At my job, I sit in front of a computer for eight hours. So what am I doing on my night off? Um, sitting in front of a computer. Go figure.
Speaking of my job… I leave for work before the kids are done with school and now get up about the same time they do. This means I no longer have planning and prep time at the end of our school days or in the morning before the kids got up. I miss that. So what have I not done at the computer this entire evening? You got it, school planning and prep. Go figure again.
My excuse is that, since on Thursdays we have just enough time for writing, math, and piano before leaving for soccer, the day pretty much plans itself. Of course, I could be planning for Friday or next week or the duration of our World War II unit. But then I would miss the adrenaline rush that comes from having to do it all at the last minute. Besides, wasting time on the internet is ever-so-much more fun.
This is turning into a stream-of-thought post. And you know, any sort of post would be good at this point. In case you haven’t noticed, the combination of working 32 hours a week and homeschooling (or trying to, or pretending to, or something), coupled with my tendency to get quick writing fixes on facebook, has pretty much sounded the death knell for my blog. So we could consider this life support, a valiant attempt to resuscitate the blog by simply going wherever my thoughts may lead. (Within reason, of course, thankyouverymuch.) So here I go…
Schooling and working… It’s been interesting, that’s for sure. I find that I kind of like working, but I do not like the toll it takes on the rest of life. Last week seemed especially hopeless, as I felt as though my kids spent the first 3 hours of their school days being educated (or not) by Zombie Mom, and by the time I finally kicked it into gear, we’d only have a couple hours before I had to get ready for work. I was really thinking something would have to go, and I couldn’t decide whether it would be the job or the kids. Okay, it would have been the job, or at least some of the hours. But last week was my “tired” week, too, if you know what I mean, plus there were nights I couldn’t get to sleep, plus there were other stresses going on. This week it has all seemed a little more do-able.
Working… It is kind of nice to get out while someone else (Hubz) does all the things I used to do in the evenings. (No, he doesn’t blog or facebook; I mean the other things, like fixing dinner and making sure the kids have finished their lists and getting Spaz to football practice… those sorts of things.) My job is not exciting but I kind of like it, especially now that most of my time is spent doing a photo-editing process called “green-screening” rather than the mind-numbingly monotonous data entry work for which I was hired. Plus I have discovered the existence of a whole interesting class of people called “co-workers”. Who knew?
Co-workers… One of my them, by the way, is Cheez, who was hired in as a green-screener a few weeks ago without so much as an interview. Like me (and almost all our 2nd-shift co-workers), she is a seasonal employee, working just until mid-November. That’s okay with her, as it is a thousand times better than working for a repo agency, tracking people down and making phone calls to the former next-door neighbors of their cousins’ brothers-in-law ad nauseum, which is what she’d been doing all summer. It was, she said, “the only job in the world where the customer is not always right.” It was also, as you might guess, very unpleasant work, and it unfortunately took place in a very hostile work environment. She finally decided that a job that makes you cry even when you aren’t at work is a job not worth keeping, so now she sits in the cubicle next to mine and works on school pictures in a nice, friendly, non-threatening environment where no one gets yelled at for making mistakes. She likes it.
And I do too. Cheez being the source of much of the afore-mentioned “other stresses”, I wasn’t sure whether this would be a nice thing for me or not. After all, work was sort of a nice escape from the stresses of home, and now one of the stresses would be sitting in the next cubicle. Hmm. But you know what? It has turned out to be a nice thing. It is kind of fun to work together. And being able to share rides has been a real life-saver this past week, because...
…because I don’t have a vehicle. I mean, I do, but it isn’t drivable at the moment. That story I will save for another post, simply because I can. And you are going, But wait! The way you are going, there may never be another post! And I would say that your concern is very valid, but I am still going to save it for another post. It is all written, which greatly increases its chances of actually making it to the blog. Although you should see all the "already written but not quite finished" posts that haven't.
Okay, back on track here... where was I?
Oh yes. The undrivable van... Moments before my van was rendered incapacitated (which happened to happen on my night off work last week), I was on my way home from finishing up my editing manuscript at Pahookey Bread. That editing gig is finished now, which is nice because it is one less thing to do, and not-so-nice because it was really fun and interesting. We will see whether I am able to go any further with editing. I sure would like to. For now, though, I think two jobs is quite enough. Yes, two-- you know, the paying one and the important one.
And I think that pretty much brings me back to where I started, unless you want me to start talking about the important job. You know, that utterly insane endeavor called homeschooling. And I don’t think you want me to get started on that, because this post is already far too long. That’s kind of how it goes with this blog, I think. Famine or feast. When it rains it pours, etc…
Oh, but speaking of rain….
Ha, you thought I was going to keep going, didn’t you? Nope, I’m done. |
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-Mama JJ