Frantic

Yikes, I just realized that I hadn't posted since Friday, but I've been running like a fool. Well, (warning, serious abuse of the comma ahead, read at your own risk) okay, I'm not really running, but if I thought I was busy before, that's nothing compared to this week.

Here's a little background, my husband is a union pipefitter. What that means is that basically, he works to get laid off. His union hall finds him work, he goes where they send him (usually in his local's territory, but he can work out of territory as well. He hasn't yet, but the possibility is always there) and when the job's done, he's laid off. He "rides the bench" as they say (unionspeak - gotta love it). And that means he hangs around the house, driving me nuts, until the union hall gets a call that XYZ needs x number of men (women, too, but it's easier to say men.) The hall goes down their list, and if he's number 10 and XYZ needs 15 men, my husband gets sent out. If XYZ only needs 5 men, my husband moves up from number 10 to number 5 and we wait a little more.

Now when he was an apprentice, his longest layoff was 6 weeks. Not a problem. We live on unemployment - which sucks, but we get by. But since he's now a journeyman, and his rate has gone up, longer layoffs are the norm. He rode the bench from February until July, which really sucked, to be honest.

Well, he got laid off two weeks ago. But this time, he went back out after about 10 days (bear with me, I have a point and I am getting to it and it all ties in, I swear.) And we were both happy because another really long layoff was not what either of us wanted. Especially in this economy.

So what does this have to do with my running like a fool?

He's working mucho overtime. I mean, 7-days-a-week, some-days-12-hour-shifts-and-the-other-days-are-9-hour-shift kind of overtime. He leaves home at 5 AM, gets home around 7PM.

Which means that, for the most part, I am a single parent right now.

To all of you out there who are single parents (and I was raised by a single mom, so if she's reading - how the !$^#!#$ did you do it?????) you have my utmost respect and total admiration. And I've got it easy because I know this is temporary. How the hell you all do it 24/7, with knowing it might not be temporary.

And today was really busy - the Boy had what I thought was an evaluation for a preschool program for special needs kids. What it really was, however, was an evaluation to determine if he should be evaluated for this preschool.

When we first got involved with Early Intervention, a caseworker and a couple of therapists came to our house, one played with the Boy, while the other two asked me questions. Questions about my pregnancy (perfectly normal, thank you very much), his delivery (a scheduled C-section. Perfectly normal, thank you very much,) my husband's hospitalization from August to September, 2007. The Move. Everything.

Then, when I met the woman who became our caseworker. I answered a bunch of questions about my pregnancy. His delivery. My husband's hospitalization. Yadda yadda yadda.

(now keep in mind, they all took notes - this is important. there will be a quiz at the end.)

Well, today, I met with a whole new bunch of people - therapists, caseworker, all that.

And what did they do?

Asked me a bunch of questions. About my pregnancy. His deliver---ahhh the hell with it. You probably know all these answers now.

You'd think all these people would share their notes.

You'd be wrong.

So, yes, the Boy was evaluated to see if he qualified for an evaluation.

**sigh**

He qualified for the evaluation.

I was shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

And this is all why I'm running like crazy and could be for the next 3 months. Add NaNoWriMo, a WIP that's cruising along, a revision I need to work on, and that all adds up to one busy person.

Me.

On the bright side, only 7 days until the election madness is over! =)