from me than through the grape vine. After that, I will feel free to put in my application, which is all ready to turn in.

Well, it's time for me to head to A'Diva to get my hair cut. Tonight is active shooter training for work, which should be a ton of fun.

Pros and Cons

So I'm thinking about changing jobs. Yes, for the most part, I enjoy the work I do in the dispatch center. But several things are starting to really wear me down, physically mentally and emotionally. There's a job posted here in Baker for a Parole & Probation Officer I. If I were to get this job, I would still be working for the county (which means having the exact same insurance coverage) and it would be a raise in pay, which is by no means a bad thing. But the idea of switching jobs kinda scares me right now. So I've decided to list the pros and cons that I know for each job, see how I feel after that, and see if I get any feed back from y'all. So here we go...


Dispatching Pros:

• Enjoy being involved with law enforcement
• Great leave time benefit
• Lots of laughs
• Satisfies my need for some adrenaline
• Sometimes feel like I REALLY help people
• Schedule allows for a 2 day work week every other week.
• Have invested a year into learning this job.

Dispatching Cons:

• Getting yelled at for mistakes
  Constantly feeling like my co workers are waiting for me to fail.
• My decisions potentially having a life or death effect on peoples' lives.
• Long hours and funky shifts that make it hard to do the things I love, like Young Life, theatre, and spending time with family/friends/my husband.
• Feel like I can't excel at this job
• No availability of a higher position to advance to.
• Being stuck in one room for 12 hours straight.
• Losing whole nights of sleep stressing about this job.
• I have people's lives in my hands (that's a big one, had to say it twice).

P&P Pros:

• Less sedentary of a job
• Still working in law enforcement
• Would mean a nice pay raise
• Ability to advance to a Parole & Probation Officer II
• Would get to work with people face to face
• Less likely to be told that there's a 15% of the job that you can't be taught, you just have it or you don't, and that I might not have it.
• Would get to use some of the skills that I learned working at the prison, which was a job I also enjoyed.
• Would get to arrest people and possibly carry a firearm...yes, in my books, that IS a pro!
• Would have the potential to help improve the quality of work done at the P&P office.
• I already have a basic knowledge of what it is that P&P does and how they interact w/ law enforcement, dispatch, and clients.
• I'm pretty darn good at "tough love", which is what a lot of people on parole/probation need.

P&P Cons:

• Kind of like babysitting, only with criminals.
• Having to learn a new job all over again.
• Would have to go back to Academy in Salem for 4 weeks.
• Would be on call 24/7, but that doesn't necessarily mean that I have to respond every time.
• Would have a higher risk because I would be dealing with subjects face to face instead of over a telephone line.
• Potential of becoming discouraged working with repeat offenders (which most of them are).
• Would probably have to work some nights, weekends, and holidays...but wait, I do that already!

Ok, that's what I've come up with so far. I'll probably add to this later tonight, but I have to head home soon. Thank goodness it's my Friday! Anyway, the application deadline for this job is on Tuesday the 15th (day after tomorrow). I have the application almost completely filled out, so I just need to fill in a couple more small things on there, add my current job to my resume, and type out a cover letter. I'm hoping that maybe tomorrow I can meet with one of the current P&P officers that I know is really nice, so I can pick her brain and get a better idea of what this job entails. Let me know what you think and I'll keep you all posted!!!

Privacy Please

So I think I'm going to follow in Carly's footsteps and make my blog private. The more I think about it, the more I really don't want completely random people reading my blog and knowing a bunch of private stuff about Nathan and I. The reason I put this blog up was to keep our distant family and friends up to speed on what is going on in our lives, and to have a place to vent/brainstorm if necessary.

So, if you would like to be invited to our blog, send me your email addresses!
My email (if you don't know it) is lindy.yl@gmail.com

Rollercoaster Ooh Ooh Ooh!

Yeah, yesterday was pretty...entertaining. I functioned moderately well until around 4:00 or so, when evidently I didn't talk loud enough on the radio, the Chief missed me saying something fairly important to one of his officers (even though the officer heard me) and then called to completely chew me out. Now, on a normal day I would be able to handle that just fine. I would have been able to shrug my shoulders, see where he was coming from, know that I hadn't really done anything wrong (verified by the officer on the call) and moved on. But we have to remember that I was going on about 28 hours without sleep.

I absolutely hit the wall. I started bawling. Right there in dispatch. And I don't cry delicately. Thankfully my partner was kind enough to hand me a tissue, take over radios for me, let me go to the bathroom to compose myself (took a while since I was so tired), and then called the officer who was on the call to see if he had a problem with the way I did anything...to which he said no. That helped a lot, knowing that the officer I was actually responsible for didn't feel like I completely goofed it up. After a while I was able to compose myself enough to get through the rest of the day with only a slightly wobbly smile.

Oh, and did I mention that my last call of the day was someone who had accidentally shot themselves in the calf with a pistol...out in the county. Sweet. Not only did we have to get the city ambulance all the way out there, but we had to figure out which officers were going to go in order to get to the scene before the ambulance, since gun shot wounds aren't really something you send unarmed paramedics in to alone. I mean, who really knows how it actually happened, and whether the reporting party is telling you the truth ("It just accidentally went off" vs "I shot the jerk for running around on me!")? Unfortunately, one of our deputies was on his way home, about 20 minutes out of town on the opposite side of the valley, and the other one was in Huntington...an hour away. So we got to quickly figure out which city officer was going to leave the city to drive 10 minutes out of town. All of this was at the 30-hours-of-no-sleep mark.

But opening night of "Laundry & Bourbon" went great! It wasn't a huge audience, but they were incredibly receptive and active, laughing at parts that I hadn't even thought about as being funny. It was SO nice to finally have an audience. For those of you who don't know, actors get about 30% or so of their energy simply from the energy of the audience. Rehearsals can get pretty tiresome towards the end simply because you are craving an audience to give you that boost that you need to REALLY bring the character to live. And as far as I can remember, I only goofed once, when I called one character by the other character's name...oops. Ah well, it was fun, and I'm looking forward to our second performance tonight!

And then last night, I slept like a rock. Mom helped me throw some hair dye on my hair, since the last time I put highlights in it it came out kind of...well...yellow. When I got out of the shower and got my hair dried, I popped a benadryl (just for good measure), crawled into bed, and out was out like a light. I didn't wake up when Nathan came to bed, I didn't feel him move, hear him snore, and didn't wake up until my music alarm had been going off for a good 30 seconds or so...it gradually gets louder, and it was pretty stinkin' loud by the time I got it turned off. I'm still a little groggy, but much better than yesterday. And tonight...tonight I am going to bed as soon as I get home from the play. It's going to be wonderful. :)