That was short lived!

Did you all like how I posted about how much better things were going, then I disappeared for over a week?!?!

Well, things are going well at work. No worries there. Except that I'm swamped. Last night and tonight are the first two nights I didn't work from home. A couple of days ago, my boss said she was fine with me getting the hell out of the office just before 5 so I can catch the bus at a decent hour. Tuesday I left at 5:20. Yesterday it was 5:10. Tonight it was 5:40.

But, I do think these days are coming to an end. I feel like I'm catching up with the insanity somewhat, and I expect that by the middle of next week, a lot of the fires will be put out, and I'll be able to move on to some of the longer-term part of my work.

Anyhoo, that's all for now. I just wanted to let you know I'm ok. After all the child rearing he's been doing, hubby is out with the boys tomorrow night, so I'll write more then. The girls and I are having a slumber party, but I expect they'll be asleep at a decent hour.

'Night!

Today was so much better!

Ok, today was better. I know I'm doing well at the office now. I got a tonne of stuff off my desk today - my boss commented on it from out of town. And I had a good chat with the two gals who are still in the office. I'm not the only one feeling the workaholic pressure, and I think we've all agreed that while our boss is a workaholic, we don't think she necessarily expects all of us to be the same. She just doesn't preach what she thinks.

I had a horrible event this evening when I came home from work. I'm not quite up to typing all about it again, so here's a copy of the letter I wrote my city councillor:

"Mr. T,

A while back I had contacted you about some concerns we had - mostly regarding traffic and garbage collection. I want to thank you for following up with us, and must say both issues have vastly improved.

This evening, I'm writing about a different, more heart wrenching concern.

When I got off the bus this evening, just before 5:30, a stray dog followed me home - a large, tricolour hound mix of some sort. The dog seemed friendly enough, well behaved... but I had never seen him on our outings around the neighbhourhood with our own dog and kids. I snapped one of my leashes on him, and took him around to a few neighbours to see if they recognized him. One noted she and her son had seen him wandering around Louis-St-Laurent and Parker nearly an hour earlier. So, I took him home, put him in our yard and called 311.

The gentleman there told me stray dogs were a service of the SPCA and transferred me. The woman who answered at the SPCA told me they don't collect stray dogs - that it's a city service, and that no one is available to pick up after 5. This strikes me as so ridiculous - dogs don't only get lost between 9 and 5. This is not the first time we encounter a stray dog as we get home from work! She told me I had to keep him overnight. But I have two young kids and a large dog of my own. I'm afraid I don't have the ability to hold on to a large dog overnight! So the SPCAs answer? I had to release him back on the street. It broke my heart, but I did. Imagine trying to explain those actions to a 2 and 3 year old who can't stop worrying what will happen to the poor dog in -16 weather. I only hope someone else is kind hearted enough to take him in, and that they have the capacity to hold him indoors overnight.

And, in case city councillors aren't dog lovers, I think the issue of community safety needs to be considered, too. This particular dog seemed truly wonderful. But imagine if it was a very large aggressive dog that was roaming the neighbourhood overnight, because it didn't have the good fortune to escape its home between 9-5?

It is inconceivable that dogs can only be rescued in this city until 5 pm. I was told I could drop him off at the shelter, but only until 6. Of course it was impossible for me to make the trek across town in under 25 minutes.

I called back 311 to complain. There I was told once again that stray dogs are an SPCA service (do you see a pattern? No wonder no one is picking up the animals, they all seem to think it's someone else's job) and that as such, he couldn't really take my complaint. At my insistence, he took it anyway, but I doubt it will lead anywhere.

I worked for five years in animal welfare. I can guarantee you that this level of animal control services is completely unacceptable, and is nowhere near the levels offered by the vast majority of Canadian cities. It is an embarassment. Yet somehow, it is completely in-line with this city's policy on dogs: a city that refuses to give them the right to get the exercise they need through an off-leash dog park (or even to walk on-leash through so many of our beautiful parks), and a city that refuses to give them the assistance they need when they are lost or injured.

I hope you will agree that this situation is unacceptable. We pay dog licensing fees to help fund animal control services in this city - yet the services we receive are nowhere near what they should be for a large, modern, and supposedly family-centred city like ours.

T."

That's it for this evening. I'm finishing my class of wine and munching on some chips. I'm just so dang productive in the evening lately.

I'm putting my foot down

So I had a long chat with hubby tonight. And before this job drains the daylights out of me, and before I start regretting my decision, I am cutting the hours I'm putting in.

I have to sit down with my boss next week and go over my objectives, and I will let her know that I will absolutely have to be out of the door by 5. And on days when she's not there, I'll be heading out an extra 10 minutes early. That will make sure I'm home at the latest by 6 pm every night.

I had a bit of a breakdown tonight just thinking about whether this is all worth it.

I want to work. I want to have a really successful career. I also want to know how the hell these women who work 10 hour days raise their children. I must be missing something.

Sorry about the skiparoo!

Yikes, hard to believe I've gone three days without writing!

The new job is a little insane. I haven't been home before 6 pm since I started. I work with three workaholics and one gal who's smart enough to work an 8 hour day. Luckily my boss is out for the rest of the week, so I plan to get the hell out of dodge on time for four days. While I'm at work, it's go-go-go. I haven't been this busy this many days in a row since some of my more insane days at the PR agency.

All that aside, I'm happy I took the job. The busy is good. I know what I'm doing, I just have a lot of stuff to do. I think I'm doing well - but my boss is hard to read on that one, so I'm not 100% sure what to think. My boss is nice, but there are so many unknowns with dealing with a new boss - am I reporting to her too much? Not enough? Does she prefer me to e-mail or drop by her office with questions? Am I annoying her? I'm sure I'll get that down pat soon.

One thing: I miss my kids. I see them for 40 minutes before bedtime, and then an hour or so in the morning. There's the weekends - just not this past one. Friday night, the kids slept at my parents while hubby and I went out for dinner. Then Sunday afternoon, the gal from next door was over again while we organized more of the house. I plan on spending more time with them this weekend.

Speaking of dinner Friday night - hubby and I went to Baton Rouge, a high-er end chicken, ribs and such joint. We got there around 7 ish, after dropping in to the local home show for a quick peek. The place was packed with couples, what looked like a few large work groups and a few extended families. When the group next to us cleared out, they got a table ready for an even larger one. And then in pranced 12 young girls - 13, maybe - with their birthday gift bags, cell phones, digital cameras and high-pitched chatter. The girls got seated, the birthday girl's mom and dad distributed "birthday menus" to limit the kids choices, and promptly disappeared.

That's right. These parents left 12 thirteen year olds unattended in a restaurant where bills are rarely under $40 a person. They buggered off to a table across the restaurant while we had to sit next to them.

The waitress was mortified, and the manager came to apologize. In hindsight I wish I'd made more of a fuss. But I didn't, I accepted his apology, and he didn't offer anything more - not even a discount on our meal. Lesson learned.

I've lost track of my numbering system, but here we go:

I need to learn to better stand up for myself, especially when it means it's the difference between getting what's right, and getting fair treatment. Or a free/discounted meal.

One down!

Well I survived my first day at the new job. I'm still a little overwhelmed, but I think I know what I need (skill-wise) to do this job and it looks like I'm working with a nice bunch of women.

There's a lot to do. I did an initial workplan for what's currently on my plate, and I think I might have been a little ambitious with my deadlines (and what I'll get done in the next 3 weeks). I need to sit down and have a look at that tomorrow.

Otherwise, not much to report. The new job gets me home later, but it's a shorter commute... Everyone at the new job works loooooooong days, so I don't feel like I can just leave after my 8 hours are up. But I might have to. Today I got in around 8:15, didn't leave the office until 5:10, and didn't take lunch or breaks. It was 6:15 before I got home. That leaves me 45 minutes with the kids before they go to bed.

And tomorrow, my parents are taking the kids overnight so hubby and I can go out and celebrate my new job. So, very little of the kids again. I am looking forward to settling into some sort of a routine soon.

Beginning a new chapter

So I'm officially done at my old job. At 8 am (ish) I'm starting my new job. What the hell was I thinking?!?!

Seriously, I'm happy I don't have a break. Just jumping right in means I don't have time to wallow over my last job. On the flip side, it also doesn't give me a whole lot of time to get all my stuff organized! I called my new boss today just to touch base and confirm what my plans were for tomorrow, and she was awesome. I'm quite looking forward to working with her.

Otherwise, not much new. Today was just about tears, wrapping up projects and cleaning my office, followed by a dinner at the restaurant with the kids. People at tables next to us kept commenting how good they were. I thought they were horrible - which either means my kids, at their worst, are better than most kids in restaurants; or, my kids are usually incredible in restaurants and my frame of reference for how kids behave in restaurants is wacked. Either way, we were happy for the meal to end, and to get home and put the kids to bed.

I expect the rest of my evening will consist of Ed's Up, perhaps followed by American Idol. I was going to colour my hair, but I'm not so sure I'll get to that this evening!

Oh, and I've been meaning to comment: the amount of death and violent crimes in the news recently has just blown me away. Several gang shootings in Vancouver. Two innocent bystanders killed in different shootings in T.O., plus another shooting yesterday. Heath Ledger. And earlier today, three students from my alma mater were killed in an accident involving a bus. Somehow, as a parent, this type of news affects me more than ever. It's a harsh reminder that I won't be able to protect my kids from everything forever.

Cold or snow... which do I hate more?

Well, it's not -22 outside. And it's warmer than 10 in my house (more on that below). But there's a boatload of snow falling instead. And after a crappy drive in and out, and as I sit here looking at my laneway that still needs to be shoveled, I have to ask myself: snow or cold, which do I hate more? I don't have that answer right now.

Thankfully my furnace is fixed. It was pretty funny actually: the repairman showed up, checked my thermostat, looked at the furnace, then found the main switch (you know, the one that's often near the basement stairs), flicked it on and off a couple of times and on came the furnace. My first reaction was to be embarrassed: I felt like such a girl! The only way it would have been worse is if it was actually off in the first place!

But he explained that since we didn't turn it off, the furnace went off for a reason - likely an electrical connection problem. So he cleaned a few connectors, and so far, so good. Plus, as he noted, we rent our furnace, so we really don't have to worry about why we called - they come, and it's free.

Oh, and for anyone who cared, Diego, Boots and Babouche survived their frigid ordeal. It's why I like goldfish. No other kind of fish would have survived that.

Today is my second-last day at work. I cleaned out almost all of my office. It looks so weird. And the staff took me out to lunch since we have a lunch-hour meeting tomorrow. It was pretty sad, but I know tomorrow will be worse. I'm preparing cards for everyone, and I'm saving the sappy farewell stuff for the very end of the day. Last thing I want is for it to drag on all day.

Oh, and after being so sad about leaving folks, I'm realizing that really, I'll be able to keep in touch with the ones I want to - now more than ever, technology has made that possible. Perhaps one of the sadder thoughts is that I will likely eventually drift away from my current co-workers, like I did from most co-workers from my last job, despite the fact I really liked them, too!

I've also begun working on stuff for the new job. After being so overwhelmed Friday, I've been able to take a step back and get back to it, and finally felt like I had valuable and valid feedback to contribute. Maybe I am ready for this, after all!