Cass counts down

The name we’ve chosen is either JUST inside or JUST outside the top 1000.

I’m picking up my new car this weekend, obviously had to upgrade to a Mum Car ™️

Previous cars have been a pink Yaris called Frenchie (pink ladies) and a red Cruze called Penelope Cruze (other options were Red Sheeran, Clifford the Big Red Car and Tom(ato) Cruze).

New car is a silver Kia Sportage. I obviously like a punny name, so here are my current top contenders:

Princes Kia / Kia Thermopolous

Sue Sylvester (soccer mom name + sounds like silver)

Clooney (silver fox)

Sportage Spice

Stormi

Dove

Grey Goose

Given that I’m not being paid extra, I have been really setting boundaries, and not afraid to say no & handball work up.

But there’s one end of month report, which is quite important and time sensitive. My boss showed me some training, and there’s a small amount of written instruction, but now that I’m trying to do it, I am SO LOST.

Doesn’t help that one of our providers is supposed to send a report, and they’re now ignoring us 🙄 But even the rest of the report I can’t make heads or tails of. And it’s so manual and clunky, I thought I’d be able to actually improve & streamline it, but I need to be able to understand it first.

My boss also forgot to mention that because it is end of the quarter & end of the year, there’s additional reporting required…

Had a full menty-B about it on Friday, but the people I had to send it to were really understanding. But then more people are following me up today & I’m super frustrated, because this was the one thing I was sure I could do.

It’s not the biggest change to me, but it is to my manager. If I was him, I’d be PISSED.

We had the official meeting, then he called. I told him I was fine, but asked how he was doing. He’s normally very diplomatic (but understanding) but I could tell he’s annoyed & confused. He’s taking the whole week off next week to just take in the info.

Which is so unlike him, and speaks volumes about how he feels. I jokingly, selfishly said please don’t spend the week applying for other roles. But he was very candid and said he would look, and I should keep my options open too.

Went out to dinner last night for my Uncle’s milestone birthday. Chipped in for a present from a bunch of us.

It was a bit more of an expensive restaurant than we’d normally go to (no veggie mains under like $35). Me, hubby, my siblings and cousins were on the “kids table”, so didn’t know what our parents were getting, but we didn’t order excessively or anything.

I ordered a soft drink, and entree and a main. And tbh, the main was disappointing. It was kinda like salt & pepper tofu w green beans. It was simultaneously dry and greasy, and there were SIX pieces of tofu. It was $38. All up, the 3 things I ordered came to $57 (which was still overpriced imo).

Not sure what the discussion was when the bill came, but my Aunty came over to our table (brother of the birthday boy) and said it was $120 each 🫠

Firstly, I think if you’re wanting people to come celebrate and pay for their dinner, you need to explicitly say that, and say NO presents. Plus, I don’t know wtf the adults were ordering, but even including some beers, nobody on our table came close to $120 of food/drinks.

Two of my cousins came without their wives & kids, cos it was too late, and they’d both mentioned money being tight before this, I felt so bad. My Aunty also said my Mum was covering our family, which was obviously super appreciated. The whole thing was awkward so we didn’t get into it more then.

But I’ve been stewing on it. I really do not want to fork out $240 for the amount (and quality) of food we had last night, but it’s really not fair my parents just spent +$700 on dinner last night. I haven’t had a chance to speak to them yet, but I do wonder if it’s because they also feel we shouldn’t have had to pay.

Every other family 50th/60th etc we’ve brought a gift and not paid for food. And not to be rude, but aside from wishing him a happy birthday when we entered, I didn’t speak to my uncle the whole time. He wouldn’t have missed me being there, so it probably should’ve just been the Aunties & Uncles going out for a nice dinner.

Second amigurumi project done 🐉

I wanted to make a dragon for my nephew’s first birthday. Started making this one, but a) the body is wonky/twisted, and b) it was a bit smaller than I wanted. So I bought bigger yarn & adjusted the pattern for his (photos to come one that’s done). But I’d made 80% of this one anyway, so I didn’t want it to go to waste.

Then I get to reply with crystal clear data & evidence that what I actioned did EXACTLY as I promised, and the issue is on their end, and they didn’t even bother to check the simplest thing.

So I’ve taken myself out of the building to go for a little stroll before it gets disgustingly hot. And I can feel the headache melting away already.

There’s something special about getting your period and having endo-level pain & sickness (which is getting worse with each month) when all you’re hoping for is a baby.

And then, in the same week, THREE people you know have babies born. And two of them use baby names you like (it’s ok, I have like 1,000 options).

I’ve felt simultaneously jealous of, and happy for someone else before. But this is probably the first month I’ve been feeling pretty sad for myself. And really sad watching a TV involving pregnancy/a new baby.

Each month I think about all the timelines if we’re pregnant this month. Like we’d find out on this day, tell people on this day, I’d be pregnant/have my baby by Mother’s Day/Father’s Day/my 30th birthday. Or how old would the baby be at Christmas. How old will they be compared to our friends’ kids.

I’m glad I “only” have to wait 6 months of trying before I can get investigations done, when generally it’s 12. But imagine if we spend 6 months trying only to find out there’s some issue we could’ve known about ages ago?