Another Miscellaneous Update

Still not to much exciting going on in my life. I still like my new job. Today I have DCYF orientation here in Concord, which is nice, because that means I won't have to drive all the way to Portsmouth today or tomorrow, and I'll be home by just after 4. That makes me VERY happy.
I have two clients at work now. That's exciting! It's nice starting to feel like I have my own stuff to work on. Friday is, what is called, my cover day, which kind of sucks. Basically, that means that I take phone calls for other workers if they're not in and we need the information right away, or if a Level One assessment comes down (Level one = we have to see the kid within 24 hours of the report coming down) I would go out on that, or at least help with the phone calls. We had one come down on Friday at 3:45 this past Friday. Me and the other cover worker were pissed! Sometimes it happens, and I was able to avoid going out, because I had to talk to the lawyer about another case I was helping on cover for.
We got another kitten on Thursday. Her name is Maggie. That's her in the picture. Shes 2 months younger than Molly, and she's adorable! Unfortunately, we're having a hard time getting her to accept Molly. I thought it would be the other way around, but it's weird! So we're giving her a trial run right now, but I have an aunt that may want her if she doesn't work out here with us. The cats are getting better with each other right now, though, so I'm hoping...
Anyway, that's about it from here. I've got to get ready for orientation and put a call into my doctors office. It makes me nervous that I got a message from them on Friday when they told me on Monday "You'll only get a call from us if the labwork comes back abnormal." Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Just an update

Nothing much exciting to talk about, but just felt it was time to update and let people know what was going on. I've survived the first two weeks at my new job, and I still love it, so that's great! I have my own client right now. I complain about how I'm not busy enough with only one, but it's going to be one of those things that when I'm carrying a full caseload, I'll be complaining about how I have too many clients to see and not enough time to see them! So I won't complain about only having one :-)I like the people I work with, so that's good. Cheryl, my mentor, is going to a conference this week. I'm so jealous, I love going to conferences, but hopefully she'll have a good time and good weather out in California!
I'm meeting up with Martha Byam on the 1st to go out for lunch, so that will be fun. It'll be good to catch up with her and see how things at UNH are.
Oh! I should probably send out some congratulations to Amanda - who got engaged! Yay for her!!! That's exciting!
Anyway, I guess that's about all of the news from Concord. I wish I had something more exciting to report, but no such luck, I guess. :-)

Day 1

Well, today marked my first day as a child protective service worker in the Portsmouth DCYF office. It went well. I spent the bulk of the day setting stuff up in my cubicle and getting myself situated with the computer stuff and whatnot. It's getting there though! I have another box of stuff to bring in tomorrow, but it's all things like... old training info, good articles that may come in useful someday, plus a poster to hang up and some other random odds and ends (like a clock to put on my desk). I had a ton of questions to ask, and I felt like such a nerd. And I was so nervous! Holy cow was I nervous!!! I was shaking so bad when I got to work, and I thought I was going to throw up my lunch just because of nerves.
But this afternoon went better. When you first start with DCYF, everyone is assigned a mentor. My mentor, Cheryl, is really nice. She's only a year older than me, so we connect very well. She and I went out to transport two kids from Portsmouth High to Exeter, then we went on to Hampton to see a mother and daughter, but they weren't home. I've already gotten 45 minutes of comp. time, and I've been there for a day! It'll be nice to have the holiday next Monday, I think I'm going to need an extra long weekend to recover from the first week at the job. It seems like things will go well though. I can't wait to finish getting settled in. Tomorrow morning my day starts off with a meeting right at 8am with a family. It will be quite a fun morning. I've got to get going though - because of that meeting, I've got to leave home extra early tomorrow so I can get in and get settled before the meeting!

Starting Over...

Today I went into the office for the first time since being hired. It was just to do all the new hire paperwork, like the I-9 and the W-4 and sign all the paperwork for my office cellphone and the key pad entry to get in and stuff like that. It was great - everyone was so nice! They were practically falling all over themselves to give me a new desk chair and a planner/padfolio thing. I got to see where my cubicle is, and my name was already up on it! They must be really excited for me to start! It's nice knowing I'm going to be working in a place where they (so far, anyway) are happy for me to be there. Jen (the supervisor) has already set me up to go to orientation here in Concord on Monday and Tuesday, so that will be good, then I start in the office on Wednesday, and in February, I actually start my core trainings. Those are all in Concord, so the commute to those will be nice. I'm not so excited about having to do them all over again though.
I sent an e-mail to my old boss today about what it was like to work there. I didn't tell her anything about anything I had heard from a co-worker there (if you want to know, message me, I don't want to post it in here), but I just told her that I had some rough times working with some of the people in the department, and that I wanted to make sure she knew what kind of work atmosphere was actually in that department. I also told her that she could call me or e-mail me if she wanted to discuss this in greater detail. It just really hurt to find out that I was severely disliked in that office by 2/3 of the staff I worked with. I never realized there was as much of a problem as there really was, I guess. I knew there was one person who had issues with me, but I didn't realize it was to the extent that it was. And a couple of the people who apparently didn't like me were people I didn't think I had a problem with.
Anyway, I'm trying not to dwell on it, because it's in the past and I don't ever have to work with these people again. Unfortunately though, I've had to change the way my buddy list is set up on instant messenger and everything because of what was going on. I really hadn't realized how much of a stir I had been causing. It greatly upsets me. But I tried to go to work each day and let these people show that it wasn't getting to me. But they win! Okay?! YOU HEAR THAT GUYS??? YOU WIN!!!!!
But I'm off to bigger and better things now. I'm still very excited about starting with DCYF. I am looking forward to finally having a career and not just a job...