life

7:23pm: Baptsim of Fire
So, at the end of 3 weeks on the new job I scheduled myself to take the 'on-call' for the weekend. This means I'm responsible for filling any spots where caregivers call in sick or a client needs more help, etc. I was on-call 24/7 at the previous job for 6 months straight with only one week off, and it was not a big deal. Usually.

The challenge began Friday because the scheduling person had requested the day off a long time ago. She left me 4 slots to fill. This place has over 200 caregivers listed in the roster, so filling those spots shouldn't have been difficult. Granted, because I don't know any of the caregivers or the clients yet, I planned to read the file on each one that I was going to call, just to be sure my picks were good matches. The scheduling software system is the same one I got up and running at the previous job, and I have a very methodical way I staff, so I was sure I could do this.

I started work at 8 am Friday. I left work at 1:30 am Saturday.

The initial clue that I was going to have a harder time than I thought was when I began reading the caregiver files. I came across more than one where the notes had an old complaint about the worker and the line "do not use"--but these caregivers were out on assignments. Then there were the files that had a caregiver's name, address, phone, and hire date of sometime in 2008--and nothing else. Then, as I am searching for possible caregivers I want to call, the phone calls started coming in. As fast as I staffed one opening, it seemed that 2 more caregivers weren't going to make their weekend shifts. I made my last call at 9:45 pm, and then started documenting everything--every call--in the system. Before I could do that, however, I had to set up a code system like the one I had set up at my previous job, because no one had set it up here. I had realized right away that this company, while using the basic function of the scheduling software, had no idea of how to use the functions that really make the job easier--they were recording lots of data on Excel spreadsheets because they didn't know/didn't trust their new software.

Starting Monday, this is going to change. Enter updates in the system first, and then, if you don't trust the system, put it in Excel for peace of mind. In a month I bet they'll have given up their security blankets.

Meanwhile, I finally got everything satisfactory and went home. Every client had a caregiver through Saturday afternoon; I had a lot of messages out on cell phones to finish staffing the weekend, and I had 4 hours sleep when the phone rang with the first call of "I'm sick, I can't go to my client today" at 6:30 am Saturday.

I'm not even going to start with the annoying emergency pager that gave me fits, or the glitch that caused my remote connection with my work computer to make the scheduling software icons inaccessible. Or the brain lapse that had me schedule 2 caregivers for the same client at the same time, which I found out when they called Saturday morning to ask what was going on.

It is now 7 pm on Sunday and evey client has a caregiver through tomorrow, I have all my notes in the computer. and the phone hasn't rung (knock on wood) since 4 pm.

I could keep working from my remote connection to flag problems for discussion tomorrow. But I think I'm actually going to read the Sunday paper and chill and pray the pager doesn't go off any more tonight.

9:50pm: Happy
I guess I am going to resume being a totally annoying person (at least according to all the family members I annoyed last time) by restarting my compulsive saying of "I love my job!" My new job, that is. One full week and there are nice people and lots of systems to efficient-ize and organize and useful things I can do! And this time I'm the boss so I really can make changes!

Happy, happy!

7:17pm: It was an Interesting Day...
Names have been changed to protect the innocent(?)

My Saturday trial actually started Friday afternoon. A potential client called the office wanting to know how soon we could have a live-in caregiver to stay with her mother, Mrs. Black, in Evanston. ( Read more )

10:41am: For the Curious
Passed on from ferlonda's lj, since she answered my question.

1 question.

1 chance.

1 honest answer.

That's all you get.

You get to ask me 1 question.

Any question, anything, no matter how crazy, dirty, or wrong it is.

But I dare you to repost this and see what people ask you!

8:20pm: I haven't posted anything for a very long time. Shame on me...but life has been very un-comment worthy lately. Work has settled down with a new boss and as long as I stay with my nose to the grindstone in my little cubicle everything is fine...It is kind of sad how much the work I was passionate about has just become a job, but it's a job I am competent at and the new boss accepts my competency as a given instead of challenging everything I say (like the interim boss did.)

I did get down to see Sarah and Ted in Nashville and packed lots of boxes for their eventual move. Ted hit the nail on the head when he said I just love to have a mission, in that case to pack all the books and knickknacks in 5 rooms...

Need a new project for the spring. Would like to resume sewing, but fittings are a pain when the fit-ees are in Portland and Nashville...

Am very excited to have made reservations to see Adrienne in Portland in June! I've never been to the West Coast and we are planning to drive to see the Pacific one day of the trip!

Feel rather embarrassed that this post is not especially witty or compelling, but hey, at least I made an effort!

3:39pm: Hello World
Realized I haven't posted anything for a while.

It is depressing that one year ago I had the best job in the world and now, same job, different boss, I am considered incompetent because I can't do the work of 2 people in 37 1/2 hours a week. (Direct quote: "You need to work more efficiently.")

So I am making the effort to totally forget the job when I am not there. Has worked for the last 2 weekends, anyway...

I did notice an interesting thing about my dreams lately. I realized that the scary subject of my "bad dreams" has changed over the course of my life.

I remember a period of time where my bad dreams revolved around driving a car across a bridge over a very large body of water, and the bridge, which resembled pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge, would move like a roller coaster track as I was driving on it. These dreams are from my early 20s, yet I can remember the imagery vividly.

Then I had a time where I dreamed I was walking across a roof, or sometimes an interior floor very high up, where the floor consisted of narrow planks that shifted as I walked across them, with entire sections of the roof/floor suddenly tipping 45 degrees and I would have to jump to another section. It seems to me I had these dreams when my kids were younger, and again I can recall the main image and the fear of falling very clearly.

Lately I have been dreaming that I am taking public transportation to get somewhere in a city but the bus/train doesn't go all the way so I have to walk through a 'sketchy' section of the city alone. The sketchy sections have been different, and there aren't any other people, I just know that I need to be very on my guard as I walk because something bad could happen any minute. Gee, related to my job situation, ya think? At least I'm not afraid of falling in these...

5:36pm: Two Unrelated Items
First off, I am home sick. This is the first sick day I've taken in the whole year I've worked here. My co-worker came to work last week with a horrible cough and I started taking all my preventatives immediately. Had a scratchy throut over the weekend but truly thought I was going to get away unscathed.

Wrong.

I am sure that the stress with the CEO and my coworkers did me in. Decided that there was no point in spending the day coughing in the office so spent it coughing in bed. I know I'm really sick when I'm too sick to even read...

Think I am going to take tomorrow off too. 75% of what I do is over the phone, and according to the people I talked on the phone with today, I sound like a corpse. A coughing one. Don't want to scare the clients...

The other thought I wanted to share is that I have just come to the realization that I am not mature enough to own a potted plant. Someone gave me a lovely purple cyclamen for Christmas. In 17 days it was dead. I can have pets, I can raise children without any worries. I was so anxious over the plant it wasn't funny. I looked up the instructions on the internet and worried over it daily, and still managed to overwater it and when I moved it to a spot to better get 'indirect sun' the cats destroyed it. I have killed every houseplant I have ever had, and also killed Sarah's shamrock plant when she left it in my care for 3 weeks when she was on tour years ago.

It was a really pretty cyclamen. I wish I'd taken a picture of it.

9:34pm: Extremely Disconcerting
So I decided to take yesterday (Sunday) off from life and stay in bed except for the necessities (like donuts.)

Around 3 pm I was napping when my cell phone rang, pulling me from a dream that combined the Stargate tv show and the nonesense going on in my office. It was a woman whose name I didn't quite catch in my grogginess, informing me that 'he' had passed away. We have a client in the hospital and we expected the news anytime, so I offered condolences and asked to be informed when funeral arrangements are made, and said I would notify the caregivers who had been on the case. I remember making a conscious effort not to sound like I'd just woken up.

Went back to sleep and dreamt some more about work. When I woke up 2 hours later I thought I'd check my cell phone record to see where the call had come from.

There wasn't any call in my log for the last 24 hours other than the ones from my kids and one caregiver whose number is in my cell. Thinking I must be confused, I called one of the caregivers on the case to ask how the client was, and she had just hung up with the family who told her he was hanging in there.

I am very weirded out. Other than not catching the caller's name, there was nothing hazy or dream-like about what I remember.

Postscript: The client passed away this evening.

1:03pm: Feel like I should post some kind of year-end recap but right now not in the mood to recall the positive things. I know there were some--lots of them probably--but I am down because it is my boss's last day and the office is being left in upheaval about which I can do nothing because I do not have any authority. But I sit here frustrated because I can see very clearly what needs to be done!

8:48am: Sigh...
So daughter #3 is spending her first holiday season away from home (although she will be here for the week of Christmas. Yay!)

Now it is a family tradition from my childhood that we celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6--There is always a stocking full of 'goodies' to wake up to. So I got Adrienne's red stocking out, filled it up, put it in a box that I taped shut and labeled "Do Not Open Until Dec.6." I put this box in a bigger box along with the 2-ft. Christmas tree that Adrienne always put up in her bedroom and mailed the whole thing so she'd get it before Thanksgiving.

Last night I get a call from her. She said as soon as she saw the size of the box she KNEW I had sent her the little tree. I asked if at least the other box surprised her and she said, in that patiently explaining things to a less-than-brilliant adult, "Mom, I was there when you sent a box to Sarah when she went to Boston and to Erica when she went to Arizona. Duh."

Sigh.

On the other hand, when she told me that for Thanksgiving she and her mostly vegetarian housemates were probably going to have sandwiches, her dad and I came up with the idea of sending Lou Malnati pizza for their Thanksgiving dinner, and when I told her that she squealed and said we were the "best parents in the universe!"

Postscript:
When I talked to my son-in-law the next day, he said, "By the way, Sarah and I are just going to have sandwiches for Thanksgiving dinner." I told him nice try, but I know they know how to cook.

2:38pm: Addictive Behaviors
One of the things I miss the most about Adrienne living in Portland is our Scrabble games--a couple of hours of friendly insults combined with a brain workout. We are actually very evenly matched, which (don't let her know) pleases me greatly. The old 'student surpassing the teacher' kind of pride thing.

So about 2 weeks ago I got on Facebook so she and I could play Scrabble. Now we have 2 games going constantly and we have each won 4. The nadir of this compulsion had to be the night we were playing 2 games online AND talking on the phone for over an hour while we played them, and the ENTIRE conversation consisted of good-natured ribbing about the game.

I never spent an hour on the phone with any of my other girls kibbitzing over a game board...

9:28am: An Observation
I seem to be stuck in an odd karmic feedback loop.

The background facts are these:
1) Left to its own choice, my body would go to bed at 4 AM and wake up at 1:00 in the afternoon.
2) I love my job, especially the satisfaction of solving problems.
3) When I was hired for this job 11 months ago, I was told my office hours are 9 to 5.
4) My husband gets up at 4:30 AM to leave for work at 5.
5) My husband cannot bear the cats meowing at him for breakfast while he is trying to get ready. But if he takes the time to feed them he is late for work. Therefore it has somehow become the routine that I get up at 4:30 and feed them.
6) Since I am already up, I started the routine of going to work early. The benefit of showing up at 7 AM is that, since no one else is there and it's too early for phone calls, I can get a lot of work done.
7) However, since I don't HAVE to be here until 9, if I am exceptionally tired I go back to bed.

So for the last several weeks, it seems that every morning I decide to go back to bed and show up at work at 9, I get a crisis phone call between 7 and 7:30! This week on Tuesday a caregiver called to say that she had a flat tire and wasn't going to be on time for her 7:30 shift; Thursday I got a call to send a caregiver to take someone to the doctor at 9:30; and this morning my boss called to say he'd been in a car accident--not hurt, but not coming in today.

So it appears that my decision to go back to bed causes problems for the people I work with. Do you think when they figure this out I am going to be in trouble?

6:18pm: Score One for Me
I like to pretend my daughters find it an endearing eccentricity that their mother is compulsive about sending them newspaper and magazine clippings once they have moved away.

Since Adrienne has been gone nearly 2 months now, I recently sent her an envelope full of articles from the Tribune that I knew she would be delighted to receive. Okay, that I knew she would roll her eyes upon getting.

So she calls me to say that she did indeed get my envelope, and that she had a discussion with 2 of her roommates who, surprise, also have mothers who send articles for them to read. One mother sent an article about poverty in South America; the other mother sent a variety of clippings about colleges and jobs.

And my daughter? Well, her mom sent an article about comic book stores...

9:42am: Blatant Troll for Sympathy
6:30 Thursday morning. I arrive at work because I have to drive a sub caregiver to a client where there is no public transit. She has to be at the client's at 7:30 because the daughter can't leave for work until someone is there with her mother. After I do that transportation my co-worker and I are staffing a booth at a senior health fair to promote our business. I stayed late the previous evening fixing up our display board and printing up colorful handouts.

Unlock the bottom lock on the front door. Insert key in the deadbolt and turn. Turn the doorknob--and the door won't open. It moves a quarter inch and stops. Pull the door shut, re-lock it, repeat process, same result. I won't say how many times I did this before it occurs to me the door is really not going to open.

It's not quite 7. I call my boss (he lives an hour away) and ask if there is another key in the main building across the street. He says no, maybe it would be a good idea to make a duplicate and put one there, and wishes me luck.

Call another co-worker who lives nearby. She will come with her key ASAP, about 15 minutes. Call the maintenance department across the street, get voice mail. Leave a message, then decide to try the back door just to see if my key will work in that lock. (I can't get in the back way because we put a 2x4 across it at night.) The door unlocks and I push it open as far as the 2x4 allows, and the burglar alarm starts beeping. I have 60 seconds to disarm it before the police are called. Pull the door shut and relock it, but it doesn't stop the alarm. Mutter some curse words and look in my purse for the business card the boss gave everyone with instructions on how to cancel a false alarm. Fortunately I know exactly where I have it. Call the number, give the information, and the voice on the other end says the police will be notified not to go. By the time I finish, the alarm is going full blast, but fortunately(?) it's only loud enough to be heard for about 3 buildings.

It is 7:15 and the caregiver is still not here. I'd call the client and let her know we're going to be late, but her phone number is on the computer on my desk. Call the caregiver's cell phone which I have programmed in my phone, but get the "number currently not in service" message. You can guess where I have her home phone number.

Pace in front of the building until co-worker arrives. She tries my key several times to verify the accuracy of my story. Then she tries her key and gets the same result. Says to call maintenance, and I get the answering machine again. She says that's impossible, there is someone to answer the phone 24/7. I dial and hand her the phone. When she hears the answering machine she is stunned bcause someone is ALWAYS there.

Past 7:30. I explain the missing caregiver problem and my co-worker offers to go and stay with the client until the caregiver comes so that the daughter can go to work.

I start calling the caregivers whose numbers are in my phone to see if I can get a replacement for the sub. My pool of candidates is limited due to their availability, and my first pick doesn't answer her cell. Obviously need to put both cell and home phones in my phone for all my staff.

Call the coworker who is going to the health fair with me to let her know we have a small problem. The only thing we currently have for our display is the tablecloth which is in my car because I took it home to iron. We were planning to leave for the fair at 8:30.

8 AM. Still no caregiver. Find a piece of paper to leave a note on the door that I will be right back, just in case she arrives, and walk over to the main building to find a maintenance person. First thing to go right, one is in the lobby.

He walks back with me and of course, tries the key. He says that it's not the key, the lock is open, but something is preventing the door from opening more than the quarter-inch. He asks if he can try to force it open. I say go ahead, figuring it can't get worse. He gives the door a body slam and it opens!

While he is examing the door I rush to my computer. By the time he has determined that the problem is a screw in the latch plate was sticking out and causing the door to stick, I have called the missing caregiver at home and get some garbled story about her mother, her pants, and missing the bus. Don't even waste time trying to figure it out, start calling replacements. First 4 can't do it. Finally get a caregiver who doesn't drive but lives within a mile. She can be ready in 15 minutes.

Call the client's house to tell my coworker what is happening and that we will get the caregiver there ASAP. My health fair partner shows up and offers to collect the caregiver. The last member of our office staff has arrived and offers to drive the caregiver to the client. Call the client's house to explain the situation and halfway through the story realize I have already said these words. My coworker, kindly, says that I already called her and she knows someone is coming.

Only one last hitch to go--today is the day a brand-new volunteer is coming to answer phones in the office. Someone has to be here to let her in and show her the phone system. Miraculously, she is early and arrives while the caregiver is being picked up, so I give her a one-minute rundown, apologize for the abruptness, thank her, give her my cell number for anything she can't handle, and then one coworker and the caregiver head to the client while the other coworker and I head to the health fair. It's 9 AM.

And in the interest of full disclosure, I have to say that working the health fair was a blast and almost made up for the insanity of the morning.

10:10am: Feedback Requested
Argument: One facet of being a mature adult is being able to face a crisis and handle it by yourself.

Counterargument: A mature adult, when facing a crisis, knows how to get help from others.

Opinions?

8:48am: Why I am a Sucker (3 parts)
Part 1:

Friend of 25+ years wants to start a new organization to collect lullabies and spread them out to the incoming generation of parents. It's a noble idea but not anything I would personally pursue. Guess who ended up on the organizing board by virtue of being the only other person besides my friend and her spouse at the inaugural meeting? Guess who came to said meeting because of a personal plea from friend that only one other person was coming (and that person didn't show.)

On the other hand, when my friend explained why she was doing this and what lullabies had meant to her, I was very moved and felt honored that she had shared her feelings with me.

Shameless plug: visit our site at www.lullaby-preservation-league.org

Part 2:

Man comes into our office seeking help for his parents. He's from Phoenix and when visiting his folks found moldy food in the fridge and prescription bottles that had never been opened. He warned me his mom would not accept help, but I figured my winning personality would charm her as it has other recalcitrant seniors.

Boy, was I wrong! I have met my match. In a 30 minutes visit she told me to leave 20 times. When I mentioned I would be back next week, she said I was not coming in her house again. I did strike up a conversation with her delightful husband, so I said that I would come back to talk with him, and she said fine, but I would have to sit on the porch, I was NOT coming back in her house! I said, to be provocative, what if I visited her husband in the winter, would she make us sit on the porch in the cold? "YES! You're not coming in my house again!"

Back in the office the son is really upset. I said that I hoped he wouldn't take this the wrong way, but this was going to be fun. He said, "Oh, you're one of those people who like a challenge."

Got it in one...

Part 3:

One of Adrienne's friends calls me. Since I sew all the time, would I be willing to help her out? She is making a Civil War ballgown to wear to a reenactment and she's only sewed one thing before, and the pattern is kind of confusing her...

Okay, there's nothing more flattering to the ego than being looked at as an expert, so I say sure, I'll help her. Besides, I think that once Adrienne leaves on August 2 I'll be looking for something to do. So when does she need this made?

By the end of next week, naturally.

10:49am: What Would They Do Part 2
18-yr-old Adrienne bounces in the door last night. Very endearingly she says, "You love me, right, mommy?"

"Now what?"

Big smile. "You wouldn't mind making part of my dance recital costume--I told my teacher you'd be happy to help?"

The recital is in 10 days. She needs a one-piece tear-away shirt/vest/tie so she can do a one-minute costume change from the dad in "Mary Poppins" to a chimney sweep.

And I am positively delighted to have an assignment!

2:39pm: What Would They Do Without Me?
I get a phone call from a daughter--I shall be kind and leave her nameless--who is living in another state.

"Mom, I have been looking for the cannister set I got as a wedding present, and it's not in the closet where we put the things I wasn't going to use right away. Do you know where we put it?"

Since I had helped organize her storage closet in November 2006, of course I knew the answer.

"Dear, I don't think you ever got the cannister set from anyone."

"Really? Let me check the list of thank-you notes and see..."

Two hours later I get the call:

"You were right, Mom, I never got the cannisters."

Even by the normal standard of moms-knowing-where-everything-is I think this deserves special mention.

8:16am: Sleep is Highly Overrated
I am laughing at how things work out, which is a good thing, considering...

The kids and I went to the midnight showing of Indiana Jones and got home at 2:30 AM. I was in bed by 3:00, got up at 5:00 and got to work at 7:00. Now I don't HAVE to be at work till 9:00 but I usually arrive 30-60 minutes early to get work done without interruption. However, yesterday the housekeeping department manager said he would send a cleaning person over to our office at 7:30 this morning, so I had to get there to let her in since I live the closest. I'm sitting at my desk, industriously going through the piles of paperwork when I realize it is 7:45 and there's no cleaning person yet. So I call and find out that the housekeeping the department is short-handed this morning, and we won't get our cleaning person till 3:00 this afternoon.

I could have slept for 2 more hours...but I am laughing, at least right now. Not sure if I'll appreciate the irony quite as much at 5:00 this afternoon...

And if you are curious, the movie was good, we all gave it a B/B+. It did a good job of introducing the new character that Shia LeBeouf plays, and it had decent people scenes as well as the most amazing swordfight I have ever seen. The best part, however, may have been sitting next to Adrienne and watching her react to the movie--at one point she practically jumped in my lap. I must confess, there were a couple spots that made me jump too, though.

12:23am: Quizzical Query
You know you're having a bad Scrabble day when you have the 'Q' and 3 'U's and you end up making the world 'QI'.

I have yet to win a game agaisnt Adrienne this year! I keep telling myself that it's the mark of a good teacher when the pupil surpasses them--but come on, couldn't she just win by 10 points or something? Once in a while?

9:14pm: I Love my Job...
...even though I spent the last 45 minutes of my work day going through the trash bin for one of our senior clients. Seems that when she had one of our caregivers working at her house yesterday, between the two of them they managed to throw out her tax return which needed to be mailed.

I found it AND left the client laughing about it.

5:25am: Feeling Pleased with Myself
So yesterday our 5-person office moved across the street to a freshly renovated storefront. (I spent last weekend cleaning the bathroom after construction and straw-bossing the rest of the staff painting all the woodwork after the boss spent 2 days installing the drop ceiling panels.)

Jack had put me in charge of coordinating the move 2 weeks ago, so (naturally) the move went off like clockwork. Got my office completely packed before I went home Thursday night; got in at 7:15 Friday morning and packed up the computers, then put all the boxes in the corridor for the maintainance guys to move. Then I looked in Julie's office and she hadn't done anything about cleaning the top of her desk or file cabinet (she's only known about the move for 2 weeks--sarcasm) so I grabbed a couple of empty boxes and threw stuff in them and labeled them 'Julie's desk top' and Julie's file cabinet top.' At 8:30 they started bringing over the desks and boxes--starting with Julie's now-empty desk--and I knew exactly where everything went as it was brought in. My co-workers were quite amazed at how efficiently the whole thing went.

I had insisted that we have the guy from the phone system come out and give the entire office a training on the the new phone system, and I took notes, so that this afternoon when we started to program our voicemails and forwarding numbers; Jack tried to do it from memory, then he told me to get my notes :) And he thought I was being overly obsessive about getting the phones explained. Ha!

Turns out we're getting a new furnace installed Saturday, and since Jack lives in Naperville, and Julie showed up for moving at 8:00 around 10:30, I volunteered to come in. So while I could have had my file cabinet and the office supply cabinets completely organized by 4 PM, I didn't push so I have something to do tomorrow.

So last night I started thinking how I used to organize Summer Theater, and realized exactly why I am so good :)

8:58pm: Warm Fuzzy Story
When Sarah was here for her 36 hour visit Christmas Eve, she and Adrienne went to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Star Wars exhibit while Erica and I were at work. They came home talking about having seen the Holy Grail--the real Yoda, and Princess Leia's actual costume, Han Solo's blaster, the real Millennium Falcon, etc. They were pretty funny to listen to.

They each bought a souvenir key chain--Adrienne got the Millennium Falcon, Sarah got Princess Leia's blaster. Keep in mind I said key chains--the actual pewter models are maybe 1 1/4 inches long.

Sarah left on Christmas Day to meet Ted in Toronto and spend Christmas with his family. The trouble happened when they arrived at airport security on their way home. When Sarah put all her items on the conveyor to be x-rayed, the security guard grabbed her keys and studied the blaster keychain. No guns or gun-like objects allowed. But he would ask his supervisor. Well, it is only a key chain, but still, better check with the manager. Nope, rules are rules. No blaster keychain allowed on board.

At this point they were going to miss the plane, so Sarah let them take it. When she got home she called me with the sad story.

Being a mom, I searched the web that night. Surely I could find her a replacement. But no, I could find the Millennium Falcon keychain but not the blaster. So the next morning I emailed the museum's "Contact Us". The exhibit's last day was Sunday--this was Friday. I explained the sad story and asked if there was any way I could get a replacement keychain from the museum store without having to pay for admission into the museum.

But the weekend passed without a reply, and I figured that was it. Then Tuesday I get a phone call. The fellow that received my email had managed to secure the last blaster keychain from the museum store before the merchandise was packed up, and he wanted Sarah's address so he could mail it to her. When I asked how much, he said he was sending it free of charge because that had been such a ridiculous decision by airport security!

I thanked him profusely, hung up and called Sarah, who of course was thrilled!

One of those happenings that really makes me feel good about the human race.

Oh, and why I couldn't find a replacement online? The blasters were a special order to be sold at the exhibit only!

10:37am: Adventures in Babysitting
So, last night I had a chance to babysit the little boy I'd taken care of once a week for the last year but stopped when I started working full-time. (Actually, I passed the job to Adrienne so she knew all about his quirks before she started, and I still get to hear the stories about what he's doing.)

I put him in his crib around 7:15 and he went right to sleep. About 9:45 suddenly I hear him crying over the baby monitor, seriously upset. I went upstairs to his room. By the hall light I could see he was sitting up and I went over and touched the side of his head. It was soaking wet...and slimy...and the room smelled really bad. Mom radar kicked in. When I turned on the light, sure enough, he had thrown up all over the crib and himself, and was crying hysterically.

Well, this certainly isn't the first time I've dealt with kid puke, so I scooped him up at arms' length and carried him to the bathtub. Found a washcloth, cleaned his face, turned on the tub water, peeled off his pjs, and wiped him down. Then I wrapped him in a towel and sat in the rocker with him until he calmed down, poor kid.

Clean pjs, message left on his mom's cellphone, and I sat him on the floor so I could tackle the crib cleanup. Had to take off the crib bumper, all the blankets and stuffed animals, and then the crib sheet. Of course, I couldn't figure out how to get the railing down on this newfangled crib, so I did all this leaning over it, and then threw everything in the bathtub. Then came the biggest challenge: finding crib sheets. I went through his dresser, his closet, and the hall linen closet. No sheets. Okay, time to improvise. I carried him downstairs and got a fleece blanket from the couch, folded it in half, and tucked it around the edge of the mattress as best I could.

I am almost done when I hear him make a strange coughing noise--sure enough, he's throwing up again. Fly him to the bathroom to puke on the tile floor, he's all upset again, I clean him up and put on clean pjs. Grabbed some cloth diapers I'd come across and sat in the rocker with him. This time when he started to throw up I just held the diaper under his chin and caught everything. Not exactly the most pleasant sensation but way better than the alternative.

Finally he falls asleep, I put him back in the crib, and go back downstairs. 45 minutes later I hear him start to gag over the monitor, race back up and get there in time to catch most of it in the diaper I'd cleverly left on the side of the crib. Only required a little clean up and rocking and he was back asleep.

His mom called later, not having heard her cell because she'd been in a noisy place, totally horrified at herself for not having raced home immediately, and she and her husband came right home. I assured her it really wasn't a big deal, he didn't have a fever, I figured it was just an upset tummy. She admitted she would probably have rushed to the ER because this had never happened before, and was gratefully apologetic that I'd had to deal with it.

The part that I am proudest of: 4 pukes and not a spot got on me. I'm so good. And now I have another story to add to the one about the Halloween where all 3 of my girls spent 24 hours puking. (Lined 'em up on the living room floor on sleeping bags, each with their own puke bucket. But that's another story. And you probably don't need the details.)

10:38pm: There Are Moments...
I have always viewed each of my 3 girls as individuals, appreciated each for her unique mix of qualities, and seen something in each one that is my favorite part of being her mother.

However...

Three weeks ago I started my first full-time job in 25 years, as the 'caregiver scheduler' for a nursing home that also supplies in-home help to seniors in the community. My co-workers are all empathic, good-intentioned people. However, when the caregivers' network was started several years ago it was not particularly well-thought-out, and there's no consistancy in how things are handled. That's okay, it's why I wanted the job, to create order out of chaos. (My specialty.) But Monday was especially trying because 3 different people were involved in one intake but no one was 'in charge' and it was a mess.

We are also in the process of switching to a new computer system for scheduling and tracking, and I am responsible for setting it up. I had arranged a meeting this morning to discuss some of the parameters we need to set in the program, but I sidetracked my own meeting to talk about Monday's mess and ideas on how to prevent it from happening again. I admit I got rather passionate about doing things right for our clients and the need to work as a team to get this done. Then we talked about the computer setup, and at the end of the meeting I asked if we have ever done anything special to acknowledge our caregivers at holiday time. When the answer was no, I asked if I could throw a party to show we appreciate the emotional energy that doing caregiving work takes, and my boss said go ahead.

Our meeting was in the conference room which is right next to the office I share with another woman. This afternoon she asks me what I was yelling about at the meeting.

"Yelling?" I remark with puzzlement, "I wasn't yelling."

"I could hear you over the radio, and I had it pretty loud. I could hear you yelling."

Oh dear. I know I was being very passionate about the need to fix the problem, but I didn't think I was yelling...

So I tell this story to each of my daughters. Erica and Adrienne both say promptly, "See, Mom, we always tell you you're yelling!"

Sarah says, "Wow, you must have been emphatic!"

Tonight, for the first time, I do have a favorite daughter. :P Especially since, when I added the part about the boss saying I can go ahead with the holiday party, Adrienne said, "Well, he was probably afraid if he said no you'd yell at him some more."