Saturday, July 19, 2003
WHAT'DYA KNOW?
I'm in a good mood. It's Saturday and I don't have to work. I can sit here and write "to do" lists of things that I don't do. But they make me feel better seeing all that stuff captured on paper.
Bush's people sent me an e-mail to reply with for my confirmation to send him an e-mail. I wonder what's next?
I asked my brother to pray for me to find a new career. I've been blessed in my life in that area until the last three years. For many years, maybe fifteen, I had jobs that I actually looked forward to going to. I wanted to get up in the morning. I didn't care how long I stayed if I had things I had to do. I never watched the clock. Time went by too fast. I was totally involved.
Really I had careers, not jobs. My undergraduate degree is in English with no specialization in teaching. I was fortunate enough to get a job right after graduation with a magazine as an associate editor. Later I became fiction and poetry editor. I loved this job, but I loved working with the free-lance writers so much that I decided I wanted to switch careers and go into the social services.
I began a MS in Counseling/Psych and soon became a certified substance abuse counselor. I did this for many years, working in private hospitals; large residential, not-for-profit facilities, and outpatient clinics. I have many stories about these years. I used to tell my small children, "Don't lie to me because I get lied to for a living." Because it's true that the only time alcoholics/addicts, caught up in denial and not wanting to quit, lie is when they move their lips. I'll share some of the wilder ones some day. Here's one I like: A man is about to go on his honeymoon. He has been married maybe two days. He is out of cocaine. His wife is as sweet and unsuspecting as you can't imagine, given what he is like. He goes to score, and the drug being what it is, finds that he is gone a little longer than he anticipated--like a few days longer. He hasn't called home, and it's past the time they were supposed to leave on the big honeymoon. What does he do? Why, he has a friend lock him in the trunk of his BMW. Then the friend calls the wife, and says he found so-and-so's car in a kind of bad neighborhood. She might want to come and get it.
Of course the wife is very worried and comes running. All her anger is dissipated I'm sure. It's time for "Oh My God, Please, No," instead of "I will kill him. After this shortest marriage on record, I will kill him." So she goes, hear muffled noises from the trunk and believes his bullshit story until he is in treatment months and months later, and finally tells her the truth. She really was that innocent.
There's many more where that came from. Unfortunately, they all sound as far-fetched and unbelievable as that one, but, in fact, truth is stranger than fiction in that world.
I burned out on being lied to day and night. I read an article in the paper that the City of Chicago was offering a program to attract talented people with bachelor degrees who were willing to teach in challenging inner city schools in exchange for tuition-free master's program in education at really prestigious local schools. I was one of the 100 out of 1,000 who were "lucky" enough to be selected. Little did I know what a dark day that was.
I figured that after working with giant hulks of gang-bangers as a therapist, what was there to fear in high school students? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. There was everything to fear. They sent me to an alternative school--alternative to jail, I believe. It was one of the very worst experiences of my life. I will save that story for posts all to themselves. They, too, are unbelievable but true and need the proper foundation. Suffice it to say I will never teach again.
So today my brother, a very smart man, sends me this link and it's something I really can see myself doing. The link he sent me is the Association of Independent Information Professionals. How perfect. I never want to leave my computer's side, and I love researching. Wouldn't it be great to actually get paid for what I love to do? I can see specializing in, say, medical research, because I know a lot of terminology, and I find it fascinating. So that may be the end of my temporary McJob that I took after my little nervous breakdown or whatever you want to call it from teaching. I just needed something low profile and no stress. I found it washing dishes at the zoo.
All of this reminded me of a couple of resources you might like to know about. You can get them e-mailed to you. One that I really like because you never know what you're going to get is Research Buzz, news and information about search engines and databases. This month's offerings include links to a subject index of history resources, a database of science fiction books and authors, a searchable subject index for reading mysteries, and a grant explorer with 680,000 grants. Another huge resource is Gary Price's Resource Shelf which has lists of tools, directories, web resources, digital library resources, full-text documents, health information, reports and on and on. Whatever you want is there somewhere if you can only find it. You can sign up to be on the mailing list. You will then receive small sets of additions to the list. If you collect information like I do, you have to have this one.
Finally, here's a little present from my taskbar to yours. It's a Reference Desk, and it doesn't miss anything I can think of. Though I must say I was disappointed that the computer glossary did not include the term eplpdx02. But it has a whole lot.
I'm off to dinner and the movies and guess who's taking me? My 17-year-old daughter! On a Saturday night! Do I have a terminal illness no one has told me about? Is she planning to move to Europe? What could it be? I'll just go and enjoy. Hope you have a good one too.
So What Do YOU Think? COMMENTS?
I'm in a good mood. It's Saturday and I don't have to work. I can sit here and write "to do" lists of things that I don't do. But they make me feel better seeing all that stuff captured on paper.
Bush's people sent me an e-mail to reply with for my confirmation to send him an e-mail. I wonder what's next?
I asked my brother to pray for me to find a new career. I've been blessed in my life in that area until the last three years. For many years, maybe fifteen, I had jobs that I actually looked forward to going to. I wanted to get up in the morning. I didn't care how long I stayed if I had things I had to do. I never watched the clock. Time went by too fast. I was totally involved.
Really I had careers, not jobs. My undergraduate degree is in English with no specialization in teaching. I was fortunate enough to get a job right after graduation with a magazine as an associate editor. Later I became fiction and poetry editor. I loved this job, but I loved working with the free-lance writers so much that I decided I wanted to switch careers and go into the social services.
I began a MS in Counseling/Psych and soon became a certified substance abuse counselor. I did this for many years, working in private hospitals; large residential, not-for-profit facilities, and outpatient clinics. I have many stories about these years. I used to tell my small children, "Don't lie to me because I get lied to for a living." Because it's true that the only time alcoholics/addicts, caught up in denial and not wanting to quit, lie is when they move their lips. I'll share some of the wilder ones some day. Here's one I like: A man is about to go on his honeymoon. He has been married maybe two days. He is out of cocaine. His wife is as sweet and unsuspecting as you can't imagine, given what he is like. He goes to score, and the drug being what it is, finds that he is gone a little longer than he anticipated--like a few days longer. He hasn't called home, and it's past the time they were supposed to leave on the big honeymoon. What does he do? Why, he has a friend lock him in the trunk of his BMW. Then the friend calls the wife, and says he found so-and-so's car in a kind of bad neighborhood. She might want to come and get it.
Of course the wife is very worried and comes running. All her anger is dissipated I'm sure. It's time for "Oh My God, Please, No," instead of "I will kill him. After this shortest marriage on record, I will kill him." So she goes, hear muffled noises from the trunk and believes his bullshit story until he is in treatment months and months later, and finally tells her the truth. She really was that innocent.
There's many more where that came from. Unfortunately, they all sound as far-fetched and unbelievable as that one, but, in fact, truth is stranger than fiction in that world.
I burned out on being lied to day and night. I read an article in the paper that the City of Chicago was offering a program to attract talented people with bachelor degrees who were willing to teach in challenging inner city schools in exchange for tuition-free master's program in education at really prestigious local schools. I was one of the 100 out of 1,000 who were "lucky" enough to be selected. Little did I know what a dark day that was.
I figured that after working with giant hulks of gang-bangers as a therapist, what was there to fear in high school students? Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. There was everything to fear. They sent me to an alternative school--alternative to jail, I believe. It was one of the very worst experiences of my life. I will save that story for posts all to themselves. They, too, are unbelievable but true and need the proper foundation. Suffice it to say I will never teach again.
So today my brother, a very smart man, sends me this link and it's something I really can see myself doing. The link he sent me is the Association of Independent Information Professionals. How perfect. I never want to leave my computer's side, and I love researching. Wouldn't it be great to actually get paid for what I love to do? I can see specializing in, say, medical research, because I know a lot of terminology, and I find it fascinating. So that may be the end of my temporary McJob that I took after my little nervous breakdown or whatever you want to call it from teaching. I just needed something low profile and no stress. I found it washing dishes at the zoo.
All of this reminded me of a couple of resources you might like to know about. You can get them e-mailed to you. One that I really like because you never know what you're going to get is Research Buzz, news and information about search engines and databases. This month's offerings include links to a subject index of history resources, a database of science fiction books and authors, a searchable subject index for reading mysteries, and a grant explorer with 680,000 grants. Another huge resource is Gary Price's Resource Shelf which has lists of tools, directories, web resources, digital library resources, full-text documents, health information, reports and on and on. Whatever you want is there somewhere if you can only find it. You can sign up to be on the mailing list. You will then receive small sets of additions to the list. If you collect information like I do, you have to have this one.
Finally, here's a little present from my taskbar to yours. It's a Reference Desk, and it doesn't miss anything I can think of. Though I must say I was disappointed that the computer glossary did not include the term eplpdx02. But it has a whole lot.
I'm off to dinner and the movies and guess who's taking me? My 17-year-old daughter! On a Saturday night! Do I have a terminal illness no one has told me about? Is she planning to move to Europe? What could it be? I'll just go and enjoy. Hope you have a good one too.
So What Do YOU Think? COMMENTS?
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