new job!

oh how i have been waiting for the moment i could share this news! i got a new job! i've been hired as a development assistant at uva's women's center. the women's center is a very exciting place that offers counseling, referrals and advocacy to women at the university and in the charlottesville community. the women's center publishes a great magazine called iris. and it is staffed by an eclectic, creative, socially conscious group of younger and older women.

i am full of glee!

a short while ago it became very clear to me that i needed to find a part time job so that i could be more involved in tashi's day, so that i could be more involved in my day, and so that i could spend more time and energy developing a doula practice. right around the time i made that decision, my first doula client in charlottesville came to me. i knew i was on the right path.

while i have learned a ton as an administrative assistant and i have been warmly received by the religious studies department, i knew that my long term goals didn't include taking on more and more fiscal and administrative responsibilities for the department. i started to resent my job, mourn the loss of my time with tashi and feel a huge creative deficit in my life.

long ago i changed my life so that i could walk my path. i took poetry workshops with famous poets. i took classes in herbalism and massage. i gave birth to a child. i trained as a doula. if i could work this hard at academic administration, couldn't i work this hard on being a writer, an herbalist, a doula, a mother? the answer is yes.

so i started to seek a part time job. and the perfect opportunity appeared at the women's center. a more appropriate place for me at uva i cannot at this time imagine. the job will be flexible, i will learn new applicable business skills, and i will be working on networks of support for women in a place that is meaningful and good. i am so grateful to the universe, to dan for being understanding and supportive, and to the friends and advisers who have encouraged me along the way.

this summer i will turn 40. here i come!

(i have to add, i was offered the job two weeks ago. sort of. i was called by human resources and told the women's center wanted to hire me, but first, per uva policy, a criminal background check had to be conducted. even though i already worked at uva? yes, even though.

because i lived in india for a year, they chose to do a background check on me in india!!!! how crazy is that? post 9-11 paranoia, or what???? guilty until proven innocent is what it is. so two weeks later, which was today, i was called and told my background check was clear, and the job offer was official!)