Wednesday at Work
Good morning. We’re going to try this again. We’re at work. It is now 9:30 am. I started …Whoops, I started again. We’re in the middle of a little chaos. Earlier the electricity had gone off, so we didn’t get a chance to save the post we were working on. But, now we’re up and running again. Sister had also came to my room at about 8:45 and told me there was group of individuals coming in at 9 and that I should introduce them to the center … they are college level and came in late, but and although sister had given me the group because she needed to get to the post office, I kept them. I am just back from that task. Pswhoo what a trip.
We talked a little about mental retardation, and then we gave them an introduction to the group through the DSP Chrononotes. Then I was reminded that I was being long-winded hehehe so I brought them on the tour. They started with Group 1 everyone there introduced themselves and many had something to say about something. One of the volunteers said something about being pregnant so then others had to tell about someone they knew who was pregnant. Then in each of the other groups there was someone to volunteer to shake each others hands … everybody got introduced and then we went back to the multi-purpose room and I asked them to divide up. I gave very little help … there was one woman – the one that was pregnant who took over … she’s like a self-appointed person. Not sure if that is enjoyed or not. But, it worked. Then, I went to each of the rooms and made sure everyone was settled in. Group 1 had gone on their break and were mixing up with the others dancing. I had asked each of the clients choose a volunteer and they were snapped up pretty quickly. They were divided as well in the other groups so they were working with someone directly. It gives everyone a change of pace.
At 11 am. I will go back and gather everyone … we’ll watch a short video and then they will leave. I hope they’ve had a good experience. Our individuals are great people. It’s just all fun. We got about 20 minutes.
I’m listening vaguely to the volunteer and client in the room two doors down. She’s probably confusing him a lot. I think we’re going to have a period of defusing their poor minds. I wish it was a longer time to answer questions. Maybe I should go check them now. BRB.
Ok, that took a few minutes I’m going to give them until 2 minutes to 11 … So 6 more minutes. I wanted to save a few minutes so they could say good-bye. We’ll have more observations, but mostly some was good on that visit some was not as good. The volunteers in Sue’s room are just sitting there watching her go through an exercise. They were good with the dancing so they had some activity. Sue is too much everyone is quiet and waiting for her … volunteers look bored. Brandy has everyone working together and the group seemed animated. Maria’s group was about the same except a few outliers, one of the clients in group 4 decided to skip eating and do some basketball with hers, and Cathy was talking to the other.
Hmm, I think I’m back for regular right now. It’s about 1:30 pm. We had an extended lunch … actually, I fell asleep while reading the paper. Don’t know what happened there.
We finished our time with the group … as planned they all met up at 11 and we showed them the video the center had made. And, then I answered some questions and then they left. Everyone was real happy. The clients loved it and were “abuzz!” And, it seemed the volunteers were the same. As they met they talked about the different activities they had done. They were all different, which made things fun for them. Some had asked to come back. I think it was all in all a great experience.
There were a couple other small oddities of my day. One was that Sister had gotten from the other center bags and bags of dairy products that someone was distributing. That was cool. She gave us two bags and they each have cheeses, yogurts, and sour cream. WoohOOO. Sweet deal!
The other strange thing was I received an email I almost erased thinking it was junk mail, but a newspaper reporter from the Minneapolis Star Tribune got our name from another reporter. And, so he did an interview with us on the phone. Cool, cool. He said the story angle was that Capella had been pushing people to get a certain loan at a higher interest rate. I gave him my information, but apologized for not having anything exciting like that to say. I said Capella had been generous in giving us a loan through the company … I said that I was planning on going to school forever and would someday have to pay the loan, but that I believed in education and learning and would just have to cross that bridge when I came to it. He said that my information would be good to counter the other, because the other information wasn’t making Capella look so good. Thought, Hmm, that sure would help.
Sooooo, that’s about it for the day. I called Sweetie Pie who was in the middle of about 3 things, but he let me tell him what happened. I had told the reporter to send along a copy of the story if any of my information was published. He had said sure no problem. I think its kind of important, because the Star is the major Minneapolis paper and the school is based in Minneapolis. I wish our Sweetie had had more time to talk about things, but we let him go. He appreciated that we were having an interesting day. He’s so gosh darn cool.
Good … Good … I wrote to Sr., Rich, someone, and Deb! Had to tell them the interesting news of being interviewed. I know I’m no more important than I had been before, but it still made me feel good.
Ok, ok … now I have to think … what’s going to happen next. I know that Sweetie Pie is occupied … still in that dreamy stage where all I want to do is talk and think about him. Sure could use Dr. Marvin’s help there. Probably ask him though if I haddddd to come of my cloud. I’m kinda enjoying the view up here.
Last night I was talking to Deb and we’d been exploring this new community on-line
posted by Ann Marie @ 4/12/2007 08:57:00 AM
Comments: 0
