Long post...

This past week was uberly un-fun.

I spent it darting all over town jumping through a series of irritating pre-hire hoops for the navy job. All of which were the very same pre-hire hoops that I had previously jumped through for the first job that the navy hired me for, which they then snatched away when I no longer maintained my status as a student. Mind you, all of the other persons hired for said job were undergraduate students…but that’s another can of worms for another time.

As frustrating as it’s been though, there is no point in gnashing my teeth about it. Because when the navy says, “Jump!”, the only acceptable response is, “How high, Navy?” then bend over.

I will gnash my teeth about this, however. On Tuesday, after I rode a bus for an hour and a half to get to the navy’s HR office just to put my John Hancock on two lousy pieces of paper, I was informed that it is likely that my pay is going to be docked by $2.50.

$13.70 - $2.50 = salary castration.

And let’s not forget about the 3 hour round-trip commute to the child development center where I am supposed to be working. That is definitely the lip stick on this fantastic job offer.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…

I won’t actually be able to start this navy job until January 15th, however. So for the meantime, I posted an ad on Craig’s List marketing my babysitting/tutoring services.

Last Friday, I received a response from a very progressive, libertarian mom named Anna, who has two foster children - a girl and a boy, ages 3 and 8 months.

I met the kids on Sunday and then spent a couple more afternoons sitting for them during the week while Anna ran errands and got housework done. All in all, the kids are both very cute and reasonably well-behaved.

On Thirsty Thursday, Anna wanted me for an evening babysitting gig, which would necessitate me spending the night at her house. The reason being that while she said she most likely wouldn’t stay out past midnight, she wouldn’t feel comfortable with me taking the bus home at that late hour should something happen to me.

Now, I wouldn’t say that I was exactly keen on the idea of spending the night at a relative stranger’s house, but I was reasonably cool with it. That was, however, until Anna revealed that she was not reasonably cool with the idea of compensating me for the inconvenience of the overnight.

But of course, I know I’m being overly avaricious here. It’s totally acceptable to stiff the babysitter. Probably shouldn’t tip waitresses either.

I didn’t want to leave her in the lurch though, so I reluctantly agreed to do the freebie overnight. But for the future, I said if she wasn’t willing to shell out the dough, then I wasn’t willing to do any more late night sitting.

So la la la, the evening hours passed without a hitch. Played some games, watched The Jungle Book, then I tucked the kids soundly into bed.

Oh side note: as she’s running out the door, Anna informs me that the little girl was going to be sharing a bed with me. Umm…

Today’s soup is cream of questionable sleeping arrangements.

So yeah...

The evening hours slowly turned into wee morning hours and there was still no sign of Mom-of-the-year. Fantastic.

I love being kept up all night by the hourly cries of a hungry baby and the copious “I want my mommy now!” outbursts of a three year old and not being paid for it.

It wasn’t until 5 frick-on-a-stick AM that Anna finally returned home and I got to go to bed.

Twenty minutes later, however, just as I was dozing off, I was awoken by the sound of a car pulling into the driveway.

Then, the front door opened and I could hear the voices of two men, growing in volume as they approached the door to the room where I was sleeping.

Then, the voices hushed and I heard the door creak open as a shadowy figure entered the room and made like he was going to get into bed with me.

“Ummmm…The babysitter is sleeping in here!” I hollered at him.

“Ohh…uhhh…sorry! My bad.” stammered the shadowy figure as he hastily retreated from the room.

Under normal circumstances, I probably would have freaked out a lot more about this, but when I first met Anna, she explained to me that she has a lot of twenty-something male friends, many of whom are recovering drug addicts and aspiring rap artists, who frequently crash in her spare bedroom. And who doesn’t love a slumber party with a VIP guest list like that?

But yeah, after this babysitting adventure, I don’t think I’ll be doing any more over-night shifts for Miss Anna Banana. I’d like to steer myself clear of any future, accidental spooning sessions with recovering druggernauts.

Ok. Enough tomfoolery. Here’s a good bit of news for ya…

Stacey just started seeing this loveable hostel manager named Iain! It’s all still very new, the relationship like just popped out of the womb, but I can just tell that it’s going to be lovely. Seeing them together is like watching a Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan movie, chock-full of that A-list, adorable, movie magic chemistry.

And he is just so sweet to her. Chew on this sucrose-coated, chocolate-dipped example…

Text from Iain to Stacey after their first official date: You are kick ass. You make me a happy man.

How cute is that? I am officially J to the EALOUS.