New toy

I got a new toy a little while ago. Now, everyone can collectively get their minds out of the gutter, cause I know how y'all think!!! Not THAT kind of toy! I got a Dell Digital Jukebox. It's an IPod, but made by Dell. I'm quite enjoying it. I have put a lot of songs on it (it currently appears to have 916 songs on it) and often listen to it at work or on the Metro going to and from work. It's kind of amusing though, the mix of stuff that is on it. A while ago I listened to George Michael's "I Want Your Sex" (courtesy of my brother-in-law's mp3 player). A litte later I heard "The Music of the Night" from Phantom of the Opera. Somewhere in there was "Little Drummer Boy." (Although, I usually skip the Christmas songs.) Interesting mix, eh? It's kinda cool though, because you can put soooo many songs on here, it's hard to get bored with it. If I feel like listening to something country, it's there. Britney Spears (gasp!), I got a few. Guns n' Roses, yep. I have some crazy 80's music and some pretty new stuff as well.

I have to go to Florida tomorrow for work. It would be fun, except that I'll be in the state of Florida for less than 24 hours. I will arrive there around 1:30 p.m. tomorrow, and I leave there at 10:15 on Friday morning. I get to be spoiled by 78 degree weather for about 8 hours, then I have to come back here to 45 degrees. It's not fair! It's actually kind of silly too. The DC Government flies me down there so that I can spend a total of like 3 hours talking to a youth and her treatment team. It will take me longer to fly down and back than the time that I will actually spend with the individual. But I get to feel all important and special that I get to go out of town on business (I can pretend, can't I?).

OK, I was going to write more, but I've actually gotten a little bit busy. So, I guess I'll go work. TTFN!

Riot time

When I was little and I went with my sister to Maryland football and basketball games, they used to give out pins that said things like "Destroy the Deacons" and "Declaw the Paws." Well, the object of the first game of the ACC Tournament was to "Declaw the Paws." Clemson had beat Maryland twice in regular season games. But it was pretty much imperative that Maryland win today against Clemson. Without this win, it would be pretty much impossible to get into the NCAA Tournament. So, I thought that Maryland would come out swinging. Yeah. Somewhere during this two and a half hour game, they forgot how to swing. Maryland decided to show up at the beginning of the game, sink some shots, give us all a false sense of hope. Then, in the second half, they forgot to show up. This is the same Maryland team that beat Duke twice this season. But they can't be bothered to win the game that would ultimately decide whether they will even make it to the NCAA Tourney this year. Clemson beat the Terps 84-72.

I'm not sure how the students at UMCP are going to take this final loss. We know how they deal with wins - they riot. It would seem to make sense that if they lose, they would also feel the need to riot. Now, I haven't heard anything yet about riots on the Metro after the game (although given the nature of the people who ride Metro, it wouldn't surprise me if some scuffles broke out), and it is too early in the day for the students to go down to the Route and start burning and breaking things. But, it will be interesting to see if the students can suck up this loss, or if the local news tonight will show burning trash cans and students being shot with pepper balls. Yeah, sounds like good times to me.

As for the NCAA Tournament, I guess there's always next year.

Green line

I don't know what others' experiences are on the Metro, but I encounter a lot of interesting people during my daily rides. I ride the Green line, and it appears that every young hoodlum-in-training rides the same train. The most annoying people on the trains are as follows:

• All these teenagers saying the most vulgar and vile things to one another...and it isn't like everyone else in the train car can't hear their conversations.
• The people who talk on their cell phones - nevermind the fact that in the tunnels you can barely get a signal, if at all, and thus said people end up screaming into their telephones. Again, this means that everyone on the train can hear their conversations. It's like a freaking Verizon commercial...Can you hear me now? Hello?? Can you hear me?? Are you still there??? HELLO????
• The people who stare at you. Now, I understand that there are only so many things that one can look at during a 30 minute train ride. You are bound to look at the same person more than once. But some people just flat out stare at you. Good gracious, take a picture, it will last longer!
• The people who sit next to you and lean over to see what you are reading. Um, yeah, maybe I should just GIVE YOU MY BOOK so you don't strain your neck trying to read the next paragraph. I'm sorry, were you finished with that page?
• The people who get on the train and begin preaching the Word of God. I don't think I need to elaborate on this. For a really funny description of this on a New York train, see New York Intern's blog.
• The people who don't realize that when wearing headphones, one is not supposed to sing out loud so that other's can hear you! And, the people that do this aren't rock stars, will never be rock stars, are never going to be given recording contracts. They are more like the ones that are booed off the stage at the Apollo.
• The people who don't realize that when wearing headphones, the whole train is not supposed to hear what is going through said headphones.
• The people who incessantly scream at their children throughout the entire ride. Sit down! Didn't I tell you to sit down! Sit your ass down now! (Remember, I ride the ghetto train.) IF YOU GET UP ONE MORE TIME I'M GOING TO SMACK YOU! *SMACK* Then, when they get to their stops, they grab the child's arm and drag the child off the train. It always looks like the child's arm is gonna be dislocated or something. Yeah, how do you spell child abuse?
• The people who let their children run like wild animals through the train. If I wanted to see animals, I would have taken the Red line to the zoo.

I'm sure there are other obnoxious and annoying people that I am leaving out, so this is by no means an exhaustive list. I guess these are the ones that I encounter most regularly. Happy Metroing!

You do your job, I'll do mine!

I sometimes get so frustrated at work. First off, I don't have much to do. All of my cases (thank goodness) are pretty much stable. Nobody is really having any issues. This makes my job easy, but it also makes my job boring. The things that I need to do, I am dependent on someone else doing their job first. I have to make a referral for a child to get an OT evaluation. However, I can't do that until someone else calls and gets referrals. I have a couple of similar situations. There are also some people that I have had to go visit multiple times to get them off their butts so that they will do what they need to do so that I can do what I need to do. Friday I went back and forth with people so much I got so frustrated and fed up I just left early. I consider myself to be a hard worker and a good social worker, but it's so annoying when I have to wait for others to do their jobs!

OK, enough ranting. I would like to begin looking at houses in our area. The problem is, I'm not sure what Robbie and I can afford. And housing prices have gotten completely ridiculous. I offered to buy James out of our house (technically it is still ours) but he said no. So, I'm gonna start looking to see what's available, and I guess start talking to a real estate agent. It's a shame that everything costs money. Life would be a lot easier otherwise.

Robbie's been away all last week and he'll be away all this week. It's kind of weird being in my apartment by myself. It is actually the longest that I've "lived" by myself. I know, it's sad. But, sometimes it's nice having the apartment to myself. The television has barely been on all week. I have been able to sit and read or crochet, or whatever I want to do. Don't get me wrong. Living with Robbie is wonderful. He and I do get along really well, and we don't really have any issues about me reading or the TV being on or whatever. But, when I'm by myself, I can do WHATEVER I WANT! By the end of the week it will be nice having him home though. It was nice having him home this weekend.

Anyways, nothing else is going on in my life at the moment. I guess I'll go back to being bored at work. Maybe I can light a fire under someone and actually get something done today.