So, we had our state-wide all-staff meeting last Thursday.  My job is being eliminated.  If re-hired, I won’t know my salary until I’ve been working there for a month.  I’ll lose 9 days of paid time off per year.  I will no longer have a week off at Christmas.  I won’t have a supervisor in the same building as me.  I’ll have to pay part of my insurance premiums and I won’t get to do the job I love.  I’m trying really hard to see anything good in this re-alignment… I’m just not having much luck.  I’m thinking about applying to be a Membership and Marketing Manager.  People in similar positions right now are making roughly one and a half times what I make right now.  I’m also thinking about finding something part-time so I can go back to college.  There’s just way too much thinking yet to do.

I started my vacation with a date.  It was pretty amazing really.  We walked around the park for a while and talked.  Then we sat at a picnic table and Brinnon took out his guitar and we sang for a couple of hours.  Then we went to Golden Tent and had dinner.  Over all, a 9.5/10.

…

Two days later, we left for camp.  Every year, I seem to forget how long a drive that really is.  Six hours, sometimes seven.  It was worth it.  It always is.  I was so busy though, wow.  I was in charge of the KP list so, everyone just looooved me.  LOL!  It was alright though, I got everyone cheering for each server and dishwasher and table washer.  :)  Julie and I were also the preschool teachers.  We had everyone aged 18 mos. - 5 years old.  It was a lot of fun.  We also ran the canteen.  It was great, we actually had several teen helpers this year.  Last year, it was just Mama and me running it.  I’m not sure how it happened but, I actually pried myself out of bed at 4:30 every morning to light a fire so the children would be warm when they woke up.  It got pretty hot during the day but down near freezing at night.  Pastor Robert also had me lead a few songs and I got to teach everyone “Wrapped Up, Tied Up, Tangled Up in Jesus”  That was fun.  Then we drove the too many miles home on Friday.  I fell asleep after unloading the truck and woke up the next day.

…

On Saturday, I had another date with Brinnon.  We went and saw Dark Knight.  That was one dark, awesome movie.  Then we went to dinner at Chula Vista.  Also good.  Oh yeah, he paid for everything.  I’d give that date a 9/10.

I spent part of Monday babysitting for Julie and part on yet another date.  I actually drove up to see Brinnon this time.  We sang while he played the piano, then he cooked me dinner and we watched “The Italian Job”.  Pretty excellent “people being good at stealing stuff” movie.  On the surface, I’d give the date a solid 9.5/10.  I’m not sure what but, something felt kind of… off.  I’m going to have to keep myself aware… or something.

…

Tuesday I helped Johnny with his math for… several hours.  Then I rented movies and watched them for the rest of the day.  I think “August Rush” may have made it’s way onto my Favorite Movies list.  What could be better than a family being unknowingly connected through music?  “Nim’s Island” was cute but I’m thinking it may be a one-time see.  “The Secret” is a great movie if you want to sit and cry for an hour and a half.  Yay for $1 movie rentals through “Red Box”!

…

I just had eleven days off in a row if you count weekends and I am ridiculously tired.  That many days off and I didn’t really rest except for half of yesterday. 

…

It’s good to be back at work.  My mailbox was really full and there are things to get ready for the big conferences.  It’s only 49 days until re-alignment and we still don’t know if we’ll be employed.   Realistically, someone’s going to have to fill the positions so, we will probably have jobs… it’s just… not knowing for sure. 

Last night was great!  The parents, John and I all met over at Dennis and Julie’s place for a potluck dinner and game night.  It was a ton of fun.  While the boyos were awake, we played with a beanbag toss game (we used plastic balls instead of beanbags though) and they had a blast.  After I tucked them in and read and sang to them, it was the adults turn to play.  We played Pictionary.  It was sooo funny.  We, the whole group, sang various songs while people were drawing.  That was the best.   We haven’t done much singing as a family in… years.   I hope we have another one of these soon. 

A Mathematician confided

That a Möbius strip is one-sided

And you’ll get quite a laugh,

if you cut it in half

For it stays in one piece when divided

- found at http://www.trottermath.net/humor/limricks.html

So, Jessica got fired a couple of days ago. I can’t say as I’m surprised but, I kind of wish I felt worse about it. I don’t wish her any ill will but, she was not nice to me. She tried (unsuccessfully) to get me in trouble more than once. I’m praying that she finds a job that’s better for her.

I came across the coolest thing: a math limerick!

( (12 + 144 + 20 + 3 Sqrt[4]) / 7 ) + 5*11 = 9² + 0 .

A dozen, a gross, and a score,

plus three times the square root of four,

divided by seven,

plus five times eleven,

is nine squared and not a bit more.

–Jon Saxton (math textbook author)

I found it here, http://www.math.hmc.edu/funfacts/ffiles/10001.8.shtml

Apparently, in the words of my father, all I need to do to find someone to date/marry is to “lower my standards”. Let me start by saying, I didn’t ask for his “advice”… nor did I want it. Being single at 24 may not be great but it’s not terrible either. As sad as it is, I don’t really have much in the way of standards. I want a living Christian male with a job. That’s it.

Living: I’m not budging on that one… it wouldn’t work.

Christian: I’m a Christian, I’ve dated non-Christians… it didn’t work.

Male: Yeah, not budging on that one either.

With a job: Things happen, people lose jobs, this one’s flexible if he’s actually looking for work.

As well as not being practical in my case, “lower your standards” should NEVER, EVER come out of the mouth of your father. Dads are supposed to be all “nobody’s good enough for MY daughter”. It would be obnoxious but at least it wouldn’t be hurtful. Yay Dad!

So, Co-worker ‘A’ read the personal text messages that Co-worker ‘B’ sent to Co-worker ‘C’… they just happened to be about Co-worker ‘A’.  Drama ensued.  Co-worker ‘A’ proceeded to whine to me about Co-workers ‘B’ and ‘C’ because she couldn’t very well confront Co-worker ‘B’ on account of reading text messages on her personal phone…

So, Co-worker ‘A’ confronts Co-worker ‘C’ and Co-worker ‘C’ tells Co-Worker ‘B’. The office was very quiet today… until they blew up and all three left early.  My only hope is that they don’t drag me into it… I had nothing to do with the sending of mean (yet true) text messages nor the reading of said text messages.

Yay drama…

Everyone has little things that they like or that make them a little bit happy. Here are a few of mine: Refilling a stapler, scraping a child’s plate to get them one last bite, putting on a brand new pair of socks, stamping “entered” on receipts at work…

I may add more later… there are so many.

Well, it’s later and I thought of another little thing - hearing a child ask for an apple instead of a crunchy chewy gooey chocolate covered sugar bomb.   Awesome.

Okay,

You hummed lightly as you wove yet another basket. The color of this basket changed slightly when you completed it though…The next morning, there were several types of recognizably edible berries in the basket. You didn’t put them there. This happened several days in a row. Do you eat the berries? Do you question their origin? What do you do?