Re: I miss TH

I was thinking about the [time sink that is the] TH list just the other day. I miss it and I don't. I am too easily distracted.

I'm still substitute teaching, so I'm off right now. One of the beauties of working for a sub agency is that I can collect unemployment over the summer. I also work for a school district not affiliated with the agency, and I don't collect unemployment for them. This is my time to be a chauffeur--neither kid has a license yet for various reasons, including that even if they don't do any driving, if they have licenses, we have to cover them on our insurance.

I've pretty much come to accept that I will not get a regular teaching job. I'm too old--in less than a week, I'll be 55, the age when a lot of teachers think about retiring--and I have two master's degrees. The advantages to subbing are that I don't have to take work home with me, and I have some flexibility. The downside is that the pay sucks, and if I don't work, I don't get paid. So I sub pretty much every day during the school year.

Lucy is going into her junior year at Muhlenberg College where she is a neuroscience major. She loves it. She also plays rugby. I love telling people she's the loosehead prop for the hooker. We didn't understand rugby until we went to a match, and after the match, we still didn't understand it.

Henry has really been in a holding pattern since graduating high school. He still does the youth theater program in the summer, acting as an assistant director in the past few years. Over the school year, he will be joining the director and another adult in revising the script for next year's production. He's also very close to being able to apply for the state autism waiver which provides funds for services like life skills or therapy or whatever. He's 10th on the list--you have to be on the list to request an application because there aren't many spaces available.

And a note on Henry: Neither he nor I ever use his Asperger's as an excuse. We note it as an explanation because at times, he doesn't intend to be rude or weird. It's a factor of his challenge and sometimes people need to know what to ignore. I'd prefer he not be lumped in with other imaginary Aspies!

Stephen was laid off in March 2013 and in the fall found a job as an intake interviewer for the unemployment compensation program. It's not the greatest, and right now, his hours are cut back. He's been on a lot of interviews for civil service jobs, though, and I'm hoping something comes of that. Soon.

As for me, I've been, well, depressed, and I continue to struggle with dysthymia. Last January, I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes but six months later, after modifying my diet, I have lost 20 lbs. (and I worry that they are hiding in a dark alley waiting for me to walk by) and dropped down to "prediabetic." Next goal--to lose 10 more lbs and the pre-diagnosis. My blood pressure is delightfully unremarkable as well.

I'm still not organized, still battling the laundry monster, and I don't go out much. I haven't been writing very much, but I'm reading and knitting and reading and knitting....

That's my story, except for the alien abduction, but we won't go there.

Donna

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You can call yourself whatever you want; it's what you do that matters.