You know how sometimes you look back on a day or you may even be in the midst of it and you tell yourself. This day sucks ...well, that was yesterday for me. Here in chronological order is how I came to this finding!
1 - My manager at work tells me that "upper management" doesn't like my return to plan to return to work after my maternity leave and work 1 day from home and take 1 day off unpaid (FMLA from Oregon's special bonding law) till the end of the year! I've only been mentioning to him this plan for the last 6 months and NOW he wants to "discuss" my options. There is no HR policy or guideline to go by, it is a management decision that I need to work out so I feel a bit up against the wall. We have our reasons and now I'm put in a situation where I have to convince "The Man" who has no children and not married" that I will have the ability to WFH the one day a week with an infant. My initial meeting is this afternoon and I'm going into it prepared and asking for flexibility plus a trial period. Any who - it caused me some stress.
2 - In same breath, my company released a memo saying they were laying off 150 people. Just lowered morale when we all thought our business was in the upswing. No one I know is affected but 3 offices are closing in other states and no matter, it wasn't good news. Makes me think - oh well, they won't give me what I want when I come back from leave. AT LEAST I have a job! Ron and I both have been thinking that thought several times of the past few years. Dang recession.
3 - Someone had previously pointed out to me our company's designated pump/lactation room and since I wasn't planning on being back in the office till I return from mat. leave I decided to have a quick conversation to set my expectations with our facilities contact in our office. In summary, I was told the pump room (slightly enlarged closet) was converted to a storage room because the company didn't want to pay for off site storage when they moved into this spot about 2 yrs ago and nothing could be done to "reconvert" it back. They would roll in a desk chair and use an extension cord for my pump. Just the idea of sitting in a storage room filled with tables, planters, file cabinets and misc. office equipment stacked up the walls pumping 2-3 times a day made me sad. I didn't expect a recliner with fresh flowers each day but this certainly wasn't what I thought. So, I'm checking with HR to see if there are any polices or guidelines to motivate facilities to at least clean out the room or 1/2 the room so I can not sufficate. We'll see where those questions get me. I know I'm a bit emotional but I could feel tears well up and the thought of possibly pumping in my car sounded better then this crappy room! At least I'd have a view!
4 - Steering my car had been getting tough over the past few days, to the point where Ron begged me to go into dealership to have service folks look at it because he didn't feel it was safe, neither did I so I ran NOT walked yesterday to have it checked out. Turns out they think it is the power steering pump, guy didn't even have to test drive it out of the lot before jumping out saying, yup you're screwed, hand over the checkbook! They quoted me almost a $1000 but thank goodness Ron and I have a dependable, awesome local mechanic who happens to live in our North PDX neighborhood. I saw him following dealership and he quoted me a much lower price but the pump itself is $450. That is when anyone who tried to talk me out of buying a BMW does the "I told you parts cost a lot" dance but good steering is a must, I'm no fool and there goes some savings. Oh well, as my Dad said. That is why you have savings for emergencies like this. If you ask me, I'd rather have an emergency Nordstrom shopping trip!
5 - Lastly, I had a late afternoon acupuncturist appointment (I've been going since pre-preggers days & I really enjoy my sessions. Holding onto this pregnancy, this was something different I hadn't done previously so possibly it had something to do with the keeping process). Anyways, back to my story. It was a good session, Dr. Molly said it was time to target all the energy points she had been avoiding during the pregnancy to being to help my body move it's energy to moving Stella down into ready position and she insisted that she see me next week as well. So, she pokes me with my needles and I take a restful short cat nap but feel as if I've been soaking in a sauna ...I get all hot, sweaty and just feel a bit different than before. After making sure I wasn't going to pass out - she said it was my bodies energy working in over drive! After some water I felt better and was out the door, headed home.
As I'm driving the color of red in my hair at the top of my head caught my eye in my rear view mirror. I thought possibly it was a pine needle or piece of thread but wouldn't you know it. It was a needle which my adoring acupuncturist had left in my "teased" hair!
As I pulled it out - I said, that is it....This day SUCKS!
Here is a record of our daily joys, adventures and love!
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