One Hundredth Post !!! Rioters and RunAways!!!

So here I am, at my hundredth post!

I'm feeling a little self-conscience about it actually. You see, I really haven't been blogging for all that long, but I already have a hundred posts! Is that normal? I might be a blogaholic!!!

I have also looked through all my posts and realized that overall, my blog is remenescent of something a clinician might use to diagnose mental illness; thoughts scattered here and there, random songs and poems, weird photos, odd art, no overall themes, no structure . . .

I wonder what kind of results I'd come up with if I completed a content analysis of my blog, like the ones I throw together over writing samples and incident reports by and about my clients. Hmm, that would be interesting. But far too time consuming!

So what better way to celebrate my centennial post than to type out today's happenings??? It was, after all, a very eventful day!

8:30am After getting very little sleep because our cat Tootsie meowed ALL night, I finally forced myself into the shower and off to work. Seriously people, we're talking about 3 or 4 hours of sleep. Facing 15 wily teenagers on this amount of sleep is dangerous!!!

9:00am I share my office with my staff. All FOURTEEN of them. So things get cluttered. I have my own desk and computer and everyone else shares one computer and one desk amongst them all, so random things end up on my desk all the time. Today I went psycho. Just a little. The office was not looking great, so I spent 30 minutes cleaning it, and instructing staff to do so as well.

9:30am I responded to a few e-mails and voice messages.

9:40am Staff informed me that over half of my clients had a psuedo riot last night!!! I pulled in the ring leader of it all, and he talked to me about how his father had died recently. I asked him if leading a riot brought his father back, or made him miss his father any less. He said no, so we discussed better, less harmful ways to mourn. There was some crying involved. Some condolences. Some plan making.

10:20am I informed all the clients who attempted to riot last night that they will be sitting at desks. ALL DAY. Period. I may have yelled some. I may have used the crazy voice even.

10:45am I gathered all the paper work I'd need to take with me to a family team meeting, then grabbed a company vehicle and headed out to the meeting.

11:00am I attended the meeting, which was pretty productive.

12:30pm I returned to my office to begin preparing for a meeting scheduled for 1:00pm regarding the quality assurance procedures I've created to put in place for our new live-feed cameras in the clients' bedrooms, which staff will view via a monitor.

12:50pm Two of my clients ran away. I chased them. A little. But it was hot outside and it's way more satisfactory to call the police ;o)

1:00pm I attended the meeting which basically consisted of watching one of the attendee's squirm because just the thought of juvenile sex offenders makes him sick. So yeah, not a very productive meeting. I like to give this guy a hard time and go into detail about exactly why these cameras are needed in our clients bedrooms. He did not appreciate me stressing the reasons that make this so important ;o)

2:00pm My little runaways have not been found yet! I contacted their placing agents and their parents. There were a mother's tears involved. HEART BREAKING!!! I completed neccesary reports and made arrangements for their possible return.

2:30pm My rioters were beginning to grow tired of just sitting at tables working on treatment related materials. So I took a little time out to re-motivate them ;o)

2:45pm I completed all neccesary reports and contacts for last night's rioting incident. Because seven clients were involved, this resulted in LOTS of reports and LOTS of e-mails!!!

3:00pm I met with my second shift staff and informed them of the days happenings. One staff needed to to prompted several times to stop playing games with the kids. "They're in trouble! They are NOT allowed to have fun today!!!"

3:25pm I wanted to do something nice for the NON-rioters, so I ordered them a food voucher so the could eat McDonald's for dinner.

3:45pm I met with a new resident. Well, he's not really new. He's been with us before. But now he's back . . .

4:00pm I noticed the Bala shark in my tank was missing. It was dead under a rock ;o(

4:10pm I completed filing and replied to LOTS of e-mails.

4:30pm I helped staff come up with a plan to take the NON-rioters out before I leave, so I can be around until they return just in case the rioters decided to . . . riot with a couple of the staff out supervising kids at McDonalds.

4:45pm My run aways were picked up by the police and brought back. I spoke with one of them, who reported that other kid attempted to rape a woman while they were gone. YEP! And I believe it, unfortunately. I then asked him if the other kid tried to touch him too. He said no, but then went CRAZY afterwards, which translates to "YES!!! LOTS!!!"

5:25pm I completed the paperwork involved with returned run aways, and notified all placing agents and parents of their safe return. One the the kids, the one who tried to rape a woman, was sent to a detention alternative, which was a good thing, but resulted in even more paperwork.

6:00pm I helped de-escalate the run way we still had. He was unstable and endangering himself and others. I was prepared for physical interventions, but God blessed us and it didn't have to go that route.

6:15pm One the rioters got it in his head he would just do whatever he wanted, basically rioting again. He wouldn't listen to staff. But I can be pretty scary at times. So I busted out the crazy voice again.

6:30pm I checked on my run away one last time before leaving.

6:45pm I stopped by Pet Smart to exchange the dead shark for three small fish.

7:20pm I arrived at home and ate spaghetti that Kimberly made me!!! We watched some of a movie.

9:30pm I took the new fish to the office at work to place in the tank and to check up on things.

10:10pm We finished the movie and cleaned up the dinner mess.

11:15pm I hopped into bed, checked blogs after Kimberly fell asleep, and here I am now at 12:12am finishing up my hundredth post !!!

Told you I had busy day!!! Only two things on this list were things I was actually supposed to do today. My to-do-list was totally thrown off!!! Dumb rioters and run-aways ;o)