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Day 1185: You've Got to be Kidding Me
Nov. 25th, 2014 09:30 pmI don't remember much about what happened last week, other than that my wrist hurt pretty insistently, and I spent three hours on Saturday seeking medical care, first for my wrist, then getting a flu shot. Apparently my insurance requires that I get my TDAP shot at a doctor's office. That would have been nice to know before I left the doctor's office and went to the pharmacy to get my shots. At least the whole stupid thing with my insurance has been sorted out. Yay! In other news, my wrist hurts a lot, doing pretty much anything from lifting my (admittedly heavy) work purse to crocheting to playing the piano. Not my finest hour, but I've since achieved 20,000 words on by SPN RBB, so I'm pretty excited! And also mildly horrified with how long it will finally end up being.
In a desperate bid for domestic peace, Cody and I went to the pet store, bought treat training pouches, and some training clickers, and we are now attempting the clicker method of pet training. Right now we're just conditioning the dogs to understand that a click means they've done something good, which mostly involves clicking the clicker and doling out treats in pretty rapid succession. So far we haven't achieved any measurable increase on domestic peace (Dingo ate some leftovers intended for Cody's lunch, sneaky mutt), but at least we're consistently working on training again.
Dancing was wonderful last week because we had a live drummer, which was amazing. Cameron's a super talented guy, and being able to dance with a live drummer is actually a pretty rare thing. When I was in Omaha there was a circle of drummers, and dancers were invited to their drum circles to dance (sometimes they danced at restaurants too), but around here apparently a good drummer is hard to find, so dancing with a live drummer was kind of awesome. I do really love the ladies I dance with. The awesome thing about winter technique classes is that they're for all levels, so I get to know some ladies I don't usually dance with (although some of the hope is that once they're done with a year's worth of technique they can move up to intermediate dance).
Work was stressful, and I blocked most of it out. My two most memorable experiences from work last week and this week were these:
A mom sent me a text message on a Friday night asking if I was up that late. Are you kidding me? I am starting to understand that, outside of the context of people involved in social work, most people don't understand what a guardian ad litem is, and most people don't think of us as real lawyers (if they realize we're lawyers at all) and don't really respect us. Because you can bet that mom wouldn't have thought even once of contacting her own attorney that late on a Friday night and actually getting a response.
And I had to spend a hour last night listening to a mom who's actively using meth sob about how she uses drugs because she misses her kids. I might have bought that explanation more if (a) she hadn't been using drugs while she still had her kids and (b) she seemed to give a damn about any of her kids but the youngest. If I were being sympathetic, I'd say that she probably traded one source of misery for another. When she had her kids, something else made her miserable, so she used, and then when her kids were taken away (she seems to be unable to acknowledge that the removal of her children was in any way her responsibility) that also made her miserable. Still. Given how late that meeting ran, it was hard to be patient.
Cody's been wonderful, though, helping with dinner, bringing me flowers, giving me back rubs, letting me sleep in. I am feeling a little jealous. When he's on the couch reading, the dogs will snuggle with him and warm his feet. When I'm on the couch, he brings them to me so they can snuggle with me...and they leave. I swear they're his.
One of the other guardians got axed, so a coworker has been covering her cases, and I've been covering said coworker, so I spent a lot of time on the road last week and had an extra full day in court this week.
Also, walking past the embroidery shop near the office has given me the irrational urge to take up embroidery. And revisit the BBC Merlin fandom. (No, those two things aren't actually related.)
Still, Thanksgiving is coming up, and I intend to spend it with family, somewhere warm and happy.
In a desperate bid for domestic peace, Cody and I went to the pet store, bought treat training pouches, and some training clickers, and we are now attempting the clicker method of pet training. Right now we're just conditioning the dogs to understand that a click means they've done something good, which mostly involves clicking the clicker and doling out treats in pretty rapid succession. So far we haven't achieved any measurable increase on domestic peace (Dingo ate some leftovers intended for Cody's lunch, sneaky mutt), but at least we're consistently working on training again.
Dancing was wonderful last week because we had a live drummer, which was amazing. Cameron's a super talented guy, and being able to dance with a live drummer is actually a pretty rare thing. When I was in Omaha there was a circle of drummers, and dancers were invited to their drum circles to dance (sometimes they danced at restaurants too), but around here apparently a good drummer is hard to find, so dancing with a live drummer was kind of awesome. I do really love the ladies I dance with. The awesome thing about winter technique classes is that they're for all levels, so I get to know some ladies I don't usually dance with (although some of the hope is that once they're done with a year's worth of technique they can move up to intermediate dance).
Work was stressful, and I blocked most of it out. My two most memorable experiences from work last week and this week were these:
A mom sent me a text message on a Friday night asking if I was up that late. Are you kidding me? I am starting to understand that, outside of the context of people involved in social work, most people don't understand what a guardian ad litem is, and most people don't think of us as real lawyers (if they realize we're lawyers at all) and don't really respect us. Because you can bet that mom wouldn't have thought even once of contacting her own attorney that late on a Friday night and actually getting a response.
And I had to spend a hour last night listening to a mom who's actively using meth sob about how she uses drugs because she misses her kids. I might have bought that explanation more if (a) she hadn't been using drugs while she still had her kids and (b) she seemed to give a damn about any of her kids but the youngest. If I were being sympathetic, I'd say that she probably traded one source of misery for another. When she had her kids, something else made her miserable, so she used, and then when her kids were taken away (she seems to be unable to acknowledge that the removal of her children was in any way her responsibility) that also made her miserable. Still. Given how late that meeting ran, it was hard to be patient.
Cody's been wonderful, though, helping with dinner, bringing me flowers, giving me back rubs, letting me sleep in. I am feeling a little jealous. When he's on the couch reading, the dogs will snuggle with him and warm his feet. When I'm on the couch, he brings them to me so they can snuggle with me...and they leave. I swear they're his.
One of the other guardians got axed, so a coworker has been covering her cases, and I've been covering said coworker, so I spent a lot of time on the road last week and had an extra full day in court this week.
Also, walking past the embroidery shop near the office has given me the irrational urge to take up embroidery. And revisit the BBC Merlin fandom. (No, those two things aren't actually related.)
Still, Thanksgiving is coming up, and I intend to spend it with family, somewhere warm and happy.
