Warning: Big bad ugly pity me post in progress

Howdy ya'll.  I want to warn anyone that seems to be having anything resembling a good day - TURN BACK NOW!!!  Honestly.  This is going to be one of those posts that I will write, read with mirth and post.  Then in a while, I will look back on it, roll my eyes and say to myself  "gah, what a baby!"

You're still here?  Well, you've been warned.

And awaaaaaaay we go!

I have some complaints.  Just your general run of the mill complaints of being a wife, mother and a full time job holder in a middle management position.

Complaint number one:

My job right now sucks eggs.  Now, normally I am one of those people who is all about going to work.  I happen to like my job very much.  I work in a mental health group home.  It is transitional living where we show the folks that move in how to cook, clean, do their laundry, take their meds, socialize, etc.  Then when the time is right we help them get housing and hopefully they are productive members of society.  We also have another program called Independent Living Services that services folks in their own homes to help them maintain their current living situation so that they don't end up in the hospital, evicted or living in a group home.  I supervise both of these things for my county of residence.  And I supervise the staff of these programs.  My problem is that we are currently short staffed.  I am short on second shift staff.  Truth be told I have been short this position for a long time as the former staff person who worked it was an idiot.  It was so bad that she wasn't even allowed to get her company car test certification ( to drive clients) because she was so air headed.  She was hired when I was on maternity leave.  I didn't have a say.  What I did have was a huge mess to clean up when she up and left her position.  Not that I minded her leaving, mind you.  There was just a mess.  Missing paperwork, stuff not documented properly, pill counts very obviously fudged, and she couldn't even spell the client's names right!  I mean, geez.  How hard is it?  You work with the same person 8 hours straight for months at a time and you would think you could at least get the name of the person right. Right?!

Soo, I do have fill in staff, but they are all pretty new themselves and can't drive the company car for a certain amount of time.  They also can't do the paperwork assigned to the second shift staff because they aren't here on a regular enough basis to go over all the weekly reviews needed to do with the clients.  That leaves me.  And I have an outstanding staff member whose primary jobn is supposed to be working with Independent Living Serives ( ILS).  Now she is working with her 12 people on her ILS caseload in addition to coming back into the office and taking people to the grocery store or to appointments ( in addition to my help).  Short breakdown:  I am doing supervisory stuff for 2 programs which includes people moving in and out of the group home, managing staff, finding coverage for staff shortages, doing interviews and intakes for people who want IL services and all the paperwork involved in that and now I am doing the second shift's primary paperwork too.  My ILS staffer is doing all the ILS client work, coming back to the house, packing medications, taking them grocery shopping and doing whatever other errands need to be done because I don't have another staffer that can drive the clients around.  Oh, I have a few, but they are part timers with other jobs, school schedules and social lives.  I am freaking tired.  I have tried to talk to my boss, but was met with "set your priorities and if you get the priority for the day done, everything else is a bonus."  Well, in theory that is great.  I am all for getting the priorities done.  But when I get a phone call saying the county wants us to do an emergency intake for someone that day, the priorities kinda get pushed to the side.  And then when I get another call saying that someone is about o be homeless and we need to interview them and get them into the group home ASAP, again, where do the priorities land?  By the way, do you have time to train these 2 new staff persons?  Great, thanks.  Oh, AND I am a CPR and First Aid instructor for the Red Cross and do a bunch of classes for the company.

Complaint number 2:

This is just a complaint.  It is petty and I know it is petty.  I have a teething baby.  He is cutting what seems to be a whole mouth full of teeth and he is a wretch.  A complete and utter miserable wretch.  At night.  During the day, he doesn't seem to be so bad.  Possibly because he is busy intgeracting with his little friends at daycare.  But at night he is evil.  PURE EVIL.  I think he even sprouts horns.  If I were to take a picture of him in the dark, his eyes would glow red.  Todd tries to help, but honestly, he just can't.  He can't stay up all night with 20 minute catnaps that you get when you have a hurting baby. He usually makes it til about 3 or 4 am and then he has to wake me bacause he just can't keep up.  I rarely ask him to do night duty because then the next day he is a complete zombie.  He can barely function.  I throw it in his face, too and I know I shouldn't.  It isn't his fault he can't do it.  It just isn't the way he is wired.  I think it is just a mom's skill that she can deal with the catnaps and still be able to work the next day.  Todd had duty last night.  I just needed to have that night of refreshing sleep - even if it did come in 3 hour bursts ( hey it was 3 hours straight and any mom can envy me for that).  At 5am he came in and asked if I could take over because he "needed at least half an hour's sleep before work".  I wanted to look at him and say, yeah,  I would like that most days.  And he only had to get himself around.  I have to get me and 2 kids around and out the door and I have to be able to do my job and all it entails.  Before I get too far into my pity, let me just say that I feel like i am the luckiest woman alive.  I have a husband who loves that I have "curves"...though I see them more as mounds of flesh.  He tries his hardest to help out when I have about had my limit.  I have a job.  In this day and age people would kill to have a job like mine.  I get paid to teach people how to live.  How cool is that?  I have 2 kids that I love and adore and I am reasonably sure they feel the same way about me.  I know there are lots of women out there who would give anything they could to have to stay up all night with a screaming child but they can't concieve.  To those that read this, I am sorry for taking for granted something you would love to have.

Complaint number 3:

My house is a wreck.  A complete and utter wreck.  And Todd and I are so tired by the end of the day we just can't clean more than the surface.  Things are starting to stack up.  We have piles.  Everywhere.  I don't want to live like that.  But when I do have a day off ( and they are few and far between) all I can do is sleep or sit.  Sitting is sooooo nice.  Zoning out is sooo nice.  I do have plans to clean, I really honestly do.  I just get something done and then I sit.  And maybe doze.  I have 2 days of paid time off until July 1st.  Let me tell you, I am not sure what day July 1st is, but I am taking that day off, I am staying home and I am cleaning the beejeezus out of my house.  I will be calling th trash man to do an extra pickup or 2 because dammit, I am throwing things away while Todd is at work ( he can be a packrat).  I am calling the Salvation Army to come over to my house and take away bags upon bags of clothing that have accumulated through 4 years of living in our house.  I will store things in the basement.  Todd doesn't like storing things down there.  I don't know why. 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading.  I really needed to get that off my chest.  Now, back to work!