Day Two.

Okay, first the good stuff: Job Will Be Good, I Think. Benefits Definitely Great. Commute - long, but so far doesn't bother me. Compared to unemployment or freelancing, this gig will definitely do. Speaking of freelancing, I am owed $750 for a document production I did a month ago. Must email Lawyer Formerly Known As Boss. Funny thing - when I worked inside this company I used to get the calls and emails from the consultants plaintively wailing for their fees. Now I are one!

Glad to have a paycheck again, yes I am.

My mother's situation - she's definitely sick. And somehow, in a fit of confusion, she demanded that the staff cancel her doctor's appt. scheduled for tomorrow. And, because she is legally responsible for herself, they did - but they didn't call me. We will have to have a chat about this, I think - if they see my mother making a decision that is not in her best interest, I want a heads up so I can discuss it with her. Thank GOD the sharp young thing on the doctor's staff called ME at 4:45 today, to ask what was going on. She had my number because I had set the appointment, and after successfully not screaming "WTF!" followed with a volley of further profanity at the tops of my lungs in my new office, I called the ALF and also my mother, and told my mother that she MUST keep this appointment, and told the ALF that they needed to get her there. My mother finally got what I was saying, agreed that she wanted to go, said she would be ready, and told me she loves me. I think we are okay. But I can't be there for her, I have to rely on staff and a confused 82 year old to describe these issues to the doctor. My mother knows she's confused, but her reaction to confusion is belligerence and denial (yes, this does sound like Alzheimer's, but her reaction to anything new has always been belligerence and denial, so it honestly is hard to say). She may be confused because she's in a weakened physical condition - it may be a temporary thing, it may be a permanent change, but we won't know until we get a real examination of what's going on here.

Anyway, yay for doctor's staff who saved the day by calling ME. She didn't have to do it, she could have just erased the book and started shutting down her computer at quitting time, but she cared.*

Oh, yeah, and the job is good, and we have a gym and also a beautiful lounge hardly anyone uses, and I think I'll be bringing a sandwich and a book or knitting. Because otherwise this job is another trip to Fat City - damn, it's been a food fest so far. Tomorrow I am bringing a turkey sandwich and a Janet Evanovich mystery.

*Edited: Damn. I hate the way this sounds but I am too tired to go back and rewrite it. I do not mean "Oh, thank GOD they called on me as her rescuer!" I don't want this job. But my mother is feeling like hell, she knows it, and she needs to see a doctor, and in a moment of confusion and temper, she told them she didn't want to go. I'm glad the doctor's office called me so I could call her and them and get it all back on track. But I would much rather that none of this happened and nobody had called me and she went to the doctor without incident. I hate these incidents. I wake up at 4 a.m. with nightmares about this situation. And I have had a twitch in my right eye for the last two days. And I have to get up at 5 and show up at a new job, all sharp and on the ball and energetic, because I am not the youngest or cheapest paralegal they could have hired, so I have to be on my game. No pressure, at all!

Could I please trade this for ripping out the kitchen and then getting hit by 3 hurricanes? Because 2004 is starting to feel like the good old days.