Category: Daily

I shouldn’t have drank that whole glass of chocolate milk. I drank it about 2 hours ago and I still feel uncomfortably full *burp*.

Right. So my interview was Friday. I hadn’t even mentioned what I’m being interviewed for. A librarian’s assistant. At a middle school.

I got ready with plenty of time, grabbed my resume, kissed all the kiddos for good luck and was out the door. I didn’t feel nervous till I put the key in the ignition and started backing out of the driveway. Then I felt as if my heart was in my throat.

I left the house about 15 minutes early, since the school I was being interviewed at isn’t far from home at all. I sat in the car for 3 minutes, composing myself, fixing my hair, then decided to get down since I didn’t know exactly what office I was meeting the woman at. I see two different entrances and try both. There’s old, yellowed newspapers at the foot of each door, and both doors are locked. Panic sets in. I curse myself for sitting those extra three minutes in the car, since now I had only 7 minutes to find the correct door. Luckily a lady sees me walking away and asks me what I needed. I told her I had an interview and she points me in the right direction: the “main” door was at the side of the school.

I walk to the front office, am asked to sign in by a cheerful secretary and sit down next to a clammy, nervous-looking young man. And do I mean nervous. He kept sighing, shaking his leg, cracking his knuckles, coughing — he started to make me feel even more nervous than I already was. My heart suddenly started pounding in my chest and then my throat. I was sure everyone in the very quiet lobby could hear me. I caught myself cracking my knuckles and thought ‘What if this guy’s here to get interviewed for the Librarian’s Assistant position, too? I can’t show him I’m nervous!’ So I tried being as calm as possible (boy was that tough) and almost screamed when a woman with black hair called my name.

She’s cheerful, introduces herself and I introduce myself. She gets to talking immediately about the job’s responsibilities and asks if I can handle the workload. I tell her yes, definitely. She tells me about how far the new location will be and asks if I’m still interested. I gulp, because it’s about 7 1/2 miles away from my house, and say yes, I still am. She tells me my hours would be from 6:30 a.m. to about 3:15 p.m. She tells me about the pay and I nonchalantly nod (but in my head I’m screaming ‘YES, PLZ!’). She has me review the questions she was going to ask me while she reviewed (and made tons of notes on) my resume.

She was impressed with my resume, overall. The whole interview lasted 1 hour. Half was discussing the job, my strengths and being questioned about my ability to do the job and the other half was talking about reading, books, our kids and schools. It was pretty interesting and honestly, I felt relaxed and comfortable after 5 minutes of speaking with Mrs. V. I could totally work for that lady.

At the end of the interview she asked if I had any questions and we started talking about how far the school was from my house. She said, if I wanted, that I could take a drive and time myself to see how far it would be, but to keep in mind a few extra minutes for morning traffic. I completely forgot to ask the important question that should always be asked at the end of the interview: ‘When can I contact you about your decision?’

We walked out talking about the school I graduated from and shake hands. I’m feeling pretty chipper and as I’m getting into the Equinox my heart sinks when I realize what I’d done. Or not done. I wasn’t at peace all day until I called to ask her, politely, when I could call back to check on the status of the position. She said there were 9 applicants. She’d submit The Name on Monday, the board would review on Wednesday and I could call by Thursday to find out. Holy shizz, I’m dying to know.

There were 8 other people. I’m competing with 8 others for this job. She told me I could “time myself” to see how “far it was” for me. Did she tell that to everyone? She wouldn’t tell me to go and waste gas and drive all the way over there if she didn’t pick me, would she? Why would someone do something so mean?

If she picks me, I’m not sure how I feel about waking up at 5:30 to get to work on time since Alaethia still isn’t falling asleep before 11, but at least it’s progress. At least it’s not 1am anymore. We’ve (Mario and I) already discussed the drop-off, pick-up situation for the boys and it would work perfectly, although I’m nervous about them riding the bus. Mom would be taking care of Aly and would probably take over making sure the boys are ready on time in the morning once I leave so Mario can drop them off, but I’m nervous as hell about what to do when she has one of her many doctor’s appointments. It’s gonna be a bitch driving down that long road in the dark, on my own, but I would totally do all this, no matter how taxing it’s all going to be. This is a good job, with good pay, benefits and days off when the kids have them off (well, most of them since they’re still in elementary). I get to see them after school for some good hours and still do everything I need to do, like help with their homework, get their showers ready and have dinner on the table by the time Mario gets home. And hey, if I do get this, after a few years I can maybe transfer closer to home? Okay, okay…I’m getting ahead of myself.

We’ll just see what Thursday brings. Right now, I’m sleepy and my lap is sweaty since Alaethia’s on it. Will update with the rest of Friday-Today tomorrow.

Aly actually stayed asleep last night after I put her to bed at 10:40. She didn’t wake up for her first bottle till 2:30 and then again at 5:30. She scared me in the morning. I kept checking up on her because she didn’t wake up till 10:30am! Even though she fell asleep early, I had trouble falling asleep. I had a thousand things on my mind and Mario was out with his buddies so I wasn’t comfortable. I cant sleep when he’s not home. When I finally had fallen asleep he called to let me know he was on his way and woke me up. Then he woke me up again when he got here and Aly woke up for her bottle at that exact moment. Still, I got roughly 7-8 hours of sleep and after a cup of coffee and hazelnut coffee cream I felt refreshed all day.

The kiddos chilled out all morning and behaved a little better than they had been. John came over after I’d served the boys lunch and sat next to me at the table. I was quick to let him know how upset I was that he hadn’t offered to go with me to town the last 3 times I’ve gone and he sort of brushed it off. I held my tongue and he said, “How about some sushi?”

You don’t have to tell me twice. All was forgiven!

I had some errands to run anyway, like depositing at the bank (where we talked to Yadira for a while), and getting a few things and going to the salon.

They practically know what we get at Kumori already. They brought us our lemonades and Miso soup and this time John ordered an extra plate of rolls: the Bonsai rolls. He got them because they were inexpensive; didn’t even check what they contained.

They bring us our Spicy Fried Calamari (which we ate in record time) and our rolls. I’d asked for my usual Fiesta rolls with no salmon skin. The waiter brings us our plates of rolls and when he places mine in front of me says, “Fiesta rolls with extra salmon skin?” I felt a mix of emotions: felt bad for the cook because the rolls looked really nice but I loathe salmon skin, felt bad for myself because I was going to have to wait longer for a new order and I was starving, and I felt bad for the waiter because I might just yell at him for getting the order wrong. As I sat there in silence staring at the rolls, wondering where the salmon skin was, the waiter starts laughing and says, “Eh, I’m just kidding!” I start laughing, relieved for all of us, and the waiter leaves and I glance at John. He’s smirking and says, “You looked like you were gonna kill somebody.”

I happily eat my no-salmon-skin rolls and John tries out his new Bonsai ones. He makes a face and says, “It has a familiar taste.” I try one and DAMMIT! there’s salmon skin in it…and broccoli. Ahh, “bonsai”…makes sense. Little trees. I tell him about my connection and he says, “I HATE broccoli.” Still he ate the whole plate of them.

It was good. I think they put something in it — chemicals or something — that make you crave it like crazy. I want some more.

We went to Mario’s work next, to steal their internet so I could order something for Jorge on Ebay but it was blocked. So we leave to the mall where John spent an eternity at JC Penny looking for work-out shoes. We checked out a few stores then left to Target. We got Mom what she needed, I got what I needed, including some white pillowcases and some white curtains. I get home and realize I got sheet ones. Not what I wanted. So I’m taking them back and getting the teal ones to match the sheets, even though they were a little more expensive. I like no light seeping through the curtains in the morning.

I got the kids fed, bathed, and in bed by 10 tonight. Aly WAS asleep, but she started stirring when the phone rang (Mario’s on his way from picking up a goat…long story) so now she’s fully awake. I’m so nervous about my interview tomorrow. I hope, hope, hope I get this!

Today was the total opposite from yesterday. Yesterday was laid back, no driving. Today: chaos and driving to town twice.

The kids and I slept in a little and Mario called at 11am asking if we could drop his lunch and wallet off to him at work.

The boys quickly ate cereal and I ate (eggs and coffee) and fed Aly her oatmeal cereal. After washing dishes and getting everyone ready we left at 12:45. We dropped Mario’s stuff off first then went to Target. I got bibs for Alaethia, a rattle she fell in love with, some underclothes for me, a separator thing for my scrapbooking drawer (clearance!), a turquoise sheet set ($7.99!), a Game Cube game for the boys (that they took forever to decide on! There were hardly any to begin with since they’re going to discontinue it soon *sniff*.), laundry detergent and picked out a playpen for Aly. They didn’t have either of the ones I wanted — the pink one or the Zazoo one that matches her high chair — so I ended up with a navy/green plaid one that cost $50. Oh well. At least it was inexpensive. I used my 10% off coupon and saved $22. Woo!

I get us some Burger King because the boys took so long deciding on what to buy and we were starving. We get home and I start to set up the playpen. John gets here and sees me struggling. After 15 minutes I couldn’t get one of the darn sides to snap straight and realize I’m going to have to exchange it. John bailed on me and left as soon as I mentioned needing to go back (I’ll remember that!) so Mary offered to stay with the boys while Aly and I went. I exchange it with no problem, thank God.

One of the good things about going back was that I put gas in the Equinox for $2.45 at the H-E-B plus. That’s the cheapest I’ve seen it over here. A guy that looked like Steve-O offered to pump the gas for me since I was carrying Alaethia. I was touched/terrified for my life.

Everyone’s at Mary’s having lasagna when I get back home. I help Jorge look for a battery for his laptop, eat, then set up the playpen. This one snapped into place quickly and firmly. I’m so relieved, and glad that I returned the other one. I’m terrified of those things collapsing and possibly hurting Alaethia.

I searched online for info about the place I might be working at and my heart sank when I realized just how far it is. I called Mario, who was chilling out after work with the guys, for reassurance. We talked about it a little, about the boys getting to school and all that, and I feel much better about it now. If I do get this it’ll be great. It’s a start and hopefully, in the future, I could possibly transfer closer to home.

I bathed Aly after that and then got the boys into bed. I’m going to start having them get ready for bed earlier every day now that school’s around the corner. They fought me on it; Eenan even cried. Then they asked if I could set the timer on the TV to turn off and then asked for a story. So we did all that, plus I made sure to close their curtains and shut the doors to their closet, because Eenan has a “thing” about them being open. I got Aly to sleep about 20 minutes ago and now it’s my turn. Gotta start doing this every night from now on.