Ayn's Multiple World

Getting into the weekend

Good morning. This is me … again. How goes it with you? We’re good. Well, not necessarily REAL good, but good enough so that … well, we actually do worry about that, but we’re scraping by.

Hmm, now it is later … we didn’t get very far before we decided that we needed to go back to bed. I think I woke up about 3:30 and then went back to bed and slept to 7:30 am. That was probably a good idea. It made Rich happier … he reminded us when we woke up that we had Bob tonight and we’d be up late. I gotta be able to handle that … even if it means taking another nap. I think we’re getting together at 3:30 PM so there won’t be too much time to be doing stuff today. I have to be serious after our writing to go to working on work stuff. I’d like to finish the Qnotes or at least really push them. We haven’t made any progress with those last 4 and now the January DSP Goal sheets are in. Blah!

Rich is up now … we smooched him up good and then let him be. I know he’s moving slow when he says I’m not up yet. Ok, dear … go watch your fishy shows. I understand. Hehehe he’s such a cutie!

The first thing I want to write about today is that we had the most fun we ever had with a group yesterday. It was with the Leadership group for CIRCLES. We had after the Thinking Group and we’ll say something about that, but in general … we never laughed so hard at work as with the Leadership Group. It was soooo fun.

Basically, we were doing the same stuff as we’d done in the past … we’re still having people trying to remember the colors and numbers and gestures of the main CIRCLES program. We went around a couple times at the table and I realized that they were having trouble remembering where they’d gotten up to. I had to think of something and then it came to me the idea of having a contest … There were two of the guys who had gotten it, so I made them captains of the two teams. I made sure one went to one other table on one side of the room and then we set the other opposite that … There are about 13 – four people tables in the room. They are all set individually except the four pushed together that we usually sit at.

Then we had each of the captains taking their turns picking out their teams. As I figured it went as a favorite friend level. That was ok, because eventually everyone got chosen. There was one odd left over, so I let her decide which team she wanted to be on. The team that got here was lucky because she eventually earned them a couple of their needed points.

I set up the game to be the first team to 10 wins. They each had to send somebody up every other turn and we went around the table so that everyone got turns to be there. They had to come up and with me mixing up the six colors … they had to provide the correct gestures. One of the teams had the advantage because their captain was getting every time except he missed one at the end. The scores at the end were close … it was 10 – 8.

The playing and their reactions to all that is what turned out to be so cool. They totally got into it and they tried so hard to beat the extra team. They had asked what the winner got and I was stumped there for a second, but then I said the winner could get the colored cards that I use. I figured that would be something and that I could duplicate the cards before the next group on Tuesday. That seemed to work. We encouraged that between rounds they work with their team members on making sure they all knew the moves. It was tough and there were rounds where between the 9 people only 1 person scored. But, we didn’t give up on them and eventually within a good amount of time they were getting it … and sometimes often really they were just one gesture away from winning it.

We laughed and laughed so hard with them. Pretty much we were playing straight up though we tricked the one that was winning the most by one time giving him a color that wasn’t within the six. He stopped and thought and thought, then we started laughing. We apologized and we said you still won … there isn’t a gesture for that color and then he and the group started laughing all over again for the tension release he had felt. The group took so seriously their competiveness … oh man I just wish I had a tape recorder on them. They just busted me up. Their personalities showed … especially a couple who weren’t usually so invested.

The score was 8-9 going into the last player … and he hadn’t yet figured that he could win the game. I kept pumping them up between rounds. He was in the middle of encouraging one of his team mates, and then I said his name and said hey you … you are the guy that could win the game! He’s been in the past probably the most bored of the group, but he was invested especially because his team was ahead. I tried to visually support each of their efforts as they were going through it to give them confidence. I did the same while he was up. I think he was half in a daze, but he really focused. AND, he did it! He won for his team!

The group was so happy … even the one that had lost knew that they’d done well because they’d earned their 8 points the hard way. I was so proud of their efforts. After I released them they went back to their room with their DSP. They kept repeating stories to her of what they were doing. The trainer figured something was up because she could hear them at the other end of the building they were laughing and groaning so hard. Sr. Theresa was out of the building, so I let them really go to their heart content. We talked to the group from their space for just a second, because we wanted them to calm down with Karla before going to the last group. They were brushing their teeth two by two. Everyone was so charged.

Unfortunately, the good feelings were interrupted, because Sr. Theresa had come home and she was passing out staff checks and she caught one of the guys on the wrong chair. Two of the guys have broken chairs because they weigh so much. I’m pretty sure those chairs are only tested up to 250. It takes a while, but at one point the chairs had collapsed under the stress of our guys … two being around 330 or more.

So sister had gotten some heavy duty special chairs from the workshop … and man oh man did they catch-it for one sitting on the wrong chair. It really wasn’t his fault, because when he had come in Imelda one of the staff had been using his chair to be on the computer. He’d just chosen another.

But, you know sister … when she’s mad, she’s mad and doesn’t want to hear anything else about it. We talked to Karla about it later, and we tried to smooth things out. She’d been caught in that she was working so hard to get all the teeth brushed in those slight 15 minutes – two at a time – she was blind-sided. But, again we tried to make her feel better. I had great empathy for her because I’d been in that position. I teased yep your problem was just because you’d been working SOOO hard!

Hehehe … she knew I was right, but was still soothing the bruised feelings. It was natural.

After the Thinking Group we stopped in to make sure things were ok. She was going through in her head, I’ve got this done, and this, and this, but I still have this to do. She had worried all day over getting a newsletter article read for the newsletter going out. I had written my entry on Barack Obama the day before. I’d summarized his inauguration speech and I thought it was pretty good – so I was coming into it confidently … plus I’ve been writing newsletter articles for almost 10 years.

The first time I heard her organizing in her head in the morning, I’d acknowledged that she had to do it, the second time at this late afternoon part I just made sure that I was giving her the time, but then the third time she came back to the office for something and she ended up talking about the newsletter, as she talked I started writing down notes, and I was asking her questions helping her think through what she should write. I had asked her if there was a group project recently that she’d really enjoyed with her group. She had brought up an exercise in social skills where they were talking about their fears. I just ran with that. It took a few moments I think before she realized that I was taking notes on the back of an index card.

Poor Karla … she said something to the affect that I was like her psychologist … we laughed and giggled with her, but told her if we were her psychologist we would be charging her. Then we reminded her that writing was our favorite thing so she wasn’t really stressing me out too much.

After we filled up the card we walked over to the computer. I don’t think she realized I was going to go that far with her. So, then we took a few of the notes she’d given us and wrote out a sentence or two before we were back to asking her questions, and then asking her to state the next sentence and the next in her own voice, but now we were feeding her back the notes she’d given before to get the things done. The order was just playing itself out easily and she was getting pretty excited I think to realize what she was doing. It turned out to be a fantastic little article just right for the newsletter. We reminded her that every thought in it had come from her and the group’s experience. There was nothing to do but that she should be proud of the effort and results. But, then I told her the bad news and that the computer printer was down and she’d have to copy it by hand.

She did that with a little groaning, but I knew she was really ok with that. But, it gave the two of us something else to laugh over. I think before it was done, she copied it one more time, but by then she was just being fussily. We let her go back to her own room to get her bearings. I think she had the task done by 2:30 pm when it was time for her to leave. She was so happy with her results and was thankful to us, but then we kinda just played it off, but it went with the general good mood after having the good meetings.

Hehehe … I just heard something of interest in the background from Rich’s fishing show. One of the fisher guys caught a TURTLE! That was a little weird, so we giggled with him and turned back then to our writing. It was funny watching the turtle let off the hook … it didn’t get him bad and he just hussled over to the edge of the boat and threw himself over the edge back into the water. Very cute!

So, anyway … the Thinking Group was good and involving, but nothing could have replaced the work we’d done with that smaller group. The markers that we’d pulled up on our little Thinking Group chart were social and making choices. So what we’d prepared or thought of was to take a catalogue we had on special gym-type equipment and we tore out about 50 pages. Then we collected also a list of the clients and we brought with us the extra envelope with their names cut out … this was going to be for matching people up. We ended up mixing people about 3 at a time, so there was good activity without too much confusion.

Basically, we’d handed everyone one of the sheets of game equipment and then matched names of the cut-out sheets to the names on the list by whichever luck was there and we were saying ok … so and so goes to so and so, etc. We went through the list about 3 times. They were a little tired of it by the end, but about a third of the way in we made it exciting by going around and figuring who had the most expensive items. There were some at $1200, $2800, and one exercise bike at $5300. Most of the items were a couple hundred or much less. When somebody went to somebody, the person standing got to choose which sheet of the two they wanted to keep. So they had to skim both carefully and make a choice. We had told them the one with the best item at 10 to would be the winner. This time I didn’t tell them what the winner was going to get. But they had a lot of fun between looking at the items and imagining them to be their items and in seeing who was being matched up with whom.

Sometimes you have to mix up the entire group to get those who really weren’t as popular up to the center of attention. We always made sure that some of the one’s who shouldn’t be walking around would have someone come to them that was more mobile. Nobody realized what we were doing, but it was a good thought. We wanted the game to be going quick.

At about 15 minutes too we’d taken a poll to see who had the $5300 item and it turned out to be a shy quiet girl. We let her glorify to the degree she could on being the winner. To give her this extra attention and support was good for her, but then we decided to do a quick round so for about 3-4 minutes we just started picking out names and I said the person who had the sheet at exactly 10 to would be the winner.

As it turned out it was one of the lead guys in the Leadership group who was someone who would be proud to be a winner. Then we told him the winner gets all the extra sheets … so everyone stopped by him and fed him the colored copies. He was happy to get all of that and it turned out good.

We asked sister if she wanted the chairs up which turned out to be a good idea. She mixes this up quite a bit. We were told to leave the chairs down, but by the time we got to the end of the hall Margarita had asked where they were … She was disappointed to hear they were down, but there was nothing I could do … I said you have to communicate to someone. It had been set that she was going to clean that floor on Monday instead of Friday, but she’d changed her mind thinking she could squeeze it in today … hey Margarita … communicate! She was grouchy with me later because she had to move all those chairs AND because I walked on her just mopped hallway … My thought was too bad … if she wanted to keep a schedule I could avoid walking on her floor, but she’s the one that wants to be creative.

Hehehe I shouldn’t complain too much though. I know that Margarita takes this part of her job as seriously as I take mine. It’s just sometimes she thinks what she is doing is MORE important than anyone else, so then I get a little weirded out … I know she is doing something important, but then again, so am I. Hmpf!

In general though the group had gone well, but I was glad to be heading back to the office. I was into pineapple time. HooRah!

There were a few other things happening during the day … We’d had a couple of encounters with Sister, but there was nothing negative. Pretty much she’d come back to our office a couple times with a new person she was interviewing. This was the person that would work one day a week just doing goals. I thought wow … how cool was that? Both these people she’s interested in are BA’s in psychology. I think that’s interesting and should prove some challenge. Both of them are white women though so not adding much to the diversity. But, it should be ok. I know already sister is going to take both if they come in and agree to her prices. Sister thought they’d be ok with her numbers.

The one day woman was a little stranger than the first, but maybe she’ll turn out to be real nice. I think she was nice, but had a little pride in her that told me she felt good about her services. I think she’ll work out just fine. She’ll be coming in as a specialist and that should fit her nature. She liked the idea of working one-to-one. I would prefer she do more goals for other groups, but sister thinks for the time being she’d just be working with Group 1. That’s ok too though. She’d be coming in on Friday’s which is always a lighter day. She’d probably be pulling a few people out of my Thinking Group, but otherwise wouldn’t be too much an interruption. I hope sister has her in for 8 hours so she can get to more clients and then after they leave sit back to do the papers. I’ll check this out and give sister the idea if she hasn’t had it already.

I think the woman has gone through recent hardships with a couple of people including her boyfriend dying. I think sister had the idea that he had shared expenses so she’d have to go out and make a little more money to cover things. I feel extremely bad for her to have lost her young love. It’s a terrible, terrible thing to happen. Maybe some of the pride is to keep her from crying. I hope she likes the center and stays there.

The other one will be coming in for a test on Thursday. Sister has a third one she’s going to interview as a back-up … I thought that was a good idea. I think it’s funny that when it rains it pours and that after getting so many people not qualifying there was now people who would. You have to go by the hand of God that the right one will eventually answer the help wanted ad.

So that’s about it of that … Sister was discussing positions and candidates when she came back. She seemed a little overwhelmed, but firmly in control. She sure does a lot of work – Sr. Theresa. You gotta say even if she’s moody a special God Bless. I stayed last night until about 5:30 pm and met her on the way out. I think she’s appreciative when we stay a little later to be getting things done … she said a nice Good bye and have a good weekend.

There was something else that happened that is going to be affecting us for a bit.

Sr. decided to have the songs being sung done in sign language. She asked for volunteers during the staff training meeting and when no one volunteered, I told her I would help. Basically Sr. Florine is doing the music and then another staff would coordinate the rest of the group in doing sign language. Sr. said she would then have to see. As it turns out Holly had also volunteered. So after Sr. Florine had come back to the room to start things up, and then we saw Holly, we called her in to hand it over to her. But, by then she was saying that she really didn’t have the time.

As it turned out she has had sign language in the past. So, what we came up with was a plan … I know this is different … but I told her we could work with her in that … she could help me with the choreography, but that I would do the teaching.

That seems like a really good combination that would take stress off both while giving us both responsibilities with the part that each does best. I’m going to have to deal with her coming in and trying to over-teach when I’m with the group because she’s a little snoopy, but then again maybe she’d help out in ways I don’t yet understand. We’ll go with that thought.

We told Sr. what we’d worked out while she was gone with Holly. I think she was really proud and happy that we’d work so well together. I’m pretty sure that was what was keeping her unsure was not knowing between us which to take. But, she knows me for my teaching and can still use Holly’s knowledge. I told them that I was going to bring in a video camera and take pictures that could be put on the computer to practice our moves with … that will help to keep Holly out of where she shouldn’t be. It’s going to seem more fun to her than doing her work. But, we have to be flexible and patient.

We stayed for the first time to listen to the singers singing. I had really thought Candice had done a good job with the singers and the songs were much, much better.

They were real songs. The songs that Sr. Florine took are baby songs … well at least two of them. The third song is the “Our Father.” I was so disappointed at that part to realize what we’d connected to. I have to get over it. Somehow the songs got past Sr. Theresa’s radar. I would have rather had them working on songs that they were doing in church. This one is like a Baby Elephant version of being friends.

I have to let it go though and concentrate just on my part. I told Sr. Theresa that I could concentrate on the sign language during the time for CIRCLES. I figure for now we’re doing gestures anyway … that’s what got me interested in doing what we were volunteering for. We’ve also got to think of something to get our memory in step. I think it’s going to work out with just a lot of repetition. The main idea of working during CIRCLES was to be doing the work while the groups were smaller.

The choir only has 8-10 people and they won’t be doing any of the motions, so I get all the non-singing people including the lower functioning groups.

We’ll do the best we can … and half to let it go. I have to trust we’ll come up with the best ways to do this. It’s the first time though so at this point we’re a little nervous that it’s not over our head. But, then I think … who could have given it more time or done it better. It’s only Holly and I that have experience teaching the bigger groups. Sr. Florine has experience now too because Sr. has her doing chapel in the morning. But, I AM disappointed they are so babyish. If you could have seen me cringe - Yikes!

Hehehe … they are talking about the woman who had octuplets this week. They’ve been talking about it all week, because it would just be soooo extreme to be raising those 8 and her other 6 … I guess her oldest is 7 and the youngest before this birth were twin 2 year olds. Man oh man… then we just found out today that she’s a single woman. They are questioning in the news what happened because they don’t see why someone with 6 kids should go through fertility treatment. It’s only happened one other time that someone had so many kids in the US. But, shoot, 6 going up to 14 in the matter of a few moments is just tremendous.

They said the Grandfather is going back to Iraq, but had enough money to raise the kids. I would hope they accept the donations that they are going to be getting.

Wow … 8 premature infants? There just aren’t enough hands. Theoretically, that household should have at least 4 adults at any time if not more. I really hope she’s going to get help. That and then it continues for 18 years. Yeeks!

Rich has left the house already … it’s almost 9:30 am. After he’d gotten up he was looking on the computer for a used SUV for hauling his boat. He found one that was $6000 and it came with a trailer hitch, but had just over 100,000 miles. He usually rides his cars past 200,000 miles so he thought it would be ok. He’s going to need help from his family in getting everything taken care of … Maybe he’s planning on keeping it at his mother’s with the boat? I’m not sure though because he’s talked also of leaving it closer to here so he could go out at any time.

I think he’s planning on keeping his Honda until she wears out, but then he said something about trading her in and coming even up. But, I think he would miss too much his computer system and seat heater. Hehehe … eh … he’s a cushy bunny!

I hope he comes home with something, but he probably should have brought me so he could drive it home if he purchased it and kept his car. We’ll have to see how that plays out. He said he didn’t want Bob to come with him although we asked if he should. I know Rich likes making his own decisions and he’s pretty proud of these purchases. He is still regretting spending money, but we can all live with that with just general reminders having this boat system is what he really wants. I think his fishing trip to Louisiana is coming up in just 2-3 weeks. He knows he has to get going on this. God bless bunny friend!

This leaves me needing to be a little more responsible. I want to keep writing, but then again … I know that I really have to put in some time on those Qnotes. I have soooo much to be doing. I talked to another staff and it looks like I’m going to need doing a couple more goals. It’s just piling up. I still have the staff training stuff, all those annuals, I have to catch up with making sure everything is in the file, then I have the goals and Qnotes and we have to do the goals/objective sheets – all has to be done right away and we didn’t make friends with our schedule for adding in the extra work. But, that’s what we gotta do. It’s now into almost February so we could be surprised at any time.

If necessary I’ll do a few sick days to catch up at home, but we have to make ourselves productive at home. One of the things we did last night to make things better was that we went through our document file and put everything where it should be on the flash drive. We had just been dumping things there and not using the flash drive as productive as we should have been. Now with this move I have the capability to be doing everything here or at the office.

There’s more paperwork at work that would make some of the work difficult, but I think if we could take care of the Qnotes over the weekend then we have ourselves in a better little position than if we didn’t. Realistically, I could also work through the schedule for staff training … that’s about the easiest of things to do so I should really make it a goal to worry sister less – PLUS worry me less. Then the goal of this next week at work would be to get the annuals done and possibly use next weekend to finish them up if they are not done already. The goals and objectives should be done too.

Shoot, then that would leave me with the goals not being written out … those things take some serious time. Maybe I’m going to need getting out the goals first and then start the annual work. Maybe with a 3-4 day weekend I could catch up on the annuals. I don’t think those are going to be quite as hard after I get into it, but I’ll really have to put out to get them all taken care of.

This weekend I only have home the materials to be doing the Qnotes and now the staff training updates. I might want to take out the notes from books to be doing some at home work just this next week or two to finish up the big projects. It’s something I rarely do anymore, but something has to be done and done quickly.

Ok, have we scared ourselves enough? I think I’m going to give myself 20 minutes and start the Qnotes at 10. I could work for about 4 hours, which is about all the time I’m going to get today. Hmm, maybe I’m going to need taking a vacation day on Monday. I’ll tell sister I’m taking the day just to finish the Qnotes and that I still have annuals to work through. If I have the staff material done that will let her know I’m trying. I know there’s another meeting for the sign group … well sorta we don’t have the first one ready yet. It will depend on how Holly gets her gears going. I don’t know if she’ll work on it over the weekend.

Monday is the only day I don’t have groups, so it would be the best day to take some time off. The only thing I have to be covered for would be the work with Group 1 first thing of the morning. Shoot, I forgot … I’m going to need losing one more day to make up for Thursday working with the new trainer. Or, at least working with the potential new trainer – if she comes on board I’m going to need staying with her all week. Oh Lordy … how’s this going to happen?

Ok, shhh … why don’t we cover that base right away.

Ok, good. I wrote an email to sister. I told her of my plans. I told her I’d use a vacation day … so there’s no reason that wouldn’t work. The best possibility is if she didn’t charge me for the day, but I know that I can get it done given the time. I scared myself here in realizing that if I’m going to be ready to leave at 3 pm today for the deal with Bob and all, I will only have 4 hours. That’s not a lot of time. Let’s see what should be my goal?

Let’s say that I can do 5 notes in an hour … that will give me 12 minutes bursts.

That means that I can get done with 20 notes, which should be two clients. Wow. I don’t know if I can do all that, but I sure can try. I’m a little regretful in that I only have the sheets for Group I and Group 4, but there’s nothing I can do about that now. It has to be good enough. Wow … I’ll be so happy to be caught up and through with the State stuff.

I’m glad I took the time yesterday to get the flash drive caught up. I actually enjoyed the feeling of staying just that little time after. I’ve been working to get and keep my desks and office picked up this week, so by the time I left it was looking very workable. I did take care of a few extra things like getting my insurance ready to mail, I took care of one more bill, and I set an appointment for February 9th for a staffing. It’s moving … just gotta keep our mind in shape. Ok, 9:59 am … time to turn her over.

Ok, we’re back just for a few moments. It took us a little bit of time to get our camera set up. We had forgotten we got that extra equipment in and had to reload or recharge things. We got two extra batteries so that’s going to help a lot, plus beside the normal charger there was an extra one from the car. We have been doing the Qnotes though so we’re proud of ourselves. It’s kinda draggy, but it’s better than the worry of not having them done in time.

The big news I wanted to note was that Rich called because he’s flipping out a bit.

He didn’t like the used cars he was looking at and he was going to check out the Hyundai, but he’d just been at the Honda and I can tell he’s really close to buying a new Honda Siena. I forgot to ask which color. That is one of the cars we’d seen before and we knew it to be a very classy car. It’s actually a van and has more storage space and nicer back seats then the Honda big SUV. I had picked up the phone and he said … tell me I can’t buy a new car. And, I said … No, you can buy a new car! Then he repeated, no tell me … So, we said you can’t, but then quickly changed our mind again … no you can!

We asked him what had happened with the use cars and he didn’t seem to see the value in them compared to getting a new car. I think if he gets the new vehicle he will keep costs down by trading in his Honda Accord. It is a more reasonable thing to do, because he’d only have to pay for one car to be insured. He knew if he’d gotten the used vehicle he would have to keep the Accord to drive regular and the other would be just for hauling.

Where he gets caught up was that he’s going to need explaining to someone that he’s getting a new vehicle. So, I asked … oh … you need your wife’s permission to get a new vehicle? Somehow though he squiggled out of that. He did remark something about having to tell his son everything. He thought that was going to calm down the wife thing. And, then I just said, c’mon now be honest, EVERYTHING you do is causing her grief. I didn’t go as far to say even if you died she’d be griefed, but it’s pretty much like that. I would like to see things go quick enough so that Rich could do the deal yet today within the next 3 hours, so we could ride in the new van to the show tonight. That be pretty snazzy, and I’d be much more apt to sit in the back. Hehehe. Oh yeah … now I remember the navigational vehicle came with a back seat entertainment center and a back-up camera. WOOHOO!! This would be great.

Rich has done enough work and after having given half his money to his wife, he deserves the best that he can get. She just wants to control the money he gives her and the money he keeps. But, then that would be the nature of going through divorce. The other guys a bum no matter what. Unless you’re Rich … he seems to treat his ex with a lot of kid gloves care. I guess she called sometime this week to complain about something. But I don’t remember what it was. Rich says she’s called several times to just yell at him. I think that’s what got him the most was that she didn’t call to talk or complain she called to yell – Yeeks! No one needs that kind of junk. He’s earned his rights back … and if she’d pretended that he had rights in the first place this might be a different situation. She didn’t want a relationship she wanted someone to yell at … why should anybody have to go through that? Just don’t get her.

Ok, enough of that. I just called Rich back and talked to him a bit … I think he was sitting in a Dodge, but he wasn’t impressed with it and it didn’t have navigational. I had the idea he could get it, but I think when you’re buying and hot to buy you want everything now. He said he was going to look at the Honda again and maybe a Dodge? That must be a Chevy. I told him good idea to go back to the Honda place and while he was there to buy a Sienna … I reminded him he had only 3 more hours to get through paperwork and still be able to drive us to the theatre in the new vehicle.

He seemed to think he was more confused than he was before he was before. I’ll have to lick him when he gets back … I always reward his confusion by licking him in the ear. I asked him the color of the Sienna and he said they had a dusty green and another in the lot that was a dusty blue. Maybe I should check on that.

Hmm, maybe he was talking about the Odyssey not Sienna. Ahh, I see the Sienna is the Toyota.

Ok, or maybe not. *Sigh* We knew super bunny wasn’t the fastest spender in the world, right?

posted by Ann Marie @ 2/01/2009 07:29:00 AM Comments: 0