Tuesday, February 24, 2009

What's going to happen when she can actually drive?

Lucy just got a remote control car tangled in the hair at the crown of her head.

I was able to free her without using scissors.

That is all.

Monday, February 23, 2009

The popping, the dripping, the staining...

1. Last night at dinner I was making Yellowfin tuna salad from this month's Cooking Light when the rice mix that I was microwaving exploded. There were tiny little multigrains everywhere.

2. Henry had a sesame bagel with butter and grape jelly for breakfast. When the time came to don his boots and coat I noticed that he had gotten globs of grape jelly all over his pants. Not just one little spot, but three quarter-sized spots that were sticky to the touch. It was too late for him to change, so I just sent him off to school like that.

3. Lucy has had a cold since Friday, which I now have as well. I was pretty much hell-bent on sending her to school today since she has had a week off, she is mostly recovered, and I need the break. But she is still asleep! She has been up really early every day of vacation.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Checking in

Just a quick note to say that although Cary and I are both a little overwhelmed and concerned about the plane crash, which was about five miles from our house, we are all fine.

I'm just trying start focusing on something else, but I end up sitting here in front of the computer checking various websites for updates.

Even in the face of this tragedy it makes me glad to see that the firefighters (who are all volunteer -- something like 7 different companies responded to the scene) and all the other people involved in handling the aftermath seem to be doing an amazing job.

The children are completely unfazed, high on Valentine's Day candy, and at the moment I don't even care if they want to eat every last piece (just don't tell them I said so).

UPDATE: We lost a neighbor on the plane. While less of a personal loss for our family, the deceased was our babysitter's father, and she is just the loveliest, most delightful girl. I can't imagine what she is going through.

Thursday, February 05, 2009

Just want to bang on the drum all day

So I've had some really terrible jobs. Here's a few things that happened at each of them.

1. My first job after college was at a start-up bio tech company. My title was "analyst" but they really had no idea what they wanted me to do. I answered phones, did a little accounting, graphic design, and even bottled liquid wax that they sold to investigators. The male counterpart (same age, same title) sitting next to me was not expected to answer the phone, nor was he expected to plan his lunch time with the other "girls" who answered the phone. We were expected to put in long hours which was hard for me because I had so little work to do. I lasted a year. It was a very long year.

2. Then I went to work at an academic library shelving books like I had in high school. I liked it better their though I was kind of apalled by my boss' lack of work ethic. She once sent me to Filene's basement in the middle of the work day because there was a big bra sale. I liked working with the students though since they were only a few years younger than I was. I lasted two years.

3. After that I went to Grad School and my "job" there was the best part of my school experience. I really have no complaints, even though I did a lot of data entry so much of the reading was in Spanish that it wasn't boring.

4. My first job after grad school was in my field. I was stunned by how little work I had to do and spent entire days thrifting for kitchenware on eBay. At one point I was supervising three people, none of whom ever seemed to have any work. Pointless meetings abounded. I lasted a year.

5. I worked briefly in healthcare in an underserved area. The office was incredibly unprofessional. Smoke would drift in from the guy working next door and no one knew what to do about it. The director used like 6 different fonts in her monthly newsletter and would only let staff sharpen their pencils when she wasn't there (she had the only pencil sharpener). Before long I was doing computer trouble shooting, billing, and nutrition counseling. I lasted a year, and during that year I endured a country music radio station in the office!!!

6. Then I took a job doing legal work for a manufacturing firm. (Was I using my English degree? The world may never know). I had my own office and a great boss. But I didn't really have enough work to fill 40 hours. (They asked me to keep track of my time for tax/billing purposes and it was not unusual for me to have 12 billable minutes in a day.) My boss didn't seem to care so I read books and did the NYT crossword puzzle online. The best part about this job was that everything I did was conducted by phone, e-mail, or fax, so I never had to go to pointless meetings. I still exchange Christmas cards with one of the lawyers, whom I've never met. I would have stayed there but after Henry was born I didn't want to put him in daycare for a job that I was only lukewarm about. They let me work from home until H was about 14 months, but I really couldn't go back. And that was it. I lasted two years, but more than a year of it was spent out of the office.

I have no earthly idea how to convert these experiences into something better in the future.