A Trip to Somewhere!

Well really it's nowhere in the most dramatic way, but one of my best friends in the world still lives in the Wyoming town where I mostly grew up so I'm off to visit him Thursday afternoon. Another really good friend who hung out with us is also coming... all the way from the Deep South, so we'll meet in the Big City in UT, and drive on to BFE to visit our friend in WY. He is going on a wait list for a liver the end of the month, but seems to be doing well for now and is even working again after a few near death experiences. So many wake up calls of late with him and then my mom... I'm trying to update all my relationships with my little extra summer time and be sure that if anything happens to anyone I won't have any unfinished business floating around. It's a better way to be, I think, if it can be managed.

Mom has a followup with her doc tomorrow, so shall likely hear if there is going to be another surgery. I'm reasonably sure there will be and the idea is both scary and frustrating. Of course the scary part is the 'right' emotion to have, since it's about Mom. The other is about the endless line of life altering events that seems to be bent on preventing me from having any serious blocks of time to do my diss, or as my other half refers to it; my fecis. LOL! There ARE some days it feels like an enormous pile of shit. Oh well, Mom and my friend come first and let the chips fall where they may!

Have been conversing with my Training Director at the internship about preferred groups and types of experiences I am interested in as they customize the plan to each intern's needs. It's kinda scary and kind of exciting... it's REAL, wow! I have a gazillion appointments to get drug tested, TB tested, have a physical, have background checks done and so forth. It is such an enormous effort to get into this line of work! But in all of this there has been no mention of loss of funding, so I'm feeling pretty good about that (pauses to pound on wooden table). I don't regret all the hours at Juvenile Hall though, because our future is so uncertain it really helps keep the anxiety level down to have some money in the bank.

Had a horrific experience at my work this week. One of the kids we'd been seeing for a couple of years was released on probation a while ago and in short order committed a couple of violent crimes. I am vastly relieved nobody was killed but upset that it happened at all. Sadly it wasn't surprising; I think this person's window for therapeutic success closed long before we ever met, but there is still a sickening sense of responsibility here. Did we make any difference at all in those two years? How can we know? It's so very surreal though, to see the person on the online version of the local newspaper and read the comments after the article...comments along the lines that this person shouldn't be allowed to live and so forth. Those sorts of things are always disturbing, but to actually know the person they are discussing is just downright freaky!