Love to you Connie.

Fred's idea is a good one. If you feel up to it you might want to contact a local yarn shop and see if they do collections of knitted hats for cancer patients. Katy, the owner of "my" yarn shop did a hat drive thing, where people knitted hats but then just dropped them off at her shop and she got them to the hospital.

Ah, go through the yarn pushers, um, suppliers. There's an excellent thought.

I'm off to Social Security to tell them the nation can now save $700 a month. I'm taking crocheting, a charged tablet, and headphones. And after all that I'll probably be out in half an hour.

So I have my intake appointment today I don't know if it's with the actual therapist or just to figure out which therapist in the practice will work for me. But it's at 3 pm eST.

Hopefully I'll like whatever therapist I end up with.

And in work news the other full time person in my position is leaving. Which is good becuase he does not like working in retail. Actually he said he doesn't mind retail as long as he doesn't have to kiss ass to customers and deal with BS. I was mentally rolling my eyes as he said this.

Anyway, they are going to hire 2 part time people. My manager told me - "you'll have minions!" Only I have to try and recruit a few minions. And I have some plans for better organization, I just need to talk to him. Like we have a binder but it's outdated and no one uses it. So I want to make up a guide for the job with a FAQ and quick reference. I talked to my old manager about this and he didn't like the idea because the information is on the company's system.

And yes, it's true, a lot of that information is. BUT you have to search for it, and sometimes the system is down and some things are store specific to our store. AND a lot of people don't get a chance to really explore the offical company website/employee information so they don't know where everything is. Or if you're searching for 1 bit of info you have to slog through a bunch of random crap (there's a search, it's not so helpful at times).

So if I'm going to be lead on this and have minions I'd like to have some leeway to make changes that I think will be good.

Just found out last night that my brother's in jail. Apparently he's been there a few weeks - for violating his probation, which is to say he's been in jail before. And my mom and I had no frigging clue.

So much WTF right now. Best I can tell, he didn't want our mother to know (he's living with my dad right now, so obviously Dad must be aware), and he knows that I communicate with our mom, so I was left out of the loop too. I don't even know what to do with this. We're not especially close (obviously), and he's been struggling with self-esteem lately because of being under- or unemployed for several years now. Apparently he always thought I was the flake and he was the one with his act together, but the last several years (wherein I was continuously employed and caring for our mother's increasingly complicated health/finance/etc. issues) and he's had to live at Dad's and can't find a good, steady job have thrown that worldview on its ass. But still, to just decide to keep us in the dark? And because my mother's such a worrier, I have to be the upbeat one, "It's not as bad as it sounds," "It'll be okay," and the one I hope she really takes to heart "This isn't your problem. You can't solve it. Don't take it on yourself."

I say again, WTF.

Brothers, man.

I echo your WTF, Epic. I hope your mom is able to let it alone.

askye, you sound like the Best Employee Ever. You deserve minions.

I am having another angry day. So I am trying to stay off the m#$&f#*&$ing Internet.

I hope your mom is able to let it alone.

Well, let it alone will never happen. I'm hoping she just finds a way to let it be something she can be removed from. I'm worried because her health is precarious enough that this kind of worry is not good for her in a very real way - and I'm uncomfortably reminded of the heart attack that ended her sister's life upon the news of her daughter's losing another job (gotta get my brain out of that track pronto). I'd like to hope that keeping her from worrying is why my brother kept her in the dark...though that level of conscientiousness is not something I'd expect from him.

Therapist~ma, askye. And I hope you're able to make the workplace a well-oiled machine (or at least better-oiled) and they appreciate your input based on experience. Sounds like they appreciate you - as it should be.

Zen, just avoid certain parts of the internet. Don't forget Good Stuff Happened Today - sometimes fluffy bunnies and uplifting stories hit the spot!

Oh Epic, of course she is going to be upset and worried, but I hope that she can understand that he has made his own choices. Do you have any idea how long he will be in for? Sometimes a short stay will wake people up and set them on a better path.

Yay minions! We all deserve minions.

Ah Zen, steer clear of the crazies.

Bobby & Zoe arrived in Otter Lake at 4:30 this morning. I wanted him to stay somewhere in PA last night, but DH gently reminded me that we would have driven through at his age too.

The eldest got back via bus at around 7am. Then was all miserable because we were scrambling around the house to get things ready for the photographer at 8am. I pointed out in no uncertain terms that he and his brother and the dog were dispatched elsewhere because this house is being sold and needs to be in perfect condition every day because it will have a lockbox on it and realtors can come at any time.

He was all wah wah wah because he hadn't slept. I was not hearing it. Whatever dude.

I pointed out in no uncertain terms that he and his brother and the dog were dispatched elsewhere because this house is being sold and needs to be in perfect condition every day because it will have a lockbox on it and realtors can come at any time.

...I thought his whole thing was "I have a job and a place to stay I can come back!"? Yeahhhhh.

Epic that's so hard! And big secrets, dang. Do you talk to your dad, was he not supposed to tell you? Eesh.

Oh Epic, of course she is going to be upset and worried, but I hope that she can understand that he has made his own choices.

Exactly. Given the nature of the charges, she's very upset with him. I'm hoping she can find a way to "be there" for him without giving too much of her own limited resources.

Do you have any idea how long he will be in for? Sometimes a short stay will wake people up and set them on a better path.

We've heard 45 days (30 with good behavior), though I'm not sure of the reliability of the source at this point. But this is my hope, that it will "snap him out of it". I pointed out to her that though the nature of the charges are disturbing, he wouldn't have gotten probation in the first place, and wouldn't be seeing such a short sentence if it was really, really serious. I was wondering this morning whether his probation violation might have been something like skipping court-mandated counseling or something. He's VERY introverted (like makes ANY Buffista look like the Socialest of Butterflies), but is also ALWAYS RIGHT and you can't tell him anything - it would be just like him to decide he didn't need couseling, or didn't have time, or something.

Anyway, yeah, fingers crossed he gets his mental shit together after this little adventure.