I’ve never had a JW visitor. Now I feel like I’m excluded from some club or something.
This was back when we lived in Connecticut. Didn’t move to Texas 'till I was ten. Very minor: I had a nice lunch all packed. It’s still in my fridge at home. :dubious: Ah, well, I guess lunch will become dinner. Now, instead of figuring out dinner, I just have to figure out lunch.
Less minor: There were a bunch of itty-bitty cockroaches (GAH!) in my new apt. when I first moved in, so they’re sending in a pest control guy today. That means that Al & Nikki have to go camp out at my parents’ house for the day. My mother has a cat, too – an ill-tempered beast (seriously, the ferals I used to care for were more affectionate) and I’m worried that one of mine will get out of the bathroom or wherever she’s going to corral them for the day and get into a fight with hers, or that the stress of being shuttled from a familiar home into a new and unfamiliar home, and then shuttled for a day into yet *another *unfamiliar home, will set poor old Al off into that nasty fatty liver vicious spiral.
You had me so hopeful reading that description, which I guess must have been what you were feeling as well. So I see what you mean. I don’t know where you are, but doesn’t Kaplan also operate several accredited colleges? If you’re good enough for a gig at a state school, I would think one of the Kaplan schools would want to snap you up, especially with this recent experience. Sure, it might not be the same thing. I don’t know what the environment is like at Kaplan’s schools, but I’ve taken Kaplan prep schools (although that was decades ago) and I have to believe it would be more rewarding than teaching the MCATs - where I suspect you don’t really get to do a lot of honest to god teaching.
Thank you. Plus, I didn’t know him before, so I can’t compare his current mental acuity to that of six months ago. Still, I concur with the above posters about decluttering. It’s easier if you don’t let it get to that level.
Meanwhile, this morning I show up to one of my regular clients, only to see workmen’s trucks in the driveway and hear the whine of drills and saws. They’re having work done on the roof, so I can’t work in the house. Thanks for letting me know ahead of time, lady.
It’s still awfully rude to not notify someone of a cancellation, even if they will still get paid for the day. It indicates that you think their time is worth absolutely nothing.
I’m not sure of the accreditation status, but they’re not hiring in my field and frankly I was trying to ramp up my adjuncting to get out from under them. I’ve applied for several promotions recently and they haven’t worked out; plus, the pay and hours are soul-sucking. I’m currently out of the house seven days a week for short shifts, most of which are evenings, so I don’t get to see much of my wife. I was really excited about getting some stability in this gig and then using it to expand a bit so I could go back to part-time work teaching the tests I actually enjoyed.
EDIT: No one at Kaplan gives a shit about your experience. I know this from when I cross trained onto MCAT at my supervisor’s request.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’d suggest community college, but if it’s anything like my experience years ago, it would probably be twice the work for even less money. I suppose there’s always tutoring, but I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you haven’t already considered and rejected for a variety of reasons. Anyway, once again, good luck.
Eh, I’m doing a lot of that, and I do appreciate the advice. The pisser is the cost of acquisition of these jobs, and how distressing it is when I thought I finally had a lock on one.
OK, well, after this I promise to shut up, but do you have any votech (vocational-technical) schools around where you are? It would require having some sort of marketable skill but you probably do even if you don’t realize it.
The adult education courses are of 2 types. One is for people who are going for certificates in particular areas, like to be an apprentice plumber, electrician, etc. But there are also certificate courses for graphic design, standard computer skills and a variety of other things you wouldn’t associate with a votech.
The other type of class is for people who just want to learn a particular skill, when it’s how to wire a socket or code a web page. The fees aren’t crazy expensive but not really cheap either and I don’t know what the split is between the school and the lecturers but it might be worth looking into. I would expect the vetting process to be less rigorous and the compensation might be decent.
Of course it would be another night gig so that would be the other downside. OK being quiet now.
edit: BTW, my town also offers such courses in parallel with the votech, but they go even farther afield to things like yoga, astrology, beading, virtually anything you think will get you a class or even a half of a class full of students.
I would love, just love, to go to a craft store, pick out my small purchases, go to the register, pay for them, and leave in a timely manner. I cannot do this thanks to Women of a Certain Age who turn into molasses on a winter day in Wisconsin around at the register. I get stuck behind them at Michael’s. I get stuck behind them at AC Moore, and today I got stuck behind them at Jo-Ann’s. At Michael’s and AC Moore I get stuck behind the women buying out half the store who have the gift of picking every single thing that has neither a price tag nor a UPC code on it. At Jo-Ann’s today I got stuck behind a woman returning some yarn (no problem with her) and some other woman futzing around on her cell phone for the gods only know what reason while the poor cashier stood there. I think Cell Phone chick was looking for a coupon or something and had to take fifteen years to find it.
And when I finally did get to the register, the cashier tries to sell me on their coupon email list. Only the fact that I had just gotten off my own customer service job prevented me from telling her to just scan my two spools of embroidery floss and shove her sign-up list up her ass so I could fucking LEAVE. ALREADY. Shit, the only reason I’m at your store is because this is the only place I could find that carries this particular floss I’m looking for. I almost ordered it online last night except I didn’t want to pay $4 shipping.
At least at AC Moore they’ve opened up a new register for me the last two times I got stuck behind Women of a Certain Age. I guarantee you when I reach the Certain Age, I will not slow all the way the hell down at a cash register because I hate shopping and only do it when necessary.
Damned Quebec secular charter, or whatever the fuck they’re calling it nowadays, is dividing so many people. It is now dividing my boss and I. Great. Work is going to be a lot of fun from now on…
I started teaching at the local tech college, two evenings a week. Pretty good money and a lot of fun.
After years of that, I interviewed for a full-time position and got it. Despite only having a BS (from a no-name college back in the 70s) in an unrelated field.
The money ain’t bad, the bureauracracy is harmless, and I get to teach! No committees, no “publish or perish”, no research… just teaching.
Oh, and SpazCat, I’d applaud if you said anything to the Women of a Certain Age.
I once said (to a cashier that had just suffered a line of slow biddies) “When I only have a decade left on this planet, I’m not going to want to waste it making a supermarket line go slower. And I won’t have time to spend driving 20 mph.”
Well I know, bless em, they are annoyingly slow, but look at it this way for a sec: try getting thru a day wearing Vaseline schmeared on your glasses, wearing 30# weights around your legs, wearing heavy rubber workgloves … thats what it must be like being Of a Certain Age. The body does not cooperate fully with what the brain is trying to tell it to do I imagine. Damn Ageing to Bloody Hell!
<sigh> I hate having to discipline my kid. I hate having to enforce the rules, and consequences that come with not following them.
He’s mostly a really good kid. However, he really hates Spanish class and has taken to not always doing his assignments, or when doing them, is lazy or careless. So as of mid-October, the rule was no video games during the school week until he went two weeks without getting any “No Credits” because of not turning in work, forgetting his name, or other “lazy” reasons. (At his school a grade of NC is given to any work lower than a C. There is no passing with a D at this school.)
Well in the last 4 weeks he has not only continued to get NCs, but his overall grade in the class has fallen. So on Monday, after the 8th NC in 5 weeks, the rule was amended to no video games at all, even on the weekends until he goes two weeks w/o a NC. Unfortunately for him, he just bought a new game on Saturday. Today he just realized that “no video games at all” means not even over Thanksgiving break. He’s frustrated and sulky and I know he’s more mad at himself than at me, but I know he’s also upset at me.
It’s so frustrating because this class could be an easy A for him if he just bothered to do the work. I’m also frustrated because his dad doesn’t really participate in the disciplinary process. He goes with whatever I say, but if I didn’t set rules and enforce them, no one would.
You think you won’t, you won’t want to, but unless you start training like an Olympic athlete, your body will slow you down. Younger people will come walking up behind and pass you, and you may hear them tsk-ing under their breath about how slow you are. You may drop something and take a couple of minutes to pick it up.
I say this from the perspective of 64. I’m doing pretty well for my age, but when I get out of my chair at work it takes about a minute of walking funny to work the kinks out so that I can walk at normal speed (and normal for me is still quite a bit slower than it used to be).
So, to echo SerafinaPikala, getting older is a challenge that you can’t quite fathom until it happens to you. I do, however, wish you the best when you get there. It still beats the alternative.
Roddy
Spending a lot of time taking care of sick people, or having disabling illnesses while young(ish) helps with the fathoming.
My mother, aunts and grandmother all count as Women of A Certain Age and Beyond, but all of them make sure that they walk to the side of the aisle and that they, or the younger person who happens to be with them, has money and fidelity card on hand before getting on cashier lines. It’s not so fracking difficult, but it does require the ability to accept your limitations and to plan in advance.
My guess is that they probably fall into 2 broad categories. One feels that with age should come a certain amount of deference. And I’m sure most people agree with that but some folks just overestimate how much deference they’re owed. Another group I think just gets lost. I know I get lost all of the time, but then I’ve been getting lost since . . . well for as long as I can remember - which admittedly isn’t saying much.
edit: seriously - that wasn’t a joke. I just get absorbed and lose track of my surrounding, become oblivious to people. And I’ve always been like that. I think people as they age approach the level of dementia I’ve always enjoyed.
