Ignore this thread!

[Slache]

I like these boots: https://www.cavenders.com/western/women/ladies-boots-shoes/western-square-toe-boots/JUSBRL335

 

Dh isn't into western wear and I don't have horses anymore so I can't justify them, but they are purty.

They'd go with just about anything and are perfect for bad weather. I only have 2 pairs of shoes, but they're versitile. The boots and my running shoes. I will get a pair of black ballerina slip on shoes at some point, but I want good ones. I'm thinking Clarks or Fit Flops.

[Renai]

How romantic. ;)

 

I'm sorry for your hardships.

 

It was interesting. Our family knows a few career homeless people, and aren't afraid to talk to the new ones. There is also interesting research on different types of poverty, and since mine was situational, I had a better chance of getting out of it since I came from a middle class background. There are just certain...cultural(?) "rules" that come with different socioeconomic statuses, and knowing those rules (or learning them) is what helps a person move up. But, dh does not come from the same background I do, which places us in an interesting spot.

 

Never mind me, I used to study psychology and have this amazingly annoying habit of analyzing everything.  :leaving:

[texasmama]

I like these boots: https://www.cavenders.com/western/women/ladies-boots-shoes/western-square-toe-boots/JUSBRL335

 

Dh isn't into western wear and I don't have horses anymore so I can't justify them, but they are purty. 

I like these, only in the tan/brown.  Square toed are the best.

[Slache]

It was interesting. Our family knows a few career homeless people, and aren't afraid to talk to the new ones. There is also interesting research on different types of poverty, and since mine was situational, I had a better chance of getting out of it since I came from a middle class background. There are just certain...cultural(?) "rules" that come with different socioeconomic statuses, and knowing those rules (or learning them) is what helps a person move up. But, dh does not come from the same background I do, which places us in an interesting spot.

 

Never mind me, I used to study psychology and have this amazingly annoying habit of analyzing everything. :leaving:

I took two psychology classes at college (not a full time student) trying to figure out what was wrong with me. Never did.

[MarkW]

It seems like an awful lot of career therapists and psychiatrists/psychologists get into the field for that reason. Which can be good or bad. :P

 

Sitting at home pretending to work today while Izzy plays upstairs with her Avengers. They're having some sort of important Christmas meeting.

 

Bleep bleep bleep.

[prairiewindmomma]

I'm off for the day.....videos are done, toddler wants her mommy, and I need to go tutor algebra to oldest...

[Ellie]

I thought that was Ellie.  ?

 

Yup. :hat:

[Slache]

It seems like an awful lot of career therapists and psychiatrists/psychologists get into the field for that reason. Which can be good or bad. :P

 

Sitting at home pretending to work today while Izzy plays upstairs with her Avengers. They're having some sort of important Christmas meeting.

 

Bleep bleep bleep.

I've seen several. I've been diagnosed with over 10 different things, most of which I don't have any symptoms for. The closest match was autism, but while the symptoms matched the explanation was wrong. Once a doctor started explaining how autism worked I knew it wasn't right. I've been diagnosed with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder despite the fact that my only symptoms are an inability to hear or see properly.

 

Eta: And I'm very awkward.

Edited December 15, 2015 by Slache

[Slache]

http://www.zazzle.com/sorry_im_awkward_white_tee_shirts-235151432813704129

[Ellie]

I've seen several. I've been diagnosed with over 10 different things, most of which I don't have any symptoms for. The closest match was autism, but while the symptoms matched the explanation was wrong. Once a doctor started explaining how autism worked I knew it wasn't right. I've been diagnosed with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder despite the fact that my only symptoms are an inability to hear or see properly.

 

Eta: And I'm very awkward.

 

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

You don't seem awkward to me.

 

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

[Renai]

I need to clean something. I think I'm going to go through all the clothes today. I have two boxes of baby clothes I can give away already, and I'm sure there is more, somewhere. I would do papers, but, is not the Konmari way. Actually, if I started papers it would never get finished because I'd give up due to being overwhelmed.

 

I think during the last week of winter break I'm going to go through all the books(!). I'll box many of them up and give them to a friend who has an ebay store. I don't care how much a percentage she's getting, I won't have to do it. At least, that's the plan.

[Slache]

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

 

You don't seem awkward to me.

 

:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:

Thanks!

[Renai]

Also, I figure that if I go through clothes, I can stay here on the bed all comfy and check in with ITT all the time periodically.

[MarkW]

I've seen several. I've been diagnosed with over 10 different things, most of which I don't have any symptoms for. The closest match was autism, but while the symptoms matched the explanation was wrong. Once a doctor started explaining how autism worked I knew it wasn't right. I've been diagnosed with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder despite the fact that my only symptoms are an inability to hear or see properly.

 

I have little or no faith in these sorts of professionals. There's too much wiggle room for hokum. I'm sure that somebody somewhere is diligent, qualified, and professional, but I haven't met that person yet. We brought my oldest daughter to two therapists a couple of years ago and one was just ridiculous and I won't even get into it. The other decided that all of her problems stemmed from alienation from her estranged biological mom who wants nothing to do with her and the feeling is mutual, despite the fact that she's been calling my wife "mom" for... 14 years and with hardly a thought for the other. She kept pressuring her to call her/write her/etc and asked for an update each week, which stressed her out terribly. She did call (with my full support for her making the decision herself) and it was a disaster. So, hooray.

 

She used to have visitation and I put a stop to that for awhile when my oldest came home one Winter afternoon limping (she had full body arthritis symptoms at the time from a bad drug reaction to a Crohn's infusion drug and had just gotten out of the hospital the week before). I asked her if she was OK and she explained that bio-mom had taken a corner too fast in the snow and had embedded her car in a snowbank. Instead of calling for help she asked my oldest (12 at the time? 13?) who weighed all of 70 pounds soaking wet to help her push the car out of the snowbank and then told her not to tell Daddy because Daddy would be angry.

 

Sigh.

 

So yeah therapist goes "Oh she's an important figure in your life you need to keep in constant contact with her that's why you're depressed). Meanwhile my daughter was trying to talk to her about her disease, about issues at school, about fear about her mortality because of a couple of recent scary hospitalizations. Nope none of that was relevant, it was obviously all about her bio mom.

 

Argh.

Edited December 15, 2015 by MarkW

[Renai]

:grouphug:  MarkW's dd

[texasmama]

I'm a therapist. :)

[Renai]

I think I'm going to start by making my bed (gasp!).

[MarkW]

I'm a therapist. :)

 

I forgive you on a provisional basis.

[Slache]

Not to get too political, but my incorrect diagnosises are one of my issues with the coding system. I don't need a schizophrenic diagnosis on my record. The doctor who diagnosed me was sued (after we left) and lost his license. He would take almost perfect children label them as dangerous and heavily medicate them. He pushed my mom to get shock therapy even though I never showed any sign of being dangerous. He had me on extremely high doses of 3 different medications. That was, coincidentally I'm sure, when my seizures began.

[texasmama]

I forgive you on a provisional basis.

I will diagnose you on a provisional basis.

 

Just kidding. Can't diagnose over the Internet.

[MarkW]

Not to get too political, but my incorrect diagnosises are one of my issues with the coding system. I don't need a schizophrenic diagnosis on my record. The doctor who diagnosed me was sued (after we left) and lost his license. He would take almost perfect children label them as dangerous and heavily medicate them. He pushed my mom to get shock therapy even though I never showed any sign of being dangerous. He had me on extremely high doses of 3 different medications. That was, coincidentally I'm sure, when my seizures began.

 

My seizures began around the same time that my mom was overmedicating me for attention, so uhh... yeah.

[Slache]

I'm a therapist. :)

I an grateful for good therapists, but sad there are so few. Her name was Tanya, since you asked. She said she didn't know what was wrong with me so we were going to find my limitations and work on them. No drugs (she told my mother to never have me on behavioral medication again unless something changes) just physical therapy. She made me walk on a balance beam, do some sort of color therapy, all sorts of strange things. We also talked about my mom because there were huge issues there, but none that required medication.

[Junie]

 

OK so I know I've been a poor participant in ITT lately and I'm sorry.  The library Chewie appearance was so awesome!! And then everything else is crazy stressful. AUGH!!!

 

I'm still not getting responses to any of my emails from my boss, and when I called yesterday she acted like it was an emergency to get off the phone.

 

Chris (wife) is worried about Izzy's (6 yo daughter's) homeschooling, which is stalled out because we had vacation followed my medical drama followed by holiday followed by medical drama and now.. another holiday. She's not really behind or even close to behind, but there's stress that she's "stalled".

 

I told Chris she's already WAY past baseline anyway and once the holidays are over I'm going to combine a lot of self motivated learning (because she's super inquisitive) with some traditional rote stuff for math and reading. She's... still worried and keeps talking about just registering her at another school. I told her all the schools are poor compromises over what we could do ourselves with some effort and anyway Izzy was getting beat up and mocked basically every day by everyone else's troglodyte kids. I'm not into it, man.

 

Then there's the question of how much longer I'm going to have a job. I really, honestly don't care anymore. It's like: pull the bandaid off already. I'm worried about the consequences but I can't take this [censored for the sensitive] anymore with the constant politics of nonsense and the careful avoidance of standing out by accomplishing.... [bleep] anything at all.

 

I feel like if I can make a [bleep] Chewbacca suit that looks exactly like [bleep] Chewbacca with my [bleep] HANDS, then I should be able to do something creative for a living. And I know it's not as simple as that but [bleep] if I want to drop dead of a brain tumor or whatever the [bleep] is going on with my brain/heart while still working for this corporate nightmare and using like 4% of my [bleep] brain (and getting cut down whack-a-mole style whenever I'm proactive). I'm so [bleep] done.

 

I just have no plan. I have vague ideas of art I'd like to create and some specific projects in mind, but no clue of how to make them pay the bills. I just don't think that way, and that's why I've been an employee for decades even though it makes me [bleep] crazy.

 

Apologies if I've missed any bleeps. I'll go back and edit. :-P

 

 

Mark, sorry about all of the chaos.

 

It sounds like Izzy will be just fine.  Is she reading at all?  Can she do addition and subtraction?  If so, she's good.  If not, it's still not anything to worry about at this point.

 

We have had seasons in our homeschool where we just kind of floated along doing very little because of my health issues.

 

My dh was frustrated with his job a while back.  He updated his resume and started asking friends about jobs in his field.  He didn't go on any interviews, and his job seems to be going better now.  But, I could see that his stress level went down when his resume was updated, just in case.

 

It seems like art is how you de-compress.  Your Chewie is great!  Maybe you could find another project to work on (that wouldn't break the bank) and see how it goes.  (No clue about how to sell stuff like that, though.)

[texasmama]

I an grateful for good therapists, but sad there are so few. Her name was Tanya, since you asked. She said she didn't know what was wrong with me so we were going to find my limitations and work on them. No drugs (she told my mother to never have me on behavioral medication again unless something changes) just physical therapy. She made me walk on a balance beam, do some sort of color therapy, all sorts of strange things. We also talked about my mom because there were huge issues there, but none that required medication.

Sounds like you got physical or occupational therapy, not psychotherapy. PT and OT can help a lot of folks because neurology.

[MarkW]

Yeah my problem is that my field has changed so much in twenty years that it's really not my field anymore. I'm competing for work with guys in third world countries who will work for less than my electric bill every month. I've updated my resume and got a temporary relief from that but it's over. :-(

 

There are husband/wife teams on Etsy selling low effort art for twice my annual salary. I just need to figure out how to market my stuff at least as well as they market theirs. Unfortunately I think there's a lottery element to it where the opportunities just have to line up properly even if you do everything right. :-/

 

Izzy is going addition and subtraction and some simple multiplication. She's reading but gets frustrated easily. At 5 I feel like the school started her too early, even though I started reading at 6 I feel like she needs to develop more patience first. She doesn't like that English phonetics have more exceptions than rules. I don't blame her for that.

 

Art is great for decompressing but I'm finding that now that I think I could just as well die in a week or a month, that's not good enough. Maybe I'm just spoiled and self-indulgent or maybe I have clarity for the first time in over a decade. I can't tell which. :-)

[Critterfixer]

Have had no problems with the therapists I have been too, and my psychiatrist did a good job listening to my concerns with medications and adjusted them when needed. I didn't agree with the full diagnosis, but am willing to admit I have days when it fits! 

Anyway, my experience with therapy has been a good one.

I need to line Tex up for the year I retire from my critter-fixing career. I'll have years worth of stuff to unload. :zombiechase:

 

Just had to use the zombies. I get so little opportunity.

[Southern Ivy]

I have considered it. In fact, I have an account. I just don't know what to create...

That's my problem. I don't always know what to create. Back when we had to create our curriculum and go only off of the state standards, it was easy to come up with stuff.  Now that we HAVE to follow a specific curriculum, it's incredibly hard. 

I'm thankful that my new principal actually trusts us and lets us teach how we teach best, but after years of being told to NEVER deviate from the curriculum, it's hard to get back to that creative process. 

I have a few things in my store, though. 

Mainly things I had the idea for or things that my homeschooling friends have asked me to create. 

 

So, can you tell me about this?  I've been creating some of my own classes for dc, because I hate most of the literature curriculum that I've come across.

 

I've thought about doing something like this after dd5 gets into high school (so, a long time from now), but I'm interested in how it works.

 

 

 

ETA:  A Booyah on an educational post!!  

Why don't you PM me with your specific questions, that way I can address them instead of telling you 'fluff'. What I think is important, you may not need to know. :) 

I don't have anymore long breaks today, so I won't be able to really answer until tonight. 

 

It was interesting. Our family knows a few career homeless people, and aren't afraid to talk to the new ones. There is also interesting research on different types of poverty, and since mine was situational, I had a better chance of getting out of it since I came from a middle class background. There are just certain...cultural(?) "rules" that come with different socioeconomic statuses, and knowing those rules (or learning them) is what helps a person move up. But, dh does not come from the same background I do, which places us in an interesting spot.

 

Never mind me, I used to study psychology and have this amazingly annoying habit of analyzing everything.  :leaving:

I loved psychology and sociology. I think that's why I view things very differently than my friends. I'm not an over-analyzer, but I do consider things differently than they do. 

[Slache]

Sounds like you got physical or occupational therapy, not psychotherapy. PT and OT can help a lot of folks because neurology.

She was a psychologist, but she must have had some sort of cross training. She believed I had a physical problem that resembled a mental problem tied up with attachment issue because of childhood abuse. She hit it on the noggin, she just didn't know what my physical problems were so she treated the symptoms. Everyone wanted to medicate me so the symptoms would go away, but they never did. Most adults thought I was retarded, but she gave me some tests that proved I was brilliant, hence my aptitude for languages. I don't know why she thought what she did, but she made me be able to walk straight, along with many other physical gains, but she also helped me understand how to act normally. I used to hum a lot and often speak in quotes and poetry. I find it comforting, but she taught me to use my own words. She was great. But then my mom got tired of having a retarded daughter so she moved me to another state and told me never to speak of my therapy and stop doing my exercises.

[Junie]

Yeah my problem is that my field has changed so much in twenty years that it's really not my field anymore. I'm competing for work with guys in third world countries who will work for less than my electric bill every month. I've updated my resume and got a temporary relief from that but it's over. :-(

 

Well, I'm glad that you got your resume updated.  Hopefully, though, you won't need it.

 

There are husband/wife teams on Etsy selling low effort art for twice my annual salary. I just need to figure out how to market my stuff at least as well as they market theirs. Unfortunately I think there's a lottery element to it where the opportunities just have to line up properly even if you do everything right. :-/

 

So, get a couple of your high effort (but low cost) items ready and put them out there.  The worst thing that could happen is that you'd have new art in your living room until it sells.  ;)

 

Izzy is going addition and subtraction and some simple multiplication. She's reading but gets frustrated easily. At 5 I feel like the school started her too early, even though I started reading at 6 I feel like she needs to develop more patience first. She doesn't like that English phonetics have more exceptions than rules. I don't blame her for that.

 

So she is ahead!  I would just have her read books (probably lower than her ability for right now, since she is getting frustrated) and work on math at maybe 1/2 or 1/4 pace to keep her skills fresh.  It seems like she doesn't really need to develop new skills right now.

 

For lower elementary age, my homeschool has consisted almost entirely of the basics.  We might do a geography or science lesson if the student is interested.  (For instance, yesterday we watched a youtube video on how maple syrup is made.)  But mostly, it's about 30-60 minutes/day of reading, spelling, and math.

 

Art is great for decompressing but I'm finding that now that I think I could just as well die in a week or a month, that's not good enough. Maybe I'm just spoiled and self-indulgent or maybe I have clarity for the first time in over a decade. I can't tell which. :-)

 

Well, hopefully you'll get test results this week and they'll tell you that you're not dying.  Praying that you will soon be recovering.

 

[Southern Ivy]

Texasmama, do you have super editing powers on this forum? I noticed it said you edited MarkW's post a few posts back. 

[Slache]

Yeah my problem is that my field has changed so much in twenty years that it's really not my field anymore. I'm competing for work with guys in third world countries who will work for less than my electric bill every month. I've updated my resume and got a temporary relief from that but it's over. :-(

 

There are husband/wife teams on Etsy selling low effort art for twice my annual salary. I just need to figure out how to market my stuff at least as well as they market theirs. Unfortunately I think there's a lottery element to it where the opportunities just have to line up properly even if you do everything right. :-/

 

Izzy is going addition and subtraction and some simple multiplication. She's reading but gets frustrated easily. At 5 I feel like the school started her too early, even though I started reading at 6 I feel like she needs to develop more patience first. She doesn't like that English phonetics have more exceptions than rules. I don't blame her for that.

 

Art is great for decompressing but I'm finding that now that I think I could just as well die in a week or a month, that's not good enough. Maybe I'm just spoiled and self-indulgent or maybe I have clarity for the first time in over a decade. I can't tell which. :-)

1. Reading English is really hard.

2. The English language has more rules than you realize, and very few exceptions.

 

 

 

Oh Ellie...

Edited December 15, 2015 by Slache

[AMJ]

I am in the place where people love their cheese and the land is frozen tundra that isn't frozen this year, lol. I think someone else is up here with me, but I can't remember who.

 

I grew up partly north of Chicago, and partly in the land of 10,000 lakes.  I miss snow!

[MarkW]

Junie: unfortunately high effort/low cost is the formula for an unsustainable business, but yeah I get what you're saying. :) Ultimately prints are what seem to work, but it's a saturated market.

 

Slache: English phonetics has more exceptions than rules. :P

 

 

[Slache]

Oh my gosh. So many typos for a post about phonetics.

[Ellie]

 

Izzy is going addition and subtraction and some simple multiplication. She's reading but gets frustrated easily. At 5 I feel like the school started her too early, even though I started reading at 6 I feel like she needs to develop more patience first. She doesn't like that English phonetics have more exceptions than rules. I don't blame her for that.

 

 

She only thinks that because she isn't being taught to read and spell with the Spalding Method. :D

[Slache]

Junie: unfortunately high effort/low cost is the formula for an unsustainable business, but yeah I get what you're saying. :) Ultimately prints are what seem to work, but it's a saturated market.

 

Slache: English phonetics has more exceptions than rules. :P

No it doesn't. You just don't know most of the rules. Have you heard of The Writing Road To Reading?

[Junie]

Junie: unfortunately high effort/low cost is the formula for an unsustainable business, but yeah I get what you're saying. :) Ultimately prints are what seem to work, but it's a saturated market.

 

Slache: English phonetics has more exceptions than rules. :p

 

Maybe you could let Izzy help you.  People seem to love artwork done by precocious 6-year-olds...  :)

 

I wish I understood art...

[Junie]

1. Reading English is really hard.

2. The English language has more rules than you realize, and very few exceptions.

 

 

 

Oh Ellie...

 

You edited before I could comment.  I thought that you had made the typos on purpose...  ;)

[Slache]

Maybe you could let Izzy help you. People seem to love artwork done by precocious 6-year-olds... :)

 

I wish I understood art...

I don't think anybody understands art. Some people are just liars.

[Slache]

You edited before I could comment. I thought that you had made the typos on purpose... ;)

I no, that was rediculous! Knote two self, if sneezing wile tiping Czech before posting!

[Another Lynn]

<Crying> because Ellie quoted my "might skip the field trip" post and didn't comment on "we're going now" post.  :hat:

 

 

No, actually, we're home now, and I'm thankful for two pages of ITT posting to help lull me back to a false sense of security.  For the record, I am never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, signing up for a field trip again.  First of all, the information email came so late last night that I didn't get it until this morning - you know the one that tells you where it is and when it starts (even though I had emailed the host/coordinator mom two days ago asking for this information.) 

 

Secondly, (no fault of the hostess), parking was difficult.  (But I did learn about a new parking system at one of the downtown garages.  Tokens!  Who knew?  Instead of tickets.  So they don't have to hire people to take your money when you leave - it's all on credit card or at a kiosk.  But I didn't know that, so, yes, that was me hitting the "help" button on the ticket-thingy - former ticket-thingy, now a token-thingy - and talking to the person over the intercom "Do you see a yellow token?"  "A what?  Do what with my credit card?  You time stamp my credit card?  Really?"  "You can go through now, the gate is open."  "But you said to put my card in?"..... Turns out you can take a token OR put your credit card in, but you don't need to do both.  Fun.)  Anyway, later, you pay for your token at a kiosk right before you leave if you want to use cash.  Then your "paid for" token goes in at the exit gate which opens for you.  If you pay on your way out, at the gate you have to use your credit card.  Did I mention how fun it was learning about the new parking system? 

 

Anyway, I digress.  The email said we were to meet coordinator mom in the lobby for our tickets.  When I got there, I waited and waited and waited.  When she came out of the bathroom she was all like "You all didn't want to go in yet?"  And I was like "Well, your email said to meet you in the lobby for tickets."  And she said "Oh, you know me, did I say that?"  Evidently, there are no tickets, you just go in and sit wherever they told your group to sit. 

 

Do people really live their lives like this?  With no plan, or at least no plan they intend to act on? 

 

Did I mention I am never, ever, ever, ever, ever, signing up for another field trip ever, ever, ever, again?

 

If y'all need me I'll be curled up in the fetal position, sucking my thumb, rocking back and forth, and drooling slightly. 

[AMJ]

Happy (?) Monday, all!

 

Not on break here, just...

 

 

 

 

Halfway through watching this I realized I forgot DD11's spaghettios on the stove.  They are molten lava hot!  Oops!

[AMJ]

Dc came in a few minutes ago requesting the "Porky Pig sings Blue Christmas song."  The version we watched last year is probably not legit, so I found this one that I can post here.

 

 

 

:001_rolleyes:

 

DD14 says Porky Pig would make a great rapper!

[Slache]

Do people really live their lives like this? With no plan, or at least no plan they intend to act on?

 

I have left my home with no money and no plans and wound up in another part of the country 3 times, so yes. But no, not with kids. People be crazy.

[AMJ]

AMJ, dear, this is at least twice that you've been at the top of the page and haven't BOOYA'd.

 

tsk, tsk, tsk :thumbdown:

 

 

I'm sorry.  I'm behind and catching up and not noticing when my posts hit the top of the page.  I'm also getting sick and trying to do too many things right now.  Mercy, Your Majesty, please have mercy on me!

[Critterfixer]

I have quite a few art appreciation resources that are going on my reading list for Christmas break. It's funny--some stuff I just get. I have pictures that have stayed in my memory since the day I first saw them; they are blinding, clear images with specific emotional responses. I used to have nightmares of black dogs chasing me through View of Toledo.

[Critterfixer]

 

Do people really live their lives like this?  With no plan, or at least no plan they intend to act on? 

 

Yup.

[JoJosMom]

I've seen several. I've been diagnosed with over 10 different things, most of which I don't have any symptoms for. The closest match was autism, but while the symptoms matched the explanation was wrong. Once a doctor started explaining how autism worked I knew it wasn't right. I've been diagnosed with schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder despite the fact that my only symptoms are an inability to hear or see properly.

 

Eta: And I'm very awkward.

 

Nope.  Just right for a Slashaboo.

 

ETA:  This Booya is dedidated to Slash:

 

Booya bells!

Booya bells!

Ringing in my head!

I really need to get to editing

Because if I get fired I'll be dead!

Edited December 15, 2015 by JoJosMom

[Critterfixer]

Now for today's most pressing question: will sour cream make an already tasty chicken stew even tastier? Fixing to find out.

[AMJ]

So, this is week two of telecommuting with the blessing of the boss.

 

Nobody will return my emails, though, and people avoid my calls. I've been told that I can work on my current project from home "until further notice" (paraphrased) and just to assume I don't need to come in unless I'm specifically requested at a meeting. So, OK, but I still need managerial input on various questions regarding that project and other ad hoc stuff that comes up. Not a single email has been responded to in over a week and when I finally called my Director I got "I'm on my way to a super important meeting with regulators, can't talk."

 

So... umm... what the heck? I've been on good terms with all of these people right along, but now it's like they're afraid talking to me will open them to liability, or something, or they're resentful? I honestly have no clue. Normally because I'm a cynical sort of guy (you might have noticed) I can come up with lots of explanations for stuff like this, but I'm dumbfounded. Radio silence.

I know the org is against telecommuting as a rule, although it does happen here and there. I don't get giving their blessing for it and then just excommunicating me, though. Are they trying to drive me to quit so that they don't have to deal with the paperwork of trying to fire a sick person? Ugh.

 

I sympathize heartily.  When I was doing some work from home (when I kept catching every contagious bug that would come around) I also had a hard time getting people to respond.  I had to resort to requesting actual meetings done as conference calls -- this was the closest thing I had to walking down the hall to catch people.  People not physically there in person often get shunted aside to be responded to "later" (even when well-intentioned) simply because the lack of their presence makes them seem less immediate.  I realized after a while it wasn't anyone's conscious intent to keep putting me off; it just happened.  Creating actual meeting requests made it harder for that to happen.