a Tuesday in September

OD is MUCH faster to load today than it has been, even with two clients downloading torrents.

(a recent discovery of mine – you can download pretty much anything via torrents. Billions of bites so far, movies I’ll watch "someday", software, and that sound volume control thingamagig my Windows XP is missing)

A couple of hours of work today, with my client in Milwaukie. By consensus, "client" is the word I’ll use for that, not "mentee" or "my boy" or other words I thought of.

My client is in his second week of his Freshman year in high school, and I’m meeting him today and Thursday for two hours each day, after school. Although my function here is similar to a babysitter, there’s more to it than that. We talk and think about things and go places and look at things. I’m getting to know Toys R Us pretty well; my client is very much into collecting Pokémon cards and has over 700 of them.  We’ve been checking prices here and there, and have discovered that Walgreens has better prices than even Toy R Us.

For his birthday a few weeks ago, I bought him three ring binder card holders, a gift that I won’t turn in any receipts for. he is using them too, which gives me kind of a glow.

Two hours today. Hmm. I’m thinking that we’ll take a walk through downtown Milwaukie, which is in walking distance of his host family home. We’ve been to various parks along the river (the Willamette) and it benefits me too – I’ve seen these parks on my GPS and have kind of wanted to go see them myself, and now I have "an excuse". He likes it too; I guess he’s "trapped" in the Home and can’t go out by himself, and that’s where I come in, I guess, to get him out of the house and into "the real world", and to give the House parents a break.

All of my clients so far have been part of "the system", the Foster Care system. Since most everyone has parents, I would gather that these kids have been taken away from them or have been placed into custody of "the system" because of things they did or said.

I’m not a warden or a prison guard, but I guess I am part of "the system". I put it in quotes because I don’t really KNOW… and am not very concerned about it either. It’s a job, I work with individuals, and I don’t have to drive anything but my own car.

Vocational rehab is helping me with gas money and with medications, and has paid two months of my car insurance, to help me get back on my feet. The medications are helping me too (and boy, I wish I had been taking them before – it might have/would have made a difference).

I have nothing to complain about.  Kinda nice, eh?

I am fairly sure I will be able to make a full car payment this month, but next month, I don’t know – rent will begin again and that will be 29% of my gross income.  I have lived here for almost 15 years, and have not been employed for significant periods of that time.  I would totally be SOL if I wasn’t here.

(SOL = shit out of luck)

I do seem pretty lucky, or fortunate, or whatever – I wouldn’t be HERE if it wasn’t for that car wreck in 1998, and I believe that is THE BEST THING to come out of that event – a steady home.

At this time, 15 years ago, I was in a Foster Home myself.  K* was here, from Japan, helping me recover and staying at the Foster Home too – they liked her a lot and had space.  I guess she was (and is too) my Life Skills Trainer – an immense help to me, to regain a life.

It’s Payback time.  Not to her, directly, but I am paying back her efforts by living more or less successfully.  No, the Payback is to the universe, the world, whatever.  When I’ve needed help, I’ve gotten some, and it’s my turn to give back.

Something i have felt, and feel, I NEED to do.

Helping other people – there isn’t many higher activities you can do.  None of us "asked" to be here, and we should help each other have the best lives we can..

Onwards.

 

*****