Back from Bama!

Pictures coming soon. I took some scenery shots with my camera and my mom took the people and action shots. I also copied some old photos from my great grandma’s house but forgot to get those from my mom.

I had forgot how slooow things and people move in The South. The only time I felt I was moving too slow was on the twisty, unlit, forest and mountain surrounded 2 lane highway my grandparents live off of. Luckily locals are not afraid of passing me up on this highway of doom. I did not hit any animals with my cute little rental Jetta but a big bird(maybe a vulture?) did fly at my car and scare the hell out of me.

Most of the weekend, it was just my mom, grandparents and myself. My cousin visited for a few hours and we visited my grandma’s friend one evening. It was sad when I realized all of the old relatives with interesting houses and amazing memories were gone. My great grandma died in 2000 (I didn’t realize it was that long ago until I saw her headstone) at age 94 and her brothers and sisters and random relatives that I’m not sure how I’m related to have died since then.

My great grandma’s house had been changed around because my great uncle and his son stay there when they come down to hunt deer. The old gas stove and ancient refrigerator were replaced and many of her things were packed away. My grandpa says that my great uncle took them and I hope he actually saved some things. My grandpa was reluctant to let me snoop around the house since his brother’s stuff was there now but my mom knew where the pictures were kept and we looked through a big box of old photos. Looking through those photos makes me want to go back and label my photo albums better. Some pictures just had first names or “our vacation in Florida” written on them and no one had a clue who was in the picture. I found out my great-grandfather’s first name is Toon. His middle name is William and everyone called him Willie. Baby name sites don’t have much to offer as to the origin of the name, one says it is derived from Anton.

I walked through the forest behind my grandparent’s house and went to the pond. Unlike the “pond” my mom just put in her backyard (it’s 3 feet deep and decorative) this pond is big enough to row a boat in or swim in if it wasn’t for the bugs, leeches and water moccasins. I saw a water moccasin curled up near the edge of the pond and asked about the lethality of it’s bite. “Oh, it’ll kill you if you don’t go to the hospital right away” says my grandpa. Where’s the closest hospital? “Oh, about 45 minutes away.” Bye pond.

I think I will wait until I have pics to post to write more. And maybe split up entries since I have a lot to write about.

P.S. We actually heard “Sweet Home Alabama” on the radio on the way to my grandparents house and sang along.

It’s almost June which means dammit I need a new job. My lease is up in a couple months and I want to be able to live on my own. I would really like the research job but I’m open to other possibilities. The one thing I won’t do is start applying for every job out there, that’s how I get stuck in this job.

No good crazy stories from work lately. My clients must just be keeping it all bottled in. I did have a woman ask me if I can give her the phone number to a counselor she saw years ago. His name is Dave and he’s in NYC. No, she didn’t have other details.

While bored at work, I came across an article, Study: 23% of vets in prison are sex offenders
A read a few different versions of the article and they all contained the same line. “Federal researchers cannot say why.” Can’t? Or won’t? It’s one thing for people to think that soldiers are killers and rapists. It’s another thing for studies to actually agree that they are rapists. Maybe you want to look into that a little? I probably sound like I should be wearing a tinfoil hat but I don’t think this study’s results will be investigated further. I looked at a bunch of different articles and they are all almost the exact same wording. That’s odd for an article that appears over 25 times in Google news.

I looked at the original report and here’s some more interesting stats:
25% of vet’s victims were related, 11% of non-vets were relatives. Relatives do not include spouses, boyfriends/girlfriends or ex’s. Those people are included under “intimate” which is just 2% higher victim rate for vets. So who are they assaulting if not SO’s? Well, this might lead you to an answer. 20% of vet’s victims were 12 and younger (10% non-vet), 20% were ages 13-17 (14% non-vet, not terribly significant).
Other random significant stats: incarcerated vets had a much higher divorce rate but possibly partially due to about 10 year higher median age.
I won’t even go into the mental illness rates for vets. Let people who flipped out about VA Tech shooting go into gun laws and mental illness.

I had “an appointment” (what my coworkers are calling it now) at the agency I interned at during my last year of grad school. They have an awesome research position open that I really want. It was nice going back to a place where the staff says hi and smiles when you walk by.

I think I did well and I hope they call back soon for a 2nd appointment. When I was describing what I was looking for in a position vs what I do now, I mentioned community. Most social workers have a certain community or group they like to work with. Most agencies can identify a certain community they serve. My current job can’t do that. My clients don’t have any common characteristics. Sometimes I’m not even talking to a direct client but to their family member. Then they really don’t have anything in common with most of my clients, they can come from anywhere and do anything.

When I started my current job, my supervisor said she liked the job because she liked working with high functioning adults. If your definition of high functioning is being able to use a phone, then yes. I have talked to some clients that have severe problems that we are not equipped to handle. And we’re not equipped to handle them because we are trying to offer such a broad range of services that will fit anyone. We don’t have a specific community to focus on.

At the agency I was at today, they have specific communities they help. You can observe any of their programs and see common characteristics in their clients. The research department (which I would be working in) explores new ways of serving those communities and looks into what those communities need.

I think this type of work would be much better for me. I would feel like I’ve accomplished something and I would have long term projects and goals.

So now I have to be patient and wait for my 2nd appointment. And do my research so I sound awesome when I go back.

This was Chicago’s first attempt at an all night festival, so I will try to be nice.

I started my Looptopian excursion around 7pm. I didn’t want to go right at 5:00 and battle people with no interest in the arts actually trying to leave work. And the 56 bus took forever to come so of course I was a little later than planned.

I watched a few musicians in Daley Plaza with my friends then went to Borders to watch friend’s coworker sing. Then someone pointed out that some of these events would be a lot better with alcohol. That tent in Daley plaza is definitely a programs tent and not a beer tent so we went to an overcrowded bar for a drink and then to a not so crowded bar for a drink where we didn’t have to listen to frat boys slam on tables.

But in between these 2 bars was “The Spectacle”. Red Moon theatre company promised spectacles all night. When we got there, tons of people were lined up down the street and nothing was happening. From the grumbles it sounded like some people had been standing there for a while. Finally the spectacle start. I am short and could only see the top half of it so if anything was going on ground level, I missed it.

First, a person in a rat costume comes out straddling a crane arm. The rat then gets into a big wheel and starts running and moving the wheel back and forth. Then some sparklers light up on the wheel (swear they smelled and looked like giant sparklers)! And a few booms and more sparklers late, one tired rat comes out of the wheel, bows and leaves.

What? The crowd grumbled again and debated the spectacularness of that spectacle. And that’s why we needed another drink.

At the bar we took out our trusty program, which oddly did not include the silent dance party that everyone was talking about, and tried to plan our next move. It was getting late now and the events were getting scarce. There were more spectacles listed but now we were jaded. My friends decided to go home and I went on to the Cultural Center to see “I am Robot and Proud.”

I took the train because I was getting chilly, walking alone now and those shuttle busses-didn’t see a single one all night.

I get to the Cultural Center and cops are directing people to a different entrance. I walk around the block and see the line. A huge line wrapping half the block. I stand in line and hope it moves. It barely does. I look at my watch and realize the robot guy would be finishing his set in 10 minutes and I still have a few hundred people ahead of me. I give up on Mr. Roboto and walk toward the Art Institute.

There were still a lot of people out, mainly talking on street corners, arguing with cops about public drinking and staring at programs. For an all night festival, there were not a lot of things going on at this late hour. The only real event I saw was watching movies or a chess tournament. Both things would put me to sleep. The program was now filled with those “events” that last all night like “Art Institute Garden open” but not the actual Art Institute.

While walking by Millennium Park I hear some noise and think maybe I’ve stumbled upon a non-listed event. I kind of did. I would call it a non-Looptopia sponsored event. A group of people gathered on one of the walkways and had their own little dance party. A few guys with drums and girls passing around tambourines and finger cymbals created a beat while the crowd chanted changing beats. “Ole! Ole! Ole!” changed into “Don’t stop! Get it, get it!” to “Southside! Uh oh!” and around again. I watched, took a couple pics and eventually danced along for a while. It had a good feeling, lots of different young people, different types all dancing to beats the crowd made up as they went along.

I left Millennium Park smiling even though I realized there was no way I was going to be able to stay up all night watching sci-fi movies or looking at window displays. I walked to the train and wanted at least a half hour for my train to come and bring me to my bed.

So Looptopia, I would not call you an all night event because there were no late night events. At least none sponsored by the city. It was an event that ended around midnight and started up again at 5am with exercise and a choir. I’m not motivated by religion or the sunrise, I went to sleep.

What do I do at work?

Well, I sneak away to watch Peter Bjorn and John play at the Apple store. They were good, played “Young Folks” and everyone whistled along and they’re soso cute.

Then I laugh at the comic Basic Instructions for most of the day and post comics to everyone in the office.

Then I read about baby hatches and wish their were boss hatches that fell into deep wells instead of hospitals.

Then my boss comes by and tells me how “unstimulated” I look. Then I tell my coworkers what she said and we all wonder how stupid one person can be.

And then I get off work early! Yay! Looptopia tonight!

While drunkenly watching He-Man on Cinco De Mayo, I realized that King Randor looks at a lot like The Burger King.

Maybe everyone else already realized this but I haven’t seen He-Man in years and I don’t do the drugs so I thought this coincidence was fucking amazing. I’m not even going to google it because the internet spoils everything.

I had my first acupuncture appointment today. I’ve been planning on doing this for months and finally found a place that was cheap, got good review and appeared professional.

I went to Pacific College of Oriental Medicine. It’s very friendly, including GLBT friendly. The forms had male, female and transgendered boxes to check. I talked about why I was there with the intern for a while, she checked my blood pressure and pulse in a couple different spots, looked at my tongue (should have asked why) and then left to consult with her supervisor about needle placement.  I talked to her longer than I’ve talked to any doctor or intern on a first visit.

She came back, I laid down and she inserted needles in my legs, feet, wrists, sternum, abdomen and ears. After adjusting the needles and making sure I was comfortable, I was left to relax. I think she said she was gone for 20 minutes. The needles in my feet bothered me but I think that’s because I’m ticklish and that’s a sensitive area. The needles in my wrists bothered me at first because the insides of wrists are really sensitive but I eventually got over my sensitivity and realized they didn’t really hurt, I just wasn’t used to anything touching there.

We talked about herbs and I told her I would want to run them past my doctor first to make sure there wouldn’t be any interactions with my meds or heart problem. She pointed out my doctor probably wouldn’t be familiar with the herbs since they aren’t things Western doctors prescribe. He may have given me the OK for echinacea but that’s a pretty common supplement. So the intern offered to research interactions for me and get back to me during my next visit.

At this point, I’m open to taking herbal supplements because Western medicine hasn’t done a ton for me. Why not try something new? It would be nice if someday Eastern and Western healing were more integrated so my doctor would know about herbs and my HMO would pay for acupuncture.  Actually in an ideal situation, HMO’s wouldn’t exist. Oh, I’m getting carried away in my healthcare utopia. :)

Another entry about my workplace stupidity but much shorter. I need pics to go along with this one.

My supervisor put a disposable air freshener in the women’s bathroom at work. Apparently, there was an issue with people opening it up too much (open more=smells stronger). My supervisor types up a note and tapes it above the air freshener. It explains that if it’s open too much, it will dry out too soon so keep it only open a little bit. Also, it was purchased by management. If you have any questions, see her.

Seriously. Over a $3 air freshener. I wonder if she had to run the letter by her supervisor before she posted it. I’m kind of surprised there hasn’t been a mass email about it.

So of course  my coworkers are screwing with the air freshner. Opening it, moving it, knocking it over. And every time it’s back in it’s place. How many times a day does this woman go to the bathroom? Why does she have no other work to do?

My company does a lot of WTF things. Some are typical Office Space things. For example, my coworker received 8 emails about making a mistake in one client file. None of the emails said “Looks like you made a mistake!” They all said something about “I am confused why you did this, can you explain your reasoning” because it would be horrible to actually admit people make mistakes.

Some recent examples of WTF:

We’re going to be working with a new client group, some of them speak a rare language. We have interpreters for non-English speaking clients. Except we don’t have any interpreters for this language. We have to let the interpreters know in advance when we have a client that speaks a rare language so they can find someone. Our bosses send out an email about this, telling us to offer to call back clients. Great but how do I get a callback number? Explain that we don’t have anyone that speaks in clicks and whistles on staff currently? No answer to that yet even though their language barrier has been addressed by several bosses. “Make sure you show tolerance to cultural differences.” OK, I will be very tolerant as I repeat “Do you speak English?”

A coworker was recently fired and afterward an email was sent out telling the entire company this person was not allowed on site. People get disappeared from my workplace all the time but never have I seen an email like this. No one would offer further info. Was the coworker a safety threat? Trying to come inside? Stalking someone? And I’m sure it’s a coincidence but this coworker happened to be a odd, kind of a loner, Asian male. Right after the VA Tech shootings.

Some things I just have to accept as part of office life like annoying coworkers. I sit near a woman who is possibly the worst social worker ever. Daily I hear her yell “I don’t understand what you’re saying! I don’t understand what you’re looking for! I can’t help you if I don’t know what you want!”

Bitch, if you would stop yelling and start listening you would understand. I have spoken to the same clients and understood them just fine. They make speak slowly or not know the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist but they do know they need help. Shut up and listen. And stop yelling at domestic violence victims. They’re not going to have an epiphany during their short time with you and realize they need to pack up and leave now. It’s a process and usually one that is repeated. Stop telling them they’re not ready for treatment. I know one of our bosses can hear you and I wish she wasn’t such a pussy and would say something to you about it.

Coworker on the other side of me-I hate your laugh. You sound like a witch. Stop thinking everything is funny. I talk to the same people you do and they’re rarely funny.

Ok enough ranting, I applied to 2 awesome jobs this week!

Also,

27 isn’t that bad, M.