Yes I'll color with you!

Sometimes there are weeks that just drag on forever. This week was definitely one of them, until the weekend hit of course. I worked a hair over 40 hours at my new job and remembered why I have a love/hate relationship for residential. I love working with teens even though they are one of the most frustrating populations to work with at times. They have a world perspective you can only have in the time where your brain is at that weird almost done growing phase. They can have contemplative rational thoughts but still want to sit and color. In this case all of these girls have a story about being in the system and getting tossed from placement to foster care to a hospital and so on. It's heartbreaking but sometimes difficult to keep in mind when they're telling you you're an idiot or a bitch. And there's always some sort of qualifying precursor thats even more insulting that involves an even more hateful or profane word. Sure, I am a fat f*cking bitch for telling you 'no' when you ask me for something you know you aren't allowed to have. Ahh, such is life working with damaged youth. Damaged doesn't mean irreparable but sometimes it feels like we're trying to fix a caved-in roof with a hot glue gun and a rubber band. I can't McGuyver these kids into being functioning, appropriate members of society when there have been years of trauma, abuse or neglect. My abilities are then exacerbated by a lack of consistency or negligent staff. I'll keep hammering away though. The end of my work week and today led me to think though that relationships with these kids are being built but it's a slow and patient process. Some of them will never trust me but I'll try my hardest to help the ones that will.
Being back in this environment and a lengthy conversation with a friend reminded me of how much I love clinical settings. It doesn't mean thats where my career is headed but I'm still adding tools to my little social work tool box.
Enough about work....I could continue and drone but let's be honest, this phone sucks and I am lacking the patience that's required to blog on a 2 x 3 inch screen.
This weekend I got to dogsit for J's friends. Basset hounds are ridiculous and adorable looking. She was super mild mannered and very low maintenance. It makes me want a dog. I know that once grad school starts back up I won't have time to pick up after a pup let alone myself so I'll re-evaluate once school is done. She was super awesome and cuddly though. The weekend also included some homemade margaritas courtesy of my boyfriend and nerdy board games. We also played euchre and liar's dice. It's pretty awesome to find enough people in the South that know how to play euchre. I'm excited for my euchre partner to get her ass down here so we can play more often. Sunday I spent a very large part of the day cleaning, feeding and watering chickens and putting some more of the house together. We are almost done for now.
Today after a pretty hellish day at work I came home to dinner and then a raucous game of hide and seek with our roommate's 3 year old. J and I like to entertain the little ones mostly because we are big kids. After coming home from work after an hour in traffic in a sour mood it definitely turned the night around. I'm going to miss Saturday morning cartoons and my little garden and chicken helper when they move. However our next roommate is going to be amazing as well.
Alas, it is nearly 10 p.m. and I keep wondering if it's bed time yet. I'm old.
Have a wonderful week. I'm just going to work on not getting shanked at work.  
Oh and reading Bukowski. Summer reading I <3 you.