Saturday, September 05, 2009

20 days later....

I'm still alive and kicking. Thanks to those who sent e-mails and made phone calls asking if I was okay. Didn't mean to worry anyone with my unexpected bloggy break. Life has just been ridiculous these last couple of weeks. Ridiculous good and ridiculous bad. But that's life, I guess. So how have I spent my time the last 20 days? Not blogging. That's apparent, right? LOL!

I've worked on a few projects. The nursery is coming along. Although slowly. I'll share that progress and some pics in another post later this week.

I've spent time with friends. A long time friend is back in town for awhile and has been around quite a bit. He's been out of state for a few years so it's been nice having him back. We've spent several cool, breezy nights sitting around the firepit or in my comfy new porch chairs, sipping cocktails and getting reacquainted. It's been exactly what I needed.

I've hit a snag with my I-600a renewal and that has taken some time to fix. They wanted my social worker to repeat things that were included in my homestudy because it was older than 6 mths. Even though she sent an update with my application stating basically "here's the homestudy which is good for 2 yrs in this state and NOTHING has changed with the info included." I've had to run around getting some new references, a new police background check, and some other crap so that my social worker can document what they want addressed. And they only gave me 30 days to get it back to them "or my application will be considered abandoned". Nice. I think they're just screwing with people who are still grandfathered under the old I-600a in the hopes that it will cause them to have to switch to the I-800a. I think USCIS wants to only have to deal with one form and one set of rules. Just my theory because my social worker said she has only one other I-600a family..... and they've had the same issues.

I finally got approval to have surgery for my on duty knee injury that happened last October. Way to be efficient worker's comp. Almost a year later..... but it should hopefully be resolved soon.

I also had to qualify last week with my firearm. Which normally causes me a bit of stress. Even though I know I can shoot there's something about being put front and center and made to perform for a score that puts a lot of pressure on a girl. LOL! Especially with the knee injury. This was a moving and shooting course that required several kneeling shots. I powered through it but not without feeling some pain. And my overall score suffered because of it. But as long as I passed I didn't really care at this point.

Work has been all consuming. Reading back through some recent posts, it seems to be a theme lately. But there are internal struggles going on within the department that has morale at an all time low. I love my job but the mood lately makes it hard to enjoy coming to work some days.

Usually I'm working many cases at once. Some I know as soon as I read the report that it's not solveable. Those I make a call to the victim but then set aside cuz there's just nothing to do on them. But sometimes I get a case that requires most of my focus and attention. The week before last was spent with one of those. I even made some extra money working overtime a couple nights as the investigation progressed. I know some of y'all like to hear my police stories so I'll post about it later this week.

But for today I'm heading out to spend some time with the T's. My sister and her husband went out of town for the weekend and my mom is babysitting. She just called for some back up. LOL! Plus it's way too gorgeous of a day to sit in front of this computer. So I'll catch up more a little later..... but definitely not 20 days later. :)

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome back! Can't wait to see the pics of the nursery and hear the police stories.

Marla said...

We've missed ya! Hope you have a great time with the T's and I can't wait to hear your work stories!

Suzie said...

That really sucks that USCIS is giving you a hard time. I can relate to the way you feel at work. My company has laid off more than 1/2 our office and morale is in the toilet right now. Hopefully things will get better for both of us!

Hope you had fun with the T's!

"M" said...

Good to hear from you. Kept thinking my bloglines wasn't working again, LOL. Anyway, hanging with an old friend is the best. Looking foward to the pictures of the room

Kayce said...

Missed you!

Our I-600 went out over 3 weeks ago, hs was sent to CIS 2 weeks ago, they cashed our check the day after they got our paperwork. Have we heard anything or received anything? NO. Nothing. GERRRRRR Our current I-171h expires in 18 days. I'm not counting or anything. GERRRRR. I'm a bit sick of paperwork.

Donna said...

Welcome back...sounds like you've been super-busy! Hope you get the paperwork mess cleared up.

Half Gaelic, Half Garlic! said...

So glad to hear from you!! Sounds like you have had plenty to keep you busy!!

What a pain with your Homestudy.....Our agency has also said there was more than "no changes" required when doing the update this time. I believe it is because of the Hague.....our homestudies now have to meet Hague standards, so some extra things need to be included.....at least that was what I was told, one never really knows though!!

Hope you have fun with the T's:)

Lisa

k1 said...

An old friend friend or Friend friend? :)

Only thing good about a large caseload is job security. I think the average caseload per Det in our unit is 91. Some more, some less. It's rediculous.

Some are in danger of timing out per statute of limitations, especially since our Prosecutor's Office revised their Felony Filing Guidelines. Some cases that were a Felony last October have been bumped down to Misdemeanor level.

Good to see a new post. Hope you had fun with the nieces/nephews.

Daniella said...

glad to see this post - I've been clicking and clicking and nothing for 20 days ;) look forward to your nursery pics. I'm sorry about the work situation.