Shopping trip observations

I went to our local shopping mall earlier (had a gift card from Christmas left to spend on, of all people, ME!) with a visiting friend, both of my daughters, & the friend's 7 year old son. My friend and I were incredulous at the numbers of people who appeared to be spending money, despite the general feeling that the economy has tanked & as a result nobody should HAVE much to spend on such frivolities as new CDs or DVDs or anything from Victoria's Secret. But we also noticed the fact that in every store, lines were longer because the stores had shrunk their personnel numbers (and not only because the Christmas rush is over).

With any luck I'll be able to savor my purchases (one specifically for my Valentine's Day wedding anniversary) for some time to come, because I don't anticipate hitting the mall again before Easter at the earliest.

Pleasant Weather

Unfortunately, I know much of the country doesn't have this right now, so I plan to enjoy ours while it lasts--even as our overnight lows get down around freezing again.

I got through about half of the computer work I have to do in the average month today & will get through the mandatory remainder tomorrow. I also attended a reception with my husband that honored several local teachers who obtained their National Board Certification over the past year, including a friend from church. Congrats to all--that's a lot of extra work!

My day wound up with supper, then a workout at the Y, a visit with some of the front desk staff, and a couple of after-hours errands (e.g. dropping off spent disposable cameras for processing & a few library books). With any luck, tomorrow will be even more productive than today was & I'll be able to relax for a moment before hosting visitors this weekend.

Girl Scouts, cookies, and...restructuring AGAIN?!

'Tis the season for my nine year old to sell thin mints (no fa la las). I notice she had more sales when she was a cute little six year old Brownie than now--and I believe the "cute" factor helps sales based on my experiences as both parent/leader and a former Girl Scout! (Nothing wrong with that unless you're a high school aged Girl Scout who can't get anyone but acne-afflicted adolescent males to purchase your wares, often along with snide propositions for something beyond cookies and cash to change hands!) I saw an article on a site called yumsugar.com about the things and you wouldn't believe the number of snarky posts pro and con prompted by it!

Now it's my turn, but I offer this disclaimer: the local leadership where I live is fabulous, I love our neighborhood chairman dearly, and the women with whom I served as a leader three of the past four years are the most fun bunch of women in town! That said, I respectfully note that 99% of my beefs with the organization predate my work with that fine group of gals and are directed specifically to 420 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10018. (The other 1% relates to parents who don't support their children's full participation, and I only had ONE parent in my three years of leading troops with this issue!)

The article I read cited dropping membership in the organization over the past five years. I'm not sure where that's a problem, because our local troops have GROWN over the past THREE years--I'd testify to that in a courtroom. I can see where the membership drop may have coincided with more families being stretched to the budgetary & time limit just providing for daily needs, often with only one hands-on parent. (Did this not occur to anyone at national headquarters?)

Corporate hacks that Fifth Avenue types tend to be (I grew up in the tri-state area with numerous family members commuting daily to Manhattan, so I DO know!), the Girl Scout leadership in its wisdom brought in a consulting team for an image overhaul, which concluded among other things that the group should decrease its emphasis on the annual cookie sale. Contrary to what was included in the article, the image overhaul also included a change in the names and levels of Girl Scouts, to be accompanied (predictably) by a change in the uniforms, handbooks, etc. for each level. Note to Fifth Avenue--NOT EVERYONE can afford a new uniform/book/etc. every time we turn around twice (even in the NY metropolitan area), so QUIT CONSTANTLY CHANGING THINGS! The bright idea of restructuring the organization might grate less on my nerves if there hadn't been THREE PRIOR reorganizations of a similar nature since I was invested as a Brownie in September 1972!

For the sake of the organization, get the girls involved in community service, camping, and all the other cool stuff I remember doing as both Girl Scout and leader (and they still do here in my community)! During my tenure as leader or assistant I have done the following with the girls in my troops:

*Slept overnight in the local shopping mall (twice)!
*Camped out overnight on five different occasions (once in my co-leader's substantial backyard, once at a local state park, and three other times at the nearest Girl Scout camp).
*Traveled to the Savannah, GA birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low on a day trip that included lunch at a similar establishment to Chuck E. Cheese & strolling on the Savannah River's quayside to the strains of a local trumpeter playing Girl Scout songs (e.g. "Make New Friends," "The Brownie Smile Song").
*Skills day events with the girls that included teaching them to pitch their own tents, render basic first aid, & create their own troop's box oven, then help prepare a communal meal for nearly 100 girls, use and clean up a mess kit with a sanitation station, and concluded with a community campfire during which each troop presented a skit or song while the entire group noshed on s'mores.
*PLUS I participated in a leaders' get together with a local outdoor adventure instructor where I climbed on the high course & rappelled myself off a log some 30 feet in the air!

So why aren't these other troops elsewhere getting girls involved in this sort of physical activity & TRYING to retain their interest? Did we really need an ad hoc restructuring committee to figure this out?!

Learning is Forever; however...

Whoever said, "Ignorance is bliss" must've been intimately acquainted with the child welfare system. Lord knows, after a dozen years in this field of endeavor, I can certainly understand the sentiment that what you don't know hopefully can't hurt you. But sometimes what you don't know can bite your tail--as I learned today!

Today I spent my fifth of the past ten work days in a mandatory training class for my job. Today's subject matter was a Federal law which, apparently, someone somewhere in our state has flagrantly violated despite its existence for at least five years. My employer is staving off millions of dollars in fines by requiring all staff who work directly with child placement (even workers who only occasionally do so, e.g. supervisors who rotate night/weekend "on call" duty) to participate in these rather thorough sessions to ensure everyone receives identical information as to what sorts of placement decision actions will & won't be tolerated by the Feds (in general, decisions influenced solely by ethnic/racial or national origin of either the child or the prospective family are verboten). Reasonable enough, though based on my experience in the office & region where I work and where all our placement decisions is driven by the treatment needs of the individual child, I was unaware of the need to go through this information. By the time the session ended, I no longer wondered why. I DID, however, wonder where the heck the flagrant violations divulged had taken place! The worst examples of violations cited were, thankfully, not from this state, but were pretty appalling (and eye-opening, as the state cited most often was a Midwestern one, not a Southern one, where everyone assumes intolerance lingers--sadly, not always inaccurately!).

Examples of violations included prospective adoptive families being advised (BEFORE any children were placed in their homes) by staff of the placing agency to move to more ethnically appropriate neighborhoods or to change their religious affiliations to suit the "needs" of the child who might be placed in their home! Other incredible tales included caseworkers carrying a variety of nuts or fabric swatches with them while meeting with prospective adoptive families to select which "skin tones" they'd accept for placement! All this "racial matching" nonsense blew my mind! I was never exposed to such nonsense growing up in the environs of New York (members of my own family were bilingual--in the case of my maternal grandfather, trilingual; one great grandmother was fluent in three languages PLUS spoke smatterings of several others!), so I have a hard time believing anyone anywhere thinks such behavior is anything but reprehensible!

Needless to say I'll be studying that law to ensure I don't run afoul of it in the future...plus getting certified to write home evaluations, an item also covered today which neither my supervisor nor I were aware of. I suspect several of our office staff will be doing so in the near future as a result.

I'll do anything I need to do to write more (especially for pay)! ;)

Complain, complain, complain!

Seems like today was just one of those days when neither hubby nor myself could get away from unhappy parents of kids we work with. The trick for me is only to hold out until spring, when I suspect I will no longer have to work with the ones I met earlier today. Hubby's is a bit more subtle than that, but he'll manage to address the situation admirably, as he always does.

Of course, as we're trying to do our jobs, we're also trying to keep up with our family--one child came home with, shall we say, a less than acceptable grade in not one but TWO courses! (Of course, she's tearful & hubby is quoting his favorite Biblical quote out of the book of Luke about wailing & gnashing of teeth!) She is hearing about it from him as I type--I zapped her earlier in the evening--and we've pretty much firmly decided she's done with Guitar Hero for a while. (And friends, and other diversions that take away from homework time!)

Hope my readers' offspring are having a better academic time of it!

Let it snow, let it snow...whaddaya mean I've gotta work?!

Kidding--I suspected we wouldn't get the forecast inch of snow; the ground was too warm for it to stick & accumulate as late as 7:30 last night. As I type we have a dusting that's melting as soon as you step or drive on it & the temperature is hovering around freezing, with tonight's low forecast to be in the mid to upper teens! Brrrrr... Thank God for the wood stove!

My daughters were most indignant to find they have school ON TIME today & I have a 90 minute delay at work. (I plan to go in on time anyway.) It doesn't help that two nearby counties closed school last night in advance of all this forecast white stuff I have yet to see--apparently Columbia is getting more of it than we are. I also haven't told the girls that their brothers will likely not have classes (confirmed a moment ago with the WU student that his are cancelled for today) & will instead be watching the inauguration of President Obama. I suspect my cohorts in the office will be trying to do the same, either on the computer or on the conference room TV.

Time to get ready for the day!

Winter Hangs On...

In my prior post, I neglected to mention while my youngest & I were purchasing snacks to share on Saturday around 7:45 a.m., we asked staff if they knew the outdoor temperature. One fellow stated it had been 3 degrees outdoors when he got up to come to work. Daughter dearest optimistically said, "You mean THIRTY, right?" whereupon he said, "No, I mean THREE!" For a woman born & raised in the northeast, my next comment was quite appropriate: "Dang; that's COLD!" (Let alone for a native southerner!)

With that in mind, I remind my readers that I'm back in my home town in the central "other" Carolina, where the forecast for tomorrow actually includes up to an inch of the (very rare around here!) white stuff--this, though the temperature is currently reported as 50!

For its next trick, the weather will send us a blistering heat wave in the 80s next week...

Adventures in the Smokies

What a weekend! It's always nice to take a break; nicer to get to spend time with others I don't normally get to relax with, but best of all, fun to dance & sing & be entertained by my musically talented offspring (of which, more later). We crossed the Eastern Continental Divide (elevation 2,130 feet) just outside of the town where we stayed, and climbed from that point up to our destination.

And then the FUN began...

We arrived to find that a local electrical power substation had gone out of commission--on a night with lows forecast to be in the single digits above zero. Fortunately, backup generators were already working in the main building, the cabins (we stayed in one), & those gathering places our parish was to use that evening. The fireplace helped keep the place cozy, though not as toasty as I personally would've liked. My children, having spent our Christmas in the REALLY frozen north, were dressed more than adequately for this Arctic blast--many of our cohorts were barely so & rode buses to everything on the property while we walked (rapidly, to keep the ol' blood flowing!).

On Saturday three of the children hiked up at various times of the day to Eagle Rock, which overlooks the entire region. That evening we were busy between the following events:
a break-dancing contest (!) between our junior minister & a 20 year old college student, complete with a hype video featuring references to our senior minister by his e-mail alias;
karaoke by various parishioners including at least two of my children (the seasoned chorister--me--refused to try this!);
dancing the shag (the SC state dance) & line dances like the Electric Slide, Macarena, etc. with a group including my eldest (who is quite the suave dude on the dance floor!);
listening to & singing along with a group comprised of a high school junior, my two collegiate sons, a 25 year old, & two other college students jamming on violin, piano, sax, & guitar while imbibing a Celtic Ale someone provided.

Last night's bedtime was roughly 2:15 a.m. today, so I'm zonked!

Two of them were jamming with friends last night while the third joined in singing along.

Today Explains Why I'm Pooped!

It's been a full day today, for a Saturday! Thank heaven my daughters took direction on which household chores we needed to have them complete while we were singing at church with the choir for the ordination of a new clergyman (sponsored through the seminary by our congregation). It was nice to come home to find the playroom vacuumed, the stairs vacuumed, the dishes done & put away, & most of the house vacuumed! (All I had to clean was our bathroom--that's reasonable! 13 y.o. did her own as well.)

On Wednesday, while traveling with one of my client children, I found a tempting recipe for a homemade turkey "pot pie" casserole--crustless, but with shaped pieces of pie crust on top which had pecans & Craisins rolled into them. I made it this afternoon after the choral obligation & a few other chores at church were done. (My only comment is I miss thick gravy in such a dish!) Once it was ready to cook, the 13 year old & I headed out with one of her friends; they went to the mall to shop while I headed to the YMCA for half an hour of sweating on a stationary bike.

Tomorrow should be quieter, though I still plan to hit the Y for a while after church & possibly my office briefly to enter some data I'm ideally supposed to get into the system within 24 hours; seeing as I'll be out of the office for training for four days & leaving early Friday!

Hmm...

There's a quip in our family that, "No good break goes unpunished." This maxim resulted from our job experiences in our two disparate yet similar professions--and could apply equally well to the before & after periods for anyone's vacations. Having said that, however, I must admit that our return to normalcy this year hasn't been like this! Of course, two of the kids were ill during the trip, the other two were ill immediately after the trip, & none of us had to rush back to work or school the instant we returned home from Yankeeland. All these facts helped with that perception. In fact, the two days I've worked a tad late this week trying to tie up loose ends before participating in mandatory job training most of next week haven't fazed me in the slightest.

The forecast for next weekend's excursion to the Blue Ridge mountains is calling for scattered snow showers on Saturday. Guess I'd better pack the 9 y.o.'s snow pants just in case!

Anticipation

The kids & I are participating in an annual church retreat with something close to 300 other people from our parish next weekend. So this weekend the preparations for snowy, wintry weather have to be made yet again, as this event will be in the Blue Ridge mountains. But weather.com isn't terribly helpful this evening; it won't boot up the 10-day forecast for our destination, so I can't plan too well yet. All I know is cold with a slight chance of some snow on the ground!

Interesting Times

My two week long holiday from the day job concluded this morning & as I drove my daughters to school in the pre-dawn darkness, our local radio newscaster was talking about a hostage situation in a neighboring state which began here--citing what I thought was the name of a professional colleague as the hostage-taker! "Nah, couldn't be," I muttered to my elder daughter & promptly dismissed this until I turned on the Today show to listen to while I was showering & dressing for work...and SAW A PHOTO of the individual I was certain it wasn't!

OK, how often has THIS happened to anybody? It was a peculiar experience, one about which all the black humor came out at the office at this individual's expense. Note to self--this isn't someone whose example is stellar enough to FOLLOW! (As if I need the reminder? He's now facing charges of kidnapping, assault with a deadly weapon, with intent to kill, etc. Don't think he's going to be working for the same establishment as myself for much longer!)

2009 = Year of the Organizer (so far!)

The past 24 hours have involved much work with others on organizing things; a trend I hope we continue throughout the year. Last night after supper, hubby was seized with the urge to start putting away all the Christmas decorations (very few of which were out due to our Christmas travels). Inside of one hour we'd taken down & put back into our attic the artificial wreaths & Christmas tree & the few seasonal things scattered around the house.

Today, following on that theme, a fellow chorister & I spent two hours organizing the music library for our church's choir. With three of us (my 9 year old joined us & ended up with an old Underwood manual typewriter for her trouble!), it was neither overwhelming nor particularly difficult. However, it was one of those jobs NOBODY had made time to do while the choir room was being remodeled earlier this year and now the task was just, well, grabbing us by the throats, daring us to gain control over its chaos. Mercifully, the hardest bits were sorting through disorganized piles of music & removing pieces from singers' folders for return to the disordered storage boxes (which were returned to numeric order rather than 1, 210, 75, 42, 357...).

After all this, hubby and I spent an hour or so crunching numbers! ~:P (Not my personal favorite domestic chore, but it does need to be done regularly.) Next on my personal list is to go through my wardrobe & send some donations to Goodwill...perhaps by the time the kids & I travel to NC for a church retreat in a few weeks.

Illness & deductibles

It never fails: January dawns & at least ONE family member of the six gets just ill enough to NEED to go to the doctor as soon as the prior year's deductible has disappeared. :P Isn't that always the way? Icing on the cake, it happens BEFORE the oldest returns to campus, where he has 24/7 access to a free Joint Commission accredited clinic! Of course, lest I sound complaining, let me add hastily how thankful I am that we're both employed & HAVE the insurance to fall back on, unlike so many families right now. It's just the timing I'm unhappy about. Son #1 has bronchitis. Son #2 has a bacterial infection that, had we waited a few days longer, might have become bronchitis. During our recent travels daughter #1 had a rotten cold, while daughter #2 had the tummy crud.

What I'm REALLY grateful for right now is that I'm healthy--& I sincerely hope to get through at least January & February without getting anything infectious!

What do you do with a BA in English? Ponder drunkenness!

Hubby & I spent the first several years of our marriage abroad due to his military posting to England. Any Yank (American) who's ever watched Monty Python or other "Brit-Coms" on PBS (e.g. "Are You Being Served," "Keeping Up Appearances") knows they speak a very different language from ours, though both Americans & Brits CLAIM to speak "English!" On that note, I will allude to the op-ed piece I read on line in the first New York Times of 2009; one written by a British expat living in Spain describing his post-Christmas Eve hangover & his difficulty in trying to describe to a Spanish neighbor that he was "squiffy." (!?) In three years over there, how'd I ever miss that rather cool-sounding adjective? Perhaps people were avoiding its use due to the "Squidgygate" scandal then swirling around the Princess of Wales? Or did the term originate in a region of Britain other than the Anglian fens where we lived?

Icing on the cake, the gentleman went on to allude to the glorious history of colloquialisms used in English (both dialects) to describe inebriation. Equally entertaining were the posts in response to this op-ed sharing lingo the author HADN'T cited! One the author DID cite (& attributed to Benjamin Franklin's 1736 Drinker's Dictionary) was "nimptopsical." That's an odd one, the etymology of which I won't even attempt to explore! Another he cited dates from the days of Prohibition: "zozzled." (How 1920s--sounds like something my great aunt would've said!) Then there's a term a friend of my husband coined during our college years: "oblivionated." (I seem to recall she coined it WHILE under the influence, though after 25 years my memory may be faulty on this point.)

In closing, let me share a lovely limerick posted by one of many commenters on the op-ed:

It was only last September, as close as I remember,
I was walking down the street with manly pride.
When my heart began to flutter and I fell into the gutter,
And a pig came up and lay down by my side.
I was bruised and badly shaken, but when my thoughts began to waken,
A lady standing by was heard to say,
”You can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses.”
So the pig got up and slowly walked away.— G. Purnell

Happy New Year & may it be a healthy one for all!