Crockpot

I tried the new slowcooker. We did a beef loin cut, with potatoes, carrots, leek, and parsnip, seasoned with just salt, pepper and cloves, and a bit of beef broth added, served with a side of couscous. Roughly based on the dish pot-au-feu, French for "pot of fire" and comparable to English beef stew. Inspiration came from the signature dish of my second host mother in Quebec during Canada World Youth. You might remember that I had a less-than-ideal relationship with my first Quebecois host family, but that I transitioned to another household before my French rotation was over.

My Malian counterpart referred to the Quebec "pot-au-feu" as "Canadian couscous" and the less intricate Malian recipe as "Malian couscous". One of my commenters made a very detailed explanation as to how those dishes might be more comparable than one might guess based on first impression.

Anyway, out of respect for my nostalgia, my mother insisted on using couscous and on calling the dish pot-au-feu. The attempt was successful. It was our first slow-cooked meal, so we were impatient and put it on high to lower the prep time to about six hours.

We've got a pork shoulder ready for tomorrow, and we're prepared to cook it on low for a full ten hours. This will be my life now. Delicious homemade meals done with minimal effort and fresh ingredients. It's funny how a microwave cooks things fast and is known for its convenience, and a crock pot cooks things slowly and is known for its convenience. Talk about two devices known for the same function with completely separate methods.

In other news, back at my place in Kitchener, I removed the carpet from my bedroom. The logic behind this was simply that tile is easier to clean than rug. My roommate first initiated concept by removing the carpet from his bedroom and then proposing we do so for the living room. For some reason, I thought this would take a certain amount of finesse, but he literally tore it out and revealed perfectly viable tiles beneath. So I grabbed a serrated knife and over the course of a few days, carved chunks out of the rug in my room, moving around heavy furniture such as my dresser and filing cabinet until I could get to everything.

I also got a new backpack. The last one I got was from a military surplus store. I wanted to get another one from the same place, but honestly, the shop owner scares me. I didn't want to arrive at his place with a destroyed version of his product, and honestly, I can never be without a backpack, so I opted for a more standard place at the mall. When that one is wrecked, I will go back to the military surplus store.

Duncan did the Pottermore test and got sorted into Gryffindor. So we are a household full of Gryffindores. I know not everyone makes it into that house, because I know two people outside the family who have done that test, and they are a Ravenclaw and a Slytherrin His Patronus was a sphinx cat, contrasting my adder snake and Mom's Newfoundland dog. His wand was similar to mine, but it was made with firwood and unyielding flexibility, making his key difference that he is much more rigid and focused on his goals, whereas I am more flexible and adaptable.

Christmas 2018

Christmas 2018 has passed by. As per usual, I spent it in Guelph with my mother and brother. There was some talk of a larger gathering, but conflicting schedules didn't let it happen

Big gift to me this year was a slow cooker. I've been curious about those things for awhile. My first impression was that they seemed counter intuitive, because why would you bother with a device that intentionally forces the preparation process to take longer than it has to? But I kept hearing that a slow cooker is an essential for people who want quality home-cooked meals but don't have a ton of time to prepare them. The thought behind this being, the slow cooker doesn't require active attention, unlike more standard preparation. I'll probably try it out tomorrow while I'm still on vacation.

It also came with a smaller device called the Little Dipper, for preparing dips and fondue.

This year, we agreed we wouldn't do a big gift exchange. However, my mother's laptop broke shortly before Christmas, so like...

...I put in an order for a laptop. Unfortunately, Canada Post is on a rotating strike and deliveries have been delayed. I'm sure they time the strike that way to put the company under pressure. Won't judge, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, but as a result of the strike, I didn't have a gift for my mother on Christmas day.

Aaaand... the day before I left for Guelph, my own laptop broke. It was really young, too, only about three months.

So I had a broken laptop, and was left waiting for a laptop that I had ordered for someone else.

My brother did some Frankenstein-like operation on my computer though, where he dug out the hard drive of one of my old devices and installed it into my current laptop. It works passably. The hard drive he used was from a tablet though, so it offers a touch screen option even though my current laptop doesn't have a touch screen.

My mother managed to revive another one of my old laptops, too. The only one capable of functioning, and also the oldest in my laptop graveyard. During its run, it lasted a mighty six years before developing an issue where it would scream and shut down when you tried to power it on. Turns out it only needed a rest, and after a six year reprieve, it is capable of running again. This is a twelve year old laptop, and although it is too outdated to do many things, my mother was able to update her adblock, and she can go on her email, Facebook, and Reddit.

However, I really want her to have a new laptop. I owned that computer between the ages of 17-23 and never thought anyone else would have access to it. She promised she wouldn't snoop around but... I can't say I remember everything I put on that thing, during those sensitive years of my life, and I don't know if I want my mother stumbling across them.

Between the revival of a new laptop, and successfully harvesting of an old hard drive from another one, really validates me keeping a laptop graveyard.

Before Christmas, I was a little concerned over my funds. Remember during the summer, when one of my Summer Program cheques failed to come through? I broke out my piggy bank and counted over $500 worth of change. The agency fixed their mistake though, I got paid before rent was due, and I didn't bother to deposit my change. Since then, I've used some of it on laundry, but still had about $300. Taking out the piggy bank again, I came to around $400. That means that, in total, I wound up going to the bank with a sack of coin rolls totaling over $700. That's a new personal record for coin collecting!

Three Month Review

I recently had my probationary review at WALES, which is a performance assessment that is required to be done after three months holding your position. Prior to the assessment, you  can be fired without cause. After, you're safe for nine months until your contract is up for revision. I felt pretty safe in that I would keep my position. Three months had already passed, so if he wanted to fire me, it would have been in his best interest to act sooner. Still, I was worried I would get a laundry list of "areas to improve".

Everybody's up for review at this time of year. For some reason, I decided to volunteer first. Everybody wanted to hear how it went, especially the other new employee, as she had never had a review done.

It wound up being fairly quick. He essentially said, "Fairly straightforward. I've recommended you for everything. There were a few hickups at the beginning, but that's to be expected and everything has smoothed out. I have no concerns moving forward. You do well keeping participants focused, and they all love you. Keep up the good work."

Then he said that the other part of the review was feedback and asked me how I felt about everything so far. I asked some exploratory questions, but didn't get too wild. Don't want to ruin a good thing.

We recently had our WALES Christmas party. Last party I spoke on was staff only, while this one was participant-focussed and happened during work hours.

Day started off with a gift exchange. Each participant had drawn the name of someone else, for whom they would be a "Secret Santa". We had a price limit of $10 each. Then we all went to Swiss Chalet for lunch.

I have received quite the number of gifts from office members this year. One was wine decanter, which didn't make any sense to me until I looked up what they're used for. Conveniently enough, someone else gifted me a bottle of wine, which gave me the opportunity to decant it.

Every year, I've wondered why egg nog is only a seasonal  thing. I've also wondered why it's specified s "egg" nog. If it's the only  kind of nog, why not just call it "Nog"? Why preface that this is the egg variant?

Well, this year has been pretty satisfying in that the first flavour of nog out was "Pumpkin spice egg nog". This is probably due to Christmas beginning its advertisements before Halloween is through, causing some hybrid products to be created. I recently noticed there is "Almond nog", following the theme of nuts trying to replace animal-based dairy for people who are lactose intollerant.  In addition, I saw a coconut-bsed egg nog, brnaded "Coconog".

So even if there were practical reasons behind the selections of each new brand of "nog", I'm still grateful that we have eventually branched out.

Right now I'm in Guelph for a week. WALES doesn't shut down on Christmas week because we don't prioritize holidays with a religious background, to respect the diversity of beliefs among the student population. That being said, most of the people we serve celebrate Christmas and choose to take a week off. So we leave only two staff to take care  of the few residents in the house. Because I am stationed in Guelph,I can't even offer to be backup, although it looks like they found the culprit.

Potentially Rebranding

Hi all, just so you know, I am trying to increase the 2018 post count, so make sure you check posts before this one, as I will be updating more frequently.

So, I finally got around to changing my blog's description. If you're not sure what that is, it's the line beneath the title "Lair of the Gryphon". It used to be "A daily blog about my life", and has presently been changed to "A casual blog about my life". Pretty lame, I know, but more accurate. When I started this blog, the intention was to pressure me into doing something worth talking about every day. But once I developed a lifestyle worth talking about, I was busy enough to have it frequently fall  by the wayside on my priorities list. Plus, much of the things worth talking about contained confidential information concerning those I serve, which I obviously can't blog about.

So it fell from a daily routine, and only now have I modified the description, some nine odd years later.

With that being said, I'm open to new ideas for what the description of the blog should be. I'm having difficulty developing a phrase that really encompasses what we do here.

And while I'm at it, I'm also open to ideas for renaming the blog itself. I originally named it "Lair of the Gryphon" partly because it contrasted my previous Livejournal blog, "Lair of the Rat Sage" (I owned pet rats at the time), and also because a gryphon is a mythical beast, and as a dragon has a "lair", so should a gryphon.

Unfortunately, the name of the blog has led to some BDSM jokes among fans (yes, I have fans)

I do enjoy the fact that the initials of the blog (LOTG) parallel closely with the Lord Of The Rings (LOTR), but that not be a concrete reason to keep things as they are.

So yeah, open to suggestions for blog title and description. Right now, for blog title, I'm thinking "The Gryphon's Roost" or "The Gryphon's Nest". Let me know what you think in the comments or if you have other ways of contacting me.

At any rate, what is new with me is that I recently chaired a Core Competency meeting at work. I was really stressed about it. Initially, I didn't know where to submit my story from the previous meeting or what topics I should be covering for the next  one. After some frantic investigation, I figured things out. I was to cover "Interpersonal Relationships and Respect", as well as "Strategic Planning". This would be the final sesssion of my group for the year. Kind of odd for me to experience, as this was only my second Core Comp meeting ever. Meeting went fine.

We are finally replacing the roof where I work. Somewhere between my student placement and my current employment, our roof developed leaks. This past week, we have had a crew fixing things up, although somehow, our agency remained open. Over the past few days,  we have been dealing with the sounds of banging on the roof, falling debris, and the smell of tar. We have had to strategically guide program participants to areas of the building where construction isn't actively being done.

I even got to host lunch hour in my office one day. I got to show everyone how I'm nursing a blue hyacinth back to life, I circulated around Summer Program photos, and we played clips from the show Friends on my computer. It was like a picnic.

WALES Christmas Party

Recently, we had the WALES staff Christmas party.  It was held at my boss's house, and everyone was bringing something to eat, so it was also a bit of a potluck. I chose to bring blueberry tarts and mini pumpkin pies.

I may have mentioned it, but during this year's Summer Program, my then-boss would frequently make a point of bringing some kind of treat for the team, usually on a Wednesday.  In response to this, other members would make sporadic offerings, often in the form of Tim Horton's Tim Bits.

As I was late to the party, I figured I needed to take things a step further to compensate, and chose to deliver a series of homemade treats. These included banana bread, pumpkin loaf, blueberry tarts, and mini pumpkin pies.

As the tarts had gone over well, I decided to recreate them.

The night before the event, I made two batches of blueberry tarts and found both subpar. I became angry and couldn't find it in myself to attempt the mini pumpkin pies. Day of, I bought some storebought butter tarts, pumpkin tarts, and Portuguese custard tarts.

On my way over, I contemplated my frustration with the blueberry tarts and remembered a similar past occurrence. When I was in college for Social Services, I was in a group that held a fundraiser bake sale. My contribution was banana bread, pumpkin loaf, and blueberry pies.

After finishing everything, I chose not to bring the pies. My colleague was like "What? You have to, you worked so hard on them."

I responded with something like, "Look at those cracked shells. They are abhorrent. I'm trying to run a business and those will not only not sell, we will look bad for displaying them."

Somehow he managed to talk me into bringing them. This is how, on the only day I ever brought pies into the college, it coincidentally happened on Pi Day, the day in which the day/month/year comprised the first digits of the math equation, Pi. Epic.

Anyway, I had to duck out from the bake sale for a bit at first. When I came back, I noticed half a blueberry pie. I was like, "You actually managed to sell half of one of those? And where's the ugly pie?"

They said "We sold it, it's our best selling item."

I said "You sold the ugly pie first?"

So between my attempt not to bring in the blueberry pies for the bake sale, and more recent decision that I couldn't bring the tarts for the WALES Christmas party, this led me to ask "Why are you so critical and overemotional about home baked blueberry products?"

Well, my grandparents own property in Canadian Shield country, in which blueberries grow in great quantities. As a child, I would pick them and my grandmother would bake them into wild blueberry pies.

When I realized this connection, I was like, "You're seriously not comparing your blueberry products with a memory of what Grandma made, are you? There's so much room for bias! Your memory contains love for your grandmother as well as pride in your ability to contribute as a child. You'll never be able to compete with nostalgia."

When everyone was eating my store bought tarts near the end of the night, and I was more than a few drinks in, I attempted to explain my misadventure in baking the homemade blueberry tarts, and potential for bias when deciding not to bring them. Memory's blurry, but one of my coworkers mentioned the impression I left on her boyfriend. He said, "That's a man who respects his Grandma".

I also got to sample insanely good Scotch at that party. Turns out, my boss is the head of some Scotch club. At one point he said, "Anyone who wants to try Scotch, come join me in the garage". This must have been code for "secret boy club meeting" because every male followed, and every female stayed in the kitchen. That has to be one of the most stereotype affirming moments I've ever witnessed. I know some women like Scotch, I know two women whose drink of preference is Scotch.

I drank some insanely expensive stuff. I don't remember exact price, but hearing it made me feel dizzy. It was so good, it made me feel guilty. It was like being with a woman who is obviously out of your league and everyone knows it. I tried going back to the stuff I'd brought but my boss caught me and put me back on the good stuff.

That was some good Scotch, yo.

With this update, we have beaten last year's count, and I have  successfully fulfilled last years New Year Resolution. I'm going to try and get some more in before the years end, to set a new record to break. I may update more frequently for this next half-month or so to up my 2018 post count.

Pottermore

Recently, I learned that J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, has a website, called pottermore.com. As well as being a hub for information concerning everything applicable to the Wizarding World, it also includes a Sorting Hat test that will place you into one of the four Hogwarts student houses, as well as determine your Patronus, your wand, and your Ilvermorning house (North American equivalent of Hogwarts).

I would not say that I am a Harry Potter superfan. However, the format of the book series being publicized on a year-by-year basis synced up perfectly with my own growth. I was eleven when the first book was published, starring Harry Potter at age eleven. When Harry was twelve, I was twelve, when he was thirteen, I was thirteen etc. I literally grew up with him.

I became aware of this website when I started noticing people being proud of belonging to Hogwarts houses as if it were fact. Also, that they were proud of belonging to houses other than Gryffindor, which is where nearly all the main characters from the series are from. There were even people repping Slytherin, which was home to most of the series antagonists.

Very exciting. And best of all, J.K. Rowling invented the test, so it is canon!

As I am "Gryphon", a frequent nickname that many people come up with for me is "Gryffindor". Despite this, I thought I might fall into reliable Hufflepuff or intellectual Ravenclaw.

Wrong. Turns out I live up to my name, and proud to say I canonically belong to the House of Heroes itself, Gryffindor!

However, my patronus, that being a spell that takes the shape of an animal that represents everything good within you, is an adder. I'm a Gryffindor, but my patronus is a snake, the symbol of rival house Slytherin!

Even though Harry Potter's patronus is a stag, he did have an affinity for snakes, being able to speak to them intuitively using parseltongue. That, paired with the fact that the Sorting Hat seriously considered him as a  candidate for Slytherin, gave him a good deal of insecurity.

As my age syncs up so well with his, and having been sorted as Gryffindor but also having an affinity for snakes, makes me feel like I am literally Harry Potter.

My wand is 13 inches, pinewood, with dragon heartstring core, and supple flexibility. This means that I am flexible and adaptable, have a long lifespan, prefer nonverbal magic, and am a bit of a loner. I also have the potential to turn to the Dark Arts.

I'm also from the Ivermorning House Thunderbird. But since we have yet to see the inside of Ilvermorning, I don't particularly care. It was desribed on the website as the "House for adventurers". Kind of sounded like a North American equivalent of Gryffindor.

I've since been trying to convince people to take the test. So far, the only person I've convinced is my mother. Turns out, she is also Gryffindor, with a Newfoundland dog as a patronus. Her wand is twelve and a half inches, made of cherrywood with a dragon heartstring core and slightly yielding flexibility.

Jealous of her wand. Cherrywood is considered to have "strange power" and known as the most prestigious in Japan. It is considered intensely dangerous when paired with a dragon heartstring core, which she has, and must only be wielded by the most talented spellcasters.

I thought mine was cool, but Mom's got a legit prodigious, concerning wand.

My brother opted not to take the test for now. He is currently preferring to be a Muggle.

By the way, this is the post that ties me with last year's number. If I make one more post before the New Year, I beat last year and will have kept my resolution for 2018.

Legal Purchase of Cannabis

Not too long ago, I made a post about the legalization of cannabis in Canada. While I stated that I was in favour of legalization, I also spoke to what I perceive as a toxic weed culture that has been an aspect of our community for some time.

Well, to prove that I am actually in favour of legalization and responsible use, as opposed to being in favour simply because it allows easier public criticism, I have now legally purchased three different strains of cannabis.

I am now recorded as Gryphon Sibbald, Registered Social Service Worker, as someone who has purchased cannabis for recreational purposes from the Canadian government. I have a bank statement that says I have made a purchase from the Ontario Cannabis Store. I have received confirmation emails from the Canadian government regarding my purchase.

In my previous post, I said that I wasn't "super informed on the technicalities" of legalization. I am now super informed on the technicalities.

The only place in Ontario that you can purchase from is the Ontario Cannabis Store. Currently, you  can only order online: https://ocs.ca/

You have to be 19 years of age or older to consume.

You cannot consume in public areas.

You can legally own up to 30 grams at a time.

You cannot drive or operate heavy machinery while under the influence.

It is legal for four cannabis plants to be grown per residential unit.

Cannabis is a little different from alcohol in that, while alcoholic beverages come with different flavours and levels of strength, the overall effect is the same. With cannabis, there are two different kinds of high; one, a "head high" which many people feel improves productivity and socialization, and the other, a "body high", which increases relaxation. Generally, the "head high" comes through a strain called "Sativa" and includes high levels of THC, while the "body high" is more prevalent with a strain called "Indica" and contains stronger CBD.

The OCS sells three types: Sativa, Indica, and Hybrid. I decided to purchase one of each strain, with one THC dominant, one CBD dominant, and one balanced.

Strangely, despite Indica being stated as a CBD dominant strain, there was not a single product in their Indica line that had stronger CBD than THC. However, in their Sativa and Hybrid sections, they did have CBD dominant products.

And despite CBD being advertised as the relaxation factor, all of the heavy THC dominant Indica strains were described as being a more relaxing body high, as if they were CBD dominant.

In the end I settled on Dreamweaver, a THC dominant Indica, Harmonic, an evenly balanced Sativa, and Ace Valley CBD, a CBD dominant Hybrid.

Seeing the names for these brands is hilarious. You've got "Cold Creek Kush", "Ghost Train Haze", "Shishkaberry", "God Bud", "Tangerine Dream" etc. Their entire advertising campaign is based on black market branding.

Canada Post made a choice time to go on strike, right when legalization occurred. This set me back, but I have received my cannabis!

Once I have consumed each strain, I will make a review post on them.

Family Friend Passing

I recently learned that a close friend of the family passed away. Long time readers might remember me blogging about my family being in a partnership with another family in a small entrepreneurial jewellery making business. We had a stall at the weekly farmer's market in Guelph and a kiosk at Old Quebec Street Mall during the Christmas season.

Before all that, though, I met her when I took up a light landscaping job after finishing Ways2Work, which slightly predates this blog. This basically means I became her gardener.  I don't want to get too into it, but at the time we met, I was really unsocialized and lacking in life experience. It hadn't been long since graduating high school and finding myself without any sense of direction, as well as breaking up with my first girlfriend, so we met when I was at an all time low. It wouldn't take long after we met that my life would explode, getting into Katimavik, then my first full-time employment, then Canada World Youth, then college, then employment inside my field. So she really got to see the full spectrum of my life. She was always good for a pep talk and able to give me sound life advice based on her wisdom and experience, and I greatly valued her insights.

After working for her for a bit, she got to meet my brother and mother, and became good friends with both of them. This was also during a time that was relatively difficult for the both of them. We're all doing much better now.

From there, she and my mother hatched the jewellery making business idea, who kind of spearheaded it while me, my brother, and her partner were all involved as well.

She was like an honourary grandmother to the family, and I really did love her.

She had had a number of close calls with death. Even when I met her, she was contemplating her mortality. All things considered, we were lucky that she lived as long as she did. I got to speak with her shortly before she passed and she seemed healthy. It even caused me to pause and think that it had been a long time since she had had a medical scare.

That being said, her life had become more and more restrictive in the eight years that I knew her, and people close to her felt that it was her time to go.

I feel like I've experienced a lot of death in the past few years. I never really got to experience loss of a loved one as a child, so I feel like I didn't get to normalize the concept, or at least see it as natural. But my mother pointed out that at this time in our lives, I've experienced more loss overall than she has.

Back in high school, at the age of sixteen, a close friend of mine died by suicide. In college, a friend died of a rare neurological disease at the age of eighteen. This year, two people that I've worked with continually over the past four years passed, ages 28 and 46. Young deaths.

I'm sure that's not a huge list compared with some others, but each of those carries some weight. At least with this more recent passing, it more closely resembled old age and natural causes. Feels a bit less unfair, and even if I didn't get to say goodbye, our final conversation was sweet.

The Hat Man

A little while ago, I was clicking around on the Internet and came across a thread for people speaking on supernatural experiences. One person described an encounter with an apparition that was tall, wearing all black, wore a trench coat, was faceless, and wore a wide-brimmed hat. A number of people chimed in, saying that they had seen the same figure. There wasn't a ton of consistency surrounding the circumstances that he had been seen. Some people had seen him at night, during an episode of sleep paralysis, while others had seen him in broad daylight. Many people had seen him as children, but a number of people had seen him during adulthood, and some near their time of passing. Most people felt a sensation of terror on seeing him, but some people felt that he was a friend.

Obviously you don't take stuff like that at face value; a bunch of anonymous people on the Internet. It did intrigue me enough though, that I did a Google search. If you Google "The Hat Man" or "The Man with the Hat" he will be the lead hit.

He's been frequently seen enough that a book has been written about him "The Hat Man: The True Story of Evil Encounters" by Heidi Hollis. He was also the lead inspiration for The Grey Man, the lead antagonist from the video game "LSD Dream Emulator".

He was also an inspiration for Slenderman and he must have influenced The Babadook. 

He's mentioned in the Shadow People section of Wikipedia and has his own entry on Cryptids wiki.

He's been reported across the globe, usually visiting people who have experienced significant trauma. Usually he just stares. Some people say he has attacked them, some people claim to have talked with him. Sometimes he's seen with a golden pocket watch, which he occasionally looks at. Sometimes his eyes glow red.

But there are so many outlandish ideas that kick around the globe that it didn't really draw my attention.

Until a team meeting at WALES.

Do you remember the fellow I spoke on, who passed away before started my new job? He was minimally verbal, had invited me to a life-planning session, and was determined that I should come back to WALES before unexpectedly passing the day after I was accepted back.

During my student placement, he would pace back and forth and shout "Leave me alone!" and "Stop following me!". He also attended Summer Program and never said these things.

I always took his negativity at WALES to mean he was ill-suited to the higher energy, forward-focused environment, and that he was simply at a stage in life where a more relaxed focus like the Summer Program better suited his needs.

But during a recent team meeting, we talked about him. Apparently he thought that a man was following him around, and he was telling it to stop following him and to leave him alone. One of the facilitators said it was sad, but it seemed like he was trying to protect the rest of WALES from it. She said he'd at one time tried to explain what this man looked like.

I asked her what he had described.

She said it was "Someone tall, with a big hat, wearing a trench coat, with no face".

I shouted, "That's the Hat Man!" and we looked him up. Later, one of my coworkers asked around, and she found a friend claiming to have witnessed The Hat Man.

I have now purchased the book "The Hat Man".

Unfortunately, the book is very poorly written. Every second sentence ends with an exclamation point, she uses all caps for emphasis and occasionally uses an emoji!

But at the same time, the consistency of the reporting, including several sightings near to where I live, has me sufficiently spooked.

Cannabis in Canada

Since it's the talk of the nation, I suppose I should make mention of the fact that, as of last Wednesday, consumption of marijuana is legal throughout Canada. That was one of Trudeau's promises when he was campaigning. It felt like something that kept being postponed over and over again, and we went through a weird stage where people were saying it was "basically legal".

I'm not super informed on the technicalities. I know you must be 19 years of age or older, and you're not allowed to drive or work while under the influence. I believe you can't smoke in public areas. Even though it's legal to consume, I'm not sure there is anywhere you can legally purchase it. I've heard that, in Ontario, we are going to start selling it at the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) and I have also heard that we are going to open a new outlet, the CCBO (Cannabis Control Board of Ontario). I've heard you can legally buy it online now. There are other places in the world that have legalized it and have figured out their distribution process, so that makes sense. I think you're allowed to grow it, there are grow kits everywhere now. I don't know if it's legal to disclose stories regarding consumption while it was still illegal though, so I... won't be expanding on that.

Canada's really pitching the term "cannabis" over the word "marijuana". I'm not sure if one of those terms is more scientifically accurate, but marijuana has always seemed more commonly used, and now it seems like all government-issued discussion uses cannabis. Maybe it's because "cannabis" sounds more like "Canada".

During the day that it was legalized, one of the participants where I work burst into the building and shouted "It's pot week!" then pointed at me out of a group of people and said "Gryphon, are you gonna buy some?"

I stammered "I... acknowledge my right to speak on the matter.... but still don't feel comfortable disclosing that information".

I have yet to take advantage of my new legal right. I may or may not have used prior to the date it was legalized, but I definitely have not consumed since it became legal.

I'm in favour of this change. I think it definitely has medicinal applications, and even for recreational use, I can acknowledge it is no more dangerous than alcohol and tobacco.

But honestly, what I'm hoping for most is that now that it's legal and there isn't as much stigma surrounding it, we can start openly discussing responsible use.

As a nation, we've been fairly divided between those who think it is a drug and should not be consumed under any circumstances, and those who feel that it is okay to binge smoke constantly. I'm of the opinion that it's okay for most people to get high, but it isn't appropriate at all time and under any circumstances. That opinion seems to greatly upset both groups.

Many of the people I know who use cannabis cite it's medicinal benefits, speak on how it causes fewer accidents than alcohol, doesn't leave them with a hangover, and isn't addictive. Almost all of them call it a "Holy plant with many teachings" and describe it as "their medicine".

I hope that sounds exaggerated. It sounds exaggerated to me, but I've tallied the people I know who are regular users, and those who have used the phrases "Holy plant with many teachings" and "my medicine" outrank those who don't.

In regard to it's medicinal benefits. Absolutely. It has really turned things around for people with chronic pain, and there are even some extreme examples of people where serious damage was avoided due to the use of medicinal marijuana. But medical professionals determine whether or not their use counts as "medicine". As I've stated, I'm in favour of recreational use of cannabis, so I won't fault you if it helps with your anxiety. But when alcohol helps me with my anxiety, I don't refer to it as "medicine".

Also, while it does have medicinal benefits for some, it comes with its own risks. While it is a mild hallucinogen, it is still a hallucinogen, and depending on family background, it can increase risk of developing certain mental disorders. As someone with a family background of schizophrenia, I was very cautious of my use before the age of 25, since regular use of cannabis greatly increases the chances of developing schizophrenia in a still-developing brain if you're genetically predisposed.

While it won't leave you hungover, and doesn't incentivize people to act impulsively the same way alcohol does, I have never seen anyone "panic" under the use of alcohol, whereas with  cannabis...

If I had ever used Cannabis I might have noticed on several occasions a heightened awareness of my own blinking, breathing, and heart beating, which all seemed necessary to control manually. This mechanical sense of being would potentially divide my attention, feeling as though I couldn't live under normal conditions, and cause me to be suspicious of my surroundings, as well as feeling that, should I not be abl to keep track of my blinking, breathing, and heart, that I would die.

Never experienced that with the other legal substances.

If we're talking about addiction, it is true that it is not addictive on a physiological level. But anything that can put you in a reality that is more appealing than your default one can be psychologically addictive. I've had people preach to me that it isn't addictive, then later brag to me about being able to go a "whole day sober". If making it through a day without using is enough of a challenge to brag about, and you have no other physical need to use it, then I think it's hard to say you aren't struggling with addiction.

As far as it being a "holy plant with many teachings" , that seems to be a phrase cherry picked from Rastafarianism. I don't know a ton about Rastafarianism other than a dude named Haille Selasse (might be spelled wrong) was involuntarily selected as the second coming of Christ, and this inspired a number of Jamaicans to pilgrimage to Ethiopia. Part of that faith includes acceptance of the use of Cannabis, and that seems to be what Canadians have really clung to.

I don't expect any of my friends to be making a pilgrimage to Ethiopia, but they sure have no qualms with claiming a Rasta background based on their consumption of Cannabis. This claimed spiritual background allows them to say that, should I choose not to partake because of my genetic vulnerability, that I am "Failing to accept the teachings of this sacred plant".

I know a lot of people who tie their sense of self-identity to their use of Cannabis. I have many friends who refer to themselves as "potheads" or "stoners". In comparison, I know only one person who self-identifies as a "drunk".

And while we're on that topic, I enjoy the use of alcohol, but my first impulse every morning isn't to take a shot. I know many people who take a riff off a bong in the morning to centre themselves. I know people who drive to work high, and people who operate heavy machinery while high. Even if I drink, I don't feel the need to drink constantly.

I know people who have used who say they have forgotten years of their lives due to chronic use.

So yeah, if you like weed, please smoke it. Smoke it in the evenings before you go to bed, allow it to relieve you of the anxiety that comes with the day. Use it as a social instrument. If you don't like weed, don't make yourself do it. Be aware of your medical background and have an understanding of whether or not it makes sense for you to do. Please don't drive or work under the influence. Smoke up but be safe.

29

Alright, so it's October 15th and I am going to post about my birthday, which was September 21st. At work, they celebrate every staff member and participant's birthday, so they baked me a cake and had everyone sign a card. I got to choose the flavour of the cake, and I chose peanutbutter, which is a WALES traditional recipe. Oddly though, I was stationed in the kitchen while my cake was being made, so I wound up supporting someone in baking my own birthday cake.

A relative of a staff member had been passed due to give birth. We had all been waiting for it, and it happened on my birthday! So now I share a birthday with some kid.

Right as my birthday was announced, someone from head office came in with a bunch of succulent plants that she was giving away, so I got first pick as another sort of present. Now I have my own office plant!

Went to Guelph for my birthday, and super conveniently, two people I support canceled on me, so I got to spend three days over there.

The week after, it was my boss's 25th work anniversary. We had a barbecue, a slideshow, and an event specific to him. Lots of people came down from head office to celebrate. I got to learn how to set up a propane barbecue.

Here's a team pic of the 2018 WALES staff.

I got to attend a Core Competencies meeting, which is a set of policies that Extend-a-Family agrees to. We are divided into groups and we hold monthly meetings reviewing the policies. Somehow, I wound up agreeing to chair the next meeting, which I really don't understand how to do.

EAFY Day 2018

A little while ago, Extend-a-Family celebrated something called EAFY Day, in which the whole organization came together for a day of teambuilding in St. Jacob's market. This celebration happens once per year, and is always held in a different location and has a different theme. In previous years, they have had a Harry Potter themed day, a Murder Mystery, Roaring Twenties etc.

Back when I was a student, I was invited to the Murder Mystery EAFY Day, but I couldn't attend because of school, so this was my first time attending. This year's theme was "Find Your Happy", and we were requested to bring something that makes us happy. I got kind of stressed about this, thinking I might have to do some kind of presentation or something, but it turned out to be really low key. Basically, we listened to a presentation on the history of Extend-a-Family, and then we divided up to do things that make us happy. There were a few scheduled events, like a yoga session and a sign making session, that you could attend if you felt like it, but otherwise you just did your own thing.

I went on a nature walk and played some board games.

In the end I did find my happy though. Sometimes when I'm doing support work, I go to St. Jacob's Market. They have a place called Taste that sells various sauces, including ones that are made with some of the hottest peppers in the world. Taste's schtick is that you have the option of tasting whatever you want before you buy it. For some reason, I keep up with the race to make the spiciest pepper, and have always wanted to try a world-renowned heat, but have been too scared to attempt a tasting while I'm operating in a professional capacity.

This time, I was alone. I told the woman I wanted one of her hottest sauces. She recommends one made of pure Scorpion Pepper extract. She sees that I'm nervous, she brings out a bottle for me to taste. My heart is racing, I know what a Scorpion Pepper is, it's the second hottest pepper in the world, former record holder, hotter than a Ghost Pepper and only beaten by the Carolina Reaper (although a new pepper, called Dragon's Breath is rumored to be hotter). At any rate, this is easily in the top five of the super hots.

I lower the sauce-covered Popsicle stick to my tongue, the sauce lady is staring me down.

"Oh, that's lovely"

I always thought that once it gets to a certain point, flavour is no longer an objective, so I was surprised at how pleasant it tasted.

The sauce lady deflated a bit. "Well, you only tried a bit, if you had more--"

"Oh no I get it, it's a building heat. I really like that, I'll take a bottle."

And this is how I learned that I'm into extreme heat. I've always liked spicy food, but didn't know that enjoyment would carry into the super hots. The flavour and effect reminded me of a hot sauce called Pima (don't know the spelling) which they had in Mali.

In the days that followed, one of the WALES participants was talking about the pepper hierarchy and talking about watching videos of people attempting the Scorpion Pepper challenge. I got to show off my sauce.

My Pakistani roommate tried some and told me I "Passed the Pakistani test". I was at a barbecue with my neighbours from Nepal, which is apparently a weekly tradition now, and they were warning me about some of their spicy food. I bust out my Scorpion Sauce. They bragged about having peppers of an equivalent heat in their country. When people who take pride in having a background that celebrates heat brag about being on, but not surpassing, your level, that's when you know you're hot.

And that's how I found my happy at EAFY Day.

Teambuilding Day

This one should probably have been a number of posts. Since my last update, I've done a teambuilding workshop, EAFY Day happened, it was my birthday, my boss had his 25th work anniversary, and I attended my first Core Competencies meeting in five years. Once I gained regular employment, I was concerned that I wouldn't have much to talk about, or at least, anything interesting would be confidential. So far, that hasn't turned out to be an issue.

I'll start with the teambuilding session. My boss did something really sweet, in that he scheduled an entire day of team building to help me and the other new employee find our place within the team, which required our entire organization to shut down for a day. The session was based on our Personality Dimensions, which I've talked about at length as I have done that test at least seven times. It's the one that separates personalities into four different colours.

The person who usually hosts the exercise for Summer Program, and who has evaluated my results at least four times, was the one who covered this session. We actually spent it over at her house. We did the usual review of the four different colours and discussed the ways we connected with them, and then our main activity was castle building, which I've done once before at a Summer Program. You take a bag of material that includes popsicle sticks, streamers, balloons etc. and, within a team, you are tasked to use all the materials to build and present a model castle. The teams are divided in a way that puts people with different personality types together. Last time I did this, my team won. This time, we lost.

In addition to the Personality Dimensions, we looked over Introversion vs. Extraversion. Team of seven, we had three Extraverts and three Introverts. I was, of course, on the Introvert side of things. Of us three, two of us were prominent Introverts, while the other one was pretty blended, and then I was the only one who came out as having absolutely no Extraversion in me.

After this we did an exercise where we state what we feel about the other group, how we think they see us, and what we would change about them if we could. During the section where Introverts say how they feel about Extraverts, I went into detail about how jealous I am of them. Even though I find attention draining, I'm so jealous of how much attention they get, I'm jealous that they wish we would be more like them, and we wish we would be more like them.

My boss gave me a really insightful look and said "If you're that Introverted and have that strong of a Green personality, your need for recognition is never being met".

Never thought of it as a "need for recognition". I've always thought of it more as a character flaw. A petty aspect of my personality that I didn't like to advertise.

Blew my mind. Apparently it's just a quality that Green personalities have. In addition to everyone agreeing to point out my accomplishments, the person who ran the session told me I should point it out when I've done something praiseworthy. I was like "I couldn't, I would feel so selfish!"

In the end, when we talked about what we need from our teammates, I said "A word of acknowledgement, just so I know my efforts have been perceived". My boss said "I'm the same as Gryphon, it's just how Greens are".

Recently, there was a murder in Kitchener, really near the place I subletted for five months. Place I'd walked by on a daily basis. Happened in the morning, with lots of people in the area. Someone got out of a car, put three bullets in a teenaged kid's head, then drove away. I know a guy who knows a guy, who knows the guy that was sitting next to the kid when he was shot. Apparently it was a gang-affiliated thing. These acts of violence are getting closer to home all the time, yeesh.

A neighbour of mine got an article published. It's about how her toilet doesn't work, and our landlord refuses to cover it, and the landlord even went so far as to tell our plumbing suppliers not to service her. Here's the link:

https://www.kitchenerpost.ca/news-story/8932158-uninhabitable-conditions-in-kitchener-townhouse-complex-not-being-addressed-says-tenant/

This guy is the one who refuses to give a copy of the lease or rent receipts to tenants, who tried to charge me for an extra half-month of rent when I moved in, who sent the Super to my place to say that my cheque had bounced in the hopes that I would issue him a second one for the first four months I lived there, who always stops paying his Super Attendants after the second month of work, and who has physically assaulted tenants on multiple occasions.

So, hopefully he gets stung.

After three paycheques at my new job, I thought I'd be wealthier than I am. I wanted to get a dartboard, a YMCA membership, a cat, and a driver's license. So far, I got the dartboard and my credit cards payed off! So that's at least something!

I'm cutting off here. I will be back soon to detail EAFY Day, my birthday, my boss's 25th, and my Core Comp meeting. See you soon!

More WALES Stuff, Catching Up With Friends, Home Stuff

We have a new worker at WALES. She's relatively fresh to Extend-a-Family, so is getting acquainted to our systems and participants, but she's a week in and seems to be transitioning well.

I got to write my first Unusual Incident Report and my first First Aide report this week. Always feels like a milestone when working at a new agency. Nothing too serious, thankfully.

I didn't mention it, but on my first day, someone graffiti'd the WALES building. Just sprayed the tag "N4" repeatedly across our building, sign, and picnic tables, as well as the abandoned Catholic school next to us. They were a little bit more elaborate with their school graffiti, expanding the tag to the "North 4" and in places using the phrase "We the North".

That phrase sounded super familiar. Looked it up and it's the old Toronto Raptors (basketball team) slogan, which has since been replaced by "North Over Everything". Doesn't make a ton of sense to use it as a graffiti tag.

Some of the participants were suggesting it's a hate crime targeting the population we serve. I said it likely wasn't because they didn't predominantly hit us. But apparently the same tag showed up all over KW Hab, which is also a day program for people with differences, which is suspect.

One of my friends got shot. With a gun. By a person that was trying to shoot him with a gun. This happened a little while ago but I only heard about it recently. This past weekend we got together and he was pretty comfortable talking about it, and I got the full story. First time I've known someone who had something like that happen.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but the old group home I used to work at got shut down. I know I mentioned that my old boss and a handful of seasoned employees were fired, and there was a change in management, but more recently the entire house got shut down and all the residents were relocated. That's an old house, so this was a big deal. I linked up with someone on the inside and got the scoop on that too, although I won't be going into detail here.

I haven't talked too much about my garden this year. I'll give you some before and after pics.

It can be kind of hard to judge the height based on the picture, but some of those plants are taller than me! I actually ran into the issue that the tops are vulnerable to snapping during windstorms because they're so much taller than the bamboo stalks I fixed them to. This isn't the most recent image, I think they're actually taller now, but we're getting small frosts rolling through the city and it's making them look a little sickly, plus they took some damage after a couple of wind storms, so they're looking healthier in this image than if I were to snap a pic right now.

There's a lot of construction happening in the complex where I live. They've dug up sections at both entrances, as well as a bunch of the parking lot. I don't have a car, but if I did, I would be pretty mad at them for dumping a mountain of dirt on my parking spot. Right now, my regular path to my bus stop is blocked off and I have to go a round about way to get to it. I also have to walk around a mound of dirt to get into my unit. They've danger taped the area around our backyards, so there's no communal walking area.  When they first sectioned off an area, they put up a small fence that said the area was a nature preserve. But then they dug it all up, which is a weird thing to do to a place you just declared as a nature preserve.

I've been using my student card as a bus pass. In the past, they would put an expiry date on the cards and usually give, like, five years before having to renew it. So even if you stopped going to school, you could still use the card as a bus pass until it expired. Recently however, they converted to a system where you have to scan your card when you board the bus. And I guess you have to reload it annually because somebody deactivated my card. I had to buy a regular bus pass for the first time in a year.

First Week at WALES

I have finished my first week at WALES. I have my own desk, phone extension, business email, key to the building, and they gave me an iPad. Feeling pretty official!

We've been understaffed this week. Somebody is on maternity leave, another person got promoted and is no longer in our building, and someone else is on vacation. That leaves four of us in the building. Next week, a team member is returning from vacation and we have a new staff member joining us, so we will be fully staffed.

Training hasn't been too difficult. I know most of the participants already, and many of my responsibilities are the same as when I was a student. Mostly, I help people with their goals and record progress.

Summer Program is officially over. I dropped by on Tuesday after work and helped them out with some feedback forms and I bugged my old supervisor to give me my final evaluation, but I missed out on the team discussion of the year, sorting through photos, and phoning families for reviews. I feel bad about missing the team discussion and the agency-funded lunch, but otherwise, the bits I missed aren't the most exciting parts of Summer Program.

It's weird, throughout my professional life so far, I've only had to deal with coworkers on a peripheral or temporary level. As a Direct Support Worker, I worked one-on-one, as an Independent Facilitator, I obviously worked independently, as a Safe Management Instructor, I was the only instructor ever to not be stationed on Extend-a-Family grounds (which has now changed with my new position), and as a night shift worker at Hatts Off, I belonged to the only shift that didn't have a coworker. Even if you consider the people I've served as consistent influences on my life, I would regularly only see each of them once per week. I really felt like solitude was a major theme in my life. Now, I'm involved with a team of people that I will see day-after-day for the foreseeable future. It's an odd feeling.

The first time I approached WALES after news of my promotion had occurred, I was still with the Summer Program, and we were preparing for Overnight. Traditionally, WALES volunteers its space to store food items for the weekends between Prep Week and Overnight. This time, a number of staff and participants rushed out. Everyone is cheering, somebody points towards WALES and says "This is your building!" Everyone points toward it and starts saying "This is your building!"

I'm overwhelmed with emotion. As I think of a response, the bag I'm carrying, filled with canned goods, tears open and pours across the parking lot. I bend over to pick them up and my shorts tear from waistband to leg seam.

The only solution I can think of is to grab a garbage bag and tuck it into my waistband to cover the part that had torn. For the rest of the day, everyone was congratulating me on my success, and I had to go into the Extend-a-Family main building to sign some forms. No one mentioned the garbage bag, and I was too awkward to bring it up "I don't plan on always wearing a garbage bag, and it isn't a metaphor for me being garbage!"

Prep Week, Overnight 1 & 2, Evaluation Week 4

Summer Program 2018 has come to a close. My coworkers still have two days of evaluation left to do, but my job at WALES starts tomorrow so I'm cutting out a couple days early.
 

Because I had to announce my new job as well as pay my respects to someone I worked with who passed, I was unable to update for prep week, both weeks of Overnight, and I guess this post will cover evaluation week too. Basically a month, wow.

Prep week involved developing a meal plan, programming activities, grocery shopping, organizing our equipment, and going over participant files. It was only a three day week. Buying groceries for 25 people for two weeks is fun. We put different staff members in charge of different food categories. When you're in charge of meat, you feel like such a man, pushing a cart full of bacon, pepperoni, ground beef, deli meats etc. When you're in charge of produce you feel so healthy. But when you're in charge of grains, you just feel like a weird bread guy. This year I got produce and grains. Last year they were stretched pretty thin financially, I guess because cost of living has gone up and our budget didn't, but this year we had a budget increase so we were able to spend a bit more on food. They actually let me make my signature stirfry with fresh vegetables and vermicelli noodles instead of frozen vegetables and rice like in years previous. First week we spent about $750 on groceries, second week I think we spent a bit less because we were able to buy some stuff for week two in our first week.

This year we were stationed in Camp Everton, which was a new location. Compared to Impeesa and Kimbercote, Everton was enormous. The kitchen space was on an entirely different scale. At the other locations, you could barely fit two people for meal prep, at Everton you might be able to fit the entire camp. We had an on site pool which neither of the previous spots had, and their hiking trail had an obstacle course that included balance beams, rope ladders, a rock climbing wall, hurdles, and a few wobbly bridges that went over an actual river at kind of a high height. They had an archery station and I got to shoot a bow and arrow for the first time as well.

On the negative side, rooming accommodations were pretty awkward and the place wasn't maintained as well as Impeesa. Halfway through our first week we were visited by some people who told us that they had been testing for bedbugs and the tests came back positive. They said it was only for a twenty foot radius and only upstairs. But all the girls had their rooms upstairs, so they had to move into our section. Our section didn't have rooms with doors, we had “pods” of bunk beds, and we attempted to build privacy by tying shower curtains in front of the pods. The results were less than ideal.

We had to bag everyone's luggage going home, and everybody had to treat all their stuff as soon as they got back. Heat kills bed bugs, so I was instructed to put my stuff through a dryer. I've only got the tiny laundromat at my complex, and somebody took all my stuff out while my clothes were still sopping wet from being washed so they could put their stuff in instead. I really hope that whoever did that got bedbugs.

Besides the bedbugs, we had a bunkbed break and the water pressure died on us several times. At Impeesa, we had sort of a lounge area with couches and armchairs. At Everton, our common area was all hard benches and tables. Everton was like sacrificing quality for quantity.

Every year, we hold dances on Overnight Thursdays. On these days, the male staff members usually get their nails painted by female participants. By some weird coincidence, even though I've attended six weeks of Overnight previous to this year, I've only been to one dance. The reason for that is, my weekly break has been coincidentally scheduled for Thursday night every week except once. Because of this, I have refused each year to get my nails painted, as I would be about to spend four hours in the city. The one time I was able to attend the dance, I relented to get painted, but we couldn't find the nail polish.

This year we took a bus to the Overnight, and because most of us were without vehicles, we took daily one hour breaks instead of weekly four hour ones. That means no one got to leave camp, and that meant I was available to get my nails painted. Had it done each week, and funnily enough, despite my anxiety to wear nail polish in public, I forgot to get it removed in my second week and spent several days with my nails painted before I could get my hands on some remover. Had a lot of conversations with people, and nobody brought it up. I guess the moral of the story is, even if you're a man, you can get your nails painted and nobody will care.

I also let them give me a facial mask. Here's a pic.

 

While we're on the topic of skin care, is my skin... nice? I was hanging out with the female staff one night and they were going over their nightly skin care routine. They asked me if I had a routine which I took as a joke. They kept pressing and I kept taking it as a joke but they were weirdly insistent, saying things like, “You have better skin than any guy I know”, “It's so strong and clear”, “You have to be doing something” etc. and I kept saying things like “You're obviously joking. Nobody has ever said that to me before” They were persistent enough though that I eventually said “Well, I have a... tin of shea butter”. Then I went on my shea butter rant and they were all into it. And then they asked me if I drink a lot of water because apparently that's good for your skin. I told them I drink more than twice the recommended water intake per day easily, which they thought made sense. Then I spent evenings applying skin care products with the girls for the remainder of the program.
 

Every Summer Program, I drop one F-bomb, and it always happens at the Overnight. One year, the girls asked me to kill a spider. I went to take care of it, but when I made my move it jumped on my face and I screamed “F***!” One year, I was playing chess with another staff member. He advised me not to sacrifice my bishop as I wouldn't have any diagonal lines. I calmly said “F*** diagonal lines” before I could think twice. I was doing well this year until we were making stovetop popcorn from kernals and the people I was partnered with were hesitant and wanting to seek help from our on-site director. I responded “No, we're not calling for help. Now come on, we're F***ING DOING THIS!”
 

Cooking in bulk is fun, just like shopping in bulk is fun. I think I've mentioned it, but somewhere down the line I lost my ability to make pancakes. In Katimavik, I used to love waking up in the morning and making everyone pancakes, but where I live now, they fall apart when I try to flip them, or else they burn before I can. I think I can officially put blame on my pan or my spatula, because when I was at the griddle, I was making pancakes nine at a time, and each one was pure pillowy goodness.
 

Because our kitchen had so much space, we were able to take participants as volunteers if we wanted. I felt like a real chef allocating duties to volunteer cooks, especially because we got to use fresh ingredients this year. The participants told me that I came across as the team's “Kitchen master”, which I took to heart.
 

In the first week, I failed to start a campfire, so I kicked the metal basin it was supposed to be in and hurt my foot really bad. For some reason, it causes my calf to cramp up and so one leg always seems more tired than the other. I haven't exactly been going easy on it, as I've attended two dance parties, gone rock climbing, and played soccer with my injured foot. A go-to fun fact that I always use about myself is that I have never broken, sprained, or fractured a bone, but realistically speaking, I've probably fractured multiple bones throughout my life and just walked it off.
 

This week, I attended one day of evaluation week. We wrote up our final reviews of each staff member, we wrote an overview of how we felt the summer went, we wrote a newsletter article, we did receipts, and we inventoried our equipment. I won't be around to receive my final review tomorrow.
 

During the next two days, I'll miss out on doing some telemarketing calls to try and get parents and caregivers to review our services. I'll also miss out on a team meeting to discuss how the Summer Program should adjust itself in future years, which I'm actually kind of bummed out. The company is paying for a free lunch at The Mandarin, a Chinese All You Can Eat Buffet tomorrow, which I'll miss out on, and then the team usually goes out for lunch on the last day as well, which I'll also miss out on. Oh well. I still have to bake them all a loaf of homemade bread, as it's a tradition of mine to bake all the members bread on the last day of Summer Program.

Two Pieces of Weird News

Okay, so I'm going to have to break the Summer Program standard blogging format in favour of giving two pieces of unique news. Last week should have been "Prep Week Round Four", and it would have been, except that I received some information that I wanted to report but couldn't find the words. Since then, I've been gone for the first week of overnight camp, and there's a lot to talk about surrounding that, but honestly, I don't think I'll get around to it until after I'm back from the next overnight. So my next Summer Program-specific news will be next week, and it will cover Prep Week Round 4, Overnight Week 1 Round 4, and Overnight Week 2 Round 4.

I'm going to start my first piece of news chronologically. Inside the last two weeks, I have been confirmed as the new WALES In-House Facilitator! If you don't remember, WALES (Working Adults Learning Empowerment Skills) was the organization that I did my student placement with. I will be working Tuesday-Thursday. With my Direct Support contract work, I am now for all intents and purposes working full time. I've seen the two previous In-House facilitators upgraded to full-time WALES staff members, so I'll be concentrating on that going forward.

The second piece of news is that someone that I have been working with for the past five years passed away unexpectedly. I'd like to share some pieces of his story, and while I don't expect that I will violate confidentiality, I will use a pseudonym to further protect his identity.

After plugging some background information into a name generator, I got "John (Jack)". I'll call him Jack because that name is traditionally seen as heroic.

Jack was minimally verbal and didn't express himself much with words.  During my first student placement, he would pace back and forth moaning and frustrated many. One day I was assigned to teach him computer skills. He indicated that he wanted to go to lunch early, and while I desperately tried to tell him that while I wanted to let him do that, I was bound to the same rules as him, and we had to finish our computer practice. As I was telling him this, he said his first words to me, "You're one of the good guys".

After this, I was able to interpret everything he said. I was excited and my current mentor suggested that I make my student placement goal to be building a relationship with Jack, as I had seen a side of him that no one else had. I was in charge of helping him do his weekly plans after this.

At one point, a PATH and MAP session was built for him. If you don't remember, I have been trained in facilitating these sessions. They basically explore your history and future goals, and a graphic is created for the person being represented. These sessions can become very intimate. When asked who he wanted to attend, Jack said "My sister, and my friend Gryphon".

I taught Jack the secret handshake I had with the Malian children of Karadie. He was the only person I trusted with that.

He also came to most of the Summer Programs that I had a role in facilitating. The more relaxed pacing of the Summer Program did well for his reception, as opposed to the more work-focused expectations of his day program. He was relaxed at Summer Program, didn't express much agitation, and was appreciated by staff and peers.

But this year, he came to Summer Program, and things were a bit different. At the end of the day, we fill out journals. In the past, I was able to draw visual aids that he would point to, which would indicate how his day went. This year he was unable to process any visual cues.

I wound up providing personal care for him which he had never required assistance for before. This would take hours per day, but it didn't really bother me.

It became an issue though, when we were going to African Lion Safari and we needed to get him onto the bus. I was encouraging him to join the rest of the group, and he was receptive, until he decided that he required personal care. I told him that we had already been through this each day this week, that I knew he felt like he needed this care but in reality he wouldn't be able to go, and that he needed to choose whether or not he was going on the trip or going home.

He raised his fist and screamed "MOVE!" This gentle man who almost never spoke. And I told him "You can see me as a bad guy, I don't really care. More frightening people have raised their fist at me."

Those were my last words to him, and as it turns out, he was experiencing a pain that would later kill him.

As he was leaving with his sister, I turned to my On-Site Director and said "I hate that. For all we know, that's the last time we'll ever see him, and those are the words I left him with". I have never speculated on the death of someone I support before, and there were no real reasons for me to think that he would die.

It also sucks because he had, over and over, explained to me that I needed to go back to WALES. He was explaining that to me this year. And the day after I was confirmed that I would be returning to WALES, I learned that he had passed.

Wacky Water Week Round 4

Well, this past Friday marks the end of day program for this year. All that's left is a week of prep for the overnight, our two overnight weeks, and then an evaluation week.

I didn't mention it, but this year we hosted the day program at a new school. For my first two years, day program was hosted at St. Mary's high school. For my second two years, it was held at St. Dominic Savio elementary, and was also held there last year, which I didn't attend. This year, both St. Mary's and St. Dominic's were under construction, so the day program was held at St. Paul's.

St. Mary's was larger than St. Dominic's, and St. Dominic's was larger than St. Paul's, so every time we've changed location, it's been to a smaller area. St. Dominic's was the only place with an air conditioned gym.

We're at a new overnight location this year as well. Like with day program, I've been at two other locations, Camp Impeesa and Camp Kimbercote. Kimbercote was a rustic location far from the city which was a ton of fun but was eventually deemed too inaccessible for us. Impeesa was a site near the village of Ayr, which was fairly accommodating and accessible, but it's been booked by someone else this year.

So this time around, we'll be going to Camp Everton, a location just outside of Guelph. I've never been, but it looks like their cabins are far larger than what we're used to. We'll have our own outdoor pool, the kitchen looks like it could fit our whole camp into it, and the bedrooms are immense.

For some reason this year, there has been more need for physical interventions than in years past. I've had to perform three hair pull releases (AKA "The Worm"), which is a technique taught in Safe Management for helping someone else escape from a hair pull. Until this year, I have only ever had to perform physical interventions in the group home. Feels weird having to write an Unusual Incident Report at the Summer Program. At least now I know The Worm works in a real-world environment. We can add that with the J-Roll for intervention techniques tested and proved reliable in a real-world setting. I know that there have been interventions that I wasn't involved in as well.

Between the Summer Program and Direct Support, I have been so exhausted. One day, I went out to water my garden, and I fell asleep in a lawn chair! I realized this as I woke with the sun in my face. That means I slept the whole night outside completely unintentionally. Today I am enjoying my first day off for the past seven weeks. I was going to have last Saturday off but someone called me in to be a relief worker. I get tomorrow off too, since Prep Week is only three days long.

I'm spending my days off in Guelph. This would be the first time in seven weeks that I've seen my family, but last week my cousin drove me over and we had dinner with them.

The group home that I used to work at shut down. Not the organization, just the house. I don't know details.

Over the weeks, the Summer Program Coordinator has been bringing in regular treats for the rest of the staff, with little messages with puns based on the treat, such as "You all deserve extra 'BROWNIE' points!". Most of the other staff have given it a go as well, leaving me as one of the ones not to contribute, which was irritating.

All their stuff was store bought though, so I figured that the only way to make up for my late contribution was to put a bit more effort into it.

For Hidden Talents week, I baked banana bread and pumpkin bread, with the message "Sometimes you might feel like you're going 'BANANAS' but I know you 'PUMP-CAN' do it!" and this past week I made a batch of tarts, including blueberry, lemon, cherry, and pumpkin variants, along with the message "Every great day s-'TARTS' with a great team!"

Ha!

...I haven't even talked about this past themed week yet.

The weather was forecasted to have thunderstorms every day last week. It would have fit the theme of the week, as it would be pretty wacky and full of water outside, but it would also be pretty inconvenient as all the water-based activities were scheduled to be held outdoors so as not to get the gym floor wet. Luckily, the forecast was flat wrong, and all we had was a bit of rain on one of the days and it didn't even interfere with our schedule.

Our special guest was a Drum Fit instructor. We have this every year, but we used to have them for Get Your Game On week, which we now have X-Movement for. Our old water week guest used to be a clay art instructor, which we no longer have.

If you haven't heard me talk about it before, Drum Fit is where an instructor gives out exercise balls and drum sticks to people and leads them through a series of exercises based on drumming. It's surprisingly intensive. One highlight this year was when the instructor told us all to jump in the air and shout "YEAH!" and for some reason I was the only one who did it. That was pretty awkward.

Our day trip was to Bingeman's Water Park. We used to go to Wild Water Works in Hamilton, but the trip was always long and there was always something that happened to make us late coming back. One big reason we didn't go to Bingeman's in past years is because it's close enough that it doesn't feel "special". But whether or not the novelty of going somewhere far away is worth the inconvenience is up for debate.

Wild Water Works had three stations: water slides, wave pool, and a lazy river. Bingeman's also has three, but instead of having a lazy river, it has a splash pad. The waves in the wave pool at Bingeman's are also far less intensive. I hit up each station but only went down one water slide.

One stand out activity we had this week was Reverse Paintball, which is also something we do every year. The participants have the opportunity to paint us head to toe, and then they have to shoot us with water guns and throw sponges at us to knock the paint off.

Here's a pic of the team all painted up:

Hidden Talents Round 4

Last week was Hidden Talents themed. Our special guest was a couple of painters who instructed us as we painted a sunset/sunrise with something silhouetted against it. As you may know, I developed a taste for painting last year, and while I'm not much compared to other members of the family (common interest that I picked up late) and I kind of learned to hate the art world (Artworld?) between my Art and Society class, and my project on Malevich  (Black Square guy) for Russian Studies, I still have fun. I got absorbed enough in it I felt more like a participant of the program. Participants around me were cheering me on, somebody said "Try not to startle Gryphon, I don't want him to make a mistake when he's doing such a good job" and the instructor wanted to take a picture of me with my painting. That kind of encouragement and acknowledgement is usually directed toward participants, not leaders, so it was a little weird. I really did like my painting though. I did a silhouette of a tree and some birds. I made the colours darker around the sun, though, and made them fade lighter with distance, which doesn't make any sense. Oh well.

Our day trip was bowling and a movie. Last week we did bowling as well, so I was a little more practiced this time around, and I think it showed. Last time, I got one strike which bounced off a bumper, and this time I got four strikes with one that bounced off a bumper. So basically, I got three strikes this time, and I didn't get any last time.

I feel like I hit the bumper more often than I'd get gutter balls if the bumpers weren't there. The security of having the bumpers seems to take away some of the pressure, and it hurts my game.

For some reason, everyone on my team would only use pink bowling balls, so I had to stock up on those. Somebody from the lane next over bounced their bowling ball and it flew our direction. I thought their ball would end up in our lane and stealing someone's turn, but instead it wedged itself behind a bumper. Someone managed to get a gutter ball when the gutters were blocked.

The movie we watched was Ant Man and The Wasp. I'd never seen the original Ant Man, but it didn't hurt the experience too much. They had a kind of creative way of incorporating a synopsis of the previous movie partway into the film, which helped. Definitely one of the more lighthearted of the Marvel superhero movies, and the most obscure superhero that they have decided to highlight.

At the end of the movie, one of our participants pointed to Ant Man and said "I want to be just like him". I said, "Yeah, he's your hero?" and he said "Yeah, I want to be just like Iron Man!"

I flipped, "He's Ant Man! We just watched a whole movie on him!"

I support a guy who is into the Marvel superhero movies, so I've seen most of them. I was depressed to realize that, when one of the participants brought in his extensive collection of Marvel action figures, I was able to identify each one.

A big draw to Hidden Talents week is our talent show, where everybody takes a turn making a performance. 90% of them decide to sing (just like my high school's talent show) but we had that one participant do his action figure show & tell, and we had somebody shoot basketball hoops.

One of our guys wanted to dance to Shake it Off by Taylor Swift, but he wouldn't do it unless I was his backup dancer. And then when we got there, he kind of hid back shyly and I was stuck as the sole dancer. If you don't know Shake it Off, it's a highly energetic song about a woman who gets over negativity by shaking it off on the dance floor. Not something I would volunteer to dance to on stage.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfWlot6h_JM

Thankfully, he got his confidence partway through and started doing somersaults and spinning and breaking out dance moves and I got to fade into the background like a proper backup dancer.

The leaders got put in costumes as well, so this is what I was wearing.

I haven't mentioned it, but in years previous we have had a bus and a van to transport everyone for swimming days and day trips. Depending on the week, we would would sometimes have more 1-to-1 workers, which would make it difficult to arrange transportation. This year, we don't have the van, but we are using two buses to get everywhere. This makes things way more convenient.

One of them is a regular yellow school bus and the other is a white accessibility bus. For whatever reason, I usually wind up on the accessibility bus. I used to shout "WHO'S EXCITED TO GO SWIMMING?", "WHO HAD FUN SWIMMING?", "CAN I GET A BIG THANK YOU FOR OUR BUS DRIVER?" etc., but for whatever reason, the accessibility bus tends to get chosen by quieter types, so I haven't been able to shout.

We used to have a very specific bus driver that we would special request every year. He took the time to get to know the leaders and participants, and would sometimes attend our field trips and would go to the I Choose Dignity rally, so besides being a bus driver, he was also active in our cause. Last year, he wasn't able to work for us, for unknown reasons. So this year, we have two new drivers. Yellow bus driver is more energetic, and white bus driver is more chill.

I forgot to mention, but during our training weeks, we did an Escape Room. That's where you're locked in a room with a bunch of hidden clues and as a team you have to piece them together to escape. We did this in my last year of Summer Program, which was two years ago, and they did it last year, although I wasn't around. You have an hour to complete the challenge. In my previous attempt, we only made it 55% of the way. Last year, they almost made it out but didn't manage it. This year, we made it! We used 58 minutes and fifty three seconds of our hour, but we did it!

Get Your Game On & Vibrant Volunteers Round 4

Alright, so I know that I haven't updated for the previous two weeks, but let's see if I can get at least three done for this month. One big reason that I haven't updated is because I've had to arrange for a pretty cool interview. I don't think I'll expand on it right now, but I'll go into more details when they get back to me, whether or not I get chosen.

During Get Your Game On week, our special guest was an Australian athlete who went by the name of Naps. He instructed us on how to play Cricket and other Australian games. Our Friday event was bowling and then swimming at the Swimplex in the Rec Centre. My whole life I've been bowling using my thumb, index, and middle fingers, but apparently you're supposed to use your thumb, index, and ring finger, to keep the ball balanced between your index and pinky fingers. I thought this would be my secret weapon and drastically improve my performance, but unfortunately, I only did about as well as usual. We had bumpers up, so you couldn't get gutter balls. I only managed one strike that game, but I got it after it ricocheted off a bumper, so I knew it was actually a gutter ball. Everyone cheered for me, and I couldn't discount my success, because if I did it would discourage those who used the bumpers for support.

The Swimplex was fine. I know I've mentioned it before, but between my roles as a Summer Program Leader and Direct Support Person, during the summers I swim 3-5 times per week. Between all the pools we use, I find the Swimplex a little awkward. The shallow end only reaches my waist. The deepest of the shallow end is in an area called "the horseshoe", which is a transition from their wading pool ramp and wading pool to the regular shallow end. Why would it start shallow, get deep, then become more moderate? Shouldn't it be a consistent graduation of depth?

There is a small deep end, but it isn't attached to the shallow end, and most of it is reserved for lane swimming. The deep end is actually so small that I thought it was just another lane for the longest time. They have a hot tub, but it's huge and not very hot. It's more like a "warm tub". But regardless of what I think, everyone else seems to love the place, so whatever.

To be able to enter the deep end, we were required to do a swim test, which was performing a front crawl from one side of the shallow end to the other without touching the floor. I was mildly proud when I passed the test, as I don't have much in the way of formal training. None of us went to the deep end though, so it was kind of pointless.

During Vibrant Volunteers week, our special guest was a Mennonite group who helped us build care packages for people in third world countries. They couldn't get a person to come in though, so our "special guest" was our Summer Program Coordinator, who relayed their message and instructed the group.

Our day trip was to Hacienda gardening facility. I ran a group that pulled defective lettuce. Then we went to the Swimplex again.

Usually when I work for the Summer Program, I buy a pair of shoes right before it starts, then note the shape they're in before and after the program. This year it was impossible because even though I bought a pair of shoes right before the program started, they only lasted three weeks before falling apart. I had to buy a pair on my way to work one day because the sole completely detached. I'd like to judge my new pair by the same criteria, as they seem to be holding up better, but it wouldn't be right since they got off three weeks easy.

During a game of Mission Impossible, which is an activity where you have to hide behind barriers and steal items while people look for you, I managed to shatter my phone's screen. I had army crawled up to one barrier, and when the moment was right, I sort of sideways summer saulted to the next one. This cause me to hip-check my phone a number of times. It still works, and I know other people use phones with shattered screens, but this is the first time I've cracked the screen before the rest of it broke.

Usually during the Summer Program, something goes wrong with the first paycheque and we have to wait for the second pay period. This time, we were paid on time at first, but they missed the second. This is frightening to me, because I relied on that cheque to pay rent, and the next pay period was past the first of the month. But somehow our On-Site Director twisted their arm and we got paid today.

During the time where I thought I'd have to survive until the next pay period, I broke out my piggy banks. I'm pretty sure I mentioned them once about two years ago. Well, this isn't the first time I've opened them, but it is the most lucrative. I found out I had $557 in change!

My garden is doing well. The cherry tomato plants are beating the regular tomatoes in terms of height. I've got green tomatoes growing on both of them, though. My bell peppers and cucumbers aren't producing right now, but my banana peppers look like it won't be long before harvest time.

All Around The World Round 4

If you saw my last post near to when it was published, you should probably check it again. I edited it so that most of its current information is new. I added most of the information about training week, and some stuff about my personal possessions.

I got an air conditioner. Just a one-room window-installation type thing, but it's been a life-saver in this past week's heat wave. A neighbour was selling his old one for $50, which I took him up on. A window air conditioner at Wal Mart costs about $200, and then I'd have to worry about transportation, so a $50 one was a steal for me.

I get that it will hike up hydro costs, and that it's environmentally unfriendly and will just heat up the outdoors in the long run, but heat rises, and my bedroom was easily the hottest room in the unit. It had been nearly impossible to sleep and the AC has changed everything for me.

It's kind of like when everyone was saying that those space heaters would cost us more when our electric heaters broke. The electric heat was already an expense, it didn't make a ton of sense that it would cost more when channeled through one device than another. And it didn't make a significant change.

My roommate has also installed an AC into his room. Apparently, a friend of his gave him one, but he hadn't thought about the details of installing it until I got mine. After I got mine installed, it motivated him to figure out his. So now there are two air conditioned rooms in the unit.

I have an Air Miles Rewards card now. Last time I tried for one, I got rejected because I hadn't lived in the same place for over two years. This time around, somebody gave me a card without question. I signed up, spent a few weeks telling people I didn't have the card because I wasn't sure how to use it. Today I used it for the first time.

This week at Summer Program, we had a special gust come in and give us an exotic animal show. In previous years, we have had presentations on more fear-inducing animals such as snakes and spiders. The goal was to freak everyone out a bit. This year, we chose a show with soft, pleasant animals, such as a cockatoo, a chinchilla, and a tortoise. The goal was not to overstimulate anybody, so this time I didn't get to drape a boa constrictor around my neck or have a tarantula crawl all over me.

Our end of week trip was to African Lion Safari. Me and a coworker wound up being left behind to deal with something. We didn't think we'd make it to the tour on time but the bus driver was super cool and waited for us. When me and my coworker boarded the bus, we got cheered by the group.

Last week I was asked to cover for someone, so I wound up working evenings as well as my day job. Whenever I work in both capacities, I shift on at 8:30 AM for my first job and shift off of my second at 9:00 PM with only enough time between them to travel. That's thirteen and a half hours, and it takes me an hour at the beginning and end of the day to travel. I usually do this twice a week, but last week I did it four times. My shortest day was when I had to decline a direct support shift because we were having a staff meeting, which was the longest day for everyone else. Only worked ten and a half hours that day!

All week I only got to see my garden by flashlight.

My sickness came back a bit too. My throat became sore, my cough came back, and my eyes even redeveloped their infection seemingly for a day. Didn't exactly get to spend the week resting though. I work on the weekends too, but far fewer hours, so at least I've been able to rest a bit.

This cough has been with me for about a month now. Ugh.