Escapism

Very soon, I will have worked for the gov for 19 years.  Oh, there are better paying jobs out there in the private sector, but I’ve always felt more suited to being one to wear the white cowboy hat instead of the black one — making the world a better place through responsible taxation.

Recently, our branch reorganized and I was assigned to a new portfolio.  A portfolio I’m not enthusiastic about.  But as it turns out, I’m so busy with a particular file, unrelated to my new portfolio, that I haven’t noticed the change.  Unfortunately, this file is getting to me.  It’s a lot of work and it seems never-ending. 

Recently, Romy forwarded an ad for a job in Oshawa.  An 18 month temporary spot as a Senior Manager overseeing a new program.  The job description looks kind of right up my alley.  Makes me go “hmmmm”.  But would I apply for it simply to escape the situation I’m in now (an almost never-ending file which, when it does end, will leave me in a new and unwanted portfolio), or because it’s an interesting opportunity.  I’m not sure.  But it would have me commuting by car for 18 months — unless it became a permanent gig, then S and I could move (S also thinks about escaping her job). 

Can you think of anything sadder than two people wanting to escape their jobs? 

Mind you, I like living in Toronto.  I like being able to walk everywhere I need to go.  And where would Lil Sis live if we moved?

 

Happy Day

The ice-cream truck is back! 

I had noted ice-cream guy’s absence earlier this month and wondered if he was gone for good. What would summer be like without the ice-cream guy on the corner???!!

But nope – he’s back.  Woo!

Third time – no luckier than any other.

S went for her pregnancy test at Lifequest bright and early Friday morning.  They claim that if you’re in before 8:30 am, you’ll get same day results.  We were in before 8:30 but no results were provided that day, or over the weekend, and no results yet this morning. 

I don’t know if it’s the same in all fertility clinics, but this place does not seem to place much value on customer service.  In fact, they have set up the practice to pretty much avoid telephone contact with clients.  You can’t actually speak to anyone when you call in, whether to contact a nurse, receptionist, or your doctor’s office (in fact, the doctor’s office line won’t even take messages).  They also recently switched from calling people and leaving results, to requiring the client to dial in to listen to a recording of their results.  This is probably because of the risk that a nurse calling to leave results might accidentally have to talk to someone who answers the phone.

So we bought yet another stick for S to pee on – and the result was still negative.  Silver lining, S was free to have a few drinks Saturday night when her hockey team came over for a end-of-season BBQ. And the next day she got her period.

Which makes me wonder why Lifequest routinely tests for pregnancy a couple of days before the patient is expecting her period.  Wouldn’t it be cheaper on our health care system to wait to see if the period is missed first – then test?  Especially in S’s case where she got her period before she got the results of her pregnancy test.  If she ever gets them.

 

 

Waiting

This time around, it looks promising.  S  thinks she might have ovulated within 7 hours of insemination, based on a twinge she felt that evening.  Around a week later there were more twinges.  “Implantation?”, I wondered. 

It’s 12 days after insemination and S peed on a stick this morning — one of those sticks that claims an 89% detection rate 3 days before you expect your period and a 93% detection rate 2 days before.  Her negative response either means she’s not pregnant, she’s one of the other 7%, and/or the test is no where near as accurate as they claim.

The wait continues.

 

We’ve made our bed, now we must sleep in it.

My friend N is selling her condo and moving back to the US.  Well, not that she moved away from the US — she just spent the summers here.  So, basically, she sold her summer home — her summer home filled with furniture that she needs to get rid of in a hurry.

S and I had slept on her bed a few times in the winter months, and I thought it was much comfier than my own bed.  I had bed envy.  Lingering green bed envy.  So the plan was that we’d take her bed and use it as our own – which would require the rental of a large truck to bring it home.

Of course, we didn’t know what to do with our bed.  We have no room for an extra queen sized bed in the house right now, because we’re storing (in our guestroom) a bed belonging to friends.  When they finally move to a new house, we’ll ship the bed back.  But until then, no room at our place for more beds.

So the logical thing to do was to put our bed in the truck, bring it to N’s condo and leave it in the loading bay to be carted off by either a) someone who needs a bed or b) the garbage collector.  And that’s what we did.  We then loaded the truck up with N’s bed, some bookcases, night stands, and assorted bits.  We got home and unloaded everything, set up the bed in the spot where the old bed was and went to sleep.

The only thing is we forgot how low her bed is.  Or at least I didn’t anticipate how low it would seem our bedroom.  She ordered hers with a box spring only half the height of a typical box spring.  Plus her mattress isn’t as thick as mine. Putting the sheets on the bed would have been easier if I was around a foot shorter. And, honestly, the bed doesn’t seem as comfortable as I remember.

Oops. 

 

Nesting

Lil Sis has run out of money and is willing to do work around the house for pay.  So we had her prime and paint the study.  And it looks fabulous.

The acoustic tile ceiling had been white with aubergine in the cracks between the tiles (it was probably all aubergine at one time).  The walls had been light green with white patches of spackle.  The trim was an off white but the quarter round still had some purple on it. 

S wanted the room to be blue – which can be a tricky colour (too institutional, too cold, too bright, too intense).  Romy had used Farrow and Ball paint in her house, and said she loved working with the paint.  I had a card of their paint chips and ended up picking the same colour Romy had used – Light Blue - which is a very grey blue. We went to the F&B “stockist” to buy the paint.  The place was fairly stark – no shelves of paint or painting supplies.  But the clerk was very knowledgeable and affable, and we’d recommend Farrow and Ball based on that alone.  The fact that their colour selections are unique (in a good way), and that their Estate emulsion looks perfect on the walls of our old house support the recommendation.

We went to our local Paint Depot  (another excellent paint store) to buy trim paint.  And after some indecision, we went with their House White for the ceiling and Benjamin Moore’s Down White for the trim (they don’t sell BM paint, but they colour match pretty much anything, including Farrow and Ball).  Lil Sis said the trim paint kept separating in the can, and she had to stir it often.  But you wouldn’t know there were problems – it looks excellent.

Lil Sis hates painting, hates working with trim etc etc, so we were lucky that our need for room painting co-incided with her need for money.  Now we just have to figure out what to do with the floors.  They’re painted white, but the paint chips off.  I sat down with a putty knife last night to scrape off the loose paint and learned that it’s basically all loose.

Luckily, Lil Sis’ need for money is stronger than her dislike of painting, so she is willing to paint the floor for us (after I scrape and sand).  S will soon have the best study/yoga room ever.

 

Damned by faint praise

I’m participating in the LEADS program at work. It’s a two year leadership training program and we’re currently at the Kempenfelt Centre near Barrie. 

Yesterday we drew names out of a hat.  We were charged with the duty of observing the person whose name we chose, and to provide positive feedback on their leadership.  Feedback tended to revolve around things like being supportive, motivating, taking the lead when necessary while giving others the room to contribute. Yada yada.  My observer shared that I have a good sense of humour which kept things light when some people were getting frustrated, and that I was fast to start tying our tower components together with string (long story). 

Funny and good with string. I’m pretty sure neither of these qualities are significant indicators of good leadership.

Despite the faint praise, the day and a half with Summit Training was excellent. I not only learned things through the experience, but became inspired too.   Today’s “presenting as a leader” was not excellent.  In stark contrast, I’m left feeling deflated and unsure I can be any good at this.

I think I’ve signed up for a lot of work.  Not sure how far my string expertise will carry me on this.