Friday, March 29, 2013 (Good Friday)

Up at around 5am.  There's a woman resident who gets up at 6am every day to go look for work.  She even does this on the weekends.  She's a quiet person and keeps mostly to herself.  She sleeps in the same cubicle that I do and I noticed that she gets up before the 6:30 wake-up call in the morning.

Since I was up so early I made a half a pot of coffee for mu table.  One of the residents at my table is a guy that does outside contracting work.  (He's he one that I'm doing the spreadsheet for).  He got the job from a contractor who drove to the shelter looing for guus who were looking for work.  He works six days a week and he's hoping to save enough monehy to get a place of his own.  He was the first one (besides me) to sit down to coffee.

It was still early and most of the lights were still off and some of the residents were still in  ed sleeping.

Daytime came and the lights came on and the rest of the residents had to gey up.

I had already had my coffee and cigarette for the morning so I was feeling OK.

Breakfast was sausage and eggs and bread - yes you could make a sandwich with it but I didn't think of that at the time.

I had to go out in the van by 8:30 but they were ready to go 15 minutes earlier.  My appointment wasn't until nine. 

My "appointment" was at Central.  I was scheduled for my first official group therapy session.

There were a bout five of us there and we talked.  Since I was new, I introduced myself and talked about myself a little.

The topic of discussion was about doing things for others even though you might not be thinking about yourself first.  We talked about being taken advantage of and why we let it happen.  Is it low self-esteem, wanting to please others, wanting people to like us........  I talked about my court case and the therapist asked me more questions about it and the others commented as well.

During the second therapy session we had a good discussion and it lasted well over the time it was supposed to.

Lunch was next.  I went with another resident to the store to get lunch but their card machine was down so we went to a bar that was halfway down the block.  I hadn't been to a bar in at least five years so this was an experienced for me.  We ordered a pitcher  of beer ($7 and some change) and the bartender trook pity on us and we split her uneaten sandwich between the two of use.  I saw the ashtrays and it dawnd on me that we could actually smoke inside!  Oh Joy!  I lit a cigarette right away!  I told the bbartender that I hadn't been in a bar for at least 5 years and she was shocked and amused by that.  The food and the beer felt good.  The bartender, a woman, told us about herself.  She was going through chemotherapy and she was also a grandmother and she also works a second job somewhere else.

It was near noon but the bar already had a ew people in it already.  I found out that the bar opens at 8am and closes at around 2am in the morning.  The music was turned up and the bass was booming and the TV news was on (with the sound turned down of course).  We had to finish the whole pitcher of beer so it took a little over an hour because we were finishing it slowing.  At first it felt nice and warm a d then I started to feel dizzy and a little nauseated but we finished the pitcher.  At $7 and change we definitely were going to finish that pitchdr! 

We finished the pitcher and we got enough money together to be able to pay for lunch so we went back to the store but first we donned sunglasses because the bar was dark and the outside was brightl (very) sunny.

We got our cheese steak (we were going to split it) and headed back to Central.

We ate our lunch in the kitchen there and coincidently that was where the next group therapy session was going to start.  It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon by now and this would be our third group session today.

This group therapy session was therapy through activity.  The activity was art and what we were supposed to do was create an album cover of our life right now.  We were supposed to create a collage-type of album cover of how we felt our lives were going right now.  We had lots of materials to work with.  We had old magazines that we could cut pictures from.  We had colored construction paper, colored pens, scissors, glue, paint brushes and water colors.  I decided my album cover would be called "Through The Fire" because I felt that was my life right now. 

I could only find one picture with fire in it so I used some of the colored construction paper to get mu n\message across.  I didn't finish in time but we could continue the session next week.  I was so glad that I had a doctor's appointment there next week so That I could make the next therapy session.

Even though I enjoyed the art therapy session the most, I enjoyed all of them as well.  It really did seem to help me by talking to others and expressing myself through art.

The art therapy session lasted until 2pm and there was a goal setting therapy group session that I wanted to attend but when I got to the scheduled room there was no one there.  I waited until 2:30 but still nobody showed up so we decided to go back to the homeless shelter.  The other resident called at 2:45 for the van to come pick us up and I called again around twenty minutes later.  The van came at around 4pm.  Even though it took a while we finally made it back to the shelter.
I did some organizing of all of my paperwork.  I hade so many pieces of paper with things scribbled on them like phone numbers and addresses and names that my poor bag was getting too full and too heavy to carry.

Dinner was at 4:45.  Dinner was chicken or fish (I chose the fish), squash stew, carrots, a mix of vegetables and pound cake for dessert.  I was quite full!

Back to writing here and a staff member wanted to know if I wanted ply chess again.  I reluctantly agreed hoping that he would find more challenging people to play.  Hopefully this will happen soon.  But first the medication has to be passed out and  jeopardy is on.

The minister brought some children by so that they could practice their singing for an Easter Church event here on Sunday (that's what the flyer was for).

I was asked by the agreed.  Then I was asked to play chess but a new resident came in.  She was Korean and she spoke very little English so the staff member used the computer and a translation program to try and communicate with her.  Then it was back to the chess game.  I lost again - of course but I really do want to beat him so I have to learn  it more.  Then he wanted me to play  chess with another resident and - of course, I lost again.

I asked to use the computer so I could finish the spreadsheet and the staff member reluctantly agreed so I was able to finish that.

I made the mistake of drinking a cup and then another cu[ of coffee at around 8:30 so I didn't go to bed until midnight!