Sunday, December 21, 2008

I Made It

It was the longest, hardest trip of my life, but I made it home alive. From Portland to Carmel total, it was 19 hours. 19! Thursday it took me 8 hours just to get to Ashland. I sat in 3 hours of stopped traffic while a bunch of truckers took up the road putting their chains on. It was snowing hard almost the whole time. By the time I was nearing Ashland, it was almost dark, and there were 3 more spots where chains were required on the road ahead. The snowy, icy, mountainous roads are scary enough, and putting chains on is enough of a challenge without the dark. So I stayed at a hotel in Ashland (where my mom and I stayed on the way up). Friday morning I had someone put chains on for me, because I was having too much trouble with it. There was only one zone to get through where I had to have my chains up, and then the weather started to warm up and the roads cleared. I was sort of having an out of body experience when I was lying on the side of the freeway underneath my car taking the chains off, with a steep drop on one side, and semi trucks barreling past me on my other side. It was special. It took about 9 hours on Friday. But once I got through Redding it was such a relief to be done with the insane weather. I am definitely going to consider taking the coast home. Remember how I was concerned about the 3 extra hours it would take me? Ha ha. That was funny.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Long Journey Home

Well, I am currently sitting on the bathroom floor at my friend Kristin's house in Corvallis, because my dogs will not stay quiet and subdued unless we are together, and everyone else is sleeping. Soon I will wake them up to tell them I'm leaving. The problem is... how am I going to get where I'm going? No, I do not mean philosophically. I mean that various places between here and Redding (which is about half of my drive) are snowy, icy, slushy, and wet. My main concern is the area between Ashland and... I don't know... Yreka? Weed? Anyway, the part of the road that's big, windy, mountain road that's not 100% easy to begin with, and is now sporting patches of ice. My only alternative, however, is taking the 101 down the coast, which sounds just lovely, doesn't it? Yeah, it takes 14 hours. But alas, I must make my decision soon, and begin the long and treacherous journey to the homeland. So wish me luck, dear ones. If you think of me today, throw up a prayer for a safe one. And feel free to call me, because I have my trusty bluetooth, and if I'm on the flat and dry part, I would love some entertainment in the form of... you. :)

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Snow!!!!!!!

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This morning when I opened my front door to let my dog out, my mouth fell open and hung there for about 10 seconds. I knew that it sometimes snows in Portland, and I knew that it was in the forecast to happen this weekend, but looking out at the white blanket over the parking lot, the cars, the rooftop, and the little flurries heading down from the sky... amazing! I don't know if you can wrap your head around how much I love snow, because I've never lived in it, and rarely even visited it (mostly because I hate skiing) but I love it! It's basically the best thing, and it came way before sliced bread. I'm sure that once you get used to it, you can start to think of it as a nuisance, but I never will! And I won't get to have a white Christmas, but I get a little white pre-Christmas! Yipee!

Rocky ran around the parking lot exploring, and Penny had a very difficult time deciding where to pee, since there was no available dirt. She finally settled on creating some yellow snow. Now we are all just sitting in the house watching it fall outside the window like it's prime entertainment - which for me it is!

Unfortunately, I don't get to miss anything boring today. Everything basically shuts down in Portland when it snows. I am missing church and my small group tonight, both of which I love, so that's a bummer. But I'm going to spend the day making angels in the snow and teaching Rocky and Penny how to make a snowman. :)

P.S. Linda - I'm stealing your fun font style. It makes things more interesting. 

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Life With The Crazies

I know that's super un-pc, but what can I say? Political correctness is just not my thing. So... I started a new job! I'm sure I mentioned something about it in earlier posts, but I'm too lazy to go back and see what I said. :) So if you already read some of this or I've already told you about it, feel free to skim. The job is at a group home, which I'm not going to name just in case. It's a locked down residential facility for mentally ill children and adolescents. Look at it like this: remember the kids I worked with in SLO? If they couldn't cut it in the programs at FCNI, they would have to go to a place like this one. So it's a little wild. However, given that I knew what I was getting into, the first couple days were surprisingly mellow. (I'm not even going to bother knocking on wood, because there are going to be crazy days when I want to pull my hair out regardless.) There are 4 units on the premises, one has 5-11 year olds, one 7-13, and two have 13-18 year olds. Of the teenage units, they have "internal behaviors" (self harm, suicidal ideation, etc.) and on the other they have "external behaviors" (physically aggressive, etc.) The 7-13 year old unit actually have the most severe behaviors. There are 12 beds in each unit, and they are almost always full. Got all that? There's a quiz later.

So, my first two days, as I said, were pretty easy. Except for the fact that the shifts are 10 hours long. After working at Family Care, where we rarely spent more than 5 hours in a row with one client, it feels a little insane to spend 10 hours in a row with 12 clients, on a regular basis. Wow. But other than that it was good. A little overwhelming meeting so many clients and so many staff members, but still good. I worked on one of the teenage units yesterday, and the other one today. Tomorrow I'll be with the little ones, so that's sure to be chaotic. The teens are pretty predictable though. A little bit of attitude, a lot of moodiness, various attempts to manipulate me, some flirtation from a couple audacious boys, and a couple girls who are already my best friend.

There was, of course, a little excitement. Yesterday one kid tried to run during lunch, and escaped from the cafeteria, but not the campus. At dinner tonight three of the kids got into a fight, about five staff jumped into action within three seconds, restraining all three kids, (one to the ground) but not before one boy got punched. By a girl. It was a whirlwind. The restraining thing will be a little hard for me to get used to, because it's basically never done at FCNI (even though we were trained to do it) but sometimes it's necessary when you have 30 mentally ill children in one room. Or even 12 kids. I hope they don't overdo it though, because it's kind of traumatizing for everyone involved when people get restrained (in my opinion). Anyhow, outside of those events the kids were fairly calm throughout the day. On my unit, anyway.

Anyway, that's my news. I'm sure I will have plenty of stories to share in the future. (Disclaimer - it's sort of unethical to be writing about the clients, but I will never use names or identifying characteristics about any client. Just general stories.) I have a lot to learn about the organization, but being with the kids is kind of like coming home. I missed them. It's hard to explain if you haven't worked with this demographic before, but when you have, they stick with you. At some point, in some post, maybe I will be able to articulate why, but for now that's all I'll say. It's good to be back.

Before I go, I have a video, and one more little tidbit: it's supposed to SNOW in Portland this weekend! Woo hoo! I'm soo excited!!

I meant to post this video awhile ago, but I never got around to it. Some of you may have seen it already. If you don't have sound on your computer, you can still watch it. Just hum "Carol of the Bells" to yourself, and ignore the dirty looks from your co-workers. Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Cruise Pictures

Ok, there are a lot, but believe it or not, this is actually a small selection of all the photos. I tried to sum up the fun, while giving you the whole picture. Enjoy!

Our first night at dinner (My Birthday!):
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At the karaoke bar:
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Beautiful Catalina (view from the ship):
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The little boats we took from the ship to the island:
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Our Catalina golf cart adventure:
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Formal night:
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Toasting Obama:
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Our waiter, Abi, serenading us:
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Oppa!!
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Roomies:
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Bunk Beds!:
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Ensanada:
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Silliness:
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Our day at sea:
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Kayla's hilarious booty dance:
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Our last dinner:
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The whole group (professional):
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Best birthday ever!