TV Stars, Teaching and Baby Neutering…

…not necessarily in that order.

We’ll start with Baby Neutering:

I took Oliver to the vet last week.  Shame on me as a mother, but it was our first visit.  Yes, he’s six months old and yes, he’s only had one round of his shots, but the vet said he looked great.  He officially weighs exactly 10.0 pounds and is up-to-date on his vaccines, as far as I know.  He also doesn’t have heartworm.  Turns out that it’s not that common a problem here in SoCal, so they said I don’t actually have to give him heartworm medicine.  I got the Heartguard ($40 for six months’ worth) anyway – I’m a protective mom.  I don’t want to risk it.  However, I did talk to one of my coworkers and she said that she gives her dog Revolution which is just like Frontline (they did recommend that – freakin’ $60 for three months’ worth of Frontline – robbery, I tell you), except that it guards against fleas, ticks, other bugs, AND heartworm and that it only needs to be called in from my vet and I can get it cheaper at Drs. Foster and Smith.  If you’ve never heard of these guys and you have a pet – I HIGHLY recommend them – and I haven’t even used any of their services yet.  I window shopped there for about an hour yesterday.  EVERYTHING is so much cheaper!

Anyway, to the crux of this bullet.  I checked with my vet as to how much a neuter would be for the Bug and they said upwards of $250.  No thank you, sir.  There are all sorts of free and reduced-cost clinics that perform the surgeries for a fraction of the cost.  While I would prefer that my baby gets his manhood taken away at his own doctor’s office, my bank account would prefer that it gets taken care of at an animal hospital that does it for less than a hundred bucks.  There are also places here in LA that do it for free if you have a voucher – and you qualify for a voucher if your annual household combined income is less than $40,000 a year.  Go figure.  Right now, I still qualify.  Right now, I’m still just a hair above poverty level.

Which brings me to my next point: Teaching:

I will be calling the Human Resources Department sometime early next week to set up a time for an eligibility interview!  I received an email from one of their H.R. Specialists saying that they would like to interview me for the district and to set up an interview as soon as possible in case they might have positions open that they could place me in.  Why haven’t I called them already?  Well, I’m glad you asked because part of what I need to bring with me are all sorts of recommendation letters from people I haven’t really had much contact with since I left Tennessee.  And not that I don’t think they’d write them for me, but they weren’t exactly positions that had a LOT to do with education – including where I work now.

Speaking of that, I sent an email to my superiors in New York requesting the letter and easing their worries that I might just up and be gone one day and they said they’d be more than happy to do it for me.  But let me ask you something – is it weird that they requested that I write the letter and they’d sign it and put it on letterhead?  Well, either way, I’ve written it…but I’m waiting to send it to them before I get a go-ahead from Matt.  I don’t want to sound cocky, but I do want to sound confident.  I’ve done a good job here.  I’ve been good for this office.  I couldn’t run the company, but I’m good at what I do and the letter should say that.

Finally, TV Stars:

Eriq La Salle (ER’s Dr. Peter Benton, if you’re too lazy to follow the link) dropped by today.  He’s absolutely the sweetest guy ever!  He’s quiet and sort of reserved, but he’s really nice.  In fact, he actually talked to me while all the other people from the meeting were talking with each other and ended up shifting the focus onto me.  While I’m not "in the biz," there’s a certain amount of nervousness that takes place when a bunch of producers and people who are in the biz are staring at me, listening to what I have to say.  I pulled it off nicely, though.  I was witty and intelligent.  Funny.  In fact, one of the guys from the meeting said, "She’s her own series, right here!"  Too bad fame doesn’t actually happen that way.  All said and done, I was glad that I dressed up this morning before I left.  The funny thing is, as I was straightening my hair and putting my makeup on, I thought, I’m going to wear a skirt today.  I want to look cute – someone famous might drop by.  I didn’t actually think it’d happen. 

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But, rock.