What to say……what to say……
Hello all, I’m Claire Sides and I’m (unfortunately) a former co-worker of Brandy Williams’.
I found the whole idea of this website and blogging very intriguing, but I’ve never done anything like this before. Bear with me while I yammer on about myself and family (❁´◡`❁)
I grew up in Land O’ Lakes, Florida (no, not where they make the butter!!), a formerly small
town just north of Tampa. I am a 2nd generation native Floridian (they do exist!). My 2 older
siblings call me a “triple degree dumb-dumb”…….you have to love sibling “LOVE” hehehe.
I love learning, so have really embraced that love and gone to college 3 times. My husband often asks when I’m going back to school……..maybe one day I’ll take some pastry chef classes.
I always wanted to be a teacher or a nurse when I was young. I got a BSN in Nursing, then a BS in Elementary Education. I found out how dismally teachers are paid and went back into nursing. Then thought Hey!! I know! I’ll COMBINE the two and become a Nurse Educator, hence the MSN in Nursing Education.
I love teaching, orienting/precepting, and mentoring. I’ve been a NICU nurse for 31 years and consider myself super fortunate that I found my niche so many years ago.
That’s my professional story.
Personally, I met my husband in an AOL Tampa chat room (dial-up modem and all) in January of 1997. Neither of us were looking for someone to date, just kind of checking it out and started “talking” and discovered many things and people we had in common but had never met. We met in person (I lived in Tampa, he lived in Memphis TN) in March of 1997, got engaged in May of 1997, I moved to Memphis in July of 1997, and we were
married in October of 1997. PHEW!!!
Both of my in-laws passed away in 1998, so our first year of marriage was super challenging. We had our son in June of 1999, and decided when he was 10 months old that we needed to move back to Florida to raise him around my family. We had our daughter in March of 2002. And we are still married 26+ years later.
Moral of the story: internet relationships CAN work!
In 2012 I got the bug to move back to where there are actually season changes (if you’ve never lived in Florida, there are none. Absolutely. None.) so my husband said “well you’re a nurse and I work for Target, surely we can find jobs up north of here”. He found my job on the internet and he just transferred to a Target in Buford, GA. That’s how we ended up in the
North Georgia area.
I prefer mountains to the beach, cold to heat and humidity, and Fall is my FAVORITE season!! And when we opened a new Labor and Delivery unit in Braselton, GA, I jumped at the chance to help open a new NICU, AND the 2.5 mile commute from my house didn’t hurt either.
And that, friends, is how I met Brandy Williams. Who has deserted me here. Which makes me sad. But I am ever so happy for her!!!
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