Updates
Tigra, aka B11202, is now at the Humane Society awaiting adoption. We're not taking her. All her tests were negative, so they have no idea why she went on a hurl fest. Makes J and I nervous to adopt a cat who has/had *something* wrong with her that no one can diagnose. Plus, Nick & Gil's special, prescription teeth-care kibble is so expensive, it would be hard to up our feline costs by 50% right now.
Once again, the employee answering the phone at the Animal Hospital (third person overall) gushed about what a lovable scamp she is, purring for everyone and "bouncing off the walls."
Pray that she gets the good home she deserves.


As Dora the Explorer says, "We did it! We did it! We did it!"
Or good enough. Done with work at Zehrs. EI or no, so glad to be done. I will finally get to have my weekday evenings with my husband and our weekends together again. Which will be very nice to have, since he is about to enter the busiest time of his work year, when all the new students show up, and I will start classes in a month. And, oh yeah, our household will be growing, Tigra or no.
Had another shoulder...hmm, event? today. I call them "spasm," but I doubt that is correct. From the top of my left shoulder down my back to the tip of the shoulder blade and up the left side of my neck, it feels like all the muscles clench up slowly but powerfully, radiating pain throughout "Radiating" is the word because the area gets very hot, and ice packs help. At the worst moments, I can't lift my arm or bend over, and am left gasping for breath. So, you know, glad I can stop lifting crap with the kind of poor form dictated by the objects and the till. The ergonomics of that job are a nightmare, esp for people over 5'4".
Even so, yesterday's shift was my best ever, pleasant dealings with everyone. I thought before speaking (a feat for someone with a first-degree relative diagnosed with ADD and showing some symptoms herself) and defused a potential situation by thanking someone for bringing my error to my attention, one made in ignorance b/c little is explained there until you fuck it up and need reprimanding. Even Lori was nice while bagging for me.
But I can't face working tomorrow night 5-10:30pm, and H&R confirmed my hour calculations today, so I called into work, as EI told me to do, and let them know that I am going on Sick Leave and will not be appearing for work this week.
I got shuffled around four different people until I ended up with Jane, evil Jane, intimidated short Jane, who feels the need to stand on things like curbs and steps when talking to me so that the top of her hair will be the height of my chin. (I love being tall. ;-P)
Jane went from 0 to hyper, hostile bitch in, oh, 0.3 seconds. Very impressive. Her entire tone was outright nasty, bitchy, suspicious, without any notions of politeness or benefit of the doubt.
Remember: until my 45-day evaluation a couple of weeks ago, where she was equally nasty, I had never spoken with this person. So, she either hates me on sight, trusts people saying nasty things about me so implicitly that there's no self-presentation I could give to diffuse her negative opinion of me, or she's just this awful to all underlings. I really don't know.
Her attitude, esp since things have been so nice with everyone else, was so shocking and so amped that I didn't even have a chance to react with my own anger. It was like dealing with a insane person: you just instinctively reach for even, calming words and tones to dial down the crazy before the 6-foot white rabbit tells her to strangle me. In the moment, it was more baffling than anything else.
"So you're saying that you're not coming in to work this week?!"
"Yes."
"And when were you planning to inform me of this?!"
"With this phone call."
At the time, my next shift was 26 hours away, and I know from my experience being called in to cover for others that that is about 17-24 hours more than they usually get.
Every question either sniped at me b/c I was somehow doing this process wrong, not that I've ever done it before or that it has ever been explained, and her prying into what's wrong with me. I was prepared for the latter and had deflecting answers, simply reassuring her that I had my Medical Certificate from my doctor, and that my GP and OB agree that I should not be working. "Well, I'll have to see that." And she can't give me a Record of Employment until I've filled out forms and she has filled out her part and then had them sent to head office.
"Um, that sounds like it could take some time," I nervously commented.
"Mmm hmm," was all the curt reply I got.
But at least I have the security of knowing I can supply my pay stubs to EI if Zehrs does not produce an ROE withing the next 14 days, as required by law.
I wasn't ready for other nasty question she had no right to ask, but unfortunately, I am a direct, straightforward person who gives answers to direct questions, even if I realize moments later that I was under no compunction to reply and that it wasn't necessarily in my best interest to be honest with someone who seems to have it out for me.
"Do you even have enough hours for EI?!"
"Yes."
"But you've haven't been here long!" [I swear all the exclamation points truly are necessary to convey her speech accurately.]
"At Zehrs, no, but I had another job earlier this year."
Why am I telling her any of this? EI is funded by employees' payroll contributions. It doesn't matter to Zehrs one way or another, esp since the Ministry of Labour does not require them to hold my job, re-hire me, or anything b/c I've been there less than three months.
Anyway, being in pain and all, I asked if my husband could collect the forms, and so that's what we did. (J: "You didn't tell me she was a dwarf!") He'll be delivering them tomorrow, too, to the vicious, wretched, crazy dwarf lady.
Whaaaaaaaatever.
J thinks that if I don't get EI, we might be able to find me some campus work, now that I'm a student and qualify for some jobs I couldn't get as a civilian. Plus, pay scales are based on one's semester, so I will jump ahead to a fifth-semester pay scale.
As long as I can do it sitting down....



Back to ten days ago, when I was having as good a time as possible in MI while Nick was missing. My dad asked me at my birthday dinner if I watched "that 'Sex & the City' show that's on TBS now."
I told him I did, and he laughed, "Man, I've tried a couple of episodes and I cannot beLIEVE that this is the 'cleaned-up' version. I mean, what did they do on HBO: have actual, full-on nudity?"
Taking care not to spew lobster-stuffed mushroom caps, I guffawed and told that's *exactly* what they had, plus a lot of swearing.
But I gotta give Dad credit for being a quick study. "Well, who do you identify with? I see you as like that Charlotte girl or Miranda."
I laughed again, b/c I have the exact same opinion.
"Charlotte seems like you b/c she's--I don't want to say prudish, but, you know, kind of *proper* about sex and dating and what she wants from life. And Miranda is smart and speaks her mind and knows how to argue, so that seems like you, too."
Aww, home is where you are known.
I agreed and told him I see Charlotte as my younger self, but that I am becoming more Miranda-like with age. ;-)

Hopefully, the rest of the week will be uneventful. I only have my regular OB appt on Wed morn. (Oh, goodie, a weigh-in.) J and I finally should get to see his friends--another IR couple even--who have been inviting us over for months to mooch off their old baby clothes. And I should have time now to write Bunny for tips on being a mommy in Guelph. She and her husband, Brooks, friends of ex-roommate Wayne, were congratulatory and ready to help when J let them know of our impending parenthood. :-) I'm just bummed she doesn't run her own in-home daycare anymore.