Ayn's Multiple World

Well, doin work of one sort or another

This is a catch-up from this morning in the workshop and beyond.

Good morning. This is me again. We’re back up with group 1 and its about 7:40 am. There are 3 people here and we’ve talked with each. They are settled into looking at the magazines or copying material from magazines. We talked to Sr. and have given her a note explaining that we have our laptop at home. That will keep us over the weekend without our computer up and running. She didn’t seem to have any problems with it.

I went back to check on something and she said there was a problem with one of the girls disappearing from her house – most likely with friends – when the mother keeps her home and goes independently to a doctor appointment or other.

Yeek, my two troublesome clients come in at one time and they are both wound up.

One client had a problem because he doesn’t have pop for lunch, and the other because her schedule was changed to today instead of Friday. Hmm the first guy with the pop problem is also out of paper. Each of those problems takes 3-4 minutes to take care of. It makes me kinda crabby because there is some kind of argumentation in telling the person … umm let’s deal with the facts. Church. No paper. No pop.

Not my fault!

Now we’re trying to ignore the next communication. It seems he is coming up with problems just to be doing it. We’re trying to tell him now he has to do his own work. We do this by not responding to him for 1 ½ minutes while we feign not seeing him. He has to learn he can’t get immediate attention every time he invents a crisis. I am paying attention to him … just trying to make a point that he can wait patiently if he’s asking to take the other person’s time. His work is to adjust to being here and not demanding all the staff’s time. Pwhoo … he’s exhausting, but if he weren’t there, I would miss him.

Now there is 6 people here – a quiet person slipped in too. Cool, cool…

Ok, what is there to talk about next? Nie to get off of work … Oh, I know something – did I mention that tomorrow is staff appreciation day? Yeeks my 2nd troublesome person is scrounging the shelves looking for a notebook. We gave him 5 sheets of paper, but he seems fixated on having a notebook. He will take other peoples things so we’re watching him closely. He wanted me to go ask Sister because he knows she has them, but Sr. frowns on giving agency supplies for personal use by clients. They have a responsibility to bring in their own personal items.

Ah … 30 minutes later and he’s finally sitting down – not yet working, but he’s at least sitting. It will take 2 minutes for him to tie his shoes *Sigh*. The other troublesome one is talking and talking. That’s her problem, but, if she’s going to do it … this is a good time. There’s not demanding work and I don’t think the other guy listening is having a problem with it.

Yeeks … we got another call from Thom’s student loan. He’s not calling them. It was a nice lady though. We tried to convince her she has to get a hold of Thom because before when I tried to help they wouldn’t let me. I had been trying to help his deferment. I think I’ve got the papers that need to get forwarded to him.

Better do that Saturday morning before going to the gym. I know. I need to put it on my to-do list. Hold on.

Ok, that’s done. Good … good.

Anyway as to Thom. The lady suggested and I agreed to cover the over-due amount of $71 something. I figure that a hundred at this point won’t kill me, I’m already behind on rent anyway – and the amount will put Thom in good standing until mid-October. Ahh there’s my boy. Thom just called to say that Alexis would be taking care of the matter tomorrow – as to payment. That’s very good news.

Ok, now back at the computer … It’s 9:45. I’ve finished typing in the last couple of days notes. I should make myself another to-do list and calendar to make sure I think through what I gotta do WHEN I take myself out of the personal. If we haven’t said it at all, we are not fair to sister or the agency in that we don’t do ALL work here. A lot of time goes to figuring out how to get me from task to task. I don’t seem able to do as I’m just supposed to do. Maybe if we can get ourselves led into the project then I will be able to carry on from that point.

Oh good. We’ve got Rosa back. She had been asked to pick up envelopes for Sister.
We were answering the phone for her while one of the clients remained at the door … last trip we had him sit down in the lobby where he could hear chapel and watch the door at the same time. Sister is gone for a bit. I need to remember to do the client lunch’s back part of the half hour. That means Holly will take the first 15 minutes. It’s her way of being fair to both of us, since she’s interrupting our time. Really there are no complaints … it’s part of covering.

I talked to Sr. Florine for a few moments this morning. Sister Theresa complained to her noisily that she was taking a personal call in the front end. I know that Sr. Theresa is holding Sr. Florine to her standards, but Sr. Florine is reading more into it then she should. The gruff way is Sr.’s way of conveying rules. If you can not take it personally, then you are much better off. We try for this, though don’t do so well all the time. We keep encouraging Sr. Florine not to give into the negativity in the mannerism of Sr. Theresa’s voice.

Both Sr. Florine and the new staff Karla have spoken to me this morning about the trip to the teacher’s store, so I’m thinking that is in for tomorrow. I’m really glad I mentioned it at the last meeting. Sr. said she would see what she could do.

This seems to mean everyone is going to get a treat. Last couple of years sister has given $30 to each staff and we get to choose anything we want from the store.

We usually go between the lecture (from the priest) and going out to eat at Connie’s Italian place. Even that small amount will be nice. Everyone gets excited about their purchases. I’m going to get another paper holder because I use so much the one I have, I would like to get a matcher for the other desk in my office. Then, I would like to get a culture/History book for one of my clients … he’s been using the same book for a couple of years. I picked him up one the last time.

Before I’ve spent my own money, but there truly isn’t a dime to waste. So I will probably stick with just that much. If I got to make one more purchase?

Ack … the problem client appeared at the door. Apparently, sister has sent him to find a broom. That was a terrible idea, because apparently neither he nor I know where they are. So, I sent him to find the housekeeping person. ACK! In the meantime he saw the picture of Thom and Alexis on my computer and wanted a copy.

When I said no to that, he wanted one of Dr. Phil or Elvis. Those are the two favorites of yet another client. But, again I said no. His mission is to find a broom not to go visiting with privileges.

Hehe guessing I seem pretty mean, but believe me … this is one of those people where you give them an inch – they take a mile. Apparently, sister doesn’t know that she should leave him unescorted. Maybe I better call. Hehehe … I made the call.

Apparently, the client isn’t back yet … and sister trailed off – I went to have him get a push broom. Now I see he has gone outside and locked himself out. He’s knocking on one of the classroom doors, so I think they will let him in … ahh there he goes. I told sister he’s not usually left out of site because he takes things.

And, I told her he’d wondered back to my office looking for stuff. Now he’s talking to the people in the leadership group. He’s a true wanderer. I hope sister gets a reign on him sometime. But, there’s this other part that’s rooting for the client – run, run!!! Your free, your free!

I’m terrible this morning. But, for the record … people here are really watched carefully. They aren’t usually sent to long out of the group. There are always other staff keeping an eye open, but it’s always the staff duty to watch their own people, so you have to be careful who gets sent on errands.

Ok, what was that one extra purchase? Usually I gravitate toward books. Something like lesson plans. Last time I got some construction type blocks for the third level group. I think they were fully explored, but I won’t have that much money this time around. A time before I got some creativity cards for the Thinking Group. Maybe I’ll think of them and look for more resources for them. Another time, I’d picked up 3 books that showed how to draw animals of various locations.

They got good usage too. Sr. doesn’t put a lot of money into updating the program, but this $300-350 is a pretty big deal collectively. The staff really, really has a good time. Everyone is so happy too to show off their purchases. WooHOO!! Plus, you go from there to picking up dinner with a couple of drinks … just can’t go wrong there.

Unfortunately, Rich will be fishing and not at the meeting. Usually, we sit together. The last couple of years, I’ve ended up in the middle and sister Theresa is ending up their too. The parents are usually to my right, and the DSPs are to my left. There’s usually a couple sisters that sit near me, and then Holly sits down by the parents. The DSPs giggle and giggle. Theresa’s on task to watch her drinking this year. She got a little clumsy last year. What? I was the one to buy that last bottle? Damn … Not me!

Anyway, you can tell I’m pretty excited … I think it’s usually the nicest working day of the year.

What else? Listening to ocean beach and birds in the background. Mostly seagulls. It’s pretty nice, but I can listen to that while I’m working on something, right? Hmm, same things on my to-do list were left there from yesterday. Didn’t do what I was supposed to do. Let’s look at that calendar again.

Oh drat … Sister came back from her appointments so I went to ask her about staff training today. She scolded me for not reading the note … but I checked and I didn’t get a note, but it said DSPs are going to the school store today, Q’s, and Margarita will go another day. I know if sister says that … it’s true, but it doesn’t feel fair they all go today and we’re stuck here. Holly will then have the same – her Town Hall today, I will be let off of the staff training meeting shoot.

Shoot.

Well, I guess on the good side, it means we’ll have less committed time tomorrow – get to lunch faster so maybe able to go home earlier too. I’m pretty sure wherever we go that I’m taking my own car to the restaurant … usually I go with sister, but I’m pretty happy to be driving the new car and I’ll want to get home AS soon as possible. Maybe even before going to the gym. Not sure of that because I will have been drinking … Darn … can’t really drink and drive. Grrr. Well, we’ll have to make that choice tomorrow … Maybe just water though. Sr. might appreciate that anyway … well maybe just one drink and then it will be ok to drive.

I think sister might have something else before going to the store, because she had said earlier about the 15 minutes for lunch. Better have something in about 15 minutes. I’m not famished just keep wanting to clear my time. We’ve been keeping the door open between us and Karla and the leadership group. With the seagulls I can hear their voices, but not discern the words. It’s a nice cozy feeling to be here and not to be here at the same time. So I guess after lunch – at noon, I will be making phone calls to the people about transportation. I will have to run into Holly first to get those few papers. Better to have them in hand.

Hmm, tried to call Holly, but she’s not in her office. Maybe she’s not here, or is with sister, or in one of the groups. She must be here for this afternoon though, because I’ve not been asked to take clients.

Ok, what’s next? Should check for little details? Hmm, I know … let’s think through …

Ack! Ok, so I don’t know when the last time I wrote today was. It’s now 3 pm. It seems that we’ve been going over our AOL stuff for quite a while. We’ve been saving chapters (Months/years) from the old AOL Journal, because they are going to close them down by October 31rst this year. It’s pretty terrible as much as a blogger would like to admit. The thought of losing 30 months worth of writing is pretty commanding. I’m going to have to work on it all weekend … Just in the time now … maybe since about noon we’ve done 3 chapters. It takes a long time, especially because of the pictures. They aren’t all written nicely as in blogger where you can just drag down a scroll … you have to go back and save each one by hand. Pshwoo.

We are at November, 2003 and we have to take it up to December 2005. We’ve got a ton of work in front of us, but if we can do it … all the better. I won’t put these back in a blog it’s too much time. I am afraid I don’t have a flash drive here though … I would have liked to copy them to that … but of all weekends my computer at home is down anyway so I wouldn’t have been able to do much. I’d just have the satisfaction of having the stuff near me.

I’m worrying about the Word program on the lap top computer … from what I remember it is unstable. I might have to write from an email, but that’s really a terrible way to do it. But, if it saves the integrity of our work, that’s what will have to happen. I’m going to try emailing home the documents, so I can at least keep them together. We’ll have to wait to edit them much later … now the point is just saving them so AOL doesn’t mess things up. Having trouble getting the Internet though on the screen … I think something is running that shouldn’t be. Hold on.

posted by Ann Marie @ 10/02/2008 10:05:00 PM Comments: 0