Time For An Update

After a wonderful and relaxing three day weekend, I was back to work today and I got to go home early because the after-school program was closed! (the kids did not have school today). I love working with these kids, but every once and awhile I need a well-deserved break. I had my first staff evaluation today and it went really well. I heard a lot of positive feedback which is always nice. And since I have two job titles with two supervisors I still have another evaluation awaiting me. Today's was with the youth programs coordinator. Next I get to hear from the big man, Mr. Edgardo.

Anyways, back to my three day weekend. Friday was interesting. We had a group of 11 people (ten students, one teacher) from Berea College in KY stay with us. We learned of this event only a couple days before via an e-mail from our director which went something like this "oh by the way you will have a group of students staying with you Friday night." It was a January term class. They are studying different communities, and for some reason decided to study us. We were asked a lot of questions about living in community that I have never even thought about. They came for part of our seminar Friday morning and stayed until the next morning. They brought their own food and paper plates (thank God!) and cooked us dinner Friday evening. They all slept on the floor in sleeping bags. All my housemates and I went out Friday night, leaving them in our apartment which I thought was amusing. We invited them to come with us, but they had a meeting. We went to Actors Theatre for the second time that week to see a set of ten minute plays put on by the apprentices (including my housemate Ben). The plays were enjoyable, and afterwards there was a reception with lots of free food and alcohol. Can't go wrong there. I especially enjoyed the meatballs and the wine.

You may be wondering about the picture I posted. On Saturday afternoon we went to Cave Hill Cemetery here in Louisville, a "tourist attraction" we had yet to visit. I still find it odd to walk around in cemeteries, but I did enjoy it. It was really beautiful and I would like to go back in the spring. There are a few famous people buried there, and one of them is good old Col. Sanders, the founder of the "Kentucky Fried Chicken Empire" as it says on his grave. The picture is of me and some of my housemates by his grave. Notice the bust of the Colonel. Saturday night I went out dancing with a couple of my co-workers which was a lot of fun. The bars & clubs here are open until 4 a.m. and I took advantage of that for the first time.

The rest of the weekend I did not do much and I enjoyed it. I watched the movie "Crash" Sunday night. I would recommend it if you haven't seen it. Monday afternoon I had an interview at a place called Transformations. They hire contract workers to work with families that have children with disabilites. I enjoyed my job with Will, and am hoping to get a job like that here just a few hours a week for some extra money. I interviewed with the two founders of this company and I really liked them. However if I go through this place it might end up being a pretty lengthy process. It also seemed like most of the people working for them are making a career out of this. Another concern of mine is it sounded like I might be expected to go into a family and plan the programming, which I am definitely not qualified for! I did therapy with Will, but someone else was teaching me what to do before I did it. Depending on the family, I might not get that here. During this hour conversation, I realized that working in the field of autism might be a good field to go into and you can make a good living, according to my interviewer. However I still have a lot to learn! I might look into how I could incorporate this into a social work program (since I just applied to grad school!) So I have to think awhile about this before I decide what to do. They suggested that I might want to look into families that can afford private pay, which would probably work better with my situation. I stumbled upon the job with Will and I am realizing it is not usually that easy! If I go through Transformations, it might take too much of my time that I do not really have. So we'll see what happens. I have a few other contacts that I should talk to before I make a decision.

Okay I'll stop now. Time for dinner and then I think I'm going to see Harry Potter again tonight!