Speeding through

Here it is already February! There have been so many times that I meant to post but got caught up doing something else and just never got around to it. That’s the story of all our lives though, isn’t it? Everything is moving along. A was able to bid far below his seniority for December and had not only our week of vacation off, but over a week for Christmas off as well. It may well turn out to be his last Christmas at home for a while, so that was nice. We took our first family vacation in several years to Orlando to do some holiday activities. I got sick the weekend befor the trip but refused to go to the Dr or Urgent Care and consequently spent the entire week popping ibuprofen to handle the high fever and burning sore throat. No man-colds for me! I finally caved when I was still acutely I’ll a week later and went to the Urgent Care with a 102 fever. After much testing I was diagnosed with pneumonia and possible post strep. After a few days extra off work, I went back and promptly picked up a cold which then lead into an ear infection. One chink in my armor and everything opportunistic hopped in! I finally recovered just before New Years and luckily no one else ended up sick. It was so nice to have A home to help. Just as I got well, A cane down with nfluenza A. We caught it quickly, got him on Tamiflu and he recovered in about three days, just in time to take care of the two out of three kids at home who then caught the flu. We’ve finally all recovered!

A had been in the program to get preferential hiring from a major airline and in December finally got word that he was accepted pending completing his Bachelor’s degree. He had been hoping he would be an exception to the rule (why? I don’t know) but was denied.  So he has 12 months to finish his degree. He *should*have been working on it already and knew it was a requirement but still. So we spend most of December tracking down transcripts and getting him enrolled in a program. He’s now working on a BS in Psychology. It’s a self paced program that has a tuition discount program through his airline. He’s known pilots who made it through in 6-7 moths, but at the rate he’s going, he’ll be lucky to finish by his deadline. Although A seems to think otherwise. So we’ll see. I know the thought of guys below him in seniority going over before him burns him, so hopefully that will be good motivation for him.

I was thinking the other day about how lucky A is to have a job he can walk away from instead of having to deal with the same people day after day. It came about on a particular Monday morning when I was dreading having to rehash a difficult conversation with a parent. It bugged me all weekend that I knew what was coming. A on the other hand completed his two-three hour flight and then done. He closes the flight and walks away, hopefully never to have to deal with it again. I on the other hand spend day after day with the same people, plugging away at the same problems, until they finally discharge. Sometimes it’s more exhausting than rewarding.

I’m still waiting for that magic day when everything falls into place.