Summer hours, first year down

Today was the last day for teachers and most of the employees at our school. The students finished last week. Starting tomorrow, those of us who work through the summer will be on summer hours: 9am-3pm, Monday through Thursday. We'll have a 30-minute lunch break, and Fridays off. How nice is that? I don't mind working through the summer at all. I think that it's only going to be me, the principal, and the custodians there most days. I'll also have a week and a half off at the end of June, so there will be a little bit of summer vacation for me.

There won't be a whole lot to do. One thing I'm planning on is a big office clean-out; when I started last July, I was afraid to get rid of anything the previous bookkeeper left behind. She was there for 17 years so the office is packed with old and useless paperwork, training manuals, and lots of miscellaneous junk. We only have to keep financial documents for five years, and a lot of that can be boxed up and stored in the records room. I also want to rearrange everything so that it "flows" better, and I'm going to do some more decorating and add to the plants I'm growing in the sunny, east-facing window. I love my office, and after a full year on the job I'm ready to make it really mine. 

How quickly this first year has flown! I absolutely love my job, the principal, and my coworkers.  I haven't had even one stressful day (pertaining to my job) this whole year. The work has proved to be well within my capabilities, and I've gotten great feedback on my job performance, not only from my principal but also from the "higher ups" at the district office, including the CFO (chief financial officer). I'm proud of the job I've done this year, and I'm so glad I chose to pursue this position when it first opened up. 

One last piece of work-related good news: I checked my bank account this morning (we get paid on the 15th and 29th of the month) and it looks like I've gotten a raise! I don't know if it's a yearly "step" increase for number of years worked or just a flat out raise, but it's going to make about a $100 per month difference in my pay after taxes. Certainly not a fortune, but I'll take it!

Breakfast with Santa

This whole first year at my new job is turning out to be a learning experience. There are many, many special events, field trips, holiday celebrations, and fundraisers that take place in an elementary school setting. As both the school secretary and bookkeeper (especially as the bookkeeper), the learning curve has been somewhat steep, but I'm really enjoying it. Over the past couple of weeks, in addition to my regular duties, it's been preparing for our annual "Breakfast with Santa" event. It takes place on a Saturday morning, with a pancake breakfast, crafts, storytimes, and one of the teacher's husbands dressed as Santa and taking photos with the children. It's a big deal, and let me tell you that a LOT of work (and expense) goes into pulling it off. 

When I found out that it's not just limited to students at Carver, I invited Marla and little Carsen (who attends a different elementary school in the district) to come. I bought Carsen's ticket as one of her early Christmas presents, and Marla and I took her yesterday. 

I was so glad I went! Not only did Carsen have a great time, but I got to see the result of my hard work these last two weeks. (Had I not had a child to bring, I wouldn't have gone at all).  What a great turnout we had, and what fun it all was! It made the work of preparing for it all feel more worthwhile.

Santa!

Pancakes just taste better with whipped cream and sprinkles. It's a scientific fact.

There were several craft stations. Here's Carsen at one of them showing off her creation.

Carsen and Marla taking silly pictures. This might be my favorite!

Mrs. Claus reads a story.

That's one of our kindergarten teachers as Mrs. Claus, and let me tell you, that woman KNOWS how to read a story to children. Even the adults in the room enjoyed it! *

One of many volunteer elves from among our staff.

Before we left, I stopped by my office to grab something and got a photo of Carsen sitting at my desk. I may get this picture framed and put it up in there!

*At one point in the story, Santa ripped his pants trying to go back up the chimney, and you could see his candy cane printed long johns underneath. Mrs. Claus said, "That's right, children! You could see Santa's drawers!" and a little girl in the audience (with perfectly dramatic timing) piped up with, "But I don't WANNA see Santa's drawers!" It brought down the house.

"Not again!"

My new job is still going really well. Yesterday someone left this sweet note on my desk, and it made my day. I still don't know who wrote it, though! 

I'm learning new stuff all the time, and every day gets easier. I've had zero work stress. Zero. How wonderful is that?

It has been a little strange getting used to such young students after six years with tweens and young teenagers at the middle school, though. Our students are kindergarten (5K) through fifth grade. Babies! And so of course I'm already collecting "crazy shit little kids say and do" stories. Here's one of them...

One morning last week parents started showing up at the school (and calling), returning money that their children had been given on the school bus by another child. This one little boy, a kindergartener, had somehow gotten his hands on $400 in cash and took it to school with him. On the bus ride home, he was handing out 50- and 20-dollar bills to all the other kids......for no particular reason...he was just like...

Hahaha! *

And to top off this crazy story, when they called the kid's parents to tell them that cash was being dropped off in the office for them, cash their 5-year-old had given away on the bus, the first thing the mom said was, "Oh no! Not again!!!"

Yep, apparently the same thing had happened the year before! When he was in 4K, he snuck money to school and handed it out to his preschool class. I'm not sure what the future holds for this young man, but I'll say this: he's got the principle of sharing down pat. 

* I'm pleased to report that the family got all of the money back. I was impressed at the honesty of the other parents. One woman returned $100...her twin sons had each gotten a fifty on the way home!

Back to school week

I love my new work schedule! My official hours are 7am-2:30pm, but on days when I have to make a bank deposit (which is most days) I'm allowed to leave at 2:00. The bank is less than a quarter mile down the road from the school, and my house is a ten-minute drive from there. Today I made it home by 2:20 in the afternoon! How nice is that? I don't mind getting up early, either. It's totally worth it to me to have most of the afternoon free. 

My actual job is still going really well, too. I couldn't ask for a better environment or coworkers, and I seem to be catching on quickly. What a relief!

Yesterday was the first day back for students. When I mentioned that on my last blog post, several people expressed surprise that our summer break is so short. The reason why is because our district is on a "modified year-round" schedule. Basically, it means that summer break is two weeks shorter than it used to be (eight weeks as opposed to ten) but we get those two weeks back as an extra week off in October and again in February. Summer break is still a full two months, and now we have breaks spread out more evenly through the year. It's kind of nice, actually.

Speaking of the first day back:

Marla's little girl, Carsen, started kindergarten yesterday!

I can't believe she's already starting school. You know what this sassy little woman said to her mother the night before starting kindergarten? "I don't want you and Daddy to walk me in tomorrow. I can go in by myself!" Haha! She's going to do great. :) I wish she was attending the elementary school where I work (we have kindergarten, too) but she was already registered elsewhere at the beginning of the summer. Too bad! I'd dearly love to get to see her every day at work for the next five years.

Thursday afternoon

Holy cow, it's been almost two weeks since I posted here! How are you all? How's your summer going?

It's hot here. Really, really hot. And humid.

My new job is still going well. I was off campus today for a meeting/training session with all the district bookkeepers and people from the finance department. We finished earlier than expected, so I got to come home and take a break for a couple of hours. Tonight is our school's open house/orientation event for parents and students, and I'll be going up there for a while to help out. The kiddos come back to school on Monday. 

What have you been up to lately?

Just a quick update

My first week at the new job is done! It's going fine, but boy, the principal wasn't kidding when she said there was going to be a "steep learning curve"! The bookkeeping aspect of it is far more complicated than I expected, but I'm learning a lot and taking it a day at a time. And unlike last year, I get to learn in a pleasant, supportive environment where I don't have to fear making a mistake because a volatile, mentally disturbed bully is in charge. My new principal and assistant principal are both great--friendly and calm and professional--and I can tell I'm really going to love working with both of them. What a difference! 

In the absence of anything else of general interest to talk about at the moment (because bookkeeping is a lot of things, but entertaining isn't one of them) I'll share a couple of pictures from my garden this past week. It's a happy place at the moment. :)

July already

Welcome to July!

 Yesterday was a quiet 4th for us. Gregg had to work until 4pm (although he said the store was dead slow) and I spent the day at home hiding inside from the heat. The last few days have been blazing hot with dangerous heat indexes, and it's just not a good time of year to be outdoors. I made chili cheese dogs for our supper (the chili was from scratch; I've grown to hate all canned hot dog chili) with potato chips on the side and ice cream for dessert. That seemed festive enough for us! The dogs looked a bit sloppy, and had to be eaten with a fork, but they were delicious if I do say so myself.

Also yesterday I finally picked the first few tomatoes from my garden along with a couple of cucumbers. We have loads of green tomatoes and I hope they'll start to ripen before the stink bugs get to them. I've been checking the plants every day and picking off the annoying little buggers. They're lucky I don't like to use pesticides because they make me furious! I picked these three tomatoes while they're still a bit green to save them. Finishing ripening on the counter won't hurt anything.

Just a little while ago it started to thunder and then to pour rain. We certainly need it! Keeping the garden alive in heat indexes of 107 degrees requires a lot of watering. Of course, nothing is setting fruit in that kind of heat, but as I said, there are lots of tomatoes (peppers, too) that only need a little more time to ripen. 

My vacation is rapidly winding down. Monday morning will be here in a flash! I'm excited, and a little nervous, too. For the first couple of weeks the office staff will be on a summer schedule, which means 9am-3pm, Monday through Thursday. That should be a gentle re-entry into work! The teachers won't return until two weeks after me, and the students, three weeks. There should be ample time to get settled in before the "real" school year starts. 

After the children return, I'll be on my regular schedule of 7am-2:30pm, Monday through Friday. I'll be waking up super early, but it's going to be nice to be off so early in the afternoon. On days when I'll have to stop by the bank on my way home with a deposit (which will be most days during the school year) I'll be allowed to leave at 2:00pm. You can't ask for any better than that! 

Yesterday I ordered some new clothes for work. Two dresses and a pair of slacks. I'm going to need some more things once the weather cools down, too. I've been on a diet (off and on) since the beginning of the year, and I've lost 25 pounds. I'm hoping to drop another 10 by the time September rolls around, and most of my pants are already loose as it is. I'll never complain about having to shop when weight loss is the cause! :) Of course, I'm losing very, very, slowly, but I'm pleased because for once in my life, I'm sticking with new habits. Slow progress is still progress, right?

Last day

My last couple of days at the middle school were somewhat anticlimactic. I felt only relief this afternoon when I turned in my keys and left for the last time. 

I'm grateful for the six years I spent there, and even more grateful to be moving on to something better.

Goodbyes

Whew, what a week I've had. My feelings have been all over the place.

There is, of course, the end of my one job and the beginning of the next looming. This was the last week of school for students. Several of my favorite kids came by my office to say goodbye, and one boy, Caleb, spent most of his last day hanging out in my office, talking. (He's mildly autistic and one of his accommodations is that he's allowed to find a quiet place to work outside of his classroom when he needs it). 

All year he would occasionally stop by my office and ask to sit with me and finish up assignments. I said yes whenever I was able to (and he didn't mind the times when I wasn't) and we'd do our respective work together.  I kept gentle guitar music playing softly in the background, and it was a peaceful, quiet atmosphere for work. He'd also come to me when he was upset about something or worried about his grades. Sometimes he just needed to talk, and I'd be there to listen--we've been firm friends throughout his middle school years. How I'm going to miss him! He's headed to high school in the fall, and I'm proud of him. He's worked hard to get there, and he's a really good kid, to boot. His parents must be proud. I hope they are.

The mother of another boy sent me an email on Tuesday asking about his attendance on the last two half days and ended it by saying "thank you for being a constant in John's middle school years and for being so easy to work with". Then later in the afternoon she actually showed up and brought me a gift: this beautiful orchid!

It's going to look wonderful in the window of my new office! In fact, it will replace a yellow orchid growing there that belonged to the outgoing secretary. How perfect is that?! It was awfully sweet of her.

There were a few phone calls and visits from other parents, too, and I appreciated it all. The end of the school year is always a bit bittersweet, with kids growing up and moving on and all that, but it seems especially so for me this year since I'm leaving. Next week there's two teacher and staff workdays, Tuesday and Wednesday, and then that's it. I've finished all of my work and packed up my office, so I won't have anything to do, really. I may bring a book. Then on Tuesday afternoon, when it's time to go home, I'll turn in my office keys and building entry key fob, and that's when I'll be officially done. This month of goodbyes seems to have dragged on, and on, and on....so I'm beyond ready. 

Onwards and upwards from here (hopefully).

Early training

This morning I was allowed to go to my new school for the first half of the day to spend some time with the secretary I'll be replacing. She's retiring effective next week, so this was my only opportunity to spend some time with her. And it was wonderful! She's been in that particular position for 17 years and says she's loved it there. We spent four hours together going over the financial/bookkeeping part of the job. I took a lot of notes.

She walked me out to my car when we were done, showed me where my parking space will be, and told me one last time how much I'm going to love the principal, the teachers, the staff, and the kids. And my new office is small and humble, but it has a large WINDOW! My current office has no windows and no natural light, and sometimes I feel like I'm stuck in a box all day. Now I'll have lots of morning sun, and I'll be able to grow plants! There's currently a large, beautiful orchid growing on the windowsill. (I'm sure it must belong to the secretary who's leaving, and she'll probably take it. But I have orchids of my own to bring!)

Everyone I met today was so kind, friendly, and welcoming.  As to the work I'll be doing, well, it's going to be a lot to learn, but nothing seemed too terribly overwhelming or difficult. There will be two district-level training sessions in July, too, so that's when my real training will take place. I feel confident that by Christmas break I should be up to speed on all the basics. Of course, it will take at least a full school year to really feel like I've got a handle on everything, but that's the case with all new jobs, isn't it? But the whole staff seems to be happy, upbeat, cheerful, and proud of their school and I can't wait to start!

It was almost a bummer to go back to my current school after lunch to finish out the day. Two weeks from now that place will be history. It's still hard to believe. And boy, did I get lucky!

Under the weather, but happy

I've been home sick for the past two days. There seems to be some kind of stomach bug/cold/virus thing going around and lucky me, I caught it. I'm actually feeling much better today but given how upset my stomach was all day yesterday, I dared not go back to work yet. I barely made it to the bathroom in time a couple of times, and had I been at work it might have led to some terrible embarrassment.

I've been doing some of my work from home, though. Yesterday one of the assistant principals emailed me and said, "I hope you feel better..........STOP WORKING FROM HOME!" Haha. Had we been talking in person I would have told her that now that our evil principal has been fired, I don't mind keeping my work caught up from home. The guy they sent from the district office to get us through the rest of the month (as the interim principal) is beloved by the staff and students, and I don't mind the way I would have with the wicked witch! I wouldn't have lifted a finger from home for her. What a relief that she's gone; even though I won't be there next year I'm happy that the staff will no longer have to suffer under her. 

Next week I'll be spending a morning at my new school, training with the outgoing secretary. She's retiring after many years in the position, and she's told me through email how much I'm going to love it there! Everyone has been so very kind and encouraging and welcoming already, and I don't even officially start for two months! This may end up being the school I stay at until I retire, with any luck. I'm happy.

Speaking of happy and good news, I decided to weigh myself yesterday and check in on how my diet is going. I've lost 23 pounds since January! Slowly but surely, I'm getting there. By the time I start the new job in July I'll have to have some new clothes. Everything is starting to get loose on me, especially pants. I certainly won't complain about needing new clothes!

Now, as promised, here are some garden pictures. Have a great weekend, everyone!

The marigolds, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers in the main bed are starting to grow!

My "Marvel of the Four Seasons" lettuce is looking good right now. 

This is the bed in front of the porch, where I've planted two cherry tomatoes and three pepper plants. Zinnias from last year are resprouting in there, too!

You can't tell in this picture, but our young fig tree is almost shoulder high. Still no sign of a fig yet, though.

The bananas on the side of the porch are growing like mad.

For the first time in all the years I've had it, it looks as if the pomegranate tree is going to produce fruit this year! It's taller than the roof and absolutely loaded with flowers and developing poms. Fingers crossed!

Follow up post

It's still not really sinking in that I'll be starting a new job soon. Right now I'm trying to pay extra attention to everything about my current school, because exactly three weeks from today I'll be leaving for the very last time. I'm ready for the change and the new adventure, but I'm sad to be leaving a place that has been so important to me these last six years. And I'll really miss some of the people. 

/8234]'jhn dv3ee        (gibberish from Marco as he tiptoed across my keyboard just now. So HELLO from Marco!)

I keep hearing wonderful things about my new school and my new principal, though! She seems to be adored by everyone who knows her, and the staff is supposed to be top notch, as is the school itself. It's a STEM certified magnet school and is considered one of the best in our district. I've been told over and over how much I'm going to love working there. I feel very, very lucky to have scored this position! My first day will be July 10th, so I'll still have the whole month of June off to relax and get ready. 

Thank you all for all the kind words and good wishes on my last post! Your support means a lot to me, and I consider you all true friends. :)

PS.........I'll be posting a garden update soon. There's been lots of progress!

So excited!

There are some exciting developments happening at my job!

First of all, we have a new principal! The school board and a panel of parents, community members, and teachers interviewed a whole bunch of candidates at the end of May and narrowed the choice down to two individuals. Then the two final candidates gave presentations to our staff, and we got a chance to ask questions and give the district office some feedback on them. Well, the woman I would have chosen got the job! And just by chance, this past Monday I was at the school (with Gregg, because it was his day to service the aquariums and I go along to keep him company in the summer) and I was the first person to individually meet her when she showed up for her first day. No one knew until later that afternoon that she was the chosen candidate. Gregg and I both got to chat with her for a little while, and we agreed that she seems like a breath of fresh air for our school. I like her already and I'm actually looking forward to what I think is going to be a much, much better year. How nice is that?

But there's more! Remember the school secretary, one of the horrible women who made me so miserable last year? I got the news a couple of weeks ago that she accepted a new job elsewhere and is leaving at the end of this month. That's going to be a really, really good thing for our school, and for me personally, obviously. Well, today I went up to the school again to feed the fish and to add chemicals to the planted aquarium in the library. There's no one working through the summer that will do it for us, and I live just down the road so it isn't much trouble. I stopped in to say a quick hi to the new principal (she's hit the ground running and is working hard already to prepare for next year) and she asked me if I might be interested in the secretary's position! Am I?!!

 That position would mean a promotion for me, a private office, more responsibility, and of course a nice increase in salary. I would become a year round employee, so no more whole summers off, but I'd get two weeks of vacation time each year to use whenever I want along with all the regular time off for holidays that everyone gets. 

Of course I told her that yes, I'm definitely interested! She told me to reach out next week and we could set up a time to sit down and discuss it. Of course this is all preliminary and it may not work out, but I'm so excited about the possibility! The extra money would be very, very welcome and would help my family a lot. 

Please wish me luck! 

Got jokes?

 My eight year old buddy Little P. loves to tell jokes. He comes by my desk every afternoon after the school bus drops him off and we talk for a few minutes. As often as not, he has a couple of new jokes to tell me. One of today's was a corker:

Q: What do you call a cow with no legs?

A: Ground Beef.

Hahaha!

That made me laugh so much I texted it to my husband. I also encouraged P. to tell it to our principal, who (himself the father of two small boys) laughed pretty hard, too. Then he told P. a joke in return that was just edgy enough to delight a little boy. Here it is:

Q: What do you call a cross between an elephant and a rhinoceros?

A: 'Elifino.

Read the answer aloud slowly a couple of times if you don't immediately get it. :)

Our principal is a bit of a prankster and enjoys a good (harmless) practical joke. I'll never forget the April Fool's Day when he set up a microphone from the band room by the computer that teachers and staff used to clock in. He printed out instructions that said, "NEW VOICE ACTIVATED CLOCK IN SYSTEM. PLEASE SPEAK INTO THE MICROPHONE SLOWLY AND CLEARLY, AND STATE YOUR NAME AND POSITION AT SNEED MIDDLE SCHOOL. WAIT FOR CONFIRMATION." and then he sat in his office and watched on the security cameras as 90% of his staff fell for it and attempted to clock in that way! Hahahaha! I'll admit it....I was one of the April Fools that day. 

I'm thankful every single day for my job. I don't make much money, but I have lots of job security, excellent benefits, and I get to have a good laugh almost every day. Sometimes multiple times a day. How lucky is that?

A little Christmas cheer

All of a sudden it's less than a week until Christmas. The longest year in recent memory suddenly ramped up and started moving at warp speed as soon as December got here--or so it seems to me, anyway. 

As of yesterday I'm out for winter break until January 4th. We had such a good time at school this week! Starting on Wednesday the principal would blast corny holiday music over the intercom every hour at the class change and then do a prize drawing. Almost two dozen staff members won small gifts like gift cards to local restaurants, sausage and cheese samplers, Christmas mug sets with fancy hot chocolate toppings, etc. Every morning classroom assistants would push carts around with juice, muffins, and fruit for anyone that wanted some. One of the gym teachers dressed up as a (sorry looking!) Santa/elf cross and walked the halls with the principal one afternoon handing out candy canes. We did a lot of laughing.

Several people in the office surprised me with little gifts. Homemade peanut butter balls from Lisa, the school nurse. A charm bracelet from the attendance clerk, a lady that until this year I swore didn't like me at all, certainly not enough to give me a present. A nice yeti cup with my name on it from the bookkeeper (the same person who gave me the tacky Christmas sweater). The annual ornament made by the adorable kids in one of the Special Needs classes and their sweet teacher. Two dozen freshly laid eggs from the bee and hen keeping science teacher. A wrapped gift card from the principal which he put on my desk in front of me yesterday morning and quietly said, "Mrs. Barlow, I sure do appreciate you." How very, very grateful I am for my job and my coworkers! This is my fourth holiday season there, which is hard to believe.

The best part about yesterday (besides the fact that it was the last day before the break) was I got to see my buddy Little P. and give him his Christmas present. He asked me if he could open it, and I sent him to go ask his mom. He nearly cried when she told him to wait until Christmas! Seeing how disappointed he was she changed her mind and let him have it. I really think he liked the paper airplane kit! He was so excited he insisted on tearing into the package and making a plane right then and there.

While he worked on it he sang a Christmas song (something about Santa) under his breath, completely absorbed in what he was doing. How freaking adorable is that?! He's such a joy, and I really appreciate his mom encouraging our friendship and letting me be a small part of his life. I'm not used to being around children much at Christmastime and I must admit, it really makes the holidays more special. 

Now I get to stay home and have as simple and quiet of a Christmas as I want. I'm actually looking forward to doing so much less this year. This is the least pressure I've felt at the holidays since.....well, maybe ever. I like it. I hope you're all taking it easy this year, too, and finding small moments of happiness in spite of  things like Covid and politics. 

Enjoy your Saturday, friends.

Year three--done and dusted

Today is the last day of the 2019-2020 school year. It's hard to believe, but I've now finished three years at my "new" job. Time certainly does fly.

I had to work all day yesterday, and will again today. There's a feeling of everything being almost (but not quite) back to normal. I spent hours in a large conference room yesterday helping to stuff envelopes: first report cards had to be checked and then stamped "promoted" "age promoted" or "retained" prior to putting into the pre addressed envelopes. For the kids that failed, if they only failed one or two core classes they have a summer school option, which meant another form to be added to their envelope. Then the "snapcodes" for every student had to be added to their envelopes. Those are unique codes generated for each student so that their parents can go online to register them for next year. All in all, it was a tedious process considering we had almost 1000 students. But I enjoyed being there and working a full day. When I get back in this morning, there's still a few envelopes to stuff left over but it shouldn't take too long. I plan to spend the rest of my time cleaning out and organizing my desk and the office mail room where the teachers' boxes line one wall and shelves of supplies line the other. I'm also planning to change my computer passwords since they will have expired once I go back to work after 8 weeks. Goodness knows I certainly hope we all go back like normal at the beginning of August! These last three months have been weird and I hate having any sense of uncertainty about my job--which I still love after three years.

Year four, here I come.

Apiary

One of the science teachers at our school recently won a $1000 grant to establish an apiary at our school, and the bees arrived last weekend! Here is a photo of the teacher getting them settled into their new home, with the principal helping out:



This science teacher is the lady I get the delicious eggs from. She's also in charge of the 4H club at our school, and along with another science teacher (the head of the Environmental Club), she's doing so many wonderful and interesting things! Here is a what I wrote on the school's social media pages about the apiary:

This past weekend Mrs. Howard's bees arrived! We now have an apiary consisting of two nuc-sized colonies (nuc-sized contain 5 frames of bees which fit perfectly in the new observation hive). Students will have the opportunity to observe bees up close and how these important pollinators benefit the gardens.

Sneed Middle School is a Green Steps Certified School. The Environmental Club has established two pollinator gardens and a certified wildlife habitat. The 4-H club has a raised bed garden and has also been learning about growing foods hydroponically (foods produced are donated to Harvest Hope Food Bank). The addition of our bee colonies will benefit these programs greatly!

Thanks again to Mrs. Howard for writing the grant proposal for the new apiary and her dedication to providing new learning opportunities for our students!

Also thanks to Ms. Cagle for helping to settle the bees in their new home!

I feel so fortunate, still, to have my job! Every day is interesting and fun for me. I'm looking forward to watching the hive mature and (hopefully!) thrive. 

Here's a link to a local news story about the apiary: http://www.scnow.com/news/education/article_a92977c4-4751-11e8-a968-8b1a64ba20a3.html

Luck and timing

Continuing on the topic of how lucky I feel to have my job at the school, I wanted to talk about how fortunate the timing of it has been for me.

Anyone who's been reading my blog for awhile knows how much I hated my job at the bookstore. I never named the chain that I worked for, but now that I'm safely done with the place I finally feel okay telling you it was Barnes & Noble. And just like all other brick and mortar bookstores, it's had its fair share of problems in the last few years.  In their efforts to restore lost profitability and keep the chain afloat, upper management has made some really terrible business decisions. These decisions ultimately started driving away the best people and ruining morale all the way down to the individual store level. All across the country, it's becoming known as a terrible place to work these days, which is a real shame.

Anyhow, last August we got a letter stating that the health insurance we had through B&N (which had been one of the few goods things for us about my time working there) would no longer consider the hospital we use or any of its associated physicians "in network". For my non-American friends, that means that if we chose to keep our doctors, including Gregg's oncologist and pulmonologist, we would have to bear almost all of the cost. We would have had no choice but to find new doctors at the other hospital in Florence, and that would have been very bad. The very day that I got the letter from the insurance company, I had gone down to the school district office and signed up for new, better health insurance through the state thanks to the new job I had just been offered! How lucky was that? 

And what great timing.

Then last week I read about how Barnes & Noble had announced they were getting rid of several full time positions and cutting their workforce by 15%. The next day, I went back to my old store and found out that the Receiving Manager (he's worked there for 10 years) had just lost his job, and so had two full time Head Cashiers. I feel so bad for the three of them! The company strategy is to hire part time people to replace them...and of course part time means no benefits like health insurance or paid sick time or vacation. They told the three people they let go (one of whom gave 10 years of service) that they can be rehired.....as part timers starting over at minimum wage without any benefits! Can you believe the f****g nerve of that?! As far as I'm concerned, Barnes & Noble can just die and go away now. Any company that treats its employees like that doesn't deserve to stay in business.

I got out of there just in the nick of time. All the more reason to thank my lucky stars every day for my new job.

The luxury of time off

It's been a real luxury to have so much time off around the holidays this year. I don't think the novelty of it will wear off for a few years, at least.

I've been able to keep the house cleaner and tidier than usual with all this extra time. I got the Christmas tree down and packed away yesterday without too much stress. It's nice to see the living room put back in order. A major cold front is moving in (we may even have some snow and ice over the weekend) and I plan to make a big pot of vegetable soup with the leftover ham and hambone from Christmas. I may even bake a cake.

The days off work have been useful in another way, too. Gregg has inherited a third of an IRA from his mom, and the application to open a new account had to be faxed in ASAP so that we wouldn't have to pay a large tax penalty for not taking out the "required minimum distribution" before December 31. Given that she died on December 4 that didn't leave much time to figure out all the complicated paperwork, even with the (almost expert) help of Edythe's husband Lou. I've had to exchange several emails with the investment company, and Lou, and travel back and forth to a UPS store to send faxes....all things I wouldn't have much time for if I were at work. It's been a huge help to Gregg for me to take on the paperwork for this. All he's had to do is sign in a couple of places. I do hope the rest of Edythe's estate won't be as complicated for him to inherit. This IRA thing has required a small crash course in investing for me and has been a real pain, to boot.

I've also had time during this break to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a while. I met my friend Susan for breakfast today. She's such a good friend to me, and as a cancer survivor herself, she was just the person I needed to talk to about Gregg's upcoming PET scan. She went through almost the same scenario a year ago, and it turned out to be nothing but scar tissue. She's convinced that will be the case with him, too. I hope she's right! I also got to hear about how her son Alexander (a former coworker of mine that I really like) and his wife are doing. We ended up talking over coffee for almost 3 hours! She's a teacher, so she's on the same holiday break as me.

The only plans I have for the rest of my time off is to do a little bit of decluttering and organizing in the house. We have several cupboards and closets that desperately need cleaning out, and I can do it at my leisure over the next few days. It will be nice to start the new year with a cleaner, more orderly home than usual after the busy holiday season. Once again, I'm beyond grateful for my new job.

Seventeen

After 17 years of working (and working hard) in retail over the holidays, I can't even process the fact that I have 17 days off over Christmas this year. Today is my first official day off, and we go back to work on January 2. I'm beyond grateful for my new job.

Here's the Christmas tree at our house this year.