I had the best laugh yesterday.  Remember when I received the whopping 11 shares of stock from the company I used to work for?  Probably not even worth the paper it's printed on, but it was fun dancing around singng, "I'm a shareolder, I'm a shareholder" and joke about how Iwas going to start attending the shareholder meetings.  Then yesterday I got this envelope in the mail from a large banking institution in Chicago.  It looked like a check so I figured it was an ad for a credit card.  You know, sign up and we'll give you $100.00 (but then we'll charge you a $200.00 one time fee!).  So I almost threw it away.  But I did open it.  It was a dividend check!  But the best part?  It was for $0.44!  That's right, forty four cents!!!! I burst out laughing and couldn't stop.  I nearly ran off the road.  So I called one of my friends an said, "All my financial troubles are over!  I got my dividend check!"  Then I told her how much.  And I'm still laughing so hard tears are streaming down my face and I can barely breathe.  I don't know why it struck me as so funny, but the more I talked and thought about it, the funnier it got.  By the time I got to the school to pick up the girls, I could hardly get out of the car.

 

 

 

But remember-

 

 

 

Ok, so I go my temp job today, the 3-5 day job.  It's in a different building than where I interviewed, which was a freaky old Victorian mansion with a 1950's addition that had been converted into a bunch of offices.  Very strange building with beautiful stained glass windows and fantastic old woodwork jutaposed against awful 1950's paneling and dividers.  And almost every office has a fireplace. Carved marble or granite.  Unbelievable. But I digress.  This other building is some sort of old warehouse/office space. 

 

I get there 5 minutes early and the guy I'm supposed to work for isn't there yet.  So they put me in the breakroom and leave me in the breakroom.  And I wait and wait.  He finally gets there about 15 minutes later, apologizes to takes me back to my desk.  Which is sitting in the middle of a hallway.  In a converted garage, it is freezing and he says it's from the hole in the roof!  I sit down and he explains what I'm to do (I should point out he's really nice, but he looks like Dr. Morris from ER, which is weird).  It becomes pretty obvious this won't take a week.  And probably not even 3 days.   At about noon I go over to talk to the Dr. Morris look alike and tell him I'm almost finished.  He looks astounded and says he has more for the project but hasn't had time to compile it.  So we agree that I will go home as soon as I finish and he will call me when he's ready for me to come back.  Then he comes out and just starts talking to me, tells me he's from Tampa, moved up here in July (Hah! will he be sorry in another two months!).  And it turns out he lives just a couple blocks from where I lived before I got married!  The odd thing is, this town is literally right on the edge of Chicago, no where close to here.  AND I was t a party this past weekend where it turned out two people there also lived in the same neighborhood.  What are the odds of that?  And why would he live there and work way out here?  His commute is so awful he takes the train out here and keeps a car at the station out here just to drive over from the train.  Then he talks more about what they are trying to do, including trying to bring all the systems up to the 20th century.  The entire time I'm thinking, if you think I'm capable of understanding and really participating in this conversation, why would you want to hire me to do data entry?

 

Oh well, I pretty much decided not to decide yet.

 

 

Tomorrow I start a temp job.  3-5 days.  For this 3-5 day job, I had to interview with them as well as the temp agency, so one of my friends had to leave work to come and watch the girls.  Plus, the after school program has closed for 6 weeks, leaving me as well as several of my friends with no childcare.  I managed to find someone for tomorrow, but have no idea what I’m going to do the remainder of the week.

 

But they offered me a full time permanent job while I was interviewing.  Yea, right?  Except for a few small issues.  First – childcare until January 7^th.  Second – the pay is awful.  And third – this job is everything I hate.  Data entry (into a DOS based system) and filing.  All day.  While sitting in a room the size of a large closet with five other people in cubicles. No interaction with people, no phones, nothing remotely interesting.  And for some reason, they keep telling me how they have cake at least once a week.  Cause that would be a reason to work there. It just feels like the kind of place people go to die.  And oddly, I was taller than everyone I met there.  And I’m not that tall, only 5’7”.

 

On the plus side, I would still be able to take the girls to school, I would only be about 10 minutes away, and it is in a beautiful section of town about a block from the river, so I could walk around on my lunch.

 

On the other hand, I would not get any vacation time for one year, and after a year I would get 5 days.  And they don’t pay any portion of the dependant insurance.

 

So, knowing that my unemployment will run out soon, do I have the right to be selfish and hold out for something more suitable for me?  Didn’t I give up that right 9 years ago when I decided to have children?  And what do I do about childcare?

 

I just feel really defeated.  Kind of like I’m drowning.  And please understate I do know how much wore things could be.  And I m truly grateful.  I just wish things were a little more obvious and clear cut sometimes.

We thank you for food, and we remember the hungry.

We thank you for health, and we remember the sick. 

We thank you for friends, and we remember the friendless.

We thank you for freedom, and we remember the enslaved.

May these remembrances stir us to service,

that your gifts to us may be used for others.

Amen

 

Unfortunately I don’t know who to credit…

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

Well, the car has a bad wheel bearing and needs a new heater core and evaporator.  I don't even really know what all that means, but I do know it's expensive.  The wheel bearing obviously needs to be fixed NOW, but the rest can wait a couple weeks.  Which is good since it's going to cost about $1,400.  Oh, well.  It's only money, right?

 

Speaking of money and expensive, remember our outing to American Girl Place?  I forgot to mention that while we were there the Oprah show was filming (See, to me the Giant Reese's Peanut Butter cup was more impressive- it wasn't like Oprah herself was there or anything).  ANYWAY, that show will air (along with a piece on Miley Cyrus) on Wednesday.  Who knows?  Maybe we got on camera.

Did you ever just feel like everything was going against you?  I finally got a temp job, starting the Monday after Thanksgiving.  Then I find out that the girls afterschool care is closing from November 19th to January 9th.  So now I have no one to take care of them.  Plus my unemployment runs out the beginning of January.  How the heck am I supposed to find a job without daycare?

 

Then I get a call from the temp agency that the company wants to meet with me Monday or Tuesday.  The kids are out of school all week next week.  And I have no babysitter.  All this for a job that will last 3-5 days.  And now my car is broken, not with one problem, but two.  The defroster is spewing out some sort of moisture, which kind of defeats the purpose of a defroster.   And now there is a strange noise coming from my front left wheel.  So off to the repair shop in the morning.  My mother's response to my day?  "Why are you surprised?  Bad things always happen to you around your birthday.  Remember that year you and your boyfriend broke up, you lost your job and had to move home all in the space of three days? Remember the year I almost killed you in that car accident?"

 

Gee, I feel so much better now.

My mother is a diehard romantic.  While she was pregnant she saw West Side Story and decided to name me after the song Maria.  She said she hoped someone would feel that way about me one day.  While I am far too cynical to believe that would actually happen, I am very grateful, because had she not seen West Side Story, I would have been named Blanche.

 

For some reason I don’t understand, people often feel the need to serenade me.  And you would not believe how many “Maria” songs there are.  Let’s just eliminate all the Ave Maria’s.  There’s the one from West Side Story, Take a Letter Maria, My Maria, Maria (by Blondie), and the one everyone really believes I’m named after, How do you solve a problem like Maria (I was born several years before The Sound of Music came out, so phhhhbt!).  And that’s just off the top of my head.  What is it about my name that makes people want to write songs about it?  And why do people spontaneously break into song when they meet me?

 

Just wondering.

 

And just to prove that ome weirdness must be genetic, I named Emma after the Jane Austen novel, and Shannon is not named after the boat in the song Shannon (there's an obscure reference for you, I might have to put that song on here) but she is named after Nicole Kidman's character in Far and Away.  Just in case you wondered.

 

Well, I decided not to go for coffee today.  I just had a bad feeling about the whole thing.  I mean, walking down by the river is either a prelude to something romantic or a way to get someone alone to kill them and dump the body, right?  Presumably he’s not a serial killer, so that left the other, almost as undesirable choice. 

 

But then I managed to talk with another single mom (the one whose daughter had the American Girl party) who knows him pretty well.  I have to confess, I’m a little jealous of her.  I might even have a small girl crush on her.  She’s devastatingly beautiful and about the size of Kate Moss.  And really nice.

 

ANYWAY.  I talked to her about this man and she wasn’t really surprised.  She said that recently there had been a few times she had seen him that he made her uncomfortable.  And she has known his family for years.  Plus she said his wife is working 14 hours days during the week and half days on Saturday, so he’s lonely.  So, I think the schoolyard conversations will have to do.

 

But the weird thing is, I ran into him when I was picking up Shannon from Girl Scouts, and he acted like I was his best friend and didn’t even ask me why I didn’t show up.

 

Bizarre.

 

 

There’s a dad I talk to everyday when we’re picking up our kids.  He’s a really nice guy.  Well, this morning after I dropped off the girls I went to the library and it wasn’t opened yet and he showed up.  So we sat and talked for a few minutes and he asked if I would meet him for coffee later.   And I said sure.  Then we went our separate ways.  Driving a few minutes later, I suddenly wondered I this was a date.  You know, I haven’t actually dated in 10 years (God, that is soooo pathetic!), and I’m not sure I would recognize the clues.  I do have a tendency to be a little dense (Hard to believe, I know).

 

Now, I wouldn’t normally even worry about this, but he’s married.  And I am not going there.  After talking to a friend, we decided it probably wasn’t meant as a date.  So I went.  And it was nice.  Nice conversation.  Then as I’m leaving, he suggests we do it again on Monday, only we get coffee and go for a walk down by the river.  So, then I’m thinking, Ok, either he’s hitting on me or he wants to push me into the river and drown me.  Then he remarks about how nice it is to have adult conversation.  And I think I’m overreacting, but I tell him I don’t know about Monday.  We walk out, he walks over to my car, grabs me and gives me this big hug.  He says, maybe I’ll see you Monday, have a great weekend.  And then walks away.

 

I feel like Frasier on a Valentine’s Day episode.  He has this dinner meeting with his boss and spends the entire evening trying to figure out if it’s business or not.  Still isn’t sure even when he ends up in bed with her.

 

My head hurts.

I was over at my brother's twice today.  The first time, after dodging and teasing the killer parrot, was to clean out a freezer.  My brother lets me store one there and somehow it came unplugged and he didn't realize it for quite some time, so, ewww.  I really felt bad because he was pretty upset.  He wanted to replace everything but, come on, he let us live with him for more than a year.  AND he's letting me keep the freezer there.  I finally managed to convince him that he didn't need to.  So anywy, he had taken all he food out, but it still needed to be cleaned.  And it was really disgusting.  REALLY disgusting.

 

But that's not the point.  Bart the bird most definitely remembers me.  And DEFINITELY hates me.  I think it must be because I left.  But even my brother is shocked my how mad he gets when I'm in the room.  He lunges at me and is all puffed up and actually yells at me.  He even tried to climb down and chase me across the floor!!   And because that was sooo much fun, I decided to come back with the girls after school. 

 

The reason I really brought the girls back was to see his two new pets.  He now has a big aquarium (divided in two) with two Praying Mantis'.  I know.  Who keeps a Praying Mantis for a pet?

 

That would be my brother.

I have been to one of the rings of Hell.  Only I don’t think Dante listed this one.  It’s called American Girl Place.

 

Shannon had been invited to a birthday party downtown.  When we went to drop her off, the birthday girl’s mom suggested Emma and I go a well.  Emma just about exploded with glee.  I stumbled about, trying to come up with excuses not to go (I don’t have any cash, I didn’t wear a coat).  Emma pointed out I had a coat in the car and there was a cash machine in the station.  Hmmm.  Day in the city or clean the house.  What a choice.  So we decided to go down, walk around American Girl and then while they were having the actual party, go wander around the city.

 

Interestingly, the Metra here has a deal where you buy a weekend pass for $5.  And up to two children can ride free.  Anyway, I went out to the car and got my coat, got some cash and away we went.

 

The Board of Tourism now runs a trolley thru the Loop, Streeterville and River North areas of the city and it’s FREE!!  So, obviously we took that from the train to IT.  We got off the trolley, and followed the mob of girls into the store.  And stopped dead.  It’s unbelievable. Three stories of dolls and accessories. A doll salon.  A photo studio.  A restaurant.  A little museum.  A theatre.  A book store.  All dedicated to American Girl.  And thousands of girls running around chattering.

 

Emma and I wandered around until I couldn’t stand it any longer and we left.  We went over to this little square across from the store  (where the old Water Tower is) and petted all the carriage horses (This is their watering station, where they sit and wait).  Then we wandered around, couldn’t find a place to eat that had kid friendly food, so we went to Ghiradelli and had sundaes for lunch!  After more window shopping and wandering, we meandered back to the square and went into the Water Tower.  So I gave Emma a little history lesson about it.  It was the only building to survive the Chicago fire and is supposedly haunted.  But that is another story for anther time.

 

Anyway, we exited just in time to see a carriage horse narrowly miss getting hit by a tour bus.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  The driver pulled the horse all the way up on his rear legs and flipped him around.  And the idiot bus driver just keeps coming.  But the horse is okay. 

 

Imagine my surprise when we turned around and ran into a giant Reeses Peanut Butter Cup.  Between that and the drumming show put on by 8 boys (playing buckets and coolers, and really, it was amazing), Emma has decided that she wants to go into the city every weekend.

 

We all met up at 2:00 and hopped the trolley back to the station.  But here’s the problem. The train leaves at 2:40 and the trolley makes about a million stops before it gets there.  We finally arrive at our stop with 4, yes 4, minutes left.  So here we are, running down the street and through the station like lunatics, dragging all these packages and girls trying to make the train.  By the time we got to the train we were wheezing and gasping, which the conductors thought was really funny.  I probably would have flipped them off if I had the strength.

 

Needless to say, now both the girls want American Girl dolls.  Ahh, consumerism at it’s best.