Finally!

I've been so caught up with work stuff I haven't given a thought to my blog lately.

The project I'm working on is a summer program (Summer Scrubs) for high school students who are interested in health care careers. When I first started coordinating it 3 years ago, I accepted 100 high school students into the program, and had 6 health care facilities participate. This year, I have 190 students and 13 health care facilities! It's grown by leaps and bounds, and some of the students who have participated in the past are now enrolled in health care programs in college. One hospital told me recently that they had just made their first hire of someone who went through the program! It is rewarding work, but keeps me buried in paperwork, e-mails, and phone calls. When I agreed to take the project on this year as a consultant, I didn't consider that the past years I've had 2 full time staff members helping me. Now I'm a one woman show. Hence the work that's kept me from blogging. :)

I spent last week in Mobile, Alabama for work. I worked 12-15 hour days all week, but still managed to find time to go out to dinner with friends for yummy seafood at the Gulf. And I got some great news while I was there! I finaled in two categories in the 2008 Genesis Contest! Contemporary Romance and Chick Lit. Winners will be announced in September at the ACFW Conference.

And now, introducing my new blog feature....the Song of the Day! (my life definitely has a soundtrack, so I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite songs)

Nightswimming by REM....is one of my favorites. In fact, for the past 10+ years, I've always said that if I ever get married, my bridesmaids will walk down the aisle to an instrumental version of this song. Fun fact...I went to see REM in Bologna, Italy. Amazing concert. What I remember from that night--we went to eat at McDonalds beforehand. That was a real treat because for the most part we tried to stay away from "American" stuff while in Europe. After the show, we got back to the train station only to find that there wasn't a train going anywhere we needed to go until the next day. And because of the concert, there wasn't any room at any of the hostels. So we slept at the train station. It was cold and I found a cardboard box to lay on. (ahh, the glamour of backpacking...)