A Little (Leg)Work

I start Thursday! ::happy dance::

My meeting on Monday (obviously) went very well, and I am Bright Horizons newest Toddler Teacher. I’ll be starting on Thursday with learning the routines of the center and their policies and expectations and such. And next week I will probably be bouncing from toddler room to toddler room observing. The week of the 14th, Kim is planning on setting up a meeting with the parents of the kids who will be in my room, partly to meet me and ask me questions, and partly to get an idea of what life in a toddler room is all about, because these are all parents who have kids in the infant room at the moment. The week after we’ll start transitioning a couple kids. By mid-October, I should have an almost full room and a co-teacher. Kim hasn’t hired anyone yet, but they have a girl they’ve been talking to. Kim wanted to wait until after I started and I had a chance to meet her and see how I liked working with her. Very cool.

So today I’ve been running around like mad trying to get all my ducks in a row. I went first thing this morning to the New Haven Health Department clinic to get a PPD. I probably could’ve gone through my doctor (and now I’m very glad I didn’t – more in a minute), but it was only $10 and took less than 5 minutes because I was the first person to walk in the door. I have to get it read on Thursday morning, but I’m not due at work (love that word!) until 10, which gives me plenty of time. Especially since Alan’s going to drive me so I don’t have to look for a parking space – he can just drive around the block a couple times while they fill out my form. And why am I glad I didn’t bother with trying to get it at my doctor’s office? Oh, because they’re about as useless and idiotic as everything else about this town. After I dropped Alan off at CVS I went over to the office so they could fill out my statement of health form. Every time you start a new daycare job in Connecticut you have to have a new PPD or chest x-ray for TB and you have to have a statement of health that says you’ve had a basic physical exam in the last year. Well, I had one in February right before I started at Building Our Future. So all they have to do is sign the form saying that I was physically capable of doing the job at my last check-up. Oh the fuss they made about that! Apparently the statement "I don’t need another physical, just the paper saying I had one in the last year" is completely incomprehensible. According to Karen the abrasive nurse, Dr. Stone likes to see her patients every 6 months. BULL. SHIT. There is no reason for me to have a complete physical every 6 months. She hasn’t even put me on any medications! All she told me in February was that my LDL Cholesterol was a little higher than it should be and I should cut back on animal-based fats and work out more. As it was she still signed the exact same paper so obviously it wasn’t anything she felt would make working in daycare difficult. At any rate, she wasn’t in today, so I have to go back tomorrow to collect my form. Frankly, if they try to force me to have another physical exam, the only way I’ll consent to it is if it’s free. No insurance company on the planet would cover a two physicals in a year, even if I HAD insurance! All they’re trying to do is pad their bottom line. And if they won’t do it free or just sign the damn paper I’ll take my chart and never darken their doorstep again. I wonder if their unwillingness to fill out a paper that is in no way a false statement that could prevent me from working would be considered grounds for a lawsuit. Well, I’ll jump off that bridge when I come to it.

And really, the doctor’s office was the only hurdle I had to jump today. Alan was foiled in his attempt to turn in the license plates from his truck because of the monstrous line at the DMV, but we can go tomorrow. I got my fingerprints done and my transcript request faxed off to Southern and bought Alan two pairs of khakis at Old Navy. They were on sale for $15 each. PLUS they’re having a "stuff it" sale, which means that anything I can fit in one of their bags is 20% off. And the (reusable cloth) bag was free. So basically I got two pairs of khakis and they said "Here! We’ll give you $6 if you take this bag off our hands!" Love that.

Aside from the advent of paid employment, life in the Slinsky household is slow and peaceful. Karma had an upset tummy yesterday. Without going into all the vile details, I’ll just say that I used up a lot of kitty wipes, the last of the paper towel, and Karma had a bath a minor clipping. She wasn’t too happy about either. I also gave all the food and water bowls a good sterilizing and Alan a good talking to about changing the water every single morning because I can’t figure out how she could’ve gotten sick without it being something off with her food or water. After the drama of the afternoon (and after putting towels down on the bed, just in case) we went down to Norwalk for dinner with dad. Thankfully, he managed to go an entire evening without once making me feel like dirt. Yay! And he gave me a check to help with the rent again. Yay! And since we were already at my grandmother’s house we ventured up to the attic so I could find some of my old books. I brought a whole box home, which Alan probably didn’t appreciate since our bookshelf is already very full, but he does realize that I’ll need something to do with my time when he leaves in two months. Hence, I brought up all my "witchy" books. If I can’t rely on him for emotional comfort on a daily basis, I’ll have to rely on myself and a higher power. I could’ve sworn I had "Animal Magick," but I couldn’t find it, so maybe I imagined that. Still, I’ll have plenty to do with what I did find up there. I also found a really cute little tapestry hand bag in a random box. It even still has a little pocket mirror inside. The thread that holds the clasp section on is falling apart, but it’s 100% fixable. I may just cut it completely loose and give both the fabric and the brass a good cleaning. It really is cute. And useful… a rare find for my grandmother’s attic. o_0

::sigh:: Didn’t I tell you that September was a hopeful sort of month? I knew there was a good reason we chose to get married in it!

~Liz