Bent Out Of Shape
I decided to wear a skirt for the first time to work. Awhile back I had hit a great clearance sale and had acquired a long skirt, matching jacket, and cute cami to go with it. It hung in my closet for some time. Yesterday I decided would be the day I finally brought it out of the closet.
As I watched the weather that morning I decided I better wear my thick tights. Previously I had bought some black cable knit tights. Paired with my long skirt and knee high boots I figured I would stay warm enough.
I ironed my new skirt and jacket with care. Have I mentioned before ironing is not my favorite chore?
After dressing I attempted to put on the tights. I wedged my legs into the opening, wriggled about and tugged them upward. The tights were too short. Only reaching mid-thigh.
I rarely have this problem with clothes. Reaching only five feet four inches I usually have the opposite happen. Most of the pants I buy are too long. I have to wear some sort of heel, or roll the cuffs or other wise spent all day tripping on my pant legs.
Having something too short for me was a new dilemma. Had I accidentally shopped in the little girl section? Never mind, I didn't have time to run to the store for another pair. And I was so determined to wear the new skirt and jacket, especially since I spent all that time ironing it.
Determined I grit my teeth and yanked with all my might. I had my mind set. I was going to make the crotch of the tights reach at least the top of my thighs. After a little more wriggling, jumping and flopping about I managed to stretch them to the right position. The poor tights were stretched to its maximum capacity. I let out a deep breath I had been holding and checked out my reflection in my full length mirror. I had to admit the outfit actually looked pretty good on me. With a little smile I set about finishing myself for work. I fixed my hair into a smart twist. A good hair day. The karma gods must be smiling on me.
I added my makeup, which also went smoothly. For a finishing touch I picked out a pair of earrings that I thought really brought out the color in the cami.
That's when it happen. When the karma gods went from smiling down on me into laughing their celestial butts off. I dropped an earring. As I bent over to pick it up I heard an unmistakable sound. RRRIIIPPPPP!
Was it just my imagination or did the room shake just then? I could imagine seismographs around Alaska going off. I swear I thought I heard dogs bark. My children gasped in their sleep. Apparently my tights couldn't take any body bends...or deep breaths for that matter. What was left of them resembled a garter belt with dangling steamers.
Drama, Drama, Drama
I got called into an emergency staff meeting yesterday morning. Lately work has resembled something like an episode of "Days of Our Lives". Minus the expensive wardrobes, lurid affairs, and surprise pregnancies.
Drama, drama, drama, has been the high criteria lately. Backstabbing, rumors, snide remarks, and arguing intense enough to rival any school yard scuffle, has been almost a daily account.
Since being promoted from floater, AKA gopher girl, to Administrative Assistant, AKA gopher girl with an office, I might as well have started wearing a target on my back.
A couple of co-workers are so angry with the decision to promote me that they wait eagerly to bury a knife into my invisible target. While waiting for their opportunity to wield their culinary tool, they settle themselves to making rude comments and challenging my ability to do the job. Both to my face and more viciously behind my back.
Only one of the two has been up front with her attacks. Brave enough to make some of the rude comments straight to my face. The other so quiet I might over look her if it weren't for the fact that she went with the first to challenge the boss on the decision to hire me.
I am not sure who is more dangerous. The one who wears the false smile behind the mask of friendliness and engages me in small talk. Or the one in my face constantly.
I am not the only one suffering snide comments. The more up front of the two has been even more vicious in her attacks on other staff members. Even reducing a couple to tears.
After a vicious argument, I was lucky enough to miss, the emergency meeting was called. I don't know how well it went yet. Only time will tell. I suspect Monday will be an interesting day.
The rest of the staff has been especially nice to me. They make it easier to let the comments and rumors roll off my back. I am proud in the fact that so far I have conducted myself professionally. I've tried my best to be a lady. While at times I have been tempted to let a spew of angry comebacks pour from my mouth vulgar enough to make a priest faint, I have consoled myself by biting my tongue and grinding my teeth beneath my plastered-on smile.
Despite everything, I still love my job. Most of the staff is a great group to work with. They may have difference of opinion now and then, and have different personalities, but that makes up the spice of what we are. We still are very sarcastic and still laugh a lot.
And I love working with the children. They have all crept into my heart. I know when it comes time for the Kindergarten graduation ceremony I may be the first to cry. I don't know how teachers do this year after year! Try as you might not to have favorites, some always manage to sneak in to leave a lasting impression.
Chase still thinks he's king of the school. He thinks it is so cool that his mommy works there. Or as he thinks, mommy just hangs out there. A few times when he told his teacher he wanted to come see his mom and was told she is working right now you'll have to see her later. He replied with "My mom doesn't work."
That's right kid, I just go to the school to hang out with you. The up front, in-your-face one, just might agree with you there.
Best of all he is learning so much. He has recently begun to read. He can now read simple three letter words. I couldn't be prouder!
Missy and Jr have taken to my working quite well. At first Missy was upset with the idea. Now that she's realized most of my work day is during her school day she's taken to the idea. Bringing home a paycheck doesn't hurt either. She has enjoyed helping spend it.
I know I've said it a dozen time but I am still really looking forward to Spring. This summer I will work some, but will have most of it off. Last summer we were so busy looking for a place to live and settling in, that we didn't go out and do much. This spring and summer we plan to go out and explore everything we can. Alaska is beautiful and I don't want to leave this place regretting I didn't go get to go see this or go do that. And I'm really itching to pull the new boat out and give it a spin on the lake.
Catching Up
I've been absent from my blog for awhile. Despite my New Year's resolution that I would post daily, I haven't been able to bring myself to write.Work lately has been draining. Mentally, physically, and emotionally draining. When I've been getting home I haven't been able to bring myself to compose a post. Partly because they would probably end up resembling a bitch fest. Partly because I feel too mentally spent to put words to paper, so to speak.Coming into the work force again after such a long absence I've forgotten, or have not learned properly the first time, how to leave work at work. I've been bringing all that weight home with me each night. I also haven't developed the thick skin it often takes to work with others. That is something I am working on. I am sure some of it will come out in my blog. Since this is about my life, working is now a big part of it. Though I will try to not fill each post with only work and try harder to write more upbeat family stories also.Now that I got that out of the way... The family life has been good. I have two extra days this week with the kids. For the first time our school schedule and theirs did not mess and I had to take work off today and tomorrow because Jr and Missy are out.The weather improved greatly. Last week we hit a record high of 41 degrees. All week it was beautiful. The sun is coming out early and setting later. The snow was starting to melt. In our excitement Hubby and I bought a boat. Not a large or expensive boat. Just an inflatable one large enough for us and the kids to ride comfortably in. I cannot wait to take it to the lake this Spring. The temps dropped again. It is just above zero. From when I lasted checked the weather channel it is supposed to stay that way for the near future. It feels very cold after our 30's and 40's, but I keep trying to remind myself at least it's above zero.The roads have been a bit scary. After the melting down during the day and freezing again over night, the roads have been nothing but ice. Don't worry Mom, I'm being very careful. Hubby and I just leave extra early for work and take it very slow. Any speed demon I may have had in me went out the window the first time I fish tailed.
Taking The Kids
We finally had everything fixed and had a normal day on Wednesday at work. Thursday and Friday were professional development days. In other words kids are out of school, but teachers and staff worked.
I brought the kids with me. The had a ball. Chase thought he was king of the school again. Missy and JR had fun helping out. They went around asking if anyone had any jobs for them. They made copies, laminated items, and such.
Missy was the funniest. Her favorite part was sitting in my office like she was queen of the world. I don't think she quite realized though I got a new position, I'm not the top person or even close. Even if she did realize this, it didn't seem to matter to her. Sitting in my chair at my desk added to her diva ego.
This is the second time they have gone to work with me. I think it was a great experience for them. They got to go into the work force and see what it's like. They got a little taste of what it's like to work for a living.
I'm very fortunate to have a job and a boss that let us take our kids with us on days like this. I know in most professions it would not be possible.
Now to change the subject to weather. We are still experiencing highs. Yesterday we hit 38 degrees. It was so nice I went outside without my jacket. I didn't even have to wear my long johns! The temps are supposed to stay in the 20's and 30's for while longer. How long I'm not sure. I'm almost afraid to hope we are going to stay above zero until next winter.
Just When I Thought...
...It couldn't get any worse at work, it did. Yesterday we had a fairly calm day. The well was fixed and we had water on Monday. Today was more like Friday.
I showed up to work this morning. Everyone was sitting in the work room with their coats on.
"We tried to call you." A couple of them said as soon as I walked in the door.
For some reason my cell did not ring or even show that they had called. When I checked my voice mail I had 3 messages from work telling me not to come in. So obviously my cell is jinxed too.
Our water went out again and so did the heat. Luckily we've had a heat wave this week. It hit the 30's today. As in above zero! 30's may not seem like a heat wave to most, but when we've been in the 20's and 30's below zero, 30 above feels like a heat wave.
Though we hit 30's today the school was cold. We had to close again. Since I'd already drove out there I decided to stay and attempt to put a dent in my In Box.
It was an interesting day. We decided to order pizza. The pizza guy got lost but for some reason this didn't surprise us. I mean why not get lost with our pizza, everything else has seemed to go wrong?! Eventually we got our cold pizza.
We also eventually got the heat and water working again. We opened the school back up around noon.
Until it was opened, Chase thought he was the king of the school. He had so much fun wandering the empty hallways and attacking the staff snack shelf. When students did finally start to arrive he tried to stop them. He went to several of the first arrivals and told them we didn't have class today. I finally had to pull him into my office to keep him from pushing kids out the door.
I made the joke today that the school is haunted. I said we have some mischievous poltergeist giving us hell and laughing its butt off at us. When I read my comments tonight from my last post Morgan had something like that too.
Crazy Day
That's really the only way I have of describing it. It was crazy.
My work day started off without me or my boss being able to get online. We have dial up and I've been dropping hints that we should upgrade to broad band or DSL since I started my new position. Anyway, we have some bills that had to be paid online today.
Long story short - we finally got in touch with someone who was going to come and fix the problem for us.While we were waiting I thought I'd finish up some work I started yesterday on my computer. Using programs I didn't have to get online for.
I discovered one of my files had somehow been deleted. I have no idea how this happen. It was there yesterday before I left work, and I locked up my office when I did leave. I had to restart that one and finished up some other work. That's when my printer went out. All the stuff I just worked on had to be printed out.
Then the copier jammed. My phone started acting up. The boss's went out completely. And I had a stapler that gave me a very hard time.
Just when I thought things couldn't get worse an aide ran down the hall saying the water was out. I got on the phone, the one that was now somewhat working, and starting calling numbers.
A very long story short - the first person couldn't fix it, several phone calls later we found someone who could but it wouldn't be finished until sometime this weekend or next week.
Everyone hit the phones. Most of us on our personal cell phones, and starting calling every student's parents. We had to send everyone home and close the school. You can use your imagination to guess at what a hassle this was.
After all the students were finally picked up some of the staff went home and some stayed. It was our choice. I decided since my morning had not been productive at all I would stay and at least file some paper work.
I got very little done with Chase sitting behind me asking every two minutes if he could play video games on my computer. But at least I stayed and put in my hours. Even if they were unproductive and the stupid stapler finally got the best of me.
Snow Boots and Car Freeze
The weekend flew by and now we're smack in the middle of the week. Hubby laughs when I complain about the weekends flying by. He says "that's how it is when you work."That's been his favorite phrase. He likes to tease me so much because now I understand why he is so tired at night, among other things. I used to give him a hard time about going to bed at 9 p.m. Now some nights I'm asleep before he is. The temps have risen slightly. We are in the 20's...below zero that is. So it's twenty something above what it was on Friday, but as far as I'm concerned anything below zero is still too cold. I'm starting to wonder if my capris and sandals will ever see the light of day again.By the time it finally warms up I wonder if Chase's boots will still be wearable. He got these boots this summer and has worn them ever since. Yes, he was quite a site in his shorts and snow boots this past summer. Luckily he hasn't worn them out yet. I guess I'm happy he has an excuse to wear them now.If I thought his shorts and boots were funny, he had a surprise for me. I walked past him in the hallway. After a couple of steps I did a double take and walked back. Chase was standing there as proud as can be in his underwear and boots. When I asked what he was doing he told me he was "being a wrestler" just like on his video game. "They wear their underwear and boots Mom."As long as he's not trying to impersonate a wrestler at school I guess it's okay. I've had a soda freeze and explode in my van. I've forgot to unplug my van and drove off with the cord. I've had a door freeze shut. And the list goes on... Finally it was my turn to laugh at Hubby. He called me at work to let me know his car wouldn't start and I'd have to pick him up. He called again later to say it was now running and he wouldn't need a ride. It wasn't until we both got home much later that I got the full story. He was walking to his car and dropped his keys in the snow. He picked them up and shook them off. Apparently he didn't get all the snow off. So the snow melted in the ignition switch, and then froze when he parked again. Later when he tried to go for lunch he couldn't turn the key in the frozen switch. Eventually someone helped him and got it working. I laughed when he told me. I finally got to say 'ha ha it wasn't me this time.' He's teased me over my incidents and now it was my turn to gloat. Note to self: If I drop my keys in the snow, make sure keys are dry before trying to start the van.
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