I guess one of the great things about where we live now, compared to our former apartment, is that there (usually) isn’t much loud noise. There is, however, a great deal of constant background noise, which is probably causing us to slowly lose our hearing, but that’s another topic.

Our last place… was on the first floor, next to the intersection of a freeway offramp and a busy road. It seemed that at every red light, some jerk was sitting there blasting their radio, sometimes so loud that we got nauseous from the sound. I got so frustrated that at times I was tempted to store bricks on our balcony, to be tossed at the thoughtless offenders. (It was especially frustrating when Tommy was born, since he never ever ever EVER went to sleep. When he finally, finally did sleep, somebody’s stupid radio would inevitably wake him up.)

As if that weren’t bad enough, we were also next to a hospital AND a police station. (Considering that where we live now is just down the street from where we lived before, that last part is still true.) So there was also the constant sound of sirens in the air. Very irritating.

But… that’s beside the point. Since we are much higher than we were before, it’s very rare to hear anybody’s radio, much less hear a radio that causes vibration. Still, it has happened a couple of times. Why do people blast their radios so loud? If it’s making somebody outside the car feel nauseous, how can the driver deal with it? And why would anybody be so thoughtless as to blast their radio in a residential area?

I fail to see how anybody could be so arrogant as to believe that their taste in music would be appreciated by everybody. So please, turn your radios down.

Such as, “Where’s the baby’s socks?!” Or, “She should be wearing a jacket.” Or, “Your baby’s hungry. Feed her!” Or, “SHE SHOULD NOT BE WEARING BLUE!!”

Usually I just smile and go on my merry way. Occasionally I have had some very insistent people (these are usually the ones who are convinced I’m starving my baby) who repeatedly express their concern until I just walk off. Sometimes I’ll say something like, “Well, she just ate, so she’s not hungry, she’s tired.” (They never look like they believe me.)

It’s interesting that it’s happening now, since nobody said a thing to me when I had Tommy. I had always read that this was common for new mothers, but since it didn’t happen at all with Tommy, I figured people in Hawaii just didn’t do that sort of thing. Clearly I was wrong! Apparently, when it comes to babies, everybody knows what’s best for your baby… except you.

As for why it happens with Athena and not Tommy, I have a couple of theories as to why we’re treated differently:

1) Athena’s a girl. Perhaps people worry more about girls, thinking they’re more delicate and sensitive and more care is needed or else they’ll be traumatized. Since Tommy was a boy, perhaps they weren’t too worried about me scarring him for life, thinking anything I did wrong would only toughen him up. Of course, it isn’t always readily apparent that Athena’s a girl.

2) My age. I was only 20 when Tommy was born, and my wedding ring no longer fit at that point. I must have looked uncomfortably like a pregnant, unwed teenager, which caused people to shy away from me. Now that I’m older, the age when I’m “supposed” to have babies, people have no problems stating their opinions… especially since they probably think that this is my first child.

I know people mean well. Still, while I may not know everything (yes, I just admitted it… but good luck getting me to say it again), I know my child better than they do, so I can only hope that they keep this in mind when they go up to new mothers and offer their advice.

On a side note, you wanna bet that in 20 years, I’ll be that stranger overly eager to share my shining insight with a new, exhausted-looking mother?

First off: There’s no such thing as a career that’s not monotonous.

Every career has some degree of monotony. Companies thrive on monotony– it’s what keeps them from going under. Every company needs people behind the scenes to do the boring stuff– and every employee needs to do some monotonous task in order to help these people do their jobs. Granted, some positions have more of these tasks to complete. And it’s also a matter of what kinds of monotony you can deal with. Lots of meetings, tons of paperwork, reports galore, overly complicated timesheets? Sitting in front of the computer all day, nonstop typing? There are dozens of repetitive tasks that can comprise your day– so it’s a matter of figuring out what you can deal with.

One very important point here is that you cannot find your ideal career by just sitting around and THINKING about it. You need to jump in and try a few things. The unfortunate thing here is that, for people with responsibilities and families, this is very difficult to do.

So, here’s my suggestions for finding your ideal career:

1. Start off by researching various occupations in the Occupational Outlook Handbook. It not only describes the various occupational categories, but gives insights into working conditions, necessary education levels, wages, and job outlook and projections. There is also a section at the bottom that links to various career resources for this occupation, such as professional societies. This is a fantastic resource, and I highly recommend you make use of it. Not only can it help point you in the right direction, it can help you determine if it’s even worth your time to pursue it. (If, for instance, you discover that your dream career has a very slow projected growth and high competition, it may well be in your best interest to hold off on pursuing it– or consider pursuing something similar but with better prospects.)

2. Once you have a few careers you think you may be interested in, do what you can to jump in and try it out. Whether it’s obtaining a temporary position, internship, volunteering in the field, or asking if you can shadow someone in that field for a day or so– do what you can to really get a feel for the work. There are a number of things that you won’t know about a position until you try it– and there are some things that you may think you enjoy, or think won’t bother you, but later find out that you were wrong. It’s better to find out before fully committing yourself to a career path whether you really do enjoy it, or just enjoy the idea of it. Trust me, there’s a huge difference there.

3. Once you find a career that you feel is really right for you, go for it! Get the needed credentials and network with other workers in that field. Do what you can to get your foot in the door, but at the same time, be flexible. You may not be able to do exactly what you want, but you can get started in the right direction.

So… those are my thoughts on the matter. And as for my own search? I’ve found something of an answer, but can’t get any further at the moment because, with an infant daughter and a family to support in whatever way I can, I’m not yet ready to pursue a different career. In fact, I suspect I won’t be able to for quite some time. However, I do have an idea, and even if it takes 20 years, I hope that one day I can find the rest of the answer.

Any further suggestions or comments? Let me know!

Hmm. Good question. Apparently Geotrax has no female trains or drivers. Which makes sense, given that the line is largely marketed to boys. Still, I find it interesting that Tommy seemed to think it strange that there were no Geotrax girls. I guess even at his tender young age, he realizes that girls make the world a whole lot more interesting.

Good for you, Tommy. Good for you.

However, Tommy seems to have gotten entirely the wrong message from that book. Rather than coming away with “I think I can”, he seems most riveted by the phrase used by the rusty old engine: “I can not, I can not, I can not.”

If he doesn’t want to do something– be it eat, brush his teeth, or put on his clothes– he tells me, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” I try to tell him that the rusty old engine wasn’t nice, because he didn’t even try. Doesn’t matter. He likes that phrase better, it seems.

Today, his retelling of the story was a bit different. He was doing really well, right up until he got to the rusty old engine. After that, every page became, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” The little blue engine that came to help instead said, “I can not, I can not, I can not.” ….The end. Sad story.

Come on, books shouldn’t use such a catchy bad phrase! Tommy couldn’t possibly be the only kid over the last 80 years to take away this message instead… could he?

It certainly was interesting… and hectic. There were a little more than 20 kids in his class today; by the end of the month, there’ll be 30. Up to this point he’s been attending a private home childcare service, with only a couple of other kids at any given time. He seemed fine with all the kids there, though he had a tendency to wander off by himself. Several times he tried to leave the classroom to go play on one of the outside playgrounds.

Now, in regards to my title: I noticed there were a few boys that were especially rough-and-tumble. One of them in particular was apparently a bit violent, and the teacher threatened to call his father if he kept up his behavior. The whole time I was there I was secretly praying to myself that he would keep far, far away from those boys and instead play with the nicer, more gentle boys and girls.

Naturally, one of the boys from that group decided he liked Tommy. Shortly before lunchtime, while they were out on the playground, that boy decides to engage Tommy in play. Up until this point in time, Tommy had been playing with all the other various children, but never more than a few moments at a time. At lunchtime, this boy sat down next to him and wanted to be near him until it was time for us to leave.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad he has a friend. And to be fair, this boy seems more like a follower than one inciting aggressive play. He seemed to be fairly gentle the entire time he played with Tommy. I just worry that he’ll bring Tommy into the other group, and that Tommy will pick up some of their aggression. (I’ve seen this already from his other childcare situation, where he started pushing after being around a rowdier boy, who liked to push, headbutt, tackle, etc.)

I know it sounds silly, but I wonder: Is it too early to worry about a preschooler falling into the wrong crowd?

PS: Since some people apparently CAN’T TELL, the whole “is he falling into the wrong crowd” thing was meant to be a JOKE. While, yes, I would prefer if he stayed away from the rougher kids (I like that he’s more gentle), I’m not sitting here worrying about his future as a drug addict criminal or anything. Sheeeesh.

My stomach is still in Hawaii. I’m still getting hungry at odd times of the day— such as right now. It’s about midnight and just about everything is closed. Alas. It’s only 7:00 in Hawaii.

Since I didn’t do anything today, there’s not much to say. However, I think everything went well, so things should start happening soon. Tomorrow is my last visit, and it should be less intense than the others I’ve had. Tomorrow is my last full day, and no matter how tired I am, I will make a point to go somewhere so that I can say I at least got something accomplished in DC.

Things went downhill from there.

First off, the driver didn’t know the location. That’s fine, it happens. I hand him the address I wrote down. He takes me to a place with closed gates, so we have to wait a while before we can go in. I was early, after all, so I didn’t mind waiting. After a little more driving we arrive at a museum. The guard at the museum allows me in, so we all think that perhaps this is where I need to be, even though I have my misgivings. I got to be in the museum before-hours, which was really cool. After being there for about 15 minutes, the guard finally realizes that I’m not supposed to be there, that I’m not a member of some group that’s having a meeting there in a little while.

Whoops. Cabbie took me to the wrong place. Yes, in spite of the written directions I had given him that explicitly mentioned not to arrive at this location.

Another guard shows up and tells me that where I need to be is about a 5-minute drive, straight ahead. I start walking, thinking it might not be so bad. I arrive at a freeway-looking road. I do not feel comfortable walking straight into traffic like that. Furthermore, I really don’t know where I am. Oh, and you know all that time I spent on my hair and makeup? Completely ruined in moments by the strong wind in the area. I called the managers to see what they suggested— at this point, I’m already late. I try the taxi company again, thinking they would be accomodating since it was their error.

Accomodating. Right.

I try telling him where I am by saying I’m near the museum. It’s a straight road with no other major buildings, so I figure they would be able to find me. He says it’s not good enough, and he needs an exact address. I don’t have an exact address. I barely even know where I am. He says he cannot help me until he has an exact address and tells me to call him when I do have the address. At this point I had already walked 15 minutes away from the museum; furthermore, they closed the gates behind me. I had no way of getting back to find the address. I call the managers again, and they chase down someone who can give me an address. I call the taxi company back. They go on to lecture me that I should have given the driver an exact address instead of a vague “near the museum.” I tell him, repeatedly, that I DID give an exact address, and even wrote it down. Not good enough— it’s still MY fault the driver dropped me off at the wrong spot. After spending several minutes arguing with the dispatcher, I’m hysterical and almost screaming. I’m also very late. He eventually tells me he’ll send another cab, but that I have to pay again. Considering it was THEIR fault in the first place, this seems very unfair.

The customer is supposed to always be right. Apparently, this is not the company’s motto.

In any case, they send me another cab. However, sensing my anger, the dispatcher apparently contacts an independent specialist who is able to get me where I need to go with no problems. He also doesn’t charge me a flat rate, asking that I pay only what I see fit. By the time I arrive at the building, I am over one hour late.

From there it goes a little more smoothly. The managers I contacted before called ahead to let the people know I’d be late, so they were expecting me. Fortunately, I didn’t miss much. It seems I got there just in time.

After the morning set of activities, I go to the cafe for lunch. I decided on chili. Bad idea. From there, it goes downhill again.

When the second round of activities begins, I am so tired I fall asleep for a few seconds every time that I blink. We’re watching an instructional/orientational video, and although I got most of it, I had weird half-dreams through parts of it. When my time comes, I find out they need another doctor’s note, which doesn’t arrive until too late. So I must come back tomorrow to finish that part up. During this part of the day, I’m also suffering intense abdominal distress. Stupid chili.

I call another taxi company. The taxi comes within a few minutes, but another girl runs ahead and jumps into it before I can. I call for another cab, and it takes almost another hour before one comes. 

So, I have no pictures for today. After my experiences the only thing I want to do is go back to my hotel room and huddle under the covers. Maybe tomorrow I’ll get something done.

I didn’t do that much today. I wanted to go to a mall, but the free hotel shuttle guy said the nearest hotel was outside the range he was allowed to drive. I went to a restaurant. Exciting, I know.

As a side note, my sleep schedule seems to have adjusted reasonably well, but my stomach has not. I get hungry at odd hours.

 Impressions so far: It’s really… flat. I don’t see any mountains nearby. But it’s pretty, and the fact that it was cloudy all day made it seem almost surreal. The buildings have an interesting architecture, very “historic” feeling, which makes sense considering this is an historic area. Not yet adjusted to the cold.

I want to take some pictures every day and post them here. Since I haven’t accomplished very much today, I’ll mostly just post pictures of my hotel room.

 NOTE: At this time I don’t feel like scaling down my pictures, which are too large to upload here. I’ll post them to a flickr account in a bit and add a link.

 UPDATE: Link

On another note, the semester is finally over, the grades recorded,  and I think I’m finally starting to recover from the worst semester I’ve ever had.

On yet another note, I got a letter from the AARP a few days ago asking why I hadn’t registered with them, even though I was “fully eligible.” Kinda depressing… I guess 22 is the new 50.

On yet another note, I’ve noticed that it’s really, really hard to find chicken-shaped cookie cutters. When I was younger, my brother and I would use a chicken-shaped cookie cutter at Christmas (along with other, more seasonally-appropriate cutters), with me cutting out the cookies… and my brother chopping off their heads. (I’m still mad about that, by the way!) Now, it just doesn’t seem like Christmas without the chicken-shaped cookies, so I’ve been looking everywhere for one. I’ve found every other shape EXCEPT chickens. What kind of world is it when there are no chicken-shaped cookie cutters to be found?!