The thing at the winery is for everyone to claim idiocy. Someone is a self-proclaimed idiot every day and it's great. I usually am one about once a day but it's all good. It seems like my learning curve is finally starting to level out.
A lot of my fellow servers are young moms. Yesterday Erin showed up cheering that she'd figured out daycare for her 3-month-old for the next year. She said most daycare providers charge for every day of the year even if Erin doesn't leave her son there, which doesn't make sense for Erin since she's a teacher and she won't need childcare over the summer or during any school vacations. She needs a per-hour set-up. So she found a woman with school-aged children who will watch her son and another boy about the same age, and will charge only while she's got her eye on him.
Erin teaches math in an alternative program targeted mostly toward at-risk youth. In an unpleasant job market, she has relative job security with a school district 5 minutes from her house. She told me about a few other jobs she applied for but didn't get, which would have been full-time -- but it's a mixed bag. A full-time job 45 minutes away might get her health insurance, but adding in the extra gas she would use and the extra time she'd have to pay for daycare, she might still be saving money. Not to mention an hour and a half of extra driving every day, as long as traffic isn't slow and the weather is good.
Speaking of health insurance, I found out the other day that I have it, finally, which was a very nice surprise. Thank you, health initiative! Because my current job doesn't exactly have a benefits package.
Back to P.Fin for Idiots.
Sheena just celebrated her "babydaddy's" first father's day. (I was pumped when she referred to him that way, but I didn't feel like I could ask more personal questions about him yet. On another occasion she pointed him out to me: "That's my love." Mostly she just calls him Sam.) Her son is 9 months old and she loves showing all the girls at work photos of him doing cute things. She's working on her master's, and Sam is a middle school teacher. When she showed us a photo of their family at the Twins' game this weekend, one of the other girls asked her if she and her babydaddy are married; she said no. I asked if they're planning on it, or if it's not really a priority. She didn't seem put off, but she shrugged and said simply, "Weddings are expensive."
The expenses I have to cover are relatively little. My health insurance comes from my dad's job and I'm not paying a whole lot of living expenses this summer. My cell phone still comes on a family plan. Ann and I eat simply and cheaply, we try to ride our bikes to work, and neither of us has any kids to care for. But I'll have to think about these things before too long, when it's harder to bike to work, when I have to think about renting an apartment possibly in a city where I don't know anyone to share rent with, when I have a job and a husband/boyfriend/babydaddy and kids. Things get more complicated. I can use all the help I can get.
A lot of my fellow servers are young moms. Yesterday Erin showed up cheering that she'd figured out daycare for her 3-month-old for the next year. She said most daycare providers charge for every day of the year even if Erin doesn't leave her son there, which doesn't make sense for Erin since she's a teacher and she won't need childcare over the summer or during any school vacations. She needs a per-hour set-up. So she found a woman with school-aged children who will watch her son and another boy about the same age, and will charge only while she's got her eye on him.
Erin teaches math in an alternative program targeted mostly toward at-risk youth. In an unpleasant job market, she has relative job security with a school district 5 minutes from her house. She told me about a few other jobs she applied for but didn't get, which would have been full-time -- but it's a mixed bag. A full-time job 45 minutes away might get her health insurance, but adding in the extra gas she would use and the extra time she'd have to pay for daycare, she might still be saving money. Not to mention an hour and a half of extra driving every day, as long as traffic isn't slow and the weather is good.
Speaking of health insurance, I found out the other day that I have it, finally, which was a very nice surprise. Thank you, health initiative! Because my current job doesn't exactly have a benefits package.
Back to P.Fin for Idiots.
Sheena just celebrated her "babydaddy's" first father's day. (I was pumped when she referred to him that way, but I didn't feel like I could ask more personal questions about him yet. On another occasion she pointed him out to me: "That's my love." Mostly she just calls him Sam.) Her son is 9 months old and she loves showing all the girls at work photos of him doing cute things. She's working on her master's, and Sam is a middle school teacher. When she showed us a photo of their family at the Twins' game this weekend, one of the other girls asked her if she and her babydaddy are married; she said no. I asked if they're planning on it, or if it's not really a priority. She didn't seem put off, but she shrugged and said simply, "Weddings are expensive."
The expenses I have to cover are relatively little. My health insurance comes from my dad's job and I'm not paying a whole lot of living expenses this summer. My cell phone still comes on a family plan. Ann and I eat simply and cheaply, we try to ride our bikes to work, and neither of us has any kids to care for. But I'll have to think about these things before too long, when it's harder to bike to work, when I have to think about renting an apartment possibly in a city where I don't know anyone to share rent with, when I have a job and a husband/boyfriend/babydaddy and kids. Things get more complicated. I can use all the help I can get.
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