churning wheels of time

[Steph Barrett]

Who would believe that at this point I'd still be at DHHS stealing babies
and wielding the power, vested in my by the State of Maine, to make people
cry. Well, at one year, 3 months, it's nearly over. I applied for a kin
studies position in our same office and was offered the job today. The
timing was perfect, as the new assessment procedures were coming around for
all protective workers and I was soon to get heaved onto the street knocking
on doors as a front-line worker. This was something I dreaded doing on a
regular basis.
A nice note was that my supervisor tried to woo me with promise that she was
trying to hold onto one case-carrying position, which would have been of
interest, but really, I was tired of getting screamed at on a regular basis.
I just got a good review that noted I had oral and written communication
skills that far exceeded expectations and that I was miles ahead of where
most 1st year caseworkers would be.
My new job will be doing kin studies on potential relative placements for
kids coming into state care. I will also be trying to identify relative
placements for kids who are in residential care and will be facilitating
family team meetings to work at moving those kids out of residential. Maine
lags far behind many other states with regards to the use of residential
placements. Here's hoping it works!
Other than that, we survived the rainy month of April and the rainy month of
may with nary a suicide attempt in the house. Finally got the boat in the
water a couple of weeks ago and have used it 3 times. We're now backed up
against another week of 50 degrees and rain in the forecast. It kind of
sucks. I'm glad we had an auto-bilge installed, but it failed to run the
other day. We've only fished once, with absolutely no action.
We've also spent only one weekend on the river. This weekend, we're headed
to Portland for pride. We're actually going to stay over night. Very
exciting. We had a good date night last weekend, with Madagascar on
Saturday night and dinner out on Sunday night. Madagascar was good fun. I
think the King Julien lemur was gay and I loved him. I want to party in the
lemur tree!
Hope all's well in shoe-land.
Steph
crb doc rip-off shoes

[cyn########]

On 15 Jun 2005 18:12:21 -0400, (eek, was it really 2 weeks ago?),

Post by Steph Barrett
My new job will be doing kin studies on potential relative placements for
kids coming into state care. I will also be trying to identify relative
placements for kids who are in residential care and will be facilitating
family team meetings to work at moving those kids out of residential. Maine
lags far behind many other states with regards to the use of residential
placements. Here's hoping it works!

Hey, Steph, congratulations! (sorry I'm so late)
I hope the new job is less stressful, (how can it not be?), and that
it's a better fit for you. If I haven't mentioned it yet, I'm
continually amazed/impressed with your fortitude in dealing with what
you do on a daily basis -- it drive me off the deep end. Er, more so
than I currently am, that is. ;-)

Forgive my lack of eloquence, but the bloody heat's been stunting my
brain activity, save that -- I'm happy for you.

Post by Steph Barrett
We had a good date night last weekend, with Madagascar on
Saturday night and dinner out on Sunday night. Madagascar was good fun. I
think the King Julien lemur was gay and I loved him. I want to party in the
lemur tree!

....and I have no idea what the above means, but it sounds fun...so
yippee!

Ciao,

cyn#
("yippee" -- good grief, did I mention "brain death"???)
shoes looking to buy their owner a new vocabulary