Magic remedy.

I wish there was a magic cold remedy I could take ONCE which would immediately eradicate my cold. I've been fighting off this cold for a while now. It started out not really bothering me except when I would sneeze. I would sneeze and then my throat would suddenly start hurting. In the past week my throat has started becoming scratchy. This weekend I've had a sore throat and been losing my voice all weekend.

I just wish this would end. I was going to participate in Cincinnati Idol, which was to be held this Wednesday night and next Wednesday night. But unless some miracle happens I won't be in any shape to sing this Wednesday. Besides that, I just feel miserable with my throat hurting.

Paid Fun again.

Okay, so I took the fourth of my clients out today. What a talker. I think he talked almost nonstop from the moment we went out the door to when we came back. He's a hyper little 9-year-old who looks like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story." We went to a store to look around and get to know each other. The kid's really smart and funny as well. I liked him immediately. I had to prod to get some of the other kids to talk at times, but this little guy can carry the conversation. That's a relief for someone like me who's quiet at first when I meet people. Like the rest of my clients, he behaved fairly well, with just a few reminders about minor things.

Still enjoying the part time gig a lot.

More Paid Fun

A trip to an art gallery was on the agenda today. Some of it was by art students, while others were from professionals. There was a display of 50 years of art from a particular artist. It was interesting to see how the artist's style changed over the years. The young man I was mentoring was pretty into the whole thing, much to my surprise. I wasn't sure how he would respond, so it was a relief.

Afterward, we went and browsed around at a store before I took him home.

The kids I'm working with at the part time job are so much easier to work with than the ones in residential. Both are rewarding and challenging, but in different ways.

Tomorrow I have my first outing with the fourth of my clients. I don't know if I'll be adding any others at this point. All the driving around gets pretty tedious. None of them live within 15 miles of me, so just going to pick them up and coming home takes quite a bit of time.

I'm Getting Paid For This?

It's amazing that I get paid for what I do on my second, part time, job.

Today I got paid $10 per hour to take a little boy to an exhibit of exotic trees and plants at the Krohn's Conservatory. When we first walked in and he saw the exhibit, he lit up and said "Wow!" He described it as awesome. Afterward we made a McDonalds stop before fighting traffic back home.

Afterward I got to meet the other two boys I'll be working with. They're siblings, so when I was picking up the one I met with tonight I got to meet the other one. We went to a local Megastore and browsed around mostly in the toy section. We even had a really short lightsaber battle. Really short--didn't want to get the hyper 6-year-old riled up or cause a scene in the store. We got along very well and he was fairly well-behaved although he's a handful.

$10 per hour plus mileage.

Am I really getting paid for this? Of course there's also the paperwork I'll have to fill out for billing purposes, but the field work is fun and rewarding even if challenging at times.

My own problems?!?!

I subscribe to Netflix, which works out well since I work third shift and have time to watch a lot of movies, read, or write during my shift. So it's pretty cost-effective since I tend to send the movies right back the next day.

Anyway, I dropped some movies off on Friday afternoon (or it could have been Thursday even) at the mailbox place I use when I get packages and anything else that doesn't fit in my mailbox (basically anything that's over 1" x2"--okay, slight exaggeration). Since it was after mail delivery time they should have gone out in the next day's mail. Saturday I went by again and noticed the outgoing mail bin contained my three movies which should have gone out. I know they're mine because Rhonda, the proprieter always says she knows those big red mailers are mine--I'm the only customer who gets Netflix. I thought it was a little strange and I was a little irritated, but figured they'd go out on Monday.

So today I stopped by and find three Netflix mailers in my mailbox. I thought that was strange since having gone out on Monday, Netflix would only have been receiving my returns today. I hadn't received any notifications that they had received my movies or sent more out, so when I took them out of my mailbox I noticed they were the same three that were outgoing mail.

I took them to Rhonda and let her know they were actually outgoing mail and had been put in my mailbox inadvertently. I also mentioned I had seen them still in the outgoing box Saturday night. She then told me she had had a heart attack on Thursday night. Well, that explains why they didn't go out and why she was still sorting through a bunch of incoming mail this morning. I felt kinda bad. I told her I'm glad she's okay. She's a really nice lady and doesn't have anyone else working for her. She's had part time people, but they've come and gone.

My own problems? Somehow my Netflix delay seems silly to have been frustrated about in light of the situation.

First Meetings

I had my first two meetings with kids I'll be working with. Monday I called to set up times for the two boys I was supposed to see Tuesday. Setting up the one was easy. The other one I couldn't get ahold of the Mom until Tuesday morning. She said she would be gone until about 6pm. I was meeting the first between 4 and 4:30 so that would have worked fine.

In the meantime I called and arranged pickup for the boy I was supposed to work with today.

The first little guy was a joy. A little 5-year-old. Not shy at all, and friendly. We wentand walked around Meijer for a while before letting him ride one of those rocking horse rides. It only cost a penny. After that we stopped at Wendy's before I took him home. He was very well-behaved. Standard issue 5-year-old, so there were some reminders not to run off or get into things he shouldn't be messing with. A couple times he tested limits, and once he told me "no." All it took to redirect him was to give him the look. He responded well to that look that says "arguing is not an option."

After that, I tried again to get ahold of the mom of the second client (whose brother I am also supposed to work with). No answer. So I went ahead and tried to find the house with the Mapquest directions while trying again to reach the mom. The street I was supposed to turn on was marked badly so I passed it twice in the dark and rain before finding it. When I got to the house it was dark. Still hadn't heard from the mom.

Today I picked up the 12-year old. It soon became apparent that we will get along well. We have a lot of common interests. I got there late and had to make an extra stop. On top of that, we got a little lost on the way to his meeting I was taking him to so we didn't have time to go do anything else.

So I still haven't heard back from the other boys' mom. I'm not going to chase her by phone anymore as I really don't want to go through the same wild goose chase trying to meet up with them tomorrow. I'll probably try to call ONCE tomorrow, but if I don't reach her I'm not pushing it. My boss can deal with it as it sounds like it's an ongoing issue.

So things are going good so far. I look forward to working with these two and eventually meeting the other two (reportedly they're more difficult.)

Twelve Second Sequence.

Well, I've been doing the 3 hour plan and 8 minutes in the morning for a few months, but was excited to start on the 12 second sequence.

I just completed my first workout. Wow. I really do feel like I spent an hour in the gym. Who knew I could feel such a burn from so relatively small amount of weight just by working smarter? Apparently Jorge Cruise did. ;-)

I just had my birthday a few days ago and treated myself to a free day of indulgence. I guess I earned it. I've already lost 36 pounds and it was my birthday. However, I never want to do that again. I felt like crap the next day. I feel so much better when I eat healthy.

I guess I've rambled enough. I'm going to wrap this up.

It's my Birthday.

I'm Thirty-Six years old today, and don't feel a day over 25. I'm actually in better shape than I was at 25 too.

Weekend update.

Well, regarding the last post, it did NOT work out well. Perhaps if I had eaten the grilled eggplant right away, it would have been better. Also, I overspiced it. The next night I made eggplant with garlic and herb pasta sauce. That was good. The last couple nights I made zucchini with pasta sauce, which I always enjoy. (Thanks Mom)

Had a good weekend at work, including working MLK holiday. Unfortunately, today the kids had a 2 hour school delay, so I did not get to interact with them this morning, with the exception of the two youngest, who woke up early. I do look forward to seeing the kids on the mornings I actually have to get them up. I just avoid working active shifts because of the political environment of the organization and the industry. I feel it takes away from being able to be effective with the children.

Today I have training for the mentoring gig. I think I'm going to enjoy it. It'll be a challenge.

I have so much to do today before I go, though. So I'd better wrap this up and get going.

Hope this works out well.

I'm trying a new item tonight. Grilled eggplant. I used my electric grill to grill 200 grams of eggplant to go along with some hot wings tonight. The only big disadvantage is that I will be eating it reheated. I'll have to try it fresh from the grill at another time. That's one of the disadvantages of having to prepare a whole night of food beforehand. I can do a lot more on my days off when I'm home.

Hopefully everyone will be at work tonight. Last week somebody called off so I was stuck on one of the units instead of being the floater.

Here's hoping.

New part time job

I attended the weekly clinical meeting at my new part time job today. The program director was sick and wasn't there, so it was with three other people I had never met. A little awkward, but I really felt comfortable with them by the time I left.

Afterward I went to Middletown to visit my parents. Apparently my boss had meant for me to start some duties today. I got a call from the lady who was filling in for her around noon. I was expected to be picking up one of the kids from school for a couple hours today. I'm guessing my boss was going to talk to me about this at the meeting today and give me directions to the school, but obviously she couldn't since she was sick. I actually had plans and initially said I couldn't do it, but then called back and said I would--didn't want to leave the parent in a bind, and I was close enough to the area that it was convenient. I also thought it would be good to meet one of the kids I'll be working with. So she gave me the foster parent's number. After talking to the foster parent, who hadn't known it was my first day, we agreed it might be better for her to arrange her mother-in-law to pick the boy up. I assured her it would be no problem and I didn't want to inconvenience her. But since he's apparently a pretty difficult kid, she felt I'd be better equipped to handle him after having my initial training with my boss.

I'm a little relieved since it took some time pressure off my day, but it would have been cool if it had worked out the other way too.

Media

Dear News Media,

Whatever Britney Spears has done now, I DON'T CARE!!

Shut up already.




That is all.

Thoughts for Monday.

Last night I weighed in. I have officially lost 34 pounds, which means I'm over halfway to my tentative goal.

Work was nice and quiet, although an unusual amount of kids got up in the middle of the night, one waking from a nightmare. The kids didn't have school this morning due to an in-service, but as usual, a few of them wake up early. The first to get up was a girl, who asked if she could go ahead and do her morning hygiene routine. Almost as soon as I told her yes, a little boy (the one I referred to as Sanford in a previous post) popped into his doorway and grinned really big. I said "I knew I'd see you as soon as I let her go." So after giving him a hard time about it, I let him get up as well. Fortunately, it was about 10 minutes before the rest of them started waking up and wanting to come out. In the meantime, "Sanford was getting a bunch of positive attention from staff in the common area. It was cute to watch him having fun just being a little boy instead of being at a peer's throat as has occurred too many mornings. These are the times that make it all worthwhile.

What to say?

I'm really trying to better about posting. I so rarely get out the myriad thoughts in my head. For one thing, to let those thoughts out makes me feel vulnerable. For another thing, I'm way too much of a perfectionist about my writing. This is why I've been working on a novel for over 12 years when I probably could have been done 7 years ago.

Sometimes I fool myself into thinking I would work on more writing if I had more time. But I piss away so much of my off time doing unimportant things. If I had a laptop, I might actually write while at work and primarily have to just be present and assure the children sleep safely and take care of any needs which arise during the night(indeed I have occasionally found a scrap of paper to write down my thoughts while I'm there). However, I have a feeling I would still waste a lot of time due to the aforementioned fear of vulnerability and imperfection.

When I begin school, one thing I will have to get is a laptop to work on papers and such while I'm at work. I guess I can check that theory out when that happens.

Star Wars Guide to the Candidates.

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/sfo/526482501.html

Al was bad this morning.

I tend, in my job, to be pretty "old school." I don't like to sugar coat the truth for the kids I work with. This morning was no exception, although I wasn't the most therapeutic.

I totally shut one kid down this morning. It was hilarious. I'll call one kid Sanford and the other DragQueen, as he wants to be a girl.

Sanford and DragQueen were going back and forth with name-calling, Sanford calling DragQueen gay and girl and stuff like that.

Finally I had enough of it. I said, "Sanford, for someone who wants to call someone a girl, you sure are acting like one, calling names back and forth like that."

Sanford got silent and fumed for most of the rest of the morning. Before I left he was cheerful again though. Yeah, it was very untherapeutic and inappropriate, but it worked.

Yeah, I know. I deserve a good boot to the head.

Long time no post

I've been neglecting this blog. Well, now I've added a direct link to posting in my browser's toolbar, so it should be easier.

So many thoughts swirling around in my head right now.