Good Bye to Wishes

These are my last blocks for Wish Circle.  Kirsten asked us to make 4 checkerboard nine patches in red and white.  It's an extremely easy block, but it actually worked to my disadvantage, because somehow I managed to not pay attention quite enough.  I cut two rows a 1/4 inch too small.  Luckily, I caught it before I pieced the rows together, but it was a rather silly mistake.  I think I'll blame it on the ruler. 

Sadly, after 3 years of wonderful sewing together, the Wish circle is being dissolved.  Technically speaking most of us are being melded into the Peace Circle since they lost a lot of members recently and the head of our circle is stepping down.  Starting next month I'll start another sewing adventure with some old and many new friends in the Peace Circle of do.Good Stitches. 

Viritual Shower Take 3

This seems to be the year of The Babies in my Do.Good Stitches sewing circle.  Baby #3 is due the beginning of September.  Kelly's having a boy, so I decided to make some Basic Newborn Pants.  I don't know about you, but I always had a lot of onesies for my newborns that were typically solids that could use some fun pants, so I decided to throw caution in the wind and go with some crazy patterned material I had in my stash.  This is what I came up with:

This also happens to be a great beginner project for someone wanting to make clothing, but is scared to take the leap. 

Job Search Update

The response from the last 10 hospitals has been slow in coming, so there's not a whole lot to report.

Three more "We're not hiring" responses:
Norfolk, VA
Portland, ME
Denver, CO

All three had a lot of really nice things to say and explained the situation in their departments, so they were soft blows.  Hahaha.

Two more hospitals have posted jobs that he's applied to:
Fresno, CA
Albany, NY

We've had a few other hospitals suggested to us that we're looking into as well, but mostly we're just waiting for September since a lot of the places start earnestly looking to hire at that point.

The Medical Job Process

If any of you know my husband you know he's a bit of an overachiever in the sense that he's extremely intelligent, so he achieves at higher levels than most of us mere plebeians.   He never mentions it, and you probably wouldn't even notice except for when conversing with him: his large vocabulary and uncanny ability to memorize and recall information give him away.

Joel is now in his last year of Fellowship and ninth year of medical training.  Joel told me that as a ten year wedding anniversary he would get his first real job.  Never were there more romantic words spoken!  He doesn't finish until June 30th of next year, but the applying for jobs started two weeks ago.

It's kind of a crazy process.  Since more than half the hiring is done without ever posting a job opening, a lot of it is word of mouth and randomly sending CVs to hospitals.  Since his focus is Oncology he needs to apply at Children's Hospitals.  Most states only have one or two Children's Hospitals unless it has a larger population.  We went through the states and determined where we felt we could afford to live on a pediatric salary (it's a third of adult specialties).  This pretty much cut out the major cities along the extreme coasts (ie. all of California, NYC, Boston, DC, etc.).  We also cut out a couple of cities we really didn't want to move to with young children or that were known for particularly poor schools.  This left us with a list of 30 hospitals.

Since each hospital is on its own time schedule in terms of hiring it's hard to coordinate interviews and job offers.  We could interview with one hospital and receive a job offer before hearing back from one we were more interested in, so you then have to weigh if you want to pass on the offer and hope something else comes up or not take any chances and take the offer.  For this reason, Joel and I decided to divide our list into Tiers.

Tiers 1 & 2: We knew about the programs, we're happy with the location, cost of living, school districts, and would have no reservations saying "yes" if we got a job offer.

Our original list:        

Tier 1:
Kansas City, KS
Columbus, OH
UNC, NC
Charlotte, NC
Duke, NC
Wake Forest, NC
Richmond, VA

Tier 2:
Syracuse, NY
Hershey, PA
Cincinnati, OH
Indianapolis, IN
Rochester, NY

Tier 3: We either didn't know much about the Oncology program or had some reservations about the location, climate, schools, etc.  Some of these also fell into this category, because I didn't like how far away they are from family.  We also weighed pretty heavily in our decision how far away an LDS Temple is located from each city (for example, it's 3 hours away from Pittsburgh).  For Tier 3 we would weigh really heavily whether or not we accept the offer before interviewing at other places.

Tier 3:
Charleston, SC
San Antonio, TX
Dallas, TX
Milwaukee, WI
Salt Lake, UT
Ann Arbor, MI
Norfolk,VA
Cleveland, OH
Dayton, OH
Louisville, KY
Grand Rapids, MI
Albuquerque, NM
Denver, CO
Pittsburgh, PA
Portland, ME
Akron, OH
Minneapolis, MN
Vanderbilt, TN

The job search process has been particularly hard for Joel.  For someone who's usually successful at just about anything he decides to do, it's hard to continually get rejection emails.  It's really the first time he's repeatedly received the response of "no."   He sent CVs to the top two tiers two weeks ago and then sent out Tier 3 this week.  He has already received a "We're not hiring" or "We're not interested" from 10 of the 30 hospitals.

No:
Kansas City, KS
Charlotte, NC
Duke, NC
Syracuse, NY
Rochester, NY
Charleston, SC
Milwaukee, WI
Louisville, KY
Akron, OH
Minneapolis, MN

It's not completely unexpected, because we were told to expect about 4 interviews from the 30.  Most of the interviews begin in the Fall, so several hospitals have told him to contact them again in September or are still just collecting applications.  If they're not hiring it's not really personal, but it still doesn't feel very good to get rejection after rejection with only vague hopes of something working out somewhere else.

The following 10 hospitals have responded to Joel with varying levels of possibilitY:

Tier 1:
Columbus, OH- there's a possibility of creating a job specifically for him, but it's a long shot, because it has to be approved by the division chief and then pass through the hospital board

UNC, NC- there's possibly an opening, but they're not sure yet. He's supposed to check back in the end of August.

Wake Forest, NC- there's a possibility of an opening, but it hasn't been confirmed yet.  If there is one Joel has a good possibility of an interview.

Richmond, VA- they're getting a new program director September 1st and will be actively hiring, so he's supposed to contact them again mid-September.

Tier 2:
Hershey, PA- they're a long shot, because they're looking for someone with 4-5 years experience for the job they currently have open, but it they can't fill it then he'll be considered.

Indianapolis, IN- they haven't figured out their 2016 needs yet (which means there's not a pressing need, so this one is also only a slim possibility)

Tier 3:
San Antonio, TX- they have an opening they are actively collecting applications for that fits exactly what Joel wants to do, so he's really hopeful about this one.

Pittsburgh, PA- they will be interviewing later in the Fall, so they will contact Joel either way in a month or so.

Vanderbilt, TN- they are actively hiring and collecting applications, so he may get an interview request at some point.

The program with the most promise of an interview so far is actually Dallas, TX.  They contacted Joel right away and said they were hiring and asked him what his dream job description would be, so they could discuss if it was a possibility.  The program director cc:ed the scheduler on the email which means Joel most likely will be asked for at least a first interview.


This leaves 10 hospitals he still hasn't heard from.  Most of these hospitals he just barely sent his cover letters out to, so we probably will hear something in the next week or two.

Most hospitals go through a two interview process, so it's often long and drawn out.  Contracts aren't usually signed until late Winter/early Spring.  The truth of the matter is this process is going to drag out for several months, so I'm trying not to let it stress me out, but having a daily rejection email for the last two weeks has made the process a bit more ongoing in the painful process.  I'm hoping things will settle down once we've heard back from everyone and then can start to weed our way down to actual interviews.  I feel certain it will all work out, but the waiting and unknown factors tend to wear at me.  I'm feeling a bit calmer about the process at this point and am hopeful for things ahead.  I guess we'll see what happens as the process progresses.

Wonky Stars

This month I was asked to make 2 Wonky Star blocks for Wish Circle in do.Good Stitches.  She asked for white or low volume stars with black or navy backgrounds.  We could make them scrappy if we wanted and Erika also said we could make the stars different sizes and not necessarily centered. 

This is the tutorial for the regular wonky star.  I made one regular block, but the temptation was too great not to try one out at a different size.  I made the second star an inch smaller in all of the cuts and then added borders.  I love wonky stars and I absolutely loved being able to use my plethora of white scraps, so I enjoyed stitching these blocks immensely. 

Bordered Bow Ties

I got the borders put on the May Wish Circle Bow Tie blocks last night.

The thunderstorms are supposed to roll in around noon, so I ran outside to quickly get a couple photos this morning. 

It's a good morning, because the quilt top is done and we're also getting our garage door fixed as I type this.  The spring broke on the door during the holiday weekend, so we've been without a garage for several days.  It will be so nice to be able to park in the garage again!

Rainy Houses

It's raining again today, so I had to make do with an indoor picture of these blocks. 

I squeaked in these June blocks for do.Good Stitches.  This month we had to make 2 houses using this tutorial.  I appreciate using all scraps, but for some reason when the background is supposed to be scrappy I don't like how they turn out.  The houses themselves are cute, but I'm not in love with these blocks. 

One good thing came out of it though- it forced me back to me sewing machine, and now I already have 2 projects I want to work on. 

The Magical Mystery Tour

My dad kept telling us he was putting together a Magical Mystery Tour for our trip to Los Angeles.  It took on a life all of its own.  After the funeral services we had a luncheon at John Fusano's home.  He was my Grandpa's best friend for over 50 years.  They met through work.  John owned an olive vineyard and was GG's olive supplier at Vons.  The rest is history.  They hunted and fished together up until the final years of his life.  We had heard about Fu Fu (GG's nickname for John) our whole lives, but this was the first time I actually met him.  Here's a picture of my family at the Fusano's home before we left on the mystery tour:

Magical Mystery Tour:  My dad put together a list of all the old Stuetz hauntings in the Los Angeles area.  I'm the 5th generation of Stuetz's to be born in Los Angeles, so as you can imagine there is a lot of history there for our family.

221 East Pico Blvd.

This first place doesn't exactly exist anymore, but the building for rent is where my great-great-grandfather Edward Stuetz started the California Staats-Zeitung & Printing Shop.  It was a German newspaper that started after WWI.  (The Stuetz line immigrated here from Austria).  When he passed away my great grandfather Ray continued the newspaper until his retirement in the 70s.

2121 Portland St.

This Edward and Helen Stuetz's 3rd home (circa 1930) that was within walking distance to the German newspaper.

2122 West View St.

This is the home of Ray and Gertrude Stuetz where my Grandpa grew up in the 20s & 30s.  Up the street is the market where GG met my Grammy. 

Their second home is the one my dad fondly remembers growing up.  Ray and Gertrude built the home in 1952.  The siding is all brand new to look modern, but it's still the same back yard.  I know this because the couple living there was kind enough to invite us in and talk to us about the home.  They are both art professors.  It was a really rare and nice experience. 

1932 Roscomare Rd., Los Angeles

The pool, shed, and large avocado tree are all originals to the home.  We have some great pictures of my aunt and dad swimming in this pool when they were children.  I'll spare my dad the embarrassment of showing off his little black speedo.  The view up the hills is breathtaking.  It's such a peaceful area.

The last two stops were actually the homes of my dad.  The first home was built by his parents in Torrance where he was born and lived there until he was 7.  You can tell it was built in the 50s.  :)

4227 West 177th St.

The second home in Whittier is where my dad was raised, and where my grandparents remained until GG retired and they moved to the Bay area.  I actually have a few memories of this home.   My parent's first apartment (where I was born) is only a couple minutes away. 

10347 Maybrook Ave.