Ember and Critter and stuff

So, the first came and went and Ember’s all moved. I watched Starshine for her the two days of the move so the poor thing wouldn’t get caught up in the hurly-burly. She picked her up last night. We were supposed to have had a good-bye dinner at Taco Bell, but D & B’s dad is a total ass and didn’t pick them up like he said he would so they ended up on a bus out to my place. Of course he didn’t let Critter know he wasn’t picking them up until 15:50, which would have been a really bad thing had she not planned ahead when he wouldn’t answer his phone when she called at noon. That’s well into the penalty period, she was at work and I had been up for twenty-three or twenty-four hours at that point and was in no shape to drive with the kids in the car.

I’d have taken the kids along too, but I thought Critter was going to be there shortly to pick them up. It turns out she got stuck with a customer who just signed a new cellular contract, got a brand new smartphone, and didn’t know how to move his contacts from one phone to the other. Almost a thousand contacts he wanted Critter to move for him. I’m sorry, but since the option became available I’ve never bought a phone that I couldn’t synchronize with my address book on my computer, just so I don’t have to worry about stupid things like that. She finally called it quits after an hour, told the customer she wasn’t doing any more and showed him how to do it. I don’t blame her.

K’s daddy was being an ass when she picked her up last night and she was a little upset but I think I got her cheered up a little. Nothing physical, just the same old verbal abuse he’s been heaping on her for years, but now she doesn’t just sit there and take it. Good for her.

K is over here now. She was rubbing her eyes a while ago and I asked her if she wanted to take a nap, but she said no. She kept taking my hand and dragging me into the kitchen so I asked her if she wanted lunch and she said yes. I told her we’d go to town for lunch and she ran off to get her shoes and mine too. She’s so cute!

She was asleep in her car seat before I’d gone three miles. I just got a Grande Meal with all soft tacos at Taco Bell and put them in the microwave. She can eat one later when she wakes up, and D & B can each have one as a snack when they get here. Assuming Critter and I don’t finish the rest when she comes to pick everyone up I’ll have the rest for breakfast and lunch tomorrow.

I really miss Ember. I had to work at holding myself together when we said good-bye. I had the same issue when I was telling Critter about it later. I almost took K by to see Ember today while we were in town the first time and then I remembered. I got a little sad, but I had a munchkin in the back seat to worry about. I don’t know what I’m going to do once I have some alone time to think about it. It’s probably not going to be pretty. Wailing, knashing of teeth, rending of clothing, that sort of thing.

Still no word from Alaska. The other senior manager at my store has said he’d take me with him if he got this new (like brand new, they haven’t even laid the slab yet) store in Alabama. He said with new stores you are allowed a manager at my level in a special position for the first year. I’d be doing a lot of admin and HR work, but for the first six months or so it’d be Monday – Friday, 0800 to 1900 and no customers. That’s not so bad, and it’d be one more experience that people could look at and say, "oh, he’s done THAT and didn’t get fired so he must be promotable."

The PTB’s have smiled on Queeg and she is being allowed to interview for a store closer to her family that is currently in need of a facility manager instead of having to wait until April. I’ve heard that all sorts of people have written her excellent recommendations, so she may be packing her bags soon. I don’t know though.

At this point if Queeg goes and the other senior manager doesn’t get that store in Alabama I may just stay where I am until the new management structure rolls out if it isn’t delayed. A promotion at that point should be pretty easy since they’d need so many more senior managers than they have now. Also there’d probably be a RIF for the managers at my level, so I have to do something. I’ve heard rumors of a new hourly position that would pay nearly what I make now, and after your eight (or ten) hours you go home. Not bad.