We finally took down the Christmas decorations yesterday. We have boxes and boxes of ornaments (probably 10 Rubbermaid containers). My dad and I tried to help. Turns out we did it all wrong. I guess each ornament has a particular place it needs to go (even though it’s not marked on the box), and my dad almost lost the top connector/string for my mom’s very first ornament as a baby (but she found it later). But at least we got out of ever doing it again!

And next year, for Christmas I’m just buying a bunch of special ornament boxes with the dividers. My mom says she’ll then take all ornaments out of the boxes and store the boxes in some of the containers, but it’ll be a lot simpler than trying to repack everything perfectly.

Have a scratchy throat, nose itching inside, feeling exhausted. And have been around too many people who have been sick for this to be a coincidence. 🤧😷

But I can’t get sick. I have so much to do at work tomorrow (that I’ve been putting off for a week), and stupidly left my laptop at the office tonight. And then there is the Rams playoff game on Saturday evening-I know it’s totally silly, but is so exciting! I didn’t even expect a winning season this year, let alone a home playoff game, and who knows what could happen in the future. And I have a friend coming in from out of town next week who I’m supposed to meet at Disney. And I have to meet with the CASA kids next week. So I can’t get sick. 🤒

But I think I’m getting sick...🤬

Had a fun mini-Holiday with friends (who are basically family at this point) yesterday.

Family 1 was husband and wife who both worked for my first company back in Maryland (wife was receptionist when I was there; husband had already quit/fired before I got there). They relocated to San Diego about 6 yrs ago and now have a 5 yr old and 3 yr old. I’m those kids’ favorite person and it’s adorable! I gave them the option of going outside to play with bubbles or sitting inside and talking and they just wanted to sit inside and talk to me! They wanted to spend the night but I said they’d need to sleep in the dog’s bed and they were not about those dog germs! They also loved on my cat and showed how even though my boy cat can be a jerk to other cats, he’s amazing around kids! Letting them touch his paws, hug him, bug him when trying to sleep and just purring away! Husband and I are trying to convince wife to do a Disneyworld trip together!

Family 2 has a husband who also worked for the Maryland company, though he left years before I got there. But he was best friends with a lot of the other guys there so we met that way and I even stayed at their house for 2 weeks when I was in between apartments. They have an adorable 2 yr old, who is so smart; knew all her ABCs at 15 months old! “Maya take a big step” “So many bubbles” She’s a bit shyer than the other kids but she would just walk slowly up to me and say “Hi” with huge brown eyes.

My family totally spoiled them with presents. To the point that the families thought all the gifts under the tree were leftover Christmas presents for ourselves, not for all the kids! I also still had their Disneyworld souvenirs (from September). Biggest winner: bubble wands! B.B.-8 and tie fighter made noise (to be fair, I got the approval from the Moms before buying them and my sister even made them reconfirm they understood they made bubbles, lit up, and made noises).

So my office decided to do a slight restructure and is implementing Team Leaders; the position isn’t a true promotion but more recognition and serves an organizational purpose. We got 2 leaders, both of which are at my position level, one of whom was actually lower than me, so he sort of leap-frogged over me.

I honestly am conflicted internally. I know I haven’t been the best at work in the past year-lots of depression and anxiety due to the state of the world, and when I start to get stressed I shut down. I know if I had been more on-track I probably would have been one of the leaders. So it really is my fault. But I also know I would still not be good at being a leader right now, so my boss absolutely made the right call.

So, basically, I wish I could change so I’m no longer a total slacker...

(Sorry putting this on tumblr, it’s my only outlet when I’m slightly anonymous, so just my weird internal thoughts)

There was a shooting at a bar in my town on Friday evening. I drove by the scene Saturday morning and was so confused, especially when I saw the SWAT team gathered with armored vehicles a block away.

It ended up being a gang related shooting; one man killed, 2 people injured. Shooter is still on run even after the SWAT team tried to use flash/smoke grenades on a vacant property in the hopes of flushing him out.

And, one of the guys shot was my brother’s best friend. He and my brothers other best friend were there drinking and BF1 saw 6 guys beating another guy, so stepped in before they could kill him. He ended up with a through and through gunshot on the calve, and luckily there was a nurse outside the bar so she knew how to put on a tourniquet quickly and prevent further blood loss. But my mom has been physically sick, as if my brother hadn’t gone to Vegas for the weekend, he probably would have been there too and may have gotten shot.

Police officer adopts homeless mother's opioid-addicted newborn I just don’t know how I feel about this. I mean obviously, the parents couldn’t care for their baby, but it just reeks of child snatching. And doesn’t sound like they attempted at all to help her or find family or anything...

So we (me, sister, Mom) are watching Project Runway, and then my sister suddenly says “Guess what!” With arms in the air. My mom immediately ssshhhs her because it was a particularly dramatic spot. Finally at a commercial break, my sister goes... “I just got into Southwestern Law School!” With a 50% scholarship! Now my mom will never live down shushing her!!!

Realized I haven’t updated much on CASA, just regular life stuff.

CSW and I are still not sure if Mom had another baby or not. According to her, she had a miscarriage, and she is visibly smaller. According to the 6-yr old daughter, she had a baby. Mom said daughter is lying and making up a baby with the same name as her friend. But Mom also lives in a group woman’s home while waiting for an apartment to open up, so any possible baby isn’t with her... So, unless we get some evidence (medical records, etc), we have to take her word for it... Still a weird situation.

We had court last week, and it went very well. Mom has been doing really well since they got her and the kids into an intensive parenting course; she has been learning and participating, as well as using the skills to help with the kids. Her attitude has also changed and she isn’t dramatic to the social worker. If you don’t remember, she had stormed out of the last hearing in tears after a bad CSW report and the judge read her the riot act. This time she actually wrote a heartfelt apology letter, so the judge appreciated that.

It was actually the 18-month mark, but the judge agreed to extend by another 6-months (with a 3-Month progress hearing) so Mom could get housing. Judge also referred her for additional housing support and increased visitation, as well as giving DCFS discretion to liberalize visits if Mom is continuing to do well. Looks like kids will probably be going home by the 2-yr mark in April.

Judge also read my report and noticed that the girl is doing poorly in school; she recently found out the in-Home tutoring for foster kids was funded, so ordered that, so hopefully it will help her improve.

Most surreal experience ever

I just rode Star Tours with LUKE SKYWALKER! I still can’t believe it!

And then I watched Anna and Elsa sing in front of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle while fireworks went off!

Is this real life, or is this a dream?

Vacation time

My company just instituted a flexible vacation time policy. Basically there is no more allotted vacation time. If you want to take a week here, a week there, a couple days another time, etc, then you get it approved with your boss and take it.

They are trying to make it seem like this awesome new benefit, but it really isn’t. We have clients and billable hour utilization tracked. If you take more vacation then that will go down and it will look bad for raises/promotions. So most likely the busy offices (including mine) will end up with engineers who take very little vacation because they just don’t have the time. By then you’ll get admins in corporate who will end up taking 6 weeks every year!

Also, when you come out with a new “benefit”, in the same presentation, don’t mention how the company isn’t making as much money as they want. People will immediately see through that this is a method to prevent having to pay out unused vacation time each year...

I don’t know why people call this an Ugly Christmas Sweater. I think it’s beautiful! 😍

Open enrollment

Finally got our info for next year. Surprisingly the premium is only going up $5/bi weekly (so $130 for the year). And the benefits aren’t changing horribly-same copay and deductibles; $1000 higher for annual max and reducing covering some services from 90% to 80%. Compared to what other people are going thru, I’d say we’re lucky. Though I wish we still had the option for Kaiser in California, as that was half the price for much much better coverage (and my dad is a partner there so I could always get immediate appointments with the best drs).

And, they are offering discounted pet insurance this year. Probably won’t be anything for my cats, but maybe my mom make take advantage for our dog.

They are filming Ocean’s 8 two blocks away from my house (maybe 10 houses). They’ve been blowing up cars and such for 2 days. And today lots of tinted town car limos coming and going. I think the dog is going to get many Many walks (if you are a neighborhood person you are let in the security/paparazzi perimeter).