Is it really December 16 already? Okay, so I obviously haven’t written in a while. I’m just going to aim to hit the highlights. There have been a few of them.
On November 29, I had an all-day training in Tacoma, on the Dimensions of Diversity for YMCA. I was impressed by the facility down there. If I had a Y like that near me, having a free membership as an employee would be a much bigger perk. The training itself was interesting. There were a tremendous range of people there, and pretty much all of them were at the level of running programs. I was an outlier on the low end. On the high end, the Seattle CEO was there. When it was over, I don’t know that I could honestly say my skill set had changed any, but I was far more impressed with the Y as an organization. There was, in that room at least, a strong commitment to social justice, and to doing our best to serve all aspects of our community.
As I left, I got a small chance to enjoy the beautiful day, and appreciate the gorgeous view of Mt. Rainier. My phone camera didn’t do it justice, of course. When I sent the picture to Denero, though, he immediately came back with, “Can we go there?!” Not now, unfortunately. My car is not able to deal with the mountains in winter.
What I could do, though, was take him to see Garden d’Lights at the Bellevue Botanical Garden. The weather was chilly but not wet, and admission was free. Perfect timing. We enjoyed the lights, and even figured out how to adjust the exposure on our phone cameras, to get somewhat-decent pictures of them.
On Wednesday, I was on a new route for UPS working around the southern reaches of Medina and northern bits of Bellevue. We wound up working a full day. I was back on Thursday, and we worked around an 11 hour day.
When I woke on Friday, I could barely move. I was grateful, then, for the sub assignment I had, at a new school for me: the North Seattle French School, where I was teaching 1st grade (in English, though, not French).
On Saturday, Denero finally got into the dentist. I got a big surprise, because I’d only ever seen his teeth from the vantage point of a smile. It turns out that, behind that pretty nice smile, his teeth are a mess. There’s a huge work plan ahead of him, through Project Access in Seattle. I’ve got a query into my own dentist, to see if we might work something out closer, but we’ll just have to see how it goes.
On Sunday, we went with Stephanie to see Moana. This time, we went to Bella Botega, because Woodinville wasn’t showing it in 3D (at least not that I could find). It was kind of fun, and nice to see the “not a princess” with a bit of cultural diversity. Even better that they cast people who had at least some claim to Pacific Island heritage.
Monday, I was on another new route for UPS, this time just north of downtown Kirkland. We’d barely gotten through a couple hours when my left wrist became very unhappy. I can’t identify anything in particular I did to it. In fact, it started hurting during lunch, when I wasn’t doing anything at all strenuous. But after another hour, which involved favoring it, I was sent home. Rather than go home, though, I called my doctor’s office, and managed to get an appointment pretty much right away. The doctor said it was tendonitis. She put me in a brace, and told me not to use the wrist for 7-10 days. So much for working for UPS.
The good news was that I was able to get some more sub work. On Tuesday, I was back teaching Kindergarten at Bellevue Children’s Academy, and on Wednesday I taught English/Social Studies for two instructors at Eastside Prep.
I was surprised, when I got home Wednesday, to see Denero in an air cast. Sebastian had kindly agreed to get Denero to his appointment to get his cast off that afternoon, but now an air cast was in its place. He’s supposed to wear it for another 2 weeks. I’m still not entirely clear on the reason why; apparently it has something to do with Denero not standing evenly. I don’t know how a cast would address that, though.
On Thursday, I had an interview with the College Success Foundation. The position is essentially clerical, but, as I told them, I actually care a lot less about what I’m doing than I do about why I’m doing it. CSF has a mission I could definitely get behind, and I’d love to work there. I haven’t heard back yet, though, so I’m guessing I didn’t get the job.
Friday, I was supposed to be back at Seattle Academy, but we woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground and some snow still falling. No school for Denero, and no work for me. Sebastian was going to go in, but quickly found that the Seattle area is a difficult place to drive when there’s snow. It was a good thing Denero’s new cast was removable, because he got it soaked, out there playing in the snow. He had a blast, though. He just wishes snow didn’t have to mean cold.
Neither Denero or I can remember much about what we did this past weekend, which means we probably didn’t do much that was interesting. I know he was trying to convince me to take it easy, so my wrist had a chance to heal, in case I was working for UPS this week.
Despite taking it easy, I wasn’t confident of my wrist on Monday morning, so I opted against working for UPS that day. I did go work for YMCA, helping out at Ben Rush.
Tuesday, I had a busy day, starting with an interview for an Emergency Substitute Teacher position with the Mercer Island School District. Their posting had encouraged people without teaching certificates to apply, saying the District would help get the appropriate certificate. I was accepted as a candidate, which meant I had to go get my fingerprints done. I took care of that, and dropped them back by the School District afterward.
Mid-day, I had a vet appointment for Tibby. She’s been slowly losing weight, and acting like she’s always hungry. Bloodwork determined she’s hyperthyroid, and she started on medication for that yesterday morning. So far, she’s tolerating it pretty well. I’m hoping it helps her feel better, and put a little weight back on.
In the late afternoon, Denero had his first physical therapy appointment. He’s still in the air cast, but the therapist had him doing some basic exercises without it. His original referral was for Children’s Hospital in Bellevue, but with therapy twice a week, I’d be missing a lot of work getting him to his appointments down there. I managed to get it switched to a local physical therapy office. Once Denero’s out of his air cast, he can get to his appointments on his own.
Wednesday, I was at Audubon for YMCA. The group I wasn’t working with was doing FuzeBeads, which involves making designs with little colored beads, which are then “fuzed” by melting them with an iron. I was impressed at some of the holiday-themed designs the kids were making, without even the benefit of a template.
Yesterday, UPS still didn’t have anything for me, but they did bring by my paycheck, at least. I didn’t work at YMCA, because it was really cold, and I had decided not to have Denero walk to his PT in his cast. The exciting news was a call from PIMA: I did get the math instructor job there. The official package is still being put together, but I’ll be going there early next week to pick up the text and other materials that will help me plan for the class.
No work today at all, which kind of sucks, but since I have some good options moving forward, it’ll be okay. I made a plan for our winter break: Denero and I will use the two weeks off to get things cleaned up and organized around here. We’ll definitely throw in a few adventures, too, but I figure we’ve got a couple weeks to set ourselves up for starting off the New Year right.
I also broke out my “real” camera to get a shot of the moon through my living room window this morning. Denero saw this, and now wants to learn photography. I think we can work on that.
Randomness & Life 