Just stretching out our techno-legs
Good morning … We’re still here … just we’re looking pretty happy with ourselves. Hehehe that and we had to stop and get Tylenol … yeah go figure, but our hands were sore. *Giggle* What a lightweight we are :)
We just captured the picture up above … thought this was something that doesn’t happen often and we needed to take a picture. Man … you don’t know how long we’ve been waiting for this post … it seemed so often and even far back that we were nearing the point … everything is happening as it should, right? Oh dear … no more confident now than in the beginning?
Our first post – and this is the entirety of Ayn’s Multiple World happened on August 23, 2003 … not sure how many months, but we’re guessing long time ago … hmm, I could probably figure that out, right? In the process … do you know that we already have a combined post count of 2648? Wow! That’s significant too. Hmm, and the months?
We’re up to 67 months, or 5.5833 Years … we’re getting there … just got to keep going. Hmm, like as if you could stop us *Frivolous laughter*
So maybe you have a point and someone should just get on with it? Probably a good idea … was just lounging like a lizard. You know how we get. Hehehe – ok, like yes we’re frolicking in a good mood. I wonder if we should wake up sweetie and tell him … Maybe that’s a good idea? Nooo … then he’ll see the clock and say it’s 3:30 come back to bed. Ha … like that’s going to happen? I can’t believe the 1000th came on a Saturday morning too … that’s just the best!
Hey … too … if your listening closely … try this download … go to this site … just learned about it this week -
href="http://ehiti.de/katmouse/">http://ehiti.de/katmouse/
It’s got the coolest little utility. It makes the mouse wheel work … basically there are a couple of functions that interested me. First and most important with no clicks you can hover over any open window page on your screen and then use the little mouse wheel to be moving through pages. You don’t have to click on that page and then use the scroll bar on the right. Also, it allows you to hold down the mouse wheel and then click left (down) or right (up) mouse. It will skip a whole screen for you without working hard.
I know … I know … just a tip though. It’s a beauty … I found ourselves listening to Leo Laporte – The Tech Guy. He has a couple hour special that I think is daily. I am going to have to focus on that one more because I have found each time listening to him he talks about real useful stuff that has to do with anything electronic.
I’m not sure too if I told you yesterday, but we found another podcast that we’re listening to now called Podrunner. It has really, really neat music. We’ve got to figure out how to save it, but so far we’re only to save what we save of the other podcasts I don’t think we can download the music. Hmm, let me try going to his site … the guy that does it is DJ Steve Boyett. He is really, really fantastic. He does New Age type music for working out. It’s very advantageous for typing though too.
Yesterday I listened to it while in the Administration meeting (one ear) … it made me very active! I kept coming up with ideas … well yes and the part about having our medicine back.
Anyway Steve mixes electronic dance music with old funk sound. I’m not sure exactly what that means … but the music is very cool. Part of it is like techno, but it goes for an entire hour so you can workout with it for quite a while without interruption.
https://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi
Wow … I’ve been away for a long time it’s now just after 8 am. We’re still trying to fix all our technological problems. We had found the Podrunner website and there’s like about 80 songs to download, so we did that and it shot them over to WMV (Windows Media Video), but then we couldn’t get them from there to the iTunes so we could get them to the iPod … we could upload them directly from the iPod from the store, but then we’d lose all except the few things we pulled in that when I turn on iTunes I have it set to upload just 3-5 podcasts at a time. So, now we’ve downloaded a cool thing we’re going to check in a few moments called musicbridge.
It should help us go from MVP to iTunes so we can keep it as music, which isn’t subject to the 3-5 item only dismissal.
We’re almost done loading to this other thing we got from Cucosoft. We got a couple things from them, this one thing though is taking anything from the iTouch iPot and converting to computer files as a backup to my system. It’s saved 91 audiobooks, podcasts and music. The other application gets movies from my computer – like the ones I video’d the other day for the blog, but it gets it to my iPod and it should also get stuff from YouTube and as well puts in on your iPod. Sooner or later all this stuff is going to work together seamlessly, but for now you just have to keep asking what is it that I need now?
Hmm, somethings are working something not. I don’t know what happened on the transfer with musicbridge something seemed to happen, but I didn’t find out where it went. So, we’re doing the transfers one at a time painfully. Well not too painfully, but it might take all day. I’m tired of dealing with it though. I do know I can get at least one song over at a time. It is an hour long song and it takes 4-5 minutes to transfer, it will only take a couple minutes though to get from iTunes to the iPod, so I’m not going to complain. Hmpf!
So, while all that is happening in the background, I should say that since Rich has left the TVs gone from Fishy shows over to CNN Lite. They are talking about economic foods Blah humbug!
So, we should probably be getting on with our day. It’s now by the way almost 9 am. It’s pretty good fooling around for being up 7 hours already. We are progressing, right?
Rich and I got some time together last night until I crashed on him while watching a West Wing. He was giving ME the massage this time … I was like a baby. We had done something really fun … well first we went out for Mexican, and that was fine … nothing special there, but I did have one pretty strong Margarita. That left our brain fluffy. Hehehe. We had a good meal and I ate 1/5 there, 1/5 long after getting back and a couple of 1/5ths just now. We’ve STILL got some more left so we’re figuring we got enough for the money. We probably didn’t need to get that fried ice cream. Mmm, we shared that 50/50 with Rich so well … that’s enough of that!
After we did that we did the big event … we went about 30-45 minutes west to go to a particular fishy shop where Rich had some special fishy line coming in. There wasn’t much more than an hour – hour and a half to shop though because they closed at 8 pm. That was a shame, because it rushed our fishy guy. I didn’t feel too bad though because that’s what’s happening this morning … he’s shopping again. He was going to go out to breakfast with Bob and Ron, and then they were going to a fishy show to “get stuff.” He’s got plenty of getting to go. He’s barely shopped for any boat stuff yet. He’s been trying to take care of the bigger stuff.
Both Bob and Ron have boats. Ron is the one that’s going down to Louisana with Rich next week and they should be taking Rich’s SUV and trailer and boat. We’ll have to see how all that goes … he had some convenience issues this week. He should have just had Toyota put on the hitch stuff (four parts) on Monday, but he thought he could have it done cheaper from U-haul, but they didn’t do the light wires that would have to be done back at Toyota. Rich was pretty upset about that, but finally ended up telling them to do it – Toyota, but because of all the crabbing he did he got it for half price which is substantial. I think he had to pay about $350. The nice part is that ordered through Toyota it gets blended in with the bumper rather than sticking straight out. I think that’s a good deal … It will look PRETTY!
There was some more problem with his XM radio because he found he had to get a receiver and a tuner or something like that and it would also be an extra expense.
He’s trying to deal with that now but he’s got a lot of money things happening to him at once. His sonar is $3000 and will be put on when he gets the trailer hitch on Tuesday … that or he’ll use Bud’s car on Monday, because he still has to check out the motor. They run it in some kind of water indoors. Wow there sure is a lot of expense in this sport. He’s not even close to finish … I can’t believe how much he’s got to buy, but I think that Bob and Ron should help him load up. How could he go to a fishy store a week before the big event and not purchase anything except some line and a few lures. Well, yes he did let me help, or at least we pushed to be able to help him pick out a couple of colors WOOHOO! We told him that we wanted to at least be able to pick out ONE lure when we go, but he said no … just that he softened up and let me pick out of 5 my favorite color. That’s pretty good. It’s pretty cool too it looks like an effervescent June-bug.
Rich has a backup plan. He’s been shopping around – but just window shopping. He has a list of stuff that we printed out yesterday on his blog about what he needs.
He’ll check prices at the show and if that still doesn’t work, he’s conceded that he’ll buy the stuff at the Marine shop that Bob uses close to town here. That’s where he’s going to check out his boat anyway. He’s got to be doing something fast. I think that he’s going to be parking the boat out front for a couple of days to get everything loaded in it proper. Man … he’s going to be busy this week.
I think work went badly for him too yesterday. There is a new woman executive manager and after Al stated he was going to retire, she quit the position, so there is no production coordinator at his main shop … just a shipping and receiving guy.
I think it was a pretty cheap blow. She just said he has to figure out how it’s going to work. This lady is an idiot. And, I’m going to be surprised if Rich makes it the two years he’s looking at her maybe keeping the workshops around. She’s just an idiot who knows nothing about workshops, and will most likely stop running them to avoid confusion.
Between that and the new car set-up problems Rich started dinner pretty cranky. He placed after we got to the restaurant a call to Toyota and he yelled at the salesman who sold him the car for false advertisement … I think the guy was young and might have said something like you didn’t read the fine print. Rich was really having a terrible day to be dealing with excess problems. We had to get pretty silly you can imagine to get him through that kind of stress. The getting of fried ice cream was an impulse that nearly got us into trouble, but not quite.
The car trip to the fishy place was real nice, because we were exploring somewhat with and without Rich how to play on his new SUV computer. Wow … Lotsa buttons. I have to find before tomorrow morning that video that I’d seen on it of how to manage the thing. There’s a lot to learn, but he’s really figured out a lot. He doesn’t know how many options yet though. I want to see the one where it tells you the phone number of the house or building if you park in front of it. It’s maybe a little invasive on the outside, but a heck of a lot of fun thinking they are giving people this kind of upper hand.
I really like the ride of the new SUV. It is very soft inside the cabin and your head just melts into the back head rest. It’s got all the regular nice things like heated seat covers and moon/sunroom and leather seats. It really makes you feel luxurious. I’m glad he got this one over the more truck-like vehicle – the 4-runner. We had an enjoyable time chatting with Rich on the trip. By the time we got to the store we were really pretty silly.
Rich didn’t help either … I think he wanted the extra shopping time because he told us that we could ride in the little cart. That made us slaphappy following him around and investigating our own aisles. There’s so much to learn … it’s very fascinating. It’s going to be a long time before I see everything there is to see.
Most of the time we spend in aisles and aisles of fishing lures - all kinds of slippery wormy/buggy type things. Some of the things remind me of being young … I saw the same minnow bucket and life preserver and fishing rope as we’d known back then. It’s almost as if time stood still. I’m very excited by the whole thing … even looking at bug spray is starting to pick up an allure.
If you’ve never been in a big fishy-sports store … you gotta go. They’ve got live fountains pouring over several floors of fake rock and canoes stuck to walls and lots of game-type clothing and a bunch of stuffed animal heads. Man-o-man … if that’s not a guy paradise I don’t know what is. Rich teased on the way down the service drive just before getting to the store there were a couple of men in different spots walking toward the store. He explained those were men whose wives took away the car leaving the guys that much more determined to get to their hot spot. WHOA-HO-HO! Rich says “No, I don’t have an obsession” like yah. Right!
There was one guy in particular … really two, but one especially in particular who was watching us. He was a salesman during a slow time just before the store closed and he was watching to see if he could be of some help to us, but we were in our daffy way and hadn’t seen him and then we looked up and there he was apparently watching us all along. Man-o-man what a sight we must seem … I’m pretty sure Rich had one of our 12 year olds with him. He had a silly grin on his face. I figured I wasn’t in too much trouble, but I decided not to tell Rich I was making another spectacle. Yeeks!
We talked to him about that last night on the car ride home … like what happens when Bob finds out I’m not all there in the noggin department? Then we start giggling.
We’re pretty sure his first questions are going to be about how many women do Rich get to sleep with. We’ll have to disappoint him and say only about a dozen, cuz the rest are too young. No … no … no … this is not going to seem a little weird, but then again … his relationship with his girl is a little strange too. Maybe he’s going to think though that this is the reason that Rich has been hiding us for so long. I just hope he’s not going to be too stranged-out. I think he’ll do just fine, but we gotta get hunny bunny through it too - poor Rich.
The ride coming home was just as much fun as the ride there. Rich opened the sunroof and let the cold air blow over the top of the roof. It didn’t feel cold at all until you stuck your hand out the hole, and then it was like Brr… I think he was pretending he was in a race-mobile. It can go really fast when he guns it. I don’t ever remember Rich gunning one of his cars. I remember that we were talking back and forth, but I’m not sure about what … most likely the fishy store experience and about him leaving and such. We need our reassurances that he’s not going to enjoy being in the boat soooo much that he doesn’t want to return home. That would be a problem.
Oh and on the way there we talked to Joe … the phone is coming across the car radio or such and so both Rich and us got to listen … I thought that was very nice because I like the idea of mixing Rich and the boys even if Joe DID mention something about babies. Maybe someone might have frightened the girl with our bluntness after stopping by her facebook site to note she wanted to have babies. Hehehe … I wasn’t sure how that was going to go, but I guess it turned out to be remarkable. *Sigh* Mothers … Just hard to do something with them! Joe wanted to remind me they were doing super protections. We figured by then though that we’d heard enough.
We have tentative plans to go out to dinner tomorrow with Joe and his girl and Rich. That should be a very fun time. I’m really looking forward. I’m not sure if I mentioned but it was Joe’s birthday a couple of days ago. He’s so cool. I have to worry about having enough money for him. I should probably look. Well in a minute at least. It’s loading. I think Rich is still a little shy around the boys and vice-versa, but he’s really pretty neat … just he’s got to realize that we pretty much let the boys do the talking. Not sure if that’s fair, but they got so much to be saying. I hope though they like talking to Rich. I think each of them will have a easy enough time … getting over the first jitters.
Whoops … I guess that’s gone … I had no idea. Well at least some of the stuff got paid. It looks like all the medical bills made it and insurance, two school loans, rent, car, school, Walgreens, some parking and a whole lot of small miscellaneous stuff. Shoot. I hate that when it happens. It says we’ve only got about $50 in the account. Shoot, shoot. I thought we had more like over $500 … better look again at the small stuff.
There’s a Netflix, about $100 to Amazon … was that the camera stuff? Pharmacy, hmm, got in a phone bill, and the money from that stuff we just ordered. I suppose that would about do it then … there was between the amazon and the regnow software a couple of hundred dollars that went out that weren’t supposed to be spent.
Everything else looks like regular bills. I don’t think we got Comast and the electric paid … those are the two one’s not gotten. Hmm, looking closer seems were paying $9 for a domain name … wonder what that’s all about? Looking too like Rhapsody our music station and the gym got paid … that’s probably a good thing.
We still got Athletico, Comcast, ComEd, Kohls, and Dell to pay. I guess this is going to have to wait another week. Nothing much to be done now, but we’re going to need to talk to Rich about Joe’s dinner. We won’t be able to give him anything extra and will have to owe Rich dinner. Oh shoot, I hate that when it happens. I feel a bit of a headache. I think we’re on about ¾ with the gas tank, so I don’t know if we’ll make it through the week. Maybe Rich will give us some emergency money because he’s going to be out of town for a week.
Pshwoo … good thing we looked … we should do that more often. I sure go through money fast. Seems we spent something at Office Max too. What was that? Oh, I know it was the recorder for the client. Shoot. Ok, no sense beating ourselves up over it. It will be ok. Right? Just have to worry about the next purchase, because we know we’re going to want that computer. Rich checked the mail again this morning and he said that the school tax forms weren’t in yet. I just have to be patient. I HOPE it’s going to be ok. I don’t know what to do if it’s over that amount. Rich isn’t going to think getting another computer is going to be an emergency, but then it’s our big thing to iron out all the spare problems of fishing. We figured if we took the phone, iPod, camera AND computer, we’d be plenty fine electronically. I guess were just a gizmo girl.
There is some good news. Rich is going to come home after being at the fishy show and we get to go to his mother’s with him. He says it’s going to be a while like 2:30 – 7:30 or so. I thought that was a long time to lose him to his mothers without me getting to see him all day … it would have been one thing with Bud there, but I think Rich didn’t want to spend 5-6 hours talking to his mother. He says she repeats. And, we were like it’s ok if she repeats to US!!! I’d been a little grouchy because Rich’s phone isn’t figured out yet so even though we got to have Rich listen with us to Joe, we didn’t get to listen to the conversation with his mom and Bud. It’s always the same, uh-huh, uh-huh, yes, ok … well uh-huh. Like WHAT am I supposed to do with that kind of conversation. They when Rich gets done he said oh they didn’t talk about anything. Man – that’s just crippling me in the relationship department.
I know Rich’s relationships. But, we ARE sorta like a couple, aren’t we? Hmm, almost forgot we’re downloading music. It’s going to take into tomorrow before we get it done. I think we’re going to ask Rich to use his computer on the way into his mom’s. It will give us something to be doing with our hands … just in case he doesn’t want a sparkly conversation. Hehehe
We should probably tie up the week … I’m not sure how far we got, but we didn’t have to teach the new teacher for Fridays yet. She’s going to bring in her paperwork next Friday and then probably start the Friday after that. That was a bit of a break, but we were into those numbers we were working on before we left. Rich came in earlier than the Administration meeting and we had a real nice chance to talk with him about it. Well, sorta talk, mostly listened … he seemed to figure out what we were talking about would be relevant to his own tasks which made him more receptive, but then we had to spend time on his issues rather than exploring our own vistas. Had to know that could have happened.
We brought it up a little during the talk on programming at the center during the Admin meeting. Sister didn’t say anything about it being too much … we just explained it as that we were going to look for a little more relating between the exercises and doing something with meaning. We want to progress things so there is a natural evolution of things happening in the class room. Rich made it a point to be saying it wouldn’t carry to the rest of the staff, but I hadn’t thought so … maybe if we could get into it enough one might become a little curious. We have to compete with their time and attention though and I don’t think there’s a lot to give.
I did the numbers over after I got to work and finished just as Rich was coming in the door. Maybe we’ll take another look at that now.
We came up as a conclusion that there were two exercises from Thursday that we could record. The first was the one stated already, basically:
1) Draw 2 circles tracing the CD’s
2) Use ruler to draw 12’s & 6’s
3) Use ruler to draw 9’s & 3’s
4) Use both sides of ruler to draw the remaining numbers
5) Label numbers on clock
Client #1 total rate .8832, points of 50 – 44.16
Client #2 total rate .8556, points of 50 – 42.78
Client #3 total rate .8096, points of 50 – 40.48
Client #4 total rate .8096, points of 50 – 40.48
Client #5 total rate .7392, points of 50 – 36.96
Client #6 total rate .6952, points of 50 – 34.76
Client #7 total rate .6804, points of 50 – 34.02
Client #8 total rate .4940, points of 50 – 24.70
The average points were 37.29 of 50 and that balances to 74.6% of the goal accomplished.
And, then that set of information balances against the next. There were 7 clients in the second exercise, basically:
1) Answer: What is your full name?
2) Answer: How old are you?
3) Answer: How long have you been at SRC?
4) Answer: What do you like best about SRC?
5) Answer: What do you like least about SRC?
6) Answer: How does Sr. Florine help you?
7) Answer: Do you have any questions for the new teacher Robin?
Client #1 total rate .6845, points of 7 – 4.72
Client #2 total rate .5238, points of 7 – 3.67
Client #3 total rate .5238, points of 7 – 3.67
Client #4 total rate .4999, points of 7 – 3.50
Client #5 total rate .3393, points of 7 – 2.38
Client #6 total rate .3215, points of 7 – 2.25
Client #7 total rate .2262, points of 7 – 1.58
the average points were 3.11 of 7 and that balances to 44.43% of the goal accomplished.
That’s as far as we’ve gotten with the stats from the work yesterday. Clients on the first set of numbers do not necessarily match with the second. We kept both lists prioritized as to how well they had done. The total rate comes from an estimation of level of support needed by the client from staff times the percent of correct or complete answers that he or she gave. That’s pretty much it so far, but I’d like to carry these just one or two steps further.
I should have put labels in it … the numbers on the Y axis are total rates of the two assignments per person. Clocks was the first exercise more precisely drawing in the clock face with tools and then labeling and the second exercise was introducing themselves to the new trainer. There were 8 people being served and thus participating. Person #4 showed the most amount of contrast. Where she was at an acceptable rate with the clocks, she did a very poor job with the social interaction. You know this because she was so well behind her peers rates - most likely because she needed excess attention and came up with a very poor set of responses. She was being limited by her short attention span. She was very scattered and over eager to impress.
But, that’s just one small aspect of what the information might show us. We know from this that the clocks were easier than the introductions. Where almost all the steps were completed in the first exercise, only slightly more than half (51.02%) of the questions were answered in the second exercise. In the first set 84.75% of the work was completed. This is a reflection of then the quality AND quantity of the work completed. As to assistance, this was only off by 12.46% meaning that there were almost 12 ½% more supports given in the introduction exercise than the clocks.
When the numbers are multiplied out the total raw score for clocks was 40.3% higher than for the raw score for introductions. This might indicate that although less effort was put into the clocks the percent or ability of doing the clocks was substantially higher than doing the introductions where everyone seemed a little stiff and uneasy.
We might choose in a few moments to go into the individual representations, but for now we should start figuring out what were the actual tasks being completed. In the clock exercise, they had to trace a circle, place ticks evenly around the circle representing 5 minutes each, and they had to label those ticks 1-12. That was pretty much it. In the second exercise they had to say something of themselves to a new staff member, they had to listen and understand the question, they needed to be brought back to the question when they veered from an appropriate response, and they had to express themselves to peers and staff who might or might not pay attention which challenged their risk-taking abilities, patience (receptive ability) and trust and self-esteem levels. This isn’t a comprehensive list, but puts us in a range of understanding. For either of the exercises moods, room structure, noise and tiredness levels or more could have played a role. If someone was hungry, they might not be as patient.
Basically then all these aspects have to be tested out further with more and more exercises which would add validity and also to the quanity of variables needing to be tested. The thing is that if you looked at all these variables you would not only learn from the direct lesson what abilities and challenges each individual and staff present, but as well, in what kinds of structure and experience do they best learn. What is it that can be gained from the whole? Is it at inter-/intra-level or much broader? How did sense of humor play a part? Or, what was the effect of having two staff? This is the kind of stuff that interests me like no other. I have a high respect in learning.
I would like to challenge it at this level and that which are even baser. I keep going back to the point that the things we do should have meaning. We should consciously and conscientiously know that the things we do bring change or good.
Things need to excite us then in solving problems and making decisions bring us a sense of peace. We each want to give our lives value and it doesn’t matter what range of exercises that we teach ourselves with … what we are learning at this level might be mirrored by the most famous pianist. I guess in general that’s just the way I feel because I hear of the excitement and acceptance in their voices when they are equally challenged by the material in front of them. It gives us as teachers something concrete to be working on or toward. It shows relevancy and significance.
Ok, I know I know get off the soap box. Just there is so much more that can be done. This is the kind of stuff that makes me hate social work aspects of our job so much, because most of what we do ties up our time from working on these kinds of issues. Do you see what I mean?
Before we looked at the progress each had made according to the amount of support that was given … this time I wanted to look at a second at just the amount of support given.
Hmm, as to support it looks like #1, #3, & #7 need more support with clocks (logic) and #2 & #5 need slightly more support in introductions (social) over logic and #4 & #6 need much more social than logic and that #8 couldn’t be compared because she only participated in one exercise.
If you were grouping needs you would want
Group 1 – Social #4, #6 & #7 (the most social)
Group 2 – Social #1, #2, #3, & #5 (the least social)
Group 3 – logic #6 & #7 (the most logic)
Group 4 – logic #3, #5, & #8 (the middle logic)
Group 5 – logic #1, #2 & #4(the least logic)
Or
#1 Gl the least social, the least logic
#2 Ma the least social, the least logic
#3 Ke the least social, the middle logic
#4 Je the most social, the least logic
#5 Ni the least social, the middle logic
#6 Ji the most social, the most logic
#7 No the most social, the most logic
#8 Ro unknown social, the middle logic
Hmm, that seemed to take a bit of time … it’s now 12:30 pm. We stopped downloading music for a while. We’ve got 12 songs done, but since they are each about an hour each that seems to be enough for a bit. Just a little while ago we remembered we hadn’t taken our morning medicine and we are thinking we’ll need to shower soon, because Rich will be home within the hour and want to get going to his mothers.
Maybe I better stop and do that and then come back. Hmm?
Pshwoo … that’s better, and we turned off the techno for a bit to listen to CNN … I haven’t really done that too much because the other’s been so loud, plus it had switched over to fishing show.
I don’t know if we actually went through where we were at yesterday. I don’t know where we left off just know we gotta get off the numbers soon. We also started the dishwasher. That was something that Rich asked if we would do before he left. I see no reason not to have except that it wasn’t top priority earlier - now we’re in that stage where we are getting ready for his return. WooHOO!!
We had in general a good meeting for the administration team. We were on top of our game … we kept bringing up small things to be considered and I think someone said something along there about how busy our minds were … they didn’t say it like that, but it’s the general effect. I think part of the difference in our energy level was that first we were back on our medication and then second we were listening to the techno in the background. No one with the exception of maybe Rich knows what’s going on when we’ve got the one ear plug in our ear, but as long as we’re not showing distraction then it seems to be ok. No one has really questioned it with the exception of the clients noticing we’ve got the iPod tuned in.
The Thinking Group went pretty good, it was especially quiet because our main talkers weren’t there … there are two in particular one our regular talking client and then one male from the Leadership group that likes to carry on a side conversation. In both of these cases I think that they are more self-orientated and not as willing to listen to others. But, with them gone there were actually quiet times in between the periods we were working through things.
We were doing a session on taking care of self in the personal domain. So what we did was ask three questions. We asked what makes them special, what would help them and shoot one more … it was like that, but just slightly different. Basically, we had them talking about positive things. For the most part there was very little correction to be quieter and they were fairly supportive in helping the people who couldn’t talk. It was nothing overly special, but one of the most peaceful stress-wise.
The big deal of the day and we should get to it now because Rich just called and said he’d be home in a half hour and that we should be almost ready to go. He has to move something in his SUV, but in general he wants to get out to his mothers. He sounds like he’s in a pretty good relaxed mood. He appreciated that we’d started the dishwasher. I’m so proud of ourselves when we break our natural boundaries in wanting not to disconnect from the computer. I am looking forward to the car ride out and back as interludes to be with my baby. PLUS, we’re looking forward to seeing his mother. It’s been now about a month.
Ok, now the last thing then before we post. We hung out after the administration meeting with the group gathering for the singing and sign language. This was the first time that we are meeting for the sign language and I was a bit confused because we hadn’t had a chance to meet with Holly to get signs taken care of. Holly seems to put things off though I grabbed her for a few minutes just to go over a couple thoughts with her.
The biggest part of all that was that sister wanted it progressed, so she went into her office and got a sign language book and word by word, we looked up signs and progressed the motions with the group. There wasn’t many motions and they weren’t well coordinated, but we made progress and picked up some spirit points. I was really excited by what we were doing with the group and so then afterward we had a small break and we checked out a few things, but primarily we were ready for the Leadership group to be meeting for CIRCLES. They had also had a good experience with it when we’d met so they were primed to help work out the signs for one of the songs. We got through about 1 ½ songs. They were the easy ones, but nonetheless we were really putting something together.
The group maintained interest. We’ve got a long way to go, but we brought home the tape to work through some of the next moves. We’re pretty much now done with two songs. And, I’m looking very forward to working with the group. I have to get to the point where we know the songs well enough so we don’t need the written words.
That way we’ll be able to watch and study and improve the group. I think as long as we appear to know what we’re doing, Sr. will back up a bit to let us do what we feel needs to be done. Make no mistake here though … she’s only a heart-beat away and she’s particularly concerned with the discipline end of things. She keeps everyone’s attention on the same page.
I had to bring home some work, but we used the last half hour well in cleaning up the desk area and pulling together the resources we’d have to take home. I can have one more Monday at home so we’ll have to make the best of it. We’ve really got to work hard especially on Monday. Hopefully, we’ll get some stuff done tomorrow too, but we’ve hopefully got that meeting with Joe that will break things up.
WooHOOO!!! Fishyman's home and we were all ready on time. I would like to read through the entry, but I can do that on the way to his mother's - whoops ... gotta go. It's time dears!