Brian had mock trial after school today. He doesn't have a speaking part, but he sits in the jury box. So school ended at 12:30 and at nearly 4, I still had not even heard from him. I could see that there were cars driving by on the roads in the school so I assumed he was probably still finishing up the meeting, but three hours?! I finally walked through the woods hoping not to find him beaten to a pulp in the back of the school buildings, and I did not. But just as I got onto the school grounds, he emerged with another boy, and called out to me before he realized the humiliation that being seen with his mother walking home from school would cause.
Anyway, although he feels pretty good about most of the midterms (although I admit to a great sense of unease, especially since he said he did well on one and then said that he didn't have time to finish 12.5 points of the test!) he is pretty sure he failed the biology one. I am not surprised, there was so much material and he was so behind due to his study habits during the marking period. So we will wait until the grades are in and then we'll have to get him a tutor or work with him closely. I am sorry to say that I have little faith in the teacher, as he doesn't seem to care whether or not Brian pulls his grades up. He is the one who basically told me that he won't be helping the biology students because they shouldn't need help. So we'll see. According to Brian everyone in his class thought the test was impossible and everyone who had another teacher found it to be reasonable. But the scores will speak for themselves, and if he is the only one to truly fail, we's got a problem.
But that is that. And I have had no return invite for another interview although technically, tomorrow is the "end of the week." I am working at two schools tomorrow, I had accepted a PM job at one already but then an AM job at another came up. I'm nervous because the AM school has kept me in the past beyond noon, and I am supposed to be to the other school by 12:01. I'll have to ask them in the office if they can let me go a few minutes early and let the other school know I may be a few minutes late. I didn't want to accept the morning job for that reason, but it wouldn't go off my screen, and I began to wonder if I was the only one seeing it. Usually they get snatched up. So if somehow I was specifically requested, I didn't want to turn it down. Even if I have given up hope of a permanent position with the district, at least I need to keep my reputation strong, if I am going to be doing this for years and years and years!
Oh, and I got my car inspected today! I was so nervous because of the passenger side mirror being loose. It bounces around at high speeds on the parkways but for regular driving it's OK except I can't adjust it. I have it set at an angle which is just about right as long as it isn't bouncing around. We have the new one, but someone told Kevin that if he changes it in the cold weather, the plastic clips in the door panel might snap, and then we would have to replace the entire door panel. I decided to risk inspection. If I failed, it would have to be fixed immediately anyway, and if not, we have a little time (actually a lot, unless it falls off, and then there's always duct tape.) I took it to a hands-on brushless car wash first and it looked brand-spankin' new going through the inspection lane. I was proud to call it my own when they called me over.
As I drove away, I was texting Kevin that I had passed. I was on a road in the parking lot behind the DMV, and approaching a stop sign so I just stopped in the middle of the (empty) road. Technically I suppose I was texting while driving, but I wasn't moving and nobody was behind me. But I looked up and on the back of the new inspection sticker, it says, "PUT DOWN THE PHONE!" Haha.
And in other news, Megan's high school team had a successful meet yesterday. They beat a team that they have never beaten in her time at the school. They might have lost but the other team's two best swimmers were not allowed to swim because they had missed another meet on Friday. So we won by two points. This could get us to the first round of the tournaments, not sure. That would be fun. If we were the last seed we would race the first! That's what happened last year with the team that we beat yesterday. And this weekend is the big county meet. Oh dear. Kevin has just come home and donned his new "progressive" glasses. The woman at the optical shop didn't want to let me pick them up for him, because she wanted to teach him how to use them. She said it was basically useless if he didn't use them properly. I guess I should go and study him in them.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
midterm mania
Well, Brian should be finishing up his first two midterms as I type this. He had history first, and then algebra. We did our best to bring him up to speed, and he literally has spent hours studying since before Christmas break. Whether or not he did this efficiently or effectively remains to be seen. Tomorrow he has world language and religion, and then on Thursday the toughest: biology. (also English, but we hope he is OK in there)
Megan has her midterms next week, following another crazy weekend with the county high school meet on Sunday afternoon, coincidentally at the same time as the Jet game. Lucky Kevin has the high tech crackberry, although it is hardly the same thing. I keep checking the website to see if they have posted the entries but so far, nothing. Meanwhile, I just completed for her and mailed in the first recruiting questionnaire! Exciting. I won't go into detail since this is a publicly searchable blog, but the way it works is that the coaches can contact her in writing, usually through her coaches, and they can't call her until after July 1. But they ask for a little preiminary information and then if they like what they see, they will follow her progress at her big meets later in the season.
I have completed my first-round interview this morning, and don't really know if I should expect a call back. Apparently there are to be two more rounds of interviews, and I felt that things went well, certainly I know I could do a good job, but who knows what the pool of applicants looks like and if I am ::sob:: not quite the right demographic. But time will tell and fate will prevail. So whatever will be, will be. I have decided I'll take it if offered. I never planned on being a stay-at-home mom in the first place and now I have been one for ten years! My kids are old enough to fend for themselves for a few hours after school, and in the summer, we will just have to figure something out! I'll miss my leisurely beach days, but I will not miss the brown spots on my face. Anyway, I won't put the cart before the horse and my target date for finding a job is September. So if this doesn't work out, hopefully something else will as that date approaches. Stay tuned.
In other news, I am still getting emails from people who say thank you, but decline my inadvertently extended invitation to become my friend on Facebook. Last night I got one from one of the men in our church. Several school employees have surely received them but none have replied. Hopefully most people recognize it as an error, but a few may just think I have taken leave of what little senses I had to begin with. At any rate I continue to try to allay my dismay at this most unfortunate blunder. At least everything with the hacker seems restored to normal. No more pleas for bailouts from 'me' and no strange goings-on. Well, no stranger than the usual, I should say.
Megan has her midterms next week, following another crazy weekend with the county high school meet on Sunday afternoon, coincidentally at the same time as the Jet game. Lucky Kevin has the high tech crackberry, although it is hardly the same thing. I keep checking the website to see if they have posted the entries but so far, nothing. Meanwhile, I just completed for her and mailed in the first recruiting questionnaire! Exciting. I won't go into detail since this is a publicly searchable blog, but the way it works is that the coaches can contact her in writing, usually through her coaches, and they can't call her until after July 1. But they ask for a little preiminary information and then if they like what they see, they will follow her progress at her big meets later in the season.
I have completed my first-round interview this morning, and don't really know if I should expect a call back. Apparently there are to be two more rounds of interviews, and I felt that things went well, certainly I know I could do a good job, but who knows what the pool of applicants looks like and if I am ::sob:: not quite the right demographic. But time will tell and fate will prevail. So whatever will be, will be. I have decided I'll take it if offered. I never planned on being a stay-at-home mom in the first place and now I have been one for ten years! My kids are old enough to fend for themselves for a few hours after school, and in the summer, we will just have to figure something out! I'll miss my leisurely beach days, but I will not miss the brown spots on my face. Anyway, I won't put the cart before the horse and my target date for finding a job is September. So if this doesn't work out, hopefully something else will as that date approaches. Stay tuned.
In other news, I am still getting emails from people who say thank you, but decline my inadvertently extended invitation to become my friend on Facebook. Last night I got one from one of the men in our church. Several school employees have surely received them but none have replied. Hopefully most people recognize it as an error, but a few may just think I have taken leave of what little senses I had to begin with. At any rate I continue to try to allay my dismay at this most unfortunate blunder. At least everything with the hacker seems restored to normal. No more pleas for bailouts from 'me' and no strange goings-on. Well, no stranger than the usual, I should say.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
happy birthday to me
Well, it's been a busy and eventful week, nothing too exciting but just a lot of running around. First of all, Wilbur is finally better, but not before he got worse and I had to take him to the vet. So he got some medicine, which cured him almost immediately. Amazing how when dogs get diarrhea, they take antibiotics and it goes away. So he's doing fine, had his first grooming yesterday and is prancing around the house awaiting the return of Megan and Kevin. We're all staying home today to help Brian prepare for his midterms, and Megan also has a lot of work to do, especially since she had to be up at 5 again yesterday for a meet which lasted until noon.
Of course, this return of Megan and Kevin means broken concentration, but I will try to make sense. So last week, I worked Wednesday afternoon and had little hope of working again for the week. I was supposed to have an interview on Friday morning and a necessary hair appointment in preparation, on Thursday morning. So I blocked out both mornings on the sub system. Or so I thought.
On Wednesday morning, I received an email rescheduling my interview to this upcoming week. I was a little sad, because I had thought that having an interview on my birthday had been a good sign. But I went about my business, worked that afternoon (which is where I found out that I had inadvertently sent out invites to join Facebook and become my friend - to every single person I had ever emailed from my gmail account!!! perhaps even the interviewer, who had been communicating with me via email ... hmm .. hope that isn't why he rescheduled!) and came home to find a request to work the next two days in one of the classes in which I have spent the most time this year. So I took it, and spent two pretty good days with the kids and got two more badly needed days of pay added into that paycheck. Luckily, I was able to reschedule the hair appointment to the afternoon.
And as I said, this weekend is spent in catching Brian up for his tests. He is presently struggling terribly in Biology, and I hope there is a chance to reverse that trend, but I'm not sure. So the goal is to keep his head above water in there, and to try to get him decent grades in the other subjects. There is a tremendous amount of material to cover. I have a feeling most should have been covered already as homework and notes, but he's so disorganized that I can't find a thing. I told him that rather than pay a tutor, the plan will be for me to sit down with him an hour a day, two days a week, to review and organize his notes and get the subject matter organized so that when finals come up, he will already have most of it in a study-able format. So we'll see how that goes.
In other news, my new Honda needed new rear brakes. When I go to carcomplaints.com, my two cars are #1 and #2 on the list of the most complained-about cars, but the 2008 Accord leads by an incredible amount. If I had known this, I might have never bought the car. There is something about the way the rear brake pads are set that makes them wear out prematurely. So at 22,000 miles I had to have them replaced for close to $300. If this is the only thing that happens, and they don't wear out EVERY 22,000 miles, then I will consider revoking my statement that I wouldn't buy the car again. But I may not have the car for two more years to find out, as the lease expires one year from today. Oh, and Megan got a college recruiting letter through her coach - she brought it home today. Exciting!
Of course, this return of Megan and Kevin means broken concentration, but I will try to make sense. So last week, I worked Wednesday afternoon and had little hope of working again for the week. I was supposed to have an interview on Friday morning and a necessary hair appointment in preparation, on Thursday morning. So I blocked out both mornings on the sub system. Or so I thought.
On Wednesday morning, I received an email rescheduling my interview to this upcoming week. I was a little sad, because I had thought that having an interview on my birthday had been a good sign. But I went about my business, worked that afternoon (which is where I found out that I had inadvertently sent out invites to join Facebook and become my friend - to every single person I had ever emailed from my gmail account!!! perhaps even the interviewer, who had been communicating with me via email ... hmm .. hope that isn't why he rescheduled!) and came home to find a request to work the next two days in one of the classes in which I have spent the most time this year. So I took it, and spent two pretty good days with the kids and got two more badly needed days of pay added into that paycheck. Luckily, I was able to reschedule the hair appointment to the afternoon.
And as I said, this weekend is spent in catching Brian up for his tests. He is presently struggling terribly in Biology, and I hope there is a chance to reverse that trend, but I'm not sure. So the goal is to keep his head above water in there, and to try to get him decent grades in the other subjects. There is a tremendous amount of material to cover. I have a feeling most should have been covered already as homework and notes, but he's so disorganized that I can't find a thing. I told him that rather than pay a tutor, the plan will be for me to sit down with him an hour a day, two days a week, to review and organize his notes and get the subject matter organized so that when finals come up, he will already have most of it in a study-able format. So we'll see how that goes.
In other news, my new Honda needed new rear brakes. When I go to carcomplaints.com, my two cars are #1 and #2 on the list of the most complained-about cars, but the 2008 Accord leads by an incredible amount. If I had known this, I might have never bought the car. There is something about the way the rear brake pads are set that makes them wear out prematurely. So at 22,000 miles I had to have them replaced for close to $300. If this is the only thing that happens, and they don't wear out EVERY 22,000 miles, then I will consider revoking my statement that I wouldn't buy the car again. But I may not have the car for two more years to find out, as the lease expires one year from today. Oh, and Megan got a college recruiting letter through her coach - she brought it home today. Exciting!
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
elusive productivity
I guess maybe the problem is that I have SAD; who knows. I can't seem to motivate myself to do anything: exercise, laundry, clean the house, cook ... I am managing to scrimp by with the bare minimum each day. On Sunday I had to fill in for Megan in the Sunday school with the pre-K class, and holy cow! Are kids getting worse, or am I just getting older? It was the longest hour I have had in a while, including sub positions! But after that I did come home and manage to cook a big pot of "gravy" so we had dinner for two nights. Tonight is a different story. Ack. I ordered a cookbook with healthy recipes and pictorial directions, which is due to arrive tomorrow. Maybe our culinary life will get more exciting after that gets here.
Yesterday afternoon I blocked myself out from work so I could go watch Megan's meet (they lost, although it was a valiant attempt and our team won all but two individual events and one relay - the other team just had more 2nd and 3rd place finishes, so they beat us by ten points, which is the closest we have come to this team in three years) so again I saw no jobs even for the morning.
However, that turned out to be a good thing because Wilbur was found at 4am in his crate, cowering on one side and looking disdainfully at a foul-smelling brown pile on the other. So Kevin took him out and then cleaned him up, and I attempted to clean the fallout upstairs. Later in the morning, he puked and then had another attack of diarrhea, and then a couple more later (thankfully these last two were outside). After each, he had to go into the sink. Thank goodness he is a small dog. But no thanks to the white hair that adorns his rear in such abundance.
This morning I saw one job but didn't take it. I am worried about Wilbur, as he ate a rug on Sunday morning, and I didn't know how much of it was actually ingested. It was a floor mat, but he pulled at it until it unraveled before I found him with it. He may have also eaten the foam. So today I'm watching him, but he hasn't gone yet at all this morning, despite being taken out four times. I don't know if this means he is totally blocked, or just getting better. I guess in a few hours I will find out. I can run him over to the vet today if I need to.
Meanwhile, I'm continuing to put my ducks in a row for the job search. I asked two former supervisors for blanket reference letters and contacted another from the job I had before that. So I now have three solid work references, although the most recent has not supervised me for over ten years. I submitted another online application to the district that always ignores me, and I am awaiting one more reference letter to submit another for substitute secretaries in a nearby district. I haven't heard about the other job, the menial one that the woman was going to get back to me "early in the week" about.
But I do have a job for tomorrow afternoon in my usual school, and I think I'm going to ask one or two of the teachers if they mind my using their names as references in outside searches, if I have the time to ask. I have to run out at the end of the day, because this is the day I wouldn't have taken if I had realized that Megan has an important meet at 3:30, and my day is supposed to end at 3:15. I'm hoping I can run out at 3:00, since I'm only covering meetings. I'll have to ask first, though, or I will get in trouble.
Anyway, in other news, we got the Christmas things down and put away. Now I just have to dig up all the regular around-the-house items and put them back out, all the picture frames and little knick-knacks. It is cold and a bit gloomy outside, but at least it's dry and not windy. I woke up with a pressure headache this morning, and I still can feel it a little bit. I also have piles and piles of laundry, and I still haven't vacuumed the stairs, left a hairy mess by the cleaning people. Who also took my dishwashing kitchen sponge and scrubbed the sink with it, using something that smells like Ajax! They did not do a good job this last time, and I intend to mention that when they come again next week.
Oh yeah .. and my hacked Facebook. SO ANNOYING. I was on until about 9:15 yesterday morning, then went up to wash the gray right out of my hair. When I came back down, I discovered myself sending IMs to friends, and I saw myself tell one that I was stuck in London. I quickly changed the password, and it stopped, seemingly with the only ill effect being that the friend I had told about London had been dropped. No big deal, she added me again and we were fine. I used Facebook all day without incident. Until later in the evening when I was suddenly not logged in anymore. And it told me my account had been deactivated for violating Terms of Service.
Someone must have reported my account! I am really mad. Obviously it wasn't me doing it, and why not just tell ME someone is using my account? It was probably one of those 'friends' suggested through the chiari group, someone I don't really know at all. So I am using a different Facebook account now, and I won't have all of those friends from the chiari world. The only ones I am adding are those who I have actually been emailing with for years, the ones who have children with the condition or whose progress I have followed since the beginning of our own journey with it.
Yesterday afternoon I blocked myself out from work so I could go watch Megan's meet (they lost, although it was a valiant attempt and our team won all but two individual events and one relay - the other team just had more 2nd and 3rd place finishes, so they beat us by ten points, which is the closest we have come to this team in three years) so again I saw no jobs even for the morning.
However, that turned out to be a good thing because Wilbur was found at 4am in his crate, cowering on one side and looking disdainfully at a foul-smelling brown pile on the other. So Kevin took him out and then cleaned him up, and I attempted to clean the fallout upstairs. Later in the morning, he puked and then had another attack of diarrhea, and then a couple more later (thankfully these last two were outside). After each, he had to go into the sink. Thank goodness he is a small dog. But no thanks to the white hair that adorns his rear in such abundance.
This morning I saw one job but didn't take it. I am worried about Wilbur, as he ate a rug on Sunday morning, and I didn't know how much of it was actually ingested. It was a floor mat, but he pulled at it until it unraveled before I found him with it. He may have also eaten the foam. So today I'm watching him, but he hasn't gone yet at all this morning, despite being taken out four times. I don't know if this means he is totally blocked, or just getting better. I guess in a few hours I will find out. I can run him over to the vet today if I need to.
Meanwhile, I'm continuing to put my ducks in a row for the job search. I asked two former supervisors for blanket reference letters and contacted another from the job I had before that. So I now have three solid work references, although the most recent has not supervised me for over ten years. I submitted another online application to the district that always ignores me, and I am awaiting one more reference letter to submit another for substitute secretaries in a nearby district. I haven't heard about the other job, the menial one that the woman was going to get back to me "early in the week" about.
But I do have a job for tomorrow afternoon in my usual school, and I think I'm going to ask one or two of the teachers if they mind my using their names as references in outside searches, if I have the time to ask. I have to run out at the end of the day, because this is the day I wouldn't have taken if I had realized that Megan has an important meet at 3:30, and my day is supposed to end at 3:15. I'm hoping I can run out at 3:00, since I'm only covering meetings. I'll have to ask first, though, or I will get in trouble.
Anyway, in other news, we got the Christmas things down and put away. Now I just have to dig up all the regular around-the-house items and put them back out, all the picture frames and little knick-knacks. It is cold and a bit gloomy outside, but at least it's dry and not windy. I woke up with a pressure headache this morning, and I still can feel it a little bit. I also have piles and piles of laundry, and I still haven't vacuumed the stairs, left a hairy mess by the cleaning people. Who also took my dishwashing kitchen sponge and scrubbed the sink with it, using something that smells like Ajax! They did not do a good job this last time, and I intend to mention that when they come again next week.
Oh yeah .. and my hacked Facebook. SO ANNOYING. I was on until about 9:15 yesterday morning, then went up to wash the gray right out of my hair. When I came back down, I discovered myself sending IMs to friends, and I saw myself tell one that I was stuck in London. I quickly changed the password, and it stopped, seemingly with the only ill effect being that the friend I had told about London had been dropped. No big deal, she added me again and we were fine. I used Facebook all day without incident. Until later in the evening when I was suddenly not logged in anymore. And it told me my account had been deactivated for violating Terms of Service.
Someone must have reported my account! I am really mad. Obviously it wasn't me doing it, and why not just tell ME someone is using my account? It was probably one of those 'friends' suggested through the chiari group, someone I don't really know at all. So I am using a different Facebook account now, and I won't have all of those friends from the chiari world. The only ones I am adding are those who I have actually been emailing with for years, the ones who have children with the condition or whose progress I have followed since the beginning of our own journey with it.
Friday, January 8, 2010
week one in review
Wow! I did not think I had neglected the blog for an entire four days! Where does the time go? It's been a pretty busy week, but I guess what happened was after I worked on Tuesday, I had a splitting headache and couldn't stand to think too much. I still had to run around and get things done, but I just did the bare minimum. I can't even remember much about that day or the one after it. I didn't see a single job go by for Wednesday, but that was OK because of my head; which was getting better but still hurt. I took some time to rest and watch the History Channel's specials on Armageddon. Batten down the hatches!
Then I didn't work yesterday, because I blocked the afternoon so I could pick Megan up from school to to get her to her early spin class. This caused me to see NO JOBS again. This morning, I could have worked - two full days and one half went by - but we were up late last night worrying about Brian's 20 page PowerPoint presentation, and were up early again making last minute edits and printing it out while he was in the shower. Kevin also conveniently scheduled the plumber to come and fix our heat right at the exact moment that I had to leave to take Brian to school with seconds to spare. Luckily, Kevin had stayed home (I foolishly thought I might be able to accept one of the jobs that I was sure I would see) to meet him, so that worked out. So I came home and showered, in case another job came up late, but as per Murphy's Law, haven't seen a thing since.
Anyway, someone sent me an email about a potential job I could do, just a menial data entry type of thing, but it would provide a regular, albeit meager source of income year-round, and would at least get me back into a routine and give me some credibility. But I called the place and they are not ready to talk to me yet, so they'll call me back next week. Meanwhile, I found another local school district hiring substitute secretaries (teachers, too, but I don't even think I could provide half of what they ask for!) and will apply for that if I can assemble two letters of recommendation. I hate to ask people for these, so I emailed my two most recent bosses and asked them. Most recent, of course, meaning ten years ago. Sigh.
There is one teacher I would feel comfortable enough to call at home and ask her for a letter, and two or three others I would ask in person, and I am sure all would do it for me. But I feel that it's awkward, since I would be leaving the district that they work for if I got hired by someone else. So even though the district seems unwilling to give me so much as a callback for an interview for any position EVEN their sub secretary spots, I still feel that I am betraying them by asking their employees to recommend me. Which implies to potential employers, possibly, that I have something to hide, having no current references!
But I do feel the time is here to push up the search, not that my recent efforts have done me any good. They have yielded one call so far, and it was to work customer service in a bank on nights and weekends. If I had to work nights and weekends, I think I'd rather be in a hospital, or in a retail setting! I don't fancy the thought of robbers coming in, or working in the fishbowls that are the modern suburban bank buildings!
Every once in a while I entertain thoughts of going back to school for a teaching degree. But we can't afford that with other people's tuition to pay! It costs about $13,000 to get certified via the alternate route program, and it also sounds like a lot of work, and there are no guarantees, because you have to have a sponsor willing to hire you and you work for them while you complete the second half of the program. But there is a $200 intro class, now required even to apply, which I am considering taking at least for the informative aspect. If I don't find something soon, I'm afraid I'm going to get another cat!
But myself aside, Brian is very busy in school and he started intramural basketball yesterday. He had a good time, his team lost one game and won one, and he scored two baskets! So he felt pretty good about that, he had been nervous that people might not think he was any good, and he worried about that a lot in the beginning. He has one more week before midterms, and he has a lot of studying to do! Fortunately (I hope) he has all the study guides already filled in, after spending his entire break working on them. It should just be a matter of reviewing and reviewing and reviewing!
Megan has a swim meet this weekend again, but it won't be one where she's dominating the scene. I don't expect college coach inquiries to follow ;-) This is a meet that used to be for slower swimmers only, and so you would go and do your weaker events. A few years ago, they changed it, and now it has faster swimmers as well. But our coach still puts the swimmers in their weaker events, so they don't have the pressure of the elusive best time, but they get a little experience in the pool and maybe take some time off of something they haven't done in a while. So it's a low key meet for us, and maybe some best times, maybe not. They are very sore from being in the beginning of their hard practice season. And it's also going to be tiring, plus she has a high school meet on Monday, against the first good team we are facing this year.
Her high school is currently ranked second in the division, falling only behind the Catholic school that dominates the area due to their ability to draw from all over. But we have had the least meets of all (only four) so far, and they have all been against easy teams. I expect we will drop two spots and end up coming in fourth of seven teams by the end of the season. This is really better for Megan, because those who rank higher up have to swim in the state tournament, which can be exciting, but it also really starts to interfere with their end of season Y training.
Anyway, in other news, I am finally going to take the ornaments off of the tree, as soon as I finish this blog post. I didn't do it the other day because of the headache, and then the cleaning people were coming and I didn't want to make things worse by having boxes all over if I didn't finish in time. So, without further delay ... I am off!
Then I didn't work yesterday, because I blocked the afternoon so I could pick Megan up from school to to get her to her early spin class. This caused me to see NO JOBS again. This morning, I could have worked - two full days and one half went by - but we were up late last night worrying about Brian's 20 page PowerPoint presentation, and were up early again making last minute edits and printing it out while he was in the shower. Kevin also conveniently scheduled the plumber to come and fix our heat right at the exact moment that I had to leave to take Brian to school with seconds to spare. Luckily, Kevin had stayed home (I foolishly thought I might be able to accept one of the jobs that I was sure I would see) to meet him, so that worked out. So I came home and showered, in case another job came up late, but as per Murphy's Law, haven't seen a thing since.
Anyway, someone sent me an email about a potential job I could do, just a menial data entry type of thing, but it would provide a regular, albeit meager source of income year-round, and would at least get me back into a routine and give me some credibility. But I called the place and they are not ready to talk to me yet, so they'll call me back next week. Meanwhile, I found another local school district hiring substitute secretaries (teachers, too, but I don't even think I could provide half of what they ask for!) and will apply for that if I can assemble two letters of recommendation. I hate to ask people for these, so I emailed my two most recent bosses and asked them. Most recent, of course, meaning ten years ago. Sigh.
There is one teacher I would feel comfortable enough to call at home and ask her for a letter, and two or three others I would ask in person, and I am sure all would do it for me. But I feel that it's awkward, since I would be leaving the district that they work for if I got hired by someone else. So even though the district seems unwilling to give me so much as a callback for an interview for any position EVEN their sub secretary spots, I still feel that I am betraying them by asking their employees to recommend me. Which implies to potential employers, possibly, that I have something to hide, having no current references!
But I do feel the time is here to push up the search, not that my recent efforts have done me any good. They have yielded one call so far, and it was to work customer service in a bank on nights and weekends. If I had to work nights and weekends, I think I'd rather be in a hospital, or in a retail setting! I don't fancy the thought of robbers coming in, or working in the fishbowls that are the modern suburban bank buildings!
Every once in a while I entertain thoughts of going back to school for a teaching degree. But we can't afford that with other people's tuition to pay! It costs about $13,000 to get certified via the alternate route program, and it also sounds like a lot of work, and there are no guarantees, because you have to have a sponsor willing to hire you and you work for them while you complete the second half of the program. But there is a $200 intro class, now required even to apply, which I am considering taking at least for the informative aspect. If I don't find something soon, I'm afraid I'm going to get another cat!
But myself aside, Brian is very busy in school and he started intramural basketball yesterday. He had a good time, his team lost one game and won one, and he scored two baskets! So he felt pretty good about that, he had been nervous that people might not think he was any good, and he worried about that a lot in the beginning. He has one more week before midterms, and he has a lot of studying to do! Fortunately (I hope) he has all the study guides already filled in, after spending his entire break working on them. It should just be a matter of reviewing and reviewing and reviewing!
Megan has a swim meet this weekend again, but it won't be one where she's dominating the scene. I don't expect college coach inquiries to follow ;-) This is a meet that used to be for slower swimmers only, and so you would go and do your weaker events. A few years ago, they changed it, and now it has faster swimmers as well. But our coach still puts the swimmers in their weaker events, so they don't have the pressure of the elusive best time, but they get a little experience in the pool and maybe take some time off of something they haven't done in a while. So it's a low key meet for us, and maybe some best times, maybe not. They are very sore from being in the beginning of their hard practice season. And it's also going to be tiring, plus she has a high school meet on Monday, against the first good team we are facing this year.
Her high school is currently ranked second in the division, falling only behind the Catholic school that dominates the area due to their ability to draw from all over. But we have had the least meets of all (only four) so far, and they have all been against easy teams. I expect we will drop two spots and end up coming in fourth of seven teams by the end of the season. This is really better for Megan, because those who rank higher up have to swim in the state tournament, which can be exciting, but it also really starts to interfere with their end of season Y training.
Anyway, in other news, I am finally going to take the ornaments off of the tree, as soon as I finish this blog post. I didn't do it the other day because of the headache, and then the cleaning people were coming and I didn't want to make things worse by having boxes all over if I didn't finish in time. So, without further delay ... I am off!
Monday, January 4, 2010
and so it begins
Back to school, back to work, back to stalking jobs. I wasn't terribly optimistic about finding anything but I was sort of OK with that since all the ornaments are still up and the afternoons and evenings are crazy this week, but as I was sitting this morning and reading through Facebook, someone posted a status about not wanting to be a teacher today because of all the kids being so sad to be back.
This made me think, well, I wish *I* could have been a teacher today, and also made me glance over at the laptop, and lo and behold, there was an afternoon job posted! So I snatched that up and while I was there I got a call that the teacher of my special ed friends will be out tomorrow morning, so I took that one as well. And I have the half day next week already, so I will have a full day and a half of pay in my next check, even if nothing else comes up! Wahoo!
The job was fifth grade and it wasn't too bad except they got really chatty after the teacher bragged about what a great class they were, but that's pretty typical. They test you, and I didn't want to be the evil sub because there were a couple of Megan's friends' little brothers in there! So it was OK, they just had some math that was an awful lot to fit into the time we were allocated, and without knowing exactly how this teacher normally does the lessons followed by the worksheets, I don't know if I timed it poorly or if it really was just too much. But it went quickly.
The only problem was that my phone rang when I first got there and sat down, after we were out for recess. It rang three times! And then it said I had three messages! I was in a panic, because it was two hours before I could check them although I knew one was the Doll. The other two weren't numbers I knew. Turned out to be an old message - so maybe Kevin called and didn't leave one, his office comes up as unavailable - and the teacher from the other school saying she was posting the job for tomorrow. When I finally got that one at 3:10, I had to call Kevin to try to snatch it up for me, and luckily it was still there. It's only a half day, as I said, but I prefer the bird-in-hand approach to subbing these days!
I got home in time to take Brian to his appointment, and since I wasn't able to get out for groceries this morning (I had to be a slave to our malfunctioning boiler and heating system, which Kevin noticed wasn't heating the downstairs as effectively as the upstairs) I took him to Panera for his beloved bread bowl of broccoli cheddar soup. He hasn't been eating well lately, but he never fails to devour this meal. And I brought some home for Megan - chicken soup for her returned cold and a chicken caesar salad for after practice.
She did quite well at her meet this afternoon, swimming two pretty impressive times for not having a lot of competition. Although she did have someone in the 200, which she said pushed her out faster and brought her to a better time overall, only three seconds off her best time ever, and done after the week of doubles and with a cold. So not too shabby of a performance. I wasn't there, of course, I was at the orthodontist's office! So those will be her seed times for the county meet in two weeks.
As for Brian, he seems to have cheered up a bit. He played in his tennis tournament on Sunday and came in 3rd of seven this time. Then last night, I got an email back from the biology teacher saying that Brian had promised him that he would turn in his lab and hadn't yet. So of course this got Brian in a spot of trouble, and I told him how embarassing this is, because here he had two weeks and he said he hadn't done it, and then he found it in the binder in his room and was up till midnight doing it.
Then I received an email this morning from the teacher: correction: Brian's lab was in a pile of papers that I left on my desk over the break. (He got a 90 on the lab AFTER the deduction of ten points for lateness) Why Brian had a blank and seemingly untouched copy in his binder I do not even want to know.
Another way for Brian to bring up his biology grade is to read an outside reading book, which the teacher supplies each marking period for this purpose. Students can take a test and/or write a paper for extra points added to their grade. Brian failed to do so last MP, but this time he is going for it. The book? The Hot Zone: A Frightening True Story. The topic? The Ebola virus. Yep .. in case you were not frightened enough of death, now you can learn about this truly horrendous painful incurable deadly illness. What timing! Sort of makes Nostradamus sound a little like Walt Disney!
Anyway, in other news, James and the Doll were here last night for dinner. That turned out to be our best solution to the problem, and he brought over a very tasty stew that he had made in the crock pot, and they picked up some chicken and mac-n-cheese as well, and a pumpkin pie. So they brought everything to us and we did nothing! (well, we had a salad ready) Not a bad deal. We'll see, maybe we can return the favor another night. He goes back on Thursday - the only possibility is Wednesday night. She will probably not want to share him on his last night, as she didn't on his first.
Otherwise, that's about all that's going on. I expect this to be a busy week with my odd jobs and all that I have backed up in the house. Cleaning people are due Thursday, too. And Brian is still awaiting the return of that little notebook computer we got him for his birthday three months ago, that already broke. I hope they have at least finished the work on it. Dude. Shoulda got a Dell!
This made me think, well, I wish *I* could have been a teacher today, and also made me glance over at the laptop, and lo and behold, there was an afternoon job posted! So I snatched that up and while I was there I got a call that the teacher of my special ed friends will be out tomorrow morning, so I took that one as well. And I have the half day next week already, so I will have a full day and a half of pay in my next check, even if nothing else comes up! Wahoo!
The job was fifth grade and it wasn't too bad except they got really chatty after the teacher bragged about what a great class they were, but that's pretty typical. They test you, and I didn't want to be the evil sub because there were a couple of Megan's friends' little brothers in there! So it was OK, they just had some math that was an awful lot to fit into the time we were allocated, and without knowing exactly how this teacher normally does the lessons followed by the worksheets, I don't know if I timed it poorly or if it really was just too much. But it went quickly.
The only problem was that my phone rang when I first got there and sat down, after we were out for recess. It rang three times! And then it said I had three messages! I was in a panic, because it was two hours before I could check them although I knew one was the Doll. The other two weren't numbers I knew. Turned out to be an old message - so maybe Kevin called and didn't leave one, his office comes up as unavailable - and the teacher from the other school saying she was posting the job for tomorrow. When I finally got that one at 3:10, I had to call Kevin to try to snatch it up for me, and luckily it was still there. It's only a half day, as I said, but I prefer the bird-in-hand approach to subbing these days!
I got home in time to take Brian to his appointment, and since I wasn't able to get out for groceries this morning (I had to be a slave to our malfunctioning boiler and heating system, which Kevin noticed wasn't heating the downstairs as effectively as the upstairs) I took him to Panera for his beloved bread bowl of broccoli cheddar soup. He hasn't been eating well lately, but he never fails to devour this meal. And I brought some home for Megan - chicken soup for her returned cold and a chicken caesar salad for after practice.
She did quite well at her meet this afternoon, swimming two pretty impressive times for not having a lot of competition. Although she did have someone in the 200, which she said pushed her out faster and brought her to a better time overall, only three seconds off her best time ever, and done after the week of doubles and with a cold. So not too shabby of a performance. I wasn't there, of course, I was at the orthodontist's office! So those will be her seed times for the county meet in two weeks.
As for Brian, he seems to have cheered up a bit. He played in his tennis tournament on Sunday and came in 3rd of seven this time. Then last night, I got an email back from the biology teacher saying that Brian had promised him that he would turn in his lab and hadn't yet. So of course this got Brian in a spot of trouble, and I told him how embarassing this is, because here he had two weeks and he said he hadn't done it, and then he found it in the binder in his room and was up till midnight doing it.
Then I received an email this morning from the teacher: correction: Brian's lab was in a pile of papers that I left on my desk over the break. (He got a 90 on the lab AFTER the deduction of ten points for lateness) Why Brian had a blank and seemingly untouched copy in his binder I do not even want to know.
Another way for Brian to bring up his biology grade is to read an outside reading book, which the teacher supplies each marking period for this purpose. Students can take a test and/or write a paper for extra points added to their grade. Brian failed to do so last MP, but this time he is going for it. The book? The Hot Zone: A Frightening True Story. The topic? The Ebola virus. Yep .. in case you were not frightened enough of death, now you can learn about this truly horrendous painful incurable deadly illness. What timing! Sort of makes Nostradamus sound a little like Walt Disney!
Anyway, in other news, James and the Doll were here last night for dinner. That turned out to be our best solution to the problem, and he brought over a very tasty stew that he had made in the crock pot, and they picked up some chicken and mac-n-cheese as well, and a pumpkin pie. So they brought everything to us and we did nothing! (well, we had a salad ready) Not a bad deal. We'll see, maybe we can return the favor another night. He goes back on Thursday - the only possibility is Wednesday night. She will probably not want to share him on his last night, as she didn't on his first.
Otherwise, that's about all that's going on. I expect this to be a busy week with my odd jobs and all that I have backed up in the house. Cleaning people are due Thursday, too. And Brian is still awaiting the return of that little notebook computer we got him for his birthday three months ago, that already broke. I hope they have at least finished the work on it. Dude. Shoulda got a Dell!
Friday, January 1, 2010
happy new year and such
Well, first for the week in review. Kevin did in fact rise with the birds, he left the house at 5:30 Thursday morning. I know because I woke up when the garage door opened. So he drove all the way to the hotel at King of Prussia, in the snow, only to be told that they had enough cars to bring all the bags back to the Y! He was furious. First, he had just been told the night before that they needed his truck. Second, one of the drivers later complained that her car was packed so high she couldn't see. When asked why she didn't put some in his car, she responded, "well he got there later, and we were done."
??
They knew he was coming, and he was there by 7:30am. The kids didn't even leave the pool to head home until 10. This is a typical example of too many chiefs. Kevin was the only Indian in the equation.
But he got over it and went to the pool to watch them practice for a while. They were back home before 1 and Megan had a good long nap before we went to dinner. Brian had a big anxiety/depression attack during this time, brought about by several factors, not the least of which I am sure was the tremendous amount of schoolwork he has had over this break. Also, apparently attendance in Catholic school is dangerous to one's psyche because of constant reference to death and beyond.
Also, Megan had some friends coming over and for the first year ever, his New Year's Eve was not planned for him by us, other than dinner at a seafood restaurant followed by sitting around listening to Megan use his beloved XBox to play RockBand with her friends. I believe all of these things combined to bring him to a meltdown, bringing to mind the phrase 'depression hurts' from the pharmaceutical commercials, as well as 'life sucks and then you die,' which seemed to be how he was feeling. Probably sort of like - why am I suffering through all of this work if I'm just going to die and be gone anyway, why does it even matter?'
So he had a headache and was all shaky, but he had no fever. We had a long talk about all of it, the schooling, dying, friends, and all of the above. In the end he sent a text to a friend from middle school who was home with nothing to do for the night. We dropped Brian off there, and then the kid came here later, and slept over. Not his favorite plan for a night but at least he did something. Today he seems to feel better. He's working with Kevin on the last of his packets, his algebra study guide. Once this is done, he just has his World War 2 project (just!) This is a 20 page slide show on the role of the soldiers in the war. Ain't gonna be easy. But at least it's for extra credit. Even if he doesn't do it, he is still passing the class, but he'll need to do extremely well on the midterm.
The midterms themselves are a frightening prospect for him, not having any idea what to expect. We even did discuss the possibility of his switching back to the public school, and I told him I would never have a problem with that, but he will always finish out the year that he is in, and the switch has to be made for the right reasons (as in not because he just doesn't feel like doing the work.) We also discussed how he has to finish out a whole year anyway, to know if he likes it - how he may look back at this time in a few months and think, 'well it wasn't really so bad, because now I am out two weeks before the public schools in the summer!'
And in other news, James is flying in today. The Doll had asked Kevin to go pick him up because the weather was bad. So now the weather is fine, but Kevin is picking him up - luckily just at the shuttle drop. Although the plane has landed and we haven't heard from him, so who knows, maybe she forgot to tell Kevin and she's just going to go. It wouldn't surprise me. She loses all sense of consideration for others when James is in town. For example, consider dinner tonight.
I asked what we were doing, as in, are we seeing them - so Kevin called the Doll and asked what they had planned. She responded that she had made spaghetti for the two of them (we are never invited to her house for dinner, but that makes sense, I suppose) but then wondered if Kevin was asking because he wanted to take them out. He told her that he didn't want to TAKE them out (maybe she should see our balance sheet) but that he had thought maybe we could GO out. To which she replied, 'James and I will just have the spaghetti.' Then she added that she had made too much sauce and frozen some, and would give it to us in case we needed to make more sauce out of it. Makes you feel warm and fuzzy!! HAPpy New Year!
??
They knew he was coming, and he was there by 7:30am. The kids didn't even leave the pool to head home until 10. This is a typical example of too many chiefs. Kevin was the only Indian in the equation.
But he got over it and went to the pool to watch them practice for a while. They were back home before 1 and Megan had a good long nap before we went to dinner. Brian had a big anxiety/depression attack during this time, brought about by several factors, not the least of which I am sure was the tremendous amount of schoolwork he has had over this break. Also, apparently attendance in Catholic school is dangerous to one's psyche because of constant reference to death and beyond.
Also, Megan had some friends coming over and for the first year ever, his New Year's Eve was not planned for him by us, other than dinner at a seafood restaurant followed by sitting around listening to Megan use his beloved XBox to play RockBand with her friends. I believe all of these things combined to bring him to a meltdown, bringing to mind the phrase 'depression hurts' from the pharmaceutical commercials, as well as 'life sucks and then you die,' which seemed to be how he was feeling. Probably sort of like - why am I suffering through all of this work if I'm just going to die and be gone anyway, why does it even matter?'
So he had a headache and was all shaky, but he had no fever. We had a long talk about all of it, the schooling, dying, friends, and all of the above. In the end he sent a text to a friend from middle school who was home with nothing to do for the night. We dropped Brian off there, and then the kid came here later, and slept over. Not his favorite plan for a night but at least he did something. Today he seems to feel better. He's working with Kevin on the last of his packets, his algebra study guide. Once this is done, he just has his World War 2 project (just!) This is a 20 page slide show on the role of the soldiers in the war. Ain't gonna be easy. But at least it's for extra credit. Even if he doesn't do it, he is still passing the class, but he'll need to do extremely well on the midterm.
The midterms themselves are a frightening prospect for him, not having any idea what to expect. We even did discuss the possibility of his switching back to the public school, and I told him I would never have a problem with that, but he will always finish out the year that he is in, and the switch has to be made for the right reasons (as in not because he just doesn't feel like doing the work.) We also discussed how he has to finish out a whole year anyway, to know if he likes it - how he may look back at this time in a few months and think, 'well it wasn't really so bad, because now I am out two weeks before the public schools in the summer!'
And in other news, James is flying in today. The Doll had asked Kevin to go pick him up because the weather was bad. So now the weather is fine, but Kevin is picking him up - luckily just at the shuttle drop. Although the plane has landed and we haven't heard from him, so who knows, maybe she forgot to tell Kevin and she's just going to go. It wouldn't surprise me. She loses all sense of consideration for others when James is in town. For example, consider dinner tonight.
I asked what we were doing, as in, are we seeing them - so Kevin called the Doll and asked what they had planned. She responded that she had made spaghetti for the two of them (we are never invited to her house for dinner, but that makes sense, I suppose) but then wondered if Kevin was asking because he wanted to take them out. He told her that he didn't want to TAKE them out (maybe she should see our balance sheet) but that he had thought maybe we could GO out. To which she replied, 'James and I will just have the spaghetti.' Then she added that she had made too much sauce and frozen some, and would give it to us in case we needed to make more sauce out of it. Makes you feel warm and fuzzy!! HAPpy New Year!
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