I start work on Monday. I had three nice weeks of unemployment. No, I really only had six days of unemployment. The rest of the three weeks I was off courtesy of UBS. They escorted me out of the building on April 23rd, but my last day of employment was May 7th.
I start my new/old job with Cushman & Wakefield. Doing what I was doing and where I was doing it when UBS fired me. My boss called me the other day (after I was home for two weeks- whatever!) and asked me if I was going to be coming back bitter. Why would I be bitter? I recieved 33 weeks severence, four weeks paid vacation, got three weeks off and still got a job after all that. Not bitter- bittersweet. I’m going to miss putting Zombiegirl on the bus in the morning, being there for her when she gets home and doing homework with her in the afternoons. But I have to bring home the bacon.
Mmmmm. Bacon. Only had it once while I was home.
I wanted to blog alot while I was off, but I was too damn busy. Here’s a recap and some updates:
I enjoyed being a SAHM for awhile, but it’s back to the real world. The daily grind. The treadmill. I’ve downloaded a lot of songs onto my iPod so that the commute will be bearable. Now if I can figure out something to make WORK bearable.
M and J dropped Parker off with us this morning so they could have some uninterrupted time with the doctor’s office with JJ. My second babysitting gig in a week! Maybe I could make some money off this new profession, hmmm?
Parker is three, and is a totally awesome little dude. I say that because right now he’s rockin’ the house with his rendition of “We Will Rock You.” He’s the youngest of the three kids in that family and was born with a cleft palate. After all this kid has been through (surgeries, tubes) he hasn’t lost his spirit and is in no way spoiled or hindered in any way. When he walked in to our house he had an ear to ear grin on- coming to visit us was a treat for him!
Wait- now he’s singing “Eye of the Tiger”- complete with “nih…. nih nih nih…. nih nih naaaaaa”
OMG, what a little ham! MR is really loving having a little boy around. He took out all the toys in his backpack and went through them with the kid. They tried to color a picture for M for Mother’s Day. They rode motorcycles on the couch. And waved to me when they passed by. My heart melts watching this kid. He’s a little sponge that repeats everything you say, then brings it up later in the right context. He’s a riot! And adorable.
And we have the TV on in the background, not that Parker’s watching it. He’s too busy exploring Zombiegirl’s room and following MR around. So while I’m cleaning, I’m watching Dora the Explorer. I know it’s a kid’s show, and I know repetition is good for kids, but come on! This show really hits a nerve. I don’t know what it is exactly- the talking Map, the talking Backpack or Swiper, the kleptomaniacal fox. Or Dora herself. I can just picture kids sitting on the floor watching this show with zombie eyes drooling on themselves. It’s truly idiotic.
But then again, I watched HR Pufnstuf as a kid. Today that would give kids nightmares.
Fishy is still alive! Spends most of it’s time on the bottom, but makes it up to the top for food.
Zombiegirl’s goldfish, Killer, is on his last legs. I mean, fins. She thought he had died last Thursday, and cried the requisite tears before school. I told MR when he got out of the shower that Killer was dead, so he went upstairs to dispose of the body. And promptly came back down to report that he was still breathing. When Z-girl got home from school, she was upset that she wasted the tears for nothing.
So today, we have another death, and she comes down upset. MR goes upstairs and this time brings the whole bowl down. Nope, still breathing. The little bug-eyed redhead looks extremely tired, though. He’s resting on the rocks on the bottom. But he’s still holding on. We prepare Z-girl for the inevitable- he will die soon.
She comes in to me and asks me if she can get a newt. Now we’ve had hermit crabs, mice, hamsters, guinea pigs, birds, cats and dogs, but never reptiles. The older girls were too girly for the scaliness of lizards or turtles. They liked the furry. But Z-girl is all about dinosaurs, and reptiles are little pocket sized dinosaurs. Newts are lizards without the scales.
I personally like newts and salamanders. When I was a kid, we went camping in Florida, and I caught a newt and brought it all the way home in an orange juice concentrate can. When we got home, we put it in a tank, and put it in the kitchen. This being December, however, my dad turned on the heat when we got home. We didn’t realize that mom put the tank on the radiator, and we created a little hot tub for the poor guy. The next day my little newt was soup meat.
So I tell Z-girl to ask Daddy, since I wouldn’t mind having a little newt. She goes into the kitchen and I hear the following conversation: