My Job

I survived my first week of classroom training. My teacher gave me an evaluation at the end of class and said see never saw anyone learn as quickly as me. Ha, ha!!! She said I could teach the next session instead of her! There is a huge amount to learn. So many different programs, and each program has different eligibility requirements, and then the many computer systems(which is fun for me). I'll be back in more classes from 10/12-10/20, 11/2-11/8, and 11/30-12/8 then I officially graduate and can start seeing clients each day.

In between classes they have been letting me take on more responsibility which is good. I've been auditing clients cases and correcting simple things like address errors and stuff like that. I'm enjoying the content of my job a lot. But it's kind of lonely. My cubicle is surrounded by three men in cubes, a storage area, and two woman that do not talk or joke at all. The men are fun, especially this Somalian man, named Mohammud. He's very loud and he cracks me up when I hear some of the things he says to the clients. The other day he was talking to a client and she was complaining because she hadnt rec'd her medical coupon and she couldnt get her birth control without it. He explained whatever he needed to explain to her and then she said"Are you telling me I cant have sex with my boyfriend?" He said "Lady, have you ever heard of abstinence or condoms? Or better yet, have your boyfriend buy your birth control?" It was so funny! I was trying not to laugh out loud!

So let me tell you about my boss. I've been warned not to talk to her about anything too complicated or she wont understand. I havent formed my own opinion of her yet as i hardly ever speak to her. But I have formed my opinion about her office. Her office looks like an explosion of silk flowers and greens went off inside of it. I have never seen anything like it! Her desk is draped with fake greenery garlands with white FLASHING Christmas lights throughout. The walls and file cabinets are covered with wreaths and flashing garlands. On my first day I thought her office was decorated for her birthday or something, but nope this is the everyday look. I cant imagine what the "special event" look is.

We're home!

The first picture shows me with no fear, finishing the canopy walk. I'm happy because we're nearly at the end. The next picture shows us after completing the canopy walk, but we havent yet begun the hike down the mountain. Please note my fabulous hiking shoes!

Today Raymond and I had an adventure riding metro. The plan was to ride the bus to and from Savannah's school as a test run. Beginning Monday Raymond is going to pick Savannah up from school using Metro, until he gets his driver's license.

We left the house at 1:30 to walk to the bus stop. We arrived early because last week when we attempted this we missed the bus. The bus came about 10 minutes sooner than I expected........but no problem we were ready to go. We're riding along and I start to think something isnt quite right. We seem to be traveling farther south. Once we pass Foster High School in Tukwila I decide to ask the bus driver where the bus is going. SOUTHCENTER! Not good! For a second I contemplated continuing to the mall and doing some shopping. We got off the bus at the next stop and crossed the street to catch the bus going in the opposite direction. As it was Sunday, the bus route was only scheduled for 1 time per hour, and of course we had about an hour to wait for the next bus. It was quite breezy at the stop so we decided to walk along the bus route to stay warm.

Eventually the bus arrived and we boarded. As we're sitting on the bus, I put my arm around Raymond and kind of zoned out a bit until we approaching our ORIGINAL bus stop near our home. As I was about to point the stop out to Raymond, I realized my arm that was over Ray's shoulder was stuck in between a metal safety bar and the top of the seat. The seat is a very hard plastic with no "give". Close to panicking, I discretely got Ray's attention and he directed me in how to twist and turn my arm out of the predicament. Could you imagine if my arm was still stuck when it time to exit the bus? Embarrassing!!! We finally arrive at 16th and Roxbury, our 1st stop. At the most it was about a 10 minute bus ride from our house to 16th and Roxbury, but we'd been out of the house for over 2 hours now. Then we proceeded to a bus stop a block away and had to wait 30 minutes for the next bus. By this time Raymond was pretty much turned around, confused, and tried to board the next bus that stopped, which wasnt the one we needed. Anyway, we finally arrived at Savannah's school and then took the bus route back home. Eight dollars and 5 hours later we were back at home. Raymond is on his own tomorrow! I'm done with riding the bus!