…and what does that mean? Let’s start with the impossible job I mentioned in a previous post. Yesterday I was at work when I saw through my office door the site nurse on the move with her vitals equipment. I emerged to discover one of the staff behind closed doors in an office being treated by said nurse and I moved towards the lobby, towards … Continue reading Meeting darkness with vulnerability…
I leave for work in two hours, where I manage the support services in a building with 140 highly acute residents. There should be a staff consisting of my role, an assistant manager, and five case managers to do the work, but what we have is me, and three case managers, one of which is starting today and two who work four day schedules. Despite … Continue reading An Impossible Job…
I moved back to San Francisco 8 months ago, a long debated change influenced by past memories, thoughts of meaning, the pandemic lock downs and a growing dissatisfaction with a repetitive, routine Chicago. This relocation was supposed to be a solution, get me back to doing the work I loved in an environment I related to where I could once again, begin to see my … Continue reading Back in San Francisco…
Standing at the corner of Eddy and Polk Street in San Francisco, looking at the combination KFC/Taco Bell restaurant, thinking. Do I want greasy fried chicken? That’d give me heartburn, but Taco Bell is so much what the fuck did I just eat? Maybe I should go somewhere else, get a slice of pizza at the place up the street. I glance left where crack … Continue reading Connections
Over twenty years ago I had a singular experience. I was in the Pacific Northwest driving on the 520 Bridge spanning Lake Washington between Seattle and Bellevue. The morning sun was coming up. The floating bridge rocked gently on the water. I pushed the accelerator down, smoking a cigarette as I drove towards my apartment on the Seattle side of the lake. My car windows … Continue reading Stripped
Compassion… That’s right, compassion… I keep hearing politicians talk about hard choices, about tough decisions and being realistic…you know, their usual line and all of it typically means only one thing…but I’m getting ahead of myself here… Let me start over… So, few days ago I was blocking traffic on a bridge as part of a national day of action. Good time, didn’t necessarily agree … Continue reading The hardest political choice…
So, four months from now on March 1st of 2012, I am finally out of the Great White North and heading back to what I thought might be New Orleans. Would certainly make sense with all the writing I do on this site that this town is where my interests lie, and it is, but the damned economy…here’s the thing that keeps throwing rocks in … Continue reading Be back Monday…the trouble with the (personal) economy…
Hey all, hang in there a little longer…I’m in process of switching my sleep to a third shift schedule and it’s causing major routine disruptions… Ya know tho’…not too sure how many of you work a third shift gig, (I have before and its preferred, including 3rd shift bartending in New Orleans at one time) but once things shake out, am I the only one … Continue reading Hang in there…major sleep disruptions
As a social worker, you develop a really dark sense of humor, a mindset often used as a coping mechanism for some of what you see and the stories you hear. During Katrina, I was living on the West Coast and at conferences, or in simple conversations with co-workers a statement I heard more than any other went something like this: “New Orleans? Jesus, that … Continue reading The Legacy of Katrina Study – The Kids Aren’t Alright
Drake Toulouse: Photography and Words 