honesty may not be the best policy

Well I can say with a high degree of certainty that I blew the job on that final interview. However, it is true that if I blew it with the question about flexibility in taking less than an hour to run out and pick up one of the kids somewhere (allegedly a lunch break allocation in the 45+ hour week) then the job would not have worked out anyway. I had begun to worry about things like migraine cycles, kids on drugs and flunking out of school, and little dogs becoming weird in my extended absence. So now I don't have to worry about anything other than my usual concerns: my atrophying brain and my mounting credit card debt!

And sure enough I lost four of the five days I was supposed to work last week. This week, so far, I have nothing on the schedule, but obviously that will probably change. Also, I did find a menial low paying job listed in today's paper and I emailed them immediately and have already heard back. However, the response was more discouraging than encouraging: a simple: the job pays $10 an hour with no benefits. So, I have responded saying that this is fine, as I suppose in order to work I must sacrifice my lofty aspirations of making up to $13 per hour. But if I got it, I'd have flexibility, a steady paycheck, and perhaps even some time off to sub, if I were still inclined. And I would be keeping my skills sharp. At least, at that rate of pay, I hope I would. So stay tuned. And tomorrow is a new Help Wanted section.

Of course, I am steaming about the whole situation surrounding the job I didn't get and how rude of them to put me through so much and not even have the decency to reject me in an email. It does make me a little relieved not to work with such people. I didn't like the way I was always told that I'd be notified by Friday and then had to go through the weekend, only to get called back twice after giving up hope. And I didn't understand how all of the people I was introduced to fit into the organization, there were so many of them who all seemed to do marketing and PR types of jobs. I am sad not to have gotten it, but also probably relieved that now the decision is not mine. I would tell people, if I don't like it, I can just leave. But I knew that the reality of doing that would be much more difficult if I had had to imply 100% commitment in order to get the job.

Anyway, the snow is here. It's looking quite pretty outside and who knows how many more of these blizzards we'll endure before spring comes for real, if it ever does. But the roads at least are clear and it's a little sunny out. But what will it do to the basement when it all melts? That's the question.

And in other news, because our church somehow never digs out of snowstorms efficiently, they have canceled the overnight activity in which Brian was supposed to participate, and rescheduled it for the weekend that we'll be in Florida. So now Brian can't participate, it is a requirement for his confirmation, and the priest (our resigning one) has not emailed me back with his thoughts on this conflict. I'm not too happy about all of this. They planned it for months - and then canceled because they couldn't plow the walkways by 5pm? The whole rest of the world was in business by 2. But we just drove by and it's still not plowed. I don't know what that means for services tonight and tomorrow! Anyway, though, tonight, Megan's and Brian's schools are playing each other for the conference championship in basketball. We're going to drive them down there, and possibly stay and watch too, although I imagine it's going to be packed.

here we snow again!

It's snowing. And last night, my job for today was canceled. That means that I'm now down 3 days in a row when I thought I had three days of work. And tomorrow is looking like a no-go day too, if noaa.gov is right about this weather. But last night, I got a message on my cell phone, an email from the sub system, a notification on my page on the sub system, and three phone calls home, all canceling the job today, which had nothing to do with the weather.

Thinking I might pick up a morning at least, I logged into the system this morning and job after job appeared and was taken. But in concert with the flow of job postings was the rate of falling snow. I worried if I took a full day and the district called for early dismissal, how would Megan get home from her bus stop 1/4 of a mile away on unplowed roads with already-unshoveled sidewalks? Maybe someone would give her a ride, but what about Brian? I checked his school's website and it was announced that they will be getting out at 1:10. So I already was cut off from afternoon work, even WITH early dismissal (which is 1:30 for elementary schools).

After I dropped Megan off, having noticed on the way home that I could feel something under the tires that hadn't been there on the way over, I checked the public school site. Another early dismissal announced. It's coming down good and hard now, and it's only 7:38. I thought of calling the para sub caller, but now I need to be out by noon, and feel that's asking too much. So I'll stay in and do laundry. And go buy milk and bread. Kevin took the train in. We'll see what happens. The last storm, he stayed home. This time, he might have to stay in the city! And I don't know how to start the snowblower!

But at least we got good news from the neurologist. As I posted on his carepage, Brian passed all the neuro exams and we found out that his MRI was fine although not initially read as so by the radiologist. I've encountered radiologist/neurologist discrepancies in the past, and I prefer to believe the opinion of the latter, so I NEVER look at what the radiologist has said unless I am forced to do so. But the doctor was so mad that he made her revise her report to the happier reading.

Of course we know that all of these things can change at any time, but it's been five years with mostly positive news on every scan. He promises with more force than usual that we won't have to re-scan in 2010. But I know although he says this, if he feels a need, he'll order it anyway. Even though he contrasted his promise of this year to last year's, when it was qualified with, "I reserve the right to change my mind." Which he did. Thanks to those legs on the swing test!

In other news, Wilbur is now booked into the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm for our two upcoming swim meets. Molly will stay with the Doll, hopefully without incident or event. She mostly lies around all day anyway, and she seems very at home at the Doll's house. The first meet starts March 12 in PA and then the big on is April 7 in Florida. Although I don't know how they will do if they never get to practice, with all of this snow! I wonder what he'll do about that tonight and tomorrow? And on that note here is Brian. Time for Round 2 of school drop-offs in the snow. I always love dropping off at the prep school. The boys get out of their cars and open various other doors, trunks, hatchbacks, and just take their time, not a care in the world. In the public school, they're practically thrown out of the moving cars, mine included.

career meltdown

Well, it isn't my day. I had a little trouble getting out of bed this morning, between the rain and all, so I was running a few minutes behind but managed to get Brian and myself out in time for him to make it to school. I think we left a little after 8. I got to the school, about 20 minutes away, only to be told that they had been 'trying to reach me.' Funny, because I had my cell phone with me the entire time.

So this is the world of disrespect in which a substitute teacher must exist. It's not OK to cancel a half day of covering meetings for anonymous teachers in order to take a full week for a regular customer, but it's fine for them to let me drag myself halfway across town, and then try to call me 18 minutes before the job starts, when I live 20 minutes away, and then just say, "oh, sorry." So I was quite upset about that. And it was canceled for both today and tomorrow.

So I came home and moped.

Then tonight I again stalked the page of my would-have-been employer, and found some updates, a non-occurrence ever since the former incumbent abandoned her post three weeks ago. To me, this says that a candidate has been selected and I did indeed blow my chances on that final ineffectual interview. I have mixed feelings: anger and sadness, but also relief. I just hope something better and less demanding comes along sometime before September! Hopefully they will have the consideration to send me some sort of notification so I can have closure and be sure. But I won't hold my breath.

And now we are getting a new snow storm! I hope it won't amount to much. It rained cats and dogs all day today and melted away some of the old snow but not nearly all of it. I am not happy about having this bad weather for our neurologist visit (also dreading discussing the MRI results! What if he never read them and that's why he hasn't called us, and not that everything was unchanged??:::knock wood!!::) but I also worry about Friday. I lost three full working days to snow days with the last storm and now I stand to lose another of this materializes. I guess the best I can hope for is a delayed opening but the latest report I saw said it could snow through noon on Friday. But I guess there isn't much to be done about it.

Interestingly enough, I remember 2005 as if it were yesterday, and tomorrow is the five year anniversary of the day we had to bring him in to get the pseudomeningocele drained and have him checked for meningitis. I remember the surgeon didn't want to admit us, but I was so afraid to bring him home because of how sick he had been all week, and because there was a blizzard rolling through. So that was February 24, 2005. However, it was also the day that Brian turned a corner. Once they drained that nasty thing, gave him motrin and put him on steroids, he felt a whole lot better. I also remember it was March 17 when the lump was finally gone, but I think it had actually receded a few days prior to that, but the doctor postponed our appointment.

In other news, Brian has recovered from his stomach trauma of yesterday. I spoke to the school nurse when I was working ans she suggested feeding him lots of fruits and vegetables. So I did, and it did seem to help. He was back to school and stayed for Homework Club afterwards. He took a math test, so let's hope for good results on that too! Progress reports are due tomorrow, so they'll be mailed out later this week. IF they are coming. ::fingers crossed but not holding breath::

wintry weather watch

So they say this was the best day of the week! Brian stayed home from school with stomach pain. I evaluated him before I left and decided he'd be OK if I left him for four hours so I went to work, and he was. I brought him lots of food afterwards, and he ate it, beginning with turkey chili from Whole Foods. I think that perhaps his constitution is balking at 3/4 of my chicken quesadilla followed by a cheeseburger on Saturday night, and then a bagel for breakfast, another bagel for lunch, and a bowl of apple jacks as a chaser on Sunday, all of which comprised his weekend diet.

As I said, I worked the morning, and I have two more mornings. Then I have two full days! In my favorite special ed class. So I'm quite busy for these two weeks. This is nice, and I appreciate the half days as well. And fortunately this is not a cleaning lady week, so I won't have to worry about dog issues in the basement.

Speaking of dogs, I am quite concerned about Molly, as I think I have posted before. She is literally covered in tumors Covered beyond belief. I am ready to take her in to the vet and have her looked at. Certainly she is still being herself and aside from the pooping indiscretion and the possibility that she is the indoor pee-er, she's had no issues to speak of. But this sudden increased intake of water along with the excessive lumpiness and the crying head rubbing she's been doing merit attention. At the very least, she might need to go on some sort of pain killers or arthritis medication.

No critical decisions should need to be made at this point but I do wonder if she is masking some major pain. And I worry so much about leaving her in April! I have secured Wilbur's reservations, although I'm a bit annoyed that I have to pay for an extra day because they don't allow pick-ups after 10AM on Sunday. But I would never leave him anywhere else, if he has nearly as successful of a week as he did when we went to London it will be well worth it.

Very sad news from the CarePage I have been following today, the poor woman succumbed to her illness, after just over two weeks of valiant efforts on the part of the medical staff. They really tried everything they had, but it wasn't enough in the end. She was very young (31) and had been in excellent health. Sadly, she leaves behind a nine year old daughter, along with her husband and large family. They are a very religious group and I envy them the comfort that it brings them as they go through this most awful thing.

In other news, and I barely want to give it the benefit of the bits and bytes it might take up, but still not a peep on the job. I guess it doesn't matter right now, I'm working as if I have a full time job lately anyway so I can't complain, only I am home to drive kids and care for pets and shop as I need to. But how rude! Enough said about that. And now I am waiting for the Bachelor to come on. I understand this will be quite the unprecedented ending.

from bad to better

Well, my day has improved since I slipped on dog pee while wearing my robe and then had to clean up wet mushy cat puke from the wood floor in the dining room. Kevin and I went to church and he actually stayed awake the whole time. The sermon was a good one, stayed on topic and made a point. The priest used a fifth grader's answer to an economics question to illustrate how society leads us away from basic values, by describing his response to the question: what happens when Country A has too much corn and Country B doesn't have enough? The boy had responded that Country A gives some corn to Country B because A has too much and B needs more. Obviously, this didn't score any points on the social studies test, but it gave good material for the sermon.

It also made me feel better about my jobless situation. With another weekend gone by and still no word, I've gone from feeling forsaken to feeling that perhaps this isn't an organization worthy of my services after all. I do feel a bit like a fool (well, more than a bit) for feeling so sure that the very next day I would receive a job offer, and for beginning to make some plans, at least in my head, of how I would rearrange our lives to fit in this new demand on my time. On ALL of my time. I even made Brian's next orthodontist appointment an evening one, just in case! I guess I counted my chickens too soon.

But the sermon was mainly about how we are driven by the need for possessions, prosperity,and prestige, so I asked myself why I wanted this job so badly. There is the obvious reason, and the main one: the money. It's a little more than just being about possessions and prestige but surely we should be able to make it without the extra salary, at least until Brian is in school, if I can at least pick up some extra days subbing. And although we'll have tuition and room and board, we will no longer have the few thousand dollars in fees that swim team costs us each year!

But the other reason, the fact that I did like the description of the job and felt like nothing similar to this position was likely to come along again, is a little harder to whisk away from my subconscious, until I remind myself of the long hours, and of the unknown reason for the relatively short tenure of what would have been my predecessor. So I focus on the hours that would have been required, and continue to comb websites and classified ads for some other use of my talents. It doesn't hurt that I have booked myself for three half-days subbing this week, and I got a call to work tomorrow which I had to decline due to my previous booking.

I also enjoyed my two days in the class I covered as an aide, and was thanked and appreciated at the end of it. It's always nice to have validation that I can make a difference.

Other than that, the weather seems to be turning. Some of the deadly looking icicles on the eaves proved just so to our outdoor spotlights, which were brought down with such apparent force that one of them was separated from the house, and lost a bulb! Kevin is out there now trying to fix it. (Can hardly wait for outcome)

And in other news, Megan's report card came and she did great! She knew about a C+ and a B+ on physics and calculus midterms, but she didn't know any others. Well, the rest were all As! And all of her marking period grades went up or stayed the same, so she had a bunch of As and A+s and two B+s, but nothing less than that. And two of the B+s are in AP courses. One is in honors physics, an equally challenging course. Hopefully she can hang on for the year like this. The third marking period is the hard one, with all the school she misses for swimming. Progress reports are due from Brian's school next week, and they only come for grades of 'C' or less. So far a marking period hasn't passed without two progress reports coming. He claims they won't this time. I'll believe it when I (don't) see it.

february frost

The snow never did materialize beyond a few flakes glimpsed through the window last night. But it sure is sticking around on the lawns and sidewalks! Most people, of course in violation of local statutes, don't bother to clear a path along the sidewalks in our neighborhood. We are fortunate in this house not even to HAVE a sidewalk on our property, so we only have to shovel out the driveway(s) and anything else we would like available for our own use. I can turn my head right now and still see well over a foot of snow along every curb. I wonder if it will still be here when we head to Florida!

So I had a pretty good day in the fourth grade class I was 'aiding' in for my friend. At one point there were three teachers plus me in the class, and at that time, the principal was observing! It must be quite nerve-wracking for the classroom teacher to have all that going on. But my three charges behaved well for the whole day and time moved very quickly. I'll be back in there again tomorrow. The only bad thing was that I couldn't get home until 3:30, so I'm hoping Brian can figure out which bus to get on. He can at least ride the bus to our development, and then walk home (in the street, of course, as no sidewalks are cleared for pedestrians). I do love living out here where it's quiet, but some things make me really angry.

Which brings me to one thing that makes me angriest: the job that never was or may never be. I still haven't heard. And I get upset, mostly mad at myself for having had so much confidence that it was a sure thing. And then I get mad at them for giving me that sense. And then I get upset at having been put through such rigors three times, and then left to hang for two weeks (and counting) - snow days aside, it's a long time to wait after having been told that a call would be forthcoming the very next day. And so I mope.

The good news is that the cleaning woman came today, but the bad news is that Wilbur peed in his pen down in the basement! I didn't put Molly down there, for fear it would kill her, but I guess he was lonely and freaked out a little. He was alone from 8:15 till 2:30 when Megan got home and he has certainly been left longer than that in his pen without incident. Just always upstairs, where he could see everyone else and not have to listen to sounds over his head and be all alone. Tomorrow I'll leave him in his pen - it will be for the same amount of time - but upstairs. So we'll see how that goes.

And in other news, Brian's intramural basketball team lost today, by one point, in the playoff opening game. So they're now out, which means he can go back for homework help at school beginning on Tuesday. He has two tests tomorrow, which always makes for tension in the house as we worry if he'll pass them! And Megan's report card, which was due yesterday, has not yet arrived, due to the late submission of the grades over the snow days. Oh, and in my dream last night I had a visitor: Buddy! And he had a tail. I wonder what that means? And now, I must figure out the eternal quandary, what is for dinner?

what? snow again???

This is crazy! It's as if we live in Michigan! The snow comes every day and nothing melts it and giant icicles hang from the gutters, threatening to spear anyone who lingers too long underneath. The snow this afternoon and evening is not supposed to amount to much, but I really want it all to melt so Brian can become independent again! In fact, I am going to the last high school swim meet and he has a Spanish club meeting. He didn't mention it, but I saw it on the online announcements. Only he can't go, because I can't pick him up and I have missed the last two dual meets because of his other commitments.

So Megan is still sick. Yesterday when she was off, she insisted that she didn't need to be seen, but she sat in the family room while I was in the kitchen and I couldn't stand the cacophony of coughing. A call to the pediatrician yielded a machine that advised holding for an operator, so I hung up and decided to try the walk-in clinic. Lo and behold, there was no wait! So the doctor there said that Megan had a little wheeze, and her temperature registered a balmy 99 degrees! (Megan says this is because she had her coat on). So she is on biaxin, but only for seven days, which I find odd. I guess if she doesn't improve drastically within the first day or two (and last night was a bad night for coughing, but that may have been the infection breaking up and draining) I can just ask the pediatrician to have a look and make sure it's been fully treated. I just had the sense it was turning into a situation of bronchitis or pneumonia and we can't have that!

I worked this morning, spending the first two hours in my favorite special ed class and the third in a fourth grade room. In between, I encountered Megan in the hallway of the elementary school, where she had just completed two presentations on 'just say no' and related info. I took her into the class and introduced her to my many friends, and was amused to find that they were all struck dumb for a good two or three minutes at the mere sight of her! This is a group that only an hour earlier had been impossible to keep to less than a dull roar.

And my next two days will be spent in the capacity of classroom aide, so something different for a change. Stay tuned for details!

Oh, right, and I returned home at 1. So, what is that? Gone for five hours. Giant pile of dog crap in the foyer, half-eaten. One dog craps the other eats and drags it around the house. I am actually looking forward to cleaning day tomorrow now! Between the tracked-in snow and now the scattered dry dog poo - I think this is well needed.

And in other news, it is Ash Wednesday. Brian's school obviously will offer them, but all are not required to partake. I don't know what he will have done, but his confirmation group will sit together as a class at the service tonight. I'm annoyed anew at this whole confirmation thing because I always feel like it's done with a guilty conscience. Like everything is 'required' and they don't make you feel like you want to do any of it. At least that's how I feel. I don't know if he will go tonight. I, for one, don't feel like it. I took E last year and I'm pretty sure Brian came with us and was probably the only one from his class there then. Oh, and along those lines: our priest is leaving. Yep. He's outta there. Gone June 1. Just like that. This is the one who rode the train into NYC and stayed with us after his prayer over Brian before the surgery. The parish will miss him, but change is not always a bad thing.

last day of unexpected vacation

Well, unless you're Brian. If you are, your vacation ended this morning! You're in school taking two or three tests and trying to remember the things you learned a week or longer ago. But if you're Megan or me, you're home looking out at all of this new snow falling. It isn't sticking but it's coming down steadily. The plows just came through and tried to flatten out all the icy moguls in the road, I'll see how much success they had when I venture out in a little while. I have to make a pasta dish for the swim team dinner tonight.

Also tonight, I have to get Brian to a pancake supper at church. And with tomorrow being Ash Wednesday, I imagine he will be required to go to the services, and the only one I can get him to will be the evening one. Megan has her last swim meet of the high school season, against the cross-town school, at 3:30. I'm working until noon. Hopefully the weather will soon take a turn for the better!

Anyway, all of this snow has me thinking of warmer and brighter places, such as Fort Lauderdale, where we will be in less than two months! I have to make my reservations for Wilbur, and find out if Molly is still welcome to stay with the Doll. If not, I guess I'll have to find someone to come in and walk her three times a day. I hope the Doll will take her. She doesn't mind going there. I don't think she would like being in the kennel, but you never know. Wilbur surely enjoyed it!

Before the trip to Florida, we have to travel to PA for the state championships, which is always a major pain. The meet starts on Friday at 7am so we have to get Megan up there the night before. This year, Brian says he wants to come, which I didn't expect, but I think he just doesn't want to be left with the Doll! He can stay in the hotel and do his homework all weekend, but that means that I can't go out until after he gets out of school Friday. Not a big deal because I can save a day in the kennel with Wilbur and I can get Molly where she needs to go, or get someone in for her, too. I am still worried about her because of the amount of water she's been drinking lately ... kind of nervous about leaving her in April.

Otherwise not much goes on. As I said, two obligatory appearances tonight, 15 minutes apart at the same time. Do I eat pancakes, or do I eat pasta? I will be doing a lot of driving tonight.

And in other news, I am working the rest of the week after today; Thursday and Friday as the aide in my friend's spot in a fourth grade classroom. She keeps giving me more and more details that are making me wonder if I'll survive the two days! It would have been three, but I already committed to work tomorrow morning at another school. And, again, no word on the job: but the school will reopen tomorrow so maybe I'll have some resolution - SURELY by the end of this week, one way or another. I'm anxious just to know. It feels like it's been forever, but really I can only count it as three days, because the school and offices have been closed since. Meanwhile, I did send out a couple of other resumes to keep myself active. Nothing yet on those, though. Back to the drawing board, if this turns out to be a no! :/

fi-nally!

So Megan broke her draught on winning races at the conference meet, and she did it with gusto! You wouldn't really know it from the article in the paper, which continues its courting of the Catholic school team with gushy paragraphs going on and on about their star swimmer - not that she doesn't deserve credit - everything they write about her is true. But then they add at the very end: other winners were... and this is where they cover Megan's two blow-them-all-away wins in two sentences, listing only her times. Which, by the way, outpaced the second place finisher by four seconds in the 200 and eleven in the 500. So we were pretty proud, even if the paper's lousy reporter didn't find it noteworthy! (maybe they know that I'm the one who wrote and complained about their coverage of local swimming, because it's pathetic)

So that was the news ... she is still kind of sick so we didn't know what to expect, but I guess neither did she in the race, and she went out strong and stayed strong, and finished the 200 in a personal best time! Then in the 500, she finished in a second-personal best time, and her best time this season. So that was a great meet for her and hopefully a sign of a great season to come. ::knock wood!!::

Otherwise, we arrived home to a huge puddle of dog pee on the papers that were tied and stacked by the back door. Who did it? It was way too much to be accredited to Wilbur, the 12 pound pom, but it did seem like a dog had peed ON the papers, and how would Molly do that? Also evidence in Wilbur's favor is that he didn't drink much of his water, while Molly is drinking more than usualy lately. So that's our mystery. Nobody is telling us anything. We've been leaving Wilbur loose when we go out, and that was six hours we were gone, which is the longest he has ever been left. So he would seem the most likely perpetrator, but the volume was just incredible for such a little thing. But it just is not a Molly thing to do!

And in other news, we have several days off now - Kevin and Brian are off Monday and Megan and I are off Monday and Tuesday. I am working Wednesday through Friday so it's going to be a hectic week, and hopefully one that brings some resolution on The Job!

school till july

That will be us. Just got another call from the public schools that they aren't going to open at all tomorrow. The weather is fine, but I guess their snow removal system has been pushed to its limits, and they can't make the roads safe for the buses in time. One of the smaller main roads, the one we take to the Y, is a solid sheet of 3 inch thick ice, for about a two or three mile stretch. Brian's school announced their decision to remain closed earlier in the day, but they have moved a random holiday from March 8 to tomorrow, so they're not taking another day off their already-reduced calendar. I hope the kids remember anything by the time they get back on Tuesday! Actually Wednesday! The public schools had a four day weekend scheduled already.

So you can tell by my frequent updates that I have grown bored of the luxury. I went out today and cleared most of the driveway and there was a nice path for the mailman to get at the box, and the plow came through and dumped TONS of huge ice chunks along the side of the road. I can't even get the shovel through them, let alone lift and clear a six-foot path for the mail truck. I hope The Job didn't reject me by mail, because I won't know for weeks at this rate.

Speaking of The Job, I won't hear anything now for days, because their school is closed through Tuesday too. So although I sent an email to rattle the cage a little, it may well be that nobody will be reading it for nearly a week. This is harrowing.

But the good news of the day was Megan's SAT scores, which are good enough to get her into almost any school she is looking at, with a few exceptions. If she plans to go on a swim scholarship, they are more than acceptable. They might not get her any academic money from a superior institution, but if a superior institution had a swim coach that was interested, she wouldn't have any trouble getting in with these scores. And if she chooses the local D3 school that doesn't offer swim scholarships, it is possible that the scores ARE good enough to merit a little bit of free money. But we'll see. I'm very relieved because that means that even if she doesn't improve in May, she has good scores already so the pressure is off.

But since she is already signed up to take them, I'm going to send her to two hours of review with a woman a friend recommended, and I ordered the question and answer documentation that shows which questions she got wrong, the difficulty level of each, and what the correct answers were. And of course, she knew that she got the one math question wrong. Plus, she is still signed up for the ACT in June. If she does well enough in May, maybe we won't even make her sit for that one. I have heard that the ACT has a science portion as well. Who can remember all of this stuff?

And in other news, Kevin made it in to work on the bus today. He went to pick Megan up from practice, after I dropped her off half an hour late. She agreed to babysit for the boys next door until 4:30, but didn't tell the mother that she HAD to leave no later than 4:30. So the woman came home at 5, thinking that was the time at which she had said she would be home. Megan was freaking out, and we still had to drive on the ice rink all the way to the Y. But we got there just half an hour late, and with her cough and sinus thing, losing that time in the pool might not be so bad for her.

news from the great white north(east)

Well, they were right, it snowed. And it is still snowing, a little bit at least. We probably got a new nine inches or so, on top of what was left of the close-to-a-foot that fell over the weekend. This is a heavy wet snow and it's wreaking havoc on trees and power lines all over the area. We are lucky that our power lines run underground, but we're not immune to outages, so I'm glad I was able to cook dinner before anything happened. (although hopefully nothing will!)

One of our aged arborvitae on the back deck snapped at the top, and will likely have to be taken down, which makes me very sad. Kevin has been lobbying to take these trees down, but they are teeming with residential avian life and I hate to destroy their homes, plus they have given us a nice screen from prying neighbors' eyes over the past few years. There's also a white birch that usually stands alongside the house but now has one branch weighed down so heavily that it is almost touching the ground of the driveway. I had dogs outside earlier and heard a loud crack, and looked across the street to see an evergreen branch lying on the ground, right next to the man clearing the snow off of his car under his carport, which had shredded under the weight of the snow.

I'm hoping not to have lost any of the landscaping I bought years ago and finally am seeing come to maturity. I've really been looking forward to this spring and summer, expecting that most of my puny little cheap shrubs will look lush and full for the first time this year. I'll have a walk around tomorrow and try to assess.

Both schools have already announced their closures for tomorrow, which is good because if any medical office had been open, I would have taken Megan in today. She was coughing very badly in the night after having her robitussin, afrin, and tea, and then I remembered that I had bought some Vicks VapoRub when she came in asking what else she can take. So she put it on her throat and chest and actually did sleep throughout the night! She woke up with a clogged head and ear and a bad cough, but as the day has gone on it's been subsiding a little. She also started the Claritin D.

Kevin stayed home today but probably wishes he had not! He spent hours outside with the snowblower and shovel, clearing and reclearing the same trails all day long. He plans to go in tomorrow, but I don't know if the transit will cooperate. I'm sure the bus won't be a good idea, so it all depends on how well the trains are running.

I lounged around for most of the day. Did a couple of loads of laundry, sent out a resume for another (full-time!) job and emailed the other guy just to see if I can get some sort of response one way or the other. Of course, that school is closed, due to 'in-climate' weather, so he may not even see the mail before Friday, or later if they don't open then. I'm really hoping for school on Friday. Megan is off Monday and Tuesday, and of course, Brian was off last Friday and Monday, and will be off again this coming Monday. Too many days off!

And in other news, Megan has something to anticipate tomorrow: SAT scores will be posted! This is important for her. Although they were just the trial run and she is taking them again in May, the scores will be a barometer, and a determining factor in how well she has to prepare for the May test date. If she needs to come up a lot, we'll have to find her a class or a tutor. Otherwise, she may just need a bit of guidance in one area, or perhaps (dreamily written) not at all! Other than that, I am off to watch American Idol. I missed it last night, and my friend's friend who had made it to Hollywood was eliminated, and I can't find the footage online anywhere!

waiting games

Still I wait. I wait for snow. I wait for Megan's SAT scores. I wait for the swim meet to finally take place this weekend. I wait for jobs to post on the automated system. I wait for Megan to come home from school. I wait for Brian to text me for a ride. I wait for my crops to grow in Farmville. But most of all, I wait to be rejected by The Job, or not. I'm finding it quite demoralizing to have to be going through this, after feeling almost certain that I was in last week. Now I am wondering, what could I have done wrong?

Was it that I chose the wrong time to ask the honest question about flexibility (hypothetical of course, and if they bothered to check the references that they asked for twice, they would know that I am reliable and dependable in a workplace!)? Was it that I had taken too much sudafed in the days prior to the final interview so that I made no sense and gave poor responses to their questions? Or did they find some other aspect of me to be offensive, at that late stage of the process?

At any rate, I thought I'd know today at the latest (well, I thought this yesterday, because all weekend I thought I'd know yesterday at the latest.) Of course, if the higher-ups have demanded additional candidates for comparison's sake, then perhaps I am not out just yet, and if I were I would hope I would have been told? Or perhaps they have all been felled by a mysterious calamity that has prevented them from moving forward as soon as they had hoped.

Either way, the waiting .. sucks.

And to add salt to my wounds, the job(s) that I had lined up for the end of the week may not happen either, due to the snow. The friend I am filling in for will not have to leave when she thought and she still isn't sure what she is doing! And of course, we don't know if we will have one snow day or two (though one seems fairly certain) so Thursday is up in the air for that reason, and Friday because she doesn't know when she will leave for the rescheduled event - which has been moved back a few days. (a college conference swim meet)

So I had some bright prospects a few days ago and now my hopes are fading, as is my checkbook balance. Oh, and Megan was coughing half the night again. Only this time, it was worse. I had to get up and make her tea, and even that didn't help. It becomes a party when I have to get up in the night, my fans all follow me in and start a fray in whatever room I set up camp. Last night it was Wilbur, Puff, and Rusty.

I was thinking of taking her to the doctor this afternoon just in case, because what if she gets worse right in the middle of the storm? But I decided not to, and refilled her steroid nasal spray and picked up some Claritin D and we will start with that. This was really only the first day of it - the other coughing was caused by the pool air. Which can't be helping this one either. At least she has tomorrow off, snow or no snow. I took her in a little late to school (something in which those of us unemployed folks are always able to indulge our children) and will see how she is when she gets home in about twenty minutes.

In other news, I met with a woman who does the newsletter for Brian's school and I'll take that over from her for next year. But that will be pretty simple. Apparently you don't write a thing. Just assemble, and then make sure all approve, and then post it to the web. I'm quite sure I can handle that. And unlike all the others, this job is just mine for the asking! On that note, I see a few high clouds beginning to roll in. It was almost balmy today, so hard to believe what they are telling us about the weather! But I think I will go out and put some bird feeders around. It's going to be hard for them to find the seed under two layers of snow cover!

the sound of silence

Yes, that is what I have again - no email no call no nothing...no job! So that is how it goes, third week in a row, what a fool I am! How could I believe it would be different? Oh well. If history is any indicator, then I will know in a few days. My AOL horoscope says: "Don't lose faith if you leap forward only to fall into a holding pattern" and then later reads: "Brainy Mercury's entry into Aquarius and your 2nd House of Resources on February 10 opens your mind to fresh ways of generating income."

Hmm. Too bad we'll be under two feet of snow on February 10. Maybe I should take the snow blower around the neighborhood and ring some doorbells.

Tonight the house is quiet, except for Brian's occasional hacking cough as he spends yet another night of possibly inefficient schoolwork. He has been at it since around noon, or so he'd have me believe, and still has quite a ways to go. He has a history test and a Spanish quiz tomorrow, but he "didn't know" about the Spanish quiz, although he berated me for insisting on printing all the assignments off of the web, because he "knows what he has to do!" Kevin has gone to the Y to work out and bring Megan home, she is off to practice with her own hacking cough. Great.

But I do have other things to keep my mind occupied: I am supposed to work W/Th/F this week but who knows what this snow will do to that. The high school meet for Wednesday will surely be at least postponed if not canceled altogether, and the brackets for the state meets came out today and we're not in them, which means the coach didn't submit us for consideration. I had a feeling that would happen, but it's too bad. We easily beat two of the teams who are in there and we could have definitely qualified. But it's OK because the meets are inconvenient, especially with all the missed practices we're having due to weather this month. It just stinks that we don't get the chance to compete anyway.

Also, upcoming this month is the semi-annual neurologist appointment, and I can't even believe it, but the five year anniversary of the chiari decompression surgery! I just want to cancel the appointments and stop going! It's brought nothing but worry and anxiety, but of course I know it is also necessary. And I have to start working on Brian's legs. He's done nothing at all to loosen them up all year. And I never did call for the MRI results so I'll probably have a little mini-panic attack when I walk in the door, in anticipation of whatever it is the doctor might say to us. That appointment is on the 24th.

Along those lines (sort of, but not really) a friend of mine from back in the chiari forum days, who is now one of my Facebook friends, has a friend in a terrible state. Her CarePage is here: https://www.carepages.com/carepages/JennyBizaillionUpdates. As with Brian's page, you will have to sign in to view the page. The family is asking for everyone in the world to pray for Jenny, who is very, very sick after a bout of the flu. She appears to have been a perfectly healthy and vivacious 31 year old mother of a small girl before this happened, just four days ago. So if you know anyone who has these powers of prayer, please pass the page along!

Anyway, in other news, I am not working tomorrow (yet) but I am supposed to meet with someone who does the newsletter for Brian's school, to talk about taking it over from her for next year. Hopefully Brian will manage to stay afloat that long, and will still be in the school! And it will give me something to do to keep busy, even if The Job doesn't come through! And then, of course, the snow. The boys conference meet is supposed to be tomorrow night. I wonder if they'll get to swim.

super sunday

And the super bowl is on. I can't really be much less interested than I am, but I am watching it anyway. Some boy is coming here to watch and hang out with Megan. Not really sure who he is, he is a friend of the friends she has made, and he goes to some boarding school but came home this week for a break from the insanity. Seems to be just a friend, and nobody else was around tonight, and he is going back to his school in the morning. So she's having him come over for a while, although she still has calculus and writing homework to finish up tonight.

As for the swim meet, obviously it did not happen. It's been rescheduled for next Saturday, same time, same place. The boys were rescheduled to Tuesday night, whose forecast is now filled with sleet, snow, and rain. Fun times.

So today Brian and I worked at the art show at his school. I worked at admissions at the front door, which was fun although a little slow at times. They didn't have the show yesterday due to snow, and with snow still on the ground and the super bowl tonight, I don't think they did as well as most of the artists would have liked. Brian, on the other hand, had a grand ole time. What he didn't realize (and neither did I) was that he would be getting TIPS for his time as a coat check boy! So he came home with $30 in pocket, although at least two patrons planted a seed of guilt with the implication that those tips should be donated back to the school. Once someone says that, you feel wrong to keep them...even though he showed up to volunteer, but when they offered him tips, it was a bonus.

And in other news, I'm ready for the week that will reveal my future: will I or will I not have the job? For sure I will know by the end of THIS week, because I cannot imagine I will be subjected to yet another round of questioning! So hopefully it will work out for the best - and hopefully I won't have to wait too far into the week to hear what that might be. I'm getting dizzy from the roller coaster at this point. Oh, and we got some bad news today. The priest at our church is retiring at the end of this school year! That is potentially devastating, because to me, he IS the church. I have often said that I can't imagine the church without him. It will definitely be a new church, whether for better or worse we will have to wait and see. So that was a sobering start to the day.

batten down the hatches

Not looking good for the meet on Saturday, not looking good at all. I went to bed with a ray of hope that the storm track would stay to the south, but this morning that hope was shattered, and this afternoon any remaining dregs of hope were removed when I saw snow totals for Friday night quoted at up to a foot. So there is no way they'll be clearing the roads or anything like that in time for Saturday. I'm suspecting even the boys won't swim on Sunday, as it's only supposed to be 29 degrees, and the pool is probably 30 miles south of us, where the snowfall is supposed to be even greater.

And me with my cupboards bare. I'll have to hit up the grocery store on my way home, probably along with everyone else in the entire town! My sickness has made me inefficient, although I am happy to report a recovery, albeit a slow one.

So this morning I had my half day job at the new school. It was actually quite a nice day, I was in a special ed class, and then in a preschool which integrated special ed with regular ed. They even let me go at 11:30 because the meetings were over and I had stuffed their mailboxes for them in the office. And tomorrow afternoon I have a half day in computers. I wonder if the snow will have amounted to anything by the time the school day ends. Brian has off so I don't have to worry about him, except we have to drop off the cookies we (I) just made, at some point in the morning. Although, unfortunately, this snow could be devastating to the school's art show fundraiser, which features a Friday night reception and two days of the artists peddling their wares.

Following this, I came home to let the dogs out. They were in the basement because the cleaning ladies were here, but for some reason this banishment totally distresses Molly. I almost didn't make her stay today but when I opened the door, she was heading back down so I just shut it again. One time she puked, so I assumed she had had a seizure. This time, I couldn't find her! My giant dog was gone! But the little one, when I let him out of his pen, ran right over to a wet spot on the rug which I determined to be dog pee! So she had peed, and now she was missing! I searched high and low, ran through the whole house imagining the cleaning ladies had let her upstairs and didn't know how to get her back down, and then checked the yard. Wilbur was not telling me anything.

Finally, I was just about to call them and say, "WHERE IS MY DOG?!" even though I assumed they would have told me if something had happened to her (this was giving me flashbacks to the lawn guys and the missing azalea) but I decided to try one last plea to Wilbur - "Wilbur! Show me where Molly is" And he did. He ran into the guest bedroom, stopped in front of the desk, and ran in circles. And there, indeed, curled into a ball and nestled between a sleeping bag and a deflated air mattress, under the desk, was Molly. Alive.

Holy cow.

I think from now on I'll just put Wilbur in the basement.

And so in other news, Megan is at practice but has a meet at 8pm. Kevin is going to pick her up and bring her something to eat on the way to the pool and I plan to run into Brian's teachers' conference night for half an hour, then head down to the pool myself. Now that I have to be late to the last meet(next Wednesday) and this weekend one probably won't happen, I want to try to get to the ones I can! I missed the last one because of the mock trial thing and who knows - if I have a JOB, I may have to miss a whole lot more! And yes, I had the third interview. I got the same story. I'll hear tomorrow from him (which is "by the end of the week.") So maybe the third time will be a charm, and I really will hear. I'm quite busy next week though so if I did end up having the offer, I don't know when I'd start ... probably two more weeks, which would give me one to get my act together for a life of no more leisure! Scary!

sick day

It's on days like today that I am grateful not to have to work if I don't want to. My nose is still very stuffy, and runny, and sniffly, and I am running out of allowable doses of Afrin so I'm saving the last dose for tonight so I can sleep. I wake up in the mornings feeling like every muscle in my body is spent, but part of that is the lumpy mattress and the toll it takes on those who linger too long in its recesses.

So I'm just going to loll around for a few hours. Then I'll have a shower and see if that helps, and I have to somehow get the house ready for the cleaning people tomorrow, or cancel them. I do have to work in the morning tomorrow so I hope this acute phase of germ-warfare will soon pass. I feel like Pigpen with the dirt swirling around him, only my orbiters are germs, and I try to stay away from people. The advil and sudafed I took this morning are slowly kicking in, but I do wish for the free passage of air once again.

I'm glad that all of the days I have been taking for jobs are half days. I now have amassed several: tomorrow, Friday, and Monday, and then next Wednesday as a classroom aide, which will continue as two full days Thursday and Friday. That will be good. Maybe things are going to pick up and I won't have to feel so bad about my rejection from The Job, which seems more and more likely as each day passes without word.

And so Brian's report card came home with him yesterday. It was slightly worse than expected, as in he dropped to lower quarterly grades in a couple of classes than we had expected, but the semester grades were all what we had known. Two Bs, the rest Cs or just 'Pass.' The other night he told me that it didn't matter what he put down for his history answers, because they don't get checked and they go over them in class. I made a bunch of notes and told him to correct them anyway, but I didn't double check his revisions. Yesterday he told me that they had a quiz, and were allowed to use their homework as a reference. Hah. I also emailed that troublesome biology teacher the other day and he has yet to respond. I think I should make Kevin come to the teacher conferences just to meet him - I don't even want to go to the conferences, but I will. I'll have to miss Megan's swim meet - again.

Speaking of swimming, the big conference meet is this Saturday night and they're calling for a big snowstorm. I hope it doesn't come to fruition, unless it means the meet is canceled for good and not made up! After just swimming almost the exact same girls just two weeks ago, it's redundant. The other county doesn't really have that many who can keep up with the fastest in our county, in almost all of the events. For the girls from the other county, it's a good opportunity to push themselves to swim a little faster. For ours, it's just more of the same.

And in other news, we stopped making Wilbur sleep in his crate at night. It's cute to see where he goes and how he moves around during the night. He's been pretty good, although in the early morning, his accomplice provides him with dangerous chew toys, such as thread and chapstick tubs. Well, my nose is running again. Guess I'll lie down for a little while longer.

well, they got me

After five months of working in the schools, surrounded by coughing, sneezing, snotty, pukey children, they finally got me. I have a cold. It's a pretty bad one today, although I thought I was going to get away with a mild one. I guess because I ran out of airborne the other day and then sat in the heavily chlorinated air of the pool yesterday, it got the best of me. I feel like a mess, even though it's only a sinus pressure and runny nose thing.

The video below is of Megan swimming the 100 fly at the meet yesterday. Pretty much, she swims this once a year. So she did take a second off of her time and she is actually getting down to an almost-respectable time for her age (relative to some of her others, of course). In case nobody could tell, that's Kevin on the far side of the pool, pacing in his white crocs.

So no word on the job, so I am pretty sure that no news is definitely NOT good news, unless the good news is that I don't have to give up my life of leisure just yet! They must be waiting on the acceptance or first day of the actual acceptee, and then the rest of us will be let down easy (I hope! I hope they don't just never say anything, that would be rude!) I faxed out another resume yesterday, but it was just a small ad, and I accidentally wrote in the cover letter that I can be contacted by return email (oops) and then my fax machine went on the fritz so I don't even know if the pages went through. I tried twice and decided perhaps fate was trying to intervene, and I am learning to listen when that happens.

This morning I was supposed to work, at the school where I probably acquired this monstrous cold germ, and the whole way over I kept thinking about how I couldn't wait till the morning ended so I could get out and not have to be around people while I can't breathe. I walked into the office and the secretary told me they didn't need me! I stuck around for a while to be sure, and they gave me the option to stay and get paid, since they had dragged me in anyway, but I politely declined and I am sure they were just as happy. Everyone there was sick too, with the same: secretaries, paras, teachers, subs ... even the principal!

So I came home and did a couple of loads of laundry which I haven't folded because I have discovered that when you follow school etiquette and sneeze into your elbow, it gets your germs all over your sleeves, and then onto anything that you hold in your arms, such as laundry. I also managed to snag a couple of other half day assignments for the week, tomorrow afternoon and Thursday morning. I also have a half day Friday afternoon already lined up.

I also fielded an interesting call from Kevin's doctor today. They were changing his appointment because 'she' was going to be out that day. But the thing is that he does not have a woman doctor! So he googled his doctor and found him to be the source of some sort of probe in NYC. But then he called the office, and they haven't called him back to tell him why he now has yet another doctor (his first left very mysteriously a year or two ago) but he did manage to find out that the other guy is still there, which makes it even weirder that they are changing him to this woman. The only good thing is that I looked her up, and her bio says that she is a thyroid specialist. He can use that!

And in other news, Megan is winding down her midterms tomorrow, with English and Gym. Brian's report card comes tomorrow so I am bracing myself for that. We have had some big-time troubles with him and homework. Now I have also taken away his cell phone. He had some biology homework that he had just done so horribly that almost none of it was right. He had chosen the option for the question 'embryological study shows us that..." which read "gorillas begin life as fish and then turn into gorillas later on." And no, this was not a joke. I think five years came off of my life last night.