Yesterday when Wilbur started limping badly again, I decided it was irresponsible of me to not at least confirm my internet diagnosis of his knee problem. Kevin, ever the pretend optimist, continued to insist that he either had something in his foot or that he had sprained his leg in the slip on the stairs. He got hostile when I researched the cost of the expensive and extensive corrective surgery.
I was willing to wait for my favorite vet, and was surprised to hear that he would be in today. So I made an appointment for 9:45 this morning, and off went the fountain drooler and I for our assessment. I told the vet what was happening and that I had already looked it up. He said, what did you find? ... I said, what are you going to tell me I found? And then he popped the right knee out of place. And then the left. And then the right again, so I could feel it. And then he let me put Wilbur back on the floor, where he promptly fell down, because his knees were out of place.
But the good news is that although I was right, the vet is conservative. He doesn't operate on these dogs unless they need it, and an intermittent popping out that isn't even seeming to cause pain is not cause for surgery. So we will have to keep his weight down, feed him well and make sure he gets certain vitamins and supplements, and hope for the best. The worst case is a $1,500 surgery per leg. And possible arthritis. He said he is Stage 2 of 4. Some dogs will stay there for life. Only time will tell.
Last night was the homecoming dance, so Megan went off to that. It was fairly uneventful or at least as far as we are to know. Last year we had E to fill us in on some of the details, but this year, we got nothin'. Brian and Kevin are off today to watch the Devils game with the church youth group, which ended up being Brian and Kevin and the leader and his grown son, who used to be Brian's guitar teacher before he let that fall by the wayside along with the piano. Brian has hopes of going to see the Jets with his new friend, but the friend uninvited him when he found out that Brian couldn't sleep over. So we're not sure if he is really invited or not, or what the plans are for tonight.
In other news, my lost phone has not resurfaced. I see that I last used it a week ago at 4:31 to call Kevin. The only place I went after that was out to dinner, although I'm not sure if I was at the grocery store at that time or if I was back. I guess I could check my email and see if I sent any around that time, then I would at least have some more evidence. But I'm getting less and less optimistic of ever finding it. I'd like to get an iphone, and would be willing to pay the one-time charge, but having to add $30 a month to my service is a bit extreme and I'm just not willing to do that to have a little fun with my phone.
It's inconceivable to me that so many people actually pay this money each month. Am I missing something? I already pay over $150 a month for the three lines (well actually four, because I'm waiting until it will cost me nothing to drop E's old number, and it's a good thing too, because at least I have that junky phone to use while I wait to decide how to replace mine - but even that only adds $13 a month) so I can't imagine adding another $30 to that. I should shop around for plans.
Consumer Reports says that Verizon is best and at&t is the worst! I haven't had any problems with them but then I get mad when they tack on all these extra fees, like charging ME $18 to commit to them for another two years and calling it an "upgrade fee" when I also have to pay for the phone, it's just stupid. But T-Mobile also seemed to be held in fairly high regard. I don't know. They have usually worked with me in the past so I guess I'm going to have to head to the mall. Only the actual at&t shops can make changes to my plans, since the franchise store in Middletown was making unauthorized changes to my account.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Happy Thanksgiving!
I'll post some news while Kevin preps the bird. After that I have to get the potatoes ready and straighten up the house for the Doll and her dog, who should arrive around 4.
We were all up and out in time for the start of the football game, which our team won by an overwhelming margin. They were up 35-0 at the half, so they stopped stopping the clock on plays and just let it run continuously for the entire second half. Nobody scored after they did that.
But the big news was the naked boy who ran across the field between the first two quarters! He ran across, had some trouble getting into his shorts, and then finally gave up and scaled the high fence, shorts in hand. A cop commenced pursuit, although he hit a little rough spot at the top of the fence, but did make it over, and, perhaps with backup, apprehended the poor kid in the woods behind the field. Turns out the boy was one of E's friends from last year! I hope he won't get into too much trouble. He really didn't disrupt the game, and other than the cop who had to climb the fence, noone was ever in any danger.
Anyway, my unfortunate news seems to center around Wilbur. Yesterday morning he started hopping around, only using three feet when he walked, and not really wanting to go up and down the stairs to the yard, or to jump the three inch high gate to get into his pen. I googled "limping pomeranian" and discovered that there is a trait common to many small, especially ill-bred dogs, called 'luxating patella.' His symptoms and his profile fit the description perfectly so although Kevin is trying to blame it on a slip on the stairs in the morning (and I hope he is right), we may be looking at more of a problem. The good news is that it may be correctable and is not life-threatening. The bad news is that correction means surgery, it is often bilateral when present, and dogs with this condition are more prone to develop arthritis. Just great. He's lucky he is so cute. And with Baxter coming over later, I hope that he won't get himself overly excited. (as if)
Anyway, we'll get him to the vet when it's feasible. I suspect that my favorite vet, and the only one I'd trust to make the diagnosis, is probably off for the weekend. And that will give it time to heal if it's going to. It isn't broken, because it's intermittent limping.
And so that will be a new expense, on top of Christmas and on top of the plane tickets I just purchased for Brian and myself to fly to Florida in April. They dropped from over $400 to under $300 so I decided to snatch them up. But last year I paid $250 total, this year with taxes they came to about $322 apiece. But I didn't know what the airlines would do, and I figured at best I'd save $100 and at worst I could end up losing much more. So I went ahead and reserved our seats. We'll fly out of Newark on Tuesday after Easter and fly back in the following Sunday. Kevin will get his own tickets using miles, and Megan will fly down with the team.
And in other news, the holiday season is now upon us. I am going to call for a Charlie Brown Christmas this year, which means don't expect glamorous gifts from our household! The kids will have to deal with it, Brian's Christmas present for the next four years will be his continuing high school education! And Megan's will be the car she is going to get without having to contribute much of her own money, even though she complains that she is going to get the "old Explorer." How many people get a car for free when they turn 17? And now, I have lost all focus due to constant nags and requests from the kitchen, where Kevin is just putting the turkey in but wants us all to come in immediately and cut up potatoes for five people, so we can have them ready two hours in advance and he can sit and drink beer. Happy Thanksgiving!
We were all up and out in time for the start of the football game, which our team won by an overwhelming margin. They were up 35-0 at the half, so they stopped stopping the clock on plays and just let it run continuously for the entire second half. Nobody scored after they did that.
But the big news was the naked boy who ran across the field between the first two quarters! He ran across, had some trouble getting into his shorts, and then finally gave up and scaled the high fence, shorts in hand. A cop commenced pursuit, although he hit a little rough spot at the top of the fence, but did make it over, and, perhaps with backup, apprehended the poor kid in the woods behind the field. Turns out the boy was one of E's friends from last year! I hope he won't get into too much trouble. He really didn't disrupt the game, and other than the cop who had to climb the fence, noone was ever in any danger.
Anyway, my unfortunate news seems to center around Wilbur. Yesterday morning he started hopping around, only using three feet when he walked, and not really wanting to go up and down the stairs to the yard, or to jump the three inch high gate to get into his pen. I googled "limping pomeranian" and discovered that there is a trait common to many small, especially ill-bred dogs, called 'luxating patella.' His symptoms and his profile fit the description perfectly so although Kevin is trying to blame it on a slip on the stairs in the morning (and I hope he is right), we may be looking at more of a problem. The good news is that it may be correctable and is not life-threatening. The bad news is that correction means surgery, it is often bilateral when present, and dogs with this condition are more prone to develop arthritis. Just great. He's lucky he is so cute. And with Baxter coming over later, I hope that he won't get himself overly excited. (as if)
Anyway, we'll get him to the vet when it's feasible. I suspect that my favorite vet, and the only one I'd trust to make the diagnosis, is probably off for the weekend. And that will give it time to heal if it's going to. It isn't broken, because it's intermittent limping.
And so that will be a new expense, on top of Christmas and on top of the plane tickets I just purchased for Brian and myself to fly to Florida in April. They dropped from over $400 to under $300 so I decided to snatch them up. But last year I paid $250 total, this year with taxes they came to about $322 apiece. But I didn't know what the airlines would do, and I figured at best I'd save $100 and at worst I could end up losing much more. So I went ahead and reserved our seats. We'll fly out of Newark on Tuesday after Easter and fly back in the following Sunday. Kevin will get his own tickets using miles, and Megan will fly down with the team.
And in other news, the holiday season is now upon us. I am going to call for a Charlie Brown Christmas this year, which means don't expect glamorous gifts from our household! The kids will have to deal with it, Brian's Christmas present for the next four years will be his continuing high school education! And Megan's will be the car she is going to get without having to contribute much of her own money, even though she complains that she is going to get the "old Explorer." How many people get a car for free when they turn 17? And now, I have lost all focus due to constant nags and requests from the kitchen, where Kevin is just putting the turkey in but wants us all to come in immediately and cut up potatoes for five people, so we can have them ready two hours in advance and he can sit and drink beer. Happy Thanksgiving!
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
my tuesday morning adventures
But allow me to start with yesterday afternoon. I was browsing my email, as I do all day every day, and there were two emails from the company that runs the widget that was checking for jobs for me. One referenced a refund, and the other explained that my district has 'opted out' of the service. No idea why. So I am scrambling to figure out what to do. I did find out that there's an add-on that will continuously refresh the page for me, so I don't have to keep hitting F5. But it won't alert me to any changes on the page and it has to be run with Firefox. So I installed Firefox, got the add-on, and now I have to use windows of different sizes so I can see if the red words announcing no openings fleetingly turn to the black text of an available job.
This morning, nothing. The red letters remained. It's a half day two days before Thanksgiving, and there are teacher conferences, so I don't expect much. Then Megan called and said she had forgotten something. I had to drop it off at 8, it was for a party of sorts at school. Just then, I noticed the red had gone black. And it was a job I would have liked! Fifth grade at the closest school. I pondered my capabilities as far as showering, driving the cups to the high school, and still getting to the job by 8:30. I decided I could do it. And just like that, the black was red again. Wow! You have to move fast.
Apparently there are other programs that will actually *accept* the jobs for you. You set the parameters: schools, dates, even teachers if you like; and it will accept them as soon as it sees them. I wonder if others are doing this already, hence my not seeing anything? Although this new reloader reloads every 10 seconds, where the widget wouldn't go more frequently than every minute. So technically, as long as I can sit and stare eternally, I should stand a better chance at snagging something. At least until I leave the house. Or walk out of the room.
And so I lost the job for today. I dropped off the cups for Megan, then went to the gas station and the bank and came home and took a walk. I was about to have my shower when I noticed a large, rottweiler-ish dog just out walking around. She was going up people's driveways and walkways and looking a little skittish. I could see she had a collar on, so I assumed she had just gotten loose, but I didn't want her to get hurt OR to bite me. So I called animal control. "Right away" turned out to be over half an hour, and of course, she didn't stay nearby. So I went out in the car to stalk her, as she continued trying to find her house. She stayed on the sidewalk side, but she did cross the street at one point.
Finally, along came Animal Control. As I was showing him where she was (not where I had said when I called, obviously), I found his partner already with her. And just as the two of them were leashing her up, a man in an SUV pulled alongside and opened up his back door. So I guess she was saved in the end. It made me think that if Wilbur ever got out, nobody would know who he was. He doesn't wear a collar because he chokes and hacks when things squeeze his throat. When he goes for walks, he wears a harness which we don't leave on. He is micro-chipped but I don't even know if that is registered. Maybe I should put a collar on him just for decoration and then he can wear baubles like Molly does. Even Molly has outdated rabies tags on her collar, and probably outdated dog licenses as well. They're such a pain to get off and on that I just hope if she got away and was found, they'd call and find out that she's up to date on everything.
And in other news, I found another lucky penny today. So the phone rang and it was actually a call in response to a resume I sent in. Sadly, they wanted someone for (of course) nights and weekends. I'm pretty sure the job was listed as part time days or I wouldn't have sent it in. And I almost wish I could take a job on nights and weekends and then switch to days. But it isn't worth it at this point. Megan is only home for another year and a half, why would I want to spend my nights and weekends at work? (Oh, that's right .. to help pay for her to go .. haha)
But at least I finally got a call. That's more than has happened in the several weeks I have been working at this. And I do expect things to slow down now that the holidays are here. Maybe they'll pick up again in the new year.
Meanwhile, I am still watching this whole flu thing. Now we have mutating virus samples, resistant strains (they reported this months ago and now they're acting like it's news), and severe reactions from vaccines in Canada. I don't think the fog will ever lift on this one. Maybe we should all move to France. Swine flu seems not to want to mess with them so much. But it's good to be able to be at home in case anyone does get sick. ::knock wood::
This morning, nothing. The red letters remained. It's a half day two days before Thanksgiving, and there are teacher conferences, so I don't expect much. Then Megan called and said she had forgotten something. I had to drop it off at 8, it was for a party of sorts at school. Just then, I noticed the red had gone black. And it was a job I would have liked! Fifth grade at the closest school. I pondered my capabilities as far as showering, driving the cups to the high school, and still getting to the job by 8:30. I decided I could do it. And just like that, the black was red again. Wow! You have to move fast.
Apparently there are other programs that will actually *accept* the jobs for you. You set the parameters: schools, dates, even teachers if you like; and it will accept them as soon as it sees them. I wonder if others are doing this already, hence my not seeing anything? Although this new reloader reloads every 10 seconds, where the widget wouldn't go more frequently than every minute. So technically, as long as I can sit and stare eternally, I should stand a better chance at snagging something. At least until I leave the house. Or walk out of the room.
And so I lost the job for today. I dropped off the cups for Megan, then went to the gas station and the bank and came home and took a walk. I was about to have my shower when I noticed a large, rottweiler-ish dog just out walking around. She was going up people's driveways and walkways and looking a little skittish. I could see she had a collar on, so I assumed she had just gotten loose, but I didn't want her to get hurt OR to bite me. So I called animal control. "Right away" turned out to be over half an hour, and of course, she didn't stay nearby. So I went out in the car to stalk her, as she continued trying to find her house. She stayed on the sidewalk side, but she did cross the street at one point.
Finally, along came Animal Control. As I was showing him where she was (not where I had said when I called, obviously), I found his partner already with her. And just as the two of them were leashing her up, a man in an SUV pulled alongside and opened up his back door. So I guess she was saved in the end. It made me think that if Wilbur ever got out, nobody would know who he was. He doesn't wear a collar because he chokes and hacks when things squeeze his throat. When he goes for walks, he wears a harness which we don't leave on. He is micro-chipped but I don't even know if that is registered. Maybe I should put a collar on him just for decoration and then he can wear baubles like Molly does. Even Molly has outdated rabies tags on her collar, and probably outdated dog licenses as well. They're such a pain to get off and on that I just hope if she got away and was found, they'd call and find out that she's up to date on everything.
And in other news, I found another lucky penny today. So the phone rang and it was actually a call in response to a resume I sent in. Sadly, they wanted someone for (of course) nights and weekends. I'm pretty sure the job was listed as part time days or I wouldn't have sent it in. And I almost wish I could take a job on nights and weekends and then switch to days. But it isn't worth it at this point. Megan is only home for another year and a half, why would I want to spend my nights and weekends at work? (Oh, that's right .. to help pay for her to go .. haha)
But at least I finally got a call. That's more than has happened in the several weeks I have been working at this. And I do expect things to slow down now that the holidays are here. Maybe they'll pick up again in the new year.
Meanwhile, I am still watching this whole flu thing. Now we have mutating virus samples, resistant strains (they reported this months ago and now they're acting like it's news), and severe reactions from vaccines in Canada. I don't think the fog will ever lift on this one. Maybe we should all move to France. Swine flu seems not to want to mess with them so much. But it's good to be able to be at home in case anyone does get sick. ::knock wood::
Monday, November 23, 2009
monday morning again
It always seems to be Monday morning! Of course, this morning, when I have decided I won't take any jobs unless I know the teacher posting it, two came by my screen this morning! I have to get to the store to pick up a turkey, potatoes, and cider, and I have to cook baked ziti for Kevin to take to work tomorrow, so I'll make one for us for dinner tonight as well. I also have to pick Megan up at school and drive her to the HS practice at the new pool, and I'll probably just wait and bring her home with me, so she can get here earlier and start her homework, because she still insists on going to Y practice, despite a physics test tomorrow.
And Kevin has taken my GPS. So we may not even find the new pool.
The cleaning woman finally called and told us she would come around 1:30, which was perfect because we would be out and then come home to a clean house. But no. We came home to a being-cleaned house and had to lay low for almost another hour! So they must have come more like 2:30 or 3. It was a bit annoying and the house really only needed a quick vacuum and dusting (and always a mop) so it was more trouble than it was worth.
Megan must have done something to make her coach mad, because she had to swim the 200 fly at the meet on Saturday! She's never done it before and she struggles with the butterfly but - amazingly - she came in second in the heat! Oh, but wait. It doesn't count when you do the flutter kick in butterfly! So she was caught, and disqualified :) But now she likes the event, because she feels like she can do better if she can learn to keep her feet together when the stroke starts to break down towards the end. So she'll probably swim it again.
Otherwise, it was a quiet weekend. Kevin blew off more of the never-ending leaves off the lawn (I think the town is picking them up soon) and I just puttered around, searching for jobs online and taking my walks. Oh, and we bought a new cat condo for the bedroom, the cats have been sleeping on a collapsing pile of boxes for three years now, and I had a Petco coupon, so I got it for 20% off. Nobody used it last night, but they all checked it out. Rusty is always up for new things, so he spent the most time on it, but usually it's Wren who likes the window seat. But bad Wren had busted out and was outside all day, so she must have felt like she didn't really need to see out at night.
In other news, this is a short week. Brian has school today, then mass and tests and labs due tomorrow. Megan has 2 1/2 days of school, getting out early on Wednesday. Thursday is the homecoming game against the across-town high school, so I hope the weather will be nice, and Friday is the homecoming dance. Kevin and Brian are going to a Devils game on Sunday with the church group (which really won't be many people, apparently) and E tells me that Brian's friend and his family are coming to their house for dinner one night this week. They're in town at some sort of time-share, and the older brother is looking at the colleges there.
And Kevin has taken my GPS. So we may not even find the new pool.
The cleaning woman finally called and told us she would come around 1:30, which was perfect because we would be out and then come home to a clean house. But no. We came home to a being-cleaned house and had to lay low for almost another hour! So they must have come more like 2:30 or 3. It was a bit annoying and the house really only needed a quick vacuum and dusting (and always a mop) so it was more trouble than it was worth.
Megan must have done something to make her coach mad, because she had to swim the 200 fly at the meet on Saturday! She's never done it before and she struggles with the butterfly but - amazingly - she came in second in the heat! Oh, but wait. It doesn't count when you do the flutter kick in butterfly! So she was caught, and disqualified :) But now she likes the event, because she feels like she can do better if she can learn to keep her feet together when the stroke starts to break down towards the end. So she'll probably swim it again.
Otherwise, it was a quiet weekend. Kevin blew off more of the never-ending leaves off the lawn (I think the town is picking them up soon) and I just puttered around, searching for jobs online and taking my walks. Oh, and we bought a new cat condo for the bedroom, the cats have been sleeping on a collapsing pile of boxes for three years now, and I had a Petco coupon, so I got it for 20% off. Nobody used it last night, but they all checked it out. Rusty is always up for new things, so he spent the most time on it, but usually it's Wren who likes the window seat. But bad Wren had busted out and was outside all day, so she must have felt like she didn't really need to see out at night.
In other news, this is a short week. Brian has school today, then mass and tests and labs due tomorrow. Megan has 2 1/2 days of school, getting out early on Wednesday. Thursday is the homecoming game against the across-town high school, so I hope the weather will be nice, and Friday is the homecoming dance. Kevin and Brian are going to a Devils game on Sunday with the church group (which really won't be many people, apparently) and E tells me that Brian's friend and his family are coming to their house for dinner one night this week. They're in town at some sort of time-share, and the older brother is looking at the colleges there.
Saturday, November 21, 2009
what's in a dream
I had the weirdest dream last night. I guess Wilbur started to whimper around 7:30 so I woke up in the middle and remember some of it. It obviously won't make any sense, but in part of it, I was trying to get a job at my last employer, only the offices were the old World Trade center offices of the one before it. There was something about a road trip to visit colleges, and we had the car all packed for that. Then at one point, Kevin was brown-nosing my old boss, and when I looked into the room, I saw that one of my fellow substitutes was in the front of the room, also scoring major points, while I tried to even get in the front door.
Just then the job bell went off, and when I opened up the listing, it was 'Big Top Operator,' and I was trying to find the job description because I couldn't imagine what that would have been. Other random people were wandering around, including one of the 9/11 widows from our town. I have no idea how all of these things tie in together, they must be all of the issues that haunt my psyche, but I don't know why they were all in there troubling me as I tried to find a job!
Anyway, now we are all up and still no call from the wayward cleaning lady, who demanded to disturb us on a Saturday so she could get her pay in lieu of skipping the week, since her day falls on Thanksgiving Day. I had told her she can't come before 11, so if I know her, she plans to just show up then. But she did tell me that she was going to call, she said she had to call her other customers. So I have to get the laundry and clutter all straightened out.
Last night our high school won their last playoff game, so they will play for the state sectional title next, last year they failed to achieve that goal; the venue has yet to be announced but one of the possibilities is Giants Stadium! That would be cool. I hope we can go, but with swimming conflicts, one never knows.
Anyway, in other news, Brian went to see 2012 last night so now he can worry about the end of the world AND aliens, which he worried about after he saw The Fourth Kind. I am still hoping to somehow get to see New Moon - without E here nobody else in the house even cares about it, and Megan is too busy to be dragged out to it this weekend. Since it looks like next week will be slow work-wise, I should have the mornings free Monday and Tuesday. Brian is off from school from Wednesday, and Megan gets our Wednesday at noon. I still don't have a turkey, but I also plan to do that Monday or Tuesday. Last year after I bought mine, I saw it for about $8 less at Costco. So I'm going to go there one morning and brave the mobs.
Just then the job bell went off, and when I opened up the listing, it was 'Big Top Operator,' and I was trying to find the job description because I couldn't imagine what that would have been. Other random people were wandering around, including one of the 9/11 widows from our town. I have no idea how all of these things tie in together, they must be all of the issues that haunt my psyche, but I don't know why they were all in there troubling me as I tried to find a job!
Anyway, now we are all up and still no call from the wayward cleaning lady, who demanded to disturb us on a Saturday so she could get her pay in lieu of skipping the week, since her day falls on Thanksgiving Day. I had told her she can't come before 11, so if I know her, she plans to just show up then. But she did tell me that she was going to call, she said she had to call her other customers. So I have to get the laundry and clutter all straightened out.
Last night our high school won their last playoff game, so they will play for the state sectional title next, last year they failed to achieve that goal; the venue has yet to be announced but one of the possibilities is Giants Stadium! That would be cool. I hope we can go, but with swimming conflicts, one never knows.
Anyway, in other news, Brian went to see 2012 last night so now he can worry about the end of the world AND aliens, which he worried about after he saw The Fourth Kind. I am still hoping to somehow get to see New Moon - without E here nobody else in the house even cares about it, and Megan is too busy to be dragged out to it this weekend. Since it looks like next week will be slow work-wise, I should have the mornings free Monday and Tuesday. Brian is off from school from Wednesday, and Megan gets our Wednesday at noon. I still don't have a turkey, but I also plan to do that Monday or Tuesday. Last year after I bought mine, I saw it for about $8 less at Costco. So I'm going to go there one morning and brave the mobs.
Friday, November 20, 2009
sigh.
Well, I now understand the conference set-up. All the teachers line up along the wall with their grade books and laptops, and the parents take a spot on a queue to have their few minutes. I headed straight for science, but the guy was late to his desk, so I jumped over to the history teacher, who had nice things to say and we went over the grades and everything was going pretty well. So then I saw the math teacher's line was shorter and headed to him next. We had a pretty good talk, he's a nice, young, and enthusiastic teacher, and it seems that Brian has missed some homeworks as well as had some poor grades on recent tests. So we agreed that I will check that he has done his homework, not just by asking but by checking the homework log online and then seeing the actual work, and that Brian will come in to the teacher in the morning if he is ever unsure of the material.
On to science next, and I had a bit of a longer wait for him. Apparently it's the labs in that class, Brian won't answer in enough detail and he isn't following the proper 'rubric' for these assignments. So that's mainly what has dragged his grade way down in there; for the most part he has had respectable test scores. I moved along after this to religion (doing OK but missed an assignment so will lose points on that, he claims he emailed it and it was in his drafts folder, not really a viable excuse and also probably means he submitted it late anyway because I think they're usually turned in in hard copy) and Spanish (not much to say here, this is oddly enough his best class, his only A, and she said that his '96' average on tests was "unusual.") Hmm. She's not kidding. (haha)
Finally, I glanced over to the longest line and yes, I had to wait on it. English. Brian is sitting right at 80 in that class, which is generally where he sits in English classes no matter what. So I introduced myself and explained that Brian seems to be lacking the family's English and writing gene, and what can I do about it, and where is he falling short...and again it seems to be that he has come in unprepared for a few tests, like on poetry pieces and outside reading, mainly. His writing grades were more solid, so that was good, but his grammar test scores were not so impressive.
But overall I left the night feeling that there is hope. At least I didn't have an experience as I overheard next to me at one point, where a parent was being asked, "does he want to be here?" All of his teachers (except for science) seemed to feel he was on the right track and would be able to bring his grade up substantially. The science teacher didn't say he couldn't, but he did have some of the lowest grades in the class, consistently, on labs, which would also annoy me as a teacher, if the student showed no motivation to improve or change.
And here I sit, yet again, not having a job for the day. Usually on Fridays, the job bell goes crazy but this morning Megan was late which caused me to be gone for a longer period at a more critical time, and I also think that fact that it's a short student day and a conference day is making less teachers take the day off. I expect this may continue up through the Thanksgiving holiday, but then usually they take days during December. But this year is a new animal and things have not been the same at all. I'm afraid my job search will probably slow down a bit as well (as in I won't see any more listing for which to apply and be ignored,) so that will be depressing. I don't imagine most companies are heavily into hiring in December.
In other news, Megan has swimming for both teams after school again today, and then next week she has to get in three more high school practices. They have it on the schedule for the days before and after Thanksgiving but I don't know if they thought that through. Friday is also their homecoming dance.
And our college search is more or less on hold now, because of all this swimming - over Christmas we may take some day trips to schools close by in NY, NJ, and maybe PA (she will be at Villanova anyway for the training trip) and then it will go on hold again until after Easter, and then she will be preparing for her AP tests in school, as well as the SAT and ACT tests. Our summer vacation will probably be a driving trip to the south, Virginia and North Carolina perhaps, to have a look at some schools down there, and maybe in Maryland as well. Also, for some reason, University of Miami keeps coming up. Maybe we can somehow have a quick look at it, even without her, while we're down there in April.
On to science next, and I had a bit of a longer wait for him. Apparently it's the labs in that class, Brian won't answer in enough detail and he isn't following the proper 'rubric' for these assignments. So that's mainly what has dragged his grade way down in there; for the most part he has had respectable test scores. I moved along after this to religion (doing OK but missed an assignment so will lose points on that, he claims he emailed it and it was in his drafts folder, not really a viable excuse and also probably means he submitted it late anyway because I think they're usually turned in in hard copy) and Spanish (not much to say here, this is oddly enough his best class, his only A, and she said that his '96' average on tests was "unusual.") Hmm. She's not kidding. (haha)
Finally, I glanced over to the longest line and yes, I had to wait on it. English. Brian is sitting right at 80 in that class, which is generally where he sits in English classes no matter what. So I introduced myself and explained that Brian seems to be lacking the family's English and writing gene, and what can I do about it, and where is he falling short...and again it seems to be that he has come in unprepared for a few tests, like on poetry pieces and outside reading, mainly. His writing grades were more solid, so that was good, but his grammar test scores were not so impressive.
But overall I left the night feeling that there is hope. At least I didn't have an experience as I overheard next to me at one point, where a parent was being asked, "does he want to be here?" All of his teachers (except for science) seemed to feel he was on the right track and would be able to bring his grade up substantially. The science teacher didn't say he couldn't, but he did have some of the lowest grades in the class, consistently, on labs, which would also annoy me as a teacher, if the student showed no motivation to improve or change.
And here I sit, yet again, not having a job for the day. Usually on Fridays, the job bell goes crazy but this morning Megan was late which caused me to be gone for a longer period at a more critical time, and I also think that fact that it's a short student day and a conference day is making less teachers take the day off. I expect this may continue up through the Thanksgiving holiday, but then usually they take days during December. But this year is a new animal and things have not been the same at all. I'm afraid my job search will probably slow down a bit as well (as in I won't see any more listing for which to apply and be ignored,) so that will be depressing. I don't imagine most companies are heavily into hiring in December.
In other news, Megan has swimming for both teams after school again today, and then next week she has to get in three more high school practices. They have it on the schedule for the days before and after Thanksgiving but I don't know if they thought that through. Friday is also their homecoming dance.
And our college search is more or less on hold now, because of all this swimming - over Christmas we may take some day trips to schools close by in NY, NJ, and maybe PA (she will be at Villanova anyway for the training trip) and then it will go on hold again until after Easter, and then she will be preparing for her AP tests in school, as well as the SAT and ACT tests. Our summer vacation will probably be a driving trip to the south, Virginia and North Carolina perhaps, to have a look at some schools down there, and maybe in Maryland as well. Also, for some reason, University of Miami keeps coming up. Maybe we can somehow have a quick look at it, even without her, while we're down there in April.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
sloooowww week
This is a week that drags. I worked a half day Monday, then a full day yesterday. For Tuesday, I did see a few jobs but I didn't take them and I probably should have. The elementary schools are having early dismissal for teacher conferences from today through next Tuesday, and then all the schools close early Wednesday for Thanksgiving break. So I should be taking whatever I see, but for some reason, I didn't. But at least I had a lot of time to go food shopping and get dinner ready for what was a crazy night with everybody on a different schedule.
Brian's report card came home with him the other day and it was as he said. The overall average is in the 80s so that's fairly respectable but math and sciences in the 70s are not. I'll go tonight to the school for their "parent teacher conferences" although I have no idea what that means or how it works, does everyone just go into the gym and stand in line waiting to talk to a teacher? It runs for two hours in the gym tonight. The public high schools don't have any such thing, so I can only guess that this is how it's going to be? I didn't get any request for a conference or anything that I could send in requesting one, so I hope it is not by appointment only!
And Megan is now two practices down towards the mandatory six to swim in the first high school meet. I think she is going to have to miss her Y practice Monday night because she has a physics test the next day and that's one of her lower grades, which she really could bring up with just a little effort. This is one of the hardest times of the year for her. But at least this year she doesn't have the added stress of an adversary living in her house! Hopefully that will ease the pressure of the times this year.
And nothing else of much interest is going on. The trees are shedding their leaves, I took both cars through the car wash over the past two days and just noticed what a horrible mutilation job the place did on the front license plate of the Honda. It's all curled and twisted as if it had been used as a battering ram. All of the pets are just lying around, Molly is harder and harder to rouse from her rest. Yesterday she didn't go out with Wilbur except on one or two of his many outdoor visits, and after dinner, I guess it caught up with her because she suddenly squatted down and dropped two turds on the family room rug, right in front of Kevin!
Brian's report card came home with him the other day and it was as he said. The overall average is in the 80s so that's fairly respectable but math and sciences in the 70s are not. I'll go tonight to the school for their "parent teacher conferences" although I have no idea what that means or how it works, does everyone just go into the gym and stand in line waiting to talk to a teacher? It runs for two hours in the gym tonight. The public high schools don't have any such thing, so I can only guess that this is how it's going to be? I didn't get any request for a conference or anything that I could send in requesting one, so I hope it is not by appointment only!
And Megan is now two practices down towards the mandatory six to swim in the first high school meet. I think she is going to have to miss her Y practice Monday night because she has a physics test the next day and that's one of her lower grades, which she really could bring up with just a little effort. This is one of the hardest times of the year for her. But at least this year she doesn't have the added stress of an adversary living in her house! Hopefully that will ease the pressure of the times this year.
And nothing else of much interest is going on. The trees are shedding their leaves, I took both cars through the car wash over the past two days and just noticed what a horrible mutilation job the place did on the front license plate of the Honda. It's all curled and twisted as if it had been used as a battering ram. All of the pets are just lying around, Molly is harder and harder to rouse from her rest. Yesterday she didn't go out with Wilbur except on one or two of his many outdoor visits, and after dinner, I guess it caught up with her because she suddenly squatted down and dropped two turds on the family room rug, right in front of Kevin!
Monday, November 16, 2009
another manic monday
All of Megan's Mondays will be manic for a while, starting with today. Today was the first day of high school practice at their brand new pool (half an hour away) So she had to go there and swim for two hours, then I had to pick her up and take her straight to the Y where she will remain for four hours. And on the way there, she told me that she has a B average in Calculus. This might sound good, and I suppose that it is, but it's actually one of the lowest grades she's ever had. And there may be others. And I attribute this not to her intelligence or effort, but due to the fact that she flat out refuses to sacrifice any of her Y time to study for tests in these more challenging courses.
So she has to attend six high school practices before she can swim in a HS meet, and their first is going to be December 2. This Monday and next will be the worst, because she plans to do this again next week. She'll go on Wednesdays and Fridays but she doesn't go to the Y on Wednesdays and on Fridays she doesn't have to worry about schoolwork, or getting up the next day. So this is when I get stressed over her schedule. And to top that, some fool parked in the bus loading zone so when the bus pulled up it angled its way in and blocked ME in, because I had left it room behind the fool so it could unload. Then I had to wait so long for it to finally pull away that a JV football game had just let out by the time we started moving, and it took us 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot.
Brian, meanwhile, has officially withdrawn himself from his high school swim team. He wasn't all that keen on it anyway and he doesn't have to do it if he doesn't want to. He hopes to try out for tennis in the spring, but that may be challenging. The swim team would have been nice because he probably would have been able to stay on the team, they don't really cut a lot of kids although not all get to swim at every meet. But it was going to cost us extra money and I was going to have to drive him pretty far, and every day. And they were not going to be flexible about the three other clubs to which he belongs. He had a meeting today, and he's going to a Mexican restaurant with the Spanish club later in the week. And hopefully he can sign up to go hand out sandwiches to the poor again. He would have had to give up all of this to do a sport he doesn't even enjoy.
And now he will have no excuse for not bringing his Cs back up to where they belong, at a B minumum.
Imagine if I had been my own parent.
Anyway, in other news, I had a half day assignment today which was one of the easiest ones ever. I was covering for a teacher who went into two meetings the entire afternoon, for about five or ten minutes each. I stayed with her the whole time anyway, just in case she got called into another one, which she never did. So it wasn't very trying, and I got to watch a teacher at work, which is always helpful with my own skills. When I got home, the bell rang again and I picked up another full day for Wednesday, that same class that I have been in so often. Amazing how I don't see anything else for days on end. I'm pretty sure a lot of jobs are just filled by a phone call and a handshake these days. I stalk the thing constantly and almost never see anything, aside from first thing in the morning.
So she has to attend six high school practices before she can swim in a HS meet, and their first is going to be December 2. This Monday and next will be the worst, because she plans to do this again next week. She'll go on Wednesdays and Fridays but she doesn't go to the Y on Wednesdays and on Fridays she doesn't have to worry about schoolwork, or getting up the next day. So this is when I get stressed over her schedule. And to top that, some fool parked in the bus loading zone so when the bus pulled up it angled its way in and blocked ME in, because I had left it room behind the fool so it could unload. Then I had to wait so long for it to finally pull away that a JV football game had just let out by the time we started moving, and it took us 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot.
Brian, meanwhile, has officially withdrawn himself from his high school swim team. He wasn't all that keen on it anyway and he doesn't have to do it if he doesn't want to. He hopes to try out for tennis in the spring, but that may be challenging. The swim team would have been nice because he probably would have been able to stay on the team, they don't really cut a lot of kids although not all get to swim at every meet. But it was going to cost us extra money and I was going to have to drive him pretty far, and every day. And they were not going to be flexible about the three other clubs to which he belongs. He had a meeting today, and he's going to a Mexican restaurant with the Spanish club later in the week. And hopefully he can sign up to go hand out sandwiches to the poor again. He would have had to give up all of this to do a sport he doesn't even enjoy.
And now he will have no excuse for not bringing his Cs back up to where they belong, at a B minumum.
Imagine if I had been my own parent.
Anyway, in other news, I had a half day assignment today which was one of the easiest ones ever. I was covering for a teacher who went into two meetings the entire afternoon, for about five or ten minutes each. I stayed with her the whole time anyway, just in case she got called into another one, which she never did. So it wasn't very trying, and I got to watch a teacher at work, which is always helpful with my own skills. When I got home, the bell rang again and I picked up another full day for Wednesday, that same class that I have been in so often. Amazing how I don't see anything else for days on end. I'm pretty sure a lot of jobs are just filled by a phone call and a handshake these days. I stalk the thing constantly and almost never see anything, aside from first thing in the morning.
Friday, November 13, 2009
randomness from the week
This was one of those weeks that seem to go by really quickly even though every day you wake up and think, "it's only ...??" The trip to Delaware and Pennsylvania was a success (thanks for the noodles and gravy and beef, mushrooms a little) despite the weather and the overwhelming bulk of college information we are now trying to process. We don't have all the information we need yet anyway, such as times from this season, grades from this year and ANY testing scores aside from the SAT2. So this is all factfinding, which means we don't have to hear every little detail about every single school we see. In fact, it's too overwhelming!
Also this week in school, Brian found out his grades. Two are still C's! I am ripping out my hair. Clearly he is aware of these things but his reasoning seems to be that if he doesn't tell us about poor grades and issues that come up, he won't get in trouble at that moment. So he only needs to get in trouble eight times in the entire school year (every progress report and every marking period end) and that's better, in his eyes, than every time he gets a bad grade. But he doesn't seem to realize that he REALLY gets in trouble for not telling us, when we ask all the time if he has gotten any tests back. And instead of "you should work harder next week," he gets his phone taken away at night and spends the weekend indoors, and not on his xbox - that would be too much fun and not motivational in any way.
On the plane home from London, I watched He's Just Not That Into You. The premise is that the main character is somewhat of a junkie for bad relationships, and the worse the guys treat her, the more she rationalizes that they are really just too busy, or they haven't gotten around to calling yet. Lately I have been thinking that this sort of sums up my job hunt. No matter how many online resumes I send, or letters I mail out with no response, every time I find a new one, I hold my breath each time I check for messages. It is the same thing!
So in other words: nothing is going on. I worked my morning job today for the assignment where someone else snatched up the PM part of it while I was accepting the AM. It was fine, but then one of the other teachers I usually cover for was out all day so I probably could have had that if I hadn't been in just for the morning. But I did manage to get all of my Thanksgiving food drive shopping done as well as one holiday gift project. So at least there is that.
Yesterday, Wilbur got his stitches out. He didn't appreciate it much, but I think he is much happier now. I dropped another stool sample to get him checked out since he had so much trouble when he was new. I haven't heard yet, but last time I think they didn't call for a couple of days either. Hopefully no news is good news, though. I think last time it was over the weekend. They should have the results back today, I think. Uh oh. Phone is ringing.
Well it was Kevin. And while I was talking to him my job search bell went off, but by the time I logged into the system, the job was gone anyway. It was only a half day for Monday afternoon. I hope to work a lot next week, as it's crunch time on the summer bills. I like to have them paid off before I run up the holiday ones.
Anyway, in other news, high school swim practices start on Monday. It doesn't look like Brian is going to be able to do his high school swim team after all. For one thing, it costs $350. For another, I have to drive him to the pool, which is about half an hour away on the parkway, and he has to be there right after school, which means I can't work. And finally, they demand complete dedication, which means he would have to give up his three other after school clubs. Since he isn't really that into swimming anyway, I think the cons outweigh the pros in his case, unfortunately. He can keep on swimming at the Y for his workouts, and maybe next year it will fit better. But he actually needs to have more free time anyway to stay on top of his schoolwork, so perhaps it is for the best.
Incidentally, that job just reposted, so I took it. It's only for the afternoon Monday, but that means I won't be home until 3:30, and I won't be able to drive him to the pool. But he has to go to an important mock trial meeting anyway, so he will do that and won't be done until 3:30 or so anyway. Theoretically, his Y practices should count in lieu of school workouts, and the Y practices on Sundays. So if his coach would allow him to substitute the Sunday workout for Monday, then we might be able to swing it. But at this point, I just don't see it happening.
Also this week in school, Brian found out his grades. Two are still C's! I am ripping out my hair. Clearly he is aware of these things but his reasoning seems to be that if he doesn't tell us about poor grades and issues that come up, he won't get in trouble at that moment. So he only needs to get in trouble eight times in the entire school year (every progress report and every marking period end) and that's better, in his eyes, than every time he gets a bad grade. But he doesn't seem to realize that he REALLY gets in trouble for not telling us, when we ask all the time if he has gotten any tests back. And instead of "you should work harder next week," he gets his phone taken away at night and spends the weekend indoors, and not on his xbox - that would be too much fun and not motivational in any way.
On the plane home from London, I watched He's Just Not That Into You. The premise is that the main character is somewhat of a junkie for bad relationships, and the worse the guys treat her, the more she rationalizes that they are really just too busy, or they haven't gotten around to calling yet. Lately I have been thinking that this sort of sums up my job hunt. No matter how many online resumes I send, or letters I mail out with no response, every time I find a new one, I hold my breath each time I check for messages. It is the same thing!
So in other words: nothing is going on. I worked my morning job today for the assignment where someone else snatched up the PM part of it while I was accepting the AM. It was fine, but then one of the other teachers I usually cover for was out all day so I probably could have had that if I hadn't been in just for the morning. But I did manage to get all of my Thanksgiving food drive shopping done as well as one holiday gift project. So at least there is that.
Yesterday, Wilbur got his stitches out. He didn't appreciate it much, but I think he is much happier now. I dropped another stool sample to get him checked out since he had so much trouble when he was new. I haven't heard yet, but last time I think they didn't call for a couple of days either. Hopefully no news is good news, though. I think last time it was over the weekend. They should have the results back today, I think. Uh oh. Phone is ringing.
Well it was Kevin. And while I was talking to him my job search bell went off, but by the time I logged into the system, the job was gone anyway. It was only a half day for Monday afternoon. I hope to work a lot next week, as it's crunch time on the summer bills. I like to have them paid off before I run up the holiday ones.
Anyway, in other news, high school swim practices start on Monday. It doesn't look like Brian is going to be able to do his high school swim team after all. For one thing, it costs $350. For another, I have to drive him to the pool, which is about half an hour away on the parkway, and he has to be there right after school, which means I can't work. And finally, they demand complete dedication, which means he would have to give up his three other after school clubs. Since he isn't really that into swimming anyway, I think the cons outweigh the pros in his case, unfortunately. He can keep on swimming at the Y for his workouts, and maybe next year it will fit better. But he actually needs to have more free time anyway to stay on top of his schoolwork, so perhaps it is for the best.
Incidentally, that job just reposted, so I took it. It's only for the afternoon Monday, but that means I won't be home until 3:30, and I won't be able to drive him to the pool. But he has to go to an important mock trial meeting anyway, so he will do that and won't be done until 3:30 or so anyway. Theoretically, his Y practices should count in lieu of school workouts, and the Y practices on Sundays. So if his coach would allow him to substitute the Sunday workout for Monday, then we might be able to swing it. But at this point, I just don't see it happening.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
onward and onward
Well, Brian had off from school yesterday. It was a beautiful day for a surprise day off, but it cost me a day of work because I stayed home to get him in to the orthodontist, so I won't have to do it tomorrow and I am free to be in Delaware all day if I like. (weather permitting?) He went to see The Fourth Kind which is a movie I would never even think of seeing! It kind of scared him (who isn't scared of alien abductions?) but he couldn't really explain it very well. Maybe he was hiding under his seat the whole time.
Megan did well at the second day of the swim meet on Sunday, she was third and fourth in a couple of events after being fourth in the one on Saturday. It was ridiculously long again, though, and they didn't get home until 9pm, nearly a 12 hour day for them. And she was back to school yesterday. Next week high school swimming will start. That's going to really complicate things for us all.
And my job search is fizzling again. I love that you can just go to these websites: hospitals, schools, banks, etc, and send in your resume, but what I hate is that you have to re-enter the same information over and over and over again, while at the same time attaching a resume that says it all anyway. But of course, I've had no calls, my background is not entirely right for most of them. What I want is just a basic money-making mind-occupying job that will maybe turn into something more in 3-5 years. At least for this year, I would like to be able to get home by 3. Next year when Megan drives, 4 or 5 will be more acceptable.
Of course, this morning in my email I found a job for which I actually seemed qualified. It said they want someone with excel and database experience, which are the words that are all over my resume. I am half tempted to send it in anyway, to see if I get any interest, but the problem is that it's full time and half an hour away. They don't say the hours, if it were 8-4 I might be able to pull it off, although then my little dog would become a latchkey dog, home alone every day from 7:45 till 2:30. I guess I won't send it in after all. I can't even do 7-3 because I drive Megan to school at 7. Even if I drove her to the bus, we'd leave at 6:45. I guess 7:30-3:30 is manageable, but anyway, I doubt that I get to set the hours. It's probably 8:30-4:30 or worse, one those 8:30-5:00 jobs that gives you an hour for lunch, unpaid.
I've actually decided to try to volunteer a day or two a week at one of the hospitals if I can. That way they will know me when the right job comes along, and hopefully, they'll like me and hire me. And it is something I've always wanted to do anyway, so it's worth a try.
But this morning I am up and already showered, so I can accept the jobs that pop up at the last minute. There was one job at 5:30, but it was at the middle school and while I was still wiping the sleep out of my eyes, someone snatched it up anyway. Then another came up, just now, but it was at a school that I don't want to go to. So I let that one go as well. For someone who hasn't worked much lately, I am awfully selective.
Oh, and yesterday was terrible! I got one job for a half day tomorrow at one of my favorite schools. I accepted that one right away, I have to earn $40 to earn back the money I spent on the annual subscription for the widget that alerts me to postings so I don't have to keep refreshing the page. Then another job came up, but it was split into two postings, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. I accepted the morning one first, and then went back as fast as I could to get the afternoon, and it was already gone!
It's just covering meetings so I don't think it will matter but how stupid! Now they will have two separate subs to cover their full day of meetings. I just hope it's busy. Oh, and to make things better, after I accepted it, I realized that it is covering meetings for the people to whom I submitted a resume for consideration as their new secretary, and they never even called me in for an interview. So, on Friday the 13th, I will have to humbly serve them while sucking up my humiliation at being rejected. Great fun. I can't even release the job because that would make me look bad. They probably already got confirmation that I have accepted.
In other news, Kevin is flying off to Chicago. I told him he will have to go into quarantine when he gets back, after spending time on an airliner in swine flu pandemia. He'll be back late this evening, but he is also off tomorrow. He is semi-invited to attend University of Delaware with us, but he might just stay at home. I guess it depends on the weather and whether or not he feels like getting up. I think we need to leave around 7:45am.
Megan did well at the second day of the swim meet on Sunday, she was third and fourth in a couple of events after being fourth in the one on Saturday. It was ridiculously long again, though, and they didn't get home until 9pm, nearly a 12 hour day for them. And she was back to school yesterday. Next week high school swimming will start. That's going to really complicate things for us all.
And my job search is fizzling again. I love that you can just go to these websites: hospitals, schools, banks, etc, and send in your resume, but what I hate is that you have to re-enter the same information over and over and over again, while at the same time attaching a resume that says it all anyway. But of course, I've had no calls, my background is not entirely right for most of them. What I want is just a basic money-making mind-occupying job that will maybe turn into something more in 3-5 years. At least for this year, I would like to be able to get home by 3. Next year when Megan drives, 4 or 5 will be more acceptable.
Of course, this morning in my email I found a job for which I actually seemed qualified. It said they want someone with excel and database experience, which are the words that are all over my resume. I am half tempted to send it in anyway, to see if I get any interest, but the problem is that it's full time and half an hour away. They don't say the hours, if it were 8-4 I might be able to pull it off, although then my little dog would become a latchkey dog, home alone every day from 7:45 till 2:30. I guess I won't send it in after all. I can't even do 7-3 because I drive Megan to school at 7. Even if I drove her to the bus, we'd leave at 6:45. I guess 7:30-3:30 is manageable, but anyway, I doubt that I get to set the hours. It's probably 8:30-4:30 or worse, one those 8:30-5:00 jobs that gives you an hour for lunch, unpaid.
I've actually decided to try to volunteer a day or two a week at one of the hospitals if I can. That way they will know me when the right job comes along, and hopefully, they'll like me and hire me. And it is something I've always wanted to do anyway, so it's worth a try.
But this morning I am up and already showered, so I can accept the jobs that pop up at the last minute. There was one job at 5:30, but it was at the middle school and while I was still wiping the sleep out of my eyes, someone snatched it up anyway. Then another came up, just now, but it was at a school that I don't want to go to. So I let that one go as well. For someone who hasn't worked much lately, I am awfully selective.
Oh, and yesterday was terrible! I got one job for a half day tomorrow at one of my favorite schools. I accepted that one right away, I have to earn $40 to earn back the money I spent on the annual subscription for the widget that alerts me to postings so I don't have to keep refreshing the page. Then another job came up, but it was split into two postings, one for the morning and one for the afternoon. I accepted the morning one first, and then went back as fast as I could to get the afternoon, and it was already gone!
It's just covering meetings so I don't think it will matter but how stupid! Now they will have two separate subs to cover their full day of meetings. I just hope it's busy. Oh, and to make things better, after I accepted it, I realized that it is covering meetings for the people to whom I submitted a resume for consideration as their new secretary, and they never even called me in for an interview. So, on Friday the 13th, I will have to humbly serve them while sucking up my humiliation at being rejected. Great fun. I can't even release the job because that would make me look bad. They probably already got confirmation that I have accepted.
In other news, Kevin is flying off to Chicago. I told him he will have to go into quarantine when he gets back, after spending time on an airliner in swine flu pandemia. He'll be back late this evening, but he is also off tomorrow. He is semi-invited to attend University of Delaware with us, but he might just stay at home. I guess it depends on the weather and whether or not he feels like getting up. I think we need to leave around 7:45am.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
sunday morning thoughts
Well, yesterday's meet was forever long. We got there at 1:10 or so, and I lined up with the masses around 1:30. They let us in almost an hour later, which was almost an hour behind schedule for them. By the time we got in, the place was packed to capacity and we had to sit on the cramped bleachers until the meet ended at 7:30. It was a long day and I don't think the conditions were any better for the swimmers on the deck bleachers.
But Megan swam pretty well, as did most of the team, and she and Kevin are back there today for an even longer go - they have to get there at 11:30 because she's swimming the 500. I didn't see as many sick people as I expected to, I only heard a few mild coughs from time to time (of course mostly from the man right behind me!) and there were way fewer scratches than I had expected. A lot of people apparently have already had access to the vaccine in school, so many of them don't have to worry about the flu in that respect. And of course, I am still unsure what I will do when I get that call. On the one hand, now lots of people have gotten the shot with no ill effect. On the other, the more time goes by with the virus running around and us not catching it, the more I begin to believe in my hope that we had it in January when we were so sick. ::knock wood!!::
And Wilbur continues to heal well although he is having potty issues. When he goes, he makes a big mess of himself almost every time now, and this started before his surgery. I'm going to have to take a sample in for testing; possibly the cats have something that doesn't affect them, but when he feasted on the litterbox, he may have picked it up for himself. Molly is fine and the litterbox never has anything like that in it. But I was texting Kevin my litany of complaints about the meet yesterday: hot, crowded, too many kids in each event, running an hour late... and he texted me back: dog with s*** in his a**. And so I conceded.
In other news, Brian's school is closed tomorrow. They have a bishop coming to visit so they closed in honor of this visit, and I think they are going to sanitize the school to try to slow the spread of the flu, which had picked up during the week. He is happy about that, and I'll try to get him in to the orthodontist two days early because he has a wire bothering him, and I want to take Megan to University of Delaware for a visit on Wednesday, when he is supposed to be at the ortho at 4. She and Kevin are both off for Veteran's Day, but Brian is not.
But Megan swam pretty well, as did most of the team, and she and Kevin are back there today for an even longer go - they have to get there at 11:30 because she's swimming the 500. I didn't see as many sick people as I expected to, I only heard a few mild coughs from time to time (of course mostly from the man right behind me!) and there were way fewer scratches than I had expected. A lot of people apparently have already had access to the vaccine in school, so many of them don't have to worry about the flu in that respect. And of course, I am still unsure what I will do when I get that call. On the one hand, now lots of people have gotten the shot with no ill effect. On the other, the more time goes by with the virus running around and us not catching it, the more I begin to believe in my hope that we had it in January when we were so sick. ::knock wood!!::
And Wilbur continues to heal well although he is having potty issues. When he goes, he makes a big mess of himself almost every time now, and this started before his surgery. I'm going to have to take a sample in for testing; possibly the cats have something that doesn't affect them, but when he feasted on the litterbox, he may have picked it up for himself. Molly is fine and the litterbox never has anything like that in it. But I was texting Kevin my litany of complaints about the meet yesterday: hot, crowded, too many kids in each event, running an hour late... and he texted me back: dog with s*** in his a**. And so I conceded.
In other news, Brian's school is closed tomorrow. They have a bishop coming to visit so they closed in honor of this visit, and I think they are going to sanitize the school to try to slow the spread of the flu, which had picked up during the week. He is happy about that, and I'll try to get him in to the orthodontist two days early because he has a wire bothering him, and I want to take Megan to University of Delaware for a visit on Wednesday, when he is supposed to be at the ortho at 4. She and Kevin are both off for Veteran's Day, but Brian is not.
Friday, November 6, 2009
some notes from our trip
At last, a true update. It is nice to be home, as always, but the trip was a very nice one as well. The only thing I really didn't like was driving in Boston. Their intersections are very long, they have the one way of traffic, then the two ways of the "T," and then the other way of traffic, but the light hangs about halfway through. So I would cross the T tracks (which had no crossing bars like our trains do here) and see the other cars sitting there, and not know if I was supposed to go or stay, because I couldn't find the light. Also, they had lines painted that I didn't know what they meant, they had bike lanes that made me nervous when I needed to make a right turn and had to cross into them, and they had drivers who seemed to think they were the only ones on the road. They would pull out in front of other people, cut across traffic, and just pretty much do whatever they wanted. The only thing I did appreciate was their willingness to honk at me when I didn't know if I was supposed to go. The honking would spur me on, out of my confusion.
We arrived around midnight on Tuesday, after hitting just a little bit of traffic on 95 in Connecticut. We had a great hotel room, because it was at the end of the hall and had some extra space which they used to put a desk and chair into, leaving the rest of the already-large room feeling like a suite. I don't know if all their double rooms are like this, but it was great. We were sharing with Megan's friend and her mother, and we didn't even feel crowded at all, aside from having to coordinate the four of us with the one bathroom.
Our big visiting day was Wednesday, so we got up and out pretty early. We drove through Northeastern, didn't really see a place to park or see anything we wanted to get out and look at, so we moved on to the BC campus, which was, as we had heard, beautiful. We dropped off the girls and drove around until we found the parking garage, then went to Admissions for a brief info session. I can see that these get old after a while. You pick up a little new information at each one, but usually they are just sales pitches for the school.
When Megan gets to the point where she is ready to choose between schools, if she has interest from the swim team, she can go on an "official visit," and stay with a swimmer, which will get her a better feel for what the schools are all about. Otherwise, many schools offer this as a visiting option without the sports connection. If she can get academic money (she found out she was ranked pretty high in her class for last year), then it would be better to take that than to be an indentured swim servant. But we have to see how she does this year academically and in the pool. She has a tough course load, which, if she does well, positions her perfectly for any schools to which she wants to apply.
After BC, we were onto BU, which knows how to sell itself and is quite a sophisticated school. Megan loved it there, so it is her first choice of the three. She and her friend went on a behind-the-scenes tour with a girl they know from swimming while I sat alone in yet another info session. One thing I learned here is that many schools prefer the ACT over the SAT, which I hadn't realized until recently. Apparently the ACT is more of a knowledge-based test than IQ-based like the SAT, and certain kids (perhaps like Megan) tend to do better on the ACT. Both BC and BU require the ACT with writing, but in lieu of that you can take the SAT and two subject tests.
Megan just got her math scores back on the SAT2 and she got a 660, which was pretty good for her, since math is not her absolute strongest point and she should have taken the test in June when it was all fresh in her mind. She will probably score quite well on the Spanish SAT2, so those two scores should make her strong, as long as she does well on the regular SAT, whish she'll first take in May. But now I'm signing her up for the ACT in June, if she scores well on that and the schools she chooses accept those scores, I won't have to worry about those expensive SAT prep classes that everyone takes, but that don't even seem to help some kids. I don't like that it's a big game. It angers me.
So, after the school visits were done, we headed back to the hotel for a short break before we ventured into the city on the T, an adventure within itself. We walked around Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, and searched almost in vain for the 'Cheers' bar, which we found at the last minute and went into only to see the Phillies retired 1-2-3 in the first inning of what turned out to be the last game of the World Series. Then we got back on the T, and realized we hadn't noticed where we had gotten on, so that was a little challenging. We had to look out for CVS on the corner so we would know when to get off. Good thing it was above-ground at that point! Oh, and I forgot to mention we met an old friend of mine for lunch, which was nice. The last time I saw him he was feeding seal meat to whoever would eat it (not me.) That was a long time ago.
On the way home, we drove through the campuses of Holy Cross and UConn, just to get a glimpse of some schools other than the urban ones. We hit a pocket of traffic in Connecticut and a two mile backup on the Cross Bronx, but otherwise we made it home pretty smoothly. The girls had to go to swim practice, and I came home to find Wilbur beside himself. He seems to still be a little sore from his surgery but he is up to all of his old badness already.
And in other news, the swine flu is making the rounds more heavily at Brian's school, and I guess the other Catholic schools in town. Without the outlet of the public schools, it has had to attack elsewhere, but I'm sure it will pick up again in time for Thanksgiving for those who managed to elude it during this week out of school. We have a swim meet this weekend, which I am a little nervous about, and I am calling it 'FluFest.' Hopefully I will be mistaken! Otherwise, this is Megan's last day home on the break, although they have a day off next week as well for Veteran's Day. (Maybe another road trip day?) Our next destinations will be in PA, DE, and VA.
We arrived around midnight on Tuesday, after hitting just a little bit of traffic on 95 in Connecticut. We had a great hotel room, because it was at the end of the hall and had some extra space which they used to put a desk and chair into, leaving the rest of the already-large room feeling like a suite. I don't know if all their double rooms are like this, but it was great. We were sharing with Megan's friend and her mother, and we didn't even feel crowded at all, aside from having to coordinate the four of us with the one bathroom.
Our big visiting day was Wednesday, so we got up and out pretty early. We drove through Northeastern, didn't really see a place to park or see anything we wanted to get out and look at, so we moved on to the BC campus, which was, as we had heard, beautiful. We dropped off the girls and drove around until we found the parking garage, then went to Admissions for a brief info session. I can see that these get old after a while. You pick up a little new information at each one, but usually they are just sales pitches for the school.
When Megan gets to the point where she is ready to choose between schools, if she has interest from the swim team, she can go on an "official visit," and stay with a swimmer, which will get her a better feel for what the schools are all about. Otherwise, many schools offer this as a visiting option without the sports connection. If she can get academic money (she found out she was ranked pretty high in her class for last year), then it would be better to take that than to be an indentured swim servant. But we have to see how she does this year academically and in the pool. She has a tough course load, which, if she does well, positions her perfectly for any schools to which she wants to apply.
After BC, we were onto BU, which knows how to sell itself and is quite a sophisticated school. Megan loved it there, so it is her first choice of the three. She and her friend went on a behind-the-scenes tour with a girl they know from swimming while I sat alone in yet another info session. One thing I learned here is that many schools prefer the ACT over the SAT, which I hadn't realized until recently. Apparently the ACT is more of a knowledge-based test than IQ-based like the SAT, and certain kids (perhaps like Megan) tend to do better on the ACT. Both BC and BU require the ACT with writing, but in lieu of that you can take the SAT and two subject tests.
Megan just got her math scores back on the SAT2 and she got a 660, which was pretty good for her, since math is not her absolute strongest point and she should have taken the test in June when it was all fresh in her mind. She will probably score quite well on the Spanish SAT2, so those two scores should make her strong, as long as she does well on the regular SAT, whish she'll first take in May. But now I'm signing her up for the ACT in June, if she scores well on that and the schools she chooses accept those scores, I won't have to worry about those expensive SAT prep classes that everyone takes, but that don't even seem to help some kids. I don't like that it's a big game. It angers me.
So, after the school visits were done, we headed back to the hotel for a short break before we ventured into the city on the T, an adventure within itself. We walked around Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, and searched almost in vain for the 'Cheers' bar, which we found at the last minute and went into only to see the Phillies retired 1-2-3 in the first inning of what turned out to be the last game of the World Series. Then we got back on the T, and realized we hadn't noticed where we had gotten on, so that was a little challenging. We had to look out for CVS on the corner so we would know when to get off. Good thing it was above-ground at that point! Oh, and I forgot to mention we met an old friend of mine for lunch, which was nice. The last time I saw him he was feeding seal meat to whoever would eat it (not me.) That was a long time ago.
On the way home, we drove through the campuses of Holy Cross and UConn, just to get a glimpse of some schools other than the urban ones. We hit a pocket of traffic in Connecticut and a two mile backup on the Cross Bronx, but otherwise we made it home pretty smoothly. The girls had to go to swim practice, and I came home to find Wilbur beside himself. He seems to still be a little sore from his surgery but he is up to all of his old badness already.
And in other news, the swine flu is making the rounds more heavily at Brian's school, and I guess the other Catholic schools in town. Without the outlet of the public schools, it has had to attack elsewhere, but I'm sure it will pick up again in time for Thanksgiving for those who managed to elude it during this week out of school. We have a swim meet this weekend, which I am a little nervous about, and I am calling it 'FluFest.' Hopefully I will be mistaken! Otherwise, this is Megan's last day home on the break, although they have a day off next week as well for Veteran's Day. (Maybe another road trip day?) Our next destinations will be in PA, DE, and VA.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
just when you thought it was safe to drive in massachussetts...
That's right ... it's not! We came upon this lovely lady on the Mass Pike, just before the Sudbury River. She was driving erratically in the left lane, slow then fast, and holding up a long line of cars. When we drew alongside of her, we noticed she was talking on her cell phone and not holding onto the wheel with ANY hands! (Perhaps this is legal in Massachussetts, I don't know) When we looked into her car, she greeted us with the universal NJ driving sign, apparently used in New England equally freely. Well, that was surprising enough, since she was the one holding up traffic and breaking the law.
But it wasn't enough for our lady, no it wasn't. She decided she would take her anger out on us, and she suddenly swerved into the small space between us and the car in front of us. Of course, the ten or so cars being held up waiting for her to finish her cellular chat were happy, although I noticed the first one slowed to take a look at the driver of such reckless abandon, but she nearly killed us and the cars behind us. She didn't seem to care what happened to herself, or anyone else, as she sort of had it in for us. I changed back to the left lane to get away from her, and she did it again, switching suddenly back in front without signaling. I pulled out my camera and handed it to my passenger, who snapped the first picture (the bottom one,) which includes her license number.
Within a very short distance she started switching back over to the right and we realized she was getting off. We got ready to get that final shot of her, and just look at how fulfilling it was for us -- what a wonderful pose she posed!
Anyway, that was certainly not the only bad driver we encountered on the roads but she was by far the worst and the scariest. Some people really shouldn't be allowed to drive. I wouldn't be surprised if this one has had her share of serious accidents. Or maybe she was just out on a day pass from the asylum, which would explain the behavior.
I always think that you should be able to report people when they drive like this. It's so frustrating to have to see, and most of the other cars on I-90 at that time were civilized and driving normally. The most infuriating thing was that just after our lady exited the highway, we passed TWO police cars with cars pulled over on the OTHER side of the roadway. Where are these police when the idiots are on the road?
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
and may the worst man lose
Well, it is election day today, a big day in the state of NJ. As I think I have said before, I wish I knew what to do! Admittedly our property taxes are embarrassingly high, the roads are overcrowded, and the air quality is questionable at best. But despite its reputation and reported mass exodus of citizens who can no longer afford to be citizens, it is still a great place to live, most of the time. We have beaches, parks, mountains, access to New York and Philadelphia, and just about anywhere you want to go, good schools, and people who for the most part have a pretty good sense of humor. They have to. So I think I won't know who I am voting for until I step into the booth and the spirit moves me. I have usually historically voted for the democrats. But I also can't shake my disgust at the car crash fiasco a few years ago. Why would they have been going so fast in the first place? What other laws do they feel just don't apply to them? I have road rage issues, so that bothers me maybe more than it should.
And today is the day we leave for Boston to visit some schools. We now have traveling companions, a swim team friend and her mother, so instead of getting up ridiculously early, we're just going to leave after practice and arrive in Boston ridiculously late. But at least then we'll have some time to relax and explore tomorrow. We have scheduled tours at BU for 2 and 3 tomorrow afternoon, and we'll be back on Thursday in time for swim practice.
So the swine flu continues to be a concern. Those who had fallen ill in school last week seem to be recovered, and in fact there are quite a few who tested negative and recovered more quickly than you would think, so perhaps there is another, mystery virus out there as well causing "FLI" (flu like illness). Having the public schools closed may be helping, but I know that the kids are all mingling with each other anyway, and perhaps sharing germs even more in social settings than they would in school. Brian's school posted a memo from the principal, urging kids to stay home if they are sick, allowing them to take incompletes for the marking period if they bring in a doctor's note proving they were ill. He also implies that they have not been hit as hard, which I gathered before, but that he doesn't expect this situation to continue. But we can hope. I'm leaving Brian's insurance card at home, and Kevin has his schedule cleared for flexibility should he need to come home early either tomorrow or Thursday.
And in other news, Wilbur is now a bit less of a man. He did well with his surgery yesterday although of course he was most distressed about all of it. He's already trying to be his old self, barking at people outside, stealing bones from Molly, and trying to run after cats. I can tell he is in some discomfort by the way he holds his body when I go to pick him up, or when he climbs in or out of a dog bed, but in general he seems pretty well. And he is, of course, starved. He wouldn't be Wilbur if he didn't want to eat. As for me, well, I've had not a single bite on any resumes I sent out last weekend, so that is a bit gloomy for me. With Christmas coming up and my summer bills not quite paid off, I'm afraid some of the charity children I have helped in the past will not be enjoying quite the repeat of Christmas past. Hopefully the subbing will at least pick up after this week off and I can rack up some dollars to get some things done. Hard times.
And today is the day we leave for Boston to visit some schools. We now have traveling companions, a swim team friend and her mother, so instead of getting up ridiculously early, we're just going to leave after practice and arrive in Boston ridiculously late. But at least then we'll have some time to relax and explore tomorrow. We have scheduled tours at BU for 2 and 3 tomorrow afternoon, and we'll be back on Thursday in time for swim practice.
So the swine flu continues to be a concern. Those who had fallen ill in school last week seem to be recovered, and in fact there are quite a few who tested negative and recovered more quickly than you would think, so perhaps there is another, mystery virus out there as well causing "FLI" (flu like illness). Having the public schools closed may be helping, but I know that the kids are all mingling with each other anyway, and perhaps sharing germs even more in social settings than they would in school. Brian's school posted a memo from the principal, urging kids to stay home if they are sick, allowing them to take incompletes for the marking period if they bring in a doctor's note proving they were ill. He also implies that they have not been hit as hard, which I gathered before, but that he doesn't expect this situation to continue. But we can hope. I'm leaving Brian's insurance card at home, and Kevin has his schedule cleared for flexibility should he need to come home early either tomorrow or Thursday.
And in other news, Wilbur is now a bit less of a man. He did well with his surgery yesterday although of course he was most distressed about all of it. He's already trying to be his old self, barking at people outside, stealing bones from Molly, and trying to run after cats. I can tell he is in some discomfort by the way he holds his body when I go to pick him up, or when he climbs in or out of a dog bed, but in general he seems pretty well. And he is, of course, starved. He wouldn't be Wilbur if he didn't want to eat. As for me, well, I've had not a single bite on any resumes I sent out last weekend, so that is a bit gloomy for me. With Christmas coming up and my summer bills not quite paid off, I'm afraid some of the charity children I have helped in the past will not be enjoying quite the repeat of Christmas past. Hopefully the subbing will at least pick up after this week off and I can rack up some dollars to get some things done. Hard times.
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