My ear still hurts, and it's been hurting all day. I finally told one of the bosses (not the big bosses, but the guy right under them) that I am going to go to the doctor for it. He says that if it turns out to be caused by something work-related (such as the balloon being inflated at an ear-splitting rate) and not coincidental (an ear infection aggravated by the noise) then the stor will make a claim and pay for it. All day long I have been on edge and cringing from loud sounds and trying to protect that ear, using the other ear for the phone, etc. It might be that it wasn't her fault at all....but if it wasn't the balloon, then why didn't my ear like that before she did it? I actually had a friend at work tell me that essentially, my sudden onset of pain following the balloon incident was psychosomatic...honestly, if anyone other than her had said that, I'd be pretty displeased.

and I voted....

What else...I am deluged in work (at home). I wish I could hire someone for just one day to help me deep clean this place. Actually, that isn't the way I'd do it. The ideal sequence of events would be:

(Me) Go through most of the items and throw out the garbage and donate the usable stuff that I don't want or need.
(Me) Sort the stuff that only I can sort, such as papers and really special personal stuff.
(Me and hired help, for a day or two) Deep clean the place.
(a pipe dream) Shampoo the carpets
(mega pipe dream) Get rid of carpets altogether and get something cleaner.
(Finally) Set in place a system to facilitate ease of organization and maintenance, hopefully enlisting help from the children for at least a few of the smaller chores. The oldest ones are 11 and 13, seems like they could at least make their beds, throw away graded homework papers, and keep their clean clothes off the floor and put dirty ones in the laundry. Is that asking too much?
(Another pipe dream) A kitchen table. I really, *really* want a kitchen table! It feels primitive and dirty to sit wherever and shovel the food into our mouths seperately as we do. We need a table. I had no idea they were so expensive.

But yeah, first, I need to get rid of all the stuff I don't want.