First Day on the New Job

My first day of orientation at AAA was today. It was a bit anti-climatic. It was only three hours and we spent the whole time going over and filling out paperwork. What I did like was that the woman, Pat, was very organized, very precise and very professional. She certainly had all her papers in order and went through them with us page by page. AAA seems like it's going to be my kind of company....I like things well-organized. And they don't seem to spare any expense to make sure the employees are well trained. Tomorrow is another three hours of orientation. Pat said we'll probably get on the computers and start seeing the work we're going to do. Cool.

My daughter Jamie took Emily out in the car and sent me this photo of Emily using her "big girl muscles" to try and buckle her own car seat:

Another False Alarm......of a different kind.

Daughter Jamie called last night at about 11pm. Since she is not the one who's pregnant, I was instantly on alert that something must be wrong. Sure enough, she says, "Guess where I am?" She was at Parkland Medical Center with a 90% chance of having appendicitis. I was instantly in "Mom Mode"...asking questions. She said she'd begun to have pain around 3pm and by 8:30pm she felt the need to go to the emergency room. Luckily she was at her friend Jen's house, and Jen was able to bring her there. The doctors did blood tests, etc., but were still unable to determine if it was appendicitis due to some symptoms that didn't match up.....primarily that the pain was not localized in the right lower quadrant. She also told me later that she didn't have severe pain when they raised her right knee to her chest. I know from my own appendicitis when I was 11 that this is a primary indication. So they wanted to do an MRI, which involved drinking two big cups of contrast medium, which would take 2-3 hours. I offered to go and sit with her, but she was comfortably enconsed in a room with a TV and was watching the football game. I told her to call me as soon as she knew what was going on. She called about 2am.....the scan didn't show much...they couldn't see the appendix very well because she didn't have enough fat for contrast!! (God knows I wouldn't have had that problem!) So now the ER doctor wanted to confer with the surgeon and then they'd make a decision. I told Jamie to call me back when that happened. About 4am she called again. The doctors were releasing her since she had no fever and the pain had subsided. They told her to come back in the morning and they'd re-do the bloodwork. They re-did the bloodwork this morning and her white count had gone down. They'd given her an antibiotic last night and another to take today. I asked her if they'd given her an indication of what they thought was wrong. The only clue she had was the discharge papers that said "abdominal pain of unknown origin". I know you can have chronic appendicitis that flairs up periodically. Awhile before I had my appendix removed, I had had abdominal pain that they diagnosed as a pulled muscle. Looking back after the appendicitis that put me in surgery, they decided that the first episode was probably a flair-up. I also remember that when my brother John was little they thought he had appendicitis but it turned out to be an infection of some gland that is near the appendix. So we'll just have to wait and see what happens. I hope it was just an infection. I know that appendix surgery is much easier these days....all arthroscopic....but it's still surgery. I'd rather Jamie can avoid that....as I'm sure she is too!

BORED!!

I have finally found the most boring substitute job in the world. I am subbing for the secretary in the IT department. This office is in a separate building from all the schools....in fact, it's in an old school in town that houses various offices that they have no other room for. The IT director was here for about an hour this morning, then left for the day (he said "have a nice weekend" before he left....otherwise I wouldn't have known.) There are two other people here in another office, but besides that I am alone. Those two people left for a meeting this morning for about an hour and I was completely alone! My only job is to answer the phone, which has rung 7 times in 5 hours. So far today I have: 1. Finished reading one book and started another. 2. Checked my email four times. 3. Checked my AESOP account for subbing assignments 4 times. 4. Taken an online IQ test (where I scored well above average) 5. Looked at all the other blogs I like to read whose URL's I could remember since I don't have my favorites. 6. Written emails to several people. 7. Played Text Twist 8. Played Minesweeper 9. Turned on Pandora so I could listen to music. 10. Checked Adperk where the only magazines available for the last month have been yucky ones.....all the others keep saying they're "coming soon". 11. Talked to my daughter for 1/2 hour on my cell phone (while I was alone). This is just confirming my decision to change jobs. I can't be this bored every day. My mind is turning to mush. I'll go home exhausted from doing nothing....not a good exhausted....a "can I lay on the couch and veg the rest of the night" exhausted. I'm hoping the new job involves some time of brains....because if I don't use mine soon, I will lose it!

A New Job

It looks like I have a new job. For the past 4 years or so I've been floating. Up until that time, I'd done some form of daycare. Home daycare, working in the Vocational Department with the Child Care program, Director of a preschool program and finally being a partner in opening and running my own center. During all that time I loved my work. I loved being with kids all day, loved doing curriculum, loved every aspect of the job.

Unfortunately, the situation ended badly with the daycare I owned. 'Nuff said on that subject....I can't dwell on that. But it put me in a weird situation. I got a job immediately after as the assistant director at a large national daycare chain. I won't say the name of it, but it was the most horrendous job I've ever had. I lasted 4 months and then moved on to another daycare. Same situation. From there I started subbing in the school system, left that to try another assistant director in another daycare. I hated that, and went back to subbing. And I've come to hate the subbing as well.

There's lots of reasons why the daycares didn't work out. I've come to the conclusion though that two reasons are the most prominent.

1) They were not MY centers. After owning and running a place of my own, I couldn't work for someone else. They didn't do things the way I liked....they didn't handle the kids and the families the way I thought was right. It was too frustrating to have to sit back as the assistant and not handle situations the way I wanted to.

2) Kids are not the same as they used to be. I guess I'm "old-fashioned". I expect kids to behave, to learn manners and to respect adults. Kids don't do that anymore. Parents bend over backwards to allow children to "be themselves" and any hint of discipline is not in their vocabulary. When I was doing child care in my home, and in the center I owned as well, I treated the children as I had treated my own.....with heavy doses of both discipline and love. And most kids in my care thrived. At the other centers I worked at there was neither discipline nor love. And I can't work like that.

So all this left me in limbo. I don't want to do child care any more, but it's the only thing I've ever known. I started subbing as an interim thing and I've done it for the last four years. Two years ago I started subbing as school secretaries as well, and I found that I liked it. I never thought I'd really like working in an office, but it's okay.

I've tried for two years to get hired in the school system as a full-time secretary, but I haven't been successful. So I've decided to move on to something else. It's been hard to find another job, because I have no experience or background besides the subbing I've done as a secretary.

Lucky for me, I have a very good friend. Sylvie is the office manager at AAA and worked very hard to get me a job there. They're opening a new office right in my home town, and I've been hired to be a "MSC".....a Member Services Counselor. Basically I'll be answering phones and helping customers with travel information, signing up new members and helping people who come into the office. It's full time, full bennies, 9-5, no nights or weekends. I couldn't really ask for more.

But I'm really nervous. Because it's a huge change. And I'm not a change kind of person. I still have the same curtains up in my living room since I moved in 5 years ago, for crying out loud! I usually find what I like and I'm happy to stay with that for a long time. So switching jobs.....actually switching careers....is a huge step for me. I don't know if I'll like it....if I can adapt to NOT working with kids....if I'll be able to stand being in an office all day. But I'm going to give it my best shot.....and hope things work out for the best.

Family Reunion

We had our Bergeron Family Reunion yesterday. The Bergerons are my mother's side of the family. There were seven siblings in my mother's family, and those brothers and sisters produced 25 grandchildren. (my generation) We lost count of how many are in the next generation (my children) - last time we counted there were fifty - and now there's another generation. We started the reunions in 1994 after my Uncle Joe died. We went to his wake and saw cousins we hadn't seen in years. After talking for a while about how sad it was that we only saw each other at funerals, it was decided that we should have a reunion. The first year, I was working for our town's recreation department at the town beach/park. I talked to my boss and she gave me permission to have the reunion there on the Sunday after Labor Day since the park would be closed after Labor Day. And so a tradition was born. This year was our 15th reunion - on the same date, at the same time every year. It's incredibly easy. Everyone brings their own food/beverages and a dish to "pass". Bring your own lawn chairs....some bring grills....some bring folding tables. People show up when they can....some for all day....some for an hour or two. This year we had over 70 people. The highlight of the event was a visit from my cousin Ruth, along with her husband and son, from Ohio. I hadn't seen her for something like 30 years. We've been very lucky with the weather. Last year was the only "iffy" year. It rained lightly for a bit.....we sat under the small overhang. Later in the day it cleared and more people showed up. We've never had rain any other time. Some years are chilly, some hot. This year was outstanding.....a glorious day....especially after the drenching rains and high winds of Hurricane Hanna went through on Saturday night. It's a blessing for us to have a tight-knit family. I enjoy seeing all my cousins every year. My Uncle Chanel, who at 82 (ish) is the oldest member of the family, mentioned to me that he hoped the reunion meant as much to the younger generation as it did to the older. I hope so too. I'd like to see the reunion go on forever.

Emily

I got to babysit Emily yesterday while DIL did some school stuff. She can now climb onto the couch without the assistance of another piece of furniture....or a toy.....or the dog. She also blows kisses! Yesterday I got a regular kiss, a blown kiss and a wave bye-bye when I left! She either loves me or wanted me to move my ass out the door!

Here's a picture or two:

She loves her books!

And she loves her Cheerios!

Here's how much she loves her dog, Tina.

Even Tina gets her famous kisses!

Jim's German Fries

On Monday Hubby and I went up to the Hopkinton (NH) Fair. We love going to fairs but our reason for going this time was to visit my friend Sylvie. She and her husband and another couple started a little wagon to sell German Fries. Since both Sylvie's husband and their partner's names are both Jim ......well, you can see where I'm going with this, right? The fair was tons of fun. It was very big...had all the animals you could ever want. The 4H program there was excellent. It was fun to see all the young kids showing off their animals. There were also many, many rides ....which Hubby and I refuse to go on just on principle. Seriously, do we want to go on something that is taken down and put back up every week or two? Too scary for us. The ride prices were pretty outrageous too......$4-$5 PER RIDE!

What they didn't have were very many craft booths. Most of the stuff was "commercial" - such as Tupperware or pots and pans, etc. The fair we usually go to has lots of booths for people who make their own crafts. Also, the crafts booths were all intermingled amongst the food wagons. It was pretty confusing. And there were HUNDREDS of food wagons. Too many, really. I mean, how many different fried dough places does there need to be? It took us a couple of hours of walking around before we found Jim's German Fries. It was like finding an oasis in the desert! It was worth the wait though.......freshly sliced potatoes...real peanut oil....and mine all covered in cheese! Heaven! Jim's German Fries will be at the Rochester NH Fair on September 21 - 27. http://www.rochesterfair.com/ Check it out......and tell Sylvie and Jim that Karen says hi!