Talkative Tuesday!

[nam2013]

My kid has discovered ‘jokes’... and starts telling me first thing in the morning. What are you girls are up to today!

[lfig]

Morning! Headed to occupational therapy this morning for S. Then out and about with my sister, her kids, and my parents. We will go for a few short hikes and then swim at a local swimming hole/waterfall that’s in our park, then back to my house to probably swim in the pool.

My nephew is the equivalent to young Sheldon. Last night he followed me around telling me all kinds of random facts. And going into great detail about the history of things. I asked him where he learned all this knowledge from... he said documentaries. Lol. He’s 11! It’s gonna be a long day with him 😂

[trtlcrzy]

Morning. Although I’m going to miss the quiet I’m very excited for my babies to come back this evening. Until then I don’t know what I’m going to do, probably spread some mulch in the garden and take a nap.

ETA: that’s a lie, I need to go to a local toy store to get the girls their big sister gifts at some point today. That should be fun. I have no idea what I’m getting them yet.

[vino]

Good luck at the appointment lfig. Sounds like you have a fun day planned and I’m laughing at your nephew, that’s adorable.

nam2013 B has a joke of the day every day with school and he just cracks up! Then repeats them over and over, it’s hilarious.

Glad you had a good rest without the girls trtlcrzy, enjoy the reunion tonight!

[vino]

Morning.

I was asleep before the garden solar lights came on last night, so I’m feeling pretty rested. The kids are still asleep so I am enjoying my tea in the silence.

I’m like a hundred years late to the obsession but I’ve got a fitbit now and am obsessed with monitoring my sleep and steps and everything else it does.

[nam2013]

Jun 16, 2020 7:08:03 GMT -6 vino said:

nam2013 B has a joke of the day every day with school and he just cracks up! Then repeats them over and over, it’s hilarious.

Ds has a monthly subscription to an animal/wildlife magazine centred around the Dutch equivalent of Steve Irwin, that also contains a page with jokes. He repeats them over and over and makes up his own versions, which he thinks are hilarious 😂.

[inthekitty]

Kid jokes always make me laugh because half the time they make no sense but the kid thinks they really made up something great. The sheer innocence of their pleasure and laughter partnered with their nonsensical joke is a delight. 😄

[nam2013]

Jun 16, 2020 8:23:49 GMT -6 inthekitty said:

Kid jokes always make me laugh because half the time they make no sense but the kid thinks they really made up something great. The sheer innocence of their pleasure and laughter partnered with their nonsensical joke is a delight. 😄

Yes!!!

[lahdeedah]

Morning.

Sounds like a fun day. lfig I desperately need a pool day for some sun. Sunday after I put sand on my yard, I went to wash my legs off and was shocked at how pale they were.

trtlcrzy Tell me what you find. I’m still deciding on M2 a toy for his birthday and I have no idea what to get him. Shopping for the second kid is hard.

[inthekitty]

My boss has everyone on edge about returning to the office. He keeps saying an order is going to come out but then nothing does. It's super annoying and I'm pissed at how it's being handled. When he first mentioned 2 weeks ago that we'd be going back the following week I asked for some flexibility to continue WFH until my kids finish school. He responded I can take leave. I thought you've got to be effing kidding about taking 2 weeks of leave when I could continue to work from home. People piled on because someone found guidelines that stated to WFH as much as is feasible and to give individual consideration for health and childcare issues.

Covid-19 has highlighted so many systemic issues for me--the impact of piss poor leadership, how problematic it is to not have a national healthcare system, and how little flexibility and support there is for work-life balance and families in the workplace. I've heard so many remarks basically making it sound like you're getting away with a lazy scheme by working from home. No, myself and millions of others are still doing our jobs on top of other responsibilities thrust our way.

I hope that I can continue to WFH in the long run because it's so much better for my mental wellbeing and it would be a tremendous help over the years with family issues.

[lahdeedah]

I’m sorry how poorly it’s being handled. inthekitty It has to be frustrating. They should not make you all go back in to the office when you can still do your work at home. That’s BS.

[vino]

That is awful inthekitty, there are some groups within my organization, although very few, and it just highlights the poor leadership and their inability to performance manage. If you think Joe and Karen are working just cause they have reported to their cubicle or office every morning is such a joke, employees like that will fuck around at home, in the office, with or without clients.

[tgrimes]

Jun 16, 2020 8:49:46 GMT -6 vino said:

That is awful inthekitty , there are some groups within my organization, although very few, and it just highlights the poor leadership and their inability to performance manage. If you think Joe and Karen are working just cause they have reported to their cubicle or office every morning is such a joke, employees like that will fuck around at home, in the office, with or without clients.

[nam2013]

inthekitty I’m sorry about your work situation. It sucks when employers assume the worst of their employees instead of trusting them.

[tgrimes]

inthekitty Our bosses have always been anti work from home. No one will work because there are too many distractions blah blah blah. Fast forward to now and my boss LOVES working from home. Our Houston office is going from 3 floors to 2 floors to save money and are pushing for people to work from home. Now all of the legal assistants will be required to work from home. They'll have a shared space in the office in case they need to come in for something, but the majority of our counties are paperless now. Apparently it hasn't been approved for the area managers to work from home. I can do 98% of my job from home. I realize I can't do that right now since we have to be open to the public so someone needs to be in the office to do that, but eventually we'll hire back the office people they laid off.

Being able to avoid rush hour traffic, getting dinner on the table at a reasonable hour, having a bit more time with the kids in the morning/evening is amazing. I'm not as stressed and I have more time to do fun stuff with the kids on the weekends because I can get more house work done during the week.

Rant over

[inthekitty]

tgrimes a million times yes. My stress level is way down. Also because of not fighting traffic (which can be a nightmare here because we only have 1 main freeway) I can start dinner earlier, get cleaning done during the week, exercise, walk doggo. And imagine that--still get my work done. I write reports so they can clearly see I'm still creating my "product." And eventually when the pandemic ends, it would open it up to make it easier for my kids to participate in after school activities and me to make it to their school events.

There's one part of my job that only represents about 10% of my work that we haven't been doing now--assessments that could be done by phone and save the government a ton of money. If they insisted those be done in person it could easily be accomplished by me just going in 1 day a week.

People absolutely screw around when in the office, messing around on the internet, chatting, disappearing to "training" or "meetings."

[nam2013]

inthekitty you also ‘lose’ so much time being social with coworkers, lunch, coffee rounds etc.! I mean I love my coworkers and I love chatting with them, but it costs time 😉.

ETA you as in general you, not you specifically.

[vino]

Totally agree about being less stressed with zero commute time and being able to do little things in the house during the day. As well, I like that since I have access to work I can log on at any time and complete the project, send emails, etc. Whereas being in the office and only having access there I had to leave my desk at 3.50pm regardless what was going on in order to catch the bus, get home and get the kids. It was a lot.

[inthekitty]

nam2013 definitely (not me that much because with the exception of 1 person I enjoy at work, most of my coworkers are total oddballs 🙃 ). My team has still been able to consult and chat by text, phone, and email when necessary.

vino oh my gosh it's so nice to get the laundry and other little stuff like that done during the day. Ditto that I've enjoyed not being restricted by my work hours. I've had plenty of times when I've worked on reports well into the evening past my work time because of being in my groove and wanting to get what I was working on done. Being home allows me to do that.

[klong11]

vino I'm tempted to have Cadence wear my Fitbit to bed just to see what her sleep looks like. When she gets up she looks like she's been in a fight and lately it's been at like 5am! Really enjoying getting some peaceful nights while she's at Grandma's.

[kim22]

Hello. I finally got my tooth fixed today from my appointment that was canceled on March 17th. C was a total nightmare this morning while we were trying to work, thankfully, I only have 3 more days. I’m so over it.

[tgrimes]

klong11 Did your stay at home orders get extended through August?

[lahdeedah]

Jun 16, 2020 11:44:51 GMT -6 tgrimes said:

klong11 Did your stay at home orders get extended through August?

I thought Texas was wide open? Are there changes with the rising numbers?

[tgrimes]

Jun 16, 2020 11:50:22 GMT -6 lahdeedah said:

Jun 16, 2020 11:44:51 GMT -6 tgrimes said:

klong11 Did your stay at home orders get extended through August?

I thought Texas was wide open? Are there changes with the rising numbers?

Not completely wide open but basically.  My friend that works in the med center told me the governor did that yesterday.  

[lahdeedah]

Hi. I’m at work. It’s not bad. One of the techs in another department sells those color sheets nail strips. I bought some for MIL and a set for me to try. Nothing else exciting happening here.

[flamingo]

Hi!

Got the kids off to camp this morning and headed to the new house, with a stop at a garden center to look at front porch planters. My sister and nephew met me to take a peek and I took over all the cleaning supplies, etc. Movers arrive tomorrow b/n 9-11. 

Now I'm back home with C and making some phone calls to set up appts for estimates. Her camp goes til 1 and she was a bit teary when I got there, I think she was 'done' for the day. She's chilling on the couch with some milk and a TV show now.

[inthekitty]

Just a random in regards to screwing around in the office and my weirdo co-irkers. My work is primarily administrative and I do a lot of medical record review and report writing. One of our docs routinely disappears for hours at a time and it's been discovered he hangs out a lot at Burger King. Not the place I would disappear for hours if I did such things. You would never guess this guy makes ~250k a year. He's always very disheveled and unkempt. Shocker that he's probably not doing his work from home because he doesn't do his work from work. These problem people aren't surprises.

[lahdeedah]

I just got a call from the guy to do the kitchen layout. I really hope after this we can set a date and get on with it.

[flamingo]

Jun 16, 2020 12:57:52 GMT -6 lahdeedah said:

I just got a call from the guy to do the kitchen layout. I really hope after this we can set a date and get on with it.

Three cheers for progress! 

[slenle]

Hi from the hair salon! Man, my lighting at home must be terrible because the second i sat in the chair, I noticed so. Many. Grays. One on top was even course and wavy which I’ve never seen before and it stood out so much. So this appointment was much needed.

The kids are at my sisters. N has dance as soon as I’m done here. The finally have a date set for the recital. It’ll be in 2 weeks on a weeknight and they only have to be in 1 performance, not two like normal. This will actually be great not to take up a whole weekend for it.