TWERK, DDOTs....

[rere]

Well now that DD made the team, they moved Freshman practice from 5-7 PM for the next two weeks before school.  Awesome.  I have to work until 8 next Wednesday.  I have hair appointments for both her and myself scheduled in the afternoons. I took off before school starts to do something fun with the kids, thinking practice would continue in the mornings.  It is about 20 minutes away which means I am stuck for 2 hours.  My carpool mate is on JV. Nice.  I love how coaches don't really think there is a life outside of sports.  


At least she made the team and I am trying not to gripe in front of her.


The legislature is meeting tomorrow to decide if we can continue in our pension system or if they will freeze us and put us into a 401k type plan.  This means early retirement is gone and loss of 100s of 1000s of dollars in the long run.  We were told our contract could not be broken, but we will see.  My entire financial plan would be gone.  Sticking out here for a few more years until I had my years in, and then getting another job.  Banking one check and living on the other to build up my 529.  This plus the bureaucratic roadblocks I am facing in moving up is really hitting my morale.  

[k3am]

TWERK: DH guilted me into letting him sleep in our room last night. I'm ready to kill him today. I would just sleep in the guest room myself, except I go to bed before he does and he likes to stay up and play video games... in the guest room.

[katespade]

It's been bugging me forever, so I'm finally going to ask - What do TWERK and DDOT mean?

[mellym]

DD3 was diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth after the Ped found blisters in her throat so that was the reason for the high fever. Her blood levels were still high and she is limping yet but getting better. She actually started sleeping through the night and being her smiley, goofy self again the best couple of days. I'm feeling better about it being toxic synovitis that will eventually get better. We see the ortho tomorrow to confirm.

We started a new incentive system with the older kids this past week where they can earn stones for good behavior/filling someone's bucket. Daycare does this and it seems to be working wonders already. Once they fill the bucket with stones, they earn a reward. DD2 wants a pajama party, LOL.

DD1 started PT for core strength. She is a phenomenal runner but complains of hip/back pain. We are using the stones to get her to do the daily exercises.

[k3am]

Jul 18, 2019 9:42:16 GMT -5 katespade said:

It's been bugging me forever, so I'm finally going to ask - What do TWERK and DDOT mean?

TWERK is an acronym that at one point made sense but that no one can actually remember for something that basically means that on Thursdays we update on things we've talked about before
DDOT.. Doesn't Deseve it's Own Thread.

[covergirl82]

DS turns 10 tomorrow and I'm having all the feels about my oldest child turning a double-digit age.

[supertrooper1]

Things are still going well with the current guy. He came over last night and I cooked dinner for him. I was so nervous that I would ruin dinner or that he wouldn't like my cooking, but everything went well. We had been ignoring the relationship talk even though we've been spending a lot of time together. Yesterday we briefly touched on it and both agreed that we were taking things slow.

STBXH is still being a dick. He will say that he wants to be a good co-parent and then turns around and does something to the contrary. He makes my life so much more difficult. According to my attorney, his attorney will do everything in her power to make things more difficult. A custody issue yesterday brought out the mama bear in me, so no more trying to be nice on my end.

[rere]

I talked to HR and she said she spoke to the director and my promotion is going through!!!!! 8% raise and move one grade up. It is not official, it still needs to go through my boss, but this is the most movement I have seen.

[callmekd]

my H and I booked a trip to Galaxy's Edge in September - no kids! it's a super quick 2 night trip but it should be a lot of fun.

[mommyatty]

DH and I are going to Chicago in conjunction with a business trip I have, and we are going to have a romantic weekend. I am working on being more in tune with him and not putting our marriage dead last.

[mae0111]

Ugh. I’m so stupid.

I applied for this great PT WFH contract position that’s right up my alley. I found it on google, which bounced me to an application on LinkedIn. I started a cover letter all about my experience, researched the company, tied the company’s goals to my experience, crafted what I thought was a great statement and submitted through LinkedIn.

Except I researched the wrong company. There are approximately 2,592 companies with the same name, and it’s not even close to the same industry. I wrote for insurance, this company does... something entirely different.

I’m an idiot. Duh.

Oh well. Back at it.

[mommyatty]

In the “back up plan” category we discussed in relation to my anxiety, I had an info meeting this morning with a resume writer/career coach. I need to get my resume in order and start networking. He was helpful. But he also told me what I already know: looking for and applying for jobs on line is high volume/low probability of success. The high probability of success lies with my network and finding a recruiter.

[waverly]

mommyatty , this is likely true. But DH found his last 3 jobs by just submitting his application (Consulting, Fortune 200, and the latest one is a public co with brand name recognition). Yes he worked with the recruiter from those organizations and outside recruiters, but he got in the door simply by applying. And yes it is volume as in he is workhorse and submits 100-200 a week. But in those high volume times, he didn't have a job so.... I got my first interview on my 40th application, but I already had a job was looking out of state and it was a slow economy. Not sure about your industry, but the job hunt economy is gang busters right now. Doesn't mean there aren't all still the same frustrations, and personally I think job hunting is the absolute worst, but it will be worth it for you if you get a more supportive gig. Is supportive a thing in your field?

DH did have some bumps along the way, OK a lot! But the new company overall seems to be much better in terms of work from home, commuting (he can take the train), time off, getting out at a reasonable time, and culture. As in he was over night at the other office's company picnic and did the dunk tank. Of course, I am doing all the work at home while he is basically at a fun event, but that is a whole other conversation.

When he was submitting in the 200's lets say and it might be more because I wasn't keeping tabs, he was getting offers in 3-4 weeks.  Then lets say another month for deciding on the offer, back ground check and giving notice etc. He wasn't being picky because he was out of work with 2 of them.  The last one he was employed and being picky, and actually chose from 2 offers.  One of them would have been super cool, but had kind of an a-hole bro atmosphere so he had to pass.

Networking is easier because it might guarantee an interview (not a job).  I got my first job from a temp agency lol, 2nd one from networking, and 3rd from sending out applications. 3rd job is my best one.

[mae0111]

mommyatty - I totally agree, especially at your level. Network network network. Talk to everyone because even if that person can’t help you, they may know someone who can. I worked in an incestual industry in a small major city, and everyone knows everyone. When word got out that I had resigned, I got a TON of calls. But I didn’t want to go back to that. So I passed the leads on to anyone I knew that was mildly unhappy with their job. In fact, I’m still doing that.

Good luck - I hope you find exactly what you’re looking for!!

[sdlaura]

On this thread of job changes/growth, I was at an investment industry diversity event yesterday and the woman being honored gave her closing advice of being open to new opportunities and not getting too comfortable. She moved into her big job after getting a recruiter call and says she could have stayed in her current role for decades and been happy retiring there, but she made the move and now is at a career level she couldn't have imagined previously. I just got a call from a recruiter this morning about a new role and I normally ignore them because I have no interest in making a move. But I really should at least call back and cultivate relationships.

[traveltheworld]

mommyatty, I think both networking and simply applying are important. Out of my 12 people legal department, our AGC and I were "direct" hires because we were external counsels; then the rest came in just through applying. Have you decided whether you want to stay in-house or go into private practice? I recall you were considering both a while back - wasn't sure if that's still the case. Based on my experience - for private practice, it's more important that you know someone. Less important if you are applying in-house at a large company.

My TWERK is that DH is still unemployed. He interviewed for a short-term contract position this week and we are hoping he'll get it. It's only for 2 months, but it'll get his foot in the door with a great company. We actually had a pretty big fight yesterday about his lack of effort on his job search. He's averaging less than 1 application a day; which just seems insane to me. Granted, there are not that many positions, but still....

[waverly]

sdlaura,this is very relevant for me because part of me just wants to stay here forever. That's not super uncommon in government right? Maybe at some point in time I would have but when I got the new role this spring it was enough to stop applying.

[traveltheworld]

sdlaura, you should totally call the recruiter back. I was very happy at my old firm and planned to be there for the foreseeable future. I also thought I knew a lot about my current employer (as I was external counsel for them); so when the opportunity came along, I was quite hesitant to make a move. Two years in, I can definitively say that it was the best career move imaginable - both in terms of monetary compensation as well as professional growth.

[phdmomma]

Not a job thing, but we may be having a blackouts today. Two of the substations exploded, and they put out the fire at one of them so far. It's a combination of a 110 F heat index in Wisconsin (which isn't common here) and the upgrades that they were already doing to the system, so alot of the safety/backup stuff is offline. All of downtown is without power. Thankfully the university (where I work) has power and we live right next to the university (like 3 blocks away). So far both DD and DS's daycare and summer camp have power. I've gotten separate emails from both centers that they sent to all of the parents confirming (the substations didn't explode until about 9am - so after drop off for a lot of folks) that we don't need to go and grab the kids. Well at least we can sleep in the basement if the power is off for awhile. We've been having it go off randomly for about half an hour at a time while they have been upgrading the system at our house. Not long enough to be detrimental, but still inconvenient.

[mommyatty]

Jul 19, 2019 11:04:16 GMT -5 mae0111 said:

mommyatty - I totally agree, especially at your level. Network network network. Talk to everyone because even if that person can’t help you, they may know someone who can. I worked in an incestual industry in a small major city, and everyone knows everyone. When word got out that I had resigned, I got a TON of calls. But I didn’t want to go back to that. So I passed the leads on to anyone I knew that was mildly unhappy with their job. In fact, I’m still doing that.

Good luck - I hope you find exactly what you’re looking for!!

What scares me about this is I don’t want to lose my job for looking for another one! So I’m having to be very careful with whom I choose to network.

[mellym]

phdmomma, this heat is crazy! I'm glad you're safe.

[traveltheworld]

So DH got the contracts job. It's only for 6 weeks, but it's with a great company, so hopefully it can turn into something. At least it'll get him out of the house for a while, especially during the slower summer hiring weeks.

[phdmomma]

mellym , We were okay. Thankfully the heat broke Saturday afternoon with a big thunderstorm, and now its back to the 70's. This reminds me of a question, has anyone put air conditioning in a house without ducts? We don't have any ducting because the house is super old and has radiators. Currently we have a couple of window units, but we have been pondering putting in some sort of centralized AC, although the current lack of ducts makes that an issue.

[waverly]

phdmomma, yes we did. It was $$$. They put flexible tubing (larger size with that metallic on the outside of the tube) following the joists in the ceiling and going up and down the levels through existing holes such as closets, the laundry chute etc. Then they do create small circular vents for the AC to be blown in to the room. Several in each room.