We Soldier On

Not much has changed here in Milford lately. Alan and I have both been struck with the unpleasant sensation of our lives being put on hold. It’s not particularly accurate, since there’s nothing we’d be doing with our income that we’re not doing with what little money we have left. Mostly just paying bills and buying groceries. Alan finally got his last paycheck, just in time to use that and most of his savings account to pay the rent. He still hasn’t heard back from the unemployment people, which pisses me off to no end. I know we could manage to scrape by if he were collecting unemployment, but because Sears didn’t physically hand him his pink slip, they have to investigate the claim. I don’t know how they could possibly deny it, but that’s where we stand right now.

I haven’t heard back from the daycare in North Haven, a fact that I wouldn’t be upset about except that we need the money. Alan has heard back from the Army and I had to take him to the recruiting station at 4 AM to meet Sgt. Freeman so they could get up to Springfield for his tests. I’m sure it’ll turn out fine, but a small part of me is a little worried. Alan’s really excited about this and I’d hate for him to be disappointed. Admittedly, I’d probably be a little disappointed too, despite how nervous I am about Alan being away for so long and having to move potentially across the globe to whereever the Army wants to send him. I’m nervous, but excited too.

I’ve decided to start applying to more daycares. It’s something I know I can do and that I have a better chance of being hired for, even though it drives me nuts. I just have to keep plugging away at it until something better comes along. But I am going to be looking for part-time or assistant teacher positions, rather than head teacher positions. I know I’m over-qualified, but I also know that I’m going to get burnt out if I have my own classroom. And given that Alan may very likely be leaving at the beginning of November, I don’t need the extra stress. Also, if Alan leaves in November, that means we’ll probably be moving around the end of May. In terms of a preschool setting, the last thing I would want to do as a head teacher is leave the kids right before the end of the school year.

For right now, Alan and I both have odd jobs lined up. Alan is going to be playing handyman for his grandparents in Darien. And next week I’ll probably be watching my parents’ dog and babysitting Jen’s son, Jayden. Normally Jen has her mom watch him three days a week, but she’s been in the hospital since early Sunday morning. They ran some tests and it looks like cancer, so I’m sure Fran could use all our prayers.

As for watching Fonzie, well, my mother is going to be in a production of The Sound of Music and next week are dress rehearsals in Brandon, an hour and 15 minutes from their house. When she adds work at Plymouth State Park, it makes for an awfully long day for the poor dog. Whether I do that or not depends on what days she needs me to watch her. Unfortunately, if it runs into Saturday I probably can’t, since Alan has no way to get up there and we were coming up to see the show that day anyway. Then again, I wonder if my mother would be willing to pay train fare for him from Milford to New Haven to whereever the nearest station is? My mom has thought about taking it before so I know it’s not too far away from them. Then he could take the train up on Saturday morning, I could pick him up, and we’d drive home on Sunday. That way we don’t have to ask anyone to look in on the cats. It’s a thought. I’ll have to bounce it off Alan and my mother. If I can get a hold of her of course.

In completely random news, a rather large beetle made an appearance on our kitchen floor a couple nights ago. I’m pretty sure it’s a beetle anyway. I have no idea where it came from because it was just sitting there completely still, obviously hoping that Karma would get tired of it. I actually thought it was dead, but I don’t think she’d been playing with it for more than a few seconds when I saw it and pulled her away. It wasn’t until Alan covered it with a glass and slid a sheet of paper under it that it started to wiggle a bit. We took pictures, hoping we could identify it, but the sheer volume of beetles in the world makes going through the identification guides rather tedious. I will, however, post a few of the better ones here. Alan put the nickel down for size comparison, so you can imagine my surge of adrenaline when I walked out of the living room all drowsy and ready for bed and saw that in the middle of my kitchen floor.

Anyway, while Alan’s gone for the day, I thought I’d get some stuff done. It’s still nice and cool down here on the coast, thank heaven. So, off to start my day, even though it really started 8 hours ago. o_0

~Liz