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That is an awesome and badass shirt. (Also, those frames look great on you.)

Awesome stuff! Also, that's a fantastic shirt.

Oh wow, that sounds like it's gonna be a lot of fun. I really like that you don't know everyone's classes yet too.   What system is it? 3.5e?

YAY!   I am so happy for you!

All of this got done yesterday afternoon/evening. Hubs' haircut and dinner wound up being later than I wanted, since I got lost in the black hole of time that is the sewing room, but hey, whatever works.   Ollie is back to normal for sure now, so that's all good. I've gotten two walks in today (one longer, one shorter-- just to the PO and back). Work day will be done shortly in which case I'll likely go back to my bag making.   Left on the list: grocery shop--Friday afternoon buy fabric for MY sewing project--maybe Friday afternoon? (Local shop has 40% of fabric this week so it would be nice to get there) work on pattern for MY sewing project--maybe Friday evening? And also let's add laundry. Going to have to be Friday afternoon. Though I suppose Thursday night after I get home from meeting up with my parents? And estimate on some paver repair that's just been scheduled for Friday right around lunch time. Friday just got real busy, y'all.

I am glad that the salad kits are working for you for lunches. I had half a salad kit with grilled chicken for lunch today.   Like you, I have been getting different flavors for variety.   Batch cooking chicken breast has been a staple for my household for the last few years. I find that brining chicken breast (1 Tbsp sugar + 1 Tbsp kosher salt + 1 cup water; scale up as needed) makes it come out much more moist. Plain chicken breast tends to be dry.   Other things that are easy components of dinners: baked potatoes or sweet potatoes cous-cous or rice pilaf (comes in a box with flavoring packet, or you can make from scratch with your favorite spices) pork chops (batch cook and freeze) meat loaf (batch cook and freeze in single portions) frozen veggies - I think it is worth it to get the organic ones. The flavor is noticeably better.   I like having mix-and-match protein, vegetable and side dish for dinners. YMMV   I hope you can get some rest and reflection during your time off.

A bit of light   Things got worse before it got better.   I have a client list of 29 people and my supervisor was hyping it up.  Soooooo much therapy.  Soooooo much $.  I just want the hours so I can take my LICSW and then NEVER feel inferior again.  These hundred job listings that talk about making like 70-120 bucks an hour IF I had a stupid 'I' in the middle of my license is driving me nuts.  It's giving me job blue-balls.  Going from what I have for an LCSW-->LICSW = like double the money.     Until then, I continue to scrounge like a rat in order to get my hours.  Last week and the start of this week I was feeling even worse.  I would go in, the person who was listed in PRIOR NOTES FROM MULTIPLE PROFESSIONALS as being 'suitable for treatment' and able to 'benefit from therapy' turned out to be a lie.  Yeah, the woman who ignored questions or laughs and sometimes says 'yes' or 'no' is going to benefit from having a dialogue.  I'm sure the woman who asked me 5 times why it's not ok to draw swastikas in the 20 minutes we talked is REALLY going to get something out of therapy.  The woman who was curled up in a ball and crying and scratching at the plastic side-railing and who didn't even acknowledge me is REALLY going to benefit from therapy.     The psychiatrist on the team writes a two-sentence note, saying that someone will benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy.... when they can't even talk or answer single-word questions.  I found a duplicate note from someone that was a literal cut-and-paste for two DIFFERENT clients.  As in, there were two different clients that also had issues with their son and who didn't want to feel trapped at the nursing home and who ended up getting into a physical altercation and this was listed VERBATIM on the same day for different people. Yeah...sure.  I also found cloned noted on a week-to-week basis for someone else.   In other words, there are people in this department that aren't doing their jobs.  They are not properly assessing.  They are not actually doing therapy. They are just writing they are for a paycheck and then leaving.  I mean, why NOT just say that the woman who is in a wheelchair and gibbering to herself did 'solid therapy' if it gets you $35 bucks?  Oh wait, because that's fucking immoral and illegal if there's an audit.  I'm not playing along- especially if it's my ass that gets audited when the state decides to investigate.  I got into this profession to help people, and yet the percentage of people who I would consider my equals and coworkers who also share this sentiment is so baffling low that it is disheartening.  It's no wonder I know so many people who have given therapy a chance and given up because it seemed worthless.  If it's working with these jackasses who copy-paste their notes and are literally lying, don't care to ask questions, and can't even properly diagnose then OF COURSE there's going to be negative stereotypes about therapy.  It frustrates me.  Because I know damn well that there are people who are, as stated above, getting paid double the money and aren't even doing meaningful work.  Like....you don't deserve to have that title.  You don't deserve that paycheck. It makes me sick.  Hell, at DudeBros, I'm working with a guy (obviously I won't go into detail because of HIPAA confidentiality) but the guy has 3 other therapists working with his kid and the only thing they have come up with is that something bad happened at school to his kid and that's why he's losing his shit.  Yet here I come, asking questions, and I piece together that:   1) It doesn't just happen at school.  It also happens during sports/fun activities. It also happens while at home with no triggering event. 2) The behavior got worse when the child was introduced to a certain person in the family who has a history of violence and behavioral problems. It stands to conclude that the negative influence of the other person, who the kid looks up to, is telling the kid how to behave (because that's how the negative influence person behaved) and the kid is modeling this other person's behavior.  Wouldn't THAT make more sense, instead of assuming the kid doesn't like school?   Nah, a psychiatrist, occupational therapist, and someone from the kindergarten are all fucking oblivious to this.  I asked if the child was diagnosed with ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder).  The parent didn't even know what that was... I read the definition from the DSM-5 diagnostics manual and the parent goes, 'THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HE HAS!' Yeah, but three other professionals can't figure it out...   Another example: I have a client who was misdiagnosed as having Bi-Polar and was given MEDICATION for LITERALLY YEARS and was diagnosed by 5 different therapists until he got to me, and then I do evaluations with him, listen to him, and piece together that he has Borderline Personality Disorder and might not even NEED medication (my own supervisor was one of those 5 therapists) and ta-da, he went from flying into a rage and not knowing why, to getting a better job, quitting multiple addictive substances, and is working out daily and hitting up church groups and various Anonymous meetings.    Like, part of me fucking LOVES that I'm always right and that literally everyone else in this field is wrong because it shows that I'm doing great at this profession, but at the same time I fucking HATE that I'm always right and everyone else is wrong because is shows just how god-awful this profession is with teaching people how to have deductive/inductive reasoning skills and empathetic and motivational conversations.  Like, yes, I'm doing great at this....but also, holy shit, how am I the ONLY ONE who is doing great at this?   But enough of that...   A little bit of light.  When I felt like there was literally one person I talked to for 5 minutes and somehow I have to spread this into a 4-hour work schedule where I feel totally useless, I suddenly get a text from the dude I shadowed a couple weeks ago.  He tells me that there is someone on floor 4 who would benefit from treatment and he already talked to the owner of the company and they said I should work with her.  Bingo.  Got someone at least.  I go in yesterday and meet with her and then I start my rounds with the 29 cases that are going nowhere....   ....except they suddenly went somewhere.  Resident after resident was cognizant enough to carry on a conversation.  I did a PHQ-9 with them and they had tangible score which meant they qualified for treatment.  And when I did a mental status exam to see if they were able to retain information, a few of them were sharp enough to recall all the questions.  Suddenly, I had clients!  After a couple weeks of talking to people who were way too far gone with dementia, I suddenly had people on my list of 29 that I could do something with.  I felt rejuvenated.  Between the 4th floor client and a couple of assessments actually yielding results, I was getting somewhere.  I went in early today with another list of people and half of them actually were able to be viable for treatment.  Not only that, but there were two other people in the red binder on the 4th floor that had psychiatric requests which means they are a possibility too.  It looks like the plan I wanted to have is suddenly working.   Ladyfriend also decided to get this weird device that massages your knee - it sort of looks like a bike helmet and it straps around the knee and vibrates at these different speeds and spots.  I honestly thought that nothing would come of it.  But lo and behold, I was able to walk up a flight of stairs yesterday without being in excruciating pain and having my knee swell up.  I did the knee device last night and I was on my feet for a couple hours today and went up and down the stairs a few times. It hurts right now, but not NEARLY as bad as just two days ago.  I feel like I'm able to walk again, after almost two whole months of hobbling around like I'm 200 years old.   Because of this, I felt more motivated to cook last night since I was able to, you know, STAND and not lean on the counter and feel like I was hit by a truck.  I made some chicken thighs and burgers, as well as fried up some turkey kielbasa with red kidney beans.  I got a couple of small yogurts and a bunch of fruit this past weekend so I made myself a protein fruit smoothie.  The past 2 days have been like night and day for me.    Monday I wasn't able to walk, was eating ice cream at 2am, waking up 4 times a night to go pee, and hating my life.  Today I saw a bunch of clients, ate some chicken with buffalo cauliflower, and physically I feel fine.  I'm excited to hit the gym tomorrow.  I have another client to do a tele-health appointment with tonight and then I'm done with work for the week.  I can go to the gym tomorrow and write up all my case-notes for all the new clients I'm able to see.   This made me do some math and if DudeBros is able to give me just a couple more clients per week, with my projected hours; I might be able to take the LICSW exam around February.  So I want to do the best I can and keep at this schedule.  I'm not done with sorting the 29 clients at the nursing home yet, but based off of how many I already have, I think I'll be able to get a solid 10+ hours of work from this.  Combined with DudeBros giving me just a couple more people, I'll be at 20+ hours a week which will mean I'll have all the hours needed to apply for the LICSW exam around February.   I had a big talk with Ladyfriend about us being spread too thin between projects and she agreed.  This past weekend we got most of the main upstairs sorted and put away.  She decided to take the next 3 Fridays off so we can paint.  The plan is to wash the ceilings and the bathroom walls in the next couple evenings.  Then Friday we'll do the first coat of paint in the bathroom and paint the ceiling.  We'll let the paint dry and then do the second coat on Sunday.  Then the following week, wash the main room and paint that.  She had no idea what colors to paint anything and she wanted my input.  We're leaning towards 'raspberry pudding' for the bathroom color, and some sort of teal for the main room, instead of boring ass browns , off-whites, and grays that EVERYONE does.  So amazingly, over the course of 48-ish hours, I went from hating my life, eating junk, getting no sleep, being in constant pain, and hating my job to being able to turn things completely around.  I'll try to post again before the challenge ends, but I'm feeling like next challenge is going to be about maintaining the things I'm starting right now.

I made it less than 30 minutes at work before asking my boss for the rest of the week off.   I went home and grabbed my painting stuff and went to the painting group at my church, and spent 3 hours starting a new painting.    Then drove home again. I had my book with me, so walked to the park and read in the sun and the breeze.   Hoy es miercoles Today is miraculous  I sit on a bench The air is warm The breeze is cool The air is clean The clouds part The sun warms my legs I lift my face and Observe the radiance  Through closed eyes The sun heats The breeze cools Hoy es miercoles Today is Wednesday  Today is miraculous      I don't have a plan for today. I don't know if I'll have a plan for tomorrow.  I am alive, and I am free.

Yay non-scale wins!

I'm so sorry, Elennare.   That sucks.