Two Weeks Notice and Three Things

I turned in my official two weeks notice today. This will give me a perfect amount of time to get two more paychecks, and get me off just in time to go on vacation. I'm going to miss the kids like crazy, but recent events in the workplace have managed to thoroughly piss me off to a point of zero redemption unless they raised my pay $5.00 an hour--then it might buy me off until Christmas. I don't have another job lined up, and I don't know where I'll be applying. I did apply for two individual sitter jobs for infants, but only to cover half the time so I'm not expecting much to come of those. I may even pop my way back into retail instead of childcare--maybe even a quaint little cupcake shop/bakery I've had my eye on. We'll see. Frankly, the fact that I gave two weeks notice rather than just quitting today was astonishing. That's how horrid the week was.

I'm very happy with my decision, though. Happy day :D

Now onto Writer's Workshop from Mama's Losin' It. This weeks topic is Three Random Facts About Me.

I kind of picked three things that will never come up for any real reason in this blog to tell you about.

One
I have an issue with socks.
When I was younger, I literally used to miss the bus because I couldn't find a pair of socks to wear that "felt good". The end of the toe seam that sits on the pinky toe used to drive me nuts. I don't know why this was, I don't notice it anymore, but I still have to have the perfect pair of socks to be comfortable. I'll even buy cute socks because they are cute and never wear them because I hate the way they feel. One time, in Georgia, I found these Champion socks that were just the perfect amount of plush and the perfect length. Not too thick, not too thin, toe-seam-less, and just high enough to keep my sneakers from rubbing on my ankles.
Then these socks got old and needed to be replaced. I looked for these socks forever and never found them. I finally just settled on a pack of Sonoma Life&Style socks that I found randomly by themselves on a shelf in Kohl's and they were perfect. I went back for more and was told I could find them in kids. Kids.

But you take what you can get, so I bought 5 packs of little girls Sonoma Life & Style socks and continue to wear them every day.

Two
My mom and I sound exactly the same on the phone.
We speak differently in person, and we are never confused for each other by our in-person speaking voices. But I have 5 minute conversations on the phone with people who think I'm my mother. Our house phone does this thing where the phone will ring four times, but if you don't pick it up by the third ring it goes to the answering machine anyway. When my mother calls, this happens a lot, and when you listen to the message even I can't tell who is saying what.
It's creepy, but I don't mind it.


Three
I'm really defensive of my dog.
He does not play well with other dogs. I know this. It's sad, but it's true. He is an anklebiter. But when someone says something like "you need to socialize him more" I say something like "he's socialized just fine, thank you." I don't mean to be defensive, but I want to raise my dog the way I want to raise him. And frankly, at this point, he's not going to change with all the socializing in the world. We only have one dog and are not getting another one, so he doesn't need to get along with them. He is fine with people. That's all I care about.


And now you know three things you never cared to :)

Banana Pancakes

I've never actually had those before, but I hear they are good...even made it into a song. Has anyone else had them?

Anyway, onto the current end result of the Uni sitchiation (or as Kim Possible would say, "the sitch". Um, yes. I do find it incredibly sad that I know that.) Basically Thursday morning I spent an hour and a half on the phone with Devil University being bounced around from department to department and then sent to dead-end phonelines. I did finally get to leave messages for three different people. I got an email from the Spanish professor a couple hours after calling, which I was thankful for, but nothing is resolved there yet as I emailed him back and now he has yet to return it. I got another call back today from the Theatre professor, who left a very long very cheery message on my phone while I was at work, and that was basically a dead end. I'm not getting that class. The phone call/email that I am waiting for that I actually really NEED is the one from my Education department advisor (hey, did you know I had one of those? I didn't.) She's the one (I hope) that has to OK my education classes for registration. No word. I'll call again on Monday while I'm on campus, so she can't escape.

Although I'm much less upset with this now, it's not over and I still have about a 66% chance of not attending Devil U next semester. I'll update when necessary. But, for now, onto the good stuff. :)

I took jlc's advice and went shopping last night, and also pretended like she said "and go to a movie!" So I got a couple cheap tees for work (with no writing, mind you) and then went to the movies. Today work went by ridiculously quickly and I even went in early, and all the kids were picked up by 530 (never happens) and there were only 12 kids when I got there to begin with. B has been busy this week every night except Wednesday, when the whole Devil U debacle unraveled, and is again tonight so I have kind of a free night with the house to myself. Kohl's is having a huge sale with nightowl specials tonight, and I think I'm going to go up and see if I can bring myself to buy a replacement pair of slip-on dockers that I love with all my life. New shoes make me very happy :) I really should get some shoes for Dining Out, but I have a gift card at Kohl's, and I don't feel like spending that much for shoes. I need a Target gift card.

What are you guys doing for Easter? Both B's sisters' birthday's were this week, so we're going to dinner to celebrate tomorrow night and then to Saturday night Easter service at his church. Definitely going to be the first time in at least 5 years I've set foot in a Catholic church. Ahem. And Sunday night is dinner with my family, which B has decided he's not coming too because his grandma has dinner too (Hey, I'm doing Saturday, it's his turn to do my thing haha) so that'll be fine :)

I'm about to make myself a sammich for dinner, and have some fruit, and spend a few minutes with my pup. I've sneezed 92980 times today, though I'm hoping it doesn't develop further. Of the 21 kids in my room, at least 17 have colds, and one little girl (who is the sweetest thing) has gone home sick every day this week (even though I'm apparently the only one who noticed, since no one checked her temp before I got there at 1pm today and it was 100.8). Poor Katiebug :( Less than a week on the job and I've already caught something? I'd prefer not, thanks!

Job Belongs in This Title

I started my new job today! I went in at noon, which is an hour earlier than I will every day other than today, and it actually went very well.



The lowdown:

Our kids are ages 12-18 months, and there are 21 kids in our room. However, not all of them come every day. We are only allowed to have 18 in our room at one time, so if more than that come we have to shift a couple older kids into the next room up (18-24 months). The ratio of caregiver to infant is 1:6. Yes, I do have 6 kids to care for at any one time. Literally, I have a group of six kids assigned to me. In the six hours I was in the room, each one was changed three times, was given two snacks, and had a nap. One broke out in a rash, and one gained a fever over 101.

Also, 6 kids x 3 diaper changes = 18 hand washings. Note to self: carry lotion everywhere.

There is very little downtime, and it went by very quickly. It's really kind of difficult to shift into this form of work from my job at the bookstore mostly because of the rules. At the bookstore, you can wear whatever you want, eat whenever/whatever you want, drink whatever you want, etc. etc. It's very lax. Here, I can't:

-carry my cellphone (literally, it cannot be in the building, has to stay in the car)
-eat anything except whatever snack the kids are getting, and can't bring food in for lunch (...do I even get a lunch? hmm. I was there 7 hours today, and did not..I wonder)
-wear a shirt with writing on it, no matter what the writing is (this I can't understand, it's not like they can read. And even if they could, who cares if they read the word "baseball" or whatever random thing your tee shirt says?)
-take pictures
-drink anything other than water, in a clear bottle
-wear any shoes without backs
-wear jeans with slightly fraying edges (which is difficult, because I'm like a short and a half jean length...and I refuse to wear the shorts 99% of the time)



It's very strict. I was so kindly offered a 3XL smock to wear today, however. That was nice. At least three children got caught in it as I attempted to put them down somewhere.

So far so good, though! I seem to be the youngest one there--not just my classroom, but the entire building, 6 weeks to 12 years old rooms. And possibly the only one without kids. I'm actually impressed that she hired me for these two reasons.

I have to go get a physical, though, in the next 30 days (they wait 90 days to fingerprint you and have you take a drug test....I guess it's okay to be a sex offender and a druggy for the first 89 days). I'll probably just find some random place around here that will do it for cheap, rather than going to the doctor....since I don't have one.

I know I said I'd update update tonight or tomorrow, but I think it's going to have to wait. Sorry! I promise, eventually, it will happen :]

All Hail, Employed One!

Yes! I definitely got a job today! The woman who called me on Monday about the position and quickly hung up with me called me back yesterday on accident, and we had a longer conversation which ended in "why don't you come in for an interview?" So I did. Today. Even though she changed it like an hour before it's scheduled time. She said "I believe this was fate, and I want to hire you." Well, this took some deliberation, of course, why in the world would I take a job that ends at 7 on the weekdays and involves no weekends and playing with kids? It took some deep soul searching. 1 second after being offered the position, I accepted. :D I start on Tuesday!

I'll be working in the room called the "Tweets" (which I find funny only because of twitter) which is ages 10-18 months. What does that mean? Much stimulation with kids the same age as my beloved Baby B:


And who doesn't love that?!

I also just found the third ladybug in my bedroom in the past three days. I cannot figure out where these suckers are coming from. But, apparently when ladybugs die on your ceiling, they stay there even though they are hanging upside down.

I'll be getting up at 230 tomorrow morning and then heading to the airport for my flight, I'll be back on Sunday and back to blogging! May even do it there, if I get bored :D

Ciao!

Hullabaloo!

I used that word yesterday, and I was not trying to be funny. It just came out, like it was a normal, everyday word for me. I suddenly feel as though I should be wearing a poodle skirt.

Thanks to all of you for your encouraging messages on the last post regarding my, um, new role as a stay-at-home student. I won't say I'm entirely over being bitter about the situation, but I don't base all of my thoughts on it anymore (you know, there's that whole sleeping period where I have no control over them ;]) so I'm getting there. I waited until the next day to remind myself that there are starving children in Africa and then it was all better. Of course, it helps that I've met some African kiddies who have it hard, and are just so darn cute that I must show them to you:

^Mwanaidi

^Alfon (2 months old) on my back...excuse the get-up, that's proper.

^A couple kids at the orphanage. Please don't focus on my hair...I was actually really sick that day. (The only time I've ever been glad for the statement "TIA," aka "This Is Africa"...aka we don't care what we look like.)

But, anyway, now that we have seen all the cute children, back to less important things like...a job. The search will start again on Monday, although I have no idea where, and hopefully will hit on something. I know there is a new pub that just opened up in our general area that is looking for everything from hostesses to bartenders, and I'm willing to bet I'd make a lot of money there due to it's location. However, B has formally forbade me from working at a pub (because he's a jealous fool). Is it bad that that kind of makes me want to do it even more? Hmm!

I'll keep you updated on how things go, but for now I'm going to hop off here and work on a huge Huichol yarn art studio project (of which, you will be receiving pictures of upon it's completion) that will eventually look like a slightly-less-detailed version of this:

Ciao!