Work Is Haaaard!

Well, I've survived my first day on the new job, and on three hours of sleep, at that!

I guess it wasn't as awful as I was dreading, but it was a very long day, filled mostly with feelings of uncertainty and uselessness. Big fun!

I did manage to stay awake, but it was kind of rough during the 3 o'clock hour, when I was in a darkened room alone with a video about math manipulatives. Whoa.

The last hour when I was "observing" instruction woke me up before my drive home, though.

I put "observing" in quotes, because I couldn't stop myself from jumping in to help out. I was a bit worried about stepping on the teachers' toes, but when I said something about that to ED2, she told me that, "I was very happy to see that. I would have been worried if you'd just sat there."

So that's good. As I told Shrike, I guess it kind of reinforces that, whatever I might be doing for my job, personality-wise, I am a teacher.

They are rather structured in their training for management-types (which I am! how wierd is that?) and I think that's probably a good thing.

On the one hand, just diving into it can be good, but I also like that I'm getting the overview of the big picture, first, in addition to some hands-on.

Even if the picture is being presenting, in part, via boring videos.

At least ED2, who is primarily training me, acknowledges that the videos are "pretty dry" and apologizes for them.

On the other hand, it was a reminder that, while the five area centers are family owned and operated, on the whole it is a big corporate behemoth.

Btw, more on the "family owned and operated" thing: BigBoss is the owner / president / CEO. His wife is the secretary or office manager or something like that. I know she handles payroll and such. ED1 and ED2 are their daughters.

As Shrike said, "So, unless this guy adopts you, there's no chance of a promotion to ED, huh?"

Yeah, I guess not.

ED2 seems very nice, as do the other folks that I met today. So, that's a plus.

(Hmm, I need better blogonyms for ED1 and ED2 (numbered in the order that I met them). I'll have to think on that a bit.)

One other (possible, maybe, I hope) plus is the insurance.

Did I explain about that?

The deal is, because their insurance policy, which is approved by the state insurance board, says that employees will be there for 90 days before being covered, they have to apply for an exception to cover me sooner.

I referred to it the other day as, "Asking the Governor's permission. . ." but, darn it, I don't know this governor!"

(Did I mention that the job is in NeighboringState?)

Anywho - My understanding, from today's conversation, is that this exception thing is a formality and not a matter of "Oo, I wonder if they'll approve it?" but "How long will it take."

But, once it's approved (most likely some time in mid to late May), they can probably pay the premium for the entire month and make the effective date of coverage May 1.

(I offered to pay the May premium myself, if necessary.)

She's got to do a bit more checking and BigBoss wants to wait until next week to apply for the exception (to be sure they like me enough to have me back for a second week, I suppose) but we will revisit the subject on Friday and at that point I should find out whether I'll be covered effective May 1, or not until later.

I told her that I have appointments scheduled for May 7 and 21 and that, if I do have coverage, I'd like to take off those two days (without pay - no paid vacation for six freakin' months).

She seemed to be ok with all that.

I did not mention any baby plans, but explained about needing to follow up on my surgery stuff, do labwork, etc (they've seen my driver's licence photo, taken about four years ago, so that brought up the surgery topic) and that I was overdue for an annual exam.

Tomorrow, I should be able to get my hands on the insurance book, to find out which plan it is, check on whether my doctors are in the network and, hopefully, get some clue as to how much of our baby-making might be covered.

From what I could find online (not knowing exactly which plan I will have) it looks like at least my PCP and OB/Gyn are in network (yay!).

My nephrologist and the gastric bypass folks might be out of network, but those are just annual checks, so I can live with paying more once a year.

Much different than, say, the OB/Gyn.

I'm also interested to see if Dr. T. is in network and, if so, if my copay is any less than Shrike's.

She's worth (we're worth) every penny of the $25 per week we're paying now but, still, cheaper would be better.

So, we're keeping our fingers crossed that there's still a chance of getting in to some doctors in the next month, and maybe maybe maybe even making a first attempt in June.

Oh, one more thing from today. I stopped off at Shrike's work on my way home, and had dinner with her. That was really nice, and I think I'll try to do that as much as possible, on days that I get off at five and don't have other commitments in the evening.

(Hee hee, it occurs to me that, given our schedules, if we were making this baby the "old fashioned way," we might have to meet up for more than dinner!)