Another week done gone

Meet Oscar. He really is an Oscar--I can confirm he's a boy. J hung a string on the porch with a piece of kudzu attached to it, and Oscar and Felixa (she's a girl, so her name had to change) love to play with it. It is fun to watch them through the living room window. They are less leery, but still keep their distance. They will get closer to J now when he is dangling a kudzu vine and will venture to within a couple of feet to get a treat tossed to them.
I am officially temporarily handicapped for a while, and picked up my tag Thursday for disabled parking. I must admit, it made my day much easier yesterday. I still had to walk across the parking lot and street and up the hill to my classroom, but it was way better than all the way across the campus. On Friday before game day, they close the Circle to set up for the ball game and all the disabled parking for those buildings is not available. It effectively eliminates disabled parking for 13 buildings, most of which are classroom buildings. There is one spot behind my building, but a person without a handicapped tag or plate was parked in it. I'm sure this will open up a whole new perspective for me.

Another week of class has flown by, and I am really enjoying the students, even if my class is bursting at the seams. There is always something so fun about starting out a new semester, getting to know students, and watching them learn new skills. I probably have the greatest job in the world, even with all its stressors.

Yesterday morning, two of my friends were in my office and we laughed until we almost cried. I told one of them her life was like watching a soap opera. It was a fun few minutes that I had missed over the summer with us not seeing each other much. It reminded me again how important it is to have relationships in your life that matter.

During my practice class, I was using an example to illustrate a point, and drew on one of my experiences while on St. Paul Island. I talked a bit about working in St. Paul, and my friend's experience in Unalaska and encouraged them to think about serving in remote locations where social workers are hard to come by. Of course, many of the places in Mississippi are like that as well and likely many of them will end up in rural locations here. One student came up after class and asked me where the "perfect" internship placement was for him. I love seeing the enthusiasm of new social workers as they are almost ready to go practice, and again at the end of placement as they have grown and learned new knowledge and skills.

Rand left Thursday morning for a visit with his dad in Texas, and it has been busy with my having to take over his dog duties and split my time between Libby and Kate--both of whom are quite dependent on their people. Kate has taken (since vacation and getting to do it then) to wanting Rand to go outside with her at night for her final potty, and take the flashlight, or she won't get off the porch and go. So, yes, here I am at 10:00 in the back yard with a flashlight, shining it for her and saying 'go potty.' Thank goodness Libby has a pet door!