The good news? The good news is that Matt does not leave for New York next week, which means we'll be able to see Mirrormask and I can still go to the Thursday scrapbook night after work, and I can still go see Brokeback Mountain with K.T.

The bad news... Well, let's start with the fact that it's closer to two months than two weeks. Let's tack on the fact that the company is apparently too cheap to fly him up there and rent a car; he's got to drive somewhere between nine and eleven hours each way. And they'll only pay back the mileage for him to come home once a month.

Let's garnish that with the fact that the company Matt works for has proven itself not remotely shy about layoffs -- it was kind of astonishing that they didn't do their annual autumn layoffs this past year, in fact. And if he turns down the job, I suspect (though it was not stated, of course) that his chances of being on the next layoff list are going to increase.

So he can't really afford to turn it down without a really good excuse. (Like, the other guy they've asked to do this trip -- he was four kids, and absolutely can't go out of town for more than a couple of days.) So, there we go. I'll be single-parenting it for most of February and March. Whee.

Matt's boss has been trying to wangle him a 4-day workweek; Matt's further trying to wiggle things so that his day off alternates. So he'd work Monday through Thursday, drive home Friday, stay home Saturday and Sunday, then drive back up on Monday, and work Tuesday through Friday, stay up there for that weekend, work Monday through Thursday, etc. So he'd be home every other weekend (even though the company will only pay for one of them).

Weekends that he isn't home, I figure Penny and I will just spend a lot of time visiting my parents, or K.T. and Jess, or whoever we can impose ourselves on. It's those weekends that I think will be a bit rough; the weekdays will require some schedule shifting, and I'll probably wind up using up some vacation time to get things like doctor's appointments done, but there's a definite routine to be followed.

So (assuming this all goes through -- I haven't heard anything definite yet) it'll be a mildly rough couple of months, and I'll go to Nags Head for that weekend in April with no guilt, whatsoever.

In the meantime, if anyone knows of anything to do near Little Falls, NY... let me know.

--Liz