Big boy belt

Today's usual karate class was replaced with testing.  On Tuesday I was informed/warned that the test takes about 2 1/2 hours because of the different ranks of students, all taking part.  I brought snacks, a novel, and my camera.  Good thing, because I needed all three as the morning wore on.

We arrive at 9:00am and Selim starts stretching with his friends.

Everybody bowed in and then they started doing upper body technique --punches, blocks, chops, combinations, etc.  First up the orange belts, then the pee-wees, yellow and whites, followed by greens, then the browns and red.  Selim was in the second group.

Followed by waiting while the upper belt colors go through their punches. 

Next up are the kicks.

Followed by more waiting.  Then the forms -- a series of moves strung together.  Kind of like a dance routine, but staccato and with punching.  Watching the brown and red belts move through a series of forms was really cool.  I could hear the force of their punches by how their uniforms snapped with the movement.  I've been thinking about joining when Selim moves up to the 7 - adult class and this made me want to do it.

Followed by more waiting.  Then tumbling.

More waiting.  Then self-defense moves. 

And more waiting...

And then board braking.  When some of the bigger people were breaking the boards, it took more than one person to absorb the shock of the break.

Finally, new belt color!  Ms. Hebert gets his old belt off and Master Rivera ties on the new.

At 1:45, four hour and 45 minutes later, we were walking out, proud and hungry.

Difficult days

It has been a difficult 36 hours.  Yesterday when I opened my work email there was a message from HR stating that I was disqualified for a Customer Service Manager position because my documents had not been received on time.  But they had, and I had an email confirmation that said so.  I emailed HR and didn't hear back.  Meanwhile, I'm hearing from others that also applied for the position that they had received the same message.  We were confused and getting pretty mad.  It turns out that about 12 of us had submitted a required form, only to find out the form was originally filled out incorrectly by HR.  Because we didn't catch the mistake, we were disqualified from consideration for the position. 

As the day wore on, our management got involved.  They suggested that we appeal our decision and gave us the phone number of the person to contact.  When I called, the guy must have been tired of repeating the same information because he wasn't at his best.  I tried to explain my position, but he wasn't interested in hearing it.  Since the position vacancy announcement had closed, he would not take a corrected form.  Nor would he accept any responsibility on the part of HR for the error.  Maddening.

I was so angry that I couldn't stop the tears. I had to take a walk around the back parking lot to get a grip on myself.  To be dismissed on a technicality that stemmed from an error not of my doing, really got me steamed.  I should have been able to be less emotional about the whole thing.  In reality, this isn't my dream job -- it is listed as second shift.  I won't go back to 3:30-12:00.  But I would have been willing to work a modified shift.  It seemed to be to be bureaucracy at its worse.  I couldn't shake the anger.

Towards the end of my work day, I wrote an email appeal indicating that the information that had been missing on the form was found on my enclosed performance evaluation, and the missing information of the required form wasn't in my control, therefore, please reconsider my application.  When I got to work this morning, the response was the same.  The job announcement stated clearly the form requirements and since my form lacked the information necessary, no action could be taken at this time.  Lesson learned, don't assume forms from HR are correct, and take ownership of all documents before hitting send. 

The one good thing that came out of the whole issue, is that I found out that on my status form, I was still listed as a conditional employee.  That should have been changed a year ago.  I was able to ask my HR person if that block could be changed from career conditional to permanent.  She made the change today and now all the information on my form is there and correct.

At the end of today, our Director did not act on the certificate of names for the position that she received and requested another vacancy announcement to start the process all over again.   That was brave on her part.  For she is in a lose-lose situation.  If she kept the list of names, the gossip mill would say that the person management wants made the list and therefore, they kept it.  The people that made the cut would get interviewed and that would be that.  Now that she rejected the list of names, the gossip mill is saying that the person management wants wasn't on the list so they had to throw it out and start again.  There might be people who made the list the first time who might not make it the second, if the list of candidates is stronger the second time around.  And they will be made and complain that the system wasn't fair.  Our Director can't win.  I'm happy that I get a second chance to prove myself.  I want to make the cut.  I want the interview practice and the chance to be considered.  It looks like I will get the chance.  If I do get the interview, then game on.

Parenting Challenge

Selim and I had a tough day.  I'm not sure what was going on with him, but he was itching for a fight.  He didn't want to be reminded of regular manners, speaking nicely to others, using inside voice, minding me or any other basic behavior category.  It was so odd.  I didn't know how to help him.  I couldn't figure out a fitting consequence to his poor behavior.  At our lowest point this afternoon, he said, "I wish I didn't live here!"

Ouch.  I told him that I didn't think he would find a household where the people would love him as much as we do.  He could try, but I don't think he would succeed.  I wish I knew what set him off this morning so that I could avoid the trigger.  It was a painful day.  He ended up apologizing.  And I did the same, for not being able to help him deal with his anger; for not handling his testing of the limits in a way that he wanted.  Sigh.

But, this was a good weekend for sewing.  I think I got about 30 squares sewn and I have another twelve arranged.  Yesterday I felt that I needed one or two more blue fabrics to even out all the reds.  Instead of going out to purchase, I dug into my own fabric store and found some old goodies. 

I wasn't able to sew much today, but I did deal with the remaining apples from September that Selim and I picked, by making apple sauce.  I added both cinnamon and cardamon and wow, it is tasty!  We baked banana bread also.  Plus we went grocery shopping.  Prices have gone up so much.  I spent $150 today.  Yikes!  Followed up later this afternoon with the regular laundry and bed changing.  So it was a full day.

Selim let me take his picture a few times this weekend.  Yesterday he took off his shirt and curled up on the floor, under a blanket to play with his Lego's.

Today he climbed the tree in the front yard by himself for the first time.  He was really creative.  He used a stool, microphone cord, pencil, and plastic sword at one point or another in his attempt to get up there by himself.  I was very impressed with his ingenuity.

News of the day

For some reason the spellcheck isn't working right now...Mostly I don't write about politics, since it is hard to not get too worked up it all.  But it is hard to let this go by without comment.  CNN has this gem from one of the Republican candiates for president.  The reactions by other bloggers that I follow:  DiploPundit,  Multitasking,  Digger and Email from the Embassy,  say it better than I could.  My only other observation --does he know what the word diplomacy means?  Just asking.

In other sickening news, what happened at Penn State?  I love college football.  I watch sports.  If a game is on and I'm awake, I'm watching.  But the thought of tuning in to see a Penn State football right now makes me want to vomit.  Selim is just a few years younger than the boys reported in the allegations.  I can't begin to imagine the horror that those families lived through.  There are so many good pieces, but Eurgene Robinson sums it up.  Joe Paterno needs to resign...now.

Back to my life...we spent a nice weekend at the Ashram.  Selim went over on Thursday with Mom.  That allowed Nedim and I to attend our first parent conference at Selim's new school.  He got a great report.  His teacher wrote that Selim is doing well in, "excellent attitude and participation, on grade level with academics, good independent worker and thinker; makes good text-self connections; gets along well with everyone."  That's my boy!

Friday was the last soccer game of the season.  Ann and Dan came up to watch and support Todd.  After, we all went down to Todd and Jen's for dinner -- take out Thai.  Delicious meal and great conversation.  It is fun when so many of the Schongalla siblings get together.  It was nice to catch up on all the family news.

Saturday morning, Robert made a game with the friends.  He hid them in the science class room and left clues around the house.  Selim is getting so that he can read the clues all by himself.  I love seeing how his reading is improving and his willingness to jump into games and give it his all.

In the afternoon Selim helped Robert dig up potatoes while I was on the couch, nursing a migrane.

And I've started a quilt project.  Somewhere in my travels I picked up two fat quarters of a Rowan fabric, titled Liberty Marylebone.  Since I spent six weeks in that London neighborhood, I decided that fabric would be the color foundation.  I washed and ironed the fabric on Thursday night.  I started cutting on Saturday afternoon and finished up when I got home on Sunday.  May be over this long weekend I can get around to piecing some of the blocks together.  I forgot how much I love playing with color and pattern.  I love it.  It soothes me.  I'm ready for a new quilt on the bed.