what are you doing right now?

[TheOtherMe]

Sept 19, 2023 12:13:38 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

Sept 19, 2023 12:05:09 GMT -5 giramomma said:

I agree, and also I think it was a different time 60 years ago.

I'm not excusing, just tempering.

FWIW, I'm totally projecting.

 For me, it's hard to hear someone else make that comment about your parents, and therefore your existence, even if it is true.

That’s fair.  I do tend to be overly glib about these things. Edited slightly.

It was a different time.  I'm positive my parents had no thought that my sister would not say something.  For every family trip we went on after that, we had roll call.  

I'm sure we had been fighting and had drawn the imaginary line in the back seat that could not be crossed.  They were probably have there was no arguing coming from the back seat.

It never came close to happening again.  

[jerseygirl]

Sept 19, 2023 12:06:55 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

And do you want to BE a garbage collector? It probably isn't too late. You can leave your college degree off the application. Not me! There are some jobs that I don't want to do no matter how good the benefits and pension. Plus, that particular job is getting more and more automated. You might be lucky to hang on until you are 55.

Actually yes I am too old to start as a garbage man.      That's one of those jobs where they don't want you starting past 35 which makes sense due to physicality and how close that puts you to being able to walk out the door with a pension.

It is also heavily unionized which is not a bad thing but it tends to be a "my grandfather was a garbage man, my dad was a garbage man" type of set up around here.

It's a pretty good gig.  That's more what I meant about the school disparaging it in favor of college.  I encourage Gwen to really LOOK at careers don't turn your nose up at stuff that doesn't require or expect a traditional 4 year+ college route.

The jobs here at my current company that would take sociology degrees only require bachelor's degrees.  They take them for the customer side of things like product development, marketing etc.  IDK what they pay but I am betting it's more than the $20k I started out with.

Drama you’re very unhappy at present job but you can carryover lots to another job. Have you thought about sales jobs selling technical equipment? Good sales people make good pay. Degrees aren’t important but knowing how to make connections and complete the sale is what counts.

[cooper88]

Looking back, I should have gone to work for the government in my twenties. I would be retired now. Not the best pay, but great benefits and pensions. Many people I have worked with retire with a full pension in their late forties and then go to work doing something totally different until they reach retirement age.

[weltz]

Sept 19, 2023 12:01:15 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Sept 19, 2023 11:51:03 GMT -5 giramomma said:

Yeah. I was chatting with someone who was younger than me by a good amount (17 years). She was saying how sentiment on 4 year college being the end all, be all, only option when she went to school.

It's too bad we were mostly taught to look down on honest work.

There was only one person in my life who told me (and others) that honest work is honest work, and you do it the best you can, with no shame attached. It doesn't matter if it''s cleaning bathrooms or being a rocket scientist.

That was one of my professors.

It was later revealed the High Schools get massive kick backs for sending as many people as possible to college.  I imagine that's still the same today.

My brother at the time wanted to be a fireman.  The school actually pulled my parents into a conference to explain their concern about Bob not being ambitious enough and how he would never amount to anything if he didn't go to college.

My dad laughed in their faces.  A fireman isn't being accomplished?  Really?  I would LOVE to have seen those guidance counselors try to pass the test.  I am still floored that they were able to say with a straight face that being a fireman is not a "worthwhile" career.

TBF though my brother is unambitious just not in the way the school meant it. 

I had a couple of professors try to reason with me and be realistic about my goal of being a PhD/professor.   They tried encouraging me to explore other options within science but I didn't listen.  They were just being negative.  I owe them an apology. 

Fireman in Canada can make up to $118,000 a year. Not too shabby.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

I just finished renewing my NEXUS card.  The backlog is such that they still are extending current cards approaching an expiration date.  Mine expires July of next year, and you can renew a year in advance.  

Also have our hotels booked for Bergen and London.  I need to sit down and see if it is really feasible for TD to do a dive trip, and a quick excursion to Angkor Wat for the following trip.  We need visas for both Cambodia and Vietnam, and the timing of getting them might not provide enough time to take a week or so and dive.  I really don’t think I would want to be a travel agent full time.  The logistics would drive me nuts!  I can control what I can control, but the government (visas) throwing a monkey wrench into a trip would give me terminal heartburn!

[lurkyloo]

Sept 19, 2023 13:11:05 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

Sept 19, 2023 12:13:38 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

That’s fair.  I do tend to be overly glib about these things. Edited slightly.

It was a different time.  I'm positive my parents had no thought that my sister would not say something.  For every family trip we went on after that, we had roll call.  

I'm sure we had been fighting and had drawn the imaginary line in the back seat that could not be crossed.  They were probably have there was no arguing coming from the back seat.

It never came close to happening again.  

I definitely have moments where I just can’t comprehend DS’ thought process that must have happened to lead him to whatever mess he’s landed in.

Still, I’d be more forgiving if your sister didn’t appear to have carried the same attitude and behavior into adulthood. I’m glad your parents learned from their mistake.

[swamp]

Sept 19, 2023 11:23:22 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Sept 17, 2023 18:15:31 GMT -5 swamp said:

DH and I took DS on his first college visit today.  

we went to LeMoyne in Syracuse, a small Jesuit school in Syracuse.  He seemed to really like it.  Then we went to SUNY Oswego.  I wasn’t as impressed.  The campus is huge (although very pretty since it’s on the shore of Lake Ontario).  And it’s right next to a nuclear power plant. 

We still are going to look at St Lawrence, Clarkson, Syracuse, and SUNY Plattsburgh.  


DD was talking about colleges last night.  She seems to have her heart set on RPI. 

Are the schools he's looking at still test optional? 

I was looking at the common data set for our flagship and the test scores of admitted students are up like 3 or 4 points above what they were when DS applied in 2019 because the only students submitting now are the ones with high scores.  This sure adds another level of complexity to applying.  Do you turn in a "decent" but not great score or not?  I wish it was either test required, or tests not considered at all. 

LeMoyne is.  I don't know about the others. 

[Cookies Galore]

Had a productive day. Did some hotel comparison checking for myself and a coworker. We're going to a conference in Boston in December and we each have a $1300 budget for the conference registration, airfare, hotel, and food. I like to plan trips so I'm making sure we get the best bang for our bucks, i.e., making sure we have plenty of budget left for good food and drinks on work.

I really have a lot of more pressing shit to do, lol.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Sept 19, 2023 13:11:58 GMT -5 cooper88 said:

Looking back, I should have gone to work for the government in my twenties. I would be retired now. Not the best pay, but great benefits and pensions. Many people I have worked with retire with a full pension in their late forties and then go to work doing something totally different until they reach retirement age.

Yeah a random job at the Douglass Water Treatment Plant was in the paper quite awhile ago, before Gwen was born I believe.  For some reason my brain decided to bring that up at 2am.

$55k to start, government benefits and a pension.  My stupid ass at the time didn't apply because it "wasn't my passion". 

Oh to be in my 20s and be that hopelessly optimistic/delusional again.

[msventoux]

Sept 19, 2023 11:10:37 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

Sept 19, 2023 10:30:22 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

She sent a text this morning.  She has shingles.  This is the 3rd time in her life, starting when she was a kid.  

She has never had any kind of shingles vaccine because she's heard bad things about shringix.  She did say the doctor said should get one and she will let her know the timing.  I don't know if she will or not.

Sounds like she is pretty miserable.  

Good for her 

Your nuclear family sucked. Two kids, there is no excuse for driving off without one in the middle of nowhere.

My family kinda gets a pass, but not really. Two vehicles, I was riding with my teenage brother driving while my parents were in a second vehicle. We stopped to do some shopping and I was in a store with my parents while dingbat was off doing who knows what. My parents told me to get into my brothers vehicle. He wasn’t there, so I went to find my parents who had driven off in the meantime. Pre cell phone days.  They did have cb’s though and after 20-30 minutes travel realized I wasn’t with either of them. About an hour later brother showed back up.  

I get that mistakes happen, but they were all pissed at me for setting them off schedule.  And got more pissed when I told them maybe if they had done a headcount before taking off we wouldn’t be behind schedule. Yet another reason I hated family trips. 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

When we went to Colorado my dad locked me, Gwen and Abby in the car if he had to make a pit stop and we didn't need to go.   I joked about what does he think is going to happen, the guy with a hook for a hand is going to get us?  

TBF some of those stops on the way to Colorado are super sketch, especially at night.   I make the girls stay with me until I am done. Either they talk to me or I need to be able to see their shoes underneath the stall door.  They are not allowed to leave the restroom unless they can confirm either myself or DH are waiting outside in the lobby area.   No going anywhere without us present.

Same when we go to Des Moines.

It may be paranoid but not taking chances.

[chiver78]

Sept 19, 2023 14:03:36 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

Had a productive day. Did some hotel comparison checking for myself and a coworker. We're going to a conference in Boston in December and we each have a $1300 budget for the conference registration, airfare, hotel, and food. I like to plan trips so I'm making sure we get the best bang for our bucks, i.e., making sure we have plenty of budget left for good food and drinks on work.

I really have a lot of more pressing shit to do, lol.

If you don't mind public transportation, you can get a bunch more bang for your buck (as far as hotels go) just outside the city. if the conference is at BCEC, that's close to two different Red Line stations. I would have to look up bus routes, but there's definitely options there, too. lmk if you want any recommendations for anything. I also love planning trips, especially when it's on someone else's dime. 

[andi9899]

Sept 19, 2023 11:00:09 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Sept 19, 2023 10:53:32 GMT -5 andi9899 said:

I didn't know you could get shingles multiple times. I would think after the first time she would get vaccinated. Who would want to go through that again?!

Oh yeah.  You can only get chicken pox once.   Any reoccurrence after that is shingles and you can get them many times.

Something to be aware of if you have shingles and you are around a person who hasn't either been vaccinated or had chicken pox previously you can and will give them chicken pox.  My dad had to stay away from me on the day Abby was born because they thought my grandfather might have had Shingles.   My parents came up the next day after it was confirmed my grandfather didn't have them.

I am still not 100% sure if a rash I had with Abby was shingles or not.  It went away shortly before I gave birth but it burned and itched like a mofo.  It didn't look like a PUPS rash but I can't be sure. 

Maybe that's why I thought you could only get shingles once. Because I know you can only gets chickenpox once.

[lurkyloo]

This is probably the wrong forum to mention that I never bought the premise of Home Alone    I probably need therapy.

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Sept 19, 2023 14:19:50 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

This is probably the wrong forum to mention that I never bought the premise of Home Alone    I probably need therapy.

I love both of them.

"Suck brick kid!" 

[chiver78]

Sept 19, 2023 14:19:50 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

This is probably the wrong forum to mention that I never bought the premise of Home Alone    I probably need therapy.

I was having similar thoughts the other night when I watched The Goonies for the first time. my peers in FB land were horrified lol.... 

[NomoreDramaQ1015]

Sept 19, 2023 14:23:21 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Sept 19, 2023 14:19:50 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

This is probably the wrong forum to mention that I never bought the premise of Home Alone    I probably need therapy.

I was having similar thoughts the other night when I watched The Goonies for the first time. my peers in FB land were horrified lol.... 

I've never cared for The Goonies.  Say that too loudly in front of fellow 80s kids and it gets you chased out of town with pitchforks. 

[bean29]

Sept 19, 2023 8:56:35 GMT -5 giramomma said:

I really want to be a reading specialist in the public schools.

That's what I want to do with my life.

I figure it's not as crazy as folks who decide that they want to be a dr at 40.

If I'm going to have to retrain, I'd like to retrain to do something I really want to do.

We have a friend that is a reading specialist in a Chicago Area Public School.  I realized in taliking to her one time she really loves her job.  She aslo has a Master's degree.  I assume it is elementary Ed, but I really don't know.  I am sure you could get a provisional license, and it is possible you might get a sweeter offer than you think.  You could put out some feelers.

[chiver78]

Sept 19, 2023 14:24:16 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

Sept 19, 2023 14:23:21 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

I was having similar thoughts the other night when I watched The Goonies for the first time. my peers in FB land were horrified lol.... 

I've never cared for The Goonies.  Say that too loudly in front of fellow 80s kids and it gets you chased out of town with pitchforks. 

yep. there were a few of those. I felt a lot better about the comments from a couple that said it didn't hold up well, and that they understood my "meh" reaction upon seeing it for the first time as an adult. whatever, one and done works for me. now that we're past the point of pandemic isolation like the first summer, I'm all set with not watching a ton of movies again. I think I saw more 1st passes during COVID than during the previous 42y of my life in total. 

[TheOtherMe]

Sept 19, 2023 13:11:58 GMT -5 cooper88 said:

Looking back, I should have gone to work for the government in my twenties. I would be retired now. Not the best pay, but great benefits and pensions. Many people I have worked with retire with a full pension in their late forties and then go to work doing something totally different until they reach retirement age.

As the VietNam war veterans were return with their 10 point veterans preference (which they earned), it was very difficult for non-veterans to get on with the federal government in good, technical jobs.

I scored in the upper 90's on the clerical exam my shorthand teacher had the class take.  I had a federal job that started the Monday after graduation.  After being a happy stenographer, I realized I may not ever be able to live on my own at that pay so I started college at night.

Since I was already a federal employee, I could be promoted to a better position.  

When I was there, retirement was age 55 and 30 years of service.  I took an early out and retired at 47.  The health benefits are wonderful.

[TheOtherMe]

Sept 19, 2023 13:20:37 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

Sept 19, 2023 13:11:05 GMT -5 TheOtherMe said:

It was a different time.  I'm positive my parents had no thought that my sister would not say something.  For every family trip we went on after that, we had roll call.  

I'm sure we had been fighting and had drawn the imaginary line in the back seat that could not be crossed.  They were probably have there was no arguing coming from the back seat.

It never came close to happening again.  

I definitely have moments where I just can’t comprehend DS’ thought process that must have happened to lead him to whatever mess he’s landed in.

Still, I’d be more forgiving if your sister didn’t appear to have carried the same attitude and behavior into adulthood. I’m glad your parents learned from their mistake.

I don't think I have forgiven my sister.  I didn't know at the time that this was who she is.  It took a dear friend to point that out to me and I can't forgive her for a lot of things.

[weltz]

Sept 19, 2023 14:19:50 GMT -5 lurkyloo said:

This is probably the wrong forum to mention that I never bought the premise of Home Alone    I probably need therapy.

Do you buy the premise of Joe Dirt?  His parents left him at the Grand Canyon. On purpose.

[TheOtherMe]

giramomma   A friend of mine got a master's in Reading of some kind and was a reading specialist in inner city Philadelphia.  She grew to absolutely hate her job and finally quit last year.  She did say a lot of it was the parents and their total lack of interest.

She was going through a difficult time.  She and her husband divorced after many years of not getting along so I'm sure all of that also played in to her attitude towards her job.

[lurkyloo]

Dammit.  DS sprained his ankle in gym class-big bump o’swelling.  Do I need to take him to the doctor?  My impression is that they’ll just say wrap it, ice it, stay off it and give him ibuprofen.

[Cookies Galore]

Sept 19, 2023 14:08:22 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

Sept 19, 2023 14:03:36 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

Had a productive day. Did some hotel comparison checking for myself and a coworker. We're going to a conference in Boston in December and we each have a $1300 budget for the conference registration, airfare, hotel, and food. I like to plan trips so I'm making sure we get the best bang for our bucks, i.e., making sure we have plenty of budget left for good food and drinks on work.

I really have a lot of more pressing shit to do, lol.

If you don't mind public transportation, you can get a bunch more bang for your buck (as far as hotels go) just outside the city. if the conference is at BCEC, that's close to two different Red Line stations. I would have to look up bus routes, but there's definitely options there, too. lmk if you want any recommendations for anything. I also love planning trips, especially when it's on someone else's dime. 

I use public transit all the time, no qualms about Boston's system. I'm all about making life easier and rolling out of bed and walking across the street. It's two nights, I'm not going to drive myself crazy.

[chiver78]

Sept 19, 2023 14:53:42 GMT -5 Cookies Galore said:

Sept 19, 2023 14:08:22 GMT -5 chiver78 said:

If you don't mind public transportation, you can get a bunch more bang for your buck (as far as hotels go) just outside the city. if the conference is at BCEC, that's close to two different Red Line stations. I would have to look up bus routes, but there's definitely options there, too. lmk if you want any recommendations for anything. I also love planning trips, especially when it's on someone else's dime. 

I use public transit all the time, no qualms about Boston's system. I'm all about making life easier and rolling out of bed and walking across the street. It's two nights, I'm not going to drive myself crazy.

ha, cheers. you'll be fine on that budget for two days. lots of stuff in the Seaport these days, since they built over all the cheap surface parking lots I used to use when I'd go tear up downtown.      enjoy! 

[andi9899]

So remember how I told you guys about the incompetent assistant at the previous employer? Check this out. So he screws up all the time and doesn't seem to want to learn, he just wants things handed to him. He had just gotten his insurance license before I left. You don't know anything right out of the gate. If you immerse yourself and soak up any knowledge you can, it takes at least 2 years just to be proficient at this. Bare minimum, it takes many more years to be pretty darn good.

So he was pissed when I left that he wasn't promoted to my position which is a few levels above his. My boss told him that my position requires a minimum of 10 years of experience to even be considered. She advised him to learn as much as he can and he can start moving up the ladder and maybe eventually be in that position unless he felt like we wanted to change paths once he got going.

She told me today that he filed an HR complaint! I was shook! The reason was because he wasn't getting a promotion. HR said manager has valid reasons, case closed. He then said he wanted to work for her counterpart instead in the FL which means he also gets to be fully remote since he doesn't live in FL. FL manager said no. The set of balls on this guy! He's something like 40 years old and doesn't know how corporate America works?! Holy shit. He'd have been fired anywhere else for pulling that crap.

[andi9899]

Sept 19, 2023 12:06:55 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

And do you want to BE a garbage collector? It probably isn't too late. You can leave your college degree off the application. Not me! There are some jobs that I don't want to do no matter how good the benefits and pension. Plus, that particular job is getting more and more automated. You might be lucky to hang on until you are 55.

Actually yes I am too old to start as a garbage man.      That's one of those jobs where they don't want you starting past 35 which makes sense due to physicality and how close that puts you to being able to walk out the door with a pension.

It is also heavily unionized which is not a bad thing but it tends to be a "my grandfather was a garbage man, my dad was a garbage man" type of set up around here.

It's a pretty good gig.  That's more what I meant about the school disparaging it in favor of college.  I encourage Gwen to really LOOK at careers don't turn your nose up at stuff that doesn't require or expect a traditional 4 year+ college route.

The jobs here at my current company that would take sociology degrees only require bachelor's degrees.  They take them for the customer side of things like product development, marketing etc.  IDK what they pay but I am betting it's more than the $20k I started out with.

If you ever want to get into the insurance game, I can tell you how to avoid the mistakes I learned the hard way and get you moved up the ladder quicker.

[susana1954]

Sept 19, 2023 12:06:55 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

And do you want to BE a garbage collector? It probably isn't too late. You can leave your college degree off the application. Not me! There are some jobs that I don't want to do no matter how good the benefits and pension. Plus, that particular job is getting more and more automated. You might be lucky to hang on until you are 55.

Actually yes I am too old to start as a garbage man.      That's one of those jobs where they don't want you starting past 35 which makes sense due to physicality and how close that puts you to being able to walk out the door with a pension.

It is also heavily unionized which is not a bad thing but it tends to be a "my grandfather was a garbage man, my dad was a garbage man" type of set up around here.

It's a pretty good gig.  That's more what I meant about the school disparaging it in favor of college.  I encourage Gwen to really LOOK at careers don't turn your nose up at stuff that doesn't require or expect a traditional 4 year+ college route.

The jobs here at my current company that would take sociology degrees only require bachelor's degrees.  They take them for the customer side of things like product development, marketing etc.  IDK what they pay but I am betting it's more than the $20k I started out with.

But did you want to be a garbage collector when you were 18 and someone talked you out of it?  Did you seriously think about being a plumber or an electrician?  If these were your goals and someone talked you out of them, you have my sympathy.  But I think you are looking back and seeing it much differently than it actually was.  

But if those were your goals and someone talked you out of them, shame on them!

[chiver78]

Sept 19, 2023 15:31:48 GMT -5 susana1954 said:

Sept 19, 2023 12:06:55 GMT -5 NomoreDramaQ1015 said:

And do you want to BE a garbage collector? It probably isn't too late. You can leave your college degree off the application. Not me! There are some jobs that I don't want to do no matter how good the benefits and pension. Plus, that particular job is getting more and more automated. You might be lucky to hang on until you are 55.

Actually yes I am too old to start as a garbage man.      That's one of those jobs where they don't want you starting past 35 which makes sense due to physicality and how close that puts you to being able to walk out the door with a pension.

It is also heavily unionized which is not a bad thing but it tends to be a "my grandfather was a garbage man, my dad was a garbage man" type of set up around here.

It's a pretty good gig.  That's more what I meant about the school disparaging it in favor of college.  I encourage Gwen to really LOOK at careers don't turn your nose up at stuff that doesn't require or expect a traditional 4 year+ college route.

The jobs here at my current company that would take sociology degrees only require bachelor's degrees.  They take them for the customer side of things like product development, marketing etc.  IDK what they pay but I am betting it's more than the $20k I started out with.

But did you want to be a garbage collector when you were 18 and someone talked you out of it?  Did you seriously think about being a plumber or an electrician?  If these were your goals and someone talked you out of them, you have my sympathy.  But I think you are looking back and seeing it much differently than it actually was.  

But if those were your goals and someone talked you out of them, shame on them!

I'm gonna make this about me for a hot second, but it fits with what you're saying here. where I went to HS, we also had a Voc Tech HS and one Catholic HS both within town lines. other VT/religious HSs were in the area, and plucked sports talent. but that's another story. anyway, an anecdote that sticks in my memory from 1992 was when my mom came home from a parents' orientation to HS and all she could talk about was how this one mother was horrified that her kid wanted to hit the Voc Tech HS and how could she convince him (I think it was a boy?) to come to the public HS. my mother, who I could tell stories about for days....., my mother got up and asked the woman something about would she please convince her daughter to not go to the public school and go to the Catholic HS.   for effing real. y'all know me now, I'm not shy. back then? I was still respectful when people tried to shove their religious crap down my throat. not a shot in hell I was going to that Catholic HS!   but it's funny how certain things are important to certain people. as another aside - the highly competitive university where I earned my degree, my announcement to my HS guidance counselor that this place was my 1st choice was met with snark. and yet, I don't think I'd be accepted as an incoming freshman with the solid grades I had back then. 

but, back to that kid - what was so wrong about the Voc Tech route? I worked with a brilliant HVAC engineer about 10y ago when I was still doing process automation. he had a full 4yr Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, built on a HS diploma from a different-area Voc Tech HS for HVAC maintenance. education is what you make of it, and it's a tool to use in finding your way to becoming a successful and productive member of society. I realize now that my mom was trying to avoid her daughters having to physically work like my dad has his entire life, but a step right instead of left doesn't tie you to that path for your life. and I think that was lost on a lot of people when we were growing up.