Working Girl, Healing Girl, Traveling Girl…Does it ever end?

So, two weeks ago, I started a job.  A real job where I have to put on stockings and heels in the morning and stop at the coffee shop on my way into the office. It’s not bad. Pretty mundane really. But it is a means to an end. I want to use the money that I make through this job to be able to fund the remainder of my education, and possibly be able to set some aside for some travel and workshops this summer/fall.

The office world is one that I seem to have forgotten the ins and outs of, but I’m catching back on quickly.  Remembering that I cannot get sidetracked, that I need to keep myself focused and organized.  It’s hard for me to know that I can’t go on a two hour tangent of searching for information on something I find interesting when I have a deadline for the project I’m currently working on.

Last weekend we went to Milwaukee to celebrate a friend’s birthday. There were 8 of us in our little “party”.  We managed to get hotel rooms in a beautiful hotel right in downtown for $40 a night, thanks to Priceline.  We toured the wonderful Lakefront Brewery, which was much more fun than the Miller Brewery tour we took on our trip there in July.  Beer flowed freely (at least by my standards, five beers over the course of a tour is freely), W got to reenact the infamous Lavern and Shirley Glove Scene as we all sang the theme music, and we get to yell Bung Hole.  Glorious, truly.  We had dinner at a bar/restaurant that delivered peanuts to us via a bomber on a metal track. Being the notorious international secret agents that we are, we had to pay a visit to the Safe House.  Unfortunately, half way through the first day I started feeling a cold coming  on.  By the time we made it to the Safe House on Saturday night, I was exhausted, feverish, congested, and truly had hit my wall.  I wandered back to the hotel along the Riverwalk and ordered room service.  I love room service and it always makes me feel fancy.  That kind of made up for being sick on vacation.  All in all, it was a wonderful trip, even with the plague hitting me. Let’s just not mention the bartender.  Ever.

The plague has continued since we got home late Sunday.  I’ve been fighting it off, but it’s a slow process, which has lead to me being unable to hear much of anything from the clogged ears, unable to taste or smell anything due to the clogged nose, and essentially unable to move at anything more than a snail’s pace because I’ve been unable to breathe.  I’ve been using my neti pot religiously, drinking Emergen-C, taking echinacea and golden seal. Nothing seems to be working.   I’ve had to resort to NyQuil and AlkaSeltzer Cold.  It’s that bad.  The body aches are gone as of this morning, and it seems as though the congestion is starting to fade.  Hopefully only a few more days of this.

Freelancing again

I’ve spent most of the morning looking at various freelancing postings.  Mostly because I’d like to get some money together so that we can go on a cruise with our friends later this year.  I used to run a bit of a contracting business myself, and worked with a number of employees to provide transcription services to a number of local lawyers.  Because we didn’t really work on a  piece work pricing scale like most transcriptionists, I struggled alot to keep track of the hours of my contractors. Time and Attendance Tracking Software probably would have helped a whole heck of alot.  This time around, it will just be me, so it won’t be as necessary, but I may give it a try to keep track of my hours worked anyway. 

There are days when I cannot believe that I get paid for my job.  When it is all smiles and giggles and hugs and kisses.  I get to lay in the ball pit and slide down the slide and roll Hot Wheel cars into the wall and build train tracks that curve along the floor boards complete with hills and tunnels.  There are sweet little inside jokes and falling laughing onto our backs on the gym matts.

And then there are days like today.

Days full of tears, snot, screaming and back-arching, face-reddening tantrums.  When I have to spend most of my day with a lil one separated from the rest of her peers because she just can’t get a handle on the world and how she fits into it.

And yet, even with all of that, as I snuggled with her in a hammock chair in a darkened room, watching a slowly moving, multi-colored disco ball and listening to Somewhere Over The Rainbow, I absolutely, without a doubt, cannot believe that I get paid to do my job.

Day 11: 5:52 a.m.

It’s 5:52 in the morning and I’m awake.  I’m certainly not wide awake and chipper, but I’m up.  I orignally had W set the alarm for 6:45, but seeing as I was laying in bed tossing and turning since around 3, I decided I might as well just get up.  Let’s just hope this coffee does something wonderful for me today and makes life a bit easier to handle.

I have to be at the administrative offices by 8 to begin my orientation.  It’s this part of starting any job that I just hate.  I want to be able to just jump in and get going.  Instead I’ll spend four hours today being told about the history of the organization, filling out tax paperwork, and generally having to be social with the other newly-hired teachers.  Exhausting!  Give me a room full of challenging three and four year olds over a group of nervous, socially awkward adults any day!

Day 9 and Day 10: I failed. Miserably.

I really did intend on being a good NaBloPoMo participant.  I planned on writing insiteful, interesting, entertaining posts every day for the entire month of August.  And here I am on day ten, having already missed a day.  I had full intentions on writing one of those fantastic posts yesterday, but a couple of things got in the way.

We didn’t get rolled out of bed until fairly late yesterday morning.  Atleast, late for me, what with the whole 7 a.m. thing.  We headed over toward Saint Paul in the mid-afternoon.  W got her hairs cut and we hit up a thrift store for a bit.  Completely scored the most fantastic vintage bread box and a few new sweaters.  OH!  And red shoes!  I got fabulous red shoes!  I’ll post a photo of them when I have the energy to upload them off the camera.

We spent the evening at the Irish Fair of Minnesota.  It is always one of my favorite days of the year, and I got to see one of my top four favorite bands of all time, FLOGGING MOLLY!  They put on a fantastic show and I could not keep myself out of the pit.  I planned on standing near W all evening and just watching from afar, but the music kind of sucked me in just around when they played Devil’s Dancefloor and I had to get near the front to dance.  There’s just something about a good fiddle and tin whistle that makes me need to jump up and down with a bunch of drunk and rowdy bhoys!  (The fifth of vodka I sipped throughout the night in my orange juice probably didn’t hurt much either.  I’m a light weight anyway, so that was a bit of liquor for me).

Today we haven’t done much of anything.  I didn’t even change out of my pajamas until almost 2:00.  And the only reason I took them off at all was to leave the house for an hour and see Tipping The Bucket at the Minnesota Fringe Festival.  It was a great show, don’t get me wrong, but I have a feeling if W hadn’t already paid for the tickets online, we probably would have just stayed on the couch in our jammas.  The show was entertaining and I’m glad we saw it, but we were *that* lazy today.

Now I’m getting ready to go to bed at 10 o’clock because I go into the school tomorrow for paperwork and fingerprinting and what not and some time this week I should get my classroom assignment!  Horray!  And I think I am just going to pretend I didn’t forget to blog yesterday and continue on with the challenge.

Day 6

This morning, I decided to take a walk to the nearest laundromat in order to cash in a twenty dollar bill for quarters.  Don’t lecture though, I feel guilty enough about taking the quarters from their machine and not doing my laundry there, but it is incredibly inconvenient for me to haul multiple baskets of laundry six blocks away with the little white cart that we have.   So, I hooked Riley up to a leash and walked with $20 rather than the laundry.  Significantly less heavy and cumbersome.  Unfortunately though, the change machine at the laundromat was out of change.  We ended up walking over three miles in total on the trek for quarters, but they are now sitting in the “quarter cup” and there is a load in the machine.  I’m determined to get this laundry done!

Especially because…drum roll please….I got the job!  I go in Monday for orientation and then I have a few training classes that are necessary to transfer my license to Minnesota.  I’ll get my classroom assignment next week.  I am so incredibly excited.  I so incredibly scared.  It’s been a long time since I was in the classroom.  Truly since before I got sick last time.  And it’s a bit scary.  But I’m at a very good place in my life and I’m heathier than I have been in decades.  It’s going to be fantastic and exciting and a whole new chapter of my life.  Plus it is a good excuse to go shopping for new clothes!  Teacherly clothes even.  *wink*

After I got the job offer yesterday, we went out to celebrate.  I knew that I wanted to have a beer, but other than that I wasn’t very picky, so we ended up at Old Chicago.  They have an obscene selection of beer there, and I wanted to get started on their World Beer Tour.  Hell, if I’m going to drink beer, I might as well drink beer AND get prizes.   Instead of just trying one beer, i tried to Staff Choice flight of beers, which included Grainbelt Premium (one of my personal favorites), Sun Dog Amber Wheat, Surly Furious, and Surly Bender.

Day 3

I woke up this morning at 5:45. FIVE FORTY-FIVE. With no alarm clock and with less than six hours of sleep, I was completely awake and unable to go back to sleep. Over the last few years, my body has slowly adjusted to waking before 7:30 in the morning. In my late teens and early twenties, it was hard for me to wake up earlier than 9:30, especially on a night when I didn’t get to bed on time. But now…7:30 is the latest I have slept in months! It gives me a pretty good chunk of time to relax and nurse my pot of coffee, so it’s actually working for me. I’m growing to actually like it.

W won tickets to a baseball game from an office raffle for this afternoon. We drove into downtown and took the train from where we parked to the Metrodome. It was the first time I had been to the dome since elementary school and I had a great time. I was actually pretty shocked. I really didn’t think that I was going to enjoy the game, but I did. I even gave a couple of little hoots and hollers at various points.

I should hear back within the next few days about the teaching gig. All crossable appendages are crossed, and I’ve ever found myself sticking to some strange little superstitions. I would really like to get this job. It’s something I could truly be proud of and I feel like W could be proud of too. I know that it doesn’t truly matter, but I really want her to be proud to answer when someone asks her what I do. I’m trying hard not to put all of my hopes on this job so that I don’t end up heart broken if I get the “We’re sorry” call, but it’s so hard when you want something this badly.

Back In The Saddle Again

Since I have decided to not go back to school this fall, I figured it was about time to find a job.  At the very least a part time job.  Today I had my first interview.  It’s been quite some time since I was in the classroom, but this job really does seem like a great fit for me.  I don’t want to mention  specifics, but can say that it is in a day treatment program for preschoolers with autism spectrum disorders.  It’s perfect for me!  Music therapy, sensory work, skills practice, as well as pre-literacy and education prep work!  The experience alone would be worth it, and even though the pay is for crap, the hours are ideal and it would really be a great opportunity for  me to get my foot back into the working world.

They interview went well.  The director seemed impressed with both my education and my personal experience.  I don’t feel like I was too rambly as I usually do in interviews, but I know that I covered all of her questions thoroughly.

So now they contact the state for my license and we go from there.  The director said she would call me by the beginning of next week either way.