Where to start?

Let's see - oh yeah, first off, I know Derek lurks on this site, even though he never comments, so HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY OLD MAN!!!! I thought about you a lot today every time I wrote the date, which was frequently, and if that doesn't warm your heart, well then I give up. Did you do anything exciting?

Well, Robyn asked more about the job so I can try to bore you with that for awhile. Last Thursday I was ready to quit. Getting up at 5:30 may have played a small part in that. But it's just nuts. So much information that's really important to learn, but seems impossible to digest all at once. (ironically, a therapist who was hired since me quit I think after working one day). Friday went better, then there was today, which was crazy, but in a mostly good way. This is the first job I've had where I don't really watch the clock waiting for the day to be over. The time just flies, which is nice. It's hard to give a real accurate description of what I'll be doing since I'm still figuring it out and not doing everything that will eventually be my responsibility. Court - yeah, that comes around fairly often. I haven't had to go by myself yet, thank goodness. I think I'm more nervous about parking in a parking garage and trying to find the right place than testifying. Although it's close. The rest of the job - basically coordinating the services and care for my caseload. There's tons of paperwork - reports, forms, and billing Medicaid which is a form for everything you do basically. I feel like I'm just rambling and not answering your question very well. There's all the appointments to keep track of, getting consent for any number of things, meeting with clients, doing assessments, making sure they have what they need, etc. Okay, I feel as though that was really boring, but you did ask... = P

Okay, here's a question for you that you all must answer, okay? Last night my roommate and I went for a bike ride. I signed up for a 55 mile ride in Iowa (Twila and Karla, if you're reading this, maybe we can squeeze in a visit? please??) so I really need to be riding, even though it's the last thing I feel like doing when I get home from work. I've been struggling with all around inertia lately. Anyway, once I finally got out there, the energy seemed to follow which was nice. So anyway, as we were riding, we rode past a minivan with a baby crying in it, unattended. So we rode a bit further and stopped, trying to figure out what to do. After it had been over 5 minutes, I went snooping around to see if it was for sure coming from the van, which it was. Just then a kid came out of the house and told me it was his sister's vehicle and baby. I suggested he tell her the baby was crying. Then he and another kid went out to the van - we assumed to get the baby out. So we rode around the block again a bit later, and from the next street, we could hear that the kid was still crying. Now we really didn't know what to do, because we didn't want to be obnoxious, but it seemed sort of odd. And I thought I really should know what to do, being a social worker of sorts, for all of a week now... Anyway, then we saw an older wider person we knew and talked to her. She said she'd drive by later as well. So anyway, WHAT WOULD YOU DO?

I'll close with something from the book I quoted from awhile ago - I think Kim asked for more, so here ya go... this isn't overstated at all...
"Erasmus said it well in his famous essay In Praise of Marriage: 'What is more hateful than a man who, as though born for himself alone, lives for himself, looks out for himself, is sparing or lavish for himself, loves no one and is loved by no one? Indeed, should not such a monster be thought fit to be driven away from the general fellowship of mankind."

Yeah, she's kinda hard on men. Okay, I think I've given you sufficient material upon which to comment.