Garden 2018

I did another session of Safe Management. This one was interesting because we were training the WALES facilitators. Those are the people who run the day program where I did my student placement. We also had a crop of direct support people who were recertifying from the first Safe Management session I ever taught. I guess that means I've been doing it for a year.

It was also the first time that I've ever attended a recert-only session, which means that nobody was new to it. Last time I taught it, there was somebody who only needed to attend the second day because she was recertifying, but everyone else was new.

Started my garden for the year. Last year, the only good crop I had was from the cherry tomatoes, so this year I got both cherry and regular tomatoes to capitalize on what I know works. I also got cucumbers because everyone was telling me they are a reliable entry-level crop even though last year my zucchini plants were healthy but didn't produce. Since the two vegetables are pretty similar, I was hesitant but still decided to give it a shot. Figured I'd have a bit more space and wanted to try something new, so I got bell peppers and banana peppers because they were near the tomatoes and cucumbers section and I figured those crops might be place together because of ease of growth. I also built a fence out of chicken wire with bamboo posts and put snow peas around the perimeter, so they can climb up the fence.

My roommate has gotten really into it. He helped dig the plot, pitched in on fertilizer, and is generally helping with the maintenance. We went deeper and pulled out more stuff than last year, and we put more fertilizer than last year as well.

I'm worried I overcrowded. The other people in the neighborhood who are gardening are impressed by how large-scale I went, and they think I've given more than enough space, but honestly I think that's because they just have worse over-crowding issues than I do.

I went into my backyard the other day to see two of my neighbors admiring my plot. When I was building the fence, a young girl from the neighbourhood asked me if I had made it. I said I had and she said "It's beautiful". Nice to see it being so well-received.

Somebody wanted to plant mustard seed in it, but the plot is already over crowded. They asked if I would be making a second plot, but feh, my backyard is pretty crowded as it is. Guy lives in an upper unit. The complex is divided evenly between upper and lower units, and the upper units don't get as much opportunity for agricultural endeavors.

My roommate one generation back came over to hang out.  Everyone in the neighbourhood was surprised to see him because I never managed to squash the rumors that I kicked him out. Since I kicked out my roommates two generations back, I guess I developed a bit of a reputation for it. I'd tell them that for my last roommate, it had been a mutual agreement, that we were closer now than before we'd lived together and that we actually make an effort to hang out but nobody really believed me until he made his reintroduction. Hopefully now people see me less as a person who kicks people out of their homes.

Katimavik and Summer Program

Katimavik is back! Apparently it got it's funding back three months ago, but I didn't realize until I recently got an email asking me to make a financial contribution. Since it had it's funding cut, Katimavik has been able to somewhat maintain it's existence by hosting small group projects funded by donations. However, those projects were more similar to my experience with Ways2Work than than Katimavik. The groups would be focused in one area and be made of local youth, the programs were shortened, and there would be some specific goal. I think they had one for struggling youth in Quebec, and an environment focused one in British Colombia.

But now it's back in it's proper format! Government funded, six months, split over two rotations. It's not back to it's former glory, however. They had three different program themes to choose between back when I did it. I think my theme was cultural integration and civic engagement. Now the only available program is language themed. Three months in an English speaking region, and three months in a French speaking one.

Also, participants are encouraged to fundraise to cover a portion of the cost of the trip, similar to what was requested of me in Canada World Youth. So obviously, the government funding isn't as significant as it was before, but they've just confirmed their second set since launch, so I'm very, very hopeful. Justin Trudeau was a former Katimavik Project Leader and literally won a boxing match against a politician opposed to funding the program, based largely on the decision to cut funding, so I've been hoping for this.

I got accepted for my old Summer Program position. I didn't get the promotion I was going for, but they gave me a raise and a modified contract "In acknowledgement of the three years I've served the Summer Program, and with the expectation that I will serve a leadership role for those new to the position". Still a little frustrated, but I was pragmatic enough to realize that if I didn't take the position, that I would just go back to my group home work, and every time I was being assaulted, I would think "I could be playing duck duck goose right now..."

I'm going to be training the Summer Program in Safe Management, which is going to be a weird dynamic. I don't know if I'm going to be paid double because I'm serving two roles, or if I will have to volunteer twelve hours of my time at the end of the summer because for twelve hours, I'm technically not on duty as a Summer Program Leader because I'm busy teaching them.

Family Friend and Mom's Birthday

A friend of the family has been visiting my mother and brother in Guelph. He's the one responsible for introducing my father to my mother, so he's indirectly responsible for me and my brother being born. He was in the hospital while I was being born, and he sheltered my family during a difficult time of need. Despite having such significance during the early years of my life, he moved out of province when I was young, and it has been over twenty years since I've seen him.

He came to visit a number of friends and family that he also hasn't seen since moving, and he brought one of his daughters with him for the first portion of his trip. He was planning to stay in a hotel but my mother offered to let them stay at her place.

It's a little bit interesting, because when my aunt and cousin have visited Guelph in recent years, they have stayed at my mother's place. My mom's place is becoming more frequently used as an overnight residence, even though it's only a two bedroom apartment and two people already live in it.

Coincidentally, it was also my mother's birthday and also Mother's Day (very convenient to have your mother born so near Mother's Day). Even more conveniently, I usually work weekends, but I had a cancellation, so I was able to visit Guelph on my mother's birthday.

The family friend's daughter had already left by the time I arrived, but I got to meet with the family friend for the first time in over twenty years.

Some of my grandparents visited for my mother's birthday and they took us out for lunch and dinner. Mom got to choose where we would go and she chose a few places we'd never been before. We went to the Greek Garden for lunch, where I had the souvlaki plate, and to the Bread Bar for dinner where me and my brother split a Bee Sting Pizza (honey and chili flavoured).

For her birthday, I got my mom a bean grinder. I was a little skeptical, because my mom doesn't drink much coffee, but it's what she requested. Apparently she's into cold brew now, and it's useful for chopping nuts as well. I got one with a five year warranty and settings for how fine or coarse you want things chopped, and I also got her a couple different coffee bean flavours. My brother got her a bunch of presents.

I have all my grades back for last semester. I passed everything by a safe margin.

Group Interview

So I attended the group interview for the Summer Program Assistant Onsite Director position last Monday. That's a level above the Summer Program Leader position, which I've held the three other years that I have worked for the Summer Program. The only difference is that in addition to the standard Summer Program Leader tasks, the Assistant On Site Director is in charge of the Peer Leader program. The Peer Leader program is an opportunity for people diagnosed with a developmental disability to hold a leadership position in the Summer Program, which may include hosting activities, assisting with the implementation of activities, engaging participants, and set up. The Assistant On Site Director would be in charge of hosting interviews for Peer Leaders, programming their training, evaluating their goals, and overseeing their progress throughout the program.

Last time I mentioned that I had to do a group interview, which I hadn't needed to do since my first year of Summer Program. I said they had me "jumping through hoops" which I hadn't needed to do other years when I was a return staff. I thought that was weird, and suspicious.

Well, I was waiting for the interview. I was the first there, so I got to see the three other people sign in asking about the Assistant On Site Director position. I was like "You're all here for Assistant On Site Director? None of you are here for Summer Program Leader?"

And then it clicked. First year, I applied for the Assistant On Site Director position instead of the Summer Program Leader, because I didn't know the difference between the two positions, and I felt like "Assistant" was a weaker title than "Leader". So I interviewed for Assistant On Site Director and wound up with the Summer Program Leader position. In years following, I was requested to interview as a returning staff and didn't ask about the specific position. So they only interviewed me for my previous position as Summer Program Leader. This year I specifically applied for the Assistant On Site Director position, and so for the first time since my first year, I did the expanded interview.

When going in, I told myself that I wouldn't talk up  my credentials. Part of me wanted to address everyone applying with, "Yeah, I've got four contracts with Extend-a-Family, did my student placement with them at their day program for two years consecutively, done three years with their Summer Program, and I teach their Safe Management courses." But I thought that would be unprofessional, and would be perceived as unprofessional.

My interview was at 5:00, and the office shuts down at 4:30. I showed up at around 4:30 and as other applicants arrived, they got to see every office worker stop and make small talk with me, implicating my extensive history with the organization.

My fellow applicants gave me some suspicious  glances and I was like "I've been with Extend-a-Family for a bit"

It also created an interesting dynamic between me and the current Summer Program Manager and On-Site Director, as they clearly didn't know how much they were supposed to acknowledge our previous history.

Our icebreaker question was "If you were a crayon, what colour would you be?" I said "I would be purple because it's the combination of red, the hottest colour, and blue, the coldest colour, and therefor, it is the ultimate colour".

All three interviewers broke out in heavy laughter. There's a difference between familiar laughter and stranger laughter. Familiar laughter is wild, while stranger laughter is controlled. The strangers cast looks at me.

Our first task was, as a group to create a program lasting for three hours, which needed a high-energy activity, a low-energy activity, a craft, and a closing activity. We had a set of resources, and we were told that, within the group we were facilitating for, we had two people with manual wheelchairs, one person with an electric wheelchair, and someone who can only hold attention for ten minutes. We developed an ice breaker activity, an obstacle course, a sitting-parachute activity, and a build-a-country course. Then we all had to present one section each with the interviewers acting as participants.

Weird dynamic because we're all competing against each other, but we're competing to prove how good we work on a team. So we're competing to be the best at being inclusive and making our competitors look good.

Then we split into pairs and were asked to do roleplay exercises. I had to pretend to be a staff member who was texting incessantly due to a family emergency while being quite defensive about it while my partner played the role of a staff member who needed to confront me about it. Then I had to be a staff member that had to confront my partner, playing a participant, who refused to leave the bus while an angry bus driver shouts at me. Then I had to play a participant that ran away from the gym while my partner probed me as to why. Then I had to be a worker that had to develop a strategy with a fellow staff member who was uncomfortable to lead a group alone or confront an escalating situation when a program participant had just thrown a rock at us and run into the woods while we were taking a walk through the woods and had no communication devices.

Then we had our one-on-one interviews. They had given the questions ahead of time, so it wasn't too intensive. Soon as I was alone with the interviewer he was like "Now we can finally stop pretending not to know each other. I really appreciate how you didn't try to intimidate the other applicants. They have some good experience but you have the most".

Then I did a written bit, developing a strategy for a program participant that was having difficulty engaging herself. Then the interview was over. They said they will get back to us late next week.

Chocolate Favoris

In early April I made a post about a chocolate coated ice cream store that was opening in Guelph, and how I was excited about it because over five years ago, me and a group of people went to one of them in Quebec City. Being the only person in the group to not speak French, I responded "non" to a question regarding my order and walked away with a plain ice cream cone when the place was known for their chocolate, not their ice cream.

This was in Canada World Youth, and in this program we had an anger management exercise where we were supposed to consider if we would still be angry in five hours, days, weeks, months, or years, and if we wouldn't be, is it really worth getting angry over to begin with? I would use this as a bit and explain how after five years, I was still angry that I didn't get my chocolate, and so yes, it was worth getting angry about.

I recently facilitated a Safe Management course, and after the first session, me and my co-facilitator went out for ice cream.

We got into the store and I ordered a large, crunchy hazelnut with dark chocolate. The person I was ordering from asked me what my name was, so I said "Gryphon", to which he responded, "Oh sorry, I should have asked you what your name is" which was confusing but inconsequential.

I was in a crew of six, composed of me, my co-facilitator, her husband and child, and one of her friends. They all got their orders before I did. I started to think "Something's going to happen, life won't let me have this." Then I see my cone in preparation. Man, the large was a LOT larger than I was expecting! There were like, five scoops on it! The dude looked super concentrated as he balanced the cone and prepared to dip it in the chocolate. This place just opened, so it's not like these people are seasoned ice cream preppers.

He dunks it in and I wonder what happens if the ice cream falls out. Would he have to replace the entire vat of chocolate? But it comes out, the mountain of chocolate coated ice cream wobbles back and forth before being cemented in place as the chocolate hardens.

He drizzles a little bit of another blend of chocolate on top, then sprinkles shaved hazelnut, and starts placing chocolate covered hazelnut on top. All the way through the cone looks unstable and I want to tell him to stop playing with it and just give me the cone. But I wait and the end result was glorious. He was actually getting praised by his fellow ice cream people for his craftsmanship.

Even though it had hardened, I still felt cautious about handling it, just because the ice cream stack was so humongous and the cone itself was so tiny. It looked like something out of a cartoon.

My co-facilitator was surprised at how well I managed to keep the ice cream out of my beard. Chocolate coated ice cream is one of the most difficult things to eat with a beard, by the way. The first time I tried it, way back in Katimavik, I wound up looking like I had straight up mashed my face into a bowl of ice cream. And that was with a regular sized cone without any additional adornments. Taking down this behemoth of a cone was like the ultimate test of all my practice eating messy things with a beard.

Somehow I managed to eat the whole thing. Pretty pricey. $10 for a freaking cone of ice cream. If I ever go back (and I probably will, my mother and brother want to go), the medium is more than enough, but I'm kind of glad I did the large on that trip. I'd waited over five years for it, after all.

It was brought up, what would have happened if I had said "Oui" that first time in Quebec City. There is no way I would have been able to navigate the menu. So I was able to retroactively determine that, while disappointing, I actually made the right call all those years ago. Talk about closure.

On the second Safe Management session, my co-facilitator asked me to tell the ice cream story. She'd taken a picture of me with the ice cream cone (I'll try to get a copy of it) and it kept being referenced throughout the session.

The previous day I had preached about self care and the importance of a healthy diet in regard to mental wellness. Then afterwards, I stuffed my face with ice cream.

I got an interview for the Summer Program. They're making me do the group interview though, which I haven't had to do since my first time. Making me jump through the hoops.