Inconvenient Annoyances

Didn't your daughter just turn four?  *giggle*

When I was 2 years and 11 months old, my sister started kindergarten.  The second day of school, my mother stopped what she was doing, looked at me, and said, "How would you like to go to school?"  It hurt, man.  It hurt.

Yes.  But I've always had 5/6 in my head as the ideal "youngest" age.

I don't know if you know my Haiti story, but when I was seriously considering adopting from there, I was hoping for an older child.

Yes.  But I've always had 5/6 in my head as the ideal "youngest" age.

I don't know if you know my Haiti story, but when I was seriously considering adopting from there, I was hoping for an older child.

Thing is, you want the child to have been in your life for at least a year by the time they reach the ideal youngest age, so they are relaxed and happy and well-adjusted.  And you need them young enough to raise them with the values you want them to have.  They form their outlooks in life from a shockingly early age.  You gotta get in quick if you want to raise interesting people.

Haiti?  What happened to a Chinese baby?

Thing is, you want the child to have been in your life for at least a year by the time they reach the ideal youngest age, so they are relaxed and happy and well-adjusted.  And you need them young enough to raise them with the values you want them to have.  They form their outlooks in life from a shockingly early age.  You gotta get in quick if you want to raise interesting people.

Haiti?  What happened to a Chinese baby?

Exactly.  The youngest age I would teach when I taught dance was 7.  So I'd get my year in.

Oh, I would KILL for a Chinese baby.

But I was in Haiti the day of the earthquake.  I just-so-happened-to-be on the last flight out before the earthquake struck.  I REALLY looked into adopting a child from there after the earthquake.  Like did paperwork and everything.  Whereas the Chinese baby has always just been a fantasy idea. 

Exactly.  The youngest age I would teach when I taught dance was 7.  So I'd get my year in.

Oh, I would KILL for a Chinese baby.

But I was in Haiti the day of the earthquake.  I just-so-happened-to-be on the last flight out before the earthquake struck.  I REALLY looked into adopting a child from there after the earthquake.  Like did paperwork and everything.  Whereas the Chinese baby has always just been a fantasy idea. 

Man, that's a scary near miss.  Were you still on the plane when you hear what has happened?

Man, that's a scary near miss.  Were you still on the plane when you hear what has happened?

Yeah I'm curious as well! That's insane!

my husband was on board with the Japanese baby when we were watching our Japanese reality tv show with dinner lol

Man, that's a scary near miss.  Were you still on the plane when you hear what has happened?

No, we heard about it the minute we stepped off the plane (short flight to Miami to change planes).  I was on a school trip.

It was a horrible experience.  I remember sitting on the plane staring out the window when we left thinking "this is the first place that I've been to that I don't feel I want to come back to."  And an hour later, I would have been the first person to get on a return flight if I had been able!  Crazy how life works.

A lot of us had to have counseling to work through it all.  I was on a school trip (9 students and a professor).  Two of the students go back at least once a year.  The professor goes 3 or 4 times a  year (which he has done for decades).

No, we heard about it the minute we stepped off the plane (short flight to Miami to change planes).  I was on a school trip.

It was a horrible experience.  I remember sitting on the plane staring out the window when we left thinking "this is the first place that I've been to that I don't feel I want to come back to."  And an hour later, I would have been the first person to get on a return flight if I had been able!  Crazy how life works.

A lot of us had to have counseling to work through it all.  I was on a school trip (9 students and a professor).  Two of the students go back at least once a year.  The professor goes 3 or 4 times a  year (which he has done for decades).

That must have been even scarier as a kid. 

I think I've mentioned this before, but something similar happened to me on our delayed honeymoon to Ecuador.  We stayed at a mountain hut and attempted to climb Cotopaxi, and met a giant group of schoolchildren on the way down.  The very next morning we caught our plane to Miami and saw this on the news:

6 Die in Avalanche Atop Ecuador Volcano
April 07, 1996| Associated Press
QUITO, Ecuador — An avalanche buried at least 20 mountain climbers at a shelter atop a volcano in north-central Ecuador on Saturday, killing at least six of them, the Red Cross said.

Nine people were rescued, and searchers were looking for another five people believed to be buried by the avalanche about 55 miles south of the capital of Quito, Red Cross spokesman Richard Comacho said.

The six victims--three women, two men and a 6-year-old boy--were all from Ecuador, he said.

According to Radio Quito, other mountaineers may have been staying in the cabin shelter atop Cotopaxi volcano because a wind-and-snow storm had socked in the peak.

Police in Latacunga, 22 miles southwest of the 19,344-foot volcano, a major attraction for mountain climbers from around the world, said the avalanche covered the highest shelter near the summit.
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That happened at the exact place we were sleeping just one night before!  I'm certain some of those schoolchildren must have been caught up in it. 

I remember how strange it was because I still felt like I was in Ecuador, because I hadn't got used to being back in the states yet.  And it was a giant deal to us, we really felt closely connected to this giant tragedy but nobody around us was very concerned. 

 

That must have been even scarier as a kid. 

I think I've mentioned this before, but something similar happened to me on our delayed honeymoon to Ecuador.  We stayed at a mountain hut and attempted to climb Cotopaxi, and met a giant group of schoolchildren on the way down.  The very next morning we caught our plane to Miami and saw this on the news:

6 Die in Avalanche Atop Ecuador Volcano
April 07, 1996| Associated Press
QUITO, Ecuador — An avalanche buried at least 20 mountain climbers at a shelter atop a volcano in north-central Ecuador on Saturday, killing at least six of them, the Red Cross said.

Nine people were rescued, and searchers were looking for another five people believed to be buried by the avalanche about 55 miles south of the capital of Quito, Red Cross spokesman Richard Comacho said.

The six victims--three women, two men and a 6-year-old boy--were all from Ecuador, he said.

According to Radio Quito, other mountaineers may have been staying in the cabin shelter atop Cotopaxi volcano because a wind-and-snow storm had socked in the peak.

Police in Latacunga, 22 miles southwest of the 19,344-foot volcano, a major attraction for mountain climbers from around the world, said the avalanche covered the highest shelter near the summit.
-------------
That happened at the exact place we were sleeping just one night before!  I'm certain some of those schoolchildren must have been caught up in it. 

I remember how strange it was because I still felt like I was in Ecuador, because I hadn't got used to being back in the states yet.  And it was a giant deal to us, we really felt closely connected to this giant tragedy but nobody around us was very concerned. 

 

Well, I was 29.  We were all graduate students.  So none of us were "young".

I'll dig up photos of what happened to the place where we were staying.  Thankfully all the employees there survived.  They were incredibly grateful we were no longer there (it collapsed).  We had spent the day at the US embassy and our state employee who escorted us all day was the first American confirmed dead in the earthquake.  THAT was hard news to swallow... 

Okay, photos of where we were staying.  Before and after the earthquake.

Article:  https://www.cudenvertoday.org/haitiearthquakeechoesatucdenver/

Last night a van drove into pedestrians in Toronto. One of my friends was just down the street from where it happened, and I still haven't heard from one that I know works in the area. Tragedy seems to always hit too close to home now.

Well, I was 29.  We were all graduate students.  So none of us were "young".

I'll dig up photos of what happened to the place where we were staying.  Thankfully all the employees there survived.  They were incredibly grateful we were no longer there (it collapsed).  We had spent the day at the US embassy and our state employee who escorted us all day was the first American confirmed dead in the earthquake.  THAT was hard news to swallow... 

Okay, photos of where we were staying.  Before and after the earthquake.

Article:  https://www.cudenvertoday.org/haitiearthquakeechoesatucdenver/

Those pictures are scary.

Those pictures are scary.

It’s truly a miracle that the employees who lived there all survived without injury.

Stuff that goes missing off my desk after night shift. So far, a really nice water Camelbak bottle I got from a supplier, a reusable coffee mug that we got free last week after a work event (Really, we all got them free, so why are you nicking mine!!?!?!), an iphone cable, a bottle of hand cream (which we get cheap in the shop at work), my stapler - boring ole thing, the mouse to my computer (bog standard boring one from IT), and a mouse pad (different time to the mouse, but another bog standard one).
I now take all my phone cables home every night and I think I'm going to need to lock up my water bottle, coffee mug, hand cream, etc. every night in my desk drawers. I can't lock up my engineering reference books as I don't have a cupboard, but I did write my name all over them in permanent marker after I got a really expensive one nicked at a previous job... This is ridiculous..... 

Stuff that goes missing off my desk after night shift. So far, a really nice water Camelbak bottle I got from a supplier, a reusable coffee mug that we got free last week after a work event (Really, we all got them free, so why are you nicking mine!!?!?!), an iphone cable, a bottle of hand cream (which we get cheap in the shop at work), my stapler - boring ole thing, the mouse to my computer (bog standard boring one from IT), and a mouse pad (different time to the mouse, but another bog standard one).
I now take all my phone cables home every night and I think I'm going to need to lock up my water bottle, coffee mug, hand cream, etc. every night in my desk drawers. I can't lock up my engineering reference books as I don't have a cupboard, but I did write my name all over them in permanent marker after I got a really expensive one nicked at a previous job... This is ridiculous.....

WHAT?!?!?  That's insane.  I've never had anything go missing and you've got a laundry list!!!!

That IS insane...If anything, I can't even get the cleaners to make the rubbish people  leave behind go missing let alone anything else!

Stuff that goes missing off my desk after night shift. So far, a really nice water Camelbak bottle I got from a supplier, a reusable coffee mug that we got free last week after a work event (Really, we all got them free, so why are you nicking mine!!?!?!), an iphone cable, a bottle of hand cream (which we get cheap in the shop at work), my stapler - boring ole thing, the mouse to my computer (bog standard boring one from IT), and a mouse pad (different time to the mouse, but another bog standard one).
I now take all my phone cables home every night and I think I'm going to need to lock up my water bottle, coffee mug, hand cream, etc. every night in my desk drawers. I can't lock up my engineering reference books as I don't have a cupboard, but I did write my name all over them in permanent marker after I got a really expensive one nicked at a previous job... This is ridiculous.....

I hate that so much. I got in the habit of using a wheeled bag for anything heavy and expensive because I had horrible luck with people stealing things. I locked up cables, lotion, water bottles/mugs and anything else small that belonged in the office in my little drawer.