January 31, 2008
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Wow!!!
So June just called me ... she got selected by that Asian pop star contest I wrote about in this entry!! They want her to go to Taiwan at the end of next month and be a contestant. WOW!
Unfortunately, after thinking about it, she had to decline because it would mean missing at least one year of school, maybe two (she would have to repeat this year because she would leave in the middle of it, and if she stays on long enough, past the start of next school year, which starts this August, she'd have to repeat that one too). I guess it was too much to risk for something where she might get eliminated after just one round. But isn't it neat?! Part of me still thinks she should go, but I totally understand ... I would probably decline, too.
That's OK ... she'll be the pop starriest optometrist around!
Comments (12)
omg how exciting! go June:) i sent you a message today hehehe. I want to come and play with Jack again! I miss that cute little guy...he can be my BF anyday...you know how I love younger dudes hahaha. I'll be down in SoCal for a wedding on 4/12 so if I don't pull all my hair out by then (bridezilla I tell u), then we should meet up again
Congrats to your sis!! What an amazing opportunity but I totally understand her decision as well.
fun!
Glad to here that! Way to go Bev sis. Im sure she would have done great, but understand her decision.
OMG, that is awesome Beverly!! Maybe she can she try out in the future?
That is AWESOME! Oh, I wish she could go, but I totally understand why she doesn't want to. She must be disappointed that she can't go though.
Cool! I do think she made the right decision...what a responsible sis you have!
That's so cool!
And who else can say they are the pop starriest optometrist around? Really? Having dibbs on that HAS to be worth it!
OH! MY HEART ACHES FOR JUNE! It really does. But, if I were ever chosen for American Idol I would have to decline for the simple fact of...you can't be a mother and compete on a show that takes every moment of your time. If it isn't rehearsals it is publicity stuff and my face would never look happy, sadness in my eyes, just b/c I would see Thade and Steph's sad faces everywhere I would go.
Poor June. She needs a giant sized ice cream in her favorite flavor. :*(
Wow! I can understand why she's passing it up, but I bet she'll always wonder "what if..." However, even if she took the whole thing and became a celebrity, we have seen recently how unglamorous and crazy a celebrity life it. Something tells me her life will be much better off if she stays far away from that!
RYC: I'm just working at home, and to everyone in the office, I'm out. So, I'm getting no requests from anyone - my boss is just letting me find little "housekeeping" things to do to stay on the clock so I don't have to burn vacation time and to give me something little to keep my mind preoccupied. I've been working from home the past two weeks, so I've been getting a little stir-crazy. I've been making sure to take naps, and the dogs have certainly enjoyed me being around during the day. As for when I start telecommuting after my leave is up, I'm going to start out just seeing how it works without someone at the house. Since I do just presentations and design work for the most part, and don't ever really talk with people on the phone or hold meetings, I'll be able to feed and play with her in between my projects. I work really fast, and since the turnaround on these projects are so quick, a lot of times I have big spaces in the day where I'm waiting for feedback or the next project to come in. We'll play it by ear, though, and if it seems like I'm not able to balance work and properly caring for Lily, we'll look towards having someone come to the house for a little bit each day.
WOW, that is pretty darn awesome. Too bad it won't be able to actually happen, but still, good for June!
I wonder if they have any Simon Cowell judge-types in Taiwan!?
RYC: You seriously get the prize for the most well-thought out comment ever. All good points, too, of course. I hate that there's no easy fix for the problem, and I hate the thought of everyone HAVING to have health insurance in order to get basic care. You're so right - it costs much more to eat healthy, and it seems to be a cycle that lower-income people can't break out of. Although, I will say (and I know that this isn't applicable big-picture, but maybe is indicative of a need for widespread familial/priority re-evaluation??) I grew up nowhere near wealthy, though comfortably middle class. My parents supported 11 people on what our counterparts struggled to raise their 4 and 5 person families on. I am not quite sure, to this day, how it all worked out. Certainly, if you divide a family's income by the number of persons it has to support, we were in dire straits. Poverty, even. But that's just not the whole picture and I think it speaks to the choices one makes, as you mentioned.
There are just so many places we could begin cutting health care costs, including stopping ambulance-chasers from driving them up! But I digress; all I really wanted to say was "great comment, Bev, thanks!"
I'm verbose, though, as usual.
I forgot that I hadn't posted yet what we decided to name her... I'll let the others hang in suspense until we post the particulars here in the next week when she arrives, but since I already gave you the sneak peak, I'm more than happy to share her full name with you: Lillian Elise. The middle name is a variation on my grandmother's name (her name is Elsie, and even she said not to give that exact name to the poor child - so we just transposed the "s" and "i"), and after we had that set, we came up with a first name that went well with it and Hidlebaugh. Chris and I had started thinking about Lillian/Lily around the time the final Harry Potter book came out. I like a lot of the more traditional names, and since my name is one that you just cannot make a nickname out of, I also wanted a name that you could for her. So she'll be called Lily while she's young, and if she wants to go more formal when she gets older, it's up to her. We really like it. I didn't think we'd refer to the baby by her name we planned to give her before she was born, but the past month, it's just become second nature for us to do so.
I can understand the company having the policy that if you work from home full time, you have to have child care (especially if you have more than one child). For as large of a corporation as we have, their telecommuting policy is relatively new. I also think it's something they haven't considered yet, as the majority of the workers aren't of child-bearing age. In my office, I have about 130 "mom/dads" and "grandpa/grandmas" that are waiting on pins and needles to hear the news about the baby - there's less than 15 people that are under their mid-to-late 30s in the office, and the majority are at least in their mid-40s. They company is actually really concerned about their workforce over the next 10 years - a huge percentage will be eligible to retire. They're just now starting to adapt their policies for the younger generations. My arrangement is pretty informal, which could get dicey if/when the guy I work with at Wash Ops and/or my official boss at HQ moves on. We'll see how it all works out. Chris and I really need to just get past this year - we're about a year too late on buying real estate (or having the baby). One of those deductions really would have helped with taxes this year. We're getting slammed. We went from getting a refund last year to having to pay an obscene amount this year. Next year will be great, with the new home AND the baby, but this year... not so much. I still don't understand it - we both have the max taken out of our checks by claiming zero, and have the max taken out for 401(k). I hope you and Johnny aren't in the same situation as us this year!
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