What's Really In Their Minds

It's now been 3 1/2 months since I started my job. And all this time the learning curve has been very steep. I have been naive in my expectations, and thus humbled.

For a job that is straight forward, it's been a tough haul. And it has given me plenty food for thought.

While I had personal experience with specific mental health issues, I had no experience with autism and, especially, mental retardation and developmental delay.

Each day, I see the young women, who live in a residential group home, sit in the living room with the TV on. Yet, I never see them watching the TV, let alone interact with each other. Instead the girls appear to be off in their own different worlds.

And just what are these worlds?

What do these girls think about? Are their thoughts chained by a neuro-psycho chemical glitch in their brains?

Is there an imprisoned genius languishing in the brain that is not capable of expressing thought?

Being an individual who thinks, I find it incomprehensible to envision a mind where there is no thought. So, once again, what is floating around in these girls' minds?

In working at the group home, the staff has been trained not to talk about a resident's behavior in front of the other residents. We been told that the girls know more than we may be aware of.

And what may that be?

Ah! Spring!

This morning looked like the start of a perfect spring day.

The sun was brilliantly shining. The blue was a robin's egg blue. Green leaf buds were starting to explode on the trees and shrubbery.

And the temperature was warm ~ warm enough for me to shed a couple of layers.

Summer, here we come!

Yippee!

Spring Has Come...

...but where is it?

Oh sure we've had days that were bright and sunny. But they were far and few in between.

Most of the time we've been dealing with damp and dreary days with overcast clouds. And sometimes it would even rain.

Today is such a day ~ overcast, chilly, and in general, yucky.

Here I am sitting in my studio freezing. My body simply refuses to generate heat. Where's a hot flash when you need one?

The only place where I can feel warm is in my car. In about one and a half hour, when I'll be heading off to work, the heat will be blasting.

And my little piggies will shiver no more.

Pockets

What is it with women's clothing? Most of women's clothing is designed without pockets. Or if pockets are included, they are so shallow that everything falls out every time I sit down.

I suppose it may have something to do with maintaining a smooth silhouette, clean lines unbroken by any disturbing and distracting bumps and bulges.

To hell with bumps and bulges, I want decent pockets to carry the stuff that I use on a regular basis. I want my commonly used articles near me and readily available. I don't want to hunt them down in a pocketbook that is on the other side of the house.

As of this moment, this is what I have in my jeans pockets:

• the right front pocket contains 2 different lip balm and a newly bought sketching fountain pen
• the left front pocket contains and eyeglass lens cleaning cloth because I am very obsessive about having clean lenses, a lighter, and a tiny micro Swiss Army knife
• the left rear pocket contains a sheet of paper towel for blowing my nose, because those mamby-pamby Kleenex tissues just can't cut it
• the right rear pocket contains a bank envelope with money in it

Even my hoodies, jackets, coats, etc. have to have decent pockets. Heck! I even insist that my PJ bottoms have pockets.

Let's face it, I'm nuts about pockets. I am nuts about any kind of article of clothing that will permit me to carry my needful things without having to resort to a purse.

The purse is there for larger things that cannot easily fit into my pockets. It is pretty much, at that point, an extention of the pockets in my clothing.

Please don't get me wrong about purses, handbags, and pocketbooks. I love them as much as I love shoes ~ even though I tend to stick to the same bag and shoes for weeks and months at a time.

How Goes the New Job?

The delinquent blogger is back again.

This time, let's hope that I could stay with it, despite my changed schedule.

For the past three months, I have been working second shift at my new job. My days (or should I say evenings) are no longer my own. I hardly ever see my family anymore.

However, there is something to be said for second shift. It's easier to make doctors' appointments. I can have the whole house to myself ~ just me, the animals, and the constantly ringing phone.

Working a 32-hour schedule, I have 3 days ~ Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday ~ off in a row. It's like having a mini vacation.

Seeing that I work Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, my Friday is somebody else's Monday. And my Monday is everyone else's Friday.

So come Thursday night, I am doing what everyone is doing on Sunday ~ dreading the first day of the working week. Sounds a little bit backwards, doesn't it?

People of ask me how I like my job. And I can honestly say that I neither like it nor dislike it.

There are things about the job that I enjoy doing. There are also things that I'm not too crazy about doing, making me wonder, "What have I gotten myself into?"

Thus, I have been instructed by my therapist to give the job 6 months.

6 months feels like a very long time, especially when I am such a clock-watcher on the job. And I discovered that many of the staff are also clock-watchers.

It's tough enough watching the minutes go by. And it's even more tough watching the weeks and months creep along very slowly.

I'm already half-way there. Let's see what the second half will bring.