This was the first week where I really felt like myself since having Covid. I still feel like I could sleep around the clock, but I have been resisting the urge to take a daily nap—mostly. Last Thursday I went back to work for the first time in almost two weeks. My clients clearly missed me, which made me feel very proud. I seek to make their time with me safe, comfortable, fun, and supportive of their recovery, and I feel good that the members of my house feel that I am doing just that. The victories in the mental health field can be small, but I believe that they have a cumulative effect—or at least that belief is how I get through my workdays. I think that I should celebrate the victories in my life more often, no matter how small.
School is going well. We had an impromptu Zoom class, so I only had to miss one in-person class while out with Covid. I can only miss two classes total, so that well-timed Zoom class really helped me out. I am ahead of the class on my reading and I have written three papers, one to make up for the class I missed, and two regular assignments. I’m not sure what my instructors thought of them, but I am glad that I turned all of them on time and complete.
We are in week four of eighteen, and I should have started my internship by now, but I am still waiting for the organization that I am supposed to intern at to tell me where to take my drug test and a couple of other administrative things that are out of my control. It is making me pretty anxious—I have to work three hundred hours in less than fourteen weeks, while working my job, and taking classes three times a week. That is certainly the most practical issue, but I am also champing at the bit to start putting what I have learned into practice. I want to meet the clients and colleagues that I will be working with at the internship. Hopefully this all gets sorted out soon.
Next week we are supposed to be getting the first tranch of money for the living stipend that comes with the class, and not a moment too soon. Missing almost two weeks of work and taking Fridays off for school made my last paycheck adorably tiny. I’m not circling the drain or anything, but I really could use that do re mi. Can’t we all?
Jennifer is on her way to Massachusetts for a couple of weeks to see her father for his eightieth birthday and to visit some friends in Boston. I wish that I could be there as well, but I have work and school. Jennifer has been gone less than a day and the cats already have feelings about it. Daniel crawled onto me for comfort and cuddles immediately after I finished eating breakfast this morning.
Poor Jennifer is stuck on a tarmac at La Guardia Airport waiting to fly to Worcester (pronounced WorCHESTer by the gate attendant) after a four hour layover waiting for weather to clear over Central Massachusetts. Send her some good thoughts that the weather will clear and she can get going soon.
I'm glad things are going well!