a whole lot has happened in my life since I last wrote on Pleonast's blank pages! And by our good Lord's providence, they are very happy things :) Let's see how well I can recount them all.
We shall start at the beginning (or perhaps where I last left off):
In the previous post, I had just started my new job at the hospital. I was still in orientation, feeling very new and very nervous all at the same time. I hadn't made a whole lot of friends. I was unsure of whether I would ever start to feel really comfortable with my coworkers. I was new on the floor, and they seemed to already be in a groove of their own. I tried to remind myself that I had felt this way at Publix when I first started...but for some reason, the outsider period had seemed shorter there. Oh well. I shrugged it off. I knew they would eventually warm up to me. They had to :)
During this time I was anxiously awaiting my nursing school sentence. Would I get in to the spring semester? Would I be forced to wait till next fall? I was unsure and perhaps lacked the faith that I should have had...I had gotten into TSU's nursing program back in TN, why wouldn't I get in here? Jordan was good enough to remind me of this on a daily basis. For some reason though, for me, the second time round was pure torture. I had to do everything all over again, the application, the waiting, the test. Test? What test? While I had thought WVUP would use my previous entrance exam score, I was wrong. Up here they use a different test, that was much longer and more difficult than the first. It was a test by the evil name of HESI, that left Jordan and I no other choice but to go to the bookstore in search of an antidote...a Kaplan Nursing School Entrance Exam practice book.
Time passed, the test came, and I took it. It was not as entirely awful as I imagined, and amazingly I was one of the first people out the testing room, scores in hand. Although my anatomy score was utterly embarrassing (after 2 semesters of classes it was my lowest score on there!), I had done quite well on the rest. My highest score was surprisingly on the reading portion where I scored a 100%! After a few more agonizing weeks of waiting, I received a letter in the mail. The first line read, Congratulations....
I was so excited I was nearly shaking. I was in! No more waiting. After telling all my friends and family, it was time to tell my manager and coworkers. I was accepted...in more ways than one. I had made it into WVUP, and now, I was slowly making a place in my nursing unit. Whether my acceptance triggered a friendlier welcome from my coworkers, or whether my time here had warmed their little hearts, I am unsure. I still made mistakes on the floor, I still needed help reading orders, I still looked blankly at doctors when they expected me to understand their confusing medical jargon...but I was no longer the newbie. I was included in conversations and thanked for my work.
So how could life get better? Well this is how: I got engaged!
This part of my life came as a complete shock to me :) Of course I knew he was going to ask eventually; I knew he had gotten the ring. But I was thinking later...like, months later. But boy was I wrong! I would even tease Jordan about when he would ask, just to poke fun. It usually went like this -
Me: "so when is it you were going to ask? Because I know when it is."
Jordan: "7 months! It takes that long just to resize rings, don't you know. Besides, after that, you'll never guess when I'll ask."
Me: *rolls eyes* "it doesn't take that long, you. And trust me I'll know when it's coming. I am a girl. I have womanly intuition. Plus
you're a bad liar. You'll never pull it off haha.."
October 24th, my indignant claims still ringing in my ears, I awoke to the day which I now affectionately call the day of lies ;) jk Jordan as usual, was back from pharmacy school so he could work at the CVS in town. "Guess, what?" he said. "I only work 9-5 this Saturday. Want to go out to eat with me? I know we haven't done that a whole lot because we've been trying to save, but I want to take you somewhere really nice. Make sure you dress up!" I was like "Wow really? That sounds great!"
This was my first clue that something was fishy. Jordan usually worked 12 hour shifts on Saturday...not 8. But I am oh so ever trusting and Jordan is oh so ever trustworthy, so I totally bought it. He even called me on his "lunch break" to talk to me, and give me an incredibly detailed account of his day. You would have thought that the amount of detail would have tipped me off...I was provided with the names of everyone working that day, the tiring number of pharmacy phone calls he had made (85 to be exact!), and even a humorous little story of him getting a black smudge from his keys on his white intern coat (supposedly all the techs and the pharmacist had made fun of him for it). This sounded like a typical day at CVS so I thought nothing of it. I also thought nothing of his mom running errands early that morning. This was typical Christi. She was always up fairly early Saturday morning to get something accomplished. So on I went with my day. Christi came back, we all had a nice lunch. It was a typical Saturday at the McPherson's.
As 5pm and my dinner date approached, I hastened to get ready, and to pick out something to wear. As I am usually unsure about making wardrobe decisions, especially when I don't know where I am going, I proceeded to get Christi's opinion...which was eventually interrupted by Tim's sole piece of advice. "Wear red! Do you have something red?"
Red? Well I did have one red dress...
Then, right before Jordan's arrival, Christi and Tim decided to go into town to get coffee together. I was like "They are going on a date now?" But not even this phased me, and I continued to get ready until Jordan got back. He came in, announced that he was tired, and then went right back out to his truck to "clean junk out of it."
"Hmm," I thought, "he looks more preoccupied than tired. And since when does he have junk in his truck?" Jordan is a perfectionist, neat and clean like me. After he had been gone quite a while, I went outside to investigate when I heard him talking in the storage room just off the garage.
"Jordan? Where are you?" I was a little bit suspicious then, as he subsequently emerged from the room holding the house phone. "Oh!" he said, "um...I just got off the phone with Duane and Cookie from church. This was going to be a surprise, but remember that old barn you love? I told them how you want to get married there one of these days, and they are going to show it to us!"
I was clueless. I was clueless when we arrived there too. After seeing the candle lit path and decorated barn I exclaimed, "wow Jordan! Aren't Duane and Cookie the sweetest? They put a lot of work into this barn to show us how nice it would look..."
On and on I went, thrilled with the picturesque setting. Finally Jordan, with a grin on his face pulled out red roses and said "I have a confession to make, I didn't go to work today. I was here all day." I laughed, "yeah right Jordan, you are a bad liar, I know you went to work. Nice try." I was so convinced, he actually spent most of our walk to the barn trying to tell me the truth. When we walked into the barn there was one seat, surrounded by beautiful fall mums, squash and candles. He told me to sit down and I did..I then scooted over for him to sit down. Mmmm haha, I was still clueless. That's when he got down on one knee :)
Then everything hit me: Jordan's short workday, the phone call, the errands, the red dress, the junk in the truck, the barn. Everyone had spent the entire day getting the barn ready for me. I couldn't believe it! Jordan wasn't asking me in 7 months or in a few months like I had thought. He was asking me now. And I said yes ;)
The rest of the evening was beautiful. After visiting with Duane, Cookie, and the McPherson's at the barn, Jordan and I headed to our dinner date at the historic Blennerhassett Hotel in downtown Parkersburg - The only part of the day which I suspected :)
The beautiful ring!
Duane and Cookie helping Jordan at the Barn. Jordan had just gotten permission from my parents back in Tn to proceed with the proposal.
Duane and Christi lighting the candles.
When I arrived:
So if the Lord wills, in 3 yrs I will be Mrs. Tabitha McPherson, RN :)
*cough*hint*findahospitalneargburg*cough*cough*
