I've Got Friends In Lowe's Places

For those of you who don't know...I have given up my position of daycare teacher. Yeah, I know, you're shocked. But this is just for those who don't know.

I loved working with the kids. Loved it. I loved those kids. Some so much that I never told their parents how I got those scars on the back of my hands because I knew what would happen to them if I did tell. Some so much that their parents want me to come work for them. Some so much just because there's no reason not to.

But here's the deal: that job really does depend on who you're working with and for. After many raises at the school I worked for, I still made less when I left than I do as a starting wage as a Customer Service rep at Lowe's Home Improvement. Sad, isn't it? The interview process was three times harder than getting hired at the daycare, too. That's really scary. The clientele's mostly the same. You have to tell them where the bathrooms are, ask them leading questions to see if they're finished, help them learn new vocabulary and sometimes deal with childish temper tantrums.

No, my new job's not quite as fulfilling...but it's a heckuva lot easier, pays a lot better, has great benies, allows me to call in sick without being skewered on a stick because 'management' can't afford for me to be sick, doesn't tell me how to raise my son, which doctor to pick, or make comments on my personal life. (Okay, they may talk about me and my personal life, but they don't comment on it as a matter of personnel business) And most importantly, I don't have to pay somebody else 1/3 of my paycheck for the priviledge of raising my child myself.

Instead, my son goes to pre-school three mornings a week and is learning a great deal in a wonderful, healthy environment. I spend most days with him and work evenings and week-ends. And we get discounts on bubble wrap - always a good entertainment on a dull day.

So...maybe someday in the not so distant future I'll be back in the daycare business (not for myself, though, no way!) if I find the right circumstances. But until then, I'm doing just fine asking if you've found everything you needed today.

Cities of Dust

Someday I'm going to go back to singing barbershop and I'm going to be in a quartet - not just any quartet, but one that gets to compete internationally. Now it's a sad state of the perfectly wonderful Sweet Addies organization that just about every registered quartet must have an exclamation point after their name or have that one word 'razzle dazzle' kind of moniker: e.g. "Spotlight!", "Jukebox", "Razzcals", "Shimmer!", "Celebrate!"...you get the gist. I've decided the organization needs a little shakeup in terms of quartet 'image'. I'm thinking my quartet is going to be an Alternative to Alternative listening. We're going to have a name that only the in people from the 80s could get: something along the line of "The Disease", "The Altercation", "A Pod of Whales", "The Rowling Stoneds", "Depressed a la Mode", and my personal favorite, "Sushi and the Bamboo Sheaths."

Nah, we don't need mohawks, we've got helmet hair. And who needs camo pants? Those are so yesterday. What we need is more sequins. And fringe. And rhinestones. With a name like "Scantily Half Clad Women" we could walk out in sweats and I'd still consider it a success.

I can just see my first place crown right now...