More on George, this time fostering-related

When I introduced George, I neglected to mention that he is taking me on a date (woah!) on Tuesday night. Okay, there is still a sliver of doubt in my mind that it isn't actually a date. Nevertheless, it's a date. Or, to quote his email, "'not' a date." Those scare quotes are what are throwing me off.

This is my first date in something like almost 5 years. I know, I know, what's wrong with me?

So what happens if The Agency calls between now and then with a kid I'm actually licensed for?!?! (As an aside, don't the placement people have information in their system about folks' licenses? I got a call on Thursday for a sibling group of older kids. I have ONE bed. And my license is for ages 3-7.) Can I really cancel my first date in 5 years because the kid is more important? Do I say "yes" to the (currently hypothetical) placement and then find a babysitter? Ack!

If you believe in prayer for silly things like this, please pray that I just don't get a call until Wednesday!

What the?

My Nephew (age 6) has a new expression. My Sister and her girlfriend are distressed by it. I'm not sure what to think. This new expression? "What the?" NOT "what the h___?" or "what the f___?" (or what I say: "what the eff?") Just plain "what the?"

He doesn't seem to know (yet) that another word comes after. I suspect that an adult in his life (a teacher, perhaps, or a soccer coach) has some self-censorship skills but not quite sufficient to censor out the entire phrase. So, is it worth it for My Sister to teach him that it's not an appropriate phrase? No bad words included in what he says; does teaching him that it's not a good thing to say introduce the full versions? Hence my confusion. I actually thought it was kind of cute. (My guess is that a 6 year old kiddo who comes to live with me will know the ends of the phrase and the situation will therefore be different.)

My Sister didn't ask for advice, but I'm interested in your thoughts...

Basheret? (translation: fate?)

Back story part 1: When I was on vacation, I needed a place to stay for Shabbat between the end of the cruise (returned to Miami Friday morning) and going to My Sister's house (in the Palm Beach area sometime after Shabbat)--My Sister being not observant. Thanks to Facebook, though not without a remarkable amount of stress, a friend of mine introduced me to a guy she had met via one of the orthodox online dating sites. We'll call him George. (I realize that this is a departure from my usual descriptive naming system. If I were to call him "The Guy", what would happen when/if there is a Guy 2 or Guy 3? Hence, George.) George searched out friends of his who I could stay with. Miami Mentsches were fabulous. Anyway, George came for Shabbat dinner where I met him, then we chatted after services on Saturday morning, and I went to his apartment where he taught me how to play chess on Saturday afternoon.

Okay, George introduced. Now on to back story 2: When I was in college, I went to see a movie that I loved. I told my at-the-time boyfriend that it might have displaced the movie at the top of my favorite movies list. Then I saw reviews of the movie. Pretty much NO ONE liked it. And thus was my introduction to the reality that I just have bad taste in movies. (I love shlock, anything that makes me cry...) What was the movie? Patch Adams. Remember this, because it plays an important role in the actual story of this post.

George called me this evening. (Yay!) Among other things we talked about, he said that he is looking for smart people to watch a movie that's out right now (A Serious Man) so that he has someone to talk about the movie with. I responded that I should probably NOT see it, then, because then he would be disabused of the notion that I'm smart. This led to a discussion about insecurity (hi, that would be me) and my confession that I have bad taste in movies. I told him that I realized this after I saw a movie that I thought was great but that only got bad reviews, and I really like movies that make me cry. (Sound familiar?) To which he responded something to the effect of "sounds like Patch Adams." Woah. Keep in mind that Patch Adams is 10 years old. And that was his first thought? Kuh-crazy.

It's basheret.

A recap

Alas, today was, in something approximating the language of our time, a major fail.

After my earlier post, I broke down and went to 7-11 for my very large cherry coke. (I should say, in my defense, that my very large soda is a Big Gulp, not a Double Gulp or the other insanely large size. And I get the Big Gulp instead of the Gulp--how funny are these names--because I did once and I keep my cup to get the refill price.)

It's 8:10 and here is the breakdown of what I've consumed today:
* too much pasta (breakfast and lunch)
* Carolina BBQ flavor potato chips
* very large cherry coke
* 2 s'mores
* a beer
* some water

Hence, the major fail.

However, it wasn't all bad. And despite my strong desire to beat myself up over my failings of the day, I know that tomorrow will be better.

Today, I finished a cover letter (application to be delivered tomorrow because they want hard copies, but emailed to the would-be boss this evening), mostly cleaned out my car, knit a few rows of a scarf, and got somewhat caught up on my blog reading. (Yeah that last was a REALLY high priority. Ummm...)

So let me tell you about my plans for tomorrow. Perhaps telling the world will give me some accountability?

In order, I will do the following:

1. Deliver job application.
2. Visit the Coast Guard recruiter. (Crazy.)
3. Go to Costco to buy lettuce, frozen strawberries, and goat cheese. Maybe they'll have yeast, too, so I won't have to make a second stop.
4. Bake oatmeal bread.
5. While bread rises, call the phone company to figure out the $15 monthly charge for internet premium technical support. (Yes, I should have called in July when they first billed me for it. Better late than never.)
6. Deliver dinner (salad and bread) to my friends with a new baby.

I also need to do laundry at some point, though the world won't come to an end if it doesn't happen until next week. (Vacation in warmer climes and returning to full-on autumn means that all of my seasonal clothes are still clean. Hooray!)

And that doesn't even get into the question of the rest of my to-do list. Have a good week; I'll see you when I'm done drowning!

Please indulge me...

...in a bit of personal whining. All morning I've been wondering how I would do this with a kid around, because I feel lousy. Plain and simple lousy. Not H1N1, I promise. It's caffeine withdrawal, which happens every Sunday (particularly those that follow Shabbatot when I have not left my apartment), causing me to go to 7-11 to buy a too-large soda, starting the cycle all over. The problem is that I'm trying desperately to detox myself; I only drink caloric soda which is bad for oh-so-many reasons, and in particular because I'm trying to lose about 15 pounds. None of my clothes fit, you see.

But I spent my entire drive home from South Carolina (the last stop of my road trip) thinking about all the things that I want to do (not "need" to do--that's just a set up for guilt--but actually want to do) in my life and my apartment:

• apply for a job that I tried to apply for a few months ago
  
• sort out my knitting supplies (that have suddenly become remarkably unwieldy)
• clean my kitchen
• and in general unclutter my apartment (it is REALLY bad)

Well, I spent a lot of Shabbat sleeping and recovering from all the time spent on the road, and then vegging in the living room with book after book, and being eager for Shabbat to be over so that I could get started on my to-do list. And I did a pretty good job, though at some point I switched from cleaning my apartment to cleaning my Google reader, and I went to bed excited to get up this morning and be productive.

Instead, I woke up with a headache. I sat at my computer to start the cover letter for that job mentioned above, and ended up sitting on the sofa with my eyes closed for two hours. It's rainy and chilly and I'd love to bake bread, but I think that standing up to make the dough might kill me. I don't have any fresh food in my apartment (you know, since I was away for two weeks) but don't have the motivation to go to the supermarket. *Sigh*

Okay, done whining now. I hope.

The Brilliance of My Agency

While I was on vacation, I got phone calls from three separate people at My Agency. One was the placement that I had to decline. The other two were, well, not how I would have done things if I were in charge.

First, the call from the Re-licensing Worker. I've been licensed for what, a month? Why does the re-licensing worker need to come to my home already? I realize that my home is no longer my own, but this just seems like overkill.

Second, though, was the call from my original Licensing Worker. She wanted to know if I'd gotten my license. She had better have meant just the piece of paper, because she really ought to know that my license had been approved. But if she were that concerned about the mail (a VERY legitimate concern, in my experience), shouldn't she have called sooner? Regardless, that isn't my real issue with the phone call. My real issue is that she is required to do a quick satisfaction survey with the people she licenses. Great in concept. However, when she asks what the biggest barriers were, and my answers are "communication" and "lost paperwork", both of which were her fault, well, it becomes a little uncomfortable. Perhaps someone else could have conducted the survey?

Oh well. I'm home from vacation and completely overwhelmed by the mess I left for myself to return to. As soon as it's a little cleaned up (which had better be by Monday!) I will email the placement office to remind them that I have a vacancy.

Oops

Just a quick confession that I discovered that in addition to SocialWrkr24/7, Snarky Mom also nominated me for that award I posted on a bit ago. I guess that means I shouldn't have nominated her back. Oh well, I'm not changing anything.