New Job!

I feel before I get into whats going on today, it needs alittle background. I am a registered radiologic technologist (X-ray Tech). I graduated in 1993 and have worked in X-ray up until 2000 when I got a job with a mobile MRI company. After 3 months on the job my supervisor up and quit leaving me with a job that I knew well in some areas and was oblivious in others. I felt like I had been kicked in the stomache when my supervisor, which was a class mate, announced his leaving. With only 3 months experience they offered me the supervisor position and to find a new tech to hire. I barely knew my job much less dive into all the paperwork a supervisor has to deal with. I had to say no. With the mobile MRI job after one tech and supervisor were hired we covered 4 hospitals within a 50 mile range with 3 techs. Which wasn't bad. Work 40-50 hrs aweek and travel 10 hrs a week for a total of 50 - 60 hrs a week. Then things started to change. Not totally unexpected with a mobile job. We lost one site because they got there own in house unit. For a couple months we were working around 40 hr weeks. It was paradise. Then we picked up a new site...........2 hrs 15 min one way. Then another about the same......Then another 1 hr and 40 min away the other direction. We now had 7 sites with alot of driving in between covered by 3 techs. After a couple months of 65hr work and 20 hr travel, thats an 85hr work week the strain started to show. One of the techs started to exhibit stress and eventually had to quit. My supervisor and I was assured that it might be rough for a "couple" months but it would get better.........SEVEN MONTHS LATER.......Same o' same o'. I had built up 6 weeks of vacation time and couldn't take one day of it. We interviewed 2 new techs and they both backed out when they were hired. I asked a Saturday off to go camping with my family. After my supervisor and I had helped fill in for other mobile sites so people could take vaction time. Some times several days. I was told that I could go camping late fri. come back saturday morning and work and then go back to camping saturday evening and be off until monday. This wouldn't be bad if the campsite wasn't 3 hrs from the hospital site. This was the last straw and I had made up my mind. Mentally and financially I was preparing to leave. I worked for a couple more months. Then one day while driving to a work site over 2 hrs away a thought slithered into my head......If I drove into that tree I bet I would get some time off.......HANG ON A SEC. Where did that come from? It was time. Every cent over the last few months got socked back in the bank. I was getting ready for the recovery period. The problem with the mobile job was that it was so stressful and physically exhausting that with one day off here and there, it wasn't enough to rebuild my resources. I became forgetful, short tempered and an over all pessimistic person. All the symptoms of stress. My cup was definately half empty. I quit April 2004. I initially was going to take a six month hiatus and just take some time for myself. It was easier to make plans for vacations and camping with only one of us working. We finally got to camp and go on vacation with my parents, things that were virtually impossible with my previous work schedule. My brother and sister-in-law adopted a little girl for South Korea and I was able to get to see her several times a week. They adpoted a little boy a couple years earlier while I was doing the mobile job and I was lucky to see him twice a month. Now that I have in my mind justified why I did what I did, (quit my job and become a hermit). I called my live in girl friend my "Sugar Momma". After six months I begain to feel my old self come back. I felt like doing things and going places where before I was too exhausted to go or do anything. After the six months I started to look for a job, not easy in today market. I was selective and looked at jobs skepticly to make sure I didn't get myself into the same situation. When a year came and went without any reply to the jobs I applied for, I was afraid that my hiatus has made a major impact on my employment value. Every time any reference about being jobless on T.V. or in casual conversation seemed to drive a spike in my chest. I saw people in the T.V. world going from one job to another and enjoying there work and wondered if I would ever feel that way again. Last Wed. I got a phone call and I am now employed at a hospital as a tech assistant. My new supervisor was curious why I applied for a job that I was over qualified for. I told her that its not about the status or the money.....Its about my sanity. I have never had a job that I could just ask for a day off and take it.Where someone else could me called in to do my job.I have worked with flu, sinus infections, ear infections, torn muscle in my leg and a laceration on my thumb that was down to the tendon. I couldn't miss work. My solution for the thumb.....Superglue. I told you I was a MacGuyver. I was usually the only one that could do the job and if I wasn't there to do it, It didn't get done. I now have a new job. I haven't started yet but will keep you informed as to how it is going. I feel as though a new door has opened and I am about to go throught it. Wish me luck.