Blah...

This has been a long week, I caught a cold which started as a sore throat and I figured within 3 days it would be over. However, it's dragged out and progressively gotten worse, day by day. It finally peaked yesterday and I'm on the road to recovery, although I've been told the cough stays with you for up to 3 weeks. Devon has been home for the past 5 days, he has a bad nonproductive cough.
Kiesha is done with Volleyball, she had a big tournament which went from Friday-Tuesday. By the end we had unhappy students and parents because the idiot coach was caught favoring a handful of his players whom would be permitted to play the majority of any given game, while the remainder of the team were benchwarmers. After conversing with a fellow disgruntled Mother, I'd relented and had a 40min conversation with the Coach, the arrogant ass tried to tell me lies and deny that he had favorites, but the truth eventually came out. I'm disappointed that I hadn't had an opportunity to get involved in this situation earlier in the volleyball season, but I'll be more aware for next year if this idiot is still coaching.
Devon is done football season. I had a long conversation with his Principal last year because of the lack of knowledge that was being provided for the parents in general and the ongoing issues I was having in trying to Coach the basketball teams for the past two years, due to lack of organization and procrastination. I was told this would be remedied, but there is no indication that things have improved in seeing the management of this football team, we as parents have been poorly advised of games. I'd tried to speak to the football Coach and the Teacher sponsor about getting an updated schedule, both of whom told me would be issued to Parents, but it was not. I didn't find out until Devon called me after school to ask if I could drive the team.... I told him he could relay to the Teacher & Coach that they could suck on an egg, because they should have arranged this in advance and advised parents about the game!
Kiesha initiated a conversation about picking a career, she seems pretty relaxed about the idea. We reviewed some job options, how long it would take to complete schooling, where the education was available, wage expectations and job availablity. I'd hoped she'd express interest in one thing, or the other... but nothing. Which is a concern because it's the not knowing or lack of interest in a direction that could leave her drifting for years in career aspirations. For myself I wish I had more knowledge at her age, because I would been done school and have a career. Dennis still wants to be a Airplane Pilot, I'm still trying to think about how to get him involved to see if it's truly the direction he wants to go, I'm not sure he's ever flown on a jet. Devon wants to be a Police Officer, he's still fairly young and I'm sure it will change.
Heath had made all sorts of goals in efforts to improve his relationship within the family. He wants to start hiking with the kids more often. He's started doing the dishes daily with Devon in order to assist him in learning how to have the dishes done appropriately and in a timely fashion, but also to spend some one-on-one time with him on a daily basis for bonding. He's commited to taking care of the kids in the evenings for two hours 2-3X week while I attend the gym, during which he'll take them to the swimming pool for one evening and their Spare Blox programs. I also gave him the book; "Parent Effectiveness Training" I've read it twice and it has always opened my eyes to the poor habits we've learned from our own caregivers, whether we've noticed it or not.
I finally completed my xmas shopping for Lori & Larry, I got Lori what I would refer to as retro native sweater and I'm making Larry a 2009 scrapbook of the 5 grandchildren. I worry about whether they will apprectiate the gifts, as I don't know them very well and have no idea what things they like, or don't like. I've had no problems accumulating gifts for my 3 boys, but Kiesha is very difficult to buy for now that she's no longer into childrens toys. I also have concerns about what everyone else has purchased for the kids and whether we're going to have an overlap in gifts, skating helmets, skate boards, Halo and Bionicle items. Communication in these matters have been difficult, I've made several attempts to ask about gift ideas for Lori/Larry which took at least 3X to get a feasible answer, just for Lori. This is going to be very different, I've been doing xmas with Don/Valerie for years, then we've been doing it on our own since they've passed, now to intergrate with a large family for the holidays feels chaotic!
Alas, we'll go with the flow and hope for the best....

Bitch 101

Is It Just Me?

October 23rd 2009; Stepsons 15th birthday party 1:30pm we attend skating and getting into the Arena is maniac, there is TONS of ppl and the line is insane! Didn't have a good time, but the kids enjoyed skating. The Arena was freezing cold and I was standing around turning into a popscicle! Parks & Rec have programs; gym & swim or skate & swim, where you aren't required to pay double when you use the facilities back to back; staff is uneducated about this process and ice rink admin is unable to reach to Supervisor to confirm, she ends up giving me the reciepts needed and send me on my way.
2:30pm Setup party room for lunch.
4:30pm transition to swimming; hand over the receipts to the receptionist and she refuses to allow entrance into the swimming pool unless we pay admission again, because in her view the break we took for lunch voided our free admission from skating to swimming! Not impressed and voice my opinion to the receptionist in a loud tone, making great effort to prevent using foul language. The receptionist gets defensive and eventually makes repeated attempts to kick me out of the facility!! I demand an audience with the Supervisor and when he appears I state it's in his best interest to bring me to a private room as I intend to be loud. I voice my concerns and he agrees it was poorly handled, I was right and his poorly educated staff need to be advised better about the manner in which the facilites services function, such as the skate and swim discount. He offers to reimburse the additional costs for the extra admission fees and we enjoy the remainder of my stepsons party without incidence.

Today I attend the HSBC Bank to deposit my rent money for the Landlord, unfortunately I no longer have the account number, but have had no issues in doing a search on the account and successfully making a deposit; until today! The Teller insists that I can't search and deposit on the account, even left to speak with her Supervisor to confirm. The Teller said she'd contact the account holder to confirm I could make the deposit, but the next time I'd need the account number. I explain to the Teller that the main account holder is now deceased, therefore the only working contact information on the account would be the joint account holders phone number which would be a Michigan number beginning with 615... Teller is getting noticably upset, opens the account, writes down a number and attempts to call, obviously there was no answer. I see the number she wrote down is local and the Teller is now attempting to make my deposit, I asked her why she is NOW going to make my deposit even though she didn't get confirmation from the account holder?? I AGAIN mentioned that the number she wrote down will not work because that account holder is deceased. The Teller becomes even more upset, she's turning red and still ignoring me... So, what is the HSBC Bank policy? She said one thing and did another!!!