Back...

Hey. Sorry I haven't posted in ages. I'm finally feeling better. The last week or so has been a lot of Nausea, a lot of 12 hour shifts and a lot of confusion. I'm not entierly sure where to start.

Ok, placement. So, I've been there for about 3 weeks now. In this time, I haven't really seen my "placement supervisor". At all. Sylvie (my trainer) and I really had no idea what I was allowed to do, and what I wasn't allowed to do, and at one point, I was asked to provide child care, which goes against Best Practices, and wound up being slightly illegal, given the ages and number of the children, and my complete lack of parenting instinct or formal training... Anyways; so I wrote Deb a letter. A well worded (I thought), not intrusive (I thought), well meaning (I thought) letter, just asking for clarification of my role at NTH (Nipissing Transition House), clarification of the Policies, and asking for time for us to go over my Assignments and evaluations. I really thought it was pleasent and well written. Aparently not. I got a letter back about a week later. It reminded me of something out of high school. I felt belittled, confused and hurt by the response I got from her. It really felt like a slap on the hand. She basically told me that I was a student and therefore had no idea what I was doing (which is somewhat true, but that's why I'm there... to learn!). She also accused me of not pitching in with the rest of the team... I don't know how she would know either way, because I've been mostly on Nights, and there on days when she's off. Because the nightly/daily checklists are to be completed by my supervisor, there's no real way to differentiate who did what. I do sweep and mop the floors. When there was the outbreak of Norwalk-from-hell, I sanitized EVERYTHING I could, from chairs to phones. I take the garbage out when the resident who is supposed to do it hasn't. So, I thought, I must be reading this wrong. I must be reading in some kind of hostility that just isn't there. And I asked Sylvie, who was CC'ed a copy of that letter what she thought. She assured me that I wasn't reading anything in that wasn't there. The letter was meant to be hostile. What I want to know is, why, if she felt that way, didn't she ask me to come in and meet with her? At least that way I would have been able to respond to some of her statements.

Anyways, so, that was over the last couple of days. the other night though, we had a bit of a moving experiance. Some of you may remember, back about a year ago, when Neighbours Friends and Families started, they told us the story of a woman named "Daisy", who escaped 25 years of abuse, and because there was no support after being in the shelter, and her kids had been turned against her by their father (the abuser), she took her life under an oak tree here in town. Early saturday morning, I "met" "Daisy". She had spent time at the NTH, and Sylvie and I were able to spend some time looking over her real file, and read things (in her own words), and talk about her and her impact, especially on Sylvie. It was amazing. And we both feel that "Daisy" was actually in the room with us the whole time.

Moving on, SoS stuff isn't really anything new. With less than a month to go before opening night, lines aren't memorized (nothing new there...), the set is built, but hasn't been rehearsed on yet (nothing new there either), and Exec meetings are basically a battle of wills (suprise suprise). Really, it's not all bad. I"ve almost given up on the idea of doing any fundraising this year, because no one else seems to want to do it. I'm really hoping the shows bring in a lot of money. and they should, because we raised ticket prices...

What else, What else... I don't know right now. I'm so tired, I feel like I haven't slept in days. Sorrelle is going to get fixed on the 25th. She is not impressed by this: she doesn't think anything's broken. hmm.

The Vagina Monologues are going... ok, so far. I think. I haven't met everyone yet, and we've had 2 pretty big parts drop. We also haven't heard from a few people yet, so I don't know what's gonig on. Other than that, we have a techie or two, we have the time and place booked, and the rest is up to the actors. We've been lucky to have a few people that didn't come to auditions step up and take over some roles or understudy for us, but it would be nice to have a few more.

I just took a walk down to the theatre to see how things are going... Looks pretty good. Wierd Kid starts tomorrow (well, tuesday with the holiday), so they're getting in some last minute rehearsals.

I'm desperatly trying to keep myself awake right now. Murrrrr... I wants my bed.

More later. right now I need to get some notes typed up.