Hanging out on Facebook these days.  I'm the creator of the Treasure Valley Parents of Multiples group there.  Come join us!

They arrived July 15th and yes, I'm seeing way too much of the 4am time slot.  And the statement given to me by a fellow MOM (mother of multiples) and co-worker keeping circling my head:  "Do not expect anyone with one child to understand you."  Truer words have never been spoken. 

I never knew car seats made such attractive cat beds. 

I don't think Emer has a boyfriend now.  It's more akin to a territorial dispute.  She was in her first battle yesterday in our yard (first known battle to me anyway) and came out the losing side.  So I have a very unhappy kitty with a bandaged tail who was trying to take out my lighting set up I was playing with today.  She did hold still long enough to glower at me. 

I think Emer has a boyfriend.  I keep finding dead birds by our back door that I know she didn't kill.  (She was inside at the time).  Or maybe the neighborhood cats are leaving offerings to appease her craziness.  Either way...yucky. 

I started today out trying to find a local Colonial Insurance office here in town.  The address given to me by a coworker was no longer in existence.  Ok.  20 minute drive shot.  So there happened to be a new phone book left out at this particular office building that no longer housed the office I was looking for.  So I look up a second address.  My luck, it's out near Eagle.  That takes me another 35 minutes to drive out to this new address. 

By now I'm annoyed, slightly stressed, and any calls placed to either agent's number sends me directly to voice mail.  I'm thinking the proverbial "people suck" at this point.

I arrive at the new address and lo and behold, no Colonial Insurance office listed on the building directory.  What the hell...I go inside and run smack into a former student of mine who is now working as a retirement broker in the building only in a different office.  I had her as a student about five years ago.  I'm guessing this was all fate since she recognized me and I told what I was looking for and her reply was "they used to be here, but let's go to my office and call."  She got online, found the local agent I was looking for, called him, and found out the address I was currently sitting at is where is office is located.  Hmmm that's interesting.  Long story made short, she directs me to go up to the 3rd floor and I discover that an independent agency under a different name contracts with Colonial (or something to that effect).  Mystery solved.  But thank heavens for my former student's kindness.  I was ready to just give up and say:  I don't need supplemental NICU insurance.  I'll take my chances.  

By 12:45 I'm finally home after driving around since before 10am.  Time to relax.  Yeah right. 

Time to handle student complaints about grades.   

I'm still in the process of talking to the Department Chair, etc.  Only at 1pm I'm more than slightly stressed as I stated earlier, I'm downright angry.  I'm not angry that the student contests his/her grade.  That's normal and understandable.  I'm angry because this student is accusing me of taking homework, not grading it, throwing it away, and then giving him/her a zero.  Never have I done unethical in my teaching career.  Let alone something as petty as throwing away homework.  It never happened.  But, I'm the one now taking the matter up with the Chair since the student balked when I said I was going to take this further than just us, but my reputation is at stake if someone is going to accuse me of such a horrible thing I want him/her to prove it. 

So at 2pm I'm back to square one and thinking the worst about humanity in general.   

I then take a break and go browsing Craigslist looking for baby items.  I find a changing pad and other misc. stuff listed for cheap and send an email to the seller.  Now my typical luck with Craigslist is I'm always the third or fourth person to inquire about something that's already been sold.  Not this time.  I make arrangements for an evening pickup of the baby items.  Things are looking up. 

And that leads me to now at 7pm.  When I went to pick up and pay for the items, the couple that open the door have 10-month-old twin boys.  That made my day.  I told them husband and I are expecting twin girls.  So this really nice couple invited me into their home and we spent a half-an-hour talking about the challenges and joys of twins.  In short, I made new friends, which was a completely unexpected turn of events when I went to their home.  I'm learning both how big, yet small, this parents-of-twins "club" is here in Boise. 

The moral of this whole stream of consciousness rant is that my faith in the general goodness of people is restored and I'm grateful.