Wow, I have completely neglected this blog.  I apologize.  I have been pretty busy this month.  I last left off with Maya’s visit.  I love that child to pieces but she is a total tornado.  I was exhausted from having her here for just a few days.  Then there’s been my training for work - I’m in the home stretch now, this Thursday is my last day of CORE, woo hoo!  So happy that’s nearly over with!  I also got assigned my team, and it’s not the team I expected.  In the matter of about 2 week the county changed their mind with me three times.

First, I was all set to go to the Bellport/East Patchogue team, which would have made me happy since it would have landed me right back in the 5th precinct area so I could still work with my boys.  Then they were thinking about sending me to the Brentwood/Dix Hills/Deer Park team, which would have also been fine for me since Brentwood is so close to my home and my good friend Mike is on that team.  But, alas, neither was meant to be.  I’m apparently going to be saving children on Team 70 - meaning my catchment area is Farmingdale/Amityville/Amity Harbor/Copiague/Lindenhurst.  Quite the little surprise.  I only learned of this last week.  But, happily, my other buddy Scott has just transferred to that team so again, I won’t be alone with people I don’t know.  So this past week I’ve just been busting my ass trying to rap up all my cases that don’t fall in the Team 70 area (because my ass is not driving from Ronkonkoma to Sayville to Farmingdale and back).  I just hope I don’t get too many cases in Farmingdale, that would stink (commute/mileage wise).

I’ve also been spending more and more time with Alexandra, which is great because she’s wonderful, but it’s a bit unexpected the amount of time we’ve been around each other.  Especially since we never spent this much time together outside of work before.  I went with her to watch her mother jump out of a plane - it was awesome!  I want to do that now!  But, it’s expensive as all hell, like my first jump will probably run in the $400 range (because I’d have to get the DVD and picture of me for at least the 1st time).  All subsequent jumps should be in the $200 range after that.  But it’s still an expensive hobby.

I’m back on my trying-to-lose-weight kick.  It’s 4:30am now and I’m debating going to the gym.  I should go, lord knows I could use the workout.  Today I have CORE in Nassau, then I want to hit up the tanning salon (yeah, I actually said that, can’t get to the beach as much as I’d like and I don’t want to go another summer with a stinky tan…) and then I want to run to the office and finish up some work on my last Sayville case - which I plan on substantiating and closing.  That should bring me right into the nighttime/dinner time mark.  But, alas, back to the whole gym thing - should I go now or later tonight?  I had wanted to go last night but I got nearly no sleep so after dinner last night my little nap turned into me sleeping till 4am when my cell alarm went off.

Thinking out loud (so to speak): If I go to the gym for say 5:15am, I should be done with my work out and back home by 6:30am ish, shower, change and can be back on the road heading to Nassau by 7:30am.  Since this is my last week of CORE I want to make sure that I’m there nice and early to leave a good impression on the trainers.  OR - I could relax, putz around, try to get my stuff together to send to the French Embassy (yeah, I’m still dragging my feet with that lol) to mail out today (which I should really do) and just go to the gym later on tonight since I’ll clearly still be awake after 8pm.  So, a good workout at 9 or 10 will put me straight to sleep tonight.  Hmm….. nice master plan, now I’d have to make it happen, we’ll see…..

Ok, back to what I’ve neglected to update in this blog… Can’t really think of much else to be honest.  I’m still broke as ever, I’m still annoyed on a regular basis by my family, I still don’t get to see my friends as often as I’d like - oh! but I will be seeing Steph this weekend!  Hmm, if I think of anything else I’ll try to update then and there.  And I’m going to try to update this thing much more then once a freaking month!

Justine and Maya visited over the weekend.  They stayed at my house.  I love this kid, I truly do, but this kid runs circles around me.  She will be turning 4 on the 9th, I can’t believe this baby is getting so big!  Justine had a birthday party for Maya at Maya’s aunt’s house.  It was very cute, though not long.  About a 3 hour party.  Guess that was more then enough to keep the kids attention span going and keep the adults sane.  After 4 days of waking up early and having this child run around me, I am exhausted.  I love her to pieces, but she makes me sleepy.

My mother is so much in fucking denial it’s disgusting. We got invited to my neighbors BBQ this weekend. This afternoon, before I headed over, I decide that it would be nice to bring something with me for the little party. I decide to bring my Smirnoff’s Strawberry Vodka that I had sitting in my computer room for months. Since this bottle should be about 95% full I figured it would be a nice addition to my neighbors get together. Of course when I go to grab the bottle I notice it’s only about 30% full. What the fuck!?!?!?!

I’m not happy. I immediately know that it must be my brother. That fucking delinquent. I send a txt message to my mother informing her that I am expecting the $20 I had originally spent on that bottle today.

Well I see her, she mentions nothing. I didn’t bring it up at my neighbors party because that’s not the place nor time for this. So we get home and she’s bitching out me using her scotch tape and not putting it back in a timely manor. Ok fine. But of course this bizotch has to take it a step further and say “under her breath” (which is really loud enough for me to hear with her down the hall) that I’m a ‘lazy bitch’. Of, fuck you, it’s on. So I jump up, go into the kitchen and start into her about my vodka. I tell her that it’s not right that her son who has been unemployed since December and hasn’t made any real attempt to find a job gets to run around and go out every fucking weekend with his friends and eat out all the time and then has the gall to take my fucking vodka. First she tries to say that I must had drank it. I’m quick to point out to her that the only reason I have it is because it was an xmas present 2 fucking years ago from an ex-friend and that I don’t usually drink vodka unless I have a reason to (ie: with friends while staying in, which hasn’t happened too often).

Finally she admits that most likely my brother is the culprit. So, she then goes on to say that I will not get a refund in my vodka because she is technically unemployed, as is my brother. My fucking point is, then who the fuck gave this little good for nothing delinquent shithead the right to take my property!?!?! it’s mine, for me, not him. It’s in MY COMPUTER room, and among MY PROPERTY. He went in there to take it regardless of the fact that he knew it was mine. GGrrrrr.

Bottom line, I’m not getting anything back for it. I’m not a happy camper right now.

I just want to point out that bitch-face has been between 4 - 12 minuets late the past 3 business days. Way to lead by example. She already got to Eileen and I can feel the tension while I’m in the unit. I hope that it gets better. I’m thinking about killing her with kindness. Maybe that would work? Ugh, I need a drink (again!)!

Oh, and she has a new nickname - The Ice Queen.

I’m ready to punch that bitch in the face. So the new caseworker in the training unit finally comes. Anne, the cesspool off evilness and unprofessionalism, started during my first week of training in Nassau. We need one “real caseworker” to aid in training all us newbies.  Anne comes from the foster care unit.  She has only been working for CPS for about 4 years (or at least that’s what I’ve heard).  I would just like to note real quick that foster care and investigations (which is where I’m going) is completely different and she clearly has no real idea what I will be doing - not loving it.  Well week one comes by, I was trying to be super nice to her and joke around with her - so wasn’t happening. She was pretty cold, kind of rude and seemed like she simply didn’t want to be bothered by me. Ok, fine, whatever. So, back to Nassau I go for a week (horrible stomach attacks btw, ugh, it was a long week). That brings us to this week. Tuesday to be exact.

Oh, let that day begin. So it starts off by me nearly running over a fellow caseworker. This woman, Carolyn, from another team was walking [in a parking spot] next to an SUV. I go to pull into the spot next to the SUV and nearly run the chick over. Oh hell. Thank goodness I didn’t hit her. I look down at the clock, it’s 8:25am. So, I walk into the building with my ‘near casulaty’ and run into (not literally this time) her fellow unit member Lisa. Now, I happen to have one of Lisa’s old cases. So, on the elevator ride up we were chatting about it. And once we got off the elevator we stood there for about a minuet and chatted some more about this case (the mother in the case has been absolutely horrendous in terms of getting in touch with her). Then I walk over to my unit and start my day.

Well, about an hour or two into my shift, while I’m working hard on my cases, Anne walks over to me. We all sit cube-style so my back is to the walk path between rows. Anne comes around me and shoves (literally) a piece of paper in my face (about 2 inches from my face). Of course this startles the hell out of me. Well bitch-face informs me that I was 15 minuets late. What the fuck?!?! I look her straight in the face and tell her that I wasn’t late and she was mistaken. Anne then says that she isn’t mistake and that I was late and my attendance is “an ongoing issue” (FYI - I had my 8 week evaluation on 5/6 and at the bottom is said that I am “punctual with coming in on time and with my breaks”). Ok, so now I’m pissed. I tell her again that she was mistaken and that if she needs conformation that I was on time then she can speak with Lisa. And that is when the cunt says “oh, well we’ve all heard that kind of excuse before, this will be conferenced with Eileen [my direct supervisor]“. Wow, bitch. I told her to go ahead. She walked away.

Oh, I nearly forgot, she also did this in front of my co-workers. How unprofessional is that?!?!?! Not happy folks.

Wow, so not thrilled. Once it all settled in what had transpired I started to freak out. I mean I’m on probation for a whole year. I had a home visit in Huntington, I cried the whole way there. And I mean cried - my make-up was a complete mess. How could this have happened? Why did she have to be like this? Why did she have to embarrass me in front of my co-workers like that. She basically said that I was unreliable and a lier. This is my professional integrity she is messing with here. Not good.

I conferenced with several people. Most said that I should bring it up to Eileen. Of course Eileen wasn’t in yesterday (her kid was sick). But some said not to say anything. Don’t make any waves and if anything let them come to me. I decided that might be the best course of action. We’ll see how things go.

I think that the sades part of all is that I’ve heard such wonderful things about Anne, yet I have never seen it. As of right now, Anne and I have worked a grand total of 7 business days. Maybe she’s trying to show that she’s ‘in charge’. Maybe she’s trying to show that she isn’t a ‘push-over’. Anyway you want to cut it, she has already lost any professional respect of trust that I may have had for her.

Just for the hell of it I checked British Airways website to see how much a round trip flight from JFK to London would cost.  For the ticket itself it’s $330, which isn’t bad at all in my eyes.  Now, lets add in the taxes, fees, charges and surcharges - an additional $414.13.  A grand total of $744.13.  It really is absolutely horrendous that the taxes and fees are more then the actual ticket.  When I was jetting back and forth to Scotland I NEVER paid more then $450 (if that) for a round trip ticket.  That, of course included all of those taxes and fees, plus, flying to Scotland is more expensive then simply flying to England.  This gas price bs needs to end like now or else I can’t overly image that too many people would be jetting off anywhere.  The world will pretty much become and “homebody” society and not really do much on time off due to these outrageous prices.

Cinn has been visiting her family and she brought her new baby with her. So excited to finally meet this kid! I had the opportunity to babysit this little peanut today for a little over 2 hours while Cinn went to the movies with her parents. I must say, Makayla is such a beautiful little baby. I’m sure she will grow up to be a gorgeous and no doubt very intelligent little girl. This picture really does not give this child justice, but it does give you an idea.

Got the paperwork from the Embassy today to register my birth and validate my parents marriage. Yeah, the paperwork is all in French. I’ve been using BabelFish to translate the whole thing, I hope I answered everything correctly. Eek!

Also, got an email from my French cousin, Edouard. He’s super excited to be coming to New York for a month. I’m super excited to meet him! He’s 16 and judging from his facebook page, he’s a little French cutie. Will probably have to beat the girls off of him at the beach!