Practice is a Good Thing

Today I started my “orientation” schedule. If you have children, you may have found it helpful a few days before vacation was over to start trying to get them back on a bedtime/getting up in the morning school schedule, the idea being, it won’t be such a big ordeal the first day back. Same thing works with us grown-ups. I need to be on the job at 8:00 am in a city several miles from here. So today, I was up early, had breakfast, and left for “work” by the time I thought I should in order to make it on time. I’m sure glad for practice, as had I done this my first day, I would have been at least 15 minutes late by the time I found the school I was to work at. I actually will be at 4 different schools, so I located them all with the aid of MapQuest, then returned home via a different route, which shaved 7 minutes off my time.

Don’t you hate the first few days of a new job, and particularly the very first day? You are someone with no orientation, direction, or “home”, and dependent on the kindness of others to tell you everything, even where the bathrooms are and where you put your lunch until whenever someone tells you it’s time to eat it. Then the first week of a new job, depending on what you’re doing, you either dive right in headfirst in unfamiliar water and hope you survive, or you must “shadow” someone and observe. Or a combination of both. Shadowing is interesting if you have as a mentor someone who enjoys working with newbies, and who doesn’t mind answering questions. But if, as I did in a previous job, you have someone who already doesn’t like the job, and now resents this new, fresh-scrubbed face in their office watching what they do, it can be difficult for both the newbie and the seasoned veteran.

I had an email from a friend who stated that her computer was having problems displaying this blog. She said she basically had a white blank screen, and was only able to view the blog toolbar, and the rocks at the bottom of the page. Let me know if you are having problems viewing it. I don’t know what I’ll do about it, but I may be able to contact someone at blogspot if this continues to be a problem for everyone.

So what are you currently reading? I just finished “Nickel and Dimed-On (Not) Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich. Extremely interesting. Currently reading: “Borderline Personality Disorder Demystified” by Robert O. Friedel, MD.

Could you read your Mom's blog?

Here’s the first experiment of the day…my brother, who has his own blogspot, told me about this cool toolbar you can download which attaches to your Microsoft Word program-you can then write your posts on Word and when you click, the post will migrate to your blog.  We’ll try that today and see how it goes.  My brother, the aspiring writer, amazed me when he joined the blogging world.  Now I’m amazed at my own willingness to write for all the world to see, but I temper that with the knowledge that very few people will ever read it, and even fewer will find it interesting.  My son attempted to explain to me the other day that he will never read my blog – “It would be weird to read your MOM’s blog”, he stated. “Sorry mom.  I just can’t do it!”  Well fine.  I don’t know that I could have read MY mom’s blog either.

Today was going to be my first day after vacation to try to get back in a schedule of sorts so that when Tuesday the 17th rolls around, I’ll be accustomed to getting up at dark-thirty and going to bed earlier.  I didn’t quite make it today…

Everybody's blogging! I don't understand this phenomenon. Like anyone would be interested to read about the excrutiating minutia of my day! Well, I'm starting this to see if it will work as an online journal for me to share my experiences with you as I begin my school psychology practicum in a small town outside of the major metropolitan area I live in. I hope to write clearly and succinctly of my struggles to apply what I've learned in the classroom the last 5 1/2 years to real life situations. Already in advance, I'm grateful for this experience, even though it won't officially begin until January 17, 2005. I'll keep you posted.