Absotively Posilutely!
Happy 4th of July! I have had some hiccups in the past couple months, but have been making some progress lately. I was told in order to retain my food stamp allowance I would need to take a class at the community college work source center called ABAWD, or able bodied adults without dependents. I did that, and then for a month recorded all of my job seeking/training activities, and any work (including volunteering) I was doing. The next month I found out in lieu of doing all this record keeping I could be working five hours a week at the Oregon Food Bank (where I took a free gardening class last year), so I did that for a month, while also volunteering at two different schools. While I was doing all of this I was not receiving any food stamp benefits. It turned out those two months didn't matter, the people at the Human Services department made some snafu and had my file closed so I would need to reapply from scratch.
So I quit the Food Bank, since it wasn't counting, and it was rather hard work to not be getting paid anything for, also I had a couple bad experiences there at the end, when I got my finger smashed, and later wasn't allowed in to use the restroom even though it was past time to open the doors. I had just ridden my bike for over an hour and was pissed. The great news is, that because of the Abawd thing, I finally got to experience Dress for Success, for which you need a 'referral' from a social services agency, but man, could I have used their help for some interviews I had out of college. I do not know how to dress well, nor did I have the proper things to wear to appear professional. Dress for Success allows me to join HOPE (Help One Person Excel), and in just the first meeting I learned so much from their guest speaker, a professional organizer, and also found out about free eye exams they have in conjunction with a local optometrist! The other good thing was just donating time to the food bank, learning a lot more about how they operate, and where the things that are given out at the local church food pantry come from.
SMART and the bookroom are done for the Summer, as is the subbing, although I am signed up for a future course via them to learn how to subdue a child in a situation of physical violence, which is needed if you intend to work with special education in schools. I redid my entire school district application because they changed their online system, and though tedious, it was a good, fresh start. After doing that I applied for a dozen jobs all at once, from classroom instructional assistants to library aides to nutritional subs (cafeteria worker) and have an interview this week for the food services position. I was a bit disappointed it wasn't one of the educational ones, but really it's a great opportunity to be a sub in a less demanding job so I can organize and devote time to the children's books I (say I) want to write. Also, I can work directly with kids as a volunteer for shorter periods of time and not be in such a responsible position, which would honestly kind of stress me out!
My neighbor friend's cousin recently was visiting and asked me if I wanted to work at the Y with her. It's on hospital grounds and mostly kids of hospital staff, doing art projects and activities. It's a lot like what I am going to do with the Summer school program a couple days a week, except it's paid. And further away. But I told her I will come check it out to see what it's like! I vacillate between thinking it's an awesome opportunity, and questioning it because I didn't have to struggle to achieve it.
I also applied for the recreation center summer program to be an art instructor, which I would have been stellar at doing, but I haven't heard back and it's been weeks. So I rack it up on the "Not Meant to Be" side of the chalk board.
I think I will leave it here, I just wanted to add some more fun, esoteric thoughts, but I can do that when I have more time to ponder. Thank you and good night.
