Injustice for all?

As mentioned in my previous post I am pregnant (13 weeks, 2 days) and HAD a job at the drop in centre.

Well, hold onto your butt because I've got a helluva story to tell!

As you may be aware, there is a little bit of a flu going around. They call it "SWINE FLU!!!!!!!" People. Young people. People with chronic health conditions. And pregnant women are dying from this flu. My mother works in a medical office and on Oct. 29 she heard that 3 pregnant women had died in the past week from swine flu and that another was fighting for her life in ICU. This, as you can imagine, caused her some distress when she thought of her only daughter who has diabetes and a bun in the oven working in a homeless shelter in downtown Calgary. So, to protect her only chick she came to the Drop In Centre (hereinafter referred to as "the DI") and asked me (well, actually TOLD me) that I was getting an H1N1 shot now if not sooner. I took her upstairs with me to tell my boss that I was leaving early to get my H1N1 shot. In the course of our conversation my mother mentioned my pregnancy. My boss said it was fine for me to go and get my shot and I told her that I'd see her on Monday.

That night I stood in line for 4 hours with Chris and got my H1N1 shot. My luck being what it is I spiked a fever and felt sick the very next morning. I went to the doctor and was informed I had (probably) H1N1. I phoned my boss and informed her of the situation and told her I'd be back in 10 to 14 days. She said, fine, I asked if i needed a doctor's note, she said not to bother as she could tell from my voice that I was sick.

On November 12 I was feeling human again and returned to work to take my CPR course. After my course I was called into the hiring manager's office (his name is Steve). He informed me that "we" had a "couple of problems". The first problem was that I'm pregnant and they just weren't sure I could fulfill my duties (let me remind you that I am a secretary!) The second problem was my mom. They were "disturbed" by the way she "stormed" into the DI.

Now, Steve not only works for the DI, he also works for Officejobs. I asked Steve if, since they were firing me, I could return to officejobs and temp. He informed me that Officejobs was no longer "comfortable" having me on their books because my mother's behaviour was too "erratic" and they couldn't feel safe that she wouldn't "charge into a client's office" to come get me in the future. He said that he's been in HR (human resources) for 15 years and had never seen a 28 year old woman be "dragged out of work by her mother".

Needless to say, I've filed a human rights complaint. Not only can they not fire me for being pregnant (which they did) they can't fire me for something a family member did (which they did). So, I suppose I'll just have to wait and see how things go.

I haven't received my final paycheque yet (even though they fired me over a month ago). I did however receive my ROE (record of employment) from officejobs. I was amused (but not surprised) to see that under my reason for termination they put "insufficient work". What a bunch of cowards. They don't even have the integrity and honesty to say why they fired me. Although, thinking about it, is there a governmental code for "Sarah's mom scares me"?

I'm not so mad at the DI for firing me (I wasn't really enjoying it there. I've found that before I worked there I used to be very sympathetic to homeless people but working there soured me. I am very angry at officejobs for taking me off their books. They've essentially denied me the opportunity for future employment. I've been hobbled.

So, Chris and I are back to surviving (there's really no other word for it) on just his wages. I really have no idea how we'll survive once the baby arrives. Knowing my luck I won't be eligible for EI (despite having paid into it since age 14).

I'll keep you posted with, hopefully, more optimistic posts.

Happy Chanukah to my Jewish friends.

Good News and Bad News

I've had an anxious couple of weeks. I had my IUI treatment in September and was told to take a pregnancy test on October 11. I took the test on October 11 and it was negative. Meanwhile I've been miserably nauseous, able to smell a single scent molecule from a mile away and haven't have a period. Finally, tired of constantly carrying a pad around with me, and running to the bathroom every 3 microseconds to make sure I'm not bleeding and therefore ruining my trousers, I peed on a ClearBlue digital pregnancy test. I figured it would be negative (as usual) so left it to do its thing while I made myself a snack. Snack in hand I checked the stick and noticed that the digital read out read: "pregnant". I did a double take and read it again. It still said "pregnant". Utterly speechless I grabbed poor Chris by the scruff of the neck and dragged him (poor thing was quite confused by my behaviour) and thrust the stick at him. I then burst into tears (like you do).

I have, of course, called every living person within the Mountain time zone to share my news.

I'm absolutely ecstatic at the moment. I had really started to give up hope. I thought we would certainly be going through IVF and that even that would probably fail. I'm nervous about a miscarriage but I will cross that bridge if I come to it.

On the bad news side of things. I called my mother to tell her the good news and she informed me that my biological father was in the hospital and will probably die tonight. I feel bad about that. Even though I barely knew him, I still love him and am sorry that he's dying. Obviously I can't go down to see him (and what would be the point?) I'll try to make it out to the funeral though.

In other news. I've got a job at the drop in centre in Calgary (a homeless shelter). I'm working as a medical office assistant with 2 doctors and an RN to whip into shape. I started on the 13th and am enjoying it so far.

Why I Prefer Dogs to People

Things that bring me joy. Apparently the injured dog did later die from his injuries. There was a massive hunt for the rescuer but they never found him/her.

My second cake (ish)

I just finished my Wilton Course II and am now presenting my readers (all 2 of you) with my final project. *drumroll please*

RMS Titanic

A few months after we were married Chris told me he was going to build me a light up model of the Titanic. Tonight it's finally finished (according to me anyway, Chris still wants to make some minor adjustments). So here, for your wondering eyes to behold, after a long 3 year wait is (drumroll please) the TITANIC!

Sometimes he's eerily right

Good Words to Live By

“Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones.”

-Marcus Aurelius

I wish I had the eloquence to have said this, it pretty much sums up my own thoughts.

Me on Mah Hawg!

When we went to Ontario we stayed with Pam and Peter. Peter had a bicycle that he'd attached an engine to. This is me riding it. I'm a regular Hell's Angel!

Tub Puppy!

Mush after her bath. (Now she smells like coconut instead of like... something I'd rather not think about!)

Mud Puppy!

I took Miss Mush and Miss Maya (actually, at her age I should probably refer to her as Ms. Maya).

Anyway, Mush went for a swim then decided to roll in mud in the parking lot (why not? she doesn't have to clean the car!)

May I be blessed by his noodley appendage!

I had a warm shiver run through me today. I saw a car on my street with a decal of his holiness the FSM. This decal was HUGE, it covered the entire back window... makes my Darwin fish seem small and insignificant.

My first cakes

A Cake I made today, just for shits and giggles. The colours aren't right in the picture, the green is much lighter than appears in the picture but c'est la vie!




As it's Hailey's 5th birthday today I thought I'd make a birthday cake in class for her. Unfortunately she won't get a chance to eat it because by the time she, her mom, Mikey and Erik come to Calgary the cake will be stale. :( You can't see it in the picture but the cake is only about 1 inch high. Apparently if you open the oven while a cake is baking, it collapses. OOPS!

Cake

I had my first cake decorating class last night. Tonight we take in our cakes and do our first decoration. In the interest of science I will post pictures of my cake. You can laugh, yes. But please don't point AND laugh.

New Bird

Just saw a new bird at my feeder. It's a "Smith's Longspur". Looks a bit like a sparrow but yellow instead of brown.

The joys of estrogen

Saw Dr. Edwards today (he says I'm fat). Well, he didn't say it in those words but the general gist of our conversation was that I'm a whale in need of immediate intervention.

It turns out I won't be getting my IUI treatment this month. I missed my LH surge so will have to wait another month. Joy of fucking joys. It never bloody rains but it pours. The nurse at the clinic informed me that I've been crying and emotional lately as a side effect of the clomid. Apparently, the longer you're on it, the more severe the side effects get.

I've exchanged my weepy sadness for irritability and anger at the world at the moment. I'm pissed off that nothing ever seems to go right for me, I'm pissed off that my ovaries feel like they're on fire and I'm pissed off that I'm fat.

I had a young man come to the door yesterday selling christian books. I politely informed him that I had no need for his books and that I was unemployed and poor so couldn't afford them if I did want them. He was very polite and offered to pray for me. I figured what the hell, it can't do any harm and it will make him think that he's being useful. So he prayed for me to get pregnant. (And if I DON'T get pregnant, for me to be content with god's will). Oh well, his heart was in the right place.

I came home to a very wet, very angry cat today. Apparently old Murdoch got out this morning while Chris was letting the dogs out, and was stuck in the rain all day. Serves him right I say.

A Weird Catchy Little Song

The Milk of Human Kindness

On July 4th, over night, my PT cruiser was broken into (don't worry, she's okay!) my iPod was stolen, Chris' house keys (why they were in there I do not know) and about $20 in change.

I filed a police report (you can do that online now), called apple to report my iPod stolen (pointless btw, they don't give a rat's ass) and prepared to start scrimping and scrounging to be able to afford a new iPod.

Last night I got a message on facebook from a girl named Heather who said she'd found my iPod on her front lawn (she plugged it into her computer and my name came up so she looked me up on facebook). She returned it to me. All my songs were still on there and, weirdly, the adaptor cord (so I can plug it into the car and listen to it) was still on it too!

I figure the little jerk who stole it plugged it into his (or her) car and didn't like my taste in music (lol) and so threw it out the window in disgust.

In any case some of my faith in the species has been restored.

We're out 200 bucks though. As the house keys were stolen (and the thief knew where we live) the police strongly advised us to get our locks re-keyed. It turned out cheaper for us to go to Home Depot and buy new locks (not by much but a bit) so we've changed all our locks. On the plus side, that means we removed our electronic keypad which we were going to do when we put the house up (keep if for ourselves at the new house).

So, all in all, apart from us now being COMPLETELY broke, not much harm was done.

Our VISA is in the stratosphere because of the IUI treatment (I haven't even fully paid for the treatment yet, I've still got another $250 to pay on the day of the treatment). We're hoping that this treatment works first time around because it works out to $500 per treatment and we just don't have that kind of money with me not working. My parents are helping us out a bit but I can't (and won't) expect them to carry the entire burden. If it comes down to it that we need IVF we're going to take some money against the equity in the house (risky in this economic climate but insurance won't cover a single penny.) I find it irritating that abortions are covered by Alberta Health Care but fertility treatments aren't. I fully believe abortions SHOULD be covered by AHC but I also fully believe that fertility treatments should too. I get REALLY pissed off when I see that addictions counseling and drug and alcohol rehab are covered as well. I can sympathise with poor Americans having to pay for this myself. It makes you feel shitty.

A Heartless Murderer in my own house!

I got up to let the dogs out this morning and noticed a male robin sitting on the neighbour's roof cheeping in a most distressed manor. I couldn't figure out why until I saw the carnage that my beloved Murdoch had wreaked upon a female robin (presumably sad man's mate).

Murdoch was looking at me as if to say "do you like the gift I brought you?"
I was like "no you jerk!"
Now he's offended and is giving me the cold shoulder. I can't believe he'd even be able to take down a robin, he's dumber than a brick and de-clawed. Amazing.

We've still got lots of red winged blackbirds, common grackles, house finches, sparrows, chickadees and magpies to keep us company. Also, I assume this wasn't the only pair of robins in the neighbourhood. I'll have to teach him to kill the pigeons instead, they're a bloody curse!

On another note. Kristy is coming to live in Calgary at the end of the month. She's driving up with the kids (Erik will drive the u-haul) on the 22nd (it will probably take a few days to get here but yippee! I get to see my god kids).

In other news

I forgot to mention in my previous post. I've signed up for a cake decorating class. This should be interesting! I'll post pictures when I make my first creation.

Usually, as the only left hander in the class I quickly become the teacher's "special project" as I can't do what everyone else is doing. (I hate to break it to you right handed people out there, but you do everything backwards!) I'm willing to bet my cakes will be ass about face but it's a chance I'm willing to take. I've wanted to take one of these classes for ages now (going on 5 years) and kept putting it off. My class starts on July 14 if anyone has any ideas for what sort of decoration I should do on my cake please tell me!

A Million Years and Counting

It's been a million years since my last post I know. So what is new in the Rean household?

We went to Ontario for a wedding. We stayed with family friends Pam and Peter for part of the time and I think Chris has found his soul mate in Peter. Peter has an enormous garage with every tool and toy imaginable. He's also got an Isetta car which Chris was totally enamoured with. I rode a motorcycle all by myself. Nearly killed myself but not quite.

2 days after we got home my bff Kristy came to visit for a few days so that was fun. It's so thrilling seeing old friends and family members of old friends and friends of old friends..... yup, thrilling.

Miss Maya has been diagnosed with Cushing's disease. It's a condition in which the adrenal glands go into overdrive and over produce. She's in pain but so far we're managing it with crack for dogs. As soon as she starts suffering we will of course take her for the big sleep.

Money wise the last month has been a disaster. Of course there was the trip to Ontario then when Kristy was visiting I spent money like it was water. Then, after Kristy left we noticed a crack in the aquarium so had to buy a new tank. At the same time we noticed the crack we also noticed that the filter pump wasn't working so we had to buy a new filter too. Then Maya got sick and that ate up some funds, then the car decided it needed to acquire some nails in it's (new) front tire (we have had the car about 2 years and have replaced all 4 tires [at various times and in various quantities] twice. The passenger rear has been replaced 3 times.)

I'm still jobless, I had an interview a while back but blew it totally! She asked me if I knew Vista (which, unfortunately thanks to my dad's new computer, I do). So she did all my testing on the office suite that comes with Vista. It would have been helpful if I'd thought to ask my dad if he'd installed the office suite that goes with Vista or if he'd installed his old office suite. I managed to pass all the testing but mentioned I didn't know the new office suite. I got the impression she thought I was a lying toe rag about knowing Vista. Oh well. So, I'm going to start pumping out resumes again tomorrow. I joked that I should become a prostitute to make money. Darling husband quipped "no dear, we want to make money". He's a funny man (free to good home if anyone wants him!

Good news on the horizon

I finally got the call from the diabetes clinic. My A1C is 7.1% Tomorrow I'll book my follow up appointment with the fertility clinic and see about getting ISU ASAP.

(It's about frigging time I got my A1C down, I've been working on the bastarding thing for 2 years now!)

Garage Sale Saturday

I've spent most of last week helping my mother set up for a garage sale. Fortunately she's let me off actual garage sale duty (probably because if someone asked me if they could have a diamond studded, 24 carat tiara fora buck I'd say sure) ;)

So today husband and I are going to go out garage sailing. I'll post if we buy anything special (like a 1908 Bell upright grande piano). hee hee hee, I can't believe I got a 1908 Bell upright grande piano at a garage sale. Can you say lucky?!?!?!?

I went out for lunch with Mike (the ex boyfriend from 6 years ago). It was nice to catch up.

Busy busy busy

Chris and I have spent the day working like dogs! We were talking to a realtor (Little Miss Curious went to an open house down the street) and have an appointment to have the house assessed on Tuesday to see approximately how much we can list it for.

To make the living room look bigger we moved the TV into the corner and turned the couch/coffee table et al 90 degrees. I'm amazed at the difference it's made, the room looks 100% bigger! If we'd known it would have this effect we would have done it this way in the first place. We won't be able to have surround sound because Chris wired the speakers to the TVs old position and it's too much work to thread the wires through the walls to the new position so we'll have to suffer with stereo sound but c'est la vie eh?

We've got 3 days to get the house ship shape so it can be assessed. Not much work involved, just some tidying.

Heigh Ho Heigh Ho

It's home from work I go...

I just finished my last day at my former assignment. I was with the Regional Capacity Assessment Team for just over a month and I really enjoyed myself.

On Monday Chris and I are going to the general meeting for prospective foster parents. We're hoping to become foster parents and do some good for our community. I'll let you know how that goes when the time comes.

We're going to Ontario in May for my cousin John's wedding. That should be fun. I'm not looking forward to a 4 hour plane ride followed by 3 hours in a car with my mother but I suppose I'll have to suck it up!

I thought I'd shared all our bad news but...

I thought I'd written a post about this. I guess I must have thought that I had but then forgotten that I'd forgotten... if that makes sense you're in need of medication!

I got home from Nanaimo on Friday February 27. On Sunday I left for Vegas with grandpa (we'd planned and booked and paid for the trip on Monday!) Vegas would have been nice except that grandpa was very ill, I honestly thought that I would be taking him home in a body bag!

At about 7:30 am on Tuesday I got a phone call from Chris. His voice was hoarse and he was very distracted. Finally he managed to blurt out that he was leaving for England in an hour because his mother had just had a heart attack and they didn't think she was going to make it through the night.

She passed away about 2 hours before he got there. He took two weeks off work (it took that long for bloody England to arrange the funeral!)

Meanwhile, on Tuesday morning, about 2 minutes before Chris' phone call, I'd taken my first dose of Clomid with the expectation that I would be seeing Chris in a few days and we'd have a chance to see if the Clomid actually works. *ahem* those of you who don't know what Clomid is, or why I needed Chris in order to see if it works should ask your mom about the birds and the bees.

I arrived home from Vegas on Thursday, spent a week loafing around the house with nothing to do. I slept with Mush at night because I didn't want to have to sleep alone.

Needless to say, the Clomid didn't work... for obvious reasons!

On a brighter note:

I've got a job, only temporary but still it's money in the bank.

I bought a new bed for Maya, she's now sleeping on: a 3 inch foam pad, a mattress topper, a camp blanket, an "orthopedic" pet bed and her blanky. I figure, what the hell, she's 14 she deserves a bit of comfort!

We're knuckling down to get the house ready to sell. Most of the work that needs doing is outside. It would be much easier to do (are you listening mother nature?) if there wasn't a thousand feet of snow outside! I mean really wtf? Are we suffering from global warming or what?!?!?!?!?!?

I'm unable to play the piano at the moment, the damper pedal is not working for some reason. I suspect that a certain feline may have dropped something down the piano and it dislodged something. I guess I'll find out once we scrape up the dough to get the piano man in to look at it.

Suffering!

I am suffering greatly at the moment! I am sharing a hotel room with my mother and Kristy. (My mother could not cope with being in aunty Diane,s house). Kristy has a head cold and sounds like Darth Vader! And my mother is snoring loud enough to wake the dead. I cannot decide whether to kill the two of them or kill myself! This is horrible! I think I am going to have to wake one or both of them up and tell them to wait until I am asleep before they are allowed to go to sleep. I cannot cope with this bull!

Today has been, to put it mildly, a little surreal.

A few days ago aunty Diane fell and broke her arm. Now, for someone with ITP, Von Willebrande's and Hep C that is no laughing matter. We received word that she was in the hospital but would be going home on Wednesday or Thursday. Wednesday Chris and I were at my parent's house for dinner and my mother called the hospital in Nanaimo to check on aunty Diane and see when she'd be released. As she was on the phone her face drained of all colour and literally fell. The gist of the nurse's update was: she's in the ICU come as fast as you can because she's not going to make it through the night. Well, my mother was somewhat hysterical so I packed a bag for her then drove her to the airport (after stopping at my house to pack a bag for myself).

We approached the Air Canada desk and (crying) asked for the NEXT AVAILABLE flight to the island (we didn't care if we went cargo or strapped to the wing of the plane!) First we were shunted to three different counters then we were told (quite rudely) that there were no seats.

We went to West Jet and were escorted immediately to a separate counter, booked on the next available flight, and given $40 worth of meal vouchers. Talk about service!

The flight was delayed so we didn't get in the air until 11:00 pm (Calgary Time). We arrived in Victoria to hear that the Malahat was treacherous and it would be unsafe for us to drive up to Nanaimo. I explained our plight to the car rental lady (National Car Rental) and she upgraded us to an SUV (free of charge). It was a harrowing journey to Nanaimo and we had a few close calls but we made it.

We had discovered in Victoria, from my dad, that we were too late and that aunty Diane had passed away at 10:30 pm (BC time). We went to the hospital anyway because my mother wanted to see her and say her goodbyes.

I'm now at Aunty Diane's (well, I suppose it's just uncle Roy's now) house typing this on the computer. I don't think the enormity of the situation has hit me yet.

Because I'm cruel...