I went out to the car this morning, got the kids in and then tried to start the engine. I got nothing. Turns out that the sweet Alligator decided to play with the interior lights of MamaSigi mobile last night. Well with the heat at 6PM still at 101 and the lights on we were left with a dead battery this morning. Not a I can jump this and go battery. No a dead one. One swift call to AAA and they had it jumped enough so that we could go to Sears to get a new battery. Well actually I called Sears to see what the wait was like and they said that they had one tech on hand but he was allergic to battery acid. Who the fuck isn't? I don't want that shit on me either. Really allergic? Luckily WonderDad was still home this morning. He drove to the mall and picked up a battery so that I didn't have to lug BoyWonder and the Alligator through the Sears scolding them to "not touch anything" and "no we are not buying that now". I finally got to work at 10:30. I had to park on the roof of the parking garage. It should be lovely to get into this evening.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
And then the cat peed...
I've been having a rough couple of weeks. It feels like nothing is going right at work. I have investigators complaining left and right about stuff I can't fix. There was Teacher appreciation week at school last week, which was miserable and my baby is growing up.
Teacher Appreciation Week was particularly trying on me. I adore the teachers at daycare. I really do. However, daycare is fucking expensive and a full week of appreciating someone (or more aptly 6 someones) is not cheap. I had not intended on sitting on the planning committee. I got roped into it at the last minute. The swine flu stuff was was on hand so I wasn't at the initial planning session. I did send a note out to the parents on the planning committee asking that we not go crazy this year. I feel like each year people were trying to top the year before. I just can't afford to deal with people's egos that way. I also mentioned that in the last year we had two increases in daycare costs. Well the head of the committee forwarded my email to the director of the daycare and she sent me a nasty note saying that they had only been one increase. WRONG. My bank account says otherwise. Things were going OK for a while. Here was the schedule of events:
Monday - Bring some sort of flower. I bought seed packets. I can't grow shit.
Tuesday -Breakfast for the teachers. Donated by Dunkin Donuts
Wednesday -Spa day. We were supposed to bring lotion of something for each teacher. First of all I bought the baskets for every teacher at daycare. No reimbursement. I made rice heating pads for the 6 teachers I had to shop for.
Thursday -Chinese lunch donated.
Friday -Early pickup, gift cards and notes from each child.
Sounds pretty sweet right? Here's where it got nasty. The woman in charge of gift cards (we had to give $10 per kid. Told you this shit was adding up.) sent an email showing the breakdown of the gift cards. Well somehow the director and the secretary had more than some of the teachers. I sent an email basically saying that that was ridiculous. The money should go to the teachers not the secretary that sits on her ass all day (I'm not knocking secretaries here. I was one at one point in my life. I just can't stand this lady.) and not the director that gets paid a lot more than the teachers. Well a bunch of parents backed me but a few didn't and were nasty about it. There was sparring all day over email. I can't stand this shit.
OK so that was finally over. On Friday it was also the Alligator's second birthday. He was not thrilled about it. There were many cries of "NO BIRTHDAY" and they weren't just from me. I picked him and Wonderboy up early and took them to the zoo. We met up with S's family, and had plans to see J's family later. It was supposed to just be the 9 of us. However, before S's family got to the zoo another child from daycare spotted Wonderboy. M is a nice boy but he is crazy rough and his mom is a simpering dolt. M actually spit in S's mom's face last year and hit her (OK maybe he's not THAT nice) and his mom did nothing. They tagged along with us for a while, irritating me all the way. M wanted to run off and I wanted Wonderboy nearby. After a half hour of M getting into everyone's faces and being too rough with Wonderboy I told him that he needed to stop or he could not play with Wonderboy. His mom mummbled, "M, do you hear that? M?" Ugh. Well he did it again and I was so peeved that I told M's mom that my kids needed to not be around M right now. I was not leaving S's family either. She packed M up and left. We did have a good time after that though.
My in-laws flew in and we had a small party of the Alligator that evening. We picked up barbecue and I even baked the cake. That by the way is a big thing since I don't really cook. It was in the shape of a tractor. Pictures to come. Wonderdad's friends/co-workers P and A came. A came with his family. We also officially found out that our neighbors are moving to Florida. I continue to be depressed by this.
The Alligator got lots of presents. Most of which he didn't want to open. He 'd open a few then want to play with them. We finally opened the last of the gifts last night. WonderDad and I managed to go out on a date with A and his wife, S. It was great. We went to Bonefish for dinner and Starbucks for dessert. Then WonderDad and I saw Star Trek and came home for sex. A good night was had by all.
OK so so far nothing sounds too bad. And in general nothing is horrible. But there are just days like yesterday that it feels like nothing can go right. I found myself being snippy with my co-workers. Alligator's godmother showed no sympathy and basically scolded me for being a working mom and allowing someone else to raise my kids (daycare in her mind), I had a massive headache and when I got home the cat had pooped in one spot upstairs, had a furball in the living room and after all of that was done I discovered that he had in fact peed on a cushion. I was frackin miserable. Wonderboy though gave me a big hug and patted my back. He said, "It's OK Mama. It will be alright." I kissed that big boy on the head and read him another chapter of Treasure Island. I told him he was my superhero. I did manage to finish Angels and Demons and WonderDad was awesome and snogged me but good. OK, I really shouldn't complain should I? In the end I know I'm luckier than many people. I have a home that's paid for, an awesome husband and tremendous kids. But let's face it every one in a while a girl needs to bitch about stuff.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Smells like Vampire Spirit
The other day I thought that I might freshen up the my office and get an air freshener. Our windows can't be opened at ThePlace and sometimes it just reeks after lunch. I bought one of those Glade Wisp Flameless candles. I don't do flowery scents so this was clean linen. I got to work and put it on. Within a short period of time I was overwhelmed by the scent. I was gagging on it. It was so cloyingly sweet that I ended up with a headache. At the time I was thinking that maybe this was what the werewolves thought that the vampires smelled like. It was the only thing that made me smile as I threw the thing away.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
What the hell is the point?
OkI knew it wasn't going to take long before my mom did something that irritated me enough to write about her. She was coming back this weekend from trip in Europe. I had my dad call her to tell her that given the situation with the swine flu, it would be best if she either had a mask or a scarf to cover her mouth and nose for her long flight back. She says that she had a scarf around her neck.
Is that what I told her? No. She's so GD concerned with how she looks that she can't do one simple thing for me to make sure that she doesn't get sick and infect my dad. The woman annoys the shit out of me. The fact that I've been busting my ass working on this stuff, and that I work with THE people that would know about this stuff doesn't fucking phase her at all. She's so fucking selfish.
Marathon Mama
Actually I do it for my babies. If they got sick and I didn't do everything I could. Well look at these faces. You know why I did it. By the way despite the beliefs of complete strangers I did give birth to both of these munchkins with the help of one father. I can't help the fact that one is a clone for him and one is a clone for me. Awful cute though, no?
Thursday, April 30, 2009
More late nights
So it's now quarter to nine and I'm still at work, again. I have another two hours before I can find out if I can proceed with this experiment. My boss and his boss both say that I need to make sure that I don't burn out. I know that. I told them both that once we get through this immediate crap that I'm taking time off and I'm not using vacation time for it either. They need to just give it to me. They agreed. Will any of this really help anyone? I have to believe that it will.
One boss says to worry about the swine flu. The other, who made his career working with it says it's bad but not horrible. I'm not sure who to believe. What I do believe though is that I can't risk my kids getting sick and feeling like I didn't do everything in my power to fight this. This is in my power. Like it or not.
Right now at work I have two guys who work for me. They are awesome. I had this one severely crazy woman before who gave me months of grief before they moved her to a different lab. Now I don't have nightmares where I'm yelling at her all night. Given how things are going I may very well end up with many more people under me very quickly. That's good and bad. It's good because technically I am fulfilling the potential everyone always said that I had. It's bad because I might fuck up. But I have to believe that God gave me certain skills to understand certain things. He does not want me fucking up.
I miss my kids though. I miss WonderDad. He really has been amazing. He's been picking the kids up everyday from daycare. It's a long drive for him to do that. They are at a place by me. I wanted it that way. When I was breastfeeding I always knew that if they ran out of milk I could run up the street to feed them. When they are sick I am less than 5 minutes away. Ok I was lousy at the first few things I did. I didn't want to be in the lab the whole day. I wanted to breathe and play and goof off...all the things I didn't do in undergrad. I eventually got my shit together and joined a new lab and I worked my ass off. It was rough. At the end I was 6 months pregnant, trying to finish my dissertation, move to a new state and start a new job. WonderDad was great then too. I'm really lucky. We support each other through these crises. He had one a few months ago when he just had to work non-stop to get a product out for work. If they didn't make it it was likely that everyone would have been fired. They made it and WonderDad was even promoted.
But some days I wish I could just stay at home with the kids and cook a great meal for WonderDad. My mom is a great cook. She helped us with our homework, kept the house spotless and always cooked a great meal. I hadn't even tried mac and cheese until I was 12. I love the stuff though! The problem is, when I am at home all I want to do it veg out and watch TV. I do like playing with the kids. I'm reading Treasure Island to WonderBoy . The original one not a kids version. He likes it. He actually is familiar with it from a cartoon so he tells me what's going to happen next. The thing is that I feel like I'm judged by everyone. If I stayed at home everyone would question why we moved to this state so far away from family. We did it for my job. If I have no job they'd want us back. But I like it here. WonderDad though would want to move back. If I stayed at home they'd question why I forced WonderDad to choose a career that really wasn't his first choice. He's great at it but it wasn't his dream.
Maybe it's not just family I'm worried about. Maybe it's really more about WonderDad. Will he resent me more if I changed my mind or if I work hard? I wish I knew. Either way it's a moot point. We're here and I have a job to do.
My big boss said that ThePlace is working on a plan that would allow people to work from home during this crises. I however am not going to be one of those people. He told me so. He isn't either to be fair and he has offered to help in the lab himself if he has to. He's always been good to me. His wife, who works in my department has been great too. It's funny because a lot of people don't really warm up to them. She's told me that I should embrace my inner bitch. I like her. He understands that I will do what it takes for ThePlace. In turn he has rewarded my past efforts with a job most people would kill for. Hell I have a bigger office than most, if not all, of the section heads. They also let me work from home when my kids are sick and leave for things without problem because they know that I put in the effort. I'm grateful for the job and their confidence. If only I could get some sleep...
