Oh, my aching body

I went to self defense and restraint training yesterday.  There is not a square inch of me that doesn’t hurt.  I spent 8 hours performing a modified martial arts technique.  I am too old for that crap!

This roof is probably in Kasas (or more springtime in Texas)

http://www.star-telegram.com/804/story/600403.html

For the last 3 weeks in a row we’ve had nasty weather, last night was no exception. It was raining so hard last night I couldn’t leave at my normal time (10PM). I was down in my office when the fire alarm went off, no one in the house knew how to turn the damn thing off except me. I sent staff in search of the fire. There wasn’t a fire, but there was a leak in the roof upstairs and the water was pouring out of a light fixture – now THAT is scary. An hour later I was home, safe and sound…..until next week.

Happy New Year

The good news is that I survived this year! 😀

Work sucked, but I still have a job.  We survived to see the year eand and I’m grateful.

Best to all my family and friends – may we all get better than we deserve 😀

Thought for the day November 1, 2007

There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number 
at 4 AM. It could be a right number.

When I get those calls it is usually work.

New Job

I love my new job and feel totally in my element.  I worked in the adult unit a couple of days and for the first time in the adolescent unit yesterday.  All the kids are court mandated.  There are only 14 instead of 48.  We had a great day and I’m taking a book to one of the kids today.  He loves Harry Potter and I just happen to have most of them.

The Bastard Jr is going to Albuquerque Friday to help his sister move into her new house.  

I’ve got to start writing more.  I’ve missed it and it is very therapeutic to get some of my thoughts down in front of me instead of whirling around in my head making me crazy.  The absolutely worse idea that tried to keep me stuck in a no win situation was…..’You’re too damn old to start a new job – you’ll never be a success.’  I know that is crap – knew it when I thought it, but there it was to attack me at every turn.  Thank God I didn’t have to stay stuck.

Courage is not bravery, but facing the fear and walking through it.  Every great thing in my life has been preceded by a wall of fear.

The teacher movie

http://www.makeadifferencemovie.com/

One day at a time

This little phase is most often heard in Alcoholics Anonymous.  We learn to take everything one day at a time.

AA did not teach me how to do this….cancer did.  When I realized that I might not see the next sun rise, I learned how to live each day to the fullest.

I am so grateful for learning how to do this so many years ago.  It has kept me going on my job for the last couple of months.  In my 42 years in the work force, I have never experience anything as bazaar as my current job situation.  No one knows from one day to the next when they are going to be fired.  Five people got the axe in Austin yesterday.  The highest officials of the agency are all gone.  There has been a take over by people who don’t have a clue what to do with kids.  Most work in the adult system.

Each day I go to work…..usually dreading it.  I go in, doing my best to give my best.  Hoping that something I say or do will make the difference in a kids life.  I take everyday as it comes, ask God to direct my thinking and try to stay focused on the kids, not the insanity.

I believe that I have a purpose, and that purpose was God given.  When I purpose is completed then I will be gone.  I suppose I have somewhat a fatalistic attitude about it, but it is the attitude that gets me through each day.

Tomorrow I will load up kids in the van and take them to play soccer.  Maybe for a couple of hours it will be the job it was last summer.  Maybe for that short period of time I can forget that everything is changing in not a good way.

Texas Sand Storm

 This is a sight rarely seen in North Texas, but quite frequent in West Texas where I was raised.  The last sandstorm we had here was the night my Dad died 3 years ago.  I said the storm was cause he was telling me he was blowing in the wind.  Gotta call Mom and make sure she’s ok.

 We lost the greenhouse at work today.  We’ll probably find parts of it 20 miles away.  Milk crates were flying around like paper. 

If you’ve never seen a sand storm, thank your lucky stars.  Nothing like sand blasted contact lens. 😦

New smile

My smile looks normal today. 😀  New teeth in mouth, I was dying for something solid to eat.  I’m sick to death of oatmeal.  Not happening.  Ulcers appearing everywhere in my mouth.  OMG, great I get to go through THIS again.  Another appointment with the dentist soon!!!

I was wonderful being back at work.  The kids thought I had been gone at least a year instead of a week.  Every one of them wanted to talk to me.  I told them I would come and see THEM during their breaks.  I made it by each room and talked every kid for a few minutes.  God, I missed them.  These absences make me so glad to go back to work.  I am one of the fortunates that get paid for doing what I love.

Crazy excuses

In all my years in the working world, expecially as a supervisor, I’ve heard all kinds of crazy excuses for not showing up to work.  Today, I think I used the craziest I’ve ever heard.

Me:  Lisa, I know you’ve been a boss for years.  What is the craziest excuse you have ever heard for a person not coming to work?

Lisa:  I’ve heard one or two.

Me:  Well here’s mine.  I lost my bottom denture.  Went to bed with it in my mouth last night.  This morning it was gone.  It is now 4:30 PM and I haven’t found it yet.  Looks like I won’t be to work til I get my new one back.  I just left the dentist and it won’t be ready til Monday or Tuesday.

Lisa:  WHAT!?!?!?!?

Me:  I kid you not.  I tore up my room a few times.  Tore my bed down to the floor.  I didn’t get up in the night.  I thought I was just in a panic, so I got Adam (the Bastard Jr.) to look.  Same thing. 

Lisa:  DID YOU SWALLOW IT?

Me:  Well while I was thinking I looked up on the internet ‘swallowed dentures’.  It talked about the thousands of people it happens to each year, so I went to the doctor.  X-ray showed nothing.

Lisa:  What do you think happened? 

Me:  I think the tooth fairy stole it.  Hell, I don’t know!!!  I just know that it have shelled out $1,200.00 for a new one.  I’m depressed!!!

Lisa:  OK, I’ll tell Dee (my supervisor).  I hope you find your teeth.

Me:  Me too.  Every one needs a spare set of teeth.  (insert sarcasm here)

St. Anthony, patron saint of lost stuff…….HELP!