Quick summary of my day.
1) Had a wonderful time meeting with the volunteer coordinator of a hospice. These people sound so great to work with. I now have some paperwork to fill out and my volunteer training starts next month.
2) Made some really nice ATCs to give to people as a business card of sorts. I don't have this on them now, but I'm thinking about putting "Art Facilitator" as my current field.
3) Was able to give my son a lesson about promotional scams. There is a used car dealership in a nearby town that said we "won" something. Jake loves cars and any opportunity to look at them is worth taking - so we did get something from the trip. He was able to look at a lot of cars, even though I had no intention of getting any. Our gift was a complete scam, though. Basically, we were given a $1000 "shopping spree". Total BS. They get you out the door before you can read the instructions they give you, but the first one is type the URL in directly and don't use a search engine to find the site. That's because you'll see scam reports on them. They "let" you shop for "$1000" of stuff and then charge you outrageous S&H fees plus a $5 processing fee. In short, you aren't getting anything free - and the stuff is pretty much crap to choose from.
However, since the main reason was to let Jake have an excuse to wander around a car lot and check out vehicles, it's no big deal for us personally. Though we have absolutely NO intention of doing business with this place in the future. Turns out their sister dealership also did this, so you can't tell me that they didn't know they were scamming people.
4) Talked to my bishop tonight. I have a calling now. I'm just keeping track of who does their visits to other members each month. (Not everyone, just a group of 15 or so.) Told him about my job searching, my volunteer opportunity, my need for art classes, the schedule I would have to have and so forth. He told me that it was worth the sacrifice now to get the masters and have a better job later and suggested I send my resume to another place that could possibly work around my upcoming class schedule. But even if I don't get work there, he said not to worry about.
5) Talked with someone who had adopted a friend's 10 year old son at the same time her daughter was born. Sadly, the boy has been found to be mentally unstable and homocidal. He tried to kill her daughter a few times and when she got a caseworker to look into it, they found out that he had been torturing animals in the neighborhood and harming smaller kids on the bus. She still didn't quite believe he was that bad until the intake interview, when he dropped his facade and talked bluntly about his desire to hurt people. She found out that he set the fire that killed his mother and it wasn't faulty wiring as she had been told. The institution that he's in told her recently that his disassociative disorder was so advanced, even at the age of 10, that there isn't really much they can do for him. She's still stunned about that part, but after seeing the facade drop and then later, when the boy realized he was stuck in the institution, to have him suddenly call her "Mom", whenever the counselor is around, when he never called her that before - she has come to the realization that he is beyond her ability to control and take care of.
I reminded her that the damage was done long before she got him. I didn't tell her that such behavior is typical of children whose mothers show no affection to them as infants - and thereby resolve their "trust versus mistrust crisis" in a negative fashion. Even though I think she's beginning to realize that maybe her friend wasn't quite the person she thought, it just didn't seem a good idea to mention that. From the look of her face, I could tell she knew what torturing animals led to.
When she talked about how sweet and good her friend's son acted around other people, it reminded me of my nephew who is now in a foster home - the one who tried to push my sister down a tall flight of stairs and tried to beat up his stepmother. I think I will change my decision of having him live with me when I get in the position to be able to take him. I'm not saying that I will flat out turn him down if asked, but I'm not going to make the offer - not unless it's accompanied by an angelic messenger or a sign in the heavens.
I am so glad I could give my children lots of affection when they were little.
5) Read Tuesdays with Morrie yesterday. It was so good that I am rereading it now and highlighting parts. I'll probably post some quotes from it in the Cosmic Siren blog later. Right now Auden's quote "Love each other or perish" has taken on a new meaning.
Anyway I have a job fair to go to tomorrow. Hopefully, I can sleep well tonight.
2) Made some really nice ATCs to give to people as a business card of sorts. I don't have this on them now, but I'm thinking about putting "Art Facilitator" as my current field.
3) Was able to give my son a lesson about promotional scams. There is a used car dealership in a nearby town that said we "won" something. Jake loves cars and any opportunity to look at them is worth taking - so we did get something from the trip. He was able to look at a lot of cars, even though I had no intention of getting any. Our gift was a complete scam, though. Basically, we were given a $1000 "shopping spree". Total BS. They get you out the door before you can read the instructions they give you, but the first one is type the URL in directly and don't use a search engine to find the site. That's because you'll see scam reports on them. They "let" you shop for "$1000" of stuff and then charge you outrageous S&H fees plus a $5 processing fee. In short, you aren't getting anything free - and the stuff is pretty much crap to choose from.
However, since the main reason was to let Jake have an excuse to wander around a car lot and check out vehicles, it's no big deal for us personally. Though we have absolutely NO intention of doing business with this place in the future. Turns out their sister dealership also did this, so you can't tell me that they didn't know they were scamming people.
4) Talked to my bishop tonight. I have a calling now. I'm just keeping track of who does their visits to other members each month. (Not everyone, just a group of 15 or so.) Told him about my job searching, my volunteer opportunity, my need for art classes, the schedule I would have to have and so forth. He told me that it was worth the sacrifice now to get the masters and have a better job later and suggested I send my resume to another place that could possibly work around my upcoming class schedule. But even if I don't get work there, he said not to worry about.
5) Talked with someone who had adopted a friend's 10 year old son at the same time her daughter was born. Sadly, the boy has been found to be mentally unstable and homocidal. He tried to kill her daughter a few times and when she got a caseworker to look into it, they found out that he had been torturing animals in the neighborhood and harming smaller kids on the bus. She still didn't quite believe he was that bad until the intake interview, when he dropped his facade and talked bluntly about his desire to hurt people. She found out that he set the fire that killed his mother and it wasn't faulty wiring as she had been told. The institution that he's in told her recently that his disassociative disorder was so advanced, even at the age of 10, that there isn't really much they can do for him. She's still stunned about that part, but after seeing the facade drop and then later, when the boy realized he was stuck in the institution, to have him suddenly call her "Mom", whenever the counselor is around, when he never called her that before - she has come to the realization that he is beyond her ability to control and take care of.
I reminded her that the damage was done long before she got him. I didn't tell her that such behavior is typical of children whose mothers show no affection to them as infants - and thereby resolve their "trust versus mistrust crisis" in a negative fashion. Even though I think she's beginning to realize that maybe her friend wasn't quite the person she thought, it just didn't seem a good idea to mention that. From the look of her face, I could tell she knew what torturing animals led to.
When she talked about how sweet and good her friend's son acted around other people, it reminded me of my nephew who is now in a foster home - the one who tried to push my sister down a tall flight of stairs and tried to beat up his stepmother. I think I will change my decision of having him live with me when I get in the position to be able to take him. I'm not saying that I will flat out turn him down if asked, but I'm not going to make the offer - not unless it's accompanied by an angelic messenger or a sign in the heavens.
I am so glad I could give my children lots of affection when they were little.
5) Read Tuesdays with Morrie yesterday. It was so good that I am rereading it now and highlighting parts. I'll probably post some quotes from it in the Cosmic Siren blog later. Right now Auden's quote "Love each other or perish" has taken on a new meaning.
Anyway I have a job fair to go to tomorrow. Hopefully, I can sleep well tonight.