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 |  Where am I going, and why am I in this handbasket? |
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Fair Warning: I've upped the rating on this blog. It is now set at GC. |
| My husband had to complete paperwork to request a deferment of his student loans on the grounds of financial hardship. This is a hard one for me. Our bare bones household expenses (with the exception of the damn studen loans) can be met on my pay, (a necessity since his income has been unreliable over the years) but I'm really tired of the bare bones. I had hoped the money borrowed for tuition might pay off. Instead, we are accumulating deferred interest payments. It sucks. I hate having the purse string yanked tight right at Christmas time, but he just doesn't have work. He didn't get any hours last week, and it doesn't look good for this week. He is going to start seeing clients through a friends practice. He needs the work, but I don't trust the friend. I'm also not convinced that he'll get paid for the work because it will have to be submitted to insurance and he'll have to wait for them to pay the claim... or not. Now the real kicker of all this is that I'm at work all day and what does he do at home? No really!!! I'd like to know. He doesn't go to the grocery store, plan meals, run errands, or clean house. That much I'm sure of. Last week there were several days when he "accidentally fell asleep." Maybe I'm just cranky because I'd love to have all that free time to NaNo.  Sorry, I know my problems are small in the grand scheme of things. This is a just a bump in the road. My ass is just sore from hitting this same bump over and over and over and over.... In March, he should be able to get licensed and hopefully that'll pave the way to steady full time employment. Fingers crossed! |
| I made a new friend this weekend. His name is Jordan Decker and he is a character in my NaNo novel. He is the best! And he says the funniest things too. He wasn't going to be the main character, but he's got kind of a strong personality for me to expect him to be take a back seat to anyone else. I wanted to reach 10,000 words this weekend, but I don't think it will happen. I'm at 8384, and the weekend isn't over yet, but I find that I max out at about 2,000 words per day. After that, I have to walk away. Alright, I wasn't going to put rambling entries about NaNo in my blog, but I've got nothing else today. I wrote, I went to Wal Mart, and I did laundry. That doesn't give me much material to work with. I've been trying to get to blogs as I have the chance, but I've been missing some of you. Maybe I'll be able to catch up tomorrow while I'm at work  If anyone gets really bored this month and wants to check out my NaNo Novel while it is in progress, here is the link to it. It leads off with the excerpt I posted on the NaNo site.
Hope everyone had a great weekend! |
| Thankfully I sleep in on Saturday mornings. I missed all the excitement. We've got mice in the house. I'm terrified of mice, so my coping mechanism involves an elaborate combination of mouse-proofing my food storage along with active denial. If I don't see the mice, I can keep living in the house without the help of medication.  Some time during the night my cat got a mouse. Way to go Stormy!!!! Unfortunately, she left the mouse as a proudly presented offering in the doorway of my bedroom. My husband failed to notice, but my son found it. He didn't know it was real, and decided to pick it up and carry it around. He showed it to his Daddy, and Daddy disposed of the little vermin and sanitized the boy's hands. Of course, Tony had to tell me all about it. For a psychologist, he doesn't understand shit about how denial works. |
| Today we were paid a visit by the folks at Medical Assistance. We bill them for pretty much all of the case management services we provide. They are, essentially, our only source of revenue. So, when it was announced that they’d be coming to audit our billing, it was a big deal. Fortunately, we are not at the audit level yet. No, the team that came today only intended to conduct a probe. See how much friendlier that sounds? They’re just doing a probe to assess whether an audit is indicated. I’ve spent most of the day running numbers and putting together information, but have otherwise been spared. As is the case with most probes, there’s not really much you can do other than bend down, grab your ankles and hope for the best. I stayed up too late working on NaNo. I didn’t get very far due to a series of predictable, yet unanticpated issues. But at least I’m sleep deprived, and really, that makes me feel like I accomplished something even if I didn’t. Today I’m 4 Diet Cokes in so far and I’ve contemplated homicide at least a half dozen times. Last night two of Katie’s friends tagged along for trick or treating. We trick or treat in a wonderful neighborhood where folks sit out on the steps to visit and hand out the candy. It’s like a big neighborhood party and the kids have a great time. Zachary is extremely focused when he is in trick or treat mode. He knows the script. First he shouts “TRICK OR TREAT!” After getting his candy he responds with a polite “Thank you.” Last, he calls out “Happy Halloween!” as he flies or alternatively falls off the porch, knocks over a skeleton and tramples through the mums in his frenzy to get to the next house. It is fun going around with the kids, but at 12, I think we are getting to the end of Katie’s trick or treating years. The best part about taking more kids is that they haul in more candy. More candy means more candy they don’t like. Guess who gets the stuff they don’t like? I’ll be eating leetle Almond Joys from now til Christmas. Alright, breaks over. Have a great day! |
| It isn’t every day that you see a 6’3” bearded Minnie Mouse, but let me tell ya . . . it is a sight to behold. Ah yes, I just came in from the Halloween parade. We are in an office park here and every year there is some friendly competition amongst the different departments and agencies which culminate in a parade of flying monkeys, singing nuns and Minnie the bearded Mouse. Halloween isn’t a holiday; it’s an excuse for cross dressing. My department is a funny group. We are all or nothing. If we participate we do it with gusto and, needless to say, we win. Competitive much? Maybe just a leetle bit. This year our hearts weren’t in it. I had an idea… a theme if you will, but I didn’t feel like rallying the department, and no one else stepped up. Sigh. I wanted to tie all the costumes into a theme of “people your mother warned you about.” Oh well, there’s always next year. I’m doing my blog at work today. I might just make a habit of this for the next month. (abusing company time, and all that to keep the blog going through the wackiness of NaNo). I don’t intend to stop blogging in November. This is the first year that I’m going to be NaNoing, and I might be deluding myself, but I think I’m going to need to take some breaks from it, and plan to wander in here when that happens. Work should be a good place to blog in November. Turns out I’m not going to be as busy as I’d thought. The new hires start on the 5th, and it turns out that I will not be the one supervising them. In fact, per my request, I will gradually be phased out of any and all supervisory functions by mid November. Hmmm… that doesn’t really sound all that gradual, but okay. I’m not sad about it. I made the request, and it is nice to see it acted upon. This is the first step in implementing my much lauded purple paper proposal. I should be happy. Instead, I’m a bit annoyed that I’m just now learning this, a bit annoyed that I was the one that had to inform human resources of the “change in plans.” The folks I supervise are unaware that a change is coming, leaving plenty of room for speculation and rumors in the interim. I think my boss has many positive qualities, but being pro-active thinking, communication and yes… LEADERSHIP, are not among his virtues. Still… I’m grinning ear to ear because I don’t have to train two new employees AND in the very near future, I won’t have to supervise the other 5! |
| Planning ahead just takes all the challenge out of things. Sure, I've known Halloween was coming, I knew the kids would want costumes, but I'm trying to foster creativity and independence. They should come up with there own ideas... right? Sheesh! What am I? Their Mother? Yeah, Okay, they got me on that Mom technicality. I failed to read the fine print in the job description, but costume designer is part of the gig. So, tonight I'm trying to help my daughter come up with a last minute costume idea. So far she is shooting down all of my ideas. I think she should go as a pet groomer. I imagine lots of bandages and a stuffed cat pinned to a shredded shirt sleeve. She's not sold on the idea. I'd write more, but I don't want to tap out all my creative energy until I get this costume thing worked out. Any great, EASY, last minute costume ideas? |
| You see those black days on the calendar? You see that? I’m not ADDICTED to this blog! I can quit anytime I want.  And that brings us to the topic of today’s blog . . . GROW THE HELL UP! Don’t get me wrong, I think it is wonderful to retain some vestiges of childhood. A sense of wonder and play can make you a better adult. All hail fun and games! What I’m talking about here is something a little more insidious. I’m back to having problems with Zack’s teacher. I won’t bore you with the back story, but essentially, I sent a note to school on Friday that expressed my VERY justified frustration. I got a call from the teacher that same day requesting that I refrain from any future note writing because my TONE is not HELPFUL! A few things here… 1. I am better able to organize my thoughts and ideas in writing than in speech. It is more efficient to write out my concerns than to call and discuss them. 2. I’m at work during the school day and calling to discuss every homework issue that might come up presents a bit of a logistical problem. 3. If anything, the tone of my writing is milder than the tone of my voice because I edit what I write (not well, but I do). 4. Given all the problems I’ve had with the school, I like to keep a paper trail documenting any problems I might be having 5. No one bothered to call and discuss “issues” with me prior to issuing a conduct card (in writing) so why the hell shouldn’t my response be in writing as well. Un-Fucking-Believable! The teachers this year have not figured out that it isn’t supposed to be about THEM, it is supposed to be about the KIDS. He claims he is an intelligent man and that if I have concerns I should call, and discuss them, but please. . . NO MORE NOTES! I suppose he thinks they are an insult to his intelligence, but everyone who has read my blog for any period of time knows how mild my rants tend to be. I don’t throw things, or break things or slap the people who deserve to be slapped. Sure, my tone conveys my frustration because I AM frustrated. He puts too much effort into justifying what he is doing to have any energy left for trying to understand why it isn’t working for Zack. We are at cross purposes and now I’m cut off from communicating in the manner that I find most effective because . . . it is “off putting.” Yeah, Grow the hell up! Tony is going to be calling him today because I'm at the end of my rope now, and having arrived there, am fashioning said rope into a noose . . . figuratively speaking, of course. So, on Saturday I made Chocolate Chip Cookies and Katie says “Maybe if I took Mrs. S. some cookies, she might like me better.” Mrs. S. is quite the evil bitch. Katie had a vocabulary packet she was working on. Katie says she turned it in and did not get it back to complete the next part of the assignment. Now, I know Katie did the work because I witnessed it being done. Maybe she didn’t turn it in, but she swears she did, and there was certainly no reason for her not to. Well, Katie got a new packet the next day, and had to re-do the last assignment as well as make up the missed assignment. Still, she was told her grade would be docked for late work. Another teacher found the packet the next day, but wouldn’t say where. I’m guessing . . . teacher’s lounge. Regardless, Katie was still docked 10 points on the final assignment for the whole mess. So now, I have a kid who thinks cookies might make her teacher like her better. Sigh. Then she goes on to say that she knows Mrs. S. really likes baked goods because every time someone has a party she goes and gets a piece of cake or whatever they are having. “Uh, isn’t there a wellness policy at school? I thought y’all weren’t allowed to have sweets and stuff at the parties.” “It doesn’t apply to the teachers,” Katie explained. Yeah, apparently not. “So how do you know she’s slipping out for cake?” “She brings it back and eats it in front of us.” “Not really?” “Yeah, but one time it was coffee cake and she let us eat the crumbs.” “She let you eat the crumbs.” Some of that TONE must have slipped into my voice then because Katie was quick to elaborate. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. There were A LOT of crumbs.” What could I do but laugh? Now that is a hell of a lot of bitching and complaining to have stocked piled in just four days, so I'm gonna go and be quiet now. |
| "All the beautiful sounds of the world in a single word . . Maria, Maria, Maria, Maria . . . Maria! I've just hired a girl named Maria, And suddenly that name Will never be the same To me." Thank you Westside Story! Today my second job offer was met with enthusiastic acceptance. I hired Maria! We've decided that going forward we should only hire employees with names we can sing. I know, I know, I know. Ya'll are thinking "Damn! that's so crazy it might just work!" Well, maybe not the last part, but I'll bet your thinking the first part anyway. Sadly, I harbor a secret hope that it doesn't work. I hope we have some issues with Maria so that we can break into song with "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" Okay, I lied! I don't want problems. I want this to WORK! Yesterday I hired "Hey, Hey Paula." Thanks to a sudden resignation in another department, we may be able to move far enough down the civil service list to get to the applicant my fellow manager favors. With any luck we'll be able to hire "Delta Dawn" in the near future. In the meantime, my husband is applying to teach at the local community college. He is hoping to pick up some psych classes next semester to supplement his dwindling hours trying to work as an honest to goodness psychologist. Things are getting rather tight around these parts. He's likes teaching, so it's a good fit. |
| Louis DeNaples, 66, just opened the first free standing casino in Pennsylvania. He managed to do this in spite of being the target of a grand jury investigation as to whether his application to the gaming commission contained "misleading" information regarding his links to organized crime. Say it ain't so!!! A casino owner? Linked to organized crime? And... that he would lie about such at thing! Who would have thought? I mean... I assumed his pockets were deep when he shelled out 50 million dollars for the gaming license, but organized crime?  I'm shocked! Surely, this Scranton business man is being unfairly maligned by the press. I wanted to check it out for myself, and so I googled Louie D. He has quite a resume. Hell! Forbes.com has a profile on him. You can't be in organized crime and have a profile on Forbes.com, can you? He is the Director/Chairman of the Board at First National Community Bancorp, Inc. President of DeNaples Auto Parts, Inc. President of Keystone Landfill Inc. Vice President F&L Realty Corp Now come on folks... who's ever heard of the mob dealing in auto parts, real estate or the trash hauling business. Sheesh! Well clearly not everyone is so jaded and judgmental. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board gave DeNaples's $412 million casino permission to open over the weekend. The investigation will continue, and if the gaming board finds that they were misled by a licensee, they can revoke said license. They probably won't, but they CAN. To quell all any lingering suspicions of the would be witch-hunters, DeNaples, himself, appointed a three person oversight board to audit the casino earnings. The three appointees were all "associates" from the Scranton area. In an interesting twist, all three declined the appointments. Apparently he made them an offer they could refuse. Again, go figure! Alright, enough of that... I finished the last of my interviews this morning. It was an easy decision and I informed HR of my top two choices along with a third in case one of the two declines. The third position is going to be supervised by another manager once it is filled. She didn't like her choices and opted not to fill it. All well and good for her, but I'm stuck supervise that caseload until someone is hired, so that sucks for me. Still, I have at least one confirmed hiring, and will be starting a new employee on November 5th. I'm all atremble with the sheer joy of it. |
| This past Saturday my family went out to dinner with my mother, my sister-in-law, Heather and her baby, Ally, and some family friends. Katie had her friend JohnPaul in tow also. We had a great time and laughed a great deal. First, Zachary was fascinated by the animal figurines on the shelf, but thought the deer were moose. After some confusion we realized there were some moose too, and wanted to show Zack the difference between the two. Instead, the whole thing came up sounding like a Dick and Jane book. “Look Zack. Look. Do you see the moose? JohnPaul sees the moose. Point to the moose JohnPaul. Do you see JohnPaul pointing to the moose?” It was so sad, and for some reason hysterically funny. Maybe you had to be there though. On Saturday I allowed my daughter to get her ears pierced… again! She didn’t want to tell her Daddy because he wanted to see if he would notice on his own. Over the course of dinner he found out because my mother asked her how her ears were feeling. Tony looked a bit put out by it and acted a bit pissy. JohnPaul looked at Katie and asked “So, does he know about the tattoo yet?” It was all I could do not to choke on my soda. The boy has a sense of humor! After dinner, Tony was walking the baby around and Ally started to lean for Katie. Katie tipped her head back to kiss the baby and Ally spit up. Katie lurched forward and only caught it on the back, but it was a near miss. I got a good laugh out of that, but again… you probably had to be there. So, I’m thinking about this today having read Mavis Moog  ’s blog about humor research, and emmyloo’s blog about giggling nonstop with her twin. I'm thinking about the things that make me laugh, and how they never seem all that funny out of context. It made me remember an article I’d read in Discover Magazine titled “What’s So Friggin’ Funny?” (http://discovermagazine.com/2007/brain/laughter) I looked the article up on line to refresh my memory. The article deals with the research of Robert Provine, Professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland. Provine recorded conversations and analyzed them. What he found was that the speaker was 46% more likely to laugh than the listener. How many times have you told someone a story and ended up laughing so hard you could hardly talk? Come on, admit it! Sometimes we just crack ourselves up. Provine’s analysis also showed that only 15% of what was being laughed at was even humorous in nature. It would seem that we are just wired to laugh. After dinner on Saturday, I watched my niece giggle hysterically as my mother’s dogs chased each other in a circle. At 6 months old she loves to laugh. And of course all the adults in her life clown, and make faces, and sing silly songs to make her laugh. Once she laughs, it is almost impossible not to laugh along with her. ** Images For Use By Upgraded+ Only ** This is gratuitous picture of niece laughing her butt off. Laughter is a visceral thing. It is rooted in the brain stem, the most primitive part of the brain. We share the gift of laughter with other primates as well. Chimpanzees are known to enjoy a good giggle together. Laughter releases endorphins, makes us feel good, and lowers stress, but why do we laugh? What’s the purpose? I’m not sure, but if you make me laugh, chances are good that I’m gonna like you. So, is laughter really the thread that holds our social fabric together? |
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