Sunday, February 21, 2010

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.

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