~ where cinders lie ~

Ooops! All News.txt

Hey there! Been a long time, huh? A lot of things have happened, and most of them had to stop happening to report on them, and not waiting ‘till each stopped before posting this seemed unreasonable, and aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

This year started pretty strong. In my province, you can work a maximum of 37 hours (case A) or 50 (case B). Case A is the maximum in case you take a 25-hour position, like secretary, and an extra 12 between all your remaining positions. Case B is an exception to the 37 hour limit, in which case you can take two 25-hour positions and absolutely nothing else.

From the previous year I was carrying about 16 hours, then 12 due to a private school not renewing my contract (thank GOD. That school was SHITTT). A week after, I got one of those coveted 25-hour gigs as a lab guy, my job being taking care of the school lab and not much else. It’s a very sought after position because, honestly, you don’t do much. Labs aren’t used too much here, sadly. So I had a good four months or so of keeping that lab clean and promoting its use, which I did successfully! Many teachers chose to take their kids there instead of staying in their classrooms. I offered my time as an extra teacher for any student that needed clearing some doubts about physics (not chemistry since for some reason this school taught leaps and bounds more than what I knew) Many kiddos came. I even became sort of a Susie from Peanuts character, giving my advanced advice on the purpose of life for absolutely no pay.

Related, I got that position as a temporary teacher. By surprise one day, I got to know the person I was holding the post for: a hairdresser that got this post “as a favour” during the pandemic, did the shittiest possible job and pretty much held the lab closed during her entire tenure over it (about three years), and then on December of last year took time off “to think”. It was known that she was earning paid in full every month of her licence while she worked as a hairdresser at home. You literally cannot do that, yet scrutiny is lax, so she did.

A month or so ago, a scandal arose about a doctor giving fake certificates to teachers so they could get their off time and full pay with benefits. The day after that scandal came to light, she immediately came back to work, and between losing those 25 I also lost 5 due to now clearly year long issues with another school, leaving me with 7 hours a week of work. Not ideal.

Thankfully, thanks to having graduated with decent grades from a technical high-school, I’ve slowly but surely getting permanent hours. At time of posting I’m at 17, so we’re back on track.

Back home, early this year my mother-in-law was diagnosed with a possible late-stage pancreatic cancer. It was a rough month or two of pretty much preparing for life without her. I had to prepare to the idea that I would become “male” head of the family in a month, and all that this entailed. Seeing my wife as hurt as I have ever seen her. Not a pretty sight.

Not much after, the results came in. It is definitely not pancreatic cancer. But no one knows what it is. Then more studies came in. And it may be autoimmune related. Then more...

All this odyssey pretty much finished this week, where the right doctor read all studies properly, and the thing she has is a form of pancreatitis that is very possibly treatable with steroids. So it is not only not deadly, it’s almost a non issue. Now we laugh because my MIL now has to process that she’s NOT gonna die. As a friend put it, not a process you make very often.

The Thing does press on her diaphragm and stomach, so she has a bit of trouble knowing if she’s hungry and breathing, and she also stopped doing exercise. We’re slowly addressing that.

Then, immediately after we knew that whatever that Thing is would not kill my MIL, my wife’s best friend (also mine) finished a 5 year long relationship, and accepted our offer for her to come live with us. So now it’s us 3 adults, the kiddo and my MIL (and the creatures).

I love my bestie, to be honest. She’s the person that made us be together with my wife. She’s autistic and nonbinary like me, and we went through the process of leaving our former families behind at the same time. The three of us are managing to live very well together too. We often say with my wife that distributing the workload of a house is easier on three adults, and I couldn’t agree more.

Yesterday we watched the last two episodes of the 1994 JJBA OVA in japanese and ate pizza. We had a blast. So yeah, can’t complain to live with my two best friends in the world.

Now August starts, and things are looking pretty good. And I hope it only gets better! I got more to tell, but I’ll end it here for now. Take care, reader!