Monday, October 27, 2008

Education? What education?

Another week gone. So fast! MOTH is home this Friday. I'm looking forward to it, and yet at the same time, I'm not. It's a shame to say it, but everyone has been much more relaxed. As relaxed as our house can get. Minimum arguements. No one gets stroppy because everything isn't just so. No constant wondering what is going to be wrong next.

It's all been a different kind of worry.

Judah and Sunny are still there. I love them both to bits and I want them to stay, but I'm really worried about how angry MOTH is going to be when he gets back and they are still there. Fair enough, he did promise four weeks, and that isn't up till one week after his return. But he has so little patience, and really wants the house to himself. And knowing his temper, things are going to be awkward for a while.

The Teen has been having some difficulty with things at the moment. She had a full time job, and had left school....

I notified the school a couple days after she started full time work. I left a voice mail message to say she had started and would not be returning to school. What did I have to do to complete the process? This was just prior to the September school holidays.

After school returned, I didn't hear anything from them, so I phoned again. They eventually got back to me a couple of days later, asked a couple of details, and said they would post the necessary form.

I received that, and completed my part of it. I waited for the Teen to complete hers. This form had to be taken around the school and signed by her teachers. And she was working full time. How was she going to manage that? I told her she would have to do it on a Monday, her RDO. She missed the first one.

But before she got the form back to the school, her job was terminated. The salon found out she had a trial with another salon. So we filled in the forms anyway, and took them back to the school.

We took them down to the office - I didn't bother with the filling in of the second page. I figured that any refund of text hire this late in the year wouldn't be worth it. The chick in the office made me fill it in. We ran around to the teachers listed on the form - the Teen had to provide the names of the ones who weren't already listed. We took it back to the office, aaaaannnnnndddddd found out we had to get it signed by the guidance officer.

*sigh* We went back to the student services office and asked to see the guidance officer. The receptionist made an appointment, which wasn't for another hour. I couldn't wait that long, so I went to work.

The Teen chatted to the guidance officer, and they discussed some employement/training options. None of which suit the Teen. And so we continued as normal.

We got a text from the school saying she hadn't turned up to class. So I phoned and left a message to say she had seen the guidance officer but hadn't been told anything about going back to school.

Friday I got a call from the guidance officer. He advised that the appointment made on the Thursday was the first he'd heard about it. It also turned out that if you have full time employment, you have to see him and he has to get forms filled out by the employer. AND AT NO TIME IN MY DEALING WITH THE SCHOOL DID ANYONE SAY ANYTHING ABOUT HAVING TO GO THROUGH THE GUIDANCE OFFICER FIRST!! As you can see, I'm not impressed.

The basic upshot is that because she is no longer employed, she MUST GO BACK TO SCHOOL. I am soooo pissed off about that rule. I cannot see that it makes any difference at all. ESPECIALLY since she has NO INTEREST IN UNI! And isn't even working toward an OP score.

The Teen insists she won't go back to that school. I phoned her alternative choice this morning, and they won't take her because it's too late in the semester.

Things are kind of tense right now - she's behaving like a toddler denied a treat.

*sighs*

Thursday, October 16, 2008

A short tale of time, lasagne and MOTH

I've been sitting at my desk, eating left over lasagne. It's gone a little cold, but considering I don't like lasagne, it's pretty good. I'm taking my lunch break, typing this missive, and considering ways I can procrastinate the commencement of my next task. Which really can't be delayed, but I'm giving it a good go.

I know I usually seem to update this thing on a Monday, but here it is, Thursday, and I've not looked at my bloggy reading for almost a week. I will most certainly have LIBRARY of reading to catch up on. When I get a spare minute. Actually, it's more when I get a spare dash of get-up-and-do-it kind of thing.

And time has been slipping away from me. I can't believe that a week has passed since MOTH went north for his holiday. He seems to be having a good time. He is visiting friends he hasn't seen for several years. They have done a little sightseeing he tells me. And has regaled me with a tall tale of fishing. He caught the only fish. And it was a monster too. About 5 inches in length. And since fishermen are known to exaggerate, heaven knows how big it really was.

That also means it's been a week since Sunny returned home, bringing Judah with him. Judah has come to live in our bustling metropolis. He's a country boy at heart, so I hope he doesn't find it all too overwhelming. And when he moves out, he takes Sunny with him. I'm sure I won't know what to do with the space.

Sunny's room seems a lot bigger now. When the Elder moved out, he took over her room. I always thought her room way too small. But guess what. When there isn't stuff spread so thickly you can't see the carpet, there is actually quite a bit of room. We started to move the sofa bed out of his room and transfer it up the hall to the Teen's room. A narrow hall. With not much room to move things.

We turned the sofa about. There were four of us. Three shifting the sofa about; another keeping the mattress at bay. The mattress that Sunny had been sleeping on. It sits on the floor - he has no bed frame.

We experimented getting the sofa stuck in the doorway. The original plan was to actually get it OUT of the room. And we were almost sure that MOTH hadn't removed the door from its hinges to get it in there in the first place. Hmmmm. And we let it rest against the door while we thought about it.

Only to discover that yes, the door is hollow, and the wood is soft....

Oops! We moved it back to where it was. I wasn't game enough to continue shifting it. But the Teen planted herself on the floor saying let me think about this. And about half an hour later, I could see from the loungeroom the light in the hall had changed. I went to investigate, and lo! She and Judah had the sofa upended and out of Sunny's room. They were in the process of wrestling it down the hall and into her room. I helped for a short time. And there it is, now in her room where she wanted it.

Of course, she hasn't yet folded it out - that requires shifting some other furniture in her room.

Ah well. Maybe the weekend.

I'm just waiting to get organised so I can steal the Elder's tv from Sunny's room. *rubs hands together*

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

In which I continue the enthralling tale of my life so far.

I'm just sitting here, wondering where to start and I turned to look at Smigg. He's lying on his side on the bottom of the bowl. Poor thing. It must get very tiring swimming around in circles. Goldfish, in my humble opinion, are the blondes of the fish world. Smigg is much smarter, and I am certain his attention span is longer than the reputed three seconds...

The conference in Melbourne turned out to be not as bad as I thought. Although standing at the booth all day was boring, I managed to sneak in some reading, catch up with some friends and make some new ones.

One of my new friends set me a mission - to watch Soylent Green. A movie from which the character Sol comes. I just have to see if I can find it.

The flight back was better than the flight down. The only problem was, I fell asleep. Just a short snooze. But I woke up with my mouth open. *sigh* How embarassing! THEN I discovered that I could have folded the sides of the headrest forward so I wouldn't be leaning over. D'oh!

Things are quiet at home. Sunny hasn't returned yet. I'm hoping it's soon. I'm missing my movie nights. I think I'm getting out of practice. I've been going to bed early. Like 10:30 early. Whoops!

The Teen is still working at her job. She's been taken to task a couple of times about her clothing choice for the day. It's not dressy enough.

My weekend was busy. On Saturday, MOTH had to go into the city to pick something up. The day beckoned, so off we trundled. The errand was accomplished quickly so we had time to waste. I showed him the salon where the Teen works. We dropped off the things we purchased for her to look after. I had thoughtfully neglected to take a shoulder bag with me, so there was nothing to put it in. The Teen was confused, wondering what we were doing in the city.

MOTH and I wandered around for a bit, and since were still there when she was due for a break, decided to meet. She bought herself some plugs for her ears - pink leopard print. They look really good. But on her way into the shop, she kicked her toe on the back of her shoe and broke her toenail. Oh no! A catasrophie. They will send me home! I must buy a pair of shoes to cover this! We had little time and raced about all over the place. She found the perfect pair for about $20, little yello canvas pumps, but no. They didn't have her size. Eventually she found a yukky white pair in Target. They would have to do.

It turned out that we were in the city for the rest of the afternoon, waiting for her to finish work.

Sunday, the Teen and I decided she needed new clothes for work. She does. Nothing she owns is good enough. So off we went. She's not easy to shop with though. If I venture an opinion, I get short snappy answers. If I don't go through the shelves like a teenager, I get roused on. But I'm learning!

She ended up with two pairs of sandals, two tops and a short skirt and spent $110. And very satisfied with her bargains too.

I spent Sunday afteroon napping and wondering what happened to my weekend.

MOTH is happy. His purchase for the weekend is a train ticket north. That he left in the Teen's custody. Guess what she left at work?

He is finally going on a holiday to visit friends. For three weeks. And I've realised that I will have to do my own washing, cook dinner every night, and even remember to put the bins out.... Oh. Oh dear.