follow up to the interview

I realized I didn't post a follow up to my interviews.

Lets see -- law firms are 180 degrees different there than in NYC.

The pay is less than I was making as a paralegal

Hours would be great.

Job with the state would mean a pension -- something I am certainly not getting elsewhere.

It is doable with B and I both working.

Door isn't closed in the sense, but I am still exploring other options. Decisions like this were much easier to make before I had kids!

Hilton Hotels... where you should stay

Well after the whole fight with Travelocity -- more than a week, 6 calls and no results, I am thrilled to announce that Hilton Hotels has refunded the almost $200 in charges that resulted from Travelocity's utter incompetence.

To say I am now a fan of the Hilton Hotel chain is an understatement. There was no nasty comments, no talking over me, no utter disregard for what I was saying (hello Travelocity -- I told you 100 times I DID NOT STAY IN THE HOTEL THAT NIGHT!!!), Hilton listened and did what should have been done from day one. Refunded the charges.

Thank you Hilton. Now I hope every single person that reads this will stay with you for at least one night because, not only do you have wonderful customer service, but your hotel and especially the bed, was so nice and squishy that I look forward to going back there for more interviews!!

And I promise no more travel woes for us for ... oh about a week. We are off to Phoenix on Saturday which of couse means we will run into some travel crisis....

a little slice of heaven

Do you know how nice it is to spend a few hours in a nice comfy bed, with access to wireless internet, with no kids yelling mommy mommy mommy and watching whatever tv I want?

It is really really REALLY nice.

It is also sad and I miss the boys, but I think I will get past it.

But I am getting a lot of knitting done too.

Interviews start in less then 12 hours.

things i have learned this year...

• L can now tell us when he is going to throw up
• L can throw up into a toilet
• R won't throw up unless he is alone in his crib
• L takes more than 10 days to have normal poop after the flu
• R does not
• the stomach flu will absolutely trash you milk supply
• when you normally happy child cries for three days straight, see if you have low milk supply before thinking it is an ear infection
• I am just not destined to be a mom that nurses for a year. 10 months this time, 8 months last time
• when you are fighting your supply on a daily basis for months, it really is a relief to actually break down and use formula
• 500 oz of stored breastmilk will NOT get you through the first year even if you pump all the dang time
• B - is more of a lactivist then I am, but he is also extremely supportive when he sees it doesn't work

Ahhh -- the lessons of the stomach flu

I don't think I am supposed to travel

more travel woes...

Travelocity sucks. Surprise surprise there. Lots of yelling today... charged me for a hotel reservation I canceled because I was puking.

They suck -- don't deal with them. 5 calls and almost a week later story is totally different now.

I am in the process of calling the hotel right now -- so Hilton, please let me come on here and say good things about you!!! PLEASE.

Why not to fly Jet Blue

Here is a little note to any family that is planning on traveling in the near future….

DO NOT TAKE JET BLUE.

Do not let them lure you in with their TV goodness that you think will keep your children entertained during a flight because 1) there is not entertainment on 4+ hour delays while you are loaded on and off the plane multiple times (car seat in tow and all), 2) they will do their best to screw you over five ways to Sunday prior to you boarding their planes and 3) they could not be more family UN-friendly if they tried.

Pre-boarding for all of 30 second -- that coming from the unbiased, un-pissed off half of this family.

Oh and gate checking a stroller -- yeah, they will make that as painful as possible too.

Try to add a lap infant to a reservation -- make sure you have every identifying piece of information you have ever been provided throughout your entire life otherwise they will plead breach of confidentiality as Carissa did multiple times on their customer service line (although I don't know how they can be breaching my confidence when I am adding to my own reservation as I had done similtaneous for another flight!).

Maybe it was just the obnoxious asshole that was the gate agent on January 1, 2008 at O’Hare’s F8 terminal, but since he seemed to think that it “wasn’t his problem” (only said that about 7 times), I am going to try to make sure that it in fact becomes his problem.

Oh the holidays....

You know what would suck… what would suck is if you planned to travel a lot over the holidays because your family is located in 4 different states and in two different regions of the US.

And what would suck even more is if you were on a flight to middle-America with your two small children after weathering a 4 hours delay and all of a sudden the person behind your oldest son started puking. A person you wouldn’t have had any further contact with by this point because the flight was supposed to be at its destination 2 hours before you actually took off.

And what would just add the cherry to the sucky-ness of it all would be if your oldest son then proceeded to get sick and it spread like wild fire through your in-laws and then right back to you making you cancel job interviews for a job that you really really really want.

Oh and then the nanny would get sick and still be sick 4 days later so that B was now missing.

Yeah -- that would really suck.

Guess who’s last 10 days or so really sucked.