How it's going

I had the best of intentions of publishing this earlier and started the update the last part of March. It's April now and rather than retyping, I will just do a little April update at the bottom as a great deal may have changed! Be patient with me and I hope next time for there to be pictures and more entertaining content.  2011 has proven to be a challenging year for me.

Social Work

Some days, Social Work and Case Management are a bit of a thankless profession but today was a great day for my team and I want to brag on us!  Since I started at the VA, we have had clients who live in a terrible boarding home owned by a total psycho.  I would say I am exaggerating on the psycho part but the first time I met him, he was mad at one of our team members and I had to threaten him with calling the police if he didn't get out of my space and stop yelling at me!  Not much has changed with Mr. Psycho in the last few years (starting #5 can you believe it!) and unfortunately the one person at the home who cared for the clients recently passed away after a long battle with breast cancer.  This week,  one of the nurses has been coordinating a move for a client and the owner went ballistic and banned us from the premises.  We are now in the process of moving two other clients for whom we provide case management to another facility, one of whom I am the primary for, and I am extremely excited about the new placement. We toured the home and the couple, who run it seem very caring and involved in running a quality facility.  I am also relieved that in less than a month (cross your fingers), we should never have to deal with Mr. Psycho again.  I have informed my patient's Benefits Representative of our banishment and she does not want any Veteran at the facility.  I have never been so happy to see someone get what is coming to them!

Update 04/11/11: My client decided not to move and we are no longer providing services to the client.  I am a bit sad for the client but continue to be happy not to have to go to a home where I feel my safety is threatened.

Upcoming Summer Adventures:

Airline Tickets purchased for Kate and Andy's wedding in August (and to meet Baby Dranka!!!)
Tickets purchased to see Def Leppard/Heart at The Wharf in Orange Beach in June (to celebrate Kel's birthday and have a girl's trip with Mel)
Possible Atlanta trip to see Adrienne (with my road trip partner Miss Kelly)

Upcoming April Events

Book Club April 2- Discussing Cleopatra's Daughter by Michelle Moran (loved it!!!!) and picking a new read.  It will be at my house due to lead paint cleanup at Mel's place and preggo member, who does not need to be in the vicinity of remodel.
(as an aside, my treasured nook now has screen issues and at some point, I will be needing to purchase another one so thinking to upgrade to Nook Color with Touchscreen)

Fun and Games Shower for Marlene and Jonathon- They will marry in May and we (Kelly, Melanie, and I) are hosting a shower at Casa Cahill to celebrate the nuptials.  There will be grilling of meats and playing of video and board games, as the couple met at Innisfree Trivia Night.

Update: Book Club was great and next book TBA. Just finished Ice Cold and am extremely bummed I have to wait until July for the next Rizzoli and Isles book to be published.  About to start Food and Loathing because I am apparently a bit of a masochist and feel the need to read about a person's unhealthy relationship with food.
Adventures in Dating

So far, not much to say here... Entering the second month on E-Harmony and has only kind of reinforced that I am a magnet for dysfunction.  I have committed to 3 Months on the site and am really trying to keep good perspective and outlook on this type of approach.  I have sent out a few questions to people and have been sent a few things but so far no one that just blows me away and a few weirdos that slipped through the cracks! I remain hopeful the "he" is around and will find me before the world ends in 2012 (according to Mayan folklore).

Continue to see Mr. January around work and relationship is amicable but definitely dead.  I pawn off miscellaneous baked goods on him every now and again because he has a sweet tooth and I certainly don't need them. He doesn't either but it is no longer my job to make sure he lives to a ripe old age.  This involves leaving them on his truck mirror in a plastic bag with a note they aren't poisoned and a thank you on his part.  (I've watched enough forensic files to know I would never get away with it! They always suspect the chick and I have no real motive.) Mr. December/February is totally out of the picture and I am slowly overcoming the sadness that came from what I hoped would be my last dating drama. I have made attempts to repair the rift between us but he is AWOL and I tired.  So hard to meet a nice Catholic boy that some mean girl hasn't already taken through the ringer but hope springs eternal!

Update: Totally hate Mr. December/February and hope he and the Barbie doll like wench he is screwing have a nice life together.  (I thought that was an upbeat yet bitchy sentiment and it's all I have for him now.)
Will be very glad when Mr. January finally gets a job somewhere else and should have listened to his initial theory that girls and guys being friends is so much "BS", as my efforts at friendship are rebuffed.  I do genuinely hope he has a nice life and the sooner it starts the better!

So the lesson in this is that I have HORRIBLE taste in men and should not be left to my own devices! 

Church

Several months ago, I moved congregations and started attending Prince of Peace (POP, isn't that a great anagram!) but slacked off for while due to emotional issues (see above boy references).  I have now returned to the church just in time for the Lent and Easter season and I love being back in this parish.  It a very open and embracing atmosphere and I am really enjoying the overall message of inclusion that the clergy sends, along with the corny jokes of both the priests. 

I am currently trying to become a more informed and involved church goer and Catholic and decided to take an Adult Confirmation course at POP. It is for persons who either did not receive the sacrament of Confirmation as a teenager or someone who has been away from the church for a while and wants to get back in touch with the church.  I am both (my grandfather became ill with cancer near my time for confirmation and what teenager argues with their mom about not having to go the CCD classes) and decided this may be a good opportunity to try to find that something that feels like it is missing when I am out of church. We are reading What Makes Us Catholic which is interesting and a bit of a modernistic take on the church teachings but is not exactly a page turner!

Update: Confirmation is on target for the Easter Vigil Service and I still love the POP.  I do find myself singing Miranda Lambert's A Heart Like Mine every time we sit in class though because as a friend recently told me "God appreciates the baby steps" and some days that is what this journey feels like for me.

Casper Diablo

Is amazing! He had his back surgery in October 2010 and you would never know it now.  He has slowed down some but is still a mad man most days.  As a result of surgeries (I don't like for him to sit on hard surfaces for too long for fear of back strain), he has gotten new beds at both my and the grandparents house and is eating up being the Little Prince of both those houses.  He is still the boss of me and he thinks the neighborhood with a kitty arch nemesis named JoJo, who likes to sit in the front flower bed and torment him.

Update: Still an adorable poochie! Pictures to come!