WIWUTS 6/3/07

Today I did not work at my usual program. Late last night, after a Three's Company excursion to see Shrek the Third (so inappropriate for the kiddies, but trippily funny at points), I remembered my new boss saying I was to be sent to one of the adolescent boys units to supervise, one I had barely been in, and never staffed. I was peeved when I heard one of my co-workers called out, but hopeful that would mean I would have to stay at my program.


But it all worked out in the end and there I was. I kind of missed my boys all day but being reunited with some of my old favorites was really pretty awesome. Plus it was nice to interact with more kids who could actually understand more things that I said without dumbing down as much. Plus those kids handle their issues more easily. More maturity means less energy spent on bickering about the ticky tack stuff. That also means easier since maturity also means a heightened sense of responsibility, which those young men have in spades. They still working out a couple of issues, but they're still working and that's the great thing.

But I did find a quote from my absolute favorite boy. He was the first new kid to come in under my tenure and was also my first hold alone. He is one of the best kids around. Wherever he went he was a charmer. Intelligent and also crazy athletic. Anyway, as I combed through the e-mail looking for the answer to some question about the house, I saw an e-mail another guest supervisor had written. This young woman is white and this boy is black. So he goes up to her and says "What's up my vanilla sister?" and she says "Is that just a way to call me white trash?" and after a pause he says "Yes."

And that's why I woke up this Sunday.

and club milk installment on the way home (how do the obese become that way? why doesn't the obtrusive light blink over their silly little heads?)

this message has been brought to you by life. go live it.

WIWUTS: Special Tuesday Edition

One of our boys has been getting more comfortable and being as silly as he really would like to be. He has a penchant for saying the most random things. Sometimes they are inappropriate but most of the times they are totally hilarious. So Mocha and I are in the same wing staffing and he asks me why Jacob wrestled the angel in the Bible. This boy, who is sitting next to me on the stairs, with perfect timing says "Because he liked anchovies."

And that's why I woke up this Tuesday.

WIWUTS 5/06/07

I did not celebrate Cinco De Mayo with an officially sanctioned celebration, but today working, it sure felt like it. Most Saturday nights, I am quite awake. But I'm usually home and not expending energy so when I do got to bed at 1:30 or 2, it's really not that deep. Once I get past 10, I'm straight. Today though, I felt tired. Most times I can stave it off, but I was hurting. And so were my supervisor. And a former supervisor who came to help out since we had an open spot in the morning. It was a pretty good day though. We had acouple of incidents, including losing a kid for two minutes, but it was all pretty manageable. For once, we weren't scrambling at the end of the night to finish paperwork and chores. If the night shift was actually on time, we might have left early.

Today's justification is brought ot you by one of our most heartbreaking cases. He's a seven year old who operates at a toddler-preschool level cognitively. Cute as a button, but so troubled inside his head. Can't really stick with something for too long before he gets bored. He learns negative behaviors from his peers and replicates it without really understanding what's happening. No one can stay mad at him for too long. He's just helpless. At bedtime, someone usually has to be outside his doorway to make sure he does go to sleep or else he's up every 30 seconds running out and trying to see what's happening in the hallway. Of course since he is so young, he likes being tucked in from time to time. When I do it, I kind of wrap him so he resembles a taco or a wrap or something. So I've gotten in the practice of calling him "Chalupa."

Bedtime rolls around and tonight I have fallen in the role of making sure little Chalupa is asleep. First he's jumping on the bed, but once we got him an orange, he started to settle down. He peeked down the hallway one more time and then dove into bed. Faintly I heard "Would you tuck me in?" I walk in the room where he is chewing his blanket and he looks up at me and says, "Like a chalupa."

That's why I woke up this Sunday.

WIWUTS 4/29/07

On this rainy Sunday, I had the pleasure of beginning my day supervising at another program. My friend Wolf Fighter was driving a kid to the airport from her program and her supervisor called out. It was only for three hours and the boys all slept in for the most part.

As I returned to my home program, it was so cool cause my boys were just boys for most of the day. Guys actually asked us to go play catch. In a rare occurrence, there was unanimous support of the television program choice and we watched pets in silly mishaps and crotch shots on America's Funniest Home Videos. There was even a minor wind breaking competition that I finally ended, mercifully actually.

But the quote of the night was delivered by one of our more develelopmentally delayed boys. He began to get a little unfocused during the TV watching and I sent him to bed early. As he was leaving the room, he flicked the light switch off and on. When I asked him why he did it, he replied in his abnormally bass voice, "I was just checking it."

Okay maybe you had to be there. Our street smart client did inquire, "Do you know every motherfucking song?" after I began to finish a song that had been playing during a commercial.

Cool day anyway.

"I was just checking it"

"Do you know every motherfucking song?"

WIWUTS 4/22/07

Today was a busy day. I didn't leave the premises until 11:08 p.m. There really aren't many reasons why I was happy to wake up, other than the obvious sustenance of human life. But digging I found something.

It's not the usual single funny commetn or anecdote. It is more about the development of one of our kids. He came to us a couple of weeks ago straight from the inner city and fulfilled all the stereotypes ignorant people have about blacks. And though he still makes incredibly crude comments and shows defiance whenever possible, he slowly is coming around to something better. He just did some really unexpected, admirable things like saving food for people that he's not particularly fond of and just a bunch of simple things that I can't catalogue completely cause there are so many. But that was a very worthwhile reason to wake up this sunday

WIWUTS 4/15/07

I was a tad late. I had intestinal discomfort throughout the day that I have not endured for some time. I had to pour meds at another program. Oh and it snowed and sleeted and rained all day which meant a bunch of kids stuck inside all day.

Recipe for disaster? Not for Ironsides (what I call the shift I work with).

Anyway other than the beauty of the whole day where our boys were 98% helpful, generous, and respectful, the single moment that would have made it so great to work today was the innonence in our newest boy who told me verbatim "I believe in Spiderman."

The kids have more faith than us sometimes. When do we lose it? Oh wait, we usually snatch it away from them.

WIWUTS 4/8/07

One boy was coveting the toy his peer received during his home visit over Easter weekend.

Coveter: "Oh that's so cool. I wish I had one of those"
Possessor: "Well, too bad you're not me"

The possessor is eight years old.and loves the Wiggles & G-Unit.

Why I Woke Up This Sunday

Every week, I pull myself out of bed between 6:30 - 6:55 in the morning and go work a 14.5 hour shift with the boys. It is actually the best day of the week sans the early morning call. Usually some boys are out on visits and oddly enough it's the day that we actually have an extra staff. We get to chill all day and the boys are pretty copasetic. Why today was so unseasonably warm that we spent 9 hours straight outside. The boys actually looked like real boys, running around and getting bruises that weren't the result of a flip out over missed snack.

And that in and of itself makes waking up worth it. I thought that this would be a regular feature because there is always some quotable on Sunday, and other days too, where we staff look at each other and smile or laugh just because the little guys can be so cute.

So this week's moment is brought by our 8 year old genius who doesn't realize it because his heart beats like a hummingbird even when he sleeps. So he runs into the solution area upset about something and bangs his fist against the wall. He's still going a mile a minute as I try to calm him down and try to figure out what is happening. Mid-sentence, he hawks up a lugie, spits on the floor and exclaims, "Look there's boogers in my spit!"

And that's why I woke up this Sunday.

(He also once called me a "fucking Jedi bitch" when I put him in a time-out)