randomosity

i met w/ a guidance counselor at the girl's middle school this morning to talk about high school options. there are more than i realized. i took copious notes. i will be attending a magnet fair in january to get even more information. our goal? for her to have a better high school experience than she's had in middle school. i don't want her feeling like the biggest nerd in school all through high school. i realize some of the last three years have been the result of hormonal changes and everyday normal middle school girl drama, but i also cannot stand to have her suffer being an outcast for the next four years. i want to find a school where she feels good, where she fits in (mostly) and that challenges her academically. the guidance counselor met w/ me for almost two hours. he made phone calls. he was incredibly helpful and nice. you know what i'm going to say next don't you? he's gay. i don't give a rat's ass about that, but i find it interesting because any middle or high school guidance counselor that i've known that is a guy is gay. i know, it's a generalization, but i find it interesting nonetheless.

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i stopped to get gas on the way home and low and behold there was a woman pumping gas that i worked w/, briefly, 13 years ago. i said, hello, aren't you so and so? she looked at me like i had two heads. uh, yes. didn't you work at xyz? uh, no. i worked at abc. i looked closer at her (even w/ my eye issues i know i can see for god's sake). aren't you so and so and you worked at xyz on such and such street and sally and steve also worked with us? a glimmer of recognition started to ignite. i said, you know, the company made this stupid bullshit. oh! yes....she remembered the actual name of the company and not the initials i called it by. the light bulb went off. she remembered me. we chatted briefly, in the cold, at the gas pump. she's been unemployed as long as i have. she is as downtrodden and exasperated as i am. she consoles herself w/ the fact her husband still works, her "babies" are now 26 and gainfully employed and that there are people who need a job worse than she does. she is about 10 years older than me. lives right around the corner from the gas station, nearly around the corner from me, give or take a mile. it's a small, economically depressed world.

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this week i have been battling the unemployment funk and the wondering-what-the-hell comes next funk. yesterday i was working on a freelance project (thank god for freelance). i am fact checking articles for different publications. this particular article is on trust funds and a specific one that benefits organ transplants. i had to talk to a mom who's kindergartner just had a liver transplant in september. her baby had a rare genetic disease that caused liver problems. she has two younger children who also have the same thing who also will need liver transplants. when i think of that woman i realize i don't have a whole helluva lot to bitch about in the grand scheme of things.