Interesting week

It seems a bit odd, but I do believe that I have finally made a decision on what I will do with my career.  Hard as it will be, I will be leaving my group as soon as the offer is made to move to development as a Subject Matter Experts for the retirement system.  I feel better now that my decision is made, but it will be hard to hand off projects to someone else.  My manager has just not been able to provide the job security in my existing position. She either doesn’t know or won’t tell us what our future is.  I would much rather take my career in hand and make a decision myself.  That insecurity is never something that I handle well.  I love my current job, but some of the bull that goes with is has me disconcerted.  I hate not knowing. I have been in my current postion for 6 years so I guess it is time to move to other pastures.

I was a bit frustrated in the last 2 days by things going on in two Toastmaster clubs.  In one case it was a old time member missing his cronies.  He just isn’t adjusting well.  That is how the life of clubs work, members leave and members arrive.  It changes club dynamics.  I understand his concerns, but it is up to the club officers and not to me.  On the other hand, the other is two members in a tiff about something said in an email.  It is rather confusing and silly to boot.  I find it all interesting to be be honest.  Oh, how like children adults can be.  Myself included.

My daughter is sort of seeing a marine these days.  She is trying to decide what to do.  He will be deployed in October and she is worried.  It is a fairly new relationship and she isn’t sure where it is headed.  Her dad told her point blank that if she moves forward, she had better not break up with him 2 months before he leaves, not during deployment or up to a year later.  She has that heavy on her mind, but she is thinking about her decision very carefully.  He is a very nice boy.  So much better that her last long time boyfriend.  He was a mess. This young man seems very self assured, fun, and polite.  We shall see what time brings.

Watching:  Lost

Reading:  “The Hidden City” by David Eddings

Stitching:  “Merrick” by Karen Weaver

Lovely day..

I just love warm, sunny weekends.  It has been so long since I have seen one, that I wasn’t sure what to do.  I read, I walked, I cleaned, and I cross stitched.  Tomorrow I will get out and mow and trim the yard.  I wanted to do that today, but I am hoping that two good days of warmth will dry out the yard a bit.  That backyard is just a soggy mess!  Friday it began pouring rain.  Then a women from work was hit by a car in the cross walk leaving work (amazing because no one uses the cross walk – we usually jay walk).  She was pretty badly hurt.  She was in KC from St. Louis for a training session.  What a horrid end of the week.  The bus had to pick us up a block away and it was as if someone were crying because it began to pour rain.  Lucky I had my umbrella in my bag.  Whoa..

I am still trying to decide what to do at work.  I want to accept a new job opportunity, but it is hard.

Presidential Distinguished Division in Toastmasters…

I know that this may sound silly to some, but I am a Division Governor in Toastmasters District 22.  I was the first  division to be distinguished and yesterday we skipped over Select Distinguished and leapt right to Presidential Distinguished.  The highest level possible.  The exciting thing is that we are the only distinguished division of any type in our district that has 5 divisions.  I attribute this to 6 wonderful area governors.  I am just so excited.  My goal was select distinguished, but wow…this is really exciting. 

 I had a nice talk to the incoming Lt. Governor of Marketing who is a good friend.  We have decided that I will follow her into that position next year, which was a goal of mine anyway.  I am excited to know that she is on board and is fine with having Cheri or Marilyn follow that the next year.  I want my team to be Marilyn, Cheri and myself.  I am so very happy.

On another note, work is getting crazy again.  A team caused a performance issue last week that caused a missed SLA. I spent Thursday researching the issue and contacting the project team.  Their immediate solution was okay, but the long term fix they had not finished thinking about.  Now they have additional work.  My boss got me involved because the VP of Development (who the team worked for and the client who missed the SLA) contacted her to ask how this happened.  Humm, the new reorganization is going to cause more of these types of issues because the teams are going to become less involved with my group.  I already had a meeting scheduled to understand what the role of a subject matter expert will be in the new organization since I have been told I am one of the people who will be made an offer.  My boss hadn’t been forthcoming with that information even though it is available nor is she informative of what the changes will be in my current group.  She keeps asking me what I want to do, but I cannot answer because I cannot weigh them against each other without knowing.  It pisses me off to a great extent, but I have an idea now.  It was all exacerbated when my boss walked out of a meeting in a tiff because she wasn’t getting her way with two other managers.  She walked out of the meeting with those two managers and 4 people who report up to her.  Good going, just helps me to decide.  I love her a great deal, she is full of knowledge, but I am beginning to think it really is time for her to retire. 

My Dad

Here it is the day before Mother’s Day and I am sitting on my bed crying my eyes about over my dad.  I cannot believe how much I miss him. It will be 2 years in September since he left us, but sometimes it seems like yesterday. Heather told our Toastmasters group a story about Mother’s Day on Thursday.  My dad gave the kids each $10 every year for buying a Mother’s Day gift.  The year Heather was 9 it was dad’s turn to take them shopping. Rather than going into Emporia, he stayed in town and took them to the hardware store.  Granted, Burlington is a small town, and most bridal registrys there are at the hardware store, but it sounded so funny.  Heather told everyone what they bought since I would not like a $10 bag of screws.  She got me a mirror on a frame that has a mother’s poem written on the mirror.  Bobby got me a globe with flowers in it.  Both sit on the shelf in my cube at work.  To be honest, they are my favorite mothers day gifts.  But it was so like my dad.  I could just hear him.  He did the same thing for us and knew not to take us to a place that had candy because we would buy mom something inexpensive and spend the rest on candy. 

Of course it doesn’t help to be watching “Sarah Plan and Tall’ on TV.  Dad loved that movie and it is filmed just outside of Emporia – the year before I went back to college there.  The kids call their dad papa which is what we call my dad.  In this last several years of trials, I wish he were here.  I still know he is here, but damnit, I didn’t have him long enough.  It is hard to go home and miss his physical presence. 

I suppose that we are a weird family in that my kids know my brother Larry who passed away at 21 when I was just 23.  We remind them that they have an uncle named Larry and he was a pain in the behind.  They hear stories, see slides, and pictures and feel as if they know him.  Again, sometimes he just seems to be here, but the presense isn’t as strong as with my dear papa.  I am almost 49 and I still feel like a big huge baby.  When Heather gives her ‘My Papa’ speech I just know that I will go off crying.  I love the speech, but she portrays him so vividly that it is as if he were watching us.  He would love that darned speech and that she loves her Shriners hat. 

Daughter’s Ex- Boyfriend

Yesterday was choas.  My daughter’s ex-boyfriend began calling and emailing her last week.  This is the ex that my ex-husband put on a plane and sent back to Atlanta after sitting in an airport with him for 13 hours.  This idiot moved to Utah with another girlfriend and went back to college.  His new girlfriend got smart and dumped him.  This kid called my daughter at work while my son and I were at my last post-op eye doctor visit.  H. was freaked out because he could tell her everything about our house  including that the dogs were outside.  We have moved since we shipped him home, so H. called the police.  B. and I got home and the police were here.  I had planned to go back to work, but I didn’t.  The police from a different city (we live in KC) and she works in a bedroom community near the airport.  They had my ex- who just happens to have Friday’s off email them a picture of this kid.  The picture was recent, because the doof and just sent it to H.  My ex and I really thought that someone else took the pictures, but lo’ and behold the kid showed up at her restaurant.  There were plain clothes police inside the restaurant, they had shared the picture with all of the employees.  They shuttled H. off and took J. out of the building. He called his dad who just happened to be in a close motel.  He came down and the cops released J. to his dad’s custody.  He promised that they had a plane flight out in the morning.

H. left work early because she was freaked out and we went to fill out a restraining order.  Here in Missouri, one doesn’t mean much, but at least it indicates her fear of this ass…  Cinco de Mayo is today and H. works at a mexican restaurant.  She is face painting all day, and will have a plain clothes cop with her all day.  PC cops are rather concerned for H., thank goodness.  If he appears again, they can arrest him this time.

My ex. and I were really upset at well.  We wonder why J.’s dad appeared from Atlanta.  He told the cops that the reason was none of their business.  At 21 year old should not have this type of problem.  Her new boyfriend is a Marine on reserve duty right now.  He wants to come down and kick behind.  His presence alone would be great, but….

I admit that so many things are going on these days, that stitching has taken a back seat to life.  I did manage to stitch 4 hours yesterday, mostly to relax and take my mind off of everything else.  I am frustrated because I cannot get outside in my backyard because it is a muddy mess.  Usually I have all of my flowers planted and ready for this year, but due to the amount of rain, that hasn’t been possible this year.  It is driving me nuts.   I am hoping that in the evenings this week, that I can get the front area landscaped and the yard mowed and trimmed. We shall see, but I am dubious.

Stitching:  Castle Sampler by Teresa Wentzler

Reading:  “Domes of Fire” by David Eddings

Watching:  “MSNBC”