Yoga Challenge (day 23) and a little bit of stress.

Tonight, I did Yoga Now's "30 Minute Core Challenge." I was feeling mega-uber-lazy when I arrived home, and actually contemplated skipping my yoga altogether. Instead of skipping the yoga, however, I pushed myself to do a more challenging practice. I did it! I'm still feeling pretty lazy, which might mean the laundry will have to wait until tomorrow night, but at least I got the yoga in!

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So, here's the little bit of stress. It seems as though a whole host of things are happening all at the same time right now, (as always, right?) and are making me feel a little . . . unsettled? Here are the few little things:

First, work is nuts. There's no other way to say it, I guess! The kids are all good, my coteacher and I get along just fine, and my boss is great, but due to the lousy economy, our organization is suffering financially. BIG TIME. We learned around the first of the year that we would be experiencing salary freezes -- so, no raises, despite inflation. Then, they decided not to hire for the open assistant teacher position in my classroom, so my coteacher and I are having to stretch our shifts out and take longer breaks in order to cover our room for ratios and diapering and such during the day. (I can't tell you how much HAVING to take an hour break sucks! Blah.) We are also on a strict "no overtime" policy, so I'm having to wiggle around with some flex time, too, if I ever have to stay late for ratio reasons.

With all of that, management has been talking about the possibility of salary reductions, in order to keep the organization afloat. This has been mumbled about since the first of the year, and at our last staff meeting, it sounds as though a ten percent paycut for everyone in the organization is highly likely. TEN PERCENT! I don't make very much money to begin with, but that still makes an awfully huge impact in my monthly budget. I've been brainstorming some ways I can cut $180 per month from my budget, and have come up with several solutions. One of which is returning to the kitchenwares store on a part-time basis, in addition to my full-time job. Not the best scenario, if you ask me, but I can only cut so much! (Rent and student loans are costly, costly, costly.) I do love my coworkers at "the window," and will be excited to see them all on a more regular basis, but the idea of 13- to 14-hour-days is really unappealing.

But I'm thankful to have a job. Well, two jobs, really!

Next, I have to renew my teaching license. This means a lot of paperwork, piddly nonsense, forms and such, which is not really all that stressful, just nit-picky and annoying. And I'm slightly worried they aren't going to accept all of my professional development hours, which would mean . . . they wouldn't renew my license. This wouldn't be an immediate tragedy, but it would make moving abroad in 18 months more difficult.

Yes, moving abroad. Dan and I are slowly thinking about places we'd like to move to teach English. (I'd most likely be teaching at an International school, while Dan would use his TEFL certificate.) Morocco is very appealing to me . . . must learn more about Morocco!

Oh yes, and there's more! Dan and I may be "shackin' up" sooner than we had planned on, for a variety of reasons, all of which are good. (And nothing hugely scary, mind you. We're just ready to cohabitate and both poor, so this solves many problems!) I'm terribly excited, but also have many big projects ahead of me, including loads of cleaning, purging, trips to the Goodwill and Half-Price Books, in order to make room for Dan in my teensie apartment. We also have to go through paperwork/applications/etc. in order to get Dan on my lease. EEEEEEE!!!!

Where are we going to fit TWO bikes in my 550-square-foot apartment!! Do those giant hooks on the wall really work??? We may need to buy some.

Thankfully, most of this stress will be over in the next couple of months, so we can both enjoy our road trip camping vacation we have scheduled in June. Sigh. Why isn't it vacation time NOW????

Pardon the whining. :) I'm done now.