Frog and Goat

I think the snot in my head is slightly out of control and I’m thinking of ways in which to kick its slimy ass. Why is it that I can’t seem to get through one spring without my allergies going into overdrive and I end up with a wad of viscous crap that wants to sit just over my soft palette and make me miserable? Verily, I despise it.

Because I’m all about balance around here, if I start off with a disgusting bit about the rancid glop in my head, I need to finish with something pleasant.

Did I mention I’m taking a summer class? It runs for 5 weeks and we meet 2 times a week for 4 hours a session. You’d think all that sitting would be unbearable especially since the late afternoons and evenings are really quite nice this time of year. However, the professor is so engaging that it hardly seems like we’re there 2 hours much less 4. The class is about adults who have learning disabilities and the professor is a recognized expert in the field and he is so, gosh darn!, excited about the subject that we’re all becoming really excited about the subject too.

We met the new niece and her parents at the airport on Friday and The Niece was hopping up and down like a pogo stick as her family walked down the long hallway from the gate area. It was awesome.

The new niece is pretty laid back and seemed to dig hanging out at our pool for a little while on Monday. She floated around in a big “boat” thing with adult supervision, of course. My sister was a little worried that she wouldn’t like the pool since bath time isn’t fun time, but I guess it is more fun to be in a big boat thing, wearing a cool hat and shades than it is to be in a small sink.

Exciting wrap-up of the weekend:
Friday: met new niece.
Saturday: had dinner with friends and then walked over a few blocks to see a house on fire–actually we didn’t see any flames just lots of smoke and a gazillion fire trucks. friends dubbed the night “dinner and a show”.
Sunday: smoked a butt, stopped by to see my sister and her family and went to the mega-store to stock up on those things you need to stock up on periodically: charcoal, beer and gatorade.
Monday: swam and read poolside. mowed the lawn. watched terrific thunderstorm. lost power for hours and hours. called power company to report outage using cell phone because the regular phone was also out for hours. ran the generator long enough to make dinner. went to bed early but had hard time sleeping.

My sister, her husband and their new daughter are on the last leg of a very long trip home. We’re gathering at the airport in a few hours to greet them. If you are going through the Richmond airport and see a bunch of lunatics, look past them, and you’ll see us.

The better-half told my sister he’d install new doors on their attic crawl spaces. She said she didn’t care when they were installed as long as the work was finished by the time she got back from China. The better-half just got home. At least it wasn’t a last minute, photo finish. I have never put a coat of primer and three coats of paint on anything in the amount of time I did this morning. A hair dryer does wonders for speeding along a painting project.

Plans for the weekend? We’re going to hang out with some friends tomorrow afternoon/evening. I can’t wait. Good food and good company await. Sunday we’re going to smoke a pork butt. I’m going to also make some coleslaw. I predict, if the weather cooperates, we’ll also take the first swim of the season. The cool nights haven’t been very helpful in warming up the water and we’re thinking of coming up with a solar heating thingy. Happy Memorial Day.

The news on the losing o’ the job is pretty grim. The organization I work for is hoping to get the contract letter back from our grant payer by June 1st letting us know whether or not we have until June 30th to make ourselves 50% (or more) smaller or if we have until September 30th. My organization is only promising notification of layoffs two weeks prior to your last day. The coming weeks should be interesting to see who has nerves of steel and decide to wait it out and those who decide the wait isn’t worth it and start interviewing immediately.

We already know we can’t stay in our building because we won’t be able to afford the lease, so if I stay, I’ll probably have to work in the West End of Richmond which is a lousier commute (yes, even though we’re an urban university we have a training center in the suburbs). It also means we need to start whittling away at the huge stacks of paper–how I love to throw things away.

The bigger suck is that if we get a pink slip we’ll hardly have any opportunity to use up leave. Because we’re grant funded all that leave disappears when the grant dies–there will be no extra money in that last paycheck. It makes for an interesting dilema for all involved…how do you complete projects and offer trainings when everyone is concerned with A) finding new jobs and B) using up leave?

You can bet your sweet bippy that I won’t be leaving until at least June 22nd–the day after my summer class ends. I’m just not paying for that class. The cost of the other eight classes I need to take to finish my degree will be enough of a hit to the pocketbook.

Last week when I got back to work after a weekend with The Niece, I was dragging ass. That kid wore me out. I described my weekend to co-workers and several of them laughed at me. Not with me, but at me. Hoohoo, you should try it with three kids, you should try it with five kids and as The Niece would say “blah, blah, blah.” Whatever.

This week I got to work after a weekend with The Niece and I was tired but not beat. And, no one laughed at me. I guess I have officially passed some sort of test. The test in my mind, at least, was when the following happened:

I was crouching on a concrete drain eating Lebanese food at the local Lebanese Food Festival (the drain was handy and there was no way I was hauling ass across the playground to find a table). The 30+ pound kid had suddenly turned into rubber and felt the need to lay across me because she was just exhausted and couldn’t hold her own head up. I handed her a cheese stick and tucked the plastic wrap in the Strawberry Shortcake back pack while I ate kibbeh. A breeze stirred and a napkin threatened to blow across the field. I caught it with my third hand and then looked over at the better-half and said “I think I’m getting the hang of this mom stuff.” And, then I rolled my eyes until I became dizzy.

Because I have so much time to burn at work and we still don’t know what’s going on with our jobs, I decided to go ahead and take Fridays in May off. This plan is to help me gear up for another weekend with The Niece and next weekend is Memorial Day weekend so that’s four days off in a row–bliss.

I talked to my supervisor the other day and she encouraged me to burn sick leave (since I have 207 hours of that) instead of annual leave which I will need more of should I stay employed. Yesterday as I was signing out on our big board, I wrote down sick leave for today. It always feels weird to me to take a sick day if I’m not actually sick or going to a medical appointment. I’m not one of those people who wake up and say screw it I’m taking a sick day.

I bet you know where this is going. I woke up with a monstrous headache and am actually glad that I don’t have to go to work today. I had one of these headaches a few weeks ago. That one took until after lunch to go away. This one is dying back slowly but it lingers still. Funny how some headaches just need to run their course and they don’t really give a fig if you take pain or sinus medication.

I need to figure out what I’m going to do today. It’s very tempting to lay around until late afternoon when I have to pick up The Niece. But, I put one coat of paint on the room we call the lounge last Friday. I really need to finish in there so the shades can be put back up and the rest of the stuff in the middle of the room can be dispersed back into proper formation.

We’ve had The Niece since I picked her up from school Friday afternoon. She went to church with Nana this morning, had a banana split for lunch (because it went so well with the pudding for breakfast) and then came back to our house. I spent the time away from The Niece painting a room I started painting on Friday. I got one good solid coat on the main room and two coats on the hallway. Then I laid on the bed and enjoyed the silence whilst reading.

I could tell The Niece was exhausted this afternoon since we spent most of the late afternoon on the couch lolling around with some bursts of “let’s stick sharp little bones into the aunt’s fat parts”. Great fun and I’m sure to have dozens of little bruises to carry around all week.

Tonight The Niece went right to sleep with hardly any of the usual ploys to stay up later. She’s cool with Sunday nights being back on schedule because the other two nights of the weekend she spent and will spend with us are nearly rule free (the only real rules are eat something healthy at least once a weekend, don’t burn down the house, don’t drown and don’t break any appendages). So far, rule free has worked–except for that time she ended upside down with her leg in a lamp.

Today I’m off so I could take my sister and brother-in-law to the airport and so I can paint a room and then pick up The Niece. It happens to be my “queen” day–those hours off I got as a result of the queen coming to town.

In honor of queen day, this is what I’m listening to:

I got 2 As this semester. Go me.

My sister and brother-in-law leave tomorrow morning to travel to China. They are spending the night with us so we can get out of the house early.

Fiendishly Fabulous Fun is planned for the weekend with The Niece.

I swung by World Cup (which is the coffee shop of choice) today only to find it shuttered. I knew there was a new business moving in at some point but I didn’t realize I wouldn’t get to have my last coffee or last muffin. Following on yesterday’s work news, I was seriously glum about the best coffee shop in the world being closed.

I called the better-half as soon as I got to my desk. He asked me about the place that went into the coffee shop that used to house the Italian brothers. I told him I didn’t feel like going to the God-loving coffee shop this morning. Really, it turned into a Christian coffee shop. Who knew Jesus drank coffee. Think He took it black?

The place where I like to buy whole bean coffee doesn’t open until 9 or 9:30 so while they are also nearby, I didn’t want to wait that long to get coffee. And, yes, there’s a Starbuck’s over in the library but it just wasn’t something I felt like doing. I just wanted one last cup of World Cup with their awesome music and equally stellar baristas.

Instead, I put on the headphones and listened to some country music. Too bad there’s not a song about crying in your coffee.