Semi-retired

It has been 2 weeks since I sent off the email to my bosses asking for a meeting and new contract. Last week I finally met with my immediate boss (a red-headed Irish woman) and we see eye to eye. I like her so much that I feel kinda bad doing this to her. She asked what was the biggest issue bothering me – I said two words : "our director." He is cheap and can not execute anything. Yeah, that was a little blunt, but I’m tired of wriggling around the issues. Funny that she tends to agree with me and that says our CEO is worse. Great – she is not doing a very good job convincing me to stay. She patiently took notes and we chatted about the state of affairs and she said she would get back to me asap.

As of this week we met again but only for he r to tell me that our director has not bothered to reply to her about discussing a new contract. Another sign. Hey, as I told her last week, if they want to continue to pay me my full salary for 10 hours/week, I’m totally cool with that.

Meanwhile, I’m starting to hook back up with my tai tai peeps and boy have I missed that. My most meaningful conversation was with my friend Amy as we pondered life and travel and our ongoing justification why we are not working. I mean we COULD work if we wanted to, thus only “semi-retired.” I think I'm justifying with the wrong person - what do you all think? So over our tea and scooby snacks we look forward to some day coming out of retirement, although we do admit that vision is still a little cloudy.

I figure the job thing won’t completely go away, in fact I told Will I’d be his new assistant. Every time I helped remember a name or found him a new contact it was going to be $6. I’ve made some good money so far. However, my website seems to be making it out to the masses and I have had several women contact me from other parts of China asking for advice. This past weekend I also met with a couple who paid me $60 dollars to talk about what they should expect with their labor and delivery experience in Shanghai –that and they bought me lunch. Can’t say that I mind doing that! I’ve also had to turn down several offers to be a doula again at $800USD a pop. That may have to change – I’m still waiting for my friend Patty to come back from the dark side of working full time and join me in this venture – but hey, I’m having too much fun chillin’ and reading some good books.

And lastly – Chinese lessons are back!!! No more underwear and strawberry jokes. My new tutor is coming over for lunch today. I warned her that I have my notes but remember nothing – so today is a review and to figure out that I’m going to have to start over! ☺