Stand-Up

I mentioned once that you can get soy milk in several different brands at every grocery, but that each store only has one type of regular milk, and people will speak on the different brands of soy, but no one speaks on the brands of regular milk. I found it odd because cow milk is more popular than soy.

Well, at the Central market near WALES, they carry three types of cow milk. They have Beatrice, Neilson, and then one I've never seen before, Steen's Dairy. There was a price difference between Beatrice and Neilson, and then Steen's was cheaper than either of them. Got myself some Steen's and it tastes fine.  I know where I'm getting my milk from here on out.

As well as a grocery, there is a beer store and LCBO. A fringe benefit of my placement is it's location.

I'm back home for the Easter weekend. I think it's been about two months since I've been here. I might prep the soil for a garden, but if I'm in Kitchener for the summer, I won't be able to maintain it myself.

We had snow last week. We were fully in the swing of spring, and then randomly, Southern Ontario got blanketed with snow for like, three days.

Last week, the second year students had their last day at WALES. We had a going-away celebration, and it was sad. It was hard to tell the participants that my last day might be next week. Since one of the participants did both her first and second year at WALES, they were under the impression that it would be the same for me. It might, but I can't promise anything when I don't know.

I got to speak for WALES in front of my Friday class last week.  Since we've only had one class per week, we've had students speak on their placements. It went well. I used buzz words like "integration model" "servant leaders" "leading from behind". I broke down the acronym WALES to Working Adults Learning Empowering Skills. I spoke on the variety of the work, how I get to work one-on-one, in groups, I get to be in the home office, and I get to spend time out in the community. I spoke on the fringe benefits of getting the Non Violent Crisis Intervention Training and First Aid and CPR Level C certificates, and the Inclusion Workshop, Core Competency training, and Job Carving training. All that didn't fill up too much time and I didn't know what to say, so I started telling stories. I spoke on going to the Autism Awareness BBQ and running into my SSW friends, I shouted them out and pulled some words from them. I spoke on getting to do light-hearted stuff like going bowling, and  then more serious stuff like helping a participant gain more confidence in crossing the road, and enjoying the variety, and combination of fun and purpose that comes with the position.

Everyone tells me I should be a stand-up comedian now. It sounds bad, because when you're working with people who have been identified as having a developmental disability, when someone tells you that your presentation came across as stand-up, first impression was that you might have been tactless. But really, it was all very respectful. I spoke on getting crushed at bowling and how, since they are so independent and can get to the alley themselves and  pay for themselves and all that, I was just there to mediate conflict if people started to tease those who didn't do so well. But since I did worse than anyone, the only conflict I had to mediate was with myself. I also spoke on the feeling of riding the bus and being caught between a debate on where to get off, myself not knowing, and the other bus-goers giving me looks as if I should be providing direction. I think my shouting out my class mates was also kind of stand-up.

The second years had a "Stand up for Mental Health" night, where they got people who have been diagnosed with mental illnesses to do comedy on their struggles. I went to it. The first section of the night was an hour-long video, the second section was the actual comedic routine, and the third was a raffle.  They had a complimentary buffet. The first section was not that good. I could watch the same video on my laptop at better quality, and it was too inspirational, going into the benefits of someone with a mental illness doing comedy. It ran longer than the schedule said it would, which I find baffling because all they had to do was look at the little number in the corner of the screen to see how long they should schedule it for.

The actual comedy was great. They had like, five people do it. We had comedians with schizophrenia, agoraphobia, clinical depression and anxiety, and autism and asperger's. Someone who tried to hang themselves and failed "Now I know I can tie a knot to save my life", someone aging with schizophrenia "I have to use hearing aides to hear my voices". Haha.

The raffle was the third section, but it shouldn't have been. It ran so long, the whole thing was an hour longer than scheduled. Me and this girl went into the raffle together and we won a month of free martial arts training. But since it's only good for one of us, we're still going to have to pay for a month between us, so it's more like a month of martial arts at 50% off for two people. I was so scared we'd win the spa, since I said the deal would be the same no matter what we won. Plus I'd have to go up and collect it.

The buffet had lots of good food, but they forgot to put out cutlery at first, so everyone had to go through picking up the food with their hands. They got cutlery later, after most people had already got what they were going to take.

The presentation was all very good, with the tables and table cloths, center pieces, schedules, and the whole bit.

I arrived early to confirm the time it would start and end for the person that I went with, but when I ran into my friends, I stuck around and helped set up a bit. I got called out for spending a lot of time texting, charging my phone, and leaving to buy stuff. I would fire back that I wasn't a volunteer, and was just doing whatever I felt like. But when I went to buy my ticket, they gave me the volunteer discount, and then I got a free drink. Then I felt obligated to stick around and help take down after the show. Apparently we need volunteer hours for next years, and those counted.