Week in Review

Hmm, it looks like I've been memeing all week, but there's not been a lot of talk about my actual life. I should probably do something about that.

Wednesday was a busy day for me. I, along with a handful of the other muckity-mucks in my local Democratic Party had a breakfast meeting with a statewide elected official (not the Governor; don't be too impressed), who was in town to talk to the local newspaper. We had a nice schmooze, and afterward, a couple of us stuck around to discuss some upcoming local events.

At the end, it just was myself and another woman, whom I've told about our baby plans. I was filling her in on the whole job / insurance / baby situation, and she told me that, when the time comes, she wants to throw us a shower!

I don't think that I sufficiently expressed my appreciation at the time, because I was kind of caught off-guard, not that she'd be interested in hosting one, but that anyone would offer before we even start trying! I emailed her today, to thank her again and tell her how much that means to us.

Then, after a quick trip home, Shrike and I met a new friend and her daughter for lunch. That was very nice, despite the bitch at the next table who seemed to have a problem with the fact that when not-yet-three year olds hurt themselves, sometimes they cry. Even if other people are trying to eat lunch.

She actually stopped by our table on her way out and said something along the lines of, "Next time I go out to lunch, I'll wear my earplugs."

What the fuck?

I think she noticed me looking at her, incredulously, and tried to turn it around into a joke, teasing the little girl about her "sad face" and "Don't you let me see that pretty smile . . ." but it sure didn't sound like she was kidding at first.

Shrike noticed that she was wearing rather pointy shoes, so we've decided that she must be a witch. She certainly acted like one.

Unbelievable.

After that, I drove down to TutoringCenter to meet my immediate supervisor (Director) and the owner (BigBoss), and to sort out my schedule for the next couple of weeks.

It looks like that's going to work out pretty well, in that the one day Director definitely likes to work the late shift is Monday, when Shrike is off, so I'd rather work early that day, anyway.

I've offered to work late Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, but we'll have to see if that's ok with the bigger bosses (BigBoss, but mostly the executive directors, ED1 and ED2), because they may prefer that we do two late nights each.

So, for now it will be Tuesday/Wednesday, but if it's only two, I may try to switch to Wednesday/Thursday. Next week there's a staff meeting on Thursday evening, though, so I will be working last all three of those nights.

As luck would have it, that week, Shrike is working Monday and off Thursday and Friday (for her birthday). Oh well.

I also learned a couple of things that are good to know, if I'm still working there after we have a baby:

1. They offer partial reimbursement (50% up to $95/week) for childcare expenses.
2. I shouldn't get any hassles about making time for breast pumping at work - Director's wife is a lactation consultant!

The word on the insurance isn't as encouraging. I guess it's still possible that it could be effective immediately, but it's most likely going to be a sixty day wait. Ugh.

Last night, I ended up visiting with the same new friend, when we were two of a whole three people who showed up for Drinking Liberally, which is just getting off the ground here, in our not-so-liberal little town. Again, lots of fun.

Not too much excitement today, but I had my second tutoring session with a guy who's taking Trigonometry, via a distance learning class. I don't think I've mentioned that before, have I?

A few weeks ago, around the same time that I sent my resume to TutoringCenter, I also sent it to the department that does such things at the local college, which is not too far from our house.

It turns out that they only hire students to tutor, but the woman I spoke with was very nice and offered to give my name to anyone from the community who contacted them looking for help.

I heard from this guy a couple of weeks ago, and we've had two sessions so far. He lives about five minutes from me, and is paying quite well, so it's definitely worth wracking my brain and trying to shake the rusty remnants of Trig loose from the back corners.

(Good thing he's got a book for me to look things up in!)

Last weekend, he came over to our house and today I went to his. I'm pretty comfortable with that, but we've gone out of our way to make sure that I was safe - what with him being a strange man and all.

(I mean, a man who is a stranger. He seems pretty normal.)

When he came over here, I made sure that the dogs were in the house when he arrived so they could intimidate him at the door. Then, I had Galoot stay in the room with us. He settled down pretty quickly, curled up at the guy's feet and went to sleep. But he was there, if he'd made any false moves.

Then I said something like "Oh, I wasn't sure if that was you at the door or a friend of mine. He's supposed to be dropping something by this afternoon, but I don't know when. So, he might interupt us, but it will only take a second. . . ."

(Not completely untrue; I was expecting a male friend to drop something off, sometime that weekend.)

Shrike also called and checked in a couple of times while he was here.

Shrike also called to check on me while I was there this evening, and I pretended to be annoyed at the interuption, "Well, I'm kind of busy. . . ."

Later, she told me that she'd realized after the call that she didn't know where the guy lived, so if she had interupted an ax murder, she would have had no idea where to send the cops to save me!

I suppose we should've thought out that plan a little more fully.

He's a very nice guy, actually, and I'm really not worried about my safety, but I think she'll probably continue to check in and will definitely expect me to call her when we're done.

And that's fine with me.