Since I last wrote, very little of consequence has happened in the Wright household. I (begrudgingly) returned to work after a week of rest and my quest to liberate the
Agol star system. My work at the agency has begun to stir back to life after a brief winter's hibernation. Although it's a positively balmy thirty-one degrees as I write this and I'm literally wearing a short-sleeve polo shirt due to the broiler of an office that I work in, it's still far too cold to be without heat and many clients are beginning to call to seek assistance for their energy bills; I anticipate some back-to-back meetings in the near future.
My evenings have been spent learning more and more about the lives of clients, asinine public policies, and how to inspire and interact with others through classes. Yesterday evening I presented to my classroom a literature review of
William Julius Wilson's The Truly Disadvantaged and how its (
outdated and repudiated) views differ vastly from a social work perspective. It was an interesting moment because that particular book really inspired me to want to understand inner-city life and modern African-American life and set me on the path I walk today; at the same time, I understand now I hoped to understand these endlessly complex issues in the same way one might understand a mathematical formula and from that point simply
know it. Of course social work doesn't allow for a one size fits all approach, so the process of learning is never ending; at least I have the common sense to know that now.
I've begun to read "Why Does He Do That," as part of my responsibilities surrounding my internship. The author,
Lundy Bancroft, seems to deeply understand the common threads running between abusers who are found in every class and color strata. He hones in on the idea of
selfishness, which prompts abusers to center themselves even in the thoughts of others. As I've begun this internship and studied the behaviors and
cognitions of the men in the groups, I've searched for and found many points of divergence; however, I understand that I also have a tendency to be self-centered and to put my needs first and it's scary to wonder how little space might exist between the chairs we sit in.
I've left the sterile domed farms of
Agol for the salty mist of the
open sea. I've only just dusted off my nearly-orphaned
DS to begin "Phantom Hourglass," but I'm both halfway through and having an absolute blast recovering the incognito princess. In fact, even though I find the game derivative and mourn the relative lack of new music or weapons, I absolutely love this charming swashbuckling yarn, saying all you really need to know about the Zelda series. I'll be sure to report back on my progress as warranted.
Speaking of the open sea,
Chavonne and I are scraping ourselves from the icy climes of Pittsburgh and vacationing in
Baltimore in early May! Given our heritage in the dusty and scorched plains, we know nothing of the harbor and its ways and if anyone can recommend some things to do (outside of
Obrycki's Crab House and the
National Aquarium but probably not in that order; thanks
Man V. Food!) we'd be glad to hear them.
Stay warm and stay in love people.
When I last wrote, I didn't anticipate how vastly my physical environment would change nor the impact this would have on my time. A well documented and furious storm hit the mid-Atlantic region last week forcing individuals to strand their cars, abandon their homes, and leaving thousands without power. At the Wright household, snow is a foot high even today and there's little indication of it thawing anytime soon.
As a result of this, however, the agency CANCELED WORK for the duration of the week owing to the difficulty of ascending the hills of south Pittsburgh to physically reach our offices so needless to say, this has been the finest week of my career thus far. I
bided my time cleaning and maintaining the house for
Chavonne (who sadly did not receive the gift I did) and gaming endlessly. I explored the austere planet of
Algo and learned the shocking secret behind the Mother Brain. It's been absolutely wonderful to be home with my snoozing pups and this break was just what I needed.
Although it's cold and
miserable outside, things are once again looking bright for the Wrights.
First, I believe I owe the greater Internet an apology for not updating on a regular or even semi-regular basis. Unfortunately, I can't even justifiably point to the demons of employment or homework as the culprit as it was a general sense of fatigue and inertia that was responsible.
As is quickly becoming a trend, work at the agency has been absurdly and guiltily slow. Since the 21st of January, half a lifetime ago it seems, I've seen only three clients in the form of appointments and haven't really innovated any of the intakes or recording processes that I'm waist deep in on a daily basis. Other than physically transforming the office in Allentown to accommodate our newest co-
locators NeighborWorks of Western Pennsylvania and the Hilltop Alliance, there has been next to nothing to do each day. Fortunately, this trend has allowed me to focus on learning about social work more thoroughly.
My evening classes, although hamstrung by the inherent fact that they take place after an eight-hour day, have been frighteningly enjoyable. I've learned far more than I thought I would ever care to about brain structures, childhood development and trauma, and the
DSM-IV of all things. I, who enjoy science to the approximate extent that I enjoy exercise, have truly learned a great deal about holistic assessments of physical and mental health and the subtle signs beneath the surface of one's behavior and language. It's intoxicating, to be honest, to have one's eyes opened to a new level of interaction and to have developed some new insight into the world, if only fumblingly and partially.
I also started the MEN/S (Men Embracing Non-Violence and Safety) Group through the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh as part of my internship. I'm working with a no-nonsense (to put it mildly) advocate who challenges and elicits responses from clients in a way that I've never seen. The men in the groups are largely court-mandated as a result of past violence and there are two Monday evening groups that take place as a forum for the clients to discuss their mistakes and, hopefully, change their behavior. I was surprised how little I was intimidated by the men in the group, and how eloquent and self-aware most of them seemed to be, with the exception of one absolute martyr. I'm excited to challenge myself and my misconceptions further and to simply do good work.
Chavonne and I are continuing to grow closer in our relationship. We've begun to wake up with one another again as I am now to arrive at the agency at eight in the morning to accommodate the half-day I take on Mondays for my internship. As a result, we've gotten to build one another up before we begin the day and to simply have that much more time together as a result, which is great. Our weekends continue to be spent in stasis as the bizarre hours, demanding work schedules, and insane internships dish out brutal punishment during the week. For now, though, simply reclining by my honey is enough.
While I still haven't borne the full brunt of what will soon constitute an "average" week consisting of forty hours of work; five hours of school; sixteen hours of internship; and presumably sleep somewhere in between, my emotional and mental thresholds have been apprised of these possibilities. This week, school definitely came prepared to make demands on my time while work at the agency, surprisingly, dropped the ball in this regard.
Over the past week, I only managed to complete a single Dollar Energy appointment and the pantry generated an incredibly modest nineteen families and forty-seven individuals. Other than completing annual paperwork for each family, my work week at the agency was gratefully slow.
The School of Social Work, apparently recipients of the memo that my time was available, piled on scores of pages of readings, which although sometimes tedious and more often than not bled into a mire of resilience literature too dark to discern, was genuinely intriguing and interesting. My Children and Families at Risk course leverages the experiential knowledge of the students and professors as well as the sometimes haunting trauma of the children featured in the text to discuss the perilous
Jenga tower that is the well-developed and emotionally healthy child. Not only am I enjoying the course on its own terms, it's already beginning to inform my interactions with clients and staff, an evolution that has left me incredulous.
My travails through the Grand Kingdom have been fruitful and empowering. I've managed to devote a respectable thirty hours to teaching my shadows to endure fatal strikes, loot their foes, and restore their health through motion. Along the way, I've fought dozens of bizarrely shaped and overtly-aggressive mistakes of nature, including the
poo snake. Although I've yet to discover how to balance my time between my real-world commitments to education, hygiene, and relationships, I cannot wait to return to the (level) grind.
Chavonne and I have been working to keep ourselves and one another sane in the face of our constant separation due to internships and school commitments. Because we've had so little time to interact with one another, we take extra care to ensure that that time spent is positive and uplifting. We
talk more deeply and thoroughly than at any time in our relationship, I believe. We genuinely enjoy one another as people rather than as simply partners and it makes a profound difference in the breadth and depth of our love. I'm grateful for our friendship because we're both able to step out of our roles as partners and offer advice and council as needed, which has become crucial as the stress of our current hectic lifestyle sometimes overcomes us.
Chavonne is really my best friend and it's just another way I'm probably the luckiest guy you'll meet.
2009, if you've paid any attention to my blog or my that of my
babewife, was not exactly a banner year for the Wright household. However, one curiosity of a calendar year is that two of the most celebratory times, Christmas and New Year's, stand as islands of light and levity in an ocean of swirling, snowy darkness.
Our Christmas, spent alone with the pups, was thrilling, to be frank.
Chavonne asked me to seclude myself in our second-floor bathroom while she established a complex
scavenger hunt for me to complete in order to find my presents. She listed a subtle hint as to where to look and then a quote relevant to the gift;
Chavonne is notoriously poor at dropping hints, so this provided a great challenge and was a whole lot of fun. Far and away my most exciting gift is a Black and Decker
paper shredder, providing for me the gift of identity security and privacy.
For
Chavonne, I bought a sewing table after significant consultation
from my mother-in-law, as well as arranged a New Year's Day trip to the Inn on
Negley to stay in the
Macintosh Room. Knowing how emotionally and physically difficult 2009 was, this cozy and absolutely quaint hotel was just what we needed. We enjoyed our first English high tea (Captain
Picard was really onto
something!) and learned that scones are to die for. More significantly, we just
talked to one another about our life, our goals, our dreams, and our fears. I'm so lucky to be married to someone I can learn something new about every day.
Since that highlight,
Chavonne and I have returned to school and work without renewed purpose or, sadly, energy. Historically, the first three months of the year are the slowest at the agency as energy assistance calls and pantry utilization falls off significantly. I'm grateful for this because it allows me to at least initially focus on my academic responsibilities, which are multiple. This semester will be learning about Models of Intervention (which I'm anxious to really delve into), Children and Families at Risk (I'm keeping an open mind toward working with children), and beginning my second (and final) Concentration field placement at...the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh! I will be working in the
MEN/s group, which I'm insanely excited to do. I'm hoping that I can really learn about domestic violence and do right by the group participants and myself. It should be a challenge, but (as of today, anyway) I'm up for it!
Sadly, things do not bode well for Mario and Luigi as I've completely cast aside my
DS for console games once again.
Chavonne and I spiked one another into pits, threw one another into molten lava, and otherwise displayed comedic ineptitude whilst playing
New Super Mario Brothers Wii, which I recommend highly. Since our rescue mission has been completed successfully, I've sworn an unswerving vengeance upon the
Land Shark that destroyed my home.
In all, 2010 looks from the outset not dissimilar from 2009. I'm warm, well-fed, deeply in love, and hard at work. Hopefully we'll take a few more steps forward this year as well.
