School Started

We started the school year and it was an interesting first day for us all. I had a fender bender after experiencing such ferocious traffic that both kids were late on their first day. Surely arriving 30 minutes in advance would be enough, I foolishly thought. But no. I was so perturbed that I hit the woman in front of me -- who happens to live two streets down from us in our subdivision and was also dropping her kids off (she was very nice about it). She warned me that the first few weeks is a madhouse. Their carpool system is not ideal and since the kids bring a truckload of supplies the first day, I guess all parents want to drive. This one did but next year will be different, even if they have to strap on double backpacks.


I'm relieved that the suspense is over for the kids starting a new school, but the hard work (in terms of socialization) has begun. So far, Dani has only gotten into my car and burst into tears twice at pickup. Well...actually, one of those days was yesterday. This is certainly not easy. And Nile just says "fine" to every question (how was your day? how was lunch? did you slay any dragons at recess?). The schoolwork does not appear to be harder than NJ -- in fact, Nile is repeating his semester of studying the Holocaust, and I'm not sure that's such a good thing. Surely one semester of that is enough for a 14 year old to deal with. Dani's classes that are not AP are, as she states, "so easy". Better than too hard. Nile's pre-AP science is proving interesting, they are looking at hurricanes right now, which seems appropriate given Earl's action.


I started my second per-diem nursing job this week. This one is in a south Austin woundcare clinic and oh my goodness, folks, I've never worked in a clinic before but let me tell you something.....this is INCREDIBLY easy compared to hospital work. You get a lunch break! When you want it! You can pee when you need to! The doctor knows your name and he USES it to address you! The patients remember you from last week! They are happy to see you! Alright, you get the gist of it. Even better, this job pays as well as hospital positions because it's affiliated with a hospital and there's a single per-diem RN rate. All I can say is after 3 years of med-surg on 3 West, I deserve it. The only downer is I have to wear dowdy navy scrubs; here's a picture.


But you know, I definitely want to keep my psych job going too. It's just too much fun there. In a single shift last week, a patient wanted me to leave with him as I discharged him and get married. Really. He was serious. Why, how did you know that I really dig hyperverbal bipolar narcissists? And then a few hours later, another patient fired me as his nurse because I'm just too much of a bitch. Yes, he used that word. Here's the deal: I wouldn't discharge him without a doctor's order (that pesky little detail). You can't just let unstable psychiatric patients run out the door, for obvious reasons. Oh, but I'm a bitch. Good thing I didn't marry that first guy, he'd have been sorry.


We had another family gathering Sunday and (can you stand it?) here's more pool pictures. Someone at work said that if we turn on the heater, we can use this baby into November. Music to my ears. And my dearest brother Roy, who has a booth at Room Service (a very cool Austin store, check it out), took away some of the junk in our garage with the promise of more to be removed. The bedrooms and office were painted, so Nile is no longer in a pink room with fairies on the coffered ceiling looking down at him. It's a manly blue.


One sour note...still no progress with the DMV. The NJ high school told us they issued a completion card to Dani for driver's ed. She has no memory of this & if we can't find it, the state will have to reissue. Yep, that's the one and only state of NJ, in the middle of one of the worst fiscal crises in the nation. I'm sure some sweet civil servant will gladly issue us a new card. Maybe if I can figure out which agency, how to contact them, and who to ask. Alright, I'm tired just thinking of that. I'm going to swim laps in my new best friend.