Blogiversary!

Today is my one year blogiversary! Woohoo!

I started this blog mainly to keep track of my crochet projects. I didn't know if I would even get any readers, let alone any regular readers, or whether I would even have enough to write about to keep it going for a year. I'm thankful for all the great people who regularly read my blog, and I look forward to reading your comments. I also appreciate all the kindness you've shown me through the rough recent times in my life with my job situation and whatnot.

So, to thank all my lovely blog readers, I'm having a giveaway!

I'm giving away this "spa set", crocheted from Red Heart Eco-Cotton in the "Candy Marl" color. The yarn is actually made partly from recycled t-shirt scraps. There's a scrubby washcloth, back scrubby and soap sack. The pattern is from the book, "Easy as 1-2-3 Crochet".
To enter the giveway, just leave me a comment with any three-digit number from 100-999, by 11PM EST on Sunday, November 16th. I won't update my blog again before then. On the 16th, I'll use the handy-dandy Random Number Generator to generate a three-digit number, and the person who picked the closest number will win.

Good luck!

True Stories from the Board of Elections

WARNING: LONG, TEXT-HEAVY POST!

I was just looking at my blog, and realized I haven't posted since November 4th. I didn't realize it had been that long. I've been meaning to post, but seven hours a day of answering phone calls from irate and/or confused voters, not to mention answering the same questions over and over and over, for the past month, has left me exhausted. Since Election Day is nigh (thank God - I am burned out hearing and talking about ballots!), here's a little sampling of some true phone calls we've received in the registration department at the Board:

Voter: "I am a Native American woman, and I read my Bible every day. My husband, God help his soul, is a Republican. I'm a Democrat, and I want to know why my husband received his absentee ballot in the mail, and I haven't received mine. Are you only sending out ballots to Republicans?"

Voter: "I received my absentee ballot, and I want to know why John McCain is at the bottom of the list of presidential candidates".

Me: "The candidates are printed in a random order. They are in a different order on every ballot".

Voter: "Why is that?"

Me: "To avoid the appearance of the Board favoring any one candidate".

Voter (sounding doubtful): "Is Barack Obama at the bottom of any ballots?"

Me: "I'm quite sure he is"

Voter: "I don't believe that. I want to speak to a supervisor".

Voter: "I'm filling out my absentee ballot. Should I use a black or a navy blue crayon to complete it?"

Voter: "I'd like to know how I can vote by absentee ballot".

Me: (Explaining the absentee ballot process)

Voter: "Oh, I thought I could just tell you my votes over the phone".

Voter (who starts screaming as soon as I answer the phone): "I received an absentee ballot, and voted for the president. I put it in the mail and just realized that my ballot only had the presidential candidates and judges listed. Where's all the other idiots I've been hearing about on TV, those congresspeople. I wanted to vote for them too!"

Me: "Ma'am, every ballot lists all of the presidential candidates, judges, congressional races, and local issues. There are four pages to the ballot (two double-sided pages marked "vote both sides" in bold lettering).

Voter (still screaming): " This is bullshit! My ballot only had two pages. I know I only received two pages because I'm a Republican. I'm tired of this Democratically controlled county, and I'd better receive a new ballot or I'm going to the media, and not the Fox 8 News (a local news station), I'm going to CNN and the national news.

Voter: "I'd like to know when I'm going to receive my asbentee ballot".

Me: (Gathering caller's name and address to see if we sent out the ballot). "Ma'am, I don't show that we've received an application for a ballot from you".

Voter (screaming): "I sent in applications twice, for both me and my mother."

Me: "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but we haven't received the applications".

Voter: "You're a liar (spewing obscenities at me)!" I sent in those applications and I know they're there! You probably threw them away because I'm a Republican! Those applications had better turn up by Wednesday, or I'm going to the media!"

Me: "Let me have you speak to my supervisor (because I don't get paid enough money to be cussed at).

Later my supervisor tells me the caller told her to "go to hell", and the supervisor told her, "Well, I wouldn't tell you something like that". Caller finally decides to just vote at the polls.

Voter: "There's a group home at the corner of my street, and someone came by to take the residents to vote. Are mentally retarded people allowed to vote?"

Employee (hilarious 75 year old temp employee): "Well, they're allowed to run for office (ha, ha!!)"

Voter: "I just sent in my ballot, and I realized that I forgot to vote for the vice president!"

Employee: "The vice president and president are elected together. If you vote for a presidential candidate, you automatically vote for their running mate as well. You can't mix and match presidents and vice presidents (ha, ha!)".

Voter: "I looked online to see if my absentee ballot was received by you guys, and it says it was challenged".

Me (looking up the information): "Yes sir, it says your ballot was challenged because you did not fully complete the identification envelope. You'll receive a letter from the Board giving you until November 14th to come in and fix the errors in person so your ballot will be counted".

Voter: "My ballot was just challenged because I'm a Republican".

Me: "No sir, we've had plenty of Democratic ballots challenged as well".

Voter: "Well, what if I can't come down to the Board to fix it? What if I'm incapacitated?".

Me: "Let me get your phone number, and I'll have someone from our absentee ballot department call you to see what else you can do".

Voter: "OK, I'll give you my work number, I'm at work right now" (hmmm, he's incapacitated, but he's still able to work???)

Voter: "I received a letter saying my absentee ballot was challenged because I did not put my ballot in the ID envelope".

Me (looks up voter's information: "Yes, that's correct. You'll need to come down to the board in person to correct it for your ballot to be counted".

Voter: "They're (Republicans) trying to keep my vote down, mmmm, hmmm, but no, sir, I'm not going to let them!".

Voter (male - speaking to my pretty, young, coworker, Lola): "Does my registration say whether I'm married or single?"

Coworker: "No, it doesn't".

Voter: "Well, I'm single. You sound pretty."

Coworker (laughing): "I am!" (and then proceeds to get asked out on a date by caller, ha, ha!)

You can imagine what a month this has been for me. If I hear one more conspiracy theory from a voter, I'm going to pull my hair out! Now, this doesn't even include the many voters who want to tell me in great detail their opinions of the election system, the wording of issues on ballots, and the voting process. I want to tell them I'm a measly $10 an hour temp; I have no control over the election system. I've been biting my tongue, being as pleasant and cheerful as I can manage, and counting down the days until this election is over.

Today I received 207 calls in 6.5 hours. Yep, that's approximately 31 calls an hour. I'm tired. As one of my (Republican) coworkers put, "I wish these people who are accusing us of things could just come down here to work for a day and see what really goes on". My thoughts exactly! We are absolutely, incredibly, nonstop busy. There's barely time to breathe let alone worry about people's poltical affliation.

The job isn't all bad though. For the most part I like my (well, most of them, anyway) coworkers. I've met some other temps who have been really great. One lady (who is also looking for a permanent job for after this one ends) and I have been exchanging job hunting tips, and news of job openings, and encouraging each other in the job search. Laughing about crazy calls from voters helps relieve the aggravation too. A few ladies from our absentee ballot department had me cracking up one day when they told me about how some voters (who are required to provide identification information when requesting an absentee ballot) in lieu of a driver's license number or photocopy, have sent photos of themselves. One lady sent a photo of her and her boyfriend on vacation at the beach, complete with herself circled. Another lady sent a photo of herself standing in her front lawn, holding an American flag, her house address visible in the background. Ha, ha!

I must say though that not every phone call I've gotten has been from someone rude or just plain dumb. I've gotten some really nice phone calls - people who have gone out of their way to be polite to me and people who have been genuinely appreciative of the help I've given them. One lady told me "Thank you for your service during this election season". Another told me, "You know, people always complain about the Board of Elections, but everyone I've spoken to there has been so nice and helpful".

And, I must admit, it makes me feel good to see so many people excited about the election. One young woman, just turned 18, voting for the first time, asked me when the election results would be shown on the news. She said when she was younger, she always liked watching the results come in state by state, and she's looking forward to voting and watching the results on TV. Another young woman, a college student, called about her absentee ballot. I told her it had been mailed, and to please be patient, because we had over 250,000 requests for ballots. She sounded nearly in tears when she told me how happy she is that so many people want to vote. I've gotten calls from people who haven't voted in 20+ years who want to vote now. Calls from felons fresh out of prison who are thrilled to hear they can still vote (in Ohio they can vote; they just have to re-register). Calls from people who are hospitalized with serious illnesses, but still want to vote (the Board has employees who go to the hospitals to help patients vote absentee).

I went to work this past Saturday to earn some overtime, and got recruited to help out the poll workers in the basement. We were only supposed to be open from 9-1 for voting on Saturday, but people started lining up at 8AM that morning. By 1PM, there was a line of people stretched from the poll workers tables, all through the room, down the hallway, up two flights of stairs, in the lobby, and all the way down the street three blocks away. The county sheriff had to go out and cut off the line at 1:30PM, but there were so many voters that the last one in line finished voting at 3PM. Apparently, we're the place to be these days, because we've gotten visits from a few celebrities (the rapper Lil' Bow Wow was there, and of course all the young ladies ran down to the lobby to gush over him), from the mayor of Cleveland, and from the secretary of state, among others. All of the local news stations have been in and around the building taping segments, and CNN even sent Anderson Cooper to visit the Board and do a story. CNN has had a news truck camped outside for days. I must admit, as aggravating as the job has been at times, it has also been pretty interesting getting a first-hand look at how the election process works.

In other news, I almost forgot to mention that I had a job interview today, for a position with my alma mater, Cleveland State University. OK, it's just a secretarial position with the law college, but hey, it pays better than the pitiful $10 an hour I'm making now, and I'm pretty sure it's a union position too, not to mention that I'd have some health insurance. Bringing home $600 every two weeks after taxes, with no medical insurance or vacation time, just isn't cutting it. The interview went pretty well, I think. They're supposed to make a hiring decision by Friday. Please keep your fingers crossed that I get the job. My husband is back to working 5 days a week, but his company is still planning on shutting down for two weeks unpaid at Christmastime, so I sure can't afford to be unemployed then (the job at the Board is expected to end around November 28th, if not sooner).

Well, I've got to get to bed so I'll have the energy to deal with another couple hundred phone calls tomorrow. At least I'm not scheduled to work tomorrow night. A lot of my coworkers have to work their regular shift, then head over to the Board's warehouse to open, sort, scan, and count ballots. They're (literally) going to be there all night, looking at about an 18-20 hour shift tomorrow.

A couple other temps have griped because I haven't been working 12+ hour days like many of them, but with 10 year old and 5 year old kids, and a husband who works nights, I just can't do it. I sure could use the extra money, but no way am I leaving my kids home alone early in the morning (before my husband gets home from work) so I can get to work at 7AM, not to mention that with an hour and a half, two bus commute, I'd have to leave the house at 5:30AM just to get there by 7. No thanks. I've been upfront with the supervisors in my department about my situation with the kids and my husband's work schedule, and they've been OK with it, so I don't give a &%$# what a few coworkers have to say about it. My kids, my family, and my safety are going to come first over this job.

Well, off to bed. Stay tuned for some crochet project photos in a couple of days!

Sigh...

I know, I haven't updated my blog in a while. I have been doing some crocheting lately. I finished the front of my son's "D" pillow. I crocheted some chemo caps for a local cancer support center, and I started on a lacey wrap from some TLC Cara Mia from my stash. I planned to post some pictures, but honestly I just don't have the energy for it right now. The last few days have been a mess. I've had a terrible cold all week. My face is swollen, my head hurts, my nose is stuffed up and drippy, and I have a cough that keeps me up all night. I've been taking cold medicine, but it doesn't help. Both of my kids are sick too.

Then on Thursday my husband got some bad news at work. First the factory he works for cut out all the overtime (which we were really depending on). Next they let all of their temps go (some of which had been with the company over a year). Now they had a meeting with the employees and said they are going to start voluntary layoffs, cut the remaining employees down to a four day work week starting in mid-October, and shut down (unpaid) for two weeks between Christmas and the first week of January. I'm feeling sick just thinking about it. We're already scraping by what with the overtime being cut, me making so much less than I did at my last job, plus food, gas, and utilities constantly going up, and now this happens.

His company says they're struggling because of the economy, but my husband says the consensus among his coworkers is that the company was doing fine until they brought in a couple of new managers, who made a bunch of poor decisions that made the company lose a few major customers. But of course, nothing will happen to the managers. It seems like the higher up a person is on the "food chain" of a company, the fewer repercussions there are if they screw something up. The CEO of our largest bank here in the Cleveland area, National City Bank, ran the company into the ground, to the point where their stock is now going for less than the price of a hamburger, but he was still able to retire this year with a $46 million dollar retirement package. Just sickening.

My job at the board of elections is still going OK at least. Last week the head of the registration department stopped me and asked what my name is. I told her and she said she's been meaning to find me to tell me thank you. I was confused until she said the two supervisors (below her) had been telling what a good job I've been doing and that they're very happy with my "work output". I know that doesn't seem like a big deal, but it made me feel good because in the 3 years I spent at my last job, I'm hard pressed to recall a single time that my boss actually praised for anything I did well (yet she was always waiting to criticize me if I made a mistake).

Still though, the job is going to end either around the election or near the end of November, and I'm trying hard not to worry about the worst-case scenario of my husband being on shut down with no pay around Christmas and me not having found another job. I've still been looking for a permanent job, but the job market just seems to have really dried up around here. At least from talking to my fellow temp coworkers I see that I'm not the only one struggling to find a regular job. When I was first let go from my last job, I was hoping to find something at least using my degree, but now as pitiful as it sounds I'd be happy just to find a secretarial job as long as it's something permanent, and I can some health insurance. I'm way overdue to go to the doctor for my annual gynecological exam and I have a bunch of dental work I need done, but I can't do either. I'm also scared to death of getting sick with anything that requires a doctor's visit or prescriptions while I have no insurance.

I'm overwhelmed right now in every sense of the word. I'll try to post some pictures of my crochet projects when I feel better.

Contest Alert

Go over to www.redbookmag.com/sweeps and you can enter to win one of two $176.00 Jimmy Bean's Wool Eco Dishcloth sets. Hurry up though, because the contest ends September 24th.

Pillows!

Remember I said I had some small crochet projects to show?

Well, here's two of them:

The first is a pillow I crocheted for my 10 year old niece Rosie (my niece Jenna's older sister) to match her bedrooms. Her bedroom is lime green (yep, it's bright!) with a lime green, hot pink, and white floral bedding set. I think this pillow matches pretty good. I used a 14" pillow form, and sewed two pieces of gingham fabric (with my crappy hand sewing skills!) over it to make a cover.

Here are the stats:

Pattern: Afghan Reincarnation - Crochet Today, December 06/January 07 issue

Yarn: Bernat Softee Chunky in Hot Pink, Hot Green, and White

Hooks: J & K

I also have a picture of Rosie with my Bethany, when they had a sleepover a few weeks ago:

Aren't the matching dresses cute?! My mom bought them for the girls last year.

The other project I have to show is a pillow I crocheted for Bethany. I saw a pattern for crocheted letters in a book, and thought of making a monogram pillow.

Here's a photo and stats:

Pattern: Letter from the book "201 Crochet Motifs, Blocks, Projects, and Ideas"

Yarn: Vanna's Choice Baby in Lamb, Aqua, & Mint

Hooks: I & K

I used a single crochet square worked in rounds with an I hook for the base. For the letter I crocheted with a double strand of yarn and a K hook to make the letter B extra-big. I think it would probably have looked better done in a chunky weight yarn, but I couldn't find an inexpensive chunky weight in the colors Bethany wanted.

I'm going to crochet a D pillow for my Dominic soon. Poor kid never gets any thing crocheted for him. It's just so difficult finding crochet patterns for boys that are beyond the baby/toddler years. Dominic is crazy about pirates, and loves dressing up as one. He had a pirate hat from his Halloween costume last year, but it's been long since lost, so he gets dressed up in the remaining pieces from his costume, and then puts a pencil case (unzipped, and turned sideways) on his head for a hat, ha, ha! It's hilarious! I'm going to have to snap a picture of him the next time he does it, so I can embarass him with it when he gets older. The other day he asked me if I can "yarn him a pirate hat". He's going to have to settle for one from the store, because even if I did have a pattern, I think that's way beyond my level of expertise.

In other news, the new job is going good. The work is pretty boring, but it's easy, and the supervisors are nice. The only thing I really dislike is the commute. The board of elections is in downtown Cleveland, but on the edge of downtown, so I have to take two busses to get there. I live barely over 10 miles from downtown, a 20 minute commute by car, but between the bus rides and all the waiting around for them (since our local transit authority recently cut a bunch of busses from the routes) I have to leave a little after 8 in the morning just to get there by 9:30, and then I get off work at 5:30, and don't get home until nearly 7.

It's hard because I only have about two hours with the kids when I get home for baths, homework, etc. At least the position is only lasting about two months. Hopefully after that I'll be able to find a permanent job where I can get home earlier in the evening.

Baby Gifts

My husband found the USB cord for my camera, so I have some crochet project pictures to show.

First is a dress I crocheted for Katrina for her new baby. The pattern is the Lacy Baby Frock from the July/August issue of Crochet Today. It's a 6-12 month size. I used a G hook, and some Red Heart Hula yarn from my stash. It's such pretty yarn, but so hard to crochet with because the colored strand comes loose easily, and the yarn tends to unravel. The pattern was really easy though - I finished the dress is a little over a day. The second is a hat and poncho for my 8 month old niece, Jenna. I used some stash Cotton Ease in Candy Blue, an H hook for the hat, and a J for the poncho. The pattern is a free one from Luv to Crochet.

Here's Jenna with her mom, my sister-in-law, Gehan. Now, I know I'm probably naturally biased because I'm her aunt, but I think Jenna is just an adorable baby!

Well, I have to get going to bed, because I have to go work tomorrow. Wow, that feels weird to be writing that, after being out of work for so long!

Good News!

Guess what?! I got a job! I'm so excited! OK, it's only a temporary one - doing data entry for the local county board of elections, and it only pays $10 an hour, but it's a job nonetheless! I start on Monday. I'm really looking forward to getting out of the house, and bringing home a paycheck again, but I'm going to miss being home with my kids in the afternoons after school, and being able to go with my husband to pick them up everyday.

It's been pretty interesting watching the daily debacle of pickup time. The school has had so many problems with parents driving recklessly near the school, and in the parking lots, that they had to institute special driving lanes for parents, and designate certain doors for kids who are being picked up, and for kids who are walking home. It doesn't seem to matter though, because so many parents just blatantly ignore the rules.

The parents who drive have to circle around to the back of the school, and get in line to pull up to the side entrance to pick up their kids. The kids wait with their class and a teacher, who walks them to their parent's vehicle. Just today my husband nearly got sideswiped by a parent who decided they didn't want to wait, and pulled out, speeding through the parking lot. A couple of times, parents decided to park right in the path of the line of cars, blocking traffic.

And. in the school newsletter this week, the principal mentioned a mom who (dropping her kid off at the wrong entrance), let her kid out of the car, and while the kid had barely stepped onto the curb, sped off, and nearly hit him or her! Can you be in that much of a hurry to get to work or wherever that you would nearly hit your own kid??? I'm constantly amazed by the sense of entitlement some of the parents have, this rules- be-damned attitude.

I've been meaning to update my blog, but I've been busy with homework and school-elated things. My Dominic is still getting used to kindergarten. I didn't expect him to have much of a transition period, because he went through several years of full-time preschool, but the first few weeks of kindergarten have been tough for him. I guess it's because kindergarten is more structured - no naps, less playtime, and he has a new teacher and new classmates. He's also getting used to having homework (twice a week). My daughter actually had homework 5 days a week in kindergarten, but she went to a different Catholic school (which closed after she finished kindergarten). Dominic told me "kindergarten is a lot of hard work", ha, ha!

My Bethany likes her 5th grade teacher, and is happy that a lot of her friends are in her class, but her learning disabilities really complicate school for her. I'm working on getting all of the testing done to determine if she has ADD. As time goes on, I'm more and more convinced of it. She has little focus and concentration, even when it comes to actitivies she enjoys, and she is so disorganized and forgetful. She doesn't get her classwork done in time, and perpetually forgets to bring home books and papers she needs for homework, or forgets to write down assignments. She underwent a ton of testing as part of her learning disability diagnosis, and it showed that she has a normal IQ, and above average vocabulary and reading skills, but her grades are all over the place. She'll get an A on a test or assignment one week, and an F the next, and she's failed math the past few years, even with receiving one on one tutoring several times a week. It's frustrating, because she's a bright kid, but it doesn't show in her schoolwork.

Bethany's 4th grade homeroom teacher was fortunately very patient with her, but the other 4th grade teacher, who taught science to Bethany's class, just seemed in my conversations with her to completely disregard Bethany's learning disabilities, and seemed like she just thought Bethany was being lazy when she didn't do well in class. Her 3rd grade teacher was even worse. In my opinion, a teacher should expect that not every kid they ever teach is going to perform at a normal or exceptional level, and in Bethany's case, she can't help having learning disabilities. Learning disabilities don't equal lazy or dumb. We have an appointment coming up with a pediatric neurologist in October, and hopefully that will get us closer to determining if Bethany does indeed have ADD.

Oh well, I guess that's enough ranting for now.

I took Bethany to her pediatrician for a follow-up appointment for her infected hand on Tuesday. Unfortunately, even after a 10-day course of an antibiotic, a steroid, and an antihistamine, her hand is still infected. She's back on the antibiotic for another 10 days now, and has a cream for her hand. I feel so bad for her because the antibiotic leaves her tired, headachy and nauseous, and the cream stings her hand. I'll be glad when the infection is finally cleared up.

As far as crochet projects go, I've been working on a few small projects lately, but can't post the pictures. My computer at home (despite only being 5 years old) was on its "last leg" so my husband's best friend gave him a used computer he didn't need any more. The "new" computer runs a lot better, but I realized it doesn't have a slot for a camera memory card. I have to download pictures from the camera with a USB cable, which unfortunately I misplaced and can't find anywhere. I'll post the pictures when the cable turns up.

I also want to say thank you to Christina, who sent my kids a package of goodies last week! She sent puzzle books, little toys, hair accessories for Bethany, stickers, crayons, and cookie and brownie mixes. The kids love getting mail, so they were very happy to receive it. Thank you again, Christina!