November 14th 2017
5:30 am—alarm goes off, I hit snooze
5:40 am—alarm goes off, I hit snooze
5:50 am—alarm goes off, I hit snooze
5:56 am—I groan and curse moving around. My body hurts from laying in one place for so long. I HATE mornings. I make a pot of coffee and start the dryer to get the wrinkles out of the clothes that have been sitting there for a few days. I wet down my hair to get rid of my bedhead and brush my teeth. My husband’s alarm goes off. WLBC is blasting the house (this ALWAYS pisses me off). I can hear him groan from the next room. His body hurts too. I fold the clothes in the dryer, move clothes from the washer into the dryer and load the washer again. I poor two cups of coffee and place one at the end of the kitchen table for husband.
6:25 am—husband moves and I go out to look for newspaper. This action makes me angry and I am cussing the new paper delivery person, swearing I will stop the delivery (I won’t). The old person left the paper at the door, now it is like Finding Waldo in my front yard.
6:33 am—while I am getting dressed, the phone rings, scaring the shit out of me. The agency that comes to shower my client wants to report that their staff is having car trouble and will be late.
6:40 am—LATE! I am out the door headed to work. My car is frosted over which makes me angry at myself for not thinking to start it earlier. I listen to NPR on my drive, but it is not helping my mood. I decide to turn off the radio and concentrate on the beauty of the frost in the fields.
7:12 am—arrive 12 minutes late to work. Talk with midnight shift to see how the clients are. Start the morning routine, run bath water for client, lay out his clothes and encourage him to head to the bathroom. Wave goodbye to second client when his bus arrives to take him to Hopewell. All the people on his bus wave back. (I love this). Realizing, the other staff is not coming in, I start shower for third client. He is total care and requires a lift to move. Co-worker comes in to help me shower and dress client.
9:00 am—Fix breakfast for the clients, change all the bed sheets and start laundry.
9:30 am—I look at my Facebook and see a 27 year old kid, that I have known since he was in diapers, died the night before in a car accident. This shocks me and I hide from my clients so they won’t see me upset. My 4 year old niece calls me 4 times in a row, babbles and hangs up on me. My sister text to apologize for the calls. The timing of her calls could not have been better.
9:50 am—Take client with me to a meeting at the Muncie Office. During the drive, I think of the tragic death and start tearing up. My non vocal client starts seat dancing to Billy Idols “Dancing With Myself” prompting me to snap out of it and join in.
10:20 am—Arrive at office and talk to one of the bosses. Leave message for the Director to call me. Head back to Anderson.
11:30 am—Arrive at GFS to purchase finger foods for the clients to take to their bible study party.
12:02 pm—Pick up lunch for clients at Panda Express then go next door to Qdoba’s to grab lunch for myself. My client has Down Syndrome and he’s non vocal. He is highly motivated by food and he was fixated on the cookies behind the counter. Today, he had on a shirt with the Chevy logo with an American flag.
The lady behind the counter pointed to his shirt and said, “Look, even retarded people want to make America great again”
I was taken aback and studied her face. She seemed genuine and harmless, but I was offended by her words. I replied, “All retarded people want to make America great again”, trying to give her a dig. She didn’t get the dig, she replied, “Oh, isn’t that wonderful, have a blessed day”
12:20 pm—Feed my clients and also talk to Director of my work.
12:45 pm—Lunch completed. Conversation with Director has led to me contacting other staff and a meeting the next morning at 9:30. Clients want to watch T.V.
1:00-3:00 pm—Take time to work on nonprofit while my clients watch T.V. Contacted a business to change meeting date and time. Contacted K about this evenings LGBTQ sensitivity training for the writers of The Facing Project. Folded clients laundry, answered text from my niece who is in study hall at her middle school. Contacted this evening’s support group to let them know I would be splitting my time between them and a meeting. Helped client urinate and started the movie Ghost Busters for him. Arranged a meeting with someone who is interested in volunteering for nonprofit. Checked email
3:00 pm—Shift change. Talk to next staff about the day’s events. Inform her about tomorrow’s meeting. She ask me to write a recommendation for her to get into a program at her school.
4:00 pm—Arrive at church where my nonprofit is located. The building is busy. Check mail and talk to the church’s intern. Work on SignUpGenius to arrange for food donations. Look at more email
5:30 pm—Meet with A to go over the Transgender Day of Remembrance event. Approved art, went over PowerPoint, talked about order of speakers, how to transport art, talked about security for the march, and watched a video that will be presented. Asked to bring banners, condoms, fliers, and buttons. Talked about how to contact paper to get publicity.
7:00 pm—Support group starts. Listen to check-ins and as they start the meeting I see my second person come in. I excuse myself to talk to J.
7:20 pm—Talk to J about a pianist concert that is happening as a fundraiser. Talk about fliers and getting the word out. Arrange people to bring in refreshments. Also talk about moving the art created for the Transgender Day of Remembrance to the concert.
8:20 pm—Back to the support group.
9:00 pm—Support group ends and people stand around and talk. I start shutting lights out and locking up in order to move them all out.
9:20 pm—Arrive home. I immediately hear my nieces yell for me. They are 4 and 5 and spend two nights a week with us while my sister does her practicum. Husband tells me he has been trying to get them down for the past 45 min. I go in to give hugs and kisses. Tuck them in and tell them they need to sleep. We have an early morning. I go to talk to my husband.
9:30 pm—Yell at girls to sleep and talk to husband
9:40 pm—Yell at girls to sleep and talk to husband
9:50 pm—Threaten to put girls in separate rooms if they do not be quite and go to sleep.
10:00 pm—Go talk to girls and explain that we have an early morning. Tell them that I am going to take a shower and if I hear another word, I will put them in separate rooms for the rest of the night.
10:10 pm—Shower!!! Nice long and quiet shower.
10:30 pm—Check on kids. They are fast asleep. Talk to husband about the events of our days
11:00 pm—Watch local news
11:30 pm—Watch the opening of Colbert
Midnight –Sleep
