So mad at myself! And some positive news...

Starting with the negative, I am so angry at myself right now!  And super sad, too.  I freaking left my traveling/teaching suitcase in front of the house yesterday, and it was stolen.  I remember being on my way in and stopping to pick up an extra coffee cup from the back seat.  I must have set the bag down by the car... either that or on the front porch.  Unfortunately, my street gets a lot of foot traffic, and apparently some loser thief walked by and snatched it up.  I left for my foster/adopt meeting a couple hours later and didn't realize it was gone until I got back around 9:30pm.  When I didn't see it where it normally sits, I started looking all over the house, then checked the car three or four times with gradually rising panic.  Pretty soon, the reality was clear that it was gone.  :(

I called the police and filed a report, checked the nearby market dumpster with the help of a kind young man, called all the nearby pawn shops and asked them to look for it, and posted flyers outside my house.  I even offered $100 for it's return on the flyer.  But nothing yet, and I know the odds are very low that I would get it back.  There was nothing valuable to anyone else in the bag - my class textbook, handouts, student papers - but the bag itself is worth several hundred dollars.  It. so. sucks.

I was so wound up and upset, I drank a stiff drink, then stayed up almost all night working on stuff for my business.  Several people received emails sent at 4 or 5 a.m.  lol  It made me feel slightly better, I think, to be working towards building an income after just having lost something valuable.

On to the positive news... first, the date last weekend with SB started pretty rocky, as neither of us were particularly grounded (same thing happened that one night at dinner).  I know this isn't sounding very positive but bear with me... I was in a bad mood after a difficult conversation with my housemate and was being a brat, and he got mad at one point when he felt I was unfairly representing his efforts to support me as, well, unsupportive.  We turned around from the event we were heading towards and drove back to my neighborhood. 

But... once we got back, we sat in the car talking and basically worked through it.  I suggested we just be affectionate friends right now - ha - and somehow that created a sense of freedom for both of us.  This wouldn't work with some people, but with me and him, I guess it took the pressure off of things needing to be "perfect."  We happily traipsed off to watch the Sup.er Bowl and eat lunch/drink beer.  Later, we came back to my place and ended up kissing on the couch.  It was very nice!  So seventh date ended up being a good one.  Funny side note: he happened to be wearing a t-shirt that said the word "Seven" in big letters.  I have my first date with the other guy to go dancing to a live band tonight.  Feeling pretty tired but we will see how it goes.

In another bit of good news, I attended the fos.ter/adopt orientation last night and learned some helpful information:

• Confirmation that a child 0-2 years could be placed with me in my current living situation.
• The mandatory 4-week training in Oakland fits perfectly with my schedule.  It starts in April - after my February/March client attraction weekend intensives - and will be Tues/Thurs evenings a couple hours after finishing work at the college.
• One of the trainers told me that once I am certified to adopt, I can register and create profiles with different counties, which expands the number of possible children I might be matched with. 
• It is nice to have checklists of tasks and steps so as to feel like I am moving forward towards the goal.

The one piece of bad news is that they do not necessarily cover all of child care, which they used to do.  There is a limited stipend, so I need to factor the remainder into my budget.  I did hear that headstart offers quality, affordable childcare.  Do you think that is true?

That's all for now.  Mixed feelings heading into the weekend.  Hope your weekend is starting on a high note.