Where's Waldo. . . I mean Heather. . .

Well I'm not dead so that counts for something right?  Of course it does.

So I figure most of you (feed my delusions of importance and acceptance please :0) ) have wondered if I ran away or became a hermit.   Both are starting to look pretty tantalizing truth be told.   Since my brain operates best in list formats I will share with you some things going on in my world as of late.

1.   School

In theory, I should graduate in the spring.   Because I am so close to graduating of course my university has to extort as much sanity as possible in the homestretch.   Firstly my financial aid, when I wanted to be considered an independant student because it would help me get more aid, the school, of course wouldn't let me.  Never mind the fact that my mom hasn't been financially supporting me since I was 18 but hey logic isn't the strong point of the financial aid office.  But now that it would actually hurt me, of course you guessed it. . . I am considered independent, because like racehorses, college students turn a year old on January 1st regardless of  how old you are.  So even though my birthday isn't until November, I'm considered 24 by the US Government and based on my income I only qualified for half grants.   So of course that means I had to take out more loans and dig my debt trench even deeper.  Huzzah.

So that should be it?  No of course not.   The helper monkey at the financial aid office said everything was cool and my loans were ready to go.   I should have known it wasn't true.  Luck so happened that I checked our online network for finical aid and saw I still owed the school over a thousand dollars.  At that point my head starts to swivel around backwards. . . . because yet again, our finical aid office lost my paper work.   Thankfully I have learned from previous dealings with them to take copies of everything.

I'm so glad this is almost over.  I want my damned expensive piece of paper. Two of them actually.

2.  Internship

I've mentioned a few times I am in an internship this semester.  I am interning at the county my university is in's Juvenile Court, specifically with the Diversion and Probation department.

Because most people don't know what the differences are I'll give you a quick and dirty run through.    Diversion is what happens when a Juvenile is first charged with a crime.  In lieu of formal charges, they are able to go through the program which involves counseling, drug court (if applicable), family therapy, connections to other community agencies that may be beneficial for the situation.  If the Youth is unsuccessful, they could face formal charges and eventually be placed on probation.  Diversion officers do not have police training, and instead have BAs or higher in Psychology or a related social science.   Probation officers will have police training in most cases.   I want to eventually work in Diversion, because I would fail the police academy nine kinds of hard.   Plus it is more concerned with improving behavior and helping the family whereas probation is containment and making sure they don't mess up again.  Less counseling involved.

I love my internship even though it is a lot of work, and emotionally draining at times to see the lives these kids have lived and where it has brought them.  I really feel there are no bad kids.  They're kids who are hurting on the inside deeply from a horrible family situation most of the time, and the other half are products of their environment.   You grow up with an abusive and neglectful crack head for a mother and see how nice you turn out.

3.  Work

I am currently going rounds with my supervisor at work because he is an asshat jerk face who refuses to work with my schedule.  He keeps scheduling me on days I cannot work and gives me off on days I could work a full eight hours.   I think he's trying to give me a stroke from stress.

Two people have quit and they have yet to be replaced by HR. But that isn't my problem.  I'm not in charge.   It's not my job to cover their asses because they are too busy doing whatever it is they do to actually get personnel on staff.  My supervisor did not give the girl who had an internship last semester any grief at all and she was more restricted than I am now.   She could only work four hours a day on Saturday and Sunday morning shift only.   My only restrictions are I cannot work Monday, Wednesday or Friday and need to close on Tuesday and Thursday but can work any shift on Saturday and Sunday.

My supervisor acts as if this is the world's hardest thing to do, and has repeatedly lost/knowingly destroyed the notes I have written.   I have had to get management and my union involved which is never a pleasant experience.   I really hope I can find a job outside of my current one in the spring before I lose my mind.

And that's pretty much in a nut shell what has been going on.   I'm so stressed and stretched out I don't have much time to devote on here as I'd like to and every stupid update Gather makes without fixing crap that needs fixed further adds to my annoyance.   But I at least wanted to post this to let the people I care about on here know what's up and why I haven't been around.