The thrill of the hunt???

  It finally happened. After fourteen years with the same company, my spouse quit his job. I am actually surprised he finally did it. He's complained for years, tolerated phone calls on his cell phone on, nights, weekends, holidays, and vacations; and put in way more than forty hours in any given week. Finally, the company was bought out and a series of layoffs ensued. People were leaving in droves. He even put up with a large pay cut to keep his job. What was the straw that broke the camel's back? My belief is that there were two things, one he married and the other he fathered.
  I decided to  drag him to marriage counseling because I was pretty much at my wits end. I am not very good at subtlety, which is ok, since he's pretty obtuse. What's not ok is my lack of tact, so I called in the cavalry. There's no polite way to say "I'm contemplating a divorce, how's your day going?" Like any normal guy, he found this upsetting. The other reason is now almost ten years old and finishing the fourth grade. We had her tested officially for Add and as part of the initial interview process, the specialist noted that she is "not close to her father". For some reason, my husband took this personally.
   "I'm a weekend Dad!" he said. I'm all for more Daddy and daughter time. I think this was just the result of me naturally being home as a stay at home parent.  Truthfully, I will be looking forward to getting some bonus help around the house. It will also come in handy for other things like doctor's appointments and the summer.
   Things have to get pretty bad at a person's job for him to quit without another one lined up. When he informed me that he'd been having chest pains at work on top of this, I knew this qualified. We were lucky that we were never the sort to live from paycheck to paycheck. Thankfully, after some harassment, he got himself checked out by our family doctor, who informed him it was stress related.
   What's weird is now we, or mostly, he is dealing with a different kind of stress. On his last day at work, his colleagues told him he looked happier than he had in months. Being at home now, I think, has left him feeling irritable. It's going to be an adjustment for all of us. Personally, I can see plenty of upsides. He needs to get reacquainted with his daughter, and his wife, who, incidentally, could always use a hand dealing with said daughter. He is also going to have to figure out who he is now. How much of your identity, dear reader, is tied to your job, and how do you handle it when it's not there anymore?

A question for the ages....

    People that know me know that I am late for just about everything. I do try, I really do, but for some reason, I just never seem to pull off the punctuality thing. I'm beginning to think I should just change my name to A.L. , as in always late. My daughter needs to be at school by 8:40 am in our district. This is a monumental struggle for AL and her faithful sidekick, Frankenbunny. Just getting her majesty awake is right up there with poking a bear with a stick. (This is mostly my DNA.) I make a point of never entering the cave until at least 1 cup of coffee (by "cup" I mean vat) has been drained. Speaking of drained, I also have to get my own sorry butt dressed first.
   I have not sunk to the level of yoga pants and slippers but I have left the house without brushing my hair. (Fairness requires me to point out here that there will be yoga pants days no matter what you do. Hopefully, they will be occasional rather than the norm.) Thankfully, I no longer park the car and walk my daughter to the door. This does leave me the luxury of looking as scary as I need to since I'm not  getting out of my car. Recently, the offspring and I had one of those Monday part 12 mornings.
  The time crunch was mostly my fault. I made the mistake of trying to read to her in the morning and burned 15 minutes we really didn't have. Nonetheless, I managed to get her majesty dressed, her hair brushed, lunch assembled, and even threw a breakfast together. I was actually somewhat proud of myself.  We get in my car, I hand over the tea and toast and I get "Why were there no Froot Loops?". I'm  pretty sure if I had responded with something like "I left my cape and phone booth in my other pants" I would have gotten blank stare number 48 for that morning. I had to simply inform the offspring that I was in a hurry. We've only been scrambling out the door every morning for well over the last six months and I have to inform her there's a time crunch. This is another fun part of living with Adhd on top of my DNA. Clearly, detective work is not in this kid's future.
   Somehow, we manage to make it to school on time, by the skin of our teeth. This is true as far as I know, pending any discoveries of a cache of late slips.
   I have read that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I beg to differ, it's really parenting and expecting gratitude anywhere in the first couple of decades, at least! Just ask your own parents "Why were there no Froot Loops?".