I'm work from home, NOT stay at home

I attended a meeting of a local mothers group this week. I have heard many great things about the group. What I did not hear is that most of the mothers are stay at homers, at least most of the mothers who were in attendance at the meeting I went to. Not that this is a bad thing, these ladies were all extremely friendly, welcoming, and had so many great tips and ideas, I think I will be joining the group in the coming weeks. However I found myself in an interesting spot. Trying to explain that although I am physically at home with Cooper everyday, I am still working full time. Which no one seems to be able to understand. Yes, there are many perks of working from home, getting to my desk a few minutes late, switching loads of laundry between phone calls, and being able to be with my son each day as he is growing up. However when I indicated that we have our Nanny, Maggie at the house each day and that Cooper will be going to a babysitter for 2 days per week starting in fall, the reaction was mixed. Not that anyone said any thing directly, but you know what I mean, the faces and expressions say it all.

Personally, I think I still have the best of both worlds, I am at home with my son each day, I am instantly available for him, and now that he is getting close to one, he really does need a dose of reality and a chance to learn that he can exist away from Mommy and that it may even be a good idea. And I truly feel there is nothing wrong with that! I am hoping to convince other working moms to join this group with me, I am also hoping that someday when I tell people that I work from home that the reaction won't be the insinuation that because I am in my house, I am not working. I get furious when I have to justify to people that I actually have a job where I usually work more than 40 hours a week, I have over 20,000 long term care beds in my territory and a contact book of 700 people that I am tasked with staying in front of. It's no joke!

Okay I feel better now - we are heading out later today on vacation to Milwaukee and will be back sometime next week. Enjoy your last few weekends of summer!

I think I am getting better.........

I was truly proud of myself over the weekend. I ran into a person I despised when I lived here in GB during college. Seriously, I almost punched this person more than once. However that was 8 years ago and so much has changed that when I was confronted with this person in a store and could not avoid them, instead of being my usual furious self, I did something very surprising..... I WAS NICE! I asked how the person was doing, how their family was and in general was very friendly and felt good about our exchange when I walked away. I thought, wow, my patience and tolerance have really improved, this is wonderful!

Of course then some other situations came up these past few days that lead me to believe that I am not cured of my general intolerance for those who are MORONS:

-There is nothing I can't stand more than servers at restaurants who are idiots, I have been waitressing for 15 years and still think it is one of the EASIEST jobs in the whole world. Jeff & I went out for a rare meal alone Saturday night and I couldn't help but take note of a server who thought he was rather smooth, his hair was slick, his shirt was unbuttoned one button too many and he pranced around the dining room like he was the SH*T! The table next to us requested blue cheese dressing, this genius said, "We do not have dressing, we just have blue cheese crumbles and ranch dressing." I said to Jeff, loud enough for this guy to hear, "Well then you have bleu cheese dressing IDIOT!!!!"

-Earlier today I called a facility to reach one of my customers. Now I don't know about you, but my picture of what a receptionist does is that they answer the phone and take messages if the person you are calling for is not available. Again - not too difficult usually. I called one of my customers, was told by the receptionist she was in a meeting. Then there was a LONG pause. Finally I said, "Okay, This is Angela calling from..." And she said, "WAIT WAIT WAIT, I need to find some paper" Then there was a one minute pause while she was apparently looking for paper & a pen. Um- if your job was to answer the phone and take messages, wouldn't you have paper & a pen with you? Anyway my customer never got my message and called me later wondering why I hadn't called her.

So yes, I still think the world is full of morons and I am FURIOUS in general!

Going Places

Cooper is growing up so fast. It has truly been amazing few weeks around here:

He has gotten 2 new teeth, bringing the grand total to 4, Tooth #5 & #6 are on the way

He has mastered the art of "So Big"

And today, Cooper proudly unveiled that he can clap on his own

I think next week we'll start working on his Mandarin Chinese.