More Updates on Life, The Universe, and Everything

Here's the scoop on the good, the bad, and the ugly. You can decide for yourself which is which.

My sister's condition has a name -- it's Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome, or PRES. Apparently the combination of a slightly premature birth, the not-quite-right epidural (resulting in spinal headache) and postpartum pre-eclampsia (that's high blood pressure to you and me) made her brain swell, giving her a monster headache. After googling PRES, I think she got off lucky -- no blurred vision, no seizures, and hopefully no permanent brain damage. Not that that will keep me from a little sisterly mocking from time to time, since I'm so glad to have her around.

She was discharged from the hospital today around noon, just in time for an appointment with a neurologist who is familiar with PRES. He told her that her headache likely has multiple causes, that they will monitor it over the next few weeks, and that she will recover. I cannot say what a relief all of that is. Plus, she gets to go home and settle in with her baby and husband and son, which is a huge relief to her too. Her mother-in-law has been an enormous help with David; they don't know what they would have done without "Meme." Three cheers for Meme!

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I got a call back from HR Chick at Large Corporation today. She informed me that I'm not terrifically technical. You don't say! I'd love to know why employers keep telling me the first thing that I tell them -- or the first thing they should be able to read for themselves from my resume. Yes, I have an engineering degree, but I have done project management and data analysis for most of my career. Nowhere on my resume do I state that I have written code or anything similarly technical; I'll be the first to say that I'm a pseudo-geek, not the real deal. I thanked her for getting back to me quickly and reiterated that I'd be very interested in hearing about any project management or data analysis positions they have open.

And then I hung up the phone and I cried.

I know that it's business, not personal. I know that my identity doesn't come from a company; it comes from my Maker; He tells me who I am. I gotta tell you though, after a while, you just start to think that you're plain unlikeable. And that's the wall I hit today. Two weeks ago, I had interviews coming up with between two and four employers and had visions of multiple offers dancing in my head; today I'm still unemployed with no prospects in sight.

I'm reading another Donald Miller book, Blue Like Jazz. As I was getting ready to take Son the Younger to the doctor for a virus today, this passage leaped off the page at me and made me lose it again: "If we hear, in our inner ear, a voice saying we are failures, we are losers, we will never amount to anything, this is the voice of Satan trying to convince the bride that the groom does not love her. This is not the voice of God. God woos us with kindness, He changes our character with the passion of His love."

Coincidence? I don't believe in it.