Interviewing

I've now had two in-person interviews at Tech Company. I'm waiting to hear from them, and trying to figure out if a) I want a job and b) if I want this job. Possibly the magnitude of their offer will influence both parts.

I did not mention pregnancy to them; state law here explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, so it's none of their damn business anyhow. However, I foresee difficulties on account of I'm due in, you know, four months and all. I would very much like to know if they would consider a part-time arrangement, but I suspect the answer is somewhere between 'no' and 'maybe.'

Worst question:
HR Person: 'Name five things you're not. Aside from male or an elephant.'
Me: 'Uhhhhhh... [Why do they always ask such stupid questions???]... frivolous... uh.....'

Best question:
Actual Scienc-y Person: 'Do you think you have a thick skin?'
Me [mouth one step ahead of brain]: 'I think after six years at Snooty U, I couldn't have anything ELSE.

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Dear Pumpkin,

Must you really kick me every two minutes? Every five to ten would do just fine.

Sincerely yours,

Mama

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On Healthcare

Last month, I had the singular joy of arguing with Large Evil Healthcare Company, which insures employees of Uncle Frozen & Crazy. Although we had coverage starting October 1, according to their computer we did not exist. Therefore, too bad. At some point before they got their act together, I was going to run out of medication. I had a prescription. I had a group plan number and a letter stating I had coverage. I had a 400-page binder on benefits. Could I get them to bloody well deal with it? No, of course not.

Six phone calls later- including a very irritated call to the spouse- I managed to determine that, probably, if I went to the local Target and paid the sum of $XXX for my prescriptions, I could maybe, probably, fill out a reimbursement form and get back $XXX-$20. Fine. How nice that I have time to harass Evil Healthcare.

The irony is, of course, that I have excellent health care coverage. I don't have to choose between paying $XXX, or the electric bill. We have a yearly cap on expenditures that is well within our means (even with one income). I need not worry that an illness or a baby will bankrupt us, and I can even go to any doctor I want. And an hour of my life was wasted to establish one little factoid about drugs. People spend months- years!- arguing with evil healthcare companies about major illnesses. This is ridiculous.

Once, I was very ill while in Great Britain. A very nice family trundled me over to the NHS urgent care center on a Sunday afternoon. I waited a half-hour, the doctor listened to my chest, and I went off with two prescriptions. (The people at the front desk gave me a very funny look when I asked them if I owed anything. 'No,' they said, '...ummm, no.')

'I'm afraid the prescriptions'll be six pounds each,' the nice family said apologetically, 'since you don't have [some obscure form of NHS coverage.]'

They were very confused when I burst into wheezy, uncontrollable laughter.

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20 Weeks, Or, Aaaagh No Pants

Following a thrilling morning in which I decided that 2 pairs of pants was insufficient, I decided to take pictures of my awesome lumpiness. ("I'm too cheap for maternity clothes" recipe for new pants: go to Goodwill and spend $4/pair, remove waistband, salvage zipper, sew up fly, add big stretchy thing.)

With new pair of hacked-up pants.


Looking amazingly stylish.

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Public Service Announcement: Blood Donation

Okay, so the Red Cross has many, many problems. But they're more or less the only game in town (though check America's Blood Centers for alternatives).

But, in any event, this announcement is for those of you who've lived in Europe. We used to all be ineligible to donate if we'd lived in Europe pretty much at all! But they changed the rules! Now it's only 3 months in the UK from 80-96, or five years in most of the rest of Europe.

You are not eligible to donate if:
From January 1, 1980, through December 31, 1996, you spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 3 months or more, in the United Kingdom (UK), or

You spent (visited or lived) a cumulative time of 5 years or more from January 1, 1980, to present, in any combination of country(ies) in Europe, including [most of them].

You are also not eligible to donate if you are pregnant.

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Dispatches from the Uterus

I have met with my boss and informed him that the Uterine Deadline is February 28, after which I am under no circumstances willing or able to travel 1100 miles to defend my !@#$! thesis. And that putting together a paper, a thesis and a defense while caring for a small infant is doomed to tears and failure. So could we please hurry it along and where the bloody hell is my collaborator's !@#$% data? Thank you.

My brother-in-law Army Green (Dr. S's brother) is, as you may recall, intending to marry a Chinese women whom he has met exactly twice. She finally has a visa interview. If it takes her N months to wrap up her affairs in China, and M months, once here, to execute a wedding, where M<3 by government fiat, will N+M+November fall within two weeks of the baby's due date? Magic 8 ball says 'chances look good'. Ergh.

We (by which I mean I) have decided that the beanlet is henceforth Pumpkin. They come in various sizes, they're orange, and they taste good. What more could a girl want?

We've finally picked names. [Boy name] bears no resemblance to our dead relatives, who were all named unfortunate things like Maurice and Alger or Wilbur. (If this is your name, I apologize; they are not among our personal favorites.) [Girl name] is hotly contested between myself and my middle sister; the one with the first girl gets the name, which is a lovely flower name belonging to our late great-grandmother. Middle name is for Dr. S's very elderly grandmother, on the grounds that she'd enjoy a namesake more while she's still alive to, you know, enjoy it.

Pumpkin would like to add: Thump, thump thump, wiggle wiggle, THUMP (oof), thump.

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In Which I Am Enraged

This morning I was reminded that my middle sister still votes in the US. Not only that, but she votes based purely on what is best for the country she lives in.

What's wrong with that? you ask. Well.... she lives in Israel.

I truly and firmly believe that it is wrong for her- and her husband! and one day, her children! who will have never lived in the US!!!- to keep voting in US elections. They intend to never return. Let me say that again: THEY ARE NEVER COMING BACK UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. They vote based only on what is good for another country, not on what is good for America, or their families, or American citizens. It's wrong. They do not pay taxes in the US; they do not live in the US, and they have not for a long time; they are tourists every few years. They have no connection except for their passports.

If they were abroad for a short time, if they cared about America, if they had consciences about it, it wouldn't bother me so much. I voted when I was abroad, but I was coming back. What about those people who choose to leave forever? And who, to boot, don't care about their country of origin except as a means to an end?

It may be legal, but it's immoral.

I suppose I should be comforted by the thought that such people are few.

Addendum: I don't think caring about the country or paying taxes or living in the US are or should be, in themselves, qualifications for voting. I don't think the US should disenfranchise expats. I do think that my sister, having forever disavowed all connection with the US, shouldn't bloody well vote. Especially since she always goes for the nutters. Alas, she and Dr. S's rabidly racist/conservative 94-year-old-grandma will continue to vote as long as physically able. But I don't have to like it. (I can't wait to hear what Grandma has to say about this election. I love her, but good Lord is she a product of her times.)

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Election, Plus: Six Random Things

Election!!! My home state has finally voted Democratic for the first time since your grandma was a kid. I credit Arlington's huge population growth; hate the condos, love the voters.

(Also, the county I now live in went 75% for Obama. Go hippie liberals!)

Now aren't we all glad that's over?

******

Acmegirl has tagged me! Well...

1. I cannot stand cooked cabbage except in two forms: beef-stuffed cabbage rolls, and this one soup that the spouse makes.

2. Although I was a vegetarian for many, many years, I don't like most vegetables very much.

3. My sisters and I have Gilbert's Syndrome. We were all very yellow babies. (Mine will probably be yellow too.)

4. I used to have a passionate love of scientific research. Now, it's more like how one feels about one's unfaithful former lover.

5. Of all the people I've ever dated, I only told my friends about three of them. (N>>3.)

6. I have an unnatural love of sour flavors. If something tastes sour to me, everyone else will usually find it completely inedible. Except my dad. Nature or nurture?

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VOTE NOW.

VOTE.

Thank you.

I will go bite my nails for 24 hours now.

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My In-Laws Hate Midwives

I am fortunate: I am young, healthy, and well-insured. I also live in a state where midwives may practice. Barring complications, I may give birth outside a hospital, in an accredited birth center staffed by CNMs.

My in-laws think I'm insane.

As far as I can tell there is nothing I could say to convince them that I will be perfectly SAFE and FINE and, no, hospitals are not fundamentally better. I must be crazy! No doctors! Think of the baby!!

I am thinking of the baby. I am less likely to get interventions or drugs I don't need, and the baby won't be whisked away after birth. My baby will not be given formula,* or any treatment without my permission.

If, God forbid, something should go wrong, I will be happy to be whisked away to the hospital.** Until then, however, keep the people with the IVs away from me!!!

*I am very, very allergic to dairy. The baby should not have dairy.
**Which takes a total of 15 minutes. Also, my mother, who has been a PA for 30 years and who has delivered several babies, thinks this is all a fine idea thankyouverymuch.

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