Down to business

Life has been speedy lately which is why I haven't had much time to blog. You know sometimes life just gets like that. I'd like to keep track of what's going on so even if I don't have time I still want to write it all on my blog even if it's scattered. I'm sorry if this makes no sense sometimes or it's boring.

Little S is seeing a kid psychiatrist in Paris and we've only had one session. She's really good and she's great with children. He opened right up to her which really surprised us because he's Clint Eastwood in front of most adults, strong and silent. He's never open with someone like that. I haven't written much about what's going on but a school psychologist suggested her and yes he does seem to have a problem but we aren't sure what it is yet so the search continues. I'm still hunting around for a private school and next month I'm visiting two of them, both Steiner schools. I like Steiner and I've been trying to read through his works for the past year now, emphasis on trying because some of it's heavy and my brain is a bit mushy after two kids. When we first started looking that's what I focused on, finding a Steiner school, that or a school based on Reggio Emilia which would be my number one choice. The only Steiner school near us is 45 minutes away and in Paris that can mean three hours if you hit a traffic jam, but I'm interested in seeing the school anyway just to compare it to others. It's one of the few that goes all the way through lycée.

I'm also job hunting, or I guess career hunting. I found a training I like that I've been thinking about for a while now. It keeps popping back up in my thoughts and in things I read. It's basically falling in my lap screaming "do this!". I've been trying to start other things but nothing feels right except this. This feels really right but the program sounds really difficult and I'm not sure if I'd get accepted. Right now it's all still in the planning stage so I won't talk too much about it because I'm superstitious like that.

I'm looking for a car too which is a little difficult because I haven't got a car to go see cars. Seb usually gets home late so we only have the weekend to look. I'm also waiting on the insurance money. I got a really good deal on my old car when I bought it and I lost a lot in the insurance adjustment. It seems prices have gone up since then which is really frustrating because I have less to work with. I'm eager to get wheels again though. I feel like an old mamie in a flowered housecoat who stays in with her cat all day. A funny thing is I have it in my head that I'll get a black car and I'm really set on that. I think it's my secret desire to be a spy and combat car theives. Either that or I'll be Knight Rider and have a car that can't be stolen!

The big news is that our window company is going out of business. The owner called us yesterday at 7am asking for money. We've left him over seventeen messages and he just suddenly decides to call us back out of the blue. Seb got angry and asked why he'd never called us until now and the guy said "listen I don't have any installers because my guys are being investigated for three different robberies so I've fired them..." Seb told him about our car being stolen and he acted surprised. I have no idea why he felt the need to tell us about his guys but I don't trust him. I'm pretty sure he was involved somehow in our theft because the car was obviously at the company warehouse for a while. Seb hung up and called the main branch of the window company who told us not to give them any money because they were no longer associated with them and the business is going under fast which is why he probably called us for money. He's desperate. We called the gendarmerie and told them "hey you know those guys we told you stole our car? Well you have a few files on them already (and if you'd done your job you'd probably know that!)" They said it was too late and that our case was already closed. Then we went to the police and filed a complaint against the window company and told them the whole story. The police were very nice and took our information starting from the beginning. The were really angry on our behalf for the way the gendarmerie treated our case. Evidently there's a big rivalry between the police and the gendarmerie. The police think the gendarmerie is completely incompetent, surprise, surprise. What a bunch of bumbling idiots. They'd told us after three visits that we were being pests and there were much more important cases for them than our stolen car. I'd always wondered why French people make fun of the gendarmerie and act so sarcastic with them. Each time we've called or talked to someone they seem really young, 20 years old or so, and they always have bad vocabulary. I remember one sympathetic gendarme girl telling Seb "mais putain oui, ça pue de la merde votre histoire la, franchement putain!" or roughly "yep that sounds like they're guilty, wow" but sprinkled with a truckdriver's vocabulary and not very evolved. They seem to be run by a bunch of teenagers, or at least in our precinct they are. The police were much sharper and now I have an official complaint filed against the company.

I feel a like I let the wolf play in the sheeps pen. I can't believe I was naieve enough to leave these con artists in my house alone at least a dozen times. One of the guys had such a sweet face and apparently he's the one who has the huge rap sheet. I really resent the idea that I can't trust anyone at face value anymore. I hate that feeling.