I’m out. Deliberately Avoiding Your Call.

Carry on.

Discontent is the first step in the progress of a man or a nation.
-Oscar Wilde

But I finally received my first performance review at work. Of course, two weeks ago I noticed my pay had increased, but thought it might be a cost of living “adjustment.” Nope, it was a raise. 4% to be exact. Not bad. Could be better, but I’ll take it.

I’ll admit, when she first told me to schedule time for it, I was nervous. I don’t get much feedback, positive or negative, from her. Performance reviews are always an anxiety ridden event for me. I know I do a good job. In fact, I know I do a great job, but I’m always the one to notice things that could be done better, or faster or more efficiently. So instead of patting myself on the back, I usually am pretty critical of my shortcomings.

So imagine my shock when I got the most glowing review I’ve ever had. And I do mean EVER. I’ve never had a bad review, but this was so incredible, I couldn’t stop smiling. We talked for a while and she told me how appreciative she was for all that I do around here. We gossiped a bit (boy, she’s a first class gossiper) and then talked about a development plan. She is encouraging me to learn other areas of the bank and I’m on board with that, although I told her that right now I’m just starting to feel comfortable with the day to day operations of our area and would like to just continue to get more familiar with this before starting to learn something new. I even went so far as to say most of the time I feel like I’m faking it. She responded by saying I was a master faker. Now I don’t know what to think of that, but she followed up with the reminder that I should look into other areas to see what I might be interested in, so I think it was a positive compliment.

So even though I feel like this is the most boring job in the history of all jobs ever, I am pretty happy with how things are going right now, so I won’t be complaining about work too much…for now.

Yesterday, I came across this article telling me that single parents are a burden to taxpayers.

Divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing cost U.S. taxpayers more than $112 billion a year, according to a study commissioned by four groups advocating more government action to bolster marriages.

Geez. I must have missed the memo telling me to quit my job and apply for welfare. But no worries, I’m all over it. Starting today I’ll be making up for lost time by quitting my job, applying for food stamps, health care and monetary assistance from the good old U.S. of A. I mean, if that’s what is expected of me, then hell, I’d love to stay home all day, eat bon bons and watch television all at YOUR expense.

Oh yeah, and making sure my kid has a miserable life…forgot that one.

“The study documents for the first time that divorce and unwed childbearing – besides being bad for children – are costing taxpayers a ton of money,” said David Blankenhorn, president of the Institute for American Values.

Seriously, this just makes me so damned angry. I hate group assumptions. Except for right now. Right now I’m going to say this group of people belonging to the “Institute for American Values” is a bunch of shitheads. Every. Last. One.

Cheese and Rice. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

In just two and a half weeks, my baby will be 16 years old. 16! Of course, he doesn’t care that he’s 16. Apparently, it’s not as big a deal to boys as it is to girls. But to me, it’s one more year come and gone, taking my little boy and turning him into a man.

Today he picks up his class ring from the jeweler. I’m both excited to see it and dreading it at the same time. It just means he’s that much closer to graduating from high school and (hopefully) leaving the nest. Which means I’m that much closer to having to figure out exactly what I’m going to do with all that free time.

We’ve been making lists of colleges to visit next summer. So far we have Berklee, University of Indiana, NYU and Ohio State. I’m hoping he’ll want to stay somewhere in state so I won’t be paying for his college for the rest of my life, but he’s pretty set on going somewhere that will advance his music career. And that means I’ll be broke for the rest of my life.

Of course, I do work for a company that has offices in almost every state, so I could always transfer so he’d be an In-State student. Although, I don’t want to go from one cold mess to another. I have my sites set on tropical locations.

It’s Tuesday. Which means only three days to Saturday! Woo hoo!