What once was lost...

From time to time, I'm occasionally what some people refer to as "absent minded."

It's not deliberate. I just get a little scatter-brained and forget about stuff.

I forgot to schedule an oil change to fall on my day off for the last two weeks. Thus my car is significantly over the 3,000 mile mark. I forgot to schedule an appointment to see my "woman doctor" ... (There are few words in the English language that bother me, but the actual word for "woman doctor," that's one of the few.) I misplaced my ID badge for work... This is something of a problem when foster parents want to know who the hell is picking up the kids. I lost an insurance application. I more than occasionally can't find my keys or my phones, lose my debit card, and mislay paperwork... It all eventually works out and everything turns up. Sometimes it just takes a few days.

Well today, without much ceremony or feverish searching, I found my ID badge. I found my insurance form, I found some addresses I'd been looking for, and I found something I didn't even know I had! I found, much to my surprise that I actually have vacation days!

So far, I've been laboring under the premise that until my 1 year anniversary I only had 3 personal days to use in addition to the few paid holidays that my office observes. Well, I was trying to schedule a day off for the drunken debauchery of the annual family reunion, and when I got the slip in my mailbox today, it indicated that I DO have vacation time! HOLY CRAP!

That means that I went 6 months without taking any time off, (because I didn't think I COULD!) and now all of a sudden I've got paid time to take! Now, I'm not one to just blow something as important as a paid vacation day without serious consideration, but let me tell you, since learning of this fortuitous turn of events, I've been trying to determine how best to spend them!

Take the week between Christmas and New Year? Take a few long weekends? I mean, the personal days are for the short notice stuff. But the vacation days are more of the pre-planning type of thing, so now I've got to think about that. I'm not going to lie, it excites me to think about it. I mean this is like a week's salary in free money! WOOOOOO!

In other work related findings, I looked in my little cubby at the office the other day and found, (also, very much to my surprise) MY OWN business cards! This was something of a shock, because they don't just give the personalized business cards to just anybody. When I first started, it was limited only to senior staff. We're talking about the founders of the office, the senior supervisors, and the therapists who had been there for something like 4 years or more. Now, yes, there were others who got personalized business cards at the same time I did, but still, it was not a privilege bestowed upon the entire staff... Not by a long shot. But I got mine! (I take this as a good sign.)

As far as work goes, things are going relatively well. I've had some upheaval in my cases, but in this line of work, one comes to expect that. But I've also found that I've really cultivated a skill that I had let languish and atrophy for a good long while. Those of you who actually know me on a personal level know that I've always been one to speak my mind. Basically, nine times out of ten when I think someone is full of shit, I'm the one to call them out on it. I've done this pretty much my whole life... I know I certainly did it A LOT in college. I did it A LOT after college. But when you're in this line of work, it's all about guarding what you say, and withholding your personal opinion. I wasn't used to that! NOT AT ALL. I'm finding that with every passing day the control over my inner monologue gets a little bit better. It frequently surprises me that I am able to wait until I'm in my car with the radio on, the windows up, and the doors closed before calling some of my clients crazy bitches... And believe me when I tell you, some of the time it takes every single ounce of self control I have to make it to the car before verbalizing such sentiments... And it happens AT LEAST once a week. Usually more than once... But hey, I go in, and I deal with em, because hey, I gotsta get paid, sluts!