So, thanks to a good friend, I now have a job! It's been well over 10 years since I had a job that lasted more than 3 day max. and it feels good to be a part of the work force again.
There are many reasons behind my absence from working life, the main one being my son and his special needs. When he was 18 months old I put him into Day Care 3 days a week, with the intention of getting a part time job. Two weeks into looking for said job it became apparent that I wouldn't be able to work. The day care providers would call me on my mobile almost every day that he was there, asking if I could come and settle him down, that they couldn't handle him, or asking me to just come and collect him outright because he was too upset. I realised that it wouldn't be fair to any employer for me to be taking off all the time, or at the very least taking calls from the day care all the time, and I'd probably soon lose any job I acquired so I resigned myself to the job of being a single parent, trying to survive on what little money we got from the government.
Years passed and Kaleb was finally in school full time. This, I thought, was the perfect time to get back into the work force so I set out looking for a job. Everywhere I applied, however, would take one look at my resume, which then had a 7 year gap in employment, and wouldn't even consider me for any position. I got a lot of rejection from employers with the main reason sighted as 'you have no recent experience'. Now, would someone please explain to me how I am to get any recent experience if no-one will employ me? It was a constant catch-22 loop that I couldn't get out of! It was also very frustrating, and I will be the first to admit that I gave up completely for a while there. There is only so much rejection one can take before you give up entirely.
Long story short, I met T through this blog actually. He's told me that when he was at home recovering from his balloon implant surgery that he googled it and came across my blog, then proceeded to sit down and read it all the way through! He then found me through Facebook and added me as a friend. Now this is where it comes down to a case of 'that was lucky'. I don't usually add people on Facebook unless I already know them or they write me a note with their friend request telling me how they found me and why I should add them. T didn't fit either of those categories but for some reason I still added him. To this day I still don't know why, but boy am I glad I did.
At first we chatted a little via private message and I was very wary. I've been burned so many times by new people (and old friends) that I'm now very hesitant of letting anyone new into my life, so when early on T suggested myself and my son come over for dinner one night with himself, his wife and kids alarm bells were ringing in my head. I admit I avoided him for a little while after that, and I believe I even told him that I just needed time to get to know him a bit better first.
Long story short, 5 or 6 months passed and I finally felt comfortable enough to meet T and his Family. He arranged for us to be able to go to Australia Zoo for the day, which was awesome coz I'd always wanted to take K and never been able to afford it. We had an excellent day, hit it off and became fast friends. I love his kids & wife and kick myself often that I didn't swallow my issues all those months ago and just meet them sooner!
And now, I have a job working for T. As a friend he is awesome...as a boss....well he's also awesome but can be a hard ass. I understand that though, our work relationship is different to our friendship but some days it is hard to separate the two relationships.
I am loving working, but I don't think my body is loving me for it. Lately I've been picking up every little illness that crosses my path. First it was gastro and then some sort of lung/throat thing that I think I've managed to escape the worst of! It's even worse because I am already sick, and have been for the past 12 months. I got a really bad lung infection, that lasted months no matter what my doctor gave me to get rid of it. In the end it took two courses of heavy duty anti-biotics (the kind they use to treat malaria!) to get rid of it. My blood work though continues to mimic that of someone really unwell. My white cell count is through the roof and no matter how much iron I take I'm constantly anaemic. My doctor has not been impressed with my blood work at all for a while now, and every 6-8 weeks I get some kind of illness. Usually laryngitis/pharyngitis, lung infection or sinus infection. It then takes me 2-4 weeks to get over on my own, or 2 weeks if I take anti-biotics (which I don't like doing because it seems my immune system is already shot to hell!)
So I've gone about 10 weeks without getting any illness now, and I got 2 in one week! It sucks big time, coz I want to go to work! You find most people pull sickies to get out of work, where as I have to take sickies and hate it coz I do want to work! It's also not fair on my boss or co-workers, which makes me feel emotionally sick in addition to the physical sickness coz I know I'm letting them down and there's nothing I can do about it. I really wish there was a magic pill I could take to fix me, but sadly there doesn't seem to be.
My doctor has sent me for so many tests to try and work out what is wrong with me I'm not sure there are any left that she can do! I've had so much blood taken I could probably have saved 3 lives with it by now, I've had Xray's, MRI's and fluoroscopes ( these are in addition to the ones I have for the balloon trial! I'm surprised I don't glow from all the radiation!) and my doctor continues to monitor my blood work on a monthly basis. Every time it appears that I am on the mend, my white cell count goes back up! Half the time I appear completely well, apart from the occasional migraine, constant fatigue and joint stiffness.
Anyhoo, enough of my baffling medical issues ( heaven knows I've had enough of it!) and lets get onto my food struggles.
Since starting work I've been finding it very difficult to motivate myself to cook, well anything really. The last thing I want to do once I collect K from either his Dad's or Vacation Care is cook a meal. I envy most men and single women (childless) the fact that they can mostly just come home from work and do what they want. Me, I have to deal with Kaleb which is especially trying if he's in a foul mood, I have to do laundry, dishes, tidying up etc because you can't just leave it for another day when you have children, it needs to be done or 'they' take your kids off you!!! I don't get to kick off my shoes, sit down and do nothing. I have to organise dinner, showers, clothes, dishes, lunches and make sure we both have clean socks and undies! Most nights we have takeaway for the sheer convenience of it. I don't have to cook it or clean up the dishes afterwards. I don't have to listen to K complain about the food and I don't have to force feed him.
This also means though, that I've put on weight! Now that I'm working out of the house most of the day and not eating constantly (actually drinking a heap more water too!) I should, theoretically, be losing more weight right? Well, no. Actually I've gained 6kg. I can put some of that down to muscle gain, maybe, but the majority of it is from not eating right and not exercising at all. The very LAST thing I feel like doing when I finish work is going for a walk or a run. Usually my feet and legs are so sore and swollen that once I sit down of a night, I find it very difficult to get back up! Also, it's the last thing I want to do on my days off either! I use those days to get on top of some of my domestic duties and relax!
I do try to take my lunch to work with me, and most days it's something pretty healthy eg. salad wrap, left over stir fry or lasagne etc but there has been a lot of days where I've just bought my lunch from the cafe across the way. Now I do try and keep that healthy, a chicken salad roll etc but I LOVE their cheesecake and chicken burgers!
Heaven help me, but my sweet tooth is back...and she brought friends along with her!!!!
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| 2010 Work Xmas Costume Party . I went as a 'Goth' |
Congratulations on the job!!
ReplyDeleteI took care of a friend's 5yo for 2 weeks while she was out of the coutry for a funeral a year or two back and lord, I hear you. Being a parent must be such hard work. Getting home from work and managing to feed and bathe a child just to get them into bed on time is such an amanzing feat - I don't think I had any way to appreciate that before.
I was eating nothing but lean cuisine for dinner for a while but it's not necessarily cheap and I wasn't finding that I was losing that much anyway. The I read an article in a relatively reputable online publication that was saying that there can be as much as 20% more calories in restaurant food than they show on the nutritional information and packaged food often exceeds what is marked as well. I was like aaaaaaaaah omg... So now I'm back to stir fry. Which isn't a bad thing - it's been ages since I was actually cooking for myself regularly.