Recently, I got to go work in a girls grouphome. One night, after I had shifted on at my regular place, I got a call saying that the night shifter at one of the girls homes couldn't work at that location because of a recent event. She was the only staff member there, and they asked me how many people there were at my location. Well, it was just me, so the idea was proposed that me and the other night shifter would trade places for the night.
Now, it's really common for females to work in male homes, but it's much rarer for males to work in female ones. Typical issue, the social services is flooded with women, so they can pick and choose where to put their men, so they put us where we can be "positive male role models" and where a little extra physical strength may be appreciated in an instance of physical aggression. But since the vast bulk of the workforce is female, the female-only homes are usually staffed by women only, and the male homes are mostly staffed by women as well.
Some female homes will have one male staff member, which the girls refer to as their "male staff" as if that's a job title. But at the place they were sending me, having a male staff was almost unprecedented, and I may have been the first male night shifter in their history. The whole thing was a last-minute arrangement.
Now think of these circumstances. I'm called in last minute in the dead of night. All the girls are asleep at the time of the arrangement, so there hasn't been any opportunity to let them know they're having a male night shifter for the first time. Among my night shift expectations, normally I'm supposed to do room checks to make sure no one AWOLs. Imagine how that would look, creeping into the house in the dead of night and sneaking into teenage girls rooms and looking at them while they sleep, when half of them don't even know me.
Thankfully, the evening staff was very emphatic that I was not to engage in the usual expectations. She basically told me not to do room checks, not to clean, and in an emergency, not to do any physical interventions, just call 911. Basically, just position myself in the living room and seem as not-creepy as possible so that the house isn't technically unstaffed.
First night, I didn't see anyone. Me and the other night shifter were texting back and forth, which was a pleasure. It almost felt like I wasn't working alone for once.
Then they needed me to be the night shifter at the girls place again, since the situation hadn't completely resolved. This time I encountered three of the girls. First one that saw me, a huge grin split across her face and she was like "Oooooh, who are you?" which was not the reaction I was expecting. I told her I was a substitute night shifter from the boys house. Then she wanted me to gossip about the boys there, but I told her I wasn't here to gossip and she needed to get her glass of water or watever she was doing and go back to bed, which she did.
Nice feeling to be listened to. At the boys home, I'd likely get a response like "YOU THINK YOU'RE BIG I OWN THIS HOUSE!!!".
Second girl just came and stood in front of me and stared until I introduced myself. Then she said "Are you even allowed to be here?" to which I responded that I'd been asked here by head office, so I guess so! She relaxed a bit, I apologized if I was making her uncomfortable. She said I wasn't, asked me my name again, I told her, she introduced herself and went to bed.
Girl three took a glance at me, went into the kitchen, grabbed a bowl of potato chips and went to bed. She's not allowed to have those, but since I'm scared crazy of having accusations put against me, if the girls first thought is that there's a new staff so maybe she can get some potato chips out of it, and not there's a weird guy in the house, I'm just like you go girl. Not picking up that conflict.
That morning, I got a text saying that the boys at my regular spot were all awake and throwing a riot. As soon as morning staff came in, they drove me over to the boys house so I could yell at them.
Next day the issue was resolved and I could return to my usual station. I was happy to. Girls scare me. A boy is generally more likely to try and break your nose, but a girl is more likely to make a false accusation that could damage you professionally. I'll take my chances with the boys.
Then this week, the kids went camping. For some reason, that did not mean my shift was canceled. This means that, for the first three days this week, I was looking after an empty house. I'd come in at midnight, watch the empty house until 9 AM and leave. PAid at my usual rate. Easiest money I ever made. I had some chores to do, but really, didn't even fill a night.
I got some big news! I'm GOING TO UNIVERSITY! Starting this September, University of Waterloo, doing Social Development Studies, working toward my Bachelor of Social Work. I get about a year shaved off because of my transfer credits from Social Service Worker at Conestoga, and I even get a few extra because of Human Services Foundation. I just gave my notice to Hatts Off, I;'m going to stay on their relief list. This means that I'll still have three jobs while I'm in University, haha. But definitely reduced hours and a lot more control of the schedule.
Friday, August 18, 2017
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Family Get-Together
Recently my grandparents came to visit my mother and brother in Guelph, and my aunt and cousin were planning to be there as well. Unfortunately, I'm so locked in with work, it didn't seem that I would be able to make it to the get-together. However, by some quirk of fate, the entire household at the grouphome decided to go camping for three days and two of my direct support contracts went on vacation at exactly the right time. My boss gave me the option of tending to the empty group home or taking the time off, so I just took the time off.
My aunt and cousin stayed over at the Guelph location overnight, which including me made for five people in a two bedroom apartment. Probably the most people to ever stay overnight there.
I was going to stay for two days in Guelph, then come home and do such things as turn my timesheets into Extend-a-Family and visit the Summer Program again, but I kept letting time slip away and postponing things until I heard that the Hattsoff camp was getting called off a day early and I had to go back a day before I thought I would.
Makes sense the Hatsoff thing didn't go as planned, it was awkwardly timed. The week before, two of the kids were away camping, and we got a new kid a couple days before the trip. That means that two of them would be sick of camping, and the other would still be getting used to the house before setting out.
But yeah, last week we were at half capacity with only three kids in the house, and we've had an empty room for awhile now. This is the first time in a good bit that the house is full. Still, I don't make lunches anymore, since it's summer vacation and I don't have to wake the kids up for school either. So some of my duties are still diminished.
We lost two of our summer staff. Without getting into it, they chose to go a separate direction. But that means we have no morning shift, so we've been finding people to fill the morning shift, either through relief workers or getting our house staff to do overtime. We can't get our UMAB trainer to cover only two people either, so unless we hire six new workers, we have to find two new employees that are already UMAB trained.
A neighbor of mine recently got evicted. She was an older woman whose husband left her about a year ago. This overlapped with the time that I was looking for a roommate after my first batch at my current location. Unfortunately, her home was fully loaded with items. Logistically, if I'd moved in with her, there would be no place for me to even put down a mattress or store my clothes. She wasn't willing to part with any of her belongings and she was attached to where she lived. We quibbled about who'd move where, and eventually I took another roommate. Time passed, and she managed to last long enough on her own that I grew to believe she was financially secure and her need for a roommate was more due to loneliness than anything.
But then she got evicted, couldn't find anywhere else, and now she's in a homeless shelter. She left everything behind. Saw her place unloaded recently. People can judge her lifestyle, but it was still pretty depressing to see her lose everything after she fought so hard to hold onto all of it.
My aunt and cousin stayed over at the Guelph location overnight, which including me made for five people in a two bedroom apartment. Probably the most people to ever stay overnight there.
I was going to stay for two days in Guelph, then come home and do such things as turn my timesheets into Extend-a-Family and visit the Summer Program again, but I kept letting time slip away and postponing things until I heard that the Hattsoff camp was getting called off a day early and I had to go back a day before I thought I would.
Makes sense the Hatsoff thing didn't go as planned, it was awkwardly timed. The week before, two of the kids were away camping, and we got a new kid a couple days before the trip. That means that two of them would be sick of camping, and the other would still be getting used to the house before setting out.
But yeah, last week we were at half capacity with only three kids in the house, and we've had an empty room for awhile now. This is the first time in a good bit that the house is full. Still, I don't make lunches anymore, since it's summer vacation and I don't have to wake the kids up for school either. So some of my duties are still diminished.
We lost two of our summer staff. Without getting into it, they chose to go a separate direction. But that means we have no morning shift, so we've been finding people to fill the morning shift, either through relief workers or getting our house staff to do overtime. We can't get our UMAB trainer to cover only two people either, so unless we hire six new workers, we have to find two new employees that are already UMAB trained.
A neighbor of mine recently got evicted. She was an older woman whose husband left her about a year ago. This overlapped with the time that I was looking for a roommate after my first batch at my current location. Unfortunately, her home was fully loaded with items. Logistically, if I'd moved in with her, there would be no place for me to even put down a mattress or store my clothes. She wasn't willing to part with any of her belongings and she was attached to where she lived. We quibbled about who'd move where, and eventually I took another roommate. Time passed, and she managed to last long enough on her own that I grew to believe she was financially secure and her need for a roommate was more due to loneliness than anything.
But then she got evicted, couldn't find anywhere else, and now she's in a homeless shelter. She left everything behind. Saw her place unloaded recently. People can judge her lifestyle, but it was still pretty depressing to see her lose everything after she fought so hard to hold onto all of it.
Thursday, July 20, 2017
Return to Summer Program
So a little while ago I visited the Summer Program
They kept the staff shirts orange, which is the colour I proposed, and which we changed it to last year. Happy to see that, makes me feel like my influence had some staying power, although because Extend-a-Family apparently can't stand to use the same shirt design twice in a row (their logo changed once per year three years in a row, and then when they finally stuck to one, they changed the colour) they now have the "Leader" and "Peer Leader" print done in large stylized-informal lettering on the back. They also have a logo "Live Life Fully" in the same informal lettering on the front. I like the new print design, but I'm undecided on whether or not they really needed a logo. I like that they changed the word "Staff" to "Leader" since Peer Leaders are staff as well. At any rate, those shirts will stand out more compared to other camp staff shirts.
New staff team doesn't have any green personality types. If you remember, Summer Program always does Personality Dimensions which defines people by one of four colour types: Authentic Blue, Resourceful Orange, Organized Gold, and Inquiring Green. I'm Green, and first year we had one other aside from me, but the past two years I was the Group Green, and now that I'm gone, they don't have any intellectual type. How will they get by.
They have a better spread for conflict intervention styles. Last year we were all but one Compromising, which caused our team name to be The Compromisers. They have four returning Compromisers so it still has a strong tendency that way, but at least the new three are different.
Their team name is The Beehive. I... I don't like it.
They killed Personality Bingo, which was the weekly icebreaker that I used to host. Knew they'd do that.
When I got in, they were playing Mission Impossible, which is the game where people have to steal bean bags from one end of the gym and bring them back. Program Leaders shout a number of seconds, count it down, and when the time is up, look over the gym and try to spot participants. There are a number of obstacles placed throughout the gym that participants need to hide behind when the time is up, and if they are caught, they must return to the front of the gym.
So of course, I show up and everyone is hiding. I get noticed and a bunch of people compromise their hiding spots by exclaiming in surprise.
I just got thrown into it. A staff member needed to do something outside the gym and asked if I'd take over supporting someone. Kept providing support through a game of "Knight, Horse, Cavalier" and "Frogger".
Knight, Horse Cavalier is a new take on Huckle Buckle. Difference is there are only three specific poses in Knight, Horse, Cavalier. Frogger is a new take on Murder Wink, sifference is, instead of having a murderer who kills with winks, you have a frog that licks flies. The implied violence of Murder Wink has been a topic of discussion in the past, but honestly, no participant has ever seemed bothered by it. I used to act all theatrical when I'd get "shot" by the wink. It's hard to know how to react to being licked.
Stuck around for lunch. When everybody was getting their hands washed, I was still supporting someone. One of the staff members asked if I was "good" which is a covert way of asking if you are able to lead the group on your own. I was so stoked! Leading a group again!
It was a good group, lots of people I have a long-standing relationship with, both participants and staff. Some of the new participants were confused at how I fit into the system, and were asking if I was various peoples fathers, and even got asked if I was the boss of the Program Leaders (haha). Even the new staff I was kind of familiar with, since I taught them Safe Management.
A lot of the participants wanted me to go swimming with them, which is what they were doing after lunch. But I'd worked a nine hour night shift before coming to Summer Program, and I'd already worked half a day. I knew if I swam, I'd come back, and then all there is is journals, and then the day is over and I would have officially worked two shifts in a row and wouldn't get any sleep that day.
Really took it out of me, especially since I climbed a mountain the day before (just gonna drop that there casually). I really don't have the time to be running around with my old job.
...I'll visit them one more time before they leave for Overnight.
They kept the staff shirts orange, which is the colour I proposed, and which we changed it to last year. Happy to see that, makes me feel like my influence had some staying power, although because Extend-a-Family apparently can't stand to use the same shirt design twice in a row (their logo changed once per year three years in a row, and then when they finally stuck to one, they changed the colour) they now have the "Leader" and "Peer Leader" print done in large stylized-informal lettering on the back. They also have a logo "Live Life Fully" in the same informal lettering on the front. I like the new print design, but I'm undecided on whether or not they really needed a logo. I like that they changed the word "Staff" to "Leader" since Peer Leaders are staff as well. At any rate, those shirts will stand out more compared to other camp staff shirts.
New staff team doesn't have any green personality types. If you remember, Summer Program always does Personality Dimensions which defines people by one of four colour types: Authentic Blue, Resourceful Orange, Organized Gold, and Inquiring Green. I'm Green, and first year we had one other aside from me, but the past two years I was the Group Green, and now that I'm gone, they don't have any intellectual type. How will they get by.
They have a better spread for conflict intervention styles. Last year we were all but one Compromising, which caused our team name to be The Compromisers. They have four returning Compromisers so it still has a strong tendency that way, but at least the new three are different.
Their team name is The Beehive. I... I don't like it.
They killed Personality Bingo, which was the weekly icebreaker that I used to host. Knew they'd do that.
When I got in, they were playing Mission Impossible, which is the game where people have to steal bean bags from one end of the gym and bring them back. Program Leaders shout a number of seconds, count it down, and when the time is up, look over the gym and try to spot participants. There are a number of obstacles placed throughout the gym that participants need to hide behind when the time is up, and if they are caught, they must return to the front of the gym.
So of course, I show up and everyone is hiding. I get noticed and a bunch of people compromise their hiding spots by exclaiming in surprise.
I just got thrown into it. A staff member needed to do something outside the gym and asked if I'd take over supporting someone. Kept providing support through a game of "Knight, Horse, Cavalier" and "Frogger".
Knight, Horse Cavalier is a new take on Huckle Buckle. Difference is there are only three specific poses in Knight, Horse, Cavalier. Frogger is a new take on Murder Wink, sifference is, instead of having a murderer who kills with winks, you have a frog that licks flies. The implied violence of Murder Wink has been a topic of discussion in the past, but honestly, no participant has ever seemed bothered by it. I used to act all theatrical when I'd get "shot" by the wink. It's hard to know how to react to being licked.
Stuck around for lunch. When everybody was getting their hands washed, I was still supporting someone. One of the staff members asked if I was "good" which is a covert way of asking if you are able to lead the group on your own. I was so stoked! Leading a group again!
It was a good group, lots of people I have a long-standing relationship with, both participants and staff. Some of the new participants were confused at how I fit into the system, and were asking if I was various peoples fathers, and even got asked if I was the boss of the Program Leaders (haha). Even the new staff I was kind of familiar with, since I taught them Safe Management.
A lot of the participants wanted me to go swimming with them, which is what they were doing after lunch. But I'd worked a nine hour night shift before coming to Summer Program, and I'd already worked half a day. I knew if I swam, I'd come back, and then all there is is journals, and then the day is over and I would have officially worked two shifts in a row and wouldn't get any sleep that day.
Really took it out of me, especially since I climbed a mountain the day before (just gonna drop that there casually). I really don't have the time to be running around with my old job.
...I'll visit them one more time before they leave for Overnight.
Monday, July 10, 2017
Tooth fairy, fidget spinners, new staff and roommate
Being the tooth fairy is really intimidating, I don't know who came up with it. Since I'm the night shift worker, it usually falls on me to fill this role. It's one of those things you don't think about until you have to do it, but it's more complicated than you would assume. Not only do you have to plant the money under the kid's head without waking them up, but you have to search for the tooth as well. Absolutely no way that if someone came into my room while I'm asleep and started putting their hands under my pillow, that I would sleep through it. And depending on how clean the kid's room is, and where they are sleeping, the place can be an obstacle course. And worst of all is, what happens if you do get caught? The kid wakes up and asks you why you're in their room. I've spent a lot of time perched outside kids rooms, developing strategies to bypass clutter, and coming up with excuses for why I'm creeping around in their room at night. The whole things is just a bad scene.
You know what the most recent craze is with the kids? Fidget spinners. They're these hand-sized disks, usually with four more disks branching off from the centre, and you spin them. That's all there is to them. I finally got to spin one, and it was like, "So this is what you kids are getting up to these days". When I was a kid, yo-yos came back into trend during a time when technology was on the rise, and that was strange enough. But at least with a yo-yo, there are a variety of tricks you can do (although when I was a kid, they were developing "automatic yo-yos" which even I thought was lame and got so common I had a hard time finding a non-auto.) With these spinners, there's not much to do. Spin them between your fingers, balance one on your finger while it's spinning, put one on the table while it's spinning, wave it up and down while it's spinning to feel the "forces" of the air pressure, buy multiple spinners to compare their weight. Absolutely everywhere sells them now. You can get them glow in the dark and there are ones that make sound effects. They cost $10-$15. I'm failing to see the hype.
I had ADHD growing up, so people would give me little toys like this to play with to occupy my hands while I was trying to concentrate. But kids these days don't just use them to expend excess energy while trying to focus on something else. They will actually spin as a primary mode of entertainment, which to me seems odd in a world developing virtual realities. I've seen "fidget cubes" as well, which are little boxes with dials, switches and buttons that don't do anything, and "fidget flippers" which I don't know much about, but I imagine they flip.
I renewed my credit card recently.You know that three-number code that comes on the back of them? New credit card's is 666. Don't trust that at all.
A neighbour of mine's car broke down and had to borrow a friend's vehicle that was on vacation. During this time, he needed a place to keep his vehicle and a place to keep the vehicle he was borrowing, so he asked me if he could use my parking space. Obviously, I do nothing with my space so I agreed with it. Good old neighbour bought me a bottle of whisky to thank me for it. Actually asked around to see what I drink. Just a sweet, neighbourly gesture.
Since summer vacation started, we have had to hire new staff to cover the time that school used to occupy. Previously, some school staff would come in the morning, help with breakfast and hygiene routines, take them to school and continue from there. But they weren't actually residential workers, so now they're doing whatever school staff do during the summer, and we've had to bring on new residential workers to work a 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM shift. Since my shift ends at 9:00 AM, that means I've been asked to take on a mentoring role, and some tasks such as administering medication have been left to me, since I'm now "Senior staff".
When I first came into my position, I had a nightly sheet to fill as the "Senior night staff" but because there's only one of us, I got to be a senior on my first night. However, with these new staff members, it's the first time I get to have experience over someone else. Living it up.
I got a new roommate. I was considering holding off until September when a buddy of mine would be looking, or there was a guy looking for a roommate in the Bread and Roses next month, which is a spot I've had my eye on. But since then, a neighbour of mine for over a year, who was subletting from a guy whose luck turned south, found himself in need of a room, and so I took him on.
It's only been a couple of days, but he's gotten rid of our cockroach problem, which I'm thoroughly grateful for. I try to keep the place clean over here, but the upper and lower units are connected, and a roach problem has been spreading throughout the complex. We used to have an ant problem, and fixed it, although I must say I prefer ants over roaches. As far as pests go, at least ants are clever and industrious, and mice are cute. Roaches are losers who stumble over each other like they're drunk and live on the corpses of their kin.
I told my new roommate "They can survive their head being cut off for a week, for every one you see, there's seven you don't, they're predicted to survive a nuclear war, the sooner you accept their status as the dominant species in this home, the easier it will be for you". But he beat them. We're the first unit in the complex to beat the roaches!
I swear, these exterminators aren't doing much. We had exterminators come in twice for ants, insisting that poison wouldn't work on them abd only traps would. Then they'd leave and I never saw an ant trap. Then my old roommate put down some Ant-B-Gone and too them all out. My upstairs neighbour has had exterminators come in for roaches but has seen no progress. Then my roommate puts down some poison and voila. Extermination must be one of those fields filled by people who don't really do anything.
You know what the most recent craze is with the kids? Fidget spinners. They're these hand-sized disks, usually with four more disks branching off from the centre, and you spin them. That's all there is to them. I finally got to spin one, and it was like, "So this is what you kids are getting up to these days". When I was a kid, yo-yos came back into trend during a time when technology was on the rise, and that was strange enough. But at least with a yo-yo, there are a variety of tricks you can do (although when I was a kid, they were developing "automatic yo-yos" which even I thought was lame and got so common I had a hard time finding a non-auto.) With these spinners, there's not much to do. Spin them between your fingers, balance one on your finger while it's spinning, put one on the table while it's spinning, wave it up and down while it's spinning to feel the "forces" of the air pressure, buy multiple spinners to compare their weight. Absolutely everywhere sells them now. You can get them glow in the dark and there are ones that make sound effects. They cost $10-$15. I'm failing to see the hype.
I had ADHD growing up, so people would give me little toys like this to play with to occupy my hands while I was trying to concentrate. But kids these days don't just use them to expend excess energy while trying to focus on something else. They will actually spin as a primary mode of entertainment, which to me seems odd in a world developing virtual realities. I've seen "fidget cubes" as well, which are little boxes with dials, switches and buttons that don't do anything, and "fidget flippers" which I don't know much about, but I imagine they flip.
I renewed my credit card recently.You know that three-number code that comes on the back of them? New credit card's is 666. Don't trust that at all.
A neighbour of mine's car broke down and had to borrow a friend's vehicle that was on vacation. During this time, he needed a place to keep his vehicle and a place to keep the vehicle he was borrowing, so he asked me if he could use my parking space. Obviously, I do nothing with my space so I agreed with it. Good old neighbour bought me a bottle of whisky to thank me for it. Actually asked around to see what I drink. Just a sweet, neighbourly gesture.
Since summer vacation started, we have had to hire new staff to cover the time that school used to occupy. Previously, some school staff would come in the morning, help with breakfast and hygiene routines, take them to school and continue from there. But they weren't actually residential workers, so now they're doing whatever school staff do during the summer, and we've had to bring on new residential workers to work a 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM shift. Since my shift ends at 9:00 AM, that means I've been asked to take on a mentoring role, and some tasks such as administering medication have been left to me, since I'm now "Senior staff".
When I first came into my position, I had a nightly sheet to fill as the "Senior night staff" but because there's only one of us, I got to be a senior on my first night. However, with these new staff members, it's the first time I get to have experience over someone else. Living it up.
I got a new roommate. I was considering holding off until September when a buddy of mine would be looking, or there was a guy looking for a roommate in the Bread and Roses next month, which is a spot I've had my eye on. But since then, a neighbour of mine for over a year, who was subletting from a guy whose luck turned south, found himself in need of a room, and so I took him on.
It's only been a couple of days, but he's gotten rid of our cockroach problem, which I'm thoroughly grateful for. I try to keep the place clean over here, but the upper and lower units are connected, and a roach problem has been spreading throughout the complex. We used to have an ant problem, and fixed it, although I must say I prefer ants over roaches. As far as pests go, at least ants are clever and industrious, and mice are cute. Roaches are losers who stumble over each other like they're drunk and live on the corpses of their kin.
I told my new roommate "They can survive their head being cut off for a week, for every one you see, there's seven you don't, they're predicted to survive a nuclear war, the sooner you accept their status as the dominant species in this home, the easier it will be for you". But he beat them. We're the first unit in the complex to beat the roaches!
I swear, these exterminators aren't doing much. We had exterminators come in twice for ants, insisting that poison wouldn't work on them abd only traps would. Then they'd leave and I never saw an ant trap. Then my old roommate put down some Ant-B-Gone and too them all out. My upstairs neighbour has had exterminators come in for roaches but has seen no progress. Then my roommate puts down some poison and voila. Extermination must be one of those fields filled by people who don't really do anything.
Friday, June 23, 2017
Overworked
Some jerk ate my sunflowers. I had 13 sunflower sprouts, and 12 of them got eaten all in one night. My zucchinis were coming up too, and I lost all but three. Whatever it is seems to only like sprouts, though, since the remaining one sunflower and three zucchinis have been doing fine since they got past the sprout stage.
Since my snow peas and tomatoes share one plot, and my sunflowers and zucchinis share another, there is a stark contrast between plot A and plot B. I wound up planting snow peas around the perimeter of the fence in plot B, since even though it's late in the season, whatever it is apparently doesn't like snow peas. I also went and got some transplants, since this pest seems to only eat sprouts. So now I've got red cabbage and summer squash growing alongside three zucchinis and one sunflower, and some latent-growing snow peas.
A little girl asked me if she could plant a sunflower in my garden, so now I'm really hoping that one will sprout and flourish despite it being late in the season, and with a sprout-loving pest in the area.
I learned how to grill. Remember how I said I had a grill-expert neighbour, and I was barbecuing in the dead of night so I could experiment with it uninterrupted? Well, he caught me, and it's a good thing he did. I'd gotten a fire started, and he came over to tell me I was overcooking my food. I was just happy that I'd managed to burn something, since the previous I hadn't been able to get a fire going at all. But he told me to stop feeding my flames, had me look at the glowing charcoal beneath and told me that was all I needed.
I totally would have thought the dim glow of the charcoal indicated only an insufficient and dying fire, incapable of cooking anything. But the next day, the two of us worked through it, and yeah, charcoal has a subtle and efficient glow, which cooked my dinner perfectly that night.
This past week I got to facilitate Safe Management courses for the Summer Program. It was our largest group yet, with two different summer camp teams and a few people taking the training for personal reasons. It was really gratifying to be able to take that leadership role with so many of my previous peers, but it also reminded me of how much I'll miss the Summer Program.
Everybody assumed I would be coming back for some reason. Come on people, it's seasonal work, I don't exactly wait nine months a year so that I can take back the only position that is relevant to your life.
Last week was draining though. For two days, I did a nine or ten-hour overnight shift, and then did six-hour training sessions during days. On both those days, I only got three hours of sleep. Plus I also had a direct support shift on Monday, and I rescheduled someone I had to cancel on because it fell into a Safe Management day to Friday, so I worked on my only day off. This Sunday, one of the people I support has a Summer Enhancement benefit, so after I do my regular four hour Sunday shift, I'll travel for an hour and a half, then support someone else for two and a half hours, than have three hours to waste which doesn't allow me to go home because of the Sunday bus schedule, and then I'll do a ten hour Sunday shift, since they ask me to do an extra hour on Sundays.
I knew a couple guys with two jobs, averaging three hours sleep a day, back when I worked factories. I always questioned what their motivation was for working that hard, since even if you make money, you've no time to spend it, and the average work day killed me bad enough already. But now I've turned into that kind of worker and I still can't tell you what the motivation is.
Since my snow peas and tomatoes share one plot, and my sunflowers and zucchinis share another, there is a stark contrast between plot A and plot B. I wound up planting snow peas around the perimeter of the fence in plot B, since even though it's late in the season, whatever it is apparently doesn't like snow peas. I also went and got some transplants, since this pest seems to only eat sprouts. So now I've got red cabbage and summer squash growing alongside three zucchinis and one sunflower, and some latent-growing snow peas.
A little girl asked me if she could plant a sunflower in my garden, so now I'm really hoping that one will sprout and flourish despite it being late in the season, and with a sprout-loving pest in the area.
I learned how to grill. Remember how I said I had a grill-expert neighbour, and I was barbecuing in the dead of night so I could experiment with it uninterrupted? Well, he caught me, and it's a good thing he did. I'd gotten a fire started, and he came over to tell me I was overcooking my food. I was just happy that I'd managed to burn something, since the previous I hadn't been able to get a fire going at all. But he told me to stop feeding my flames, had me look at the glowing charcoal beneath and told me that was all I needed.
I totally would have thought the dim glow of the charcoal indicated only an insufficient and dying fire, incapable of cooking anything. But the next day, the two of us worked through it, and yeah, charcoal has a subtle and efficient glow, which cooked my dinner perfectly that night.
This past week I got to facilitate Safe Management courses for the Summer Program. It was our largest group yet, with two different summer camp teams and a few people taking the training for personal reasons. It was really gratifying to be able to take that leadership role with so many of my previous peers, but it also reminded me of how much I'll miss the Summer Program.
Everybody assumed I would be coming back for some reason. Come on people, it's seasonal work, I don't exactly wait nine months a year so that I can take back the only position that is relevant to your life.
Last week was draining though. For two days, I did a nine or ten-hour overnight shift, and then did six-hour training sessions during days. On both those days, I only got three hours of sleep. Plus I also had a direct support shift on Monday, and I rescheduled someone I had to cancel on because it fell into a Safe Management day to Friday, so I worked on my only day off. This Sunday, one of the people I support has a Summer Enhancement benefit, so after I do my regular four hour Sunday shift, I'll travel for an hour and a half, then support someone else for two and a half hours, than have three hours to waste which doesn't allow me to go home because of the Sunday bus schedule, and then I'll do a ten hour Sunday shift, since they ask me to do an extra hour on Sundays.
I knew a couple guys with two jobs, averaging three hours sleep a day, back when I worked factories. I always questioned what their motivation was for working that hard, since even if you make money, you've no time to spend it, and the average work day killed me bad enough already. But now I've turned into that kind of worker and I still can't tell you what the motivation is.
Saturday, June 10, 2017
Garden, Spice Rack, BBQ
My snow peas are coming in strong now. For a few days they were the only crop grown from seed that I was seeing progress with, which made me nervous. But because I had such a tough time prepping the soil and building the fences with my busy schedule, I wound up building the tomato and snow pea plot before the sunflower and zucchini plot, which got done a few days later. It makes sense then, that a few days later, my sunflowers have begun to sprout. Now just waiting on the zucchinis.
One of my tomato plants is not a tomato, though. I was reprimanding it for its slow growth and encouraging it to catch up with its siblings before I realized its leaf shape is different, as well as its growth pattern. So I have a mystery plant on hand.
Do you remember that spice rack I was weird about? The one where my tarragon bottle got broken? Well now somehow I've lost coriander. But it's kind of okay, because now I've got three on each level, so it balances, and if there were two spices I never used, it was tarragon and coriander, anyway. One of my original roommates said he could mount my spice rack to the wall, but I didn't believe him because that sounded way too incredible to be possible. But he never got around to it, moved out, and I've had my spice rack sitting on my kitchen counter as it always has since then, with it's tragically broken tarragon bottle on display.
But now coriander is gone, and since my roommate moved out, I've been reorganizing the kitchen. I noticed my counter wall space was crowded by appliances, and I hit a stroke of genius. I managed to open up space by discovering the method to mount my spice rack to the wall!
...It was pretty easy... The spice rack has hooks in the back. I put a couple nails in the wall and placed it against them.
I've got a little barbecue now. Seriously, just a little travel-sized, $20 grill. This is a really unmanly thing to admit, but I've only ever barbecued once. It was during the Summer Program, and through the duration of the overnight program, when staff are required to provide food preparation services, the girls would simply not let me take a lead in making meals... until a barbecue was involved. I was then forced in front of the grill and assumed an expert in the craft. Gender expectations, much?
But it was a grand success. Everyone was complimenting my technique. The process was... exhilarating. Just me, fire, metal, and meat. It felt so natural.
But when I did that, the fire was already lit and pretty much all I did was flip meat, to be honest. Along with barely knowing how to bbq, I also barely know how to make a fire (that also came up during Summer Program, I got asked to make a fire with no tools when I'd never made one before. I managed it, but retelling the story, I was told I'd gone through "every evolution stage of man")
So I was attempting to light the fire yesterday, but I couldn't make anything long-lasting enough to make food with. I did it in the dead of night, one part because my internal clock is reversed and I'm used to being up during that time, and the other part because I don't want my grill-expert neighbour to catch me struggling to make fire. Serious blows to my man-cred if that happens.
I missed the I Choose Dign!ty rally this year. This is Extend-a-Family's march to City Hall, where everyone who feels short-changed on their due respect from community can join together to choose dignity. After the march, at City Hall there are speeches from those on the topic of dignity, there are the Dignity Dancers, and there is a Fo' Cheesy van that give out free grilled cheese sandwiches.
The past few years I have really hammed it up and thrown down to get in every bit of promotional material I can at this rally. People mention to me all the time that they've seen in this ad or that, but this year I couldn't muscle my way in. RIP my fame.
My clock's broken. Actually kind of gloomy about it. 4 years ago I bought it at Dollarama and it has since given me only accurate time. Recently however, it has developed a sticking spot where it goes backward in time one second per minute before progressing naturally. Before stopping it today, this collective loss in time set it back a full 45 minutes.
One of my tomato plants is not a tomato, though. I was reprimanding it for its slow growth and encouraging it to catch up with its siblings before I realized its leaf shape is different, as well as its growth pattern. So I have a mystery plant on hand.
Do you remember that spice rack I was weird about? The one where my tarragon bottle got broken? Well now somehow I've lost coriander. But it's kind of okay, because now I've got three on each level, so it balances, and if there were two spices I never used, it was tarragon and coriander, anyway. One of my original roommates said he could mount my spice rack to the wall, but I didn't believe him because that sounded way too incredible to be possible. But he never got around to it, moved out, and I've had my spice rack sitting on my kitchen counter as it always has since then, with it's tragically broken tarragon bottle on display.
But now coriander is gone, and since my roommate moved out, I've been reorganizing the kitchen. I noticed my counter wall space was crowded by appliances, and I hit a stroke of genius. I managed to open up space by discovering the method to mount my spice rack to the wall!
...It was pretty easy... The spice rack has hooks in the back. I put a couple nails in the wall and placed it against them.
I've got a little barbecue now. Seriously, just a little travel-sized, $20 grill. This is a really unmanly thing to admit, but I've only ever barbecued once. It was during the Summer Program, and through the duration of the overnight program, when staff are required to provide food preparation services, the girls would simply not let me take a lead in making meals... until a barbecue was involved. I was then forced in front of the grill and assumed an expert in the craft. Gender expectations, much?
But it was a grand success. Everyone was complimenting my technique. The process was... exhilarating. Just me, fire, metal, and meat. It felt so natural.
But when I did that, the fire was already lit and pretty much all I did was flip meat, to be honest. Along with barely knowing how to bbq, I also barely know how to make a fire (that also came up during Summer Program, I got asked to make a fire with no tools when I'd never made one before. I managed it, but retelling the story, I was told I'd gone through "every evolution stage of man")
So I was attempting to light the fire yesterday, but I couldn't make anything long-lasting enough to make food with. I did it in the dead of night, one part because my internal clock is reversed and I'm used to being up during that time, and the other part because I don't want my grill-expert neighbour to catch me struggling to make fire. Serious blows to my man-cred if that happens.
I missed the I Choose Dign!ty rally this year. This is Extend-a-Family's march to City Hall, where everyone who feels short-changed on their due respect from community can join together to choose dignity. After the march, at City Hall there are speeches from those on the topic of dignity, there are the Dignity Dancers, and there is a Fo' Cheesy van that give out free grilled cheese sandwiches.
The past few years I have really hammed it up and thrown down to get in every bit of promotional material I can at this rally. People mention to me all the time that they've seen in this ad or that, but this year I couldn't muscle my way in. RIP my fame.
My clock's broken. Actually kind of gloomy about it. 4 years ago I bought it at Dollarama and it has since given me only accurate time. Recently however, it has developed a sticking spot where it goes backward in time one second per minute before progressing naturally. Before stopping it today, this collective loss in time set it back a full 45 minutes.
Saturday, June 3, 2017
New Cell Phone, Laptop, Garden, and 1rst Aid Certificate
BLARG! It's been over half a month since I've updated! I was averaging 4 posts a month, and I only met half my average last month. Alright! I'll tell you what's going on.
Last year, I lost my position as an Independant Facilitator and retook my Summer Program Leader position in late April. This left me with only my Direct Support contracts to stall my sinking savings until June when they would pick up again. I called it the "Miserable Month of May". It was all about financial loss and surviving until things picked up again in June. This year, with my more-than-full-time job as an overnight staff at the grouphome, my four Direct Support Contracts, which I recently got a raise in, and my Safe Management instructor position, which has taken more hours than was originally estimated, this May has been all about financial gain.
...Or at least it was supposed to. Both my cell phone and laptop recently broke at nearly the same time. I already explained that my cell phone had developed problems with its charge port, and I was using a pen and some rubber bands to create pressure on it while charging to prolong its life. Well, eventually, no number of rubber bands could apply enough pressure and the phone simply refused to charge.
And you know my laptop had its own unique charger issue. The first charger stopped working and because of its unique build I had to special order a new charger. This one worked for half a year, but then the charger randomly exploded. I was able to piece together opposite parts of the new and old charger to create something that worked. I estimated it would work for about another six months before needing to be replaced, but one day I powered off my computer and it just wouldn't turn back on.
It's funny, my new cell phone needed a micro SD card. I had all my contacts saved to my old non-micro SD card, so I figured I'd lost them all. For about a day, I had no contacts, and then randomly, most of them appeared on my new cell phone. Since my old cell phone had long since lost charge and its SD card was incompatible, I've no idea how this happened.
I hate going shopping for laptops because some salesperson inevitably talks me out of my intended purchase and gets me to buy some high-tech piece of equipment that turns out to have a short lifespan. This time however, I went to the store, stared at the selection for a good 15-20 minutes uninterrupted. Then I went up to one of the employees, told them what I wanted, and they got it
without question. Much prefer that sales style.
New laptop is an Acer. I know I've had issues with this brand before, but it fell right in my comfort zone of functionality and affordability. It wasn't the cheapest, and it had the most memory for a relatively frugal price. I feel like I'll regret this. Acer laptops and Deskjet printers are brands that have in the past offered consistently poor products, but because they fall into my comfort zone, they have brought me back repeatedly.
In the end I dropped like, $500 on the laptop and $200 on the phone, putting me back $700 when I was finally getting ahead financially. That's a gloomy way to think, though. Instead of thinking "My tech malfunctioned at just the right time to keep me from saving" I should think "Both those pieces of tech were going down and I knew that, but they held on until I could afford to replace them".
I started my garden. Last year, I had to take a plot in a community garden because my roommates owned a young, not-so-expertly trained dog that would inevitably dig it up if I grew it in the backyard. This year though, there's no dog and so my plot is on my property.
People have told me the land is no good for growing, but I really think that's because they didn't bother to prep the soil. If the community garden right next to the complex is fertile, our land should be fertile too, it just hasn't been worked over. I dug up two plots in the backyard, pulled out all the roots, mixed in planting soil, and built a couple of chicken wire fences around them. I'm keeping it pretty basic this year, only growing cherry tomatoes, zucchinis, snow peas, and sunflowers. All hardy plants that have yielded strong crops in the past. I'm growing everything from seed except the cherry tomatoes, which were transplants. Still too early to say how the seeds are doing, but the cherry tomatoes are showing positive, fanning their leaves toward the sun, showing a zest for life after overcoming the shock of being transplanted.
My roommate moved out. No bad blood. I could have obligated him to stay based on the sublet agreement, but forcing someone to live with you who doesn't want to sounds miserable, and since I'm working as much as I am, I really don't need the financial support of a roommate.
I recently did my First Aid recertification. Because of my association with Extend-a-Family, I got to attend this training for free. Eight hours total, two days, four hours a session. By coincidence, I happened to attend the same sessions as a girl that I did them with three years previous when I got my last certificate. During that session, I panicked and botched a roleplay where I was supposed to save her from bleeding out after she severed one of her fingers. This was in front of the class, and the
instructor basically had to talk me through it. Afterwards, I apologized to her.
Me: I-I'm sorry
Her: For what?
Me: I... killed you
Her: Oh my goodness Gryphon, if that actually happened, I would help you!
Me: No, you just lost a finger! You're in shock! You can't do anything! You rely on me! I can't gain composure, and you die, and it's my fault!
So about a year later, in another province, she chainsaws her leg. She's bleeding out, and apparently her last thought before losing consciousness is me attempting to bandage her hand and failing, "Gryphon would be no help right now!"
She tells me this after we become reacquainted. "You were right, I wasn't about to help myself"
So this time around, I'm keen to heal her proper and make up for my past failure. My compressions are on point, I do mouth-to-mouth like a boss, I handle the AED like a champ. When it come to scenarios, I get the severed finger again, but this time I have to do it on some random guy I don't know. Still determined, but in the previous session I had been panicking enough that I didn't retain any information. This time around, I managed to step through it while retaining information, but I didn't get to be the flawless hero that I'd been hoping to be.
Last year, I lost my position as an Independant Facilitator and retook my Summer Program Leader position in late April. This left me with only my Direct Support contracts to stall my sinking savings until June when they would pick up again. I called it the "Miserable Month of May". It was all about financial loss and surviving until things picked up again in June. This year, with my more-than-full-time job as an overnight staff at the grouphome, my four Direct Support Contracts, which I recently got a raise in, and my Safe Management instructor position, which has taken more hours than was originally estimated, this May has been all about financial gain.
...Or at least it was supposed to. Both my cell phone and laptop recently broke at nearly the same time. I already explained that my cell phone had developed problems with its charge port, and I was using a pen and some rubber bands to create pressure on it while charging to prolong its life. Well, eventually, no number of rubber bands could apply enough pressure and the phone simply refused to charge.
And you know my laptop had its own unique charger issue. The first charger stopped working and because of its unique build I had to special order a new charger. This one worked for half a year, but then the charger randomly exploded. I was able to piece together opposite parts of the new and old charger to create something that worked. I estimated it would work for about another six months before needing to be replaced, but one day I powered off my computer and it just wouldn't turn back on.
It's funny, my new cell phone needed a micro SD card. I had all my contacts saved to my old non-micro SD card, so I figured I'd lost them all. For about a day, I had no contacts, and then randomly, most of them appeared on my new cell phone. Since my old cell phone had long since lost charge and its SD card was incompatible, I've no idea how this happened.
I hate going shopping for laptops because some salesperson inevitably talks me out of my intended purchase and gets me to buy some high-tech piece of equipment that turns out to have a short lifespan. This time however, I went to the store, stared at the selection for a good 15-20 minutes uninterrupted. Then I went up to one of the employees, told them what I wanted, and they got it
without question. Much prefer that sales style.
New laptop is an Acer. I know I've had issues with this brand before, but it fell right in my comfort zone of functionality and affordability. It wasn't the cheapest, and it had the most memory for a relatively frugal price. I feel like I'll regret this. Acer laptops and Deskjet printers are brands that have in the past offered consistently poor products, but because they fall into my comfort zone, they have brought me back repeatedly.
In the end I dropped like, $500 on the laptop and $200 on the phone, putting me back $700 when I was finally getting ahead financially. That's a gloomy way to think, though. Instead of thinking "My tech malfunctioned at just the right time to keep me from saving" I should think "Both those pieces of tech were going down and I knew that, but they held on until I could afford to replace them".
I started my garden. Last year, I had to take a plot in a community garden because my roommates owned a young, not-so-expertly trained dog that would inevitably dig it up if I grew it in the backyard. This year though, there's no dog and so my plot is on my property.
People have told me the land is no good for growing, but I really think that's because they didn't bother to prep the soil. If the community garden right next to the complex is fertile, our land should be fertile too, it just hasn't been worked over. I dug up two plots in the backyard, pulled out all the roots, mixed in planting soil, and built a couple of chicken wire fences around them. I'm keeping it pretty basic this year, only growing cherry tomatoes, zucchinis, snow peas, and sunflowers. All hardy plants that have yielded strong crops in the past. I'm growing everything from seed except the cherry tomatoes, which were transplants. Still too early to say how the seeds are doing, but the cherry tomatoes are showing positive, fanning their leaves toward the sun, showing a zest for life after overcoming the shock of being transplanted.
My roommate moved out. No bad blood. I could have obligated him to stay based on the sublet agreement, but forcing someone to live with you who doesn't want to sounds miserable, and since I'm working as much as I am, I really don't need the financial support of a roommate.
I recently did my First Aid recertification. Because of my association with Extend-a-Family, I got to attend this training for free. Eight hours total, two days, four hours a session. By coincidence, I happened to attend the same sessions as a girl that I did them with three years previous when I got my last certificate. During that session, I panicked and botched a roleplay where I was supposed to save her from bleeding out after she severed one of her fingers. This was in front of the class, and the
instructor basically had to talk me through it. Afterwards, I apologized to her.
Me: I-I'm sorry
Her: For what?
Me: I... killed you
Her: Oh my goodness Gryphon, if that actually happened, I would help you!
Me: No, you just lost a finger! You're in shock! You can't do anything! You rely on me! I can't gain composure, and you die, and it's my fault!
So about a year later, in another province, she chainsaws her leg. She's bleeding out, and apparently her last thought before losing consciousness is me attempting to bandage her hand and failing, "Gryphon would be no help right now!"
She tells me this after we become reacquainted. "You were right, I wasn't about to help myself"
So this time around, I'm keen to heal her proper and make up for my past failure. My compressions are on point, I do mouth-to-mouth like a boss, I handle the AED like a champ. When it come to scenarios, I get the severed finger again, but this time I have to do it on some random guy I don't know. Still determined, but in the previous session I had been panicking enough that I didn't retain any information. This time around, I managed to step through it while retaining information, but I didn't get to be the flawless hero that I'd been hoping to be.
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