Q. How many depressives does it take to change a lightbulb?
A. You go off and enjoy yourself, I'll just sit here in the dark.


If ever a joke summed up depression, this is it. hehe.

GAH! I am so annoyed.

I've been waiting forever to get my new crown put on. I've had a temporary on there since like October. He's taken two or three molds of the tooth, and I was supposed to have it put on today. I get to the office this afternoon (after taking off of work to do so) and the dumbass lady tells me that my appointment is cancelled. This is the second or third time this has happened. SHe said, "I tried to call your work number, I called three or four times and left messages." I look at the work number she has down: MaxWeb. Dammit, it's a year almost to the day that I haven't worked there, and I'd guess that SOMEONE would mention that I don't work there AND THE COMPANY NO LONGER EXISTS! LIke why the hell didn't she just call me at home? I really think her IQ is on the low side of normal, at the very least.

So anyhow. Whew.

I started classes about two weeks ago. I think I'm going to like them all, except for the EThics text boring me to death (the class doesn't seem too bad.) I was surprised that I really love Mental Health Policy, as I really hated it's predecessor, Social Work Policy. Right now we're discussing stigma and how that creates barriers to obtaining mental health services. Stigma is one of my big soapboxes, so I'm really excited. Yes, I'm a dork, and I'm aware of this fact.

It's nice to see all of my schoolfriends again. I know everyone in all my classes, save about six people. I really like my new job, too. I have so much more real responsibility than I did at my last job. I'm a lot more involved in everything, and they actually CARE if I learn. That definitely did not happen at the last job. If I volunteered that I was learning something, I got a blank stare. Dammit, they're part of a university, and I think they should have a RESPONSIBILITY to make sure their research assistants learn. That's the point of a university: to teach others. I went to a seminar last week on proving people with disabilities with proper services, and how to affect change. We introduced ourselves, and the director remembered meeting me, which I thought was pretty cool.

I'm doing work with SPSS right now, which is a statistical package. I still have more to learn about it, but I really love it. It's fun. And once again, yes, I realize I'm a dork.

Oh, congratulations to Emily for passing her licensure exam! She is now a licensed social worker in the state of Ohio. This should make finding a job easier. YAY!

I think I'm out of stuff to say, which is kind of sad. School gets back in session, and *POOF*, all thought independent of social work (and anger at dentistry) is gone.

More photos up here. I was playing with flash vs. no flash, etc. Tell me what you think.

My dream from last night, or an approximation of what I remember:

I think it started out with Ilya and I at a symphony, where Ilya knew the bandmembers. Ilya gave me a two toy xylophones.

Then I'm with Jay and Ilya and my family on a rooftop somewhere. My uncle has died, and we're getting ready for the funeral. How my uncle died is the twisted part: He and my aunt were swingers, and he'd died while in the act of their swinging, having sex with another man. Everyone kept remarking on how upset my grandfather would be if he were alive to see it, but I kept thinking, "No, he wouldn't, he was a big perv!" (which is true.) At the funeral, we had to make sure my aunt didn't see any play-doh, because play-doh really upset her, and it had something to do with my uncle's death. And the whole time I kept realizing I was wearing two different shoes, which really bothered me.

Creepy.

So today was my first day of work. They are indeed paying tuition, and a healthy stipend. I think I might get health insurance, too! WOW!

But as for the job... whoo-eee. It's going to be a lot of work (well, duh, not to state the obvious.) The chick who I am replacing did a tremendous job of documenting how to do things, but there's just so much of it. I think I'll like it, and I like having responibilities (something I didn't have at my last job.) I'm a bit overwhelmed. I'm going in tomorrow to try to check in a packet, which involves alot of things I'm still not quite sure about.

I really like the diversity of the environment. As far as I can tell, I'm the only social work person around. And the type of people are different, too. There's a kid with Asperger's that works in our office, a guy in a wheelchair down the hall, people with hearing aids, people with developmental difficulties... I think it's a more comprehensive environment than you'd get in most social work settings. It's all accepted as normal. It's not like, "Here's Bob, he's autistic." It's just, "Here's Bob. He does the mail. And he's really quick with puns."

So, a summary of day one:
Overwhelmed, yet inspired.
Happy to not have to pay tuition.
Did I mention overwhelmed?

The passing of Jerry Orbach has made me very sad. Law and Order isn't the same without him. Poor Jerry. Nobody puts Baby in a corner (except him.) (10 points to anyone who gets that reference.)

We've been going crazy with the new digital camera, so there are a few more photo albums up at the Yahoo! photo site. Yes, we have nothing better to do that take pictures of our pets and food all day long.

Tomorrow I start my new job (well, I go in for orientation.) I am nervous.

Not much else is going on. We made Liz's mulligitawny for dinner today. Since Jay's mom doesn't like Indian food, we just told her it was potato soup. hehe. By either name, it was delicious.

And that is all.