Thursday, January 10, 2008

Sorry, Can't Hear You

Yes, that oblivious individual walking (strolling, more like) down a very busy downtown Chicago street this morning, singing along with D'Angelo and ignoring the stares of fellow office drones making their own way to daily confinement and looking at the singer wondering what the HELL could be so fine on a grey, cold morning to sing about....
That was me. One of my co workers saw me and waved. It took a minute for me to realize that the outside world was trying to communicate with me.

Start your day off right. Here's D'Angelo before he ended up with his very own celebrity mug shot.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Happy Birthdays

Two posts in one day. My, aren't we busy? By we, I mean myself and my (our?) 12 other personalities.

Happy birthday, Dad.

Today would have been my father's 51st birthday. I miss him. A lot.

Happy birthday, Joey! - today is my godson's 1st birthday.
Happy birthday, Dave! - today is my godfather's __ birthday. I think he's 21 again. For the 30th time, or so he says :)

Wordless Wednesday - Grape Jelly


Monday, January 7, 2008

Back to Work

Today is my first day back in the office after being home for two glorious weeks. A few of those days were spent working from home, so it wasn’t all cartoons and Dr. Seuss. But still, I haven’t been here since December 21st and that’s the longest I’ve ever been off of work without giving birth.
What I didn’t expect was the knot of anxiety in my stomach upon my return. (Or did I drink too much coffee without eating?) DH’s schedule changed for some training session at work, so I called the school to say that Belly needs to be there 5 days (instead of 4) both this week and next. I ask how much that will be extra, and tell them I’ll send it in next week. The principal tells me that they don’t allow temporary changes to the schedule. If he goes 5 days then they have to change his schedule to five days, and adjust the tuition accordingly for the rest of the year. What?! That’s insane. It’s freaking pre-school, not pre med. I explained as nicely as possible that I just took TWO weeks off of work to stay with the boys over Christmas break and cannot take any more unanticipated time this month. She stalls and finally agrees to talk to the director of childhood development and get back to me. Seriously, what’s the big deal? As if no kids will be absent those days and suddenly they’ll be overcrowded because Belly is there? Oh, but it’s fine if I’ll pay higher tuition for the remainder of the year. THEN the schedule would be okay. Between tuition and fundraising, don’t I pay enough already?! And it’s not as if I was asking for two free days, I was going to pay for him to go! Now, if I was a less conscientious parent, I’d have just dropped his little butt off each day and waited for them to say something. But did I do that? No, I did not. Maybe I should have.
Before I had that wonderful block of time off, I’d been having horrible, pounding headaches. I tried to tell myself I wasn’t stressed. But the doctor said, “They’re stress headaches.” Then I realized I only got them at work. Hmmm. Coincidence? I think not. It’s not my job, specifically, that’s giving me headaches. It’s the pain of trying to juggle work and home, along with bills and other fun things like basketball practice and birthday parties, that’s what stresses me out. Then I sent an email to a customer and didn’t proof read it, and was embarrassed by my grammar. I wrote “was” when I meant “were”, since I was referring to the plural form of my subject.
Oh, and while I was off I started looking into BS programs so I could return to school. What I found was that I have 2 brain cells left available at the end of each day, and even less money. So school will have to wait.
I think I need a vacation. Again!