The Exam

I went to try on my “interview suit” on Saturday only to find that it was very loose. I could sort of get away with wearing it, though. However, my silk shirt was huge on me. It looked like it belonged to someone else entirely. After losing 20 pounds, none of my dressier blouses fit. I still felt rotten from the cold, but it was time to go shopping. David graciously agreed to drive me to Lloyd Center to Nordstrom’s. I knew it was going to cost more, but I didn’t have the energy to wander from store to store looking for the best bargain. I needed a helpful sales person who knew her stock and would bring me items.

Nordstrom’s, God bless them, was the right choice. The saleswoman found about five blouses for me to try on. I modeled them for David and we agreed on a nice blue silk one for a mere $62. It looked great. It turns out I wear a small now. I took a glance at the shoe department and decided to stick with my black oxfords. I didn’t have the energy to deal with shoes. I hate shopping under the best of circumstances.

Our next stop was the restaurant at Nordstrom’s. David knew exactly what to order, the Asian chicken salad (which we split) and a cup each of the tomato bisque soup. It was a very nice little outing.

Yesterday I felt a little better, which was good, because I had the follow up class for my clay project. We glazed our little characters. Then we made little books in a small book binding exercise. It was really fun. The next step is to write a story about our clay character. I’m looking forward to that.

Today was the interview. Actually, it turned out to be what they called an “oral exam’ where I was asked a series of questions by a panel of experts. If I score high enough on the exam, then I will get an interview. I find out in about ten days how well I scored on the exam and whether or not I’ll get an interview. I had about forty minutes for the exam. I answered five out of six questions confidently. The one question that threw me was my approach to diversity and cultural competency. I gave a couple of examples of people that I had worked with, but I felt like my response was fairly lame.

One of the things that I knew that they were interested in was my competency in motivational interviewing. While I was waiting for the interview, there was one magazine in the waiting room which had a very good article on motivational interviewing. It had relevant passages underlined by hand for good measure. It was a very timely review on the subject. With my memory refreshed, I entered the exam room with more confidence than I had expected. The “panel of experts” were very nice, although they didn’t give away much about how I had done. They just assured me that I would receive a letter in about ten days and if I scored well I be interviewed the week of the 26th of March. I coughed a bit during the exam, but I didn’t want to take cough syrup before the exam because I had to drive to get there and I didn’t want to be impaired in any way. I felt dizzy enough from the cold without adding to it.

I feel a whole lot better now that this particular ordeal is behind me. It took up a lot of psychic energy at a time I was feeling pretty low. Now David has the Dreaded Cold and he feels awful. He spent the day at home and will probably take tomorrow off as well. This is a wicked virus. Chira, who came down with this virus a week before I did is still dealing with it. It does tend to linger.