when your work sends you and your replacement to a training?
I enjoyed it though. It was a room of storytime librarians (I realize many of you might have just run out of the room screaming) exchanging tips and tricks.
Today I am thankful:
- for my boy reading ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ on Christmas Eve to the whole family.
- for my boy’s concern that his wiggly teeth would fall on on Christmas Eve and there would be a traffic jam between the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus.**
- for snowplows (big ones).
- for neighbors with snowblowers (little ones).
- for the impending silence once my family leaves tomorrow.
Today (and for the past few days) I have been grateful:
- for a really lovely Christmas with my family. One of the very best parts was that my sibling’s family decided to sleep on cots in my basement and that was the only area of my house that I cleaned in its entirety. Fantasically satisfing.
- for Papa (my ex) making it over to my house Christmas morning even though we were having a mammoth snowstorm and it took him 2 hours for a 5 minute drive. He called to tell me how much trouble he was having and I thought there wasn’t a chance in heck he’d make it over. The squeal of delight as he came through the door from my boy was perhaps the best moment of the whole holiday. It reminded me of the part in The Long Winter (I think it’s that one) when Mr. Edwards arrives at the door during the Christmas blizzard with maple sugar and dolls for Mary and Laura.
- for leftovers. I’ve now had a full Christmas dinner three times. Reading that over makes me feel a bit ill.
- for my brother-in-law fixing three different doorknobs in my house.
- for garden gnomes.
Today I am grateful:
- for being mostly over my cold and able to reenter society.
- for a quiet night at home with my boy. Do corndogs for dinner take me out of contention for mother of the year? Oh well. I’m looking forward to some chapters of Danny the Champion of the World tonight. He is also practicing ‘The Night Before Christmas’ so he can read it to the whole family tomorrow night before bed.
- for three!!!!! Netflix discs arriving today.
- for getting the food shopping done before the snow started falling.
- for knitting which can make the unbearable bearable.
Today I am grateful
- for an understanding family who is, at this very moment, hosting a big party at my mother’s apartment. I am home with a sore throat that feels as if it is going to explode out my neck. I can’t believe that I’m not there. I am praying that a day off and a good night’s sleep will clear things up.
- hot tea
- hot showers
- cable television
- the smell of the Christmas tree
Today I am grateful for:
- the Kevin Henkes picture book: Birds. Get it from your local library. I’m planning a Kevin Henkes storytime for mid-January and I think he’s the bees knees.
- Spending time with my sister sans children this morning
- Cupcakes. I don’t think it’s possible to eat a cupcake without smiling. There’s a place in Minneapolis, called appropriately “Cupcake” that makes tiny ones, which are perfect for me. I went there during lunch and picked up a dozen to take to work for my co-workers. The only way to immprove upon cupcakes is ‘surprise cupcakes’. (Reading that over again, it sounds like some kind of stripper move)
- Wonderfully fun dreams last night. I love that time right after you wake up when you are trying not to let go of your dream and it starts to get all whispy and finally you are left replaying the highlights in your mind.
- that the parts of my house I cleaned recently, are staying clean (so far) (more or less)
that I feel like I’m constantly working on this goal, but I never seem to be able to cross items off the list. I believe that, when working under pressure, the entire purpose of working is to cross things off the list.
This morning I cleaned the entire visible kitchen. I did not start the fridge or anything within a cabinet. If you don’t open anything up, it looks fab. I also started and finished the living room. It’s now ready for the tree to arrive tonight. Of course, my sister and family also come in tonight, so it is safe to say that I will not complete this goal by its stated deadline, but I have some more time today to do the bathroom and pick up the family room. I can continue as the week progresses and beyond.
Today I am grateful for:
- the author party at my boy’s school today. All the kids wrote stories about their lives and read them to an audience of parents. My work was very supportive in manipulating my schedule so I could go. The boy was fabulous! He read a very funny story about going to a pool with me in a very clear and loud voice. Here’s a quote. “I swim and swim. My Mama sits and sits.” He even held for the laugh!
- going tonight to The Princess and the Frog with the boy. We just missed the showing right after school, so had dinner and found a Christmas present for Grandma and saw the next showing. The boy got a bit tired and watched most of the movie from my lap. Heaven.
- Clear weather for my sister flying into town tomorrow
- Pistachio nuts
- That grocery stores no longer carry pistachio nuts with the red powder on them
it looks like this might finally happen. I started my job in October 2008 and within 4 months they were predicting layoffs. First it was April, then June, then I think October (it’s hard to remember), then December, and now mid-January. With the new budget starting in January the poop is finally hitting the fan. Instead of the first estimate of a 13% cut, it looks more like 4%. The hours are being cut at all the branches and they have already announced that all entry level circulation clerks are being laid off. I’m an entry level reference librarian and I think I’m second or third from the bottom of the hiring list. It’s a union job, so last hired, first fired applies. We received some emails today which didn’t spell out all the changes, but it didn’t sound good. Then my boss hovered over me today two times, first warning me of the emails and then asking if I was OK and if I had any questions. I swear she wouldn’t leave. It was creepy and all I wanted to do was continue my weeding project.
I’ll be fine if it happens. I love my job and I’ll miss it, but economically I’ll be OK. Eventually they will hire me back. The yarn store wants me to return and I know I’ll land on my feet. I can probably start doing monthly storytimes at the yarn store / coffeehouse. I just need to be ready to take action, so I don’t flounder without a schedule and get really glumpy and depressed. There’s really nothing I can do to improve my chances of keeping my job, so all I can do right now is figure out exactly what I’m going to do if and when it happens.
Blah – maybe I’ll end up covering the tree in my front yard with yarn.
I hereby solemnly swear that once I finish purging and organizing my piles of paper, I will NEVER, EVER accumulate such a pile again.
Currently there are 13 bags on my curbside for recycling, along with a pile of broken down cardboard boxes. There are still about 5 boxes of paper to go through and 15 boxes to break down.
Items found: passport, journal from the boy’s first year and final year of my marriage, the slip of paper Bilbliomane gave me with her phone number for our Internet Fundamentals class (she signed her name with an exclamation point), a never opened paperback entitled, “Life After Divorce”, and at least 100 pounds of paper from grad school. I kept the journal and passport. (Sorry Bib)
Today I am grateful:
- for my work sending me to a storytime workshop. Even though I might get laid off in January, they’ve sent me to two trainings in the past two weeks.
- for my yarn store. Whenever I need a pick-me-up I can go down there and hang out. Today, when I couldn’t get started I went down there and paid all my bills. After some coffee and a bit of knitting I went back home and got started on the house.
- the new recipe I tried tonight: Cheddar dumplings in tomato sauce. My mother came over and had dinner with us – a very cozy meal on a cold night.
- my boy’s frostnip on his ear is almost gone.
If I succeed in fully decluttering my home and car, I will never need to ever buy pens, scissors, or blank notebooks again.
Progress is being made, slowly but surely.
Today I am grateful:
- for a workday. I really don’t do well without a schedule.
- for a purring kitty-cat by my side
- for purple yarn
- for CraftLit, my favorite podcast
- for a purring kitty-cat who has moved up onto my chest and is beginning to affect my ability to breathe
Today I am grateful:
-for ‘Danny the Champion of the World’. It’s my favorite Roald Dahl book. My parents gave me a copy for my birthday the year it was first published. Last night I began reading it to my boy. It’s even better out loud and he was completely hypnotized.
- for how my ex and I co-parent our child. We both put the boy first and have a consistent, but very fluid schedule worked out. There’s no hard and fast rules about holidays, but we both get lots of time and the boy has a great time. This year my family is visiting for Christmas and they are all sleeping over on Christmas Eve. Even though the boy was with me for Thanksgiving (the ex had to work), he’s cool with the boy staying with me for Christmas morning. I invited him to join us as he’s recently broken up with his long-time girlfriend and I think he will come over.
I see so many horrible divorces around me and splashed across the media and I am so, so, so thankful for how this all turned out.
- A cookie-decorating party this afternoon
- sugar-free frango mints
- Hot coffee while being a hockey mom
Today I am grateful:
- for having a warm home, with a healthy boy inside. It’s below freezing out there tonight and I wish it wasn’t.
- for my boy talking to me, even when he is sad and upset. He knocked the round cat house-thingee down the basement stairs today. I heard the thump-thump-thump, which is not a good sound. I yelled for the boy and scared the bejeezesus out of him. After calming down, I found him in his bed under the blankets. We talked and then had dinner.
- listening to the boy read, “More Tales of Oliver the Pig’ while I fixed a real non-frozen dinner.
- all the strange, but useful, things I found while starting to clean out my car: eyeball rubber ball, over $4.00 in change, set of alphabet building blocks, old name tag from previous job, and so on…. After this is done, I must implement a strict ‘take out everything you put in’ policy.
- for having a friend who feels close enough to call when they needed someone in an emergency to pick their children up from the after-school program.
And one bonus gratitude
- biscuits and gravy (that was breakfast, not dinner)
Finished the basement! I’ve moved upstairs. I’ve also finished most of my Christmas shopping and procrastinated like a champion. The anxious edge in my tummy has started.
Today, (I am not exaggerating) I stood on a stool with kitchen tongs and pulled about 30 small bits of jelly-like rubber off my living room ceiling. When I questioned my boy, he told me that he took the Halloween decorations off the window and was ‘playing catch with them’.
Sigh.
Today I am grateful:
- for the new owners of the coffee shop next to my yarn store. I almost cried actual tears of joy. It’s such a vast improvement.
- for having tons of time to plan my next two storytimes. Sometimes I can’t believe that I get paid to do my job.
- for the very young girl who asked for ‘anything by Ziggy Stardust’.
- for the computer system working on a very busy Monday.
- for all my co-workers, the people that come to the library, and living in a democracy where such things as public libraries exist.
Today I am grateful:
- for starting a task that seemed overwhelming. Once I started, it went very quickly
- for Broadway musicals and other highly singable-alongable to music to do said task to
- for Bibliomane not hitting me over the head with a frying pan, but putting up with my loud singing blasting out of the basement
- for the smell of clean laundry
- for curbside recycling
Today I spent 2 hours in the basement and almost finished the whole shebang. Much thanks to Bibliomane who came over to help keep me on task. This week I’ll finish the basement and do as much of the upstairs as possible. At the end of the week, what’s done is done on those projects and for the home stretch I’ll work on the really important areas.
