GarniGal's Journal:

I'm giving it the old college try!

Derek and I went away for an overnight in Collingwood on Georgian Bay for our 10th wedding anniversary. Dad was in the field as he has been since October, so Mom was quite glad to have VV for company for a couple of days. 

We ate all the things, and walked all the walks, and talked all the talks. And then we came home and watched Hamilton and Shang-Chi (thanks to D's cousin who shared her Disney+ login), and went to get VV the next day.

By that point Mom was exhausted and quite happy to have her quiet, empty house back. 

We are into week 3 of a heat wave in southern Ontario. Today is supposed to be the hottest day of the year — 32 C, feels like 41, humidity 94%. 

Even the pool can't help me now. AC on the other hand....

Derek and I got our first shot of AstraZeneca. While most people I know (Derek included) experienced 24 hours of exhaustion and low-grade misery, I got nothing.  While, I'm not upset that I didn't suffer the nausea, chills, fatigue etc that people have warned about, but I can't help but wonder if my immune system is doing anything.

I've applied for seven new jobs since getting laid off on Monday. I hope something pans out. Derek is in quite a funk because he's back to being the only earner, which I get, but at the same time... way to make it all about you, dude. He's constantly asking me "what do you want to do?", as if he could magic up the perfect job if he just knows what I'm looking for.  

I don't think he'd take it well to know that I don't want to work right now. I want to be available to Genevieve and ensure she has a good summer, without the guilt of "I should be working" or "I should be parenting" fighting in my head constantly. When I was working, I felt like Derek resented that I wasn't able to do all those things I'd been doing to help VV at school, but now he resents having to bring in all the money. I'm sure a lot of it is pandemic-ness — hard to be content in this climate of fear — but life is a trade-off whether there is a pandemic or not. Unless you're rich.

Life goes on.

1. Snow is melting. I'm sure we'll get one or two (or eight or nine) more big dumps before true spring, but it's definitely headed towards warmer weather. 

2. Work is going reasonably well. I've learned an astonishing amount about rubber, conveyor belts and chairs. Also about writing in circles to sufficiently bedazzle the CRA.

3. VV's school is going smoothly, and we have her in a Thursday afternoon virtual 'homework' program. We did figure out that math section was stressing her out because they were using kahoot — which gamifies answering (fun!) but includes a timer (traumatizing!). Yesterday we turned off the volume and didn't log into the competition aspect, and VV liked it a lot more.

I was right — the work is interesting! I'm also starting to think that the company might not be quite as crappy as I feared.

Now that I'm into actual work, no one is watching over my shoulder. So I have lunch with VV every day 11:30 to 12:10 (lunch is prescribed 12-1), and after school I take VV to the park 3-4 (I'm supposed to work 8-5). That seems to give me enough time to do work to their specifications, as well as get VV outside with her friends. Then I work until 5:30 and leave things in a good state for the next day.

The computer is still shitty though. ;)

 I did have to talk to VV about using her powers of observation to notice when we are working and to not interrupt. I can usually get back to what I was focused on, but Derek loses his train of thought like a derailment and then he's done for the day,

Shit! I just hot glued VV's head phones back together with the ear piece backwards! Undo, UNDO!

Clearly there is more downtime at work than I feared, given I'm writing an LJ post and hot gluing things.

I am still looking for other jobs though. I've got the resume and cover letters in good shape, I might as well keep going. If I can get into someplace that offers more vacation and $ and better benefits, why not?

Yesterday I had to go to the office and pick up the laptop for the new job. It was a pretty Mickey Mouse operation, which I expected, but even more half-assed than I expected.

They had my computer running and ready for me to log into and make sure I could access everything I needed. The password was on a post-it attached to a business card (this becomes important later). I texted my Covid compliance as requested; no one came to the door to meet me. I eventually walked in and waited (it was freaking cold outside) until someone collected the person I was meeting. He was on a call, so he basically walked me to the computer and said 'have at it'. I logged in, did a quick look around, met my actual boss (who told me she was pregnant, so I have until July to figure shit out), got them to install Zoom (he'd forgotten that key bit), and collected my stuff to leave.

My boss (Jen) had locked the door when she came in, and I couldn't open it again. So I set everything down (purse, laptop — password tucked inside, laptop stand) to fight with the door. Eventually Jen came to open it for me, and I quickly got everything, went back into the wind, and piled it all in the car.

I ran errands and when I got home, the house cleaner was there, so I didn't set up my computer until this morning.

By which time, I'd lost the password. 

I checked everywhere, but I suspect in the frazzle to get out with my arms full, it slid out in the lobby or the parking lot. 

This is my second months long (this time seven months) stretch of unemployment in two years, but it is finally coming to an end. Unfortunately, my old work never did get funding back, but I found a job doing technical writing for a proposal and SR/ED company. They help businesses get tax breaks for R&D work and apply for other government grants. It isn't ideal, as they offer lower pay (7K less than I was making), the health insurance doesn't start for 6 months, and it's only 2 weeks vacation (I'd be up to 22 days/year at the University), but it is permanently work from home unless I have to go to a client site which is once or twice a month, and only after Covid. Hopefully I wow them, because I can renegotiate after the 6 month probation period.

In the meantime, I'm trying to get things organized for work. Vv is already quite independent with the online school (unless she has to write — how can my kid be so anti-writing?), but my desk is a bit of a shambles and I'd like to get some of the projects I've been poking at finished. I've got a baby sweater on the go for a friend, and I'm almost finished transcribing Grandpa's letters from 1942 (only 4 more years to go, yay). That would put me in a good mental place to start.

I've been annoyed with my parents for a few days. They started looking around for a new car specifically a Rav4 hybrid. They looked at one the next town over, but naturally the one they ended up buying was in Belleville, a city about 4 hours away on the main transit corridor. They decided to go up a few days early to visit friends in Almonte, near Ottawa (which was/is a major Covid hot spot).

It's like they totally forgot there's a pandemic.

Since then, we've been trying to decide if we are skipping Christmas. 

They stopped on their way home last night to show off the car. I told them they had to mask. That's when they mentioned that Almonte is actually one stage lower than either their home or ours, and even Ottawa is having lower case numbers. I'm a little less concerned now, though it still isn't reassuring that they don't see the risk in larger numbers of contacts.

Anyway, they stopped at the park where VV was playing, we admired the car, then Derek texted. He needed to go to ER because he had a number of appendicitis symptoms. Mom and Dad ended up driving him. He was home around 3 hours later (really quick for our local ER) after blood test, urine test and ultrasound. They suspect he passed a kidney stone, but he's still very sore and bloated and usually the pain goes away immediately after passing the stone, so we are still on tenterhooks a bit. 

Hopefully the weekend is quieter.