it is the passion flowing right on through your veins
*waves* Hi everyone. I'm still alive, wooo! I've just been busy busy busy alternating with very tired for the last few weeks. So, time to come up for air!
As might be expected, work, of course, has been the main thing keeping me busy. I went full time on April 1, but we had a four day weekend immediately after that because of Good Friday and Easter, which means that the week that just ended was my first full 5 day work week at full time hours. And while my full time hours are only a 7 hour day, I have on all but one of those days worked the 7 hours straight through without taking a lunch. I am eating, but I've been eating while doing work, not actually taking a break. (The plus side to this is that not taking time out for lunch means I usually get done work around 3:30, and I can avoid most of rush hour that way.) Anyway, I've definitely been going full steam, especially since I picked up two schools for a woman on maternity leave, so I now have four schools. I generally try to give one day a week to each school, and the fifth day I either split between the two schools that need most of my time, or I use to do paperwork, send emails, make phone calls, write reports, etc.
I really like the job so far. I think I need to find a way to let it go when I leave for the day, because part of what's been making me feel stressed is that I'm often still thinking about my caseload or what needs to get done for the next day after I've gone home, when I should be relaxing. But I imagine once I am more settled into the job, and more confident in my ability to do things correctly/do as much as I can while I'm there, I'll be able to relax more. I just wrote my first report, which still needs to be peer reviewed and signed off on by my supervisor, but it's kind of nervewracking to know that this report is going to have an effect on a real student. I think I need to do a few more of them and see that I don't totally screw up some poor kid's life with my diagnosis or lack of one before I'll be calmer about it. At the same time, though, while I am nervous about certain things, all of the adults I work with have been very helpful and completely willing to answer questions/explain procedures to me. They all seem genuinely happy to have me as part of the board and everyone seems to remember what it's like to be new, so I've had a ton of people offer their availability to help if I need it. I've also heard really good things about the board in general, and apparently this is one of the best psych departments in the province, so I'm really excited to be a part of this group of people. The only thing that could make me happier would be having it in writing that they want to hire me back for next year, but I imagine that won't happen till the end of this month/beginning of next. And there's definitely plenty for me to think about in the meantime!
The other thing that's really exciting is that Brad and I are moving into our new place in two weeks!! :D We paid the deposit in two halves, but it is fully paid. Our landlord sent us rental applications after we'd paid the deposit, which we were a little confused about, but he assured us that it was just a formality and the lease would be sent out soon. Actually he was supposed to send us the lease on Monday, but when I emailed him Tuesday about it, he responded that it would be sent this weekend. So it's annoying me a little that we don't have the lease to sign yet, but we do have receipts for the deposit, so he can't try to screw us over. He is going to have a cleaning lady go in before we move in, which is good, because it could use a nice cleaning. Grossest thing ever: the landlord gave us the code for the lockbox on the door, so that we could go in and take measurements of the rooms. We went over last night to show one of Brad's friends the place, and I don't know who's been there in the meantime, but there was a used bandaid on one of the stairs!!! Ewwwwwwwwwww gross. That needs to be gone asap, haha.
But yeah, I'm really really looking forward to moving in, even though we're kind of stressing out about furniture at this point. I found us some free end tables on craigslist and picked them up last weekend, and we found a cheap dining room table and 4 chairs set at Ikea that we're going to pick up when I get my next paycheck. We also found some cheap coffee tables there, so we'll grab one of those as well. However, the biggest things we need are a couch and a bed, and I am really not sure what we're going to do about those. My dad was supposed to be buying us a bed, as he owed me one from this fun incident, but the bonus he got this month ended up being really small and now he doesn't have the money to help us out. He's getting another bonus next month that he expects to be bigger, but he won't know until he gets it how much it will be, and he's also going back to court for the divorce next month, so who knows whether he'll end up having any money or not. So I'm really not sure what we're going to do at this point. We might just have to get a futon or air mattress for a couple weeks, and see if we can finance a bed and a couch from a furniture store or something. (We're reluctant to get any fabric-based furniture from craigslist, because you just never know who's had bedbugs or what's been spilled on those surfaces or anything.) The other thing that sucks is that although there's a lot of free/cheap stuff being offered on craigslist, my car will not hold anything bigger than an end table, so we can't pick up anything big, like dressers or bookcases or desks. :-/
Anyway, there was a post on le love about someone wanting to stay in bed, snuggle, eat cereal and watch stupid movies with their significant other, and that sounds like a totally delightful way to spend my weekend. There are a few people I want to call, but otherwise, I want to do nothing even remotely productive. I've also resolved to do nothing related to work this weekend - no work email, no looking at case notes, no report writing. I am taking a break! This is probably long enough already, so I will scamper off to read one of the three library books I currently have checked out but have had no time to even look at during the week. Much love, kids!
As might be expected, work, of course, has been the main thing keeping me busy. I went full time on April 1, but we had a four day weekend immediately after that because of Good Friday and Easter, which means that the week that just ended was my first full 5 day work week at full time hours. And while my full time hours are only a 7 hour day, I have on all but one of those days worked the 7 hours straight through without taking a lunch. I am eating, but I've been eating while doing work, not actually taking a break. (The plus side to this is that not taking time out for lunch means I usually get done work around 3:30, and I can avoid most of rush hour that way.) Anyway, I've definitely been going full steam, especially since I picked up two schools for a woman on maternity leave, so I now have four schools. I generally try to give one day a week to each school, and the fifth day I either split between the two schools that need most of my time, or I use to do paperwork, send emails, make phone calls, write reports, etc.
I really like the job so far. I think I need to find a way to let it go when I leave for the day, because part of what's been making me feel stressed is that I'm often still thinking about my caseload or what needs to get done for the next day after I've gone home, when I should be relaxing. But I imagine once I am more settled into the job, and more confident in my ability to do things correctly/do as much as I can while I'm there, I'll be able to relax more. I just wrote my first report, which still needs to be peer reviewed and signed off on by my supervisor, but it's kind of nervewracking to know that this report is going to have an effect on a real student. I think I need to do a few more of them and see that I don't totally screw up some poor kid's life with my diagnosis or lack of one before I'll be calmer about it. At the same time, though, while I am nervous about certain things, all of the adults I work with have been very helpful and completely willing to answer questions/explain procedures to me. They all seem genuinely happy to have me as part of the board and everyone seems to remember what it's like to be new, so I've had a ton of people offer their availability to help if I need it. I've also heard really good things about the board in general, and apparently this is one of the best psych departments in the province, so I'm really excited to be a part of this group of people. The only thing that could make me happier would be having it in writing that they want to hire me back for next year, but I imagine that won't happen till the end of this month/beginning of next. And there's definitely plenty for me to think about in the meantime!
The other thing that's really exciting is that Brad and I are moving into our new place in two weeks!! :D We paid the deposit in two halves, but it is fully paid. Our landlord sent us rental applications after we'd paid the deposit, which we were a little confused about, but he assured us that it was just a formality and the lease would be sent out soon. Actually he was supposed to send us the lease on Monday, but when I emailed him Tuesday about it, he responded that it would be sent this weekend. So it's annoying me a little that we don't have the lease to sign yet, but we do have receipts for the deposit, so he can't try to screw us over. He is going to have a cleaning lady go in before we move in, which is good, because it could use a nice cleaning. Grossest thing ever: the landlord gave us the code for the lockbox on the door, so that we could go in and take measurements of the rooms. We went over last night to show one of Brad's friends the place, and I don't know who's been there in the meantime, but there was a used bandaid on one of the stairs!!! Ewwwwwwwwwww gross. That needs to be gone asap, haha.
But yeah, I'm really really looking forward to moving in, even though we're kind of stressing out about furniture at this point. I found us some free end tables on craigslist and picked them up last weekend, and we found a cheap dining room table and 4 chairs set at Ikea that we're going to pick up when I get my next paycheck. We also found some cheap coffee tables there, so we'll grab one of those as well. However, the biggest things we need are a couch and a bed, and I am really not sure what we're going to do about those. My dad was supposed to be buying us a bed, as he owed me one from this fun incident, but the bonus he got this month ended up being really small and now he doesn't have the money to help us out. He's getting another bonus next month that he expects to be bigger, but he won't know until he gets it how much it will be, and he's also going back to court for the divorce next month, so who knows whether he'll end up having any money or not. So I'm really not sure what we're going to do at this point. We might just have to get a futon or air mattress for a couple weeks, and see if we can finance a bed and a couch from a furniture store or something. (We're reluctant to get any fabric-based furniture from craigslist, because you just never know who's had bedbugs or what's been spilled on those surfaces or anything.) The other thing that sucks is that although there's a lot of free/cheap stuff being offered on craigslist, my car will not hold anything bigger than an end table, so we can't pick up anything big, like dressers or bookcases or desks. :-/
Anyway, there was a post on le love about someone wanting to stay in bed, snuggle, eat cereal and watch stupid movies with their significant other, and that sounds like a totally delightful way to spend my weekend. There are a few people I want to call, but otherwise, I want to do nothing even remotely productive. I've also resolved to do nothing related to work this weekend - no work email, no looking at case notes, no report writing. I am taking a break! This is probably long enough already, so I will scamper off to read one of the three library books I currently have checked out but have had no time to even look at during the week. Much love, kids!