Ayn's Multiple World

That be nice too!

Good morning. It’s just me. We’re officially up this morning, but might not stay up. It’s about 3 am. We got up an hour ago after falling asleep at 9 pm and then waking up and not being able to fall back asleep. I think we have too much stuff going on in our head that we are feeling pretty wound-up. Hmm, seems like we’re getting ran over the coals by our kitties too. They’ve both been up on the table trying to get a little more attention. Missy just thought she got lucky, but now she’s been chased away by Chief. He says that if anyone’s going to get attention it’s him. I think he looks at it as a continuation of sleeping with me all night.

He’s on guard now. It appears he’s looking for Missy – not sure why. He runs the ship. Well, ok Missy’s a woman … so it’s pretty much Chief runs the ship if Missy lets him.

Ahh, I forgot too … I didn’t wake up feeding the kitties, because I thought it too early. I wonder if he’s staring down the dark hallway toward the kitchen because he’s foodward-bound! AHA! That be a plot … He’s going to have to wait a little longer … we don’t want them waking me up at 3 am EVERY morning thinking they can get by with that. So for now we’re left to say … HEY YOU! Sit down in front! He’s sitting between our hands and fingers that continue to move on the keyboard. He’s obstructing my view!

HMPF! Watch this … someone’s kitty is about to be bounced! Pswhoo … that was good. Worked for me!

Ok, first thing first … we got on the scale this morning and weighed in at 274 … so we’re now 63 pounds on the year 33 pounds since surgery mid-May. It’s not as fast, but it seems to be steady … so you’re not going to get a complaint out of me this morning. Especially, if we’re down weight by the time Rich gets back. We’re laboring in that direction now and its feeling good. I’m afraid my Sweetie won’t catch-up with me now … I’m too far ahead, but we should probably be looking at BMI … that would be more fair to him due to his height … Hmm let’s try that.

Hmm, I’m getting an error message when I use the Internet, but my blog page is still open and I’m getting music, so I know my Internet is up and running. We’ll just let that go for now … don’t want to put a stress on it – but, remember for later we’re going to do the BMI, k? Thanks

There were a couple things that made me excited first off the bat! I’m not sure which one to write first because they are both bubbly-makers. Well, one of the things is that I got a message back from Dr. Woollcott. *Big grin* He wrote back a short note like Dr. Marvin had and said something like he was impressed with the writing. I think he might have appreciated it had been a good account of having talked to him. I feel I should explain here that I have tendencies to take notes while I’m talking to people. I don’t want to feel like I’m cheating, but according to my memory gauge, when things like important phone calls happen, I don’t trust myself to my memories. I’d rather savor the moment of talking to someone over and over again – or, if it’s a bad call, I want to hear every word so I can pout proper. You guessed it … this was a savoring call!

Dr. Marvin had written back too, though prior to me having sent the copy of what I’d written to Dr. Marvin. He thought that it was one of those letters that I should keep to reread afterward. I think he’s trying to tell me – see you have good relationships. Sometimes I forget that because I’m used to the ones at work – and there … Umm, maybe we’ll get into this in a little bit. I’d rather first direct my attention to the other good thing that happened to me this morning.  Rich dropped me a line. He’s made me giggle to pieces. It was a lovey dovey something that got me to croonin. I don’t think I’m going to leave that one here, but I will say that I think he may be missing me a LITTLE bit. Well actually I know that … because he called yesterday too after work hours while I was still at work. We’d missed the day before and apparently he’d called twice. That made me feel terrible. He was calling earlier to make sure he’d get through. He has been calling about 9:30-10 pm and by that time I’m SLEEPING!

Yesterday’s call was made right before he went back out fishing. I had to ask that question, because he started off telling me how tired he was and how much he could APPRECIATE one of my nice long back-rubs. I could hear the tiredness in his voice, but since it was about 6 pm, I asked and it was confirmed he was going out to catch more of the fishes. He said that he’s caught 3 big muskie, pike, Northern and Bass … there might have been more, but those are the ones I’m remembering. He didn’t get the guide and I think that is still bothering him, but he seems to be doing ok. I’m sure the lodge gives him an idea where the hot spots are, plus he and his buddy know how to fish so most likely where. I know they could so probably have gotten a depth-finder. That would have helped them too. It is a very big lake. He showed me the aerial before he left. He says that he is happy, but I also know from experience that after another day or two he’ll be ready to come back. Not to say he isn’t going to go back fishing. But, I know he needs his bed, pillow, and backrubs!

AHA! Oh, you knew my secret … ok, so well backrubs aren’t secret around here. BUT, you probably didn’t know how much he appreciates his PILLOW! Did you?? Uh huh, uh huh. Likely story.

I don’t think there was so much he was saying yesterday. He was only on the phone about 7-8 minutes before his partner had reached the boat below the hill where he was at indicating he was ready to go back out. I would have hoped that the guys at least stopped for dinner. Pshwoo. What these guys do when we’re not around!

HMPF! Fish, fish, fish. Well, ok and maybe a little card playing. Rich has told me about back in the old days where someone might “push” him to go out to some place where there might be girls, but now days the only girl he wants to see is the ones who are feeding him. Hehehe my smart-guy reminds me how unattractive they are too. I’d say that’s a wise move on his part!

Most of this phone call he was letting me talk. He wanted to know why we were still working 2 hours after work, and we had also a good earful of news. You wanna here it? Yup, yup … this is real news!

Candice … IS GONE! WOOHOOO!!!!

Oh man, oh man. WHAT A RELIEF! Words could not express how happy it makes me.

As to the story – there’s not much to tell. She came in before I had gotten there at 7:30 am. She wasn’t in much earlier, because she had left her breakfast on her desk. I figured correctly that she’d gone in and had made herself tea. I didn’t have too much time to “discover” her, because Sister called me up-front to watch the front-end while she and the other sister went to church. That seems to becoming a normal thing. I think I’m going to have to restructure the group’s time because normally they just have everyone doing there own thing for those 40-60 minutes before sister gets back to have chapel with the groups. If it’s going to be a normal thing and I’m more than a “guest performer” I’d like to think I could give them a more enriching experience. Yesterday like this last week and a half I’d been following protocol and letting them have their space. I talked to a couple of clients that had warm-up problems – carryovers from home, but one of the girls had written her name about 25-30 times, and that’s a no-no … I knew that before. I should have checked more carefully what she was doing. I had to be told by Sr. it later. *Frumpy look*

Somewhere in the 40 minutes time, Candice had come up front to let everyone know she was back. I wasn’t sure the clients really knew how to take her, because she was all bright and smiley, but not telling them anything significant – and, especially she didn’t convey having missed them or set-up time to get back with them. I think the clients had felt a little confused by this. There are clients too who have been talking about their goals and annuals and wasn’t she going to come back? Wasn’t she going to miss them. They weren’t however replenished by Candice gloating appearance. She didn’t connect to them on a personal level. But, it was a fairly quick thing. She left the room soon after.

Sister had already talked to me a few minutes when I’d come in before she left for church. She said that she was going to have a talk with Candice after her church and then chapel with the clients. She’d already told me that Candice had been written up. It wasn’t until after she had her talk with Candice that she told me all the details. In-between the two services Sr. Florine had come back and taken over the group which allowed me to go back to my office. I grabbed my legal pad and headed over to one of the DSPs. I had been interviewing her for the one report and needed to finish. The client who was being staffed today had been Candice’s and I wanted to get that all off my desk. So, I interviewed, and then finished the report.

When I crossed offices, I sat down in Rich’s chair next to Candice. She was adjusting her radio and sipping her tea. It didn’t look like she’d really started much yet. I explained while handing over the reports. She had confirmed and more importantly Sister had confirmed she would do her own meeting, though Sr. wanted me to stay at the meeting. I gave her the client’s three long-goals, the goals and objective sheet and the DSP interview. I didn’t expect a thank-you and I didn’t get one. Later on, sister had told me that Candice hadn’t appreciated anything I’d done. I don’t know what she told sister, but I know I did everything by the book.

I’d prepared for a meeting that was going to run with or without Candice. I think she might have felt a competition that she wasn’t winning in me having done her work. I made sure to do the work well too, so there might have been reason SHE considered to “put it out” or “downplay” it. I didn’t care … I knew from the last experience with her that would happen.

The next thing I did was finish the goals and objective and long-goals for the client who was staffed last week. That would have made a complete three client’s worth of material that I’d completed for her in her absence. I also had the copy of the annual that I’d typed last week for the middle client. Everything was on it, except the client’s and parents signature. I thought she could handle that. I otherwise left her pretty much alone. I told her a few things like Sue was on a two week sick leave for breaking her wrist and that Brandi had quit. I also told her the Internet was down because the service was being changed over.

I had tried to then talk to Sr. about these transactions, but Candice had come up to sister’s office while we were waiting for her to finish her call. Sr. was giving me facial grimaces as to Candice coming up before she was called, but other than that I excused myself to talk to her later. I had also meant to ask about missing goals from the Leadership group, but I knew that was low on the totem pole compared to this other meeting. Basically, I left and went back to work at my desk.

45 minutes later Candice came back to the room. And, about 10 minutes later Sr. paged me to come to her office. I talked to her in a debriefing type manner for a bit, and then Holly came in too after that. I’m not sure if Candice saw that both the other Q’s were in a sister meeting without her, but by then it didn’t really matter. The meeting was only somewhat about her … it then went into coverage problems. I had talked to Sr. about it earlier, but we’d basically, come to the point of knowing that SOMEONE would have to take over the leadership group for the next two weeks until Sue got back. That someone was Holly and me. I did the right thing in volunteering on those three days to take the mornings until lunch time, and then Holly would take the group in the afternoon until dismissal. I knew that was easier because traditionally Holly comes in about 9:30-10 am where I get in at 7:30 am. This way we could avoid her being super grouchy by waking her up earlier than she liked. I think Holly only puts in 7 hours – she leaves about 5-5:30 pm, where officially I get off at 4 pm.

One part of the meeting that had made me feel very frustrated was that I had told Sr. that I asked Candice to use her ear phones in the office, because there’s just a thin wall and an open doorway between us and I really hated to listen to her music – it had disturbed my concentration. I guess Candice had excuses and bad comments to everything that Sister had said including the earphones. She told sister she couldn’t work with earphones on all day, which is about the most ridiculous thing I’d ever heard. She’s in her 20’s and rides to work on the L/Bus – of course, she wears ear plugs shes attached to an IPOD! She pointed out to Sr. it had not been a policy so sister said she could get by with not using earphones, and that she could shut my door.

Well, that about infuriated me. But, I tried while with sister to let it go because there were other things to talk about. BUT, when I got back to the office, I shut my door which closes me off from the center and deregulates my heat and cooling. I then wrote a note stating that for the record I objected to this ruling and I asked in the note if a policy could be considered that would be fairer to both parties. I had to go out of the office for something, but when I got back, Candice was standing up opening and closing drawers and stuffing things into her backpack which sat on her chair. I had said nothing to her, but I found this new development very exciting. I sat at my desk on the other side of the wall listening and hoping she was calling it quits. It took her about a half hour, but she finally left. I waited a couple of minutes, then came out and checked, and true enough backpack, coat were gone and the desk was cleared out of most of her personal belongings. I WAS SO RELIEVED!

I went up front and told Sr. putting her on guard. Sr. had seen Candice talking to staff and she had asked her if she’d forgotten her duty outside with the clients. I guess Candice went back out there, but she told the clients that she was leaving … which is major uncool. You don’t tell clients before you tell your boss because you don’t know the effects, nor will you be around later to compensate. She also made it a point to stop in and tell the co-workers while they were having lunch. I interrupted that meeting by coming in to the staff bathroom which was in that room.

She turned around and left. Sister and Holly had met her at the front door then.

Sr. asked her why she had the backpack and had left the “kids.” No one was supervising them out doors. It had been Candice’s duty. Candice said she was quitting to Sister and Sister said fine, where’s the written proof, and Candice said she would fax it to her.

PSHWOOO!!! Done! The clients told us afterward what had happened, but the staff did not. I think they have very mixed alliances. Of course, I’d told Sr. they knew so Sr. went and debriefed all of them – so it wasn’t just scuttle-butt. Sr. likes things to be out in the open. Sr. stated that we should just downplay it with the clients. They of course, want to know who is going to be their Q. That, of course, had already been discussed long before Candice quit – back a while ago as the trouble with her had mounted. We had – Holly and I – agreed each to take our old clients back, plus I would take the two newer clients who had come in during Candice’s time. I heard that Candice tried to tell Sr. the work had been backed up 4 years before she’d gotten there, but it was an inaccurate statement. There had been one client that didn’t have a medical and dental form and hadn’t had one for four years, but we had documentation and had taken that issue to Sr. even while Candice was gone. Sr. refuses to suspend the girl, so the family does not feel pressured to take care of the matter. We note for the record what we do in attempt to get the information and leave it go. But, we are not derelek in our duty.

Candice has always been about “me.” Especially, in her thoughts that she’d saved the agency and was an important person.

But, she wasn’t. She’d long since dug her holes. She never gained Sr.’s trust and had lost mine as well for quite some time. I thought it had been wrong a month after she’d gotten to St. Rose to give her her own client load, before she’d written her first annual report. But, she complained about being trained and having to work with “my” clients. Sr. gave into it and a lot of other things she shouldn’t have.

Candice held that perspective all along – that she was right about everything. She never took correction – especially from sister. She’d stare at her with a cold quiet face, and then stab her in the back. She spread a lot of ugliness with the staff and in the end she had no real friends. The comment from the lady who had been her friend, but has denied it was – good now she won’t be in my room. I think the staff has an alliance with outgoing people like this, one because they see administration and staff as two separate things. I’m on the side of administration. And second, there’s a natural curiosity in a small fish tank about what’s going on. Someone quitting is big news. And, third … I think because the group was told in large, that they might have thought the loyalty was owed to the group – as to who would dissent first? I don’t think anyone likes that kind of pressure. And, then too … I don’t think the staffs remaining have any particular love of me. I’m a loner and much closer aligned to Sr. and Rich than anyone. I used to have better relationships, but the staff can’t trust me to not tell sister things. So be it.

When she first left it was almost noon and I knew that I was going to be needed in a group. I’m training Sr. Florine how to do goals and chrononotes and other paperwork. I waited for her in the computer room. We told her just that she’d left … and Sr. said – you know I prayed for that and got my wish. I had asked God to make it short and end it soon. Hehehe well. Thank you Sister!

We focusd the rest of the hour on work. We had a half an hour after that to pull things together, before going back in with Sr. Florine. We took 45 minutes and cleaned through Candice’s desk. We got ride of anything that didn’t belong there including things that she’d left that were personal like small candles, special coffee, and notes to herself. We felt great satisfaction with it. Later we rejoined Sr. and we went through the next part of the paperwork, but mostly it was a matter of sitting there watching that she do it right. It was something very easy to train and the sister is smart. In-between Sr. and Holly both on their own and together came in and small things of the day were discussed. I’m glad sister feels open enough to talk in front of Sr. Florine. She’s had problems all along with Sisters. Sister Florine had been here before and had decided she would come back.

So we felt good in that she knew Sr. T’s roughness, but still volunteered.

After we got through the work, we went back to the office … and all I could think of was to put things back in perspective. I took the next 2 ½ hours taking care of the client files and papers. I separated out the stuff that belonged to Holly and myself. I brought Holly’s 5 clients “stuff” up to her, and I took the remaining 12 clients and added back to the big file drawer that had been emptied when I’d given most those clients to Candice nearly a year ago. Probably actually a year to the date. She came in on the new fiscal year – July 1rst last year. Part of the transition is that Candice hadn’t filed since February any client information. She left an accordion file on her desk of stuff to be filed. We also went through the annual material out and the Qnotes. She was behind two months. And, of course as we saw before she was at 60% with her client records. 40% of the material wasn’t where it belonged.

Other than that … Candice really had no work. She had choir, but that was a slim file of music and a tape that I handed over to sister. She had extra things in her desk like she had downloaded some of the clients computer games and had left them in her office. She never took the clients for goals which were her responsibility.

When I’d had my surgery in May she was to have typed the behavior meeting minutes in replacement for me, but we found the notes un-typed. I didn’t want to get stuck with that, so I brought the notes up to Sr. and suggested that Holly type them because I wasn’t at the meeting and she was. Holly couldn’t squirm out of that although she tried. She hadn’t remembered, but was reminded that I wasn’t there.

WoOHOO!

Candice had never come up to the point of having any other responsibility. So she was fairly easy to accommodate. St. Rose Center is at 45 clients now. Holly has 23 and I have 22. I had had more clients relieved before because of my additional work with program development, staff training, and CARF accreditation. I still have all that and now we’re taking over the Leadership mornings as well. Is this fair. NAW … especially since Sr. stated that we wouldn’t get raises this year. BUT, is it NICE!??? Oh yeah. We told sister we’d take on more work as long as Candice left.

AND NOW SHE’S GONE!!!

After that all I had a couple things we needed to do to prepare for today’s meeting. We needed to type up an ICAP Report and we needed to get a grip on everything that was going to need being copied. So, we finished the report and got almost everything done on the other. I just have to run through the machine 7 copies of the package, and the meeting isn’t until 10 am. I didn’t want to get short on time; because I could guess I’m going to have the front-end for an hour.

Sister Florine is going to need some help with coming up with her lessons. Sue won’t be back for two weeks – who had her group before her and Sr. is already indicating that she’s closed to having had enough as far as doing a lesson plan each day for Sr. Florine and its only been planning for 3 days. Sister can fill time, but she doesn’t really know what to do or where the resources are. She tried though.

Sr. Theresa caught-up with me there though. I’ve been doing the annual reports for the clients, but I’ve not finished the Center’s annual report. It’s only a short one and I just have to get the copy done so Rosa can put the pictures in. I’ll get a jump on that between 8:40-10 am and then 11-12 if I’m not more tied down with after meeting stuff and then finish it from 3-whenever I go home. Sr. Florine will need those 3 hours between 12-3 pm. Sr. made it a point saying I couldn’t train Sr. Florine until AFTER I got the report done. I know that’s the truth, but Sr. Theresa knows I’d rather train help to do it right the first time. But, she’s right I’ve put off the report long enough. I have to give Rosa enough time because Sr. will need the report for her annual meeting with the Sisters mid-July. I’ve been around this turn before.

So that pretty much in a long nut-shell finishes up the work day. It was a long accounting. I’m really grateful that it’s over. Sr. was tidying up at the end of the day – about 6 pm and locking doors etc. She came into my office and sat down after observing how fast it was that I cleaned up Candice’s work. I told her both Holly and I had everything in our offices. Well, actually Holly left hers out on the workshop table, but I’m sure sister isn’t going to let that happen for long.

They are private files and should be locked in the office not where clients can get to them in the morning. There was one other funny point with Holly yesterday. In between things, but after Candice had left, I had seen Holly just past sister’s office when I’d stopped up that way. I told Holly that I would need a new calendar for one of her clients goals. Holly got frustrated and said that I could do that on my own. I said no I can’t it’s your job … I only got half the statement out reminding her that Q’s are responsible for data collection from the DSPs – where Holly had been trying to say that Sue did that for her. I was like didn’t care what the DSP had done … it wasn’t her job. Holly left the office cranky and complaining … by the time she got to the workshop at the corner of the office, she was yelling out at me … “Oh c’mon GROW-UP” Sr. had heard the exchange and was blowing it off as it happened.

Sr. should know, but not fully appreciate the extra work-load she’s dumped on her Q’s. And, after all the events of the day Holly was letting off steam in her immature mannerisms. Sr. knows that Holly is a hot head and I’m stubborn. No news there. The reason I remembered it was that Sister Florine had mentioned later that the clients had agreed that Holly must be mad because she was yelling at Ms. Ann.

That kind of stuff bothers me to some degree, but not much after a day like yesterday. I know I could wink at the clients and say. Ms. Holly likes getting mad. But, we what? That’s right … we let it roll-off. That’s how the clients are taught to deal with trivial things.

I was very grateful to get home last night. I read for a couple of hours. And, then we went to bed – for at least most of the time. Now it is 5 am and officially time to get up. I think I’m going to go feed someone’s kitties. And, then we’ll look for the new track. I might too … take my shower early. It feels like the nice cozy warm thing to do. I’ll be back though … you know that! Maybe though I should at this point make some coffee too. I’ll have to wait an hour for the medicine, but that’s fair.

BRB

Ahh … good for me. Now I have about 1 ½ hours left before I need to do anything.

Hmm, finally turned off the air and opened the front door. I fed the kitties, but Missy was complaining. I figured maybe a little petting, maybe the sound of some nice tasty birdies. Well, no I don’t actually feed them to her, but she has her dreams. Ahh thadda girl. She’s going out to investigate. Thought that might be attractive to her. Did I tell you the other night I locked her out accidently? She must have been out there 4-5 hours before I realized it. Yeeks … Let’s not do that again.

Ok, now so we’re back. What to think of first. We’ve got work on our mind, but then just felt a little tired. Thoughts have slowed down a bit. I guess we’re at that point. We’ve got a hot full cup of coffee, but then we look at the clock and think … hmm, we could get an hour of sleep in. That be nice too!

posted by Ann Marie @ 7/02/2008 06:52:00 AM Comments: 0