Oh, it's about to be ON...

So we just had the shift bid at work. Basically, they put out a list of the shifts and the days off and you choose according to seniority. Well, I have no seniority, so I was the last female in the airport and basically got the days off that were left over after everyone else. Not terrible days, but still no Sunday, so I still can't go to church with the family.
BUT...(isn't there always a but?) that may change.
You see, last week someone with more rank then me brought to my attention that I could file for a schedule accommodation for religious reasons, thereby acquiring Sunday off so I could go worship with my family. They told me about this because they know I actually attend church regularly with my family and it's actually part of my life, unlike the handful of people who suddenly "find God" every year at the bid so they can try and get weekends off. They wanted the system to work how it's supposed to, and they wanted to help me practice my faith without work getting in the way. So I filled out the required paper work and wrote a letter which reads as follows:
I am requesting a reasonable accommodation to my RDO (regular day off) schedule in consideration of my religious beliefs. The time and location of our worship services are an integral part of our faith and they are predetermined annually, outside my control. Due to the lack of a Sunday RDO I am unable to attend my church services and fulfill my calling as a teacher within my congregation. Services are three hours long, once a week, on the Sabbath day we observe, which is Sunday. It is vital to the observance of my faith that I be able to attend with my congregation at the time determined by my leaders. I ask that a scheduling accommodation be permitted so that I might continue to attend services with my family and other members of my religious community.
Not harsh, not demanding, short and sweet, no? I tried submitting it before the bid so that they could adjust availability accordingly, but was told that I had to bid first in case I could request Sunday off. Kind of silly considering that I'm the last in line and everyone knows there's no way I could get it, but okay, I'll follow proper channels. And that's fine. Until I got "the email".
Yes, quotation marks. Because this is what the correspondence is now being called by myself and another coworker who is also asking for a religious accommodation. Long story short, one of the managers said that when they are "forced to grant" religious accommodations they cannot guarantee consecutive days off. I had no problem with separate days off, heck, I thought it was the best scenario for us, but what I DO object to(strenuously, in case you didn't catch that)is the use of the word FORCED. The exceptionally negative connotation it carries with it is not something I want following me in my career. I worked very hard to make my letter as polite and concise as possible, even running it by a lawyer friend to make sure I'd done okay. I didn't threaten, I didn't get sassy, I didn't even demand anything, I simply asked that they consider granting me the chance to attend my worship services. Thankfully, this request is not up to the discretion of said manager, but it is the opinion of myself and my coworkers that we may actually be given split days off simply so a point can be made. Thankfully, some of the supes are involved and they have really got our back on this issue, since it has such potential of becoming an Equal Employment Opportunity quagmire. Thankfully, there are still people in this heavily bureaucratic system who are trying to do the right thing.
I'm just waiting for them to try and tell me I can have Sunday but have to split days off due to staffing issues. If that happens I really WILL have a valid legal complaint on my hands. I know you're just dying to ask why that is, right?
Those days off I was just assigned today, the ones I had no control over....Monday and Tuesday. Go ahead and tell me I can't have Monday off.....just try me

I am exhausted

Seriously. In every possible sense of the word. Emotionally, mentally, physically. I just need, like, 2 days in a bed with nobody around to bother me. And a computer, because heaven forbid I go without the interweb for more than an hour or two. I think everyone I know could use a break like that.
So totally wanted to go see Avenue Q, but it's in town the weekend we're going to Seattle to see The Presidents of the United States of America. Curious George really likes them so I figured that for 19 bucks a pop the tickets were reasonable. Until I finally got through all the extra fees and charges that Ticketmaster tacks on and I paid 63 smackers for two stupid tickets! Yeah, $25 in assorted fees, seriously ridiculous. Don't forget about the gas and food to get there too, and the day I'm taking off of work so we can see the show without trying to drive back the same night. I will be so happy if we finally manage to move over there so I can go see more shows without all the work and travel. Speaking of shows, Bowling for Soup will be here on Monday, and I am so seriously bummed that I'm not going. But we just coughed up a good chunk of change for those Presidents tix and I'd have to work in the morning, which would be no fun at all. I guess I'll just have to hope to catch them another time.
My Zune got stood on by a 7 year old who wanted to see if it could hold him and the screen got massively cracked. This was months ago, but I finally saved up enough money from my extra hours that I sent it in to get fixed. It took about 3 weeks to get a replacement back, and when I finally did it didn't work! So I had to send that one back and now I'm waiting for ANOTHER replacement. Ugh, very frustrating. I really really love my Zune too.
So the Duggars have said they're open to having more children(that means 19 and counting). I have my own feelings on this, but I'm always so surprised at how venomous people can be about the issue. I mean, downright nasty. It's insane what people will say about those with opposing views. All I said to someone once was "Hey, as long as everyone's happy and safe, why not?" and boy did I get freaking chewed out. I may be one of 10 kids, but I think anyone who has over 2 is either crazy or a saint (I have 3, guess which camp I'm in). That doesn't mean I'm right, and it sure the hell doesn't mean that my opinion it perfect for everyone. Of all the things you could be mean and pissy about...things like war and famine and human slave trade...you're gonna be mad because one more kid is born who has a home and food and people who love them? I'm just sayin...

It's about time

It's a small blessing that I have Wednesday off because that's the only day our mini temple has an early morning session. Leaving the house at 5 am isn't really that hard when you're used to leaving at 3:45.
I'm ashamed to say that I don't really remember the last time I went to the temple. It seems like I'm missing a whole year of my life and I may never really remember what I did to get through the days. But I went.
I added some friends to the prayer rolls. People I love who need physical healing, emotional healing, or just...something...that I can't provide. God is great, I know He will dole out the healing and peace that is needed.
I unexpectedly saw some friends from my old ward there, wonderful women who I see entirely too little of. One of them asked how we're doing and I had to honestly tell her that, well, trying to put things back together after this Iraq thing is hard. She confided that things STILL aren't back to the way they were before her husband's year deployment in Korea. That was, like, a decade ago. It's reassuring to know that even this long married and solid couple can have such a long reintegration process, but at the same time it feels like we're never going to be done slogging through the emotional quagmire that this left behind. I just wake up everyday hoping that things get better before I run out of the energy to keep trying to fix them.
I think I'm going back next week...

Today

I am trying to focus on the special aspects of Thing 1's Aspergers. Like, for one thing, he's so blissfully unaware of social norms that he accepts everyone equally, even the kids who are otherwise shunned by their peers for being different. Also, he is exceptionally passionate about the things that interest him, and will eagerly research everything he can about his current obsession. He's very engaging and well spoken when conversing about things he likes, particularly with adults. A woman at church even bought him a special notebook to write down his science questions after he spent 3 weeks in a row talking to her about DNA and geology. Sometimes his predictability and obsession make things easy. I mean, if I can't decide what to make for dinner I know that macaroni and cheese will NEVER get a complaint from him.
It's all perspective, right?

Well hello again

I'm still sick. All the antibiotics and the stupid inhaler and I still wake up with nasty spasms of coughing. Not pleasant. A coworker has the same thing and she's been coughing for over a month now so I guess I should just get ready for more of the same for a while. I took a couple different cold meds and a few puffs from the inhaler yesterday and something about that particular combination suddenly left me in a loop. I was juuuust this side of high to be honest. Had to make someone take over the x-ray machine while I went to sit down for a bit. It took me a while to figure out why I felt so light headed and why everything was leaning all sideways. So not ready for that after just some cold medicine. Sure learned my lesson though
I have a few gripes about work and the way the system is set up, but I don't think it's helpful to airport security or beneficial in any way, so I'll keep my yap shut about it. At least until I get promoted to a position where I can do something about it. Ahh, bureaucracy...
Another shift bid coming up at work, which basically just means I'll be getting stuck with the crap days off nobody else wants again. Yay me, nothing like being in the group of top testers and getting......absolutely nothing...just because somebody who sucks has managed to be there longer. Again, not that I'm the bitter type.
It snowed today while I was at work. It's like being in a snowglobe to look out at the wall of windows and seeing big swirling flakes of the white stuff. It's almost cool for about two seconds. Thankfully it's almost entirely melted away already.
And just a reminder kids, don't try to bring your ammo on the plane with ya!

I'm glad THAT'S over

Okay, today was MAJOR testing day for me at work. The testing happens every year but this is my first year doing it and of course I've been hearing nothing but horror stories about how hard it is. There's a national team that comes in to do the testing and they do every little thing exactly according to the book and it's a lot like jumping through little tiny hoops. Repeatedly.
To say I was nervous would be the understatement of the year. I was a freakin mess for the hour before testing. Thankfully I do pretty well in the heat of the moment and managed to pull myself together once my tests started. It's all about our procedure so we do several different types of searches(passengers and bags)and two people stand there and evaluate every little move you make. And they are masters of the blank face too, totally nerve wracking. I decided that I would just go in, take my time, and do my best. And take my time I did. It took me 45 minutes to pull apart a bag for my full bag search. I knew every centimeter of that bag by the time I was done. I owe that bag dinner. My husband is uncomfortable with how well I know that bag. I will never EVER buy that brand of luggage because I am so flippin sick of it at this point. I will probably be a joke among the testing team forever, but I didn't miss a single thing on that bag so I don't really care.
Oh, you want to know how I did overall?
If I might be so humble....I killed it
Oh yeah, not just passed, I didn't miss a single thing on a single one of my procedures. Think it sounds easy? Hardly. Someone told me it was the first time at our airport that a first time tester has gotten 100% on everything. And it was HARD. Not really as hard physically as it is emotionally, particularly because I'd never done it before and had no idea what to expect so I was stressed beyond reason. I know that I can do my job, I mean, I know this stuff cold, but that also means I don't have anyone to blame but myself if I had tanked and I'm just not sure I could handle the beating I dish out. I can be kind of mean when I want to be.
There were a few incidents today before testing that totally made it easier to deal with though. The first one was when I was patting someone down and found a Chapstick they had tucked in their sock, which just made me feel like "yeah,I guess I am doing something around here other than just filling space", and the second one was something I never thought I'd see in real life. I mean, I've heard stories but...
Okay, so I was loading bags into the machine and trying to shake off last minute nerves before testing and I told the X-ray operator "You've got crew coming" to give them a heads up and they say "And I've got a cat". It was someone who's prone to say goofy things like that so I laughed it off, but they said they were serious. I leaned over to peek at the monitor and sure enough, there was a big blob with legs. It was crazy. Poor Mike reached out to grab the bag and, no joke, it starts moving. Turns out some little old lady just thought we wanted to see everything in her bag so she sent poor Whiskers right on through. It certainly eased some of my anxiety to come across something so absurd. *sigh* Some of the things we see....

Bleh

I'm sick again. Or is it still? Eh
Anyhow, I've had this cough for a couple weeks now and it's just getting worse. I haven't had a full night sleep in days and it's really affecting me. I have super major stupid testing at work tomorrow and I decided it was about time to do SOMETHING that would let me sleep. Went to the doctor and walk out with some prescriptions for antibiotics and an inhaler. Hmm, guess I could've gone in a week ago like everyone was telling me to...She wanted to give me some of that really great cough syrup with codeine in it, but since codeine gives me stomach pains to rival the ravages of pancreatitis we both thought that was a bad idea. I had to leave work early today to get into the clinic, but at least the holiday pay means I won't be missing hours in the long run.
Not much else happening here, good or bad. We seem to have stabilized at the moment and everything is at least workable, not too bad I guess.
Still no snow. Still not disappointed about that.
That's about it. Nothing insightful, nothing even interesting. But I suppose that has its perks as well yes?