Social cues

Well I am finally done with house sitting and dog sitting. My last day was on Saturday night which was great. It was a nice break from community, but it's time to re-energize and get on with the last six months of the program. This past week was hard, maybe it's the weather, the job, or just being tired of the same...who knows. I've been thinking about the future which is kinda stressing me out. I have no idea what to do in August, part of me wants to do a second year but only because it's the safe option. I'm worried about finding a job in this economy, but I think I'm more scared about not finding a job I love and always going from one job to the next. I'm afraid of never finding a place I love, or a constant community of friends. Part of me wants to settle down, but I haven't met a place the I truly love. Maybe I also don't know what I want. I always want what I can't have.

But the point of this entry was to talk about our new "friend". So a week ago we get a call from this guy who just moved to Anchorage from Juneau. He was friends with the Juneau JV's and thought that the easiest way to make friends was to find the JV's in Anchorage. Now at first he seemed just like a nice person, slightly awkward who just wanted some friends. Now he just seems like a creeper. He has started inviting himself over even when we kinda mention that we don't want people over. I would say we're a pretty inviting bunch but it's interesting to deal with someone who doesn't understand social cues. Last night was probably one of the weirdest incidences with him. He came to church with some of the JV's and then drove them home. As they were getting out of the car, he said that he was going to invite himself over. We mentioned that we weren't going to be doing anything that night but maybe just sit around and he replied by saying it's better than him sitting by himself in his house. Now I understand being lonely but there's just something different about him. Finally last night after hanging out for a few hours, one of my house mates gets a text message from him. The message tells her that he thinks that they have similar values and asks if she wants to be his friend. But not just any friend, but he wants her to be his best friend. I have never heard of someone text messaging a friend proposal before. I understand he's lonely, but he's raised the creeper flag. But I have no doubt that this story is far from over.

Bamboozled

Yes fellow readers I have to admit that I have been bamboozled. So I wrote earlier this week that I have been dog sitting for a close friend. Now this past week has probably been one of the hardest weeks in my time in Anchorage. There was the whole weather issue, the dog running away three times and not letting me sleep at night, getting sick, and just all around crappy week. Thankfully it is all over now and I can enjoy my other house sitting gig which is much much easier. But last night I realized that I have been used. I pride myself on being pretty smart but I have finally met my match. Last night around midnight I go to pick up the dog owner and her friends from the airport. Thankfully I don't have to work today so it was ok that I had to stay up late. But I really thought that was nice of me, not only to agree to dog sit the day before they left but also stay up pretty late and pick them up so they don't have to pay for a taxi. Now I expect very little from this interaction. I'm not expecting to get paid because I'm ok with just doing it as a favor, I'm not expecting gifts, nothing big but I would like I don't maybe just a thank-you, maybe that's asking too much. So I pick them up from the airport, thirty minutes early even because I figure out a way to check their arrival, which I think is pretty cool because it's nice that I'm there even though they're early and a nice gesture I think. So they get in the car and we switch drivers so that they can drop me off at the house. And then...nothing. I ask them how their trip was and they talk and talk but thats it nothing in return. No how was your week? No how is the dog? No why thank-you for taking time out of your week to do this favor for us. Nope nada zilch. They drop me off at the house and I actually thank them for giving me a ride and they say you're welcome. Yep so I got bamboozled. Thankfully I found this quite funny. On my walk back to the house I also slip and face plant in the ice but all I can do is laugh. This was definitely a learning experience. I will probably never see these people again, and I am totally happy with that.

ha suckers

So the cold weather has moved into the Midwest and left us alone. Chicago is at -5 right now and Minneapolis at -12, and Anchorage wait for wait for it is at 48 right now. Yes I know, and don't worry I haven't been drinking this morning it is indeed that warm out. Of course this brings its own problems. Because it is so warm, everything has started to melt but then refreezes at night. Yesterday the whole city was shut down, all schools and universities were canceled. I always wondered what it would take to close down schools and apparently all it takes is some warm weather. Also public transportation was shut down for the day, which I didn't even know that they could do that. I guess silly me needs to forget about the public transportation in Chicago and how it never stopped running. Lucky or in my case not so lucky I took the last morning bus before they stopped running so I was able to get to work. Unfortunately the road leading down to Bean's was just a sheet of ice, there were two buses and maybe 20 cars stuck all up and down the road by Bean's. I've never seen such chaos before. Plus Anchorage doesn't believe in salting which is kinda good because it's bad for the environment but that means nothing ever melts. Instead they dump gravel everywhere which helps with traction but is really bad for the roads. Today was no better, the buses were canceled right away so I had no way to get to work. They finally started working around 9 so I got to work 2 hours late. The fun part was the walk to Bean's because it was just like ice skating. I even wore a pink leotard so I slid into work in style.

Oh and to add to the excitement to the week I got to play tag at three in the morning. I must say that I dearly miss that game I played as a kid so I was very glad when the puppy invited me out in the early morning to play it in the yard. I further appreciate his not liking to sleep at night but instead rather enjoy pouncing on my head and licking my face. I must say my face have never felt so clean before and refreshed.

But all in all I am enjoying Anchorage, I just want the snow back so I can go skiing.

Puppy love

Or lack of. So these past few days have been hectic beyond belief. About a week ago I agreed to house sit for two weeks for this really nice couple. They have an amazing house, steam room, and live 7 minutes from downtown. It's an amazing opportunity to just have some alone time and think about what I want to do with the time I have left living in Anchorage. So sounds like a great opportunity, all I have to do is water the plants and eat their organic apples. All is well until last Thursday when I get a call from a friend who is in a big jam. She and her roommate are leaving for Ecuador the next day and their dog sitter fell through. And being the nice person that I am, and the fact that I'm kinda dating this person and feel obligated to be the nice person that I want people to believe I am, I agree to dog sit. Now three days later, I am sleep deprived and cranky. The dog is actually a puppy, and yes I knew that and even played with the dog from time to time but it is a devil in disguise let me tell you. It loves to play at night, especially by jumping on my head. It loves to chew very loudly in the middle of the night. And it loves to go out for walks at 2 in the morning but only after peeing on the floor first. I feel worse for the dog than I do for myself because I have to lock it in the bathroom for 9 hours when I go to work. I actually ended taking yesterday off in order to spend more time with him and take him to the dog park. The spending more time with him was actually not the main reason. Short story...on Sunday I went snow shoeing and at the end of the hike my eye swelled up. So I felt like it was my body telling me to slow down, relax, and stop stressing about things I can't control. So I took Monday off and had a wonderful day and I think that me and the puppy had a good heart to heart at the dog park.

But all in all I think that things are getting better. I was able to call someone who will take the dog out during the day and play with him. And I only have to do this till Sunday and then I am free to enjoy the other house sitting job and sit in the steam room and not think about how I can't remember how much they told me to feed the puppy. And as a gift to myself I went out and bought some Kale and squash which made me really happy.

My goal for this week is to number one get through it. Number two relax and enjoy watching trashy tv because they have cable. And number three not go out on Friday. I have this bad tendency to go out on Friday night even though I tell myself the whole week that I shouldn't. I don't know where this love of going out arose but I think it's just fun to go out after a really hard week. It's a really accepting environment and community, and it feels good to so somewhere where you can be yourself. The problem is that I always get back way too late, like 5 this past week and then I feel like I'm wasting my Saturday sleeping in. Thus I tell myself no more going out. I wonder whatever happened to living simply?

Just another day

So just another day at Bean's. Today we lost our fourth client in three days. I think it's mostly the weather, it's the coldest stretch of weather in 10 years I've been told. But today was the hardest loss, her name was Karen and she was one of the nicest clients. She didn't come in every day but when she did she had the biggest smile on her face. It's hard to believe that these people will never walk through our doors again.

Today I got a call from someone telling me where one of the services will be for one of the people that died this week. I was trying to figure out where it was being held when he went off about how we work for social services and we should know where this place is. True I guess to an extent, but then he continued on about how this guy came in complaining of chest pain and all we did was give him TUMS when we should have called 911. So what eventually happened with the guy was that he left Beans and had a massive heart attack and died. Now I know that this caller was probably just angry because all of his friends are dying, but I was tired of it so I fought back. I told him I wasn't responsible for all the homeless people and that they were adults. I have no medical training and I'm not about to call 911 for all people that have chest pain. We went back and forth for a little bit and he finally told me that I should get another job. I understand that I should have been nice but I'm not going to be blamed for this guy dying. It's hard because I remember giving him the TUMS that day and I remember thinking he looked really bad but everyone looks like crap because they are drinking their lives away. This job has made me more critical of homeless people than sympathetic. Because frankly more than half of the people I see aren't really trying to get of the streets. Yes most are addicted to something or have a mental illness so yea they deserve a break and some help but I believe in empowering people and I don't know if I'm really doing that here.

Plus it's so cold that the pipes froze and burst so we haven't had water here at Bean's for two days. The fire alarm system isn't working so someone has to be here at all times making sure there's not a fire. So the staff has been working around the clock. It feels tense here at work, I feel like it's a waiting game to see who goes next. But I am lucky because I get to leave at the end of the day. I feel guilty sometimes because I know that I can do this for a year and just leave. Leave it all behind, go running in the garden with a fresh breeze and hopefully lots of sunshine.

Homely

So this weekend one of my roommates had both her sisters visiting. It was rather random, one of her sisters skis for her college and the championships were being held in Anchorage this year, how lucky is that. But anyway we were sitting around on Saturday and talking about how our second retreat was coming up. The conversation lead to talking about the other communities and how all the communities had certain characteristics about them. For example, Bethel is very outgoing and loud, Sitka is very laid back and meditative, and Juneau is all girls. So I mentioned that I felt like our community didn't really any characteristics that stood out. But one of Abby's sisters spoke up and said that she thought the complete opposite and after some thought said that we were all very homely. Haha what she was going for was homey and inviting but what she said instead was that we were a very unattractive community. So we now are known as the community of the ugly people.

On another note today I had a women come into the office and request to talk to me. We have clients walk in and out of our office every day and we hear a lot of stories. So today the women walks in and tells me that she thinks that this women she knows at the other shelter is being abused. So I sit there for about 20 minutes and listen to this women and the meeting ends with me telling her I will do my best. But the problem is that I really can't do anything about it. First it's happening at another shelter, second the person who's being abused needs to come to us herself, and third the women who reported it doesn't want anyone to know she's talking about it. So that is a great start to a Monday morning. But to make the day even worse, I've seen the guy at least 5 times today and to make me feel even worse he just came in and she was standing behind him. As they were leaving she turns around twice to look at me before she slowly walks to follow him. This job is hard, I understand now why they have new people come in every year. I am ready for a new day to begin with some sunshine and warm weather. It has been a week since the temperature has been above zero. Most mornings I make the walk to work in negative 10 to 15 degree weather. But at least I get to go home to my homely community.