Tuesday, March 31, 2009

iiiSUPER FREAK!!!

Grrr @ me & my FREAKY accidents! Last night, I was taking the trash down the stairs. All of a sudden, I feel a sharp pain on the back of my calf. At first I thought it might have been a Charlie horse, but then, it snapped! OUCH!!! I couldn't go any further down the stairs. There I was in tears, praying for someone to come to help me. All of a sudden, the man with the noisy kids comes out of his apartment. I asked him to help me. He went back into his apartment to get his wife and daughter to help me up and took my trash to the trash bin... I cannot walk and it still hurts like OUCH!!!... I was so ready to zoom through my work at work, but it looks as if I am not going to be able to go in today, so here I am with a "frozen porkchops ice pack" on the back of my calf while I thaw out my pork chops for lunch. LOL

MORAL OF THE STORY: Taking out the trash: Don't try this at home!

If you hurt your leg, look in the freezer to see what you can thaw out for dinner and use it as an ice pack! LOL

Sunday, March 29, 2009

A Little Birdie Told Me

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Ah, sweet Spring... the little birdies are chirping their cheerful songs at my window... Why must the weekend be so short?!

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I was working so fast from Monday through Thursday that when Friday finally showed up, I was completely exhausted. I felt dehydrated and so tired and sleepy... It was hard to concentrate. I lost count at how many cases I am trying to complete at the same time... I am just grabbing them as people call and send in their documents and forms... I continue to waste a lot of time on the cases of the two kids who have been there since December, but I don't know why their Sponsors are waiting until the last minute to turn everything in... I wish they would hurry up, because it breaks my heart to watch them watch all the other kids leave... All in all, I turned in three cases for approval but it took them a whole week to approve the first one. Unfortunately, she sent an email to my coworkers to say that it was approved, but she didn't put my email address on the email and it was my case! And of course, my coworkers failed to tell me that my case was approved. Grrr... So the next one was approved also, but I am still waiting on the third one...

*****

Since my coworkers spend a lot of time talking to each other and Betty Crocker spends a lot of time talking to her husband on the phone, I was looking at the new form that lists what we are doing with our cases. The form travels from each worker to complete her part and then it goes to the next worker, etc, until the form is complete. In the middle of the month, the Eye said we have only had five reunifications this month. Last week, I submitted three cases for approval but the people who approve them took so long that I know I will not be able to have any Family Reunifications by Monday (which is the last day of the month), because I am waiting for money for airfare... Looking at the notes on last week's form, it looks as if neither one of my coworkers have Reunifications in the works. The cases they have require little or no work whatsoever except to wait for court... Betty Crocker, as usual, writes all this stuff on her notes and then ends it by saying that she doesn't have a fax number to send the forms to the families. LOL ... And so, in April, I plan to storm through my cases as quickly as possible to show The Eye that I am a valuable employee, no matter who gets jealous or what! LOL @ phooey to Betty Crocker and Spelling Bee and their stupid PMS!

*****

XX

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Another Sad Day

What a sad day when you lose a friend. Today, I lost two... one of them is being transferred to another Shelter, but the one I will miss most is the one who started work on the same day as I did. Yes, one of the M&M girls was terminated. It is scary for someone to get terminated from one day to the next. Makes me afraid to get an apartment closer to work. What if I end up with higher rent and no money to pay the rent? Moving there is also scary because there are fewer jobs in the area...
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Personally, I think she was doing a very good job, but she clashed with The Eye, & the girls under her supervision didn't like her. I clash with Betty Crocker & Spelling Bee. I hate office politics.
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XX

Monday, March 23, 2009

From the Mouths of Babes

Something very unusual happened today... I was approached by one of the kids that belongs to Betty Crocker. He said that he has noticed the way I work. He says that he has heard me calling the parents and the Sponsors to get them to send what is needed for the kids cases. He says that I have managed to reunite many kids with their families within a few weeks. OMG @ I had no idea that he was paying attention to my work! The direct care workers said that the kids talk about their workers amongst themselves. OMG @ what a blessing for my work to be recognized by the kids!

@->----
He wanted to know what he could do to be placed on my caseload, because Betty Crocker does not move to help him. My heart goes out to this boy. I know where he is coming from, because when I inherited the cases that she transferred to me, it was like pulling teeth just to get phone numbers for the Sponsors or the parents. She depends too much on stickies and those things get lost or stick to the wrong places. Just this morning, I found one of her stickies of a closed case in an active file.

@->---
One bad thing is that Betty Crocker walked by when the boy was talking to me. I hope she doesn't ask me why I was talking to him. I don't want to disrespect anybody's work any more than I would like for them to disrespect mine.

@->----
XX

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Spring Fling~ Think Spring!

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This was a week that literally pushed at all my anxiety buttons. OMG @ the week threatened to set me back every single day!"
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On Monday, the phones and the internet were not working. I was fortunate to be able to do some work from my little "memory" stick. Otherwise, I probably would have followed in my co-workers' shoes: playing with their cell phones, text messaging themselves right in front of each other...
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On Tuesday, we couldn't print from our computers.
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On Wednesday, we were short on direct care workers, so I had to accompany a Minor to court. Fortunately, the Eye drove us so I didn't have to drive the van. I am not looking forward to driving the van. I am hoping they will get more direct care workers so we won't have to do it... Anyways, as I was saying before I interrrupted myself: I wasted all morning sitting in the waiting lobby, because the court assistant wouldn't let me into court. I later found out that no one is allowed into court. How lame is that? The purpose for someone going with the Minor is in case the Minor becomes disruptive in court...
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On Thursday, we had staffing in the morning on all of the cases, so I lost the morning...
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They split up my Group B and scattered my kids into different groups, so now all of the new kids that are coming in are creating a brand new group B. That is bad for me, because it means that there is more probability for me to have a higher caseload because of this. That also means that I have to make the time to sneak in an Orientation between all the maddening competition of all of people who are required to make contact with them on "day one" of their time at the shelter.
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On Friday morning, the firemen showed up to do a presentation with the kids and I had to be out there with the kids... It was so H-O-T. Why is it always so HOT in the Valley?! Grrr @ Jones' air condition is not working. That's more money I will have to give to the mechanic. Oh God, please let it only be that he needs more freon!
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So counting... the actual amount of time that I was able to work this week was approximately three afternoons which is approximately 12 hours? OMG!!! I guess I didn't do so bad then! My two oldest cases are still trailing behind, but I was able to turn in one case for approval, and I was able to convince four Sponsors to start sending in the beginning paperwork so I've jumped a big giant step for Reunifications on Monday! I hope I didn't miss any filing or extensions last week...
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I don't remember if I mentioned the man who was looking for me at my previous job. I do not remember what he looks like, but my friend Daisy put him in touch with me. Now I am paying the price, because he calls and calls. The last time I talked to him, he was like "give me some kind of hope that you will go out with me sometime." OMG @ I don't know whether to nickname him Fatal Attraction or Psycho. LOL
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I am still looking for an apartment. Comparing prices and space, I am still considering the two bedroom townhouse. It is a shame that the one bedroom is not available. It would have been perfect.


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Saturday, March 14, 2009

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Last Monday, my goal for the week was for at least one Family Reunification. What came as a total surprise, however, is that I released five kids from the Shelter this week! The massive turn-out kept me so busy that it set me behind in my paperwork again... Next week, they are coming to check our charts (files), so I hope I can get caught up... I am still trying to find a way to organize my work so that I don't end up getting overwhelmed when the census goes up...

@->----

One unusual thing that happened this week is that I got the nerve to talk to The Eye about Betty Crocker's attitude. I do not like to point fingers. She is not one to keep secrets from her friends and she is friends with the click. That means that she will spread the news to her friends about me telling on her, so I would end up being hated by all of them instead of just one. That is why I suggested a different approach: setting it up as a training about how to behave around coworkers, stressing the importance of teamwork and no more whispering!

@->----

The more I get to know her, the more I am able to see right through her... She is a very selfish person. Her timing at bragging on herself in front of the boss is unbelievable. She doesn't like it if my work is faster or better than hers. She wants to be known as the better worker. At staffing, she takes center stage whenever it is her turn. She just loves all the attention, as if she is the only one at the staffing with something to say. Regardless of whatever work she does, the children do not really warm up to her. If they did, she would have more of their art than any of us, but she only has about three.
@->----

I was the last one hired, but my display of the children's art is beginning to look more like wallpaper, because there is so much of it. LOL ... I love it! Makes me happy. My greatest reward is not the money in my pocket but the appreciation I receive from the kids and their families.
@->----
Well, it looks as if the couple who were renting the apartment that I want to rent broke up after all, but the man stayed in the apartment. The landlady at the apartments says it is rare for a one bedroom apartment to open up. She is trying to get me to rent a 2-bedroom... That was my original thought, but I am still thinking about it, because I had my heart set on the one-bedroom....

Sunday, March 8, 2009

-=-Lucky?!#-=-

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I have never been lucky enough to receive a quarter from the Tooth Fairy. I have never been lucky at games of chance. I have never been lucky to win anything that I didn't work hard for. I have never been lucky in love. Could it be that LOVE is a game of chance?
@->----
They say Irish people are lucky, and if you kiss someone who is Irish, you will be lucky, too... So what makes kissing one person luckier than kissing another? Shouldn't it be lucky just to be kissed?
@->----
So maybe I am NOT Irish, and maybe I do not know where leoprochans hang out. I do not have any lucky charms, and I have never seen a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but at least, in America, you can keep your leprochans, because we are lucky enough to have the real Patrick!
@->----
XX

:::Saying Goodbye:::



What made us good friends ~ you and I?

I think I know the reason why...

The best in me and the best in you...

Held each other because they knew...

That always and always since time began...

Our being friends was part of God's plan...

This is a poem that I wrote in High School... One of my classmates liked it and asked me for it. I wish I had not been stupid enough to give it to him, because years later, he published it and did not give me credit for it! OMGG @ that is NOT the only time that I have written something that I have not been given credit for....

But as you can see, I still remember the poem, word for word... And it seems only fitting that I should dedicate it to Tidbit in this post...

When I left my job with the Mentally Ill, a client who looks like Patrick Dempsey gave me a male cockatiel. He mowed yards for a living, and before I left, he said that he wanted to take me to lunch. I can only imagine his sacrifice to cut yards just to take me to lunch, but he insisted and said that it meant a lot to him to do that for me. Billy was one of my favorite clients. It was hard to say goodbye ~ for both of us. The last thing he told me was to take care of his bird...

The male cockatiel loved to dance and he would always whistle at me when I would get dressed in the morning, so I named him Mad Max Over the Caged Dome...

Another client raised cockatiels. I am ashamed to say that I don't remember her name, but she was the one who gave me Tidbit. Tidbit was a young bird. She was handfeed as a baby. She already had a name, so I didn't change it...

Tidbit and Max were always fighting, because Max wanted sex and Tidbit wasn't old enough to mate... But that didn't stop Max from being his usual cheerful fun self. Years passed and then all of a sudden, I hear this noise coming from the cage. They were having sex all of the time. OMG @ did they every take a break?! Well, it was about that time that Tidbit started to produce eggs. Max insisted that Tidbit should sit on the eggs, but she had never been a mother before, so she just thought he was being macho about it. They started fighting over who should sit on the eggs. One day before Thanksgiving, I found Max at the bottom of the cage. Tidbit had pecked him to death because he kept bothering her about sitting on the eggs... Fortunately, my daughter and my son-in-law came for a visit that year and my son-in-law took Max out of the apartment. Tidbit went into a deep depression. She wouldn't eat and she wouldn't drink water. She just sat on the eggs and was very sad. I had to take the eggs out and try to help her out of the depression. She survived, but now, she was a widow... It was sad for me when Max died, especially, because I had promised Billy that I would take care of him...

Tidbit has been my friend and my companion for over ten years. She always alerted me when someone was near the apartment and she was better than a fire alarm, too! She always let me know when she needed birdseed or water. Sometime she would sing pretty and other times, she would just make a lot of noise. LOL... Like Max, she was a character. She loved attention. Sometimes I would blow bubbles at her to catch her reaction. She was a fun bird. She brought me much joy and I will miss her terribly.

I do not know the mysteries of how Tidbit died, because she died in the feed tray with her body hanging over. It is a visual that I wish I could erase from my memory. Also, because I live alone, I had to take her out of my apartment by myself... That was so hard for me, because I didn't think I would be able to do it... I had to close the blanket over her cage and I took her to the trashbin, cage and all... I am feeling guilty about not being able to give her a burial, but without help, there is no way that I could have touched her dead body to put her into the ground... I feel sad to have to put a friend into the trash, because she was not trash at all. She was a treasure that I will remember always.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

When I Came Home

When I came home tonight, there was a dead bird by the sidewalk. I almost stepped on it and it scared me because I hate to see things that are dead... When I came into my apartment, my bird wasn't making any noise. I whistled at her to see if she would start whistling and chirping but my little bird has passed away. It makes me feel so sad.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

:::Blog Awards:::

OMG... My Bad!!! My Blog has been honored with all of these awards but haven't followed through... so today seemed like a good day to get to it. Unfortunately, this my second try at trying to save this entry, so I hope it will save this time...




This award is the LOOK HOW COOL award. It is the one I received most recently, so I know where it came from. LOL... A big Thank You goes out to Alva of ADM Designs for this one... Because we are both into making Tagz and Graphics, I am assuming that he gave this to me because I love being creative. There are a lot of creative people out there, but like Obama, I like to share the wealth to those who have not been mentioned, and if you already have this award... Well, I tried! LOL...

1. Kath of My Simpler Rhymes ~ http://kath-mysimplerhymes2.blogspot.com/
2. Joyce of Tags & A Little Chatter ~ http://tagsandalittlechatter.blogspot.com/
3. Bethe of Palm Harbor ~ http://harborofpalms.blogspot.com/
4. Lorenzo of Crowned With Laurels ~ http://crownedwithlaurels.blogspot.com/






This is the Lemonade Award. Thank you, Mile101 of Come Into My Closet for nominating me for this awesome award. This award is very special to me, because it validates that no matter what happens to us in life, we can either accept to be stuck with a bunch of sour lemons or we can turn it into something wonderful, sweet, and refreshing. My life has been a living hell, but I thank God that I am not bitter about it, and that because of all that I have had to endure, I am a better person for it. Here are my picks for this award:

1. Charli of Broken Mannequin ~ http://brokenmannequin.blogspot.com/
2. Mike of Going Sane in a Crazy World ~ http://goingsaneinacrazyworld.blogspot.com/
3. Sandra of Senorita ~ http://frauleinsenorita.blogspot.com/
4. Katie of Turning the Page ~ http://lovinyou4lovinme.blogspot.com/
5. Estela of On My Weigh Down ~ http://estela-onmyweighdown.blogspot.com/
6. Lyn of Brit's Blog ~ http://lyn-britsblog.blogspot.com/


I am embarrassed to say that I do not remember who gave me this award, but if it was you, thank you for telling me that I have been an inspiration in your life... I have a ring that was given to me by my youngest daughter. Inside the ring it simply reads "My Inspiration." I still wear that ring today, because my greatest desire is to Inspire others and to be Inspired by them as well. The following blogs have been inspirational to my life:





1. Kat of The Big Journey to Change My Life ~ http://thebigjourneytochangemylife.blogspot.com/
2. Lyn of Escape from Obesity ~ http://escapefromobesity.blogspot.com/
3. Linda aka Pooh Girl of Linda Pooh's Thotful Spot ~http://lindapoohsthotfulspot.blogspot.com/
4. Lynne of On A Mission ~ http://lynne-is-on-a-mission.blogspot.com/

Now that you have your award, please share the LOVE.
XX