Tonight on IT'S THE MIND...

"We will be exploring the strange phenomenon of deja vu -- that feeling that you've seen or done something before."

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"Tonight on IT'S THE MIND: We will be exploring the strange phenomenon of deja vu -- that feeling that you've seen or done something before."

[Cue intro music.]

Etc.

Tonight I continue my JFH from last week, despite it only being "25 hours," and after a bipolar weekend in which the "depressive" swing resulted mainly from thoughts of going back to it. (And from a computer crash that I'll post about another time...like tomorrow, or something.) I will work 5 hours, most of which will be spent pleasantly -- reading the woman's side of a comic series starring an aardvark, Cerebus, and following and directing a competent and generally pleasant man who already has cleaning experience, through a cubicle wasteland -- tonight, and I will have a shadow tomorrow night for the final three hours.

I wrote a diplomatically nasty email to my JFH supervisor yesterday, expressing my frustration at the lack of communication from my organization to me -- regarding, for instance, the fact that I'm to fill out a comprehensive assessment form instead of an abbreviated form, which requires collaboration with the employers...to whom I have access only during the assessment week (I was told about the comprehensive form on Thursday just before going in, too late to do anything about it) -- and the retarded communication between my organization and the other one that the client is working with.

My JFH supervisor had asked me to work fifteen additional hours with this client this week, three hours each weeknight. I agreed to work Mon-Wed, 5 - 8 p.m.

When I arrived at the location Friday night, my client informed me that his contact person at the collaborating agency had told him he'd have someone for five hours each night, 5 - 10 p.m.

I told my JFH supervisor in no uncertain terms that I was not available to work five hours a night on Monday through Wednesday. I would work a five-hour shift Monday, I said, then three hours on Tuesday, and I recommended that another job coach be available to shadow on one of those days. I recommended this because otherwise, the client wouldn't have one.

Honestly, I wasn't sure if I'd even get a reply to this. It was equally likely that I would get a call back or that she would ignore the message and hope that I'd do the responsible thing anyway.

(She doesn't know about the punching philosophy, to which I think the "They'll never learn if you coddle them" philosophy is related, or she would never consider ignoring me. My threats are either serious or sarcastic -- never idle.)

She did call back, redeeming herself in some small way, and suggested that we do as I had proposed (though in a way that made it seem like her idea -- but whatever, about that).

So tonight and tomorrow should be the last I see of the JFH.

PTL.