Sneaking in one last update in March.
It's finally done. The fiscal year is over and I'm going back to my usual schedule tomorrow. No more double shifts and I get a day off again.
Except I have a special training session to go to tomorrow, so that's not off, and I'm being requested for an evening shift next Monday as well. Well, I'll probably get a day off half a month from now, at least. Oof.
I started paying off my student loans. It's like $80 a month until it's paid off. Pretty much means an extra bill, roughly equivalent to Hydro.
I didn't have to loan anything for college, and for my year at University, more than half of it was a government grant. But I still have an annoying little chunk of debt from the time I spent there.
I always have conflicted feelings when I talk to U of W students doing their placements at Extend-a-Family, or when I visit (sometimes I go to their Earth Sciences museum for work-related reasons, and it's the place to be on a Pokemon Go Community Day). On one hand, I really enjoyed my experience there and still feel some sense of pride as a former student. On the other hand, I dropped out before I could gain a credential because I got a job, and now I'm paying for the experience.
My mom's cousin, so I guess my Uncle once removed? was in Canada for business-related reasons recently, so he wound up doing a tour of the Canadian branch of the family tree. He's the guy who gave me the first three Harry Potter books.
I was pretty washed out, though. I had just finished with Safe Management, which was the last really difficult thing to schedule for during this last leg of the fiscal year, so the visit happened during my peak levels of stress.
Originally he was going to bring my aunt to Guelph, and then bring my mother, brother, and aunt to my place in Kitchener. But they overshot Guelph and wound up in Kitchener first, so they instead drove me to Guelph, where we had our visit, and then he drove me and my aunt home.
It was kind of a letdown, since it would have been the first time my mom has visited since I moved out seven years ago, and the second time that my brother has, and for him it would be the first time since I moved out of student housing. Oh well.
I've been sick recently. Mostly respiratory. At first I thought it was just allergies, since apparently I have allergies now, but then it got into full-blown illness territory. Lots of coughing and sneezing, bloodshot eyes, really pervasive headache. I'm pretty much done with it by now, though.
It snowed last night. We've been pretty deeply into Spring for a few weeks now. I'd officially traded out my winter coat for a spring jacket. When I woke up, looked outside and saw we were in the dead of winter again, I just laughed. My roommate has a bet with a coworker that it will snow in April. Just one day off and he would have won the bet on the first day. Maybe it will snow a little tomorrow.
At work, we're having these three-person discussion groups where we talk about company culture. We get to choose who we work with, and I got special requested someone. You wanna know by who? By the person who runs all of Extend-a-Family! The top rung of the ladder!
I'm so nervous. It's happening this Wednesday. When I first got the request, I was in the WALES kitchen and started making exclamations. At one point I said, "I'm so scared, I'm actually dying!" to which a number of the people we serve took literally, and they started shouting and reassuring me that I wasn't actually dying.
Sunday, March 31, 2019
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Toronto Trip and Small SMG Group
Hi all,
Recently my brother went on an adventure to Toronto with some friends. They went to a board game convention and toured a number of local attractions, including the CN Tower and the Ripley's Aquarium. I haven't been to the CN Tower since I was a child. It used to be the World's Tallest Tower, but was surpassed and became the World's Tallest Freestanding Tower, maintained that title for 32 years, and is now merely the world's tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere, and the ninth tallest free-standing structure overall.
He says I oversold the invisible floor. Before I went, I was under the impression that my fear of heights was based on survival, and that once I reached a height where I knew I could only go splat, my anxiety would not rise further. In fact, I guessed that, if we got high enough that things looked surreal enough to seem like a map, it would be unrealistic enough to alleviate some fear.
That was not my experience on the invisible floor. I realized that my fear increases proportional to my position to the Earth, regardless of survivability. But he says that the scuffs and scratches on the glass made him feel like he was on a platform and not hovering. Maybe the glass was fresher when I went on it.
I have wanted to go to the Ripley's Aquarium for a long time now. Apparently everything is ramps to be wheelchair accessible, and they will dim lights for people with sensory issues. I don't require accessibility, but due to my line of work, this is a major selling point.
Last weekend I did a couple of Safe Management sessions. Attendance was an all-time low. We were supposed to have ten people, but only six showed up, and the next day, only three people attended the physical implementation portion.
I received a really confusing call from the person who oversees Safe Management. It sounded like she was offering me a day off due to low attendance, but after I hung up, I realized that she had said that I might get the second day off, when I know that day 2 is the re-certification day and the one with higher attendance. I also noticed she said that I could take a day off but was worried about how I would feel presenting on my own.
Everything seemed to make sense, but after the call I realized that I didn't know if Saturday or Sunday might have a facilitator off, and I didn't know if it was me or my coworker that might get it off.
I opted to just show up. I brought my laptop and an oldschool USB of the Safe Management slideshoiw from when I did my original Train the Trainer. I figured I have a key to the WALES building, so worst comes to worst, I park a group around my laptop at WALES and host a super low-key training session.
Turns out it actually was day two that had less attendance, due to the fact most people were first-timers and only aiming for partial-certification. My co-facilitator seemed kind of impressed that I was ready to go solo with my makeshift resources. We both wound up doing the full two days.
Recently my brother went on an adventure to Toronto with some friends. They went to a board game convention and toured a number of local attractions, including the CN Tower and the Ripley's Aquarium. I haven't been to the CN Tower since I was a child. It used to be the World's Tallest Tower, but was surpassed and became the World's Tallest Freestanding Tower, maintained that title for 32 years, and is now merely the world's tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere, and the ninth tallest free-standing structure overall.
He says I oversold the invisible floor. Before I went, I was under the impression that my fear of heights was based on survival, and that once I reached a height where I knew I could only go splat, my anxiety would not rise further. In fact, I guessed that, if we got high enough that things looked surreal enough to seem like a map, it would be unrealistic enough to alleviate some fear.
That was not my experience on the invisible floor. I realized that my fear increases proportional to my position to the Earth, regardless of survivability. But he says that the scuffs and scratches on the glass made him feel like he was on a platform and not hovering. Maybe the glass was fresher when I went on it.
I have wanted to go to the Ripley's Aquarium for a long time now. Apparently everything is ramps to be wheelchair accessible, and they will dim lights for people with sensory issues. I don't require accessibility, but due to my line of work, this is a major selling point.
Last weekend I did a couple of Safe Management sessions. Attendance was an all-time low. We were supposed to have ten people, but only six showed up, and the next day, only three people attended the physical implementation portion.
I received a really confusing call from the person who oversees Safe Management. It sounded like she was offering me a day off due to low attendance, but after I hung up, I realized that she had said that I might get the second day off, when I know that day 2 is the re-certification day and the one with higher attendance. I also noticed she said that I could take a day off but was worried about how I would feel presenting on my own.
Everything seemed to make sense, but after the call I realized that I didn't know if Saturday or Sunday might have a facilitator off, and I didn't know if it was me or my coworker that might get it off.
I opted to just show up. I brought my laptop and an oldschool USB of the Safe Management slideshoiw from when I did my original Train the Trainer. I figured I have a key to the WALES building, so worst comes to worst, I park a group around my laptop at WALES and host a super low-key training session.
Turns out it actually was day two that had less attendance, due to the fact most people were first-timers and only aiming for partial-certification. My co-facilitator seemed kind of impressed that I was ready to go solo with my makeshift resources. We both wound up doing the full two days.
Thursday, March 7, 2019
LinkedIn and Transit
So far I'm not doing too well on my New Year's Resolutions! My 2019 resolutions were to work less, get a cat, and to have a higher post count for this blog by 2020. So far, I've updated twice in January, three times in February, and this is my first March update, when I was hoping to update at least weekly.
The fiscal year ends at the start of April, which means that everyone I work for loses the remainder of their previous funding and gets it renewed. This means that everyone is requesting extra hours in case whoever assesses their needs decides "If you don't use it you lose it" and reduces their funds. So I'm working seven days a week right now, and a good number of double shifts.
And of course I haven't gotten a cat, just because I'm way too distracted at the moment.
I recently updated my LinkedIn. On the off chance you don't know what that is, it is a social networking website, kind of like Facebook, but based on your professional life. Your profile highlights your work experience, allows you to endorse people for professional competencies, and makes an effort to link you with employers looking for people with your skillset. Since I have been employed or otherwise occupied for the most part, I have not felt the need to keep track of my profile. Every once in a while, I would receive an email saying that I had shown up in a number of searches, or someone would congratulate me on my work anniversary. I would usually attempt to log in, get informed that I misremembered my password, and promptly give up.
So I finally got around to updating it. I added my position at WALES, and despite mentioning that this happened six months ago, I guess it let everyone in my network know that this had just happened, because I received an influx of congratulations on my new position. Also, interestingly, it let people know that this was a "promotion", since I've had previous experiences with Extend-a-Family. I guess that's more-or-less true, even though it's not a totally linear path (From Summer Program to Direct Support to Safe Management Instructor to WALES Facilitator).
I was surprised to see that I had been a Direct Support Worker for four years, a Safe Management Instructor for one, and that I've already been a WALES Instructor for half a year. Concept of time, yo.
The buses in the KW region are updating their fare system. Since I came here, we've had these bus passes where you just show the driver, they make a visual confirmation, and you step in. Now they have these cards where you scan them and let a computer system verify your pass. They're even phasing out physical bus tickets. If you use tickets, you will need to purchase a card and load them on digitally.
This is supposedly in preparation for our upcoming Light Rail Transit, so that we have a streamlined form of payment that works throughout all forms of public transit in the KW area.
I'm not all that opposed. It takes away a bit of freedom from the driver, but this system has been a long time coming. They haven't forced it yet, but I got my new scannable card, just to stay a step ahead.
The fiscal year ends at the start of April, which means that everyone I work for loses the remainder of their previous funding and gets it renewed. This means that everyone is requesting extra hours in case whoever assesses their needs decides "If you don't use it you lose it" and reduces their funds. So I'm working seven days a week right now, and a good number of double shifts.
And of course I haven't gotten a cat, just because I'm way too distracted at the moment.
I recently updated my LinkedIn. On the off chance you don't know what that is, it is a social networking website, kind of like Facebook, but based on your professional life. Your profile highlights your work experience, allows you to endorse people for professional competencies, and makes an effort to link you with employers looking for people with your skillset. Since I have been employed or otherwise occupied for the most part, I have not felt the need to keep track of my profile. Every once in a while, I would receive an email saying that I had shown up in a number of searches, or someone would congratulate me on my work anniversary. I would usually attempt to log in, get informed that I misremembered my password, and promptly give up.
So I finally got around to updating it. I added my position at WALES, and despite mentioning that this happened six months ago, I guess it let everyone in my network know that this had just happened, because I received an influx of congratulations on my new position. Also, interestingly, it let people know that this was a "promotion", since I've had previous experiences with Extend-a-Family. I guess that's more-or-less true, even though it's not a totally linear path (From Summer Program to Direct Support to Safe Management Instructor to WALES Facilitator).
I was surprised to see that I had been a Direct Support Worker for four years, a Safe Management Instructor for one, and that I've already been a WALES Instructor for half a year. Concept of time, yo.
The buses in the KW region are updating their fare system. Since I came here, we've had these bus passes where you just show the driver, they make a visual confirmation, and you step in. Now they have these cards where you scan them and let a computer system verify your pass. They're even phasing out physical bus tickets. If you use tickets, you will need to purchase a card and load them on digitally.
This is supposedly in preparation for our upcoming Light Rail Transit, so that we have a streamlined form of payment that works throughout all forms of public transit in the KW area.
I'm not all that opposed. It takes away a bit of freedom from the driver, but this system has been a long time coming. They haven't forced it yet, but I got my new scannable card, just to stay a step ahead.
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