"I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere beyond the morning." - J.B. Priestly


Sunday, March 27, 2011

Trying to Get Back to Normal

This has been a really lousy year so far:  my Dad was very sick through the month of January, the funeral was in early February and I also spent some time with my Mom working through details.  By mid-February when we went to Vegas, I thought I could use the time away but I really didn't have a very good time.  Then I had all of the kids through the end of the month, during which time Tom started having strokes -- one right after another.  So, early March I took a trip to see him in the Cities and keep waiting for a good news report. 

During the month of March, I also started back to work at Kohl's at night.  Because the store is going through remodeling, I was being scheduled for a LOT of hours:  40 hours per week.  I really don't want to work that many nights and lose my days, especially now that Spring is coming (eventually).  I've been spending a lot of time learning about gardening and planning my gardens for this year.  So, I had a talk with the HR person at Kohl's and indicated that they shouldn't schedule me for more than 3 nights per week.  I'm headed into my last non-24 hour/week schedule this week (I'll have 4 nights this week), after which I'll be working only 3 nights and off 4 nights.  I also told them no weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day.  Over the past couple of weeks, I took Alex to a school field trip, attended an all-day garden seminar, and took Ian to a movie -- all on very little sleep.  It really ruins my home life to be working too many nights.  I do like the discount, though, and the friendship of the people I work with so I don't want to give it up entirely.

Jeff was in Vegas for work all of last week (when we got the big blizzard on my birthday!) and he'll be in Oklahoma this week.  I have tickets to Beauty and the Beast at the PAC that I'll have to trade for a couple of singles since the show is pretty much sold out.  I also have my Master Gardeners class, and I started doing some volunteer work at the library again last week.  Not sure if I'll continue to donate plasma at BioLife as I'm having trouble squeezing that in.  The house could use a good cleaning, but I just can't get too excited about that right now.  Everything feels like it's in a holding pattern while this final snow and cold weather are here.  I need to plant all of my garden seeds so I'm ready to move them outdoors when the time finally gets here.

One point of good news:  sounds like Tom will finally be going home from St. Paul after being there for a whole month.  He'll need to be in a hospital closer to home for convalescence and therapy, but at least he's making forward progress.