Dealing With Idiots

I don't understand how hard it is for some people to simply do their job. Ugh. And really, I'm writing this on behalf of poor Nerdstar, who's actually having to talk with these people all the time.

We had forgotten that the hospital put the wrong date on his "proof of birth" letter, and since we sent in the forms for his birth certificate the other day, figured this wouldn't matter. Then her HR wanted something proving he was born so they could add him to her insurance, so she faxed that little letter off not even thinking about the wrong date, until they called and said, um, nope, that won't work. Of course, the lady at the hospital who can fix this mistake (as opposed to all the people who work there who apparently can't fix the mistake) is out today, and only works part time anyway. This wouldn't be such a big deal if there wasn't a $270 bill from the ped. office waiting to be re-filed with the insurance company. Plus, once we get his birth certificate, if it's wrong it's $10 to get it fixed. Ugh.

But the real winners in the idiot department are the folks at the disability company. Nerdstar's having to play middle man between them and the doctor's office billing dept. For reasons completely unknown, and in spite of calling her almost every day up until he was born, to see if he was born yet, they can't seem to get right his actual delivery date and when benefits should have started, as opposed to when they seem to have arbitrarily started them, etc. And the doctor's office wants no part of finding whatever form they sent out in July and dealing with any of it.

Add in complete uncertainty regarding her current job and either of two other job prospects and constantly changing requirements for said jobs, well, lets say we're not having a lot of fun on this front either. We had been planning on her starting a new job on the 20th of this month. That's now looking a lot more iffy. They're going to have her take a language test, and we're just praying it's not the same one she failed at her last job. (There are several different language tests for her type of work.) While I'm thrilled to have her home for as long as possible, financial uncertainty is never fun.

So far....

Here we are at 21 days away from the birth of Noah Maxx, not really knowing when exactly he'll choose to make his debut. We're excited to finally be able to see him soon though! He has been really active in my belly, sometimes to the point that I'm wondering if he ever really slept!

Do I know what job I'll be working on after Noah Maxx is here? I still don't have any idea. This is one of the evils of working a federal contracting job, the government can take its sweet time at deciding which firm has won the work bid, but it's something that we're learning to accept. To tell you the truth, this is not the first thing on my mind at this point. The biggest thing on my mind right now is hoping that Noah Maxx's delivery will be safe, smooth, and hopefully quick.

Some of our friends have started to give births, with the latest one born yesterday evening (Hi Justin and Jen!), and this truly makes the "summer of babies"!

We are really excited, and almost cannot wait until we see our little man!

Weekend Update

It's been another mostly lazy weekend, well, other than the time yesterday spent shopping for the things we needed to be as ready as possible for Noah Maxx. A year ago I would not have imagined how cute I now find all the things we buy for him. We finally bought him a couple of little toys. We got all his grooming supplies. Nerdstar even had to get him some of those jean diapers for if/when we travel. We're good to go on cloth diapers, I think I've washed them enough and got them ready to use. Really, the only thing left to do is wash all his blankets, sheets and clothes.

I have an evil brain. And in 42 years I've mostly learned how to deal with it, when to pay attention, and when to ignore the hell out of it. Friday it really got bad. I ran across a couple of blogs by women whose babies had been stillborn. That just sort of got stuck in my brain. I won't elaborate, but it takes me a lot of energy to fight off those types of thoughts.

As I've mentioned before, Nerdstar is great about not worrying unless there's something concrete to worry about. I'm getting better at absorbing her calm.

That said, we do have a potential thing to worry about. She found out late Friday afternoon that her last day of working on this current project is supposed to be July 1. The problem with that could be that she's supposed to work until July 6 to hit the one year mark. We'll find out much more tomorrow (hopefully) about insurance continuance and short term disability and FMLA and all that good stuff.

We're not too, too worried about the money/job stuff. But it's not so fun waiting to find out exactly how things are going to go.

A Little Update

Day two of this and things are looking decent. It's possible this current project will last four or five more weeks, but there's really no telling what's up with the government. Not sure if they have a different company lined up to take over the project, and if they do, if that company has linguists ready to start working right away.

She talked with HR today and they did confirm that as long as she's employed with the company, even if not actively on a project, then benefits will be in effect. So that's good.

Her company is also working to find her a new gig that would kick in after maternity leave.

That's pretty much all we can ask at this point. We've been in similar situations in the past, that's how we've ended up moving around the country. Of course, before we didn't have a mortgage or a baby on the way. But again, we knew the choices we were making when we made them.

We've got a good six months worth of expenses saved up, we'll tighten our belts until it's safe to losen them again.

I think I've mentioned that one of the best things about Nerdstar is her ability to not worry. I generally do all of the worrying for both of us. But she's kinda influenced me, so I'll be like her and not worry until there's something concrete to worry about.

Job Situation

In the past few days, Nerdstar's job situation has become kinda crazy. Being a contractor usually means no real job security. Well, there are one year at a time contracts that can be renewed. Her current job started last July, and it's always been in the back of our minds that she might not have a job to go back to after maternity leave. Yes, her contracting company should hook her up with something even if a current job ends, but you just never know what they'll have available. We don't generally worry about it too much, because there are several contracting companies in this area always looking for people. Agencies like CIA, DIA, and NSA hire tons of contractors with language/analytical skills through several big private companies in this area. There are always projects being bid on and the contracting companies are always trying to line up personnel in case they get the contract.

But, last week the government agency she's working for got serious about having some projects consolidated and re-bid by the contractors and such. Her private company informed her on Wedneday that her and the two other linguists she works with would have to take a new language test on Friday. Also, that the government was also going to start requiring a special type of polygraph test that is rarely given. Yikes. Nerdstar's always had to do the language tests for the Army, but this one is very different.

Last night after she got home from work it all started going south. Her and another linguist didn't pass their tests. She was surprised, it had a lot of science terms and she didn't have that kind of dictionary with her for the test. As for that type of polygraph - it would take months to schedule and get the results from. Her private company really dropped the ball on that part, she asked them about it a year ago and they blew it off.

So, now we have no idea how much longer she'll be working on this current project. The reason that matters is for insurance and short term disability for her maternity leave. Technically, she has to work until June 6 for short term to kick in. Ugh. How long she stays on this project is up to the government management. We have no idea what they're planning. (Yes, it sucks having two sets of managers.)

She was on the phone with a couple of the managers in her private company all last night. It seems they're really trying to work things out for her.

But, in addition to even working on this project a few more weeks - long enough for insurance and short term disability to be fine, there's the whole problem of having a job to go to after maternity leave. Again, her private company is looking for some options, but who knows what exactly will happen.

We're not overly worried yet. We know this is the life of a contractor. It's also why I was so concerned with the IRS paying up on that home buyers credit. We've known we needed to have some money saved up for this possibility.

As if all that wasn't fun enough, there's also her status with the Army. It's currently "pending discharge" and we have no idea when that will happen. Because of her language skills, she gets a decent amount of money every month being in the reserves. We don't know when that will end either. (Her last year of military service has been stupid, it would be a whole different long post.)

So with 49 days until Noah Maxx is supposed to be born, this starts to unfold.