Beth's Contradictory Brain

Good News

As Nerdstar wrote, there was finally a custody hearing for The Kid and instead of him spending every other week with my family, and every other week with his mother, his mother now gets him only every other weekend. Thank God!

It's hard to explain just how bad his mother is, or how he hates going there every other week. Just one example is that he's now in Kindergarten and she won't take him to school. So, he only goes to school the weeks he's with my family. (I think because he's in a private school she can get away with that.)

Mom said the judge didn't even take five minutes to think things over. As soon as the last of the testimony had been given she immediately stated the new arrangement. On top of that, she asked my family why Mom and Dad weren't set up to get The Kid instead of his mother if something should happen to my brother. That's pretty strong.

Anyway. There were other legal issues between my brother and The Kid's mom (they're not even legally divorced because she must be too stupid to realize she never finalized the paperwork - but she's living with a new guy and just had his baby) that were also resolved in favor of my brother a couple of months ago. These issues have been haunting my family for over a year now, and I just can't express how happy we all are that things are finally turning around.

Not Clear on the Concept

I know Nerdstar and I are pretty new to this "real winter" thing. But, just because the winter started off kinda mild - the daily snow showers mean that it's not mild anymore!!

And although I'm sure people around these parts mean it when they say they love having "four seasons" every year - I refuse to believe they love the February/March part of winter.

Other Things To Read

One of the cool things about blogging is that when I have nothing of interest to say - other than it's still snowing - is that I can link to others who do have something of interest to say.

I spotted a T-shirt at school bearing this inscription, but I don't think it quite means what some people assume it means.

The Nation Institute Fellow Calls for Suppression of Speech by "the Radical Christian Right":
From American Fascists by Chris Hedges, Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute, former reporter for the New York Times and NPR, and (paragraph break added):

The Duke Women's Lacrosse Team Should Be Honored.

On all things related to China and US policy on China - you just can't beat reading Pundita on a regular basis. If Nerdstar were to ever end up working in DC doing something similar to what she's doing now - this stuff would be essential to her job.

Must Reads

I don't know how many of my regular readers are interested in Iraq, or how many of my new readers know Nerdstar spent almost a year in Mosul.

I've been a big fan of Michael Yon for a few years now. He has two amazing long entries with tons of cool photos up, I can't recommend reading him enough. Part 1 and Part 2

Go

Nerdstar has found the joy of posting pics on her blog - so go check them out.

Disgusting!

While Nerdstar was getting ready for work this morning, she came in and said Ramen's neck was all wet and he smelled really bad. Hmmm.

Then in the spare bedroom she saw that one of the cats had thrown up. But it didn't look like normal food vomit. It was weird.

We finally figured that Ramen must have decided the smelly mess was perfect to roll around in - to the extend that he could. Lovely!

Before heading out to meet up with Nerdstar, I figured it'd be smart to shovel the snow out from around the car and the end of the driveway. (Excellent workout!) I went down to the baesment - something we rarely do - and there I saw the explaination for it all...

There's a dead mouse in TWO parts down there in the middle of the floor. EWWWW!!

Little Man (the boy cat) cries like he's dying any time we don't let him run around down in the basement. And, seeing how we had a mouse before, we figured we'd let him keep guard down there.

No way did we see this morning's events being the result!!

Ramen has a bath appointment tomorrow afternoon.

More Snow

I'd say we've had about 7 inches of snow in the past 24 hours, with more on the way.

Snow

Snow 2 I like the sunshine in this one.

The snow on my car is three hours after Nerdstar had cleared the snow off of my car. And there's a street out there somewhere.

Versus

I used to think that the hot Texas summers were just terrible. Heat makes me get headaches and want to do nothing. Now that I'm in my first "real winter" I find it's a lot of work. Just the layers of clothes required is tiring. I miss jeans, a t-shirt and flip flops. Then there's the brushing all the snow off the car every time I want to go somewhere because the garage is too small for the car. I gave shoveling the snow off the short sidewalk up to the front door a try, it wasn't my best work. Mostly I wanted to clear the steps for the mailman.

January in Austin versus January in Johnstown.

Oh Yeah!

We are now the proud owners of our very own snow shovel. Yipee!!

It's all too exciting for this Texan!

Cold

It's snowing again today.

Here are a pic from yesterday and today of the snow. And there's one of the poor, cold kitties trying to keep warm on the sofa.

Cold Weekend

We've had two days of snow. I love watching it snow. I really love when there is sunshine at the same time the snow is falling from the sky. Lovely!

But, now that the temps are where they should be for winter, hovering in the teens, I might have to reconsider what I've always said - that is that I would prefer cold winters to Texas summers. Texas summers being 95+ degrees in 95% humidity for five or so months. It's a hard call. My ideal weather is temps between 45 and 75 with a nice mix of sun and rain.

I'd have to say what's going to be the most frustrating thing about this winter is the house we're renting. How in the hell any house in this part of the country can NOT have a fire place is beyond me. This one doesn't. On top of that, it has central heat and air - which isn't doing that great a job of fighting these cold temps. Added to that is the basement and attic that also get heated - or rather, don't - but take up energy just the same.

But, there just weren't any other places to rent that allowed pets. Bleh!

I think Ramen dog loves the snow. There were neighborhood kids out playing this afternoon, so we took Ramen out to play with them. He loves kids! He was so happy to run around for a little while with them.

So it's a lazy weekend. We watched Lucky Number Slevin - it's a really good movie for a lazy weekend.

Back

The snow was coming down pretty heavy when we left home for DC Tuesday afternoon. We live on the snowy side of the mountains, so once we got far enough east of here, the weather and roads were nice.

Nerdstar had hoped to meet up with a friend of hers who lives in Alexandria Tuesday night, but phone problems and other plans got in the way. We ended up having dinner with Nerdstar's remote boss. It was interesting, although it didn't make Nerdstar feel any more love for this job.

Wednesday morning Nerdstar had the big meeting she was there for. Then about 3 we headed to a big mall to find some dinner and maybe some shoes. While Nerdtsar has at least 30 pair of shoes (after me having given away at least 20 in the past few years), I need a pair for rainy/light snowy weather. The mall had a LL Bean store that had just what I wanted. We got a decent meal and then headed home.

The lovely Holiday Inn we stayed at didn't allow pets, so this was the first road trip Ramen didn't go with us. We were both a little sad that he had to spend a night at home without us. We talked our land lady (who lives one street over) to come and walk the dog while we were gone. But because we told her we only have one cat - to save $25 dollars a month on rent - we had to put the cats up in the attic while we were gone. Their food and litter box is always up there, but this deprived them of our warm bed on a very cold night. Next time we'll make sure we stay somewhere that allows pets. (These reservations were made through her office.)

There's still about 3 inches of snow on the ground here, and more supposed to fall tomorrow and Saturday.

The house we're renting has central heat and air, and no fireplace, so it tends to stay pretty cold. Just another reason we're not thrilled with life here.

Quitter

Well, I finally decided the negatives outweighed the positives with the temp job and yesterday was my last day.

The cold and snow that's hit the rest of the country finally came here today and I just didn't feel safe enough making that hour drive each way the rest of the week. Plus, I really didn't see it working out into any long term job - although I could be wrong about that. Added to that was I had a woman come in yesterday with 47 different tests on her req. That's insane. I drew 18 tubes of blood and hope that's enough. I really, really enjoy being a phlebotomist, but I don't want to work in a location by myself just yet.

So, Nerdstar has a meeting in DC tomorrow morning so we're driving to DC this afternoon in the snow. At least since I'm going with her I won't have to worry about her!

We intend to get at least a couple of good meals!!

Funny

This struck me as funny...

In a list of 5 ways to retire early, this is number 5:

Design a post-retirement career
Part-time work doing something that you really enjoy can lead to a more fulfilling retirement - and may add just enough income to make early retirement a reality. For ideas, click on aarp.org/money/careers.

Um. Maybe they're unclear on the word retirement.

On top of that, three of the five are all about putting money into savings, the fourth is investing - which is an advanced form of saving - so then, doesn't that mean there are really 2 ways to retire early, one of which is to actually just switch careers.

Who writes this shit?

Update

I'm feeling a little under the weather today, which seeing how it's been cold and wet isn't that unexpected. Plus it's been hard getting enough sleep this week. My body was used to getting to bed around midnight and up around 9. Now I've got to get up at 5:30 and am trying to get to bed between 9 and 10. But that sucks being on the east coast because shows like ER don't even start until 10. I miss Central Standard Time!

The job hasn't been too bad the last couple of days. I had four patients the last two days, and 2 so far today.

I'm really not crazy about working by myself. I'd say there's probably 1 out of 15 or so patients I can't find a vein in. And I'm under the impression this is the only lab some of them can come to - which sucks for them more than me. Plus, after two days of training on the computer system, I've already ran into a couple of problems. I have to call the lab where I did my training and ask questions.

I also really don't like the drive here because it's still dark that early. It's a twisty two lane road and I'm afraid of a head on collision some morning.

Apparently, the company is looking to hire someone full time for this location. I put in my application online, but they've already turned me down for one job, so I'm not sure it's very likely I'll get this one. I won't be sad if I don't. It's nice working again, but the being here alone and the drive are enough to make it ok if they hire someone else.

UnFun Drive

The two days of training went well. The ladies at that lab office were really nice! The drive there was in the dark and rain, so it wasn't too fun, but the snow didn't really hit until I was already back home last night, I decided to stay at a hotel that one night. I didn't sleep too well without my snuggles.

Today I'm at the actual location and in three and a half hours I've had one patient. It is a little snowy outside, but I didn't think that was supposed to matter to northerners! I think the average number of patients a day will be about nine or ten.

I'm really not crazy about the drive here. It's 33 miles or so of two lane highway that's all bendy. It wasn't too fun in the dark and light snow this morning. I don't know what it is about roads in this state, but they seem to eat your headlights and stay dark. And if there's an oncoming car - as long as their headlights are in my eyes, I can't always see where the road is. That would be fine on nice, straight roads, but on curvy ones I'm afraid of missing a turn or something. The drive home should be nicer since I get out of here around 3:30.

I'm not exactly sure how long this job will last. The guy who was working this location and is now at another location indicated they might be hiring someone for here. I wouldn't be heartbroken if they did. They've got a location in the little town I live in, eventually I'll probably talk to someone about any openings there.

For now it's mostly good.

Underwhelmed

I'm still feeling rather ambivilant about the job stuff. The weather is supposed to turn very cold and snowy tomorrow through Wednesday, which makes driving a couple of hours one way for training lots of fun. I'm going to pack an overnight bag and am 60% committed to just staying in some cheap hotel close to where the training is tomorrow night. Which means a night without snuggles - which is terrible.

I figure I have to give the job at least a month. In a month I'd make more than enough to pay off the few hundred dollars we both have on our credit cards. But the idea of drving 45 minutes to an hour to work every day frustrates me. Although, I was driving that long in KC. I think it's going to depend on just how hard/easy the drive actually is. I'm assuming I'll find out Wednesday.

The other factors are the actual facility, other co-workers, number and types of patients, and things like that.

It could turn out to be a great job, you never know.

Employed

A couple of weeks after moving here I was looking for jobs online and ended up updating my resume on Monster. It looks like that might have paid off.

Yesterday morning a nice young man in Pitts called about a phlebotomy job in a town about 40 miles from here. He ended up being really nice and going ahead and checking references and everything for our interview today at noon so that if it all worked out, I wouldn't have to drive all the way to Pitts twice.

I start training Monday morning. Thankfully it's only for two days because the training is just this side of Pitts, which means it's about an hour and a half drive to be there at 7:30 in the morning.

Ultimately I'll be working for Lab Corp, which is really funny because I applied to them online and they didn't want me.

I think I'll be more excited about the whole thing once I get through the two days of training and then actually see the location I'll be working at.

ROI

$40 million to build a school for girl's in South Africa that currently has 75 to 150 students and will eventually have 450 students a year - who receive free room and board as well.

$40 million. I guess that's not much money for Oprah. I just wonder what her return on investment will be.

In my first search, I found these five other private schools in Johannesburg. So it's not that there aren't other schools...

Further search finds:

Some Statistics

There are roughly 2000 registered pre-primary, primary and secondary private schools in South Africa. Most charge less than R8000 per annum. Around 400 000 pupils attend private schools. Over 70% of these pupils are black (58% are African).

I don't know how many US dollars R8000 is, but even if they were even - $40 million could pay the annual cost of private school for 5,000 students. That's a whole lot more than 450.

I guess what I really wonder - is this about the school girls in South Africa - or is it about Oprah feeling good?

UPDATE: Kim Cosmopolitan asks pretty much the same thing.