Happy November! It's a beautiful fall morning here. I partook of the popular pastime known as rake-all-the-damn-leaves for a while. Now I'm sluggishly chilling. Sluggishly because maybe allergies combined with the flu shot I got yesterday. Plus, apparently, my dependence on caffeine, which I've not yet had today.
I'm not a fan of changing clocks, but I'm feeling rather appreciative of the extra hour we get this weekend. But, let me wrap up the week, bullet style
- At the testing center, we underwent required "de-escalation" training. Out of curiosity, I'd asked Boss why we were required to do this, as it had never been part of the plethora of other required trainings. His answer, "Something happened at one of the other testing centers, and I've already told you too much"
Well, okay then. Bring on the training. Presented by a couple of our security guys (Work Study loved it), it was good common sense reminders. We all felt pretty good about how well we work together to de-escalate such situations.
The VERY NEXT day, dude bullies his way in, gets all upset because he can't keep his cellphone with him (?!) while taking his test. Spends 9 minutes failing a test he was given 2 hours to complete, flings a chair (it was on wheels, so it just went for a fun roll, not hitting anything/ one), and storms out with a parting, "F*CK Y'ALL!!"
Not gonna lie, my calming strategies from the prior day's training took a back burner to my inner seething. Same for my coworkers Blossom and Sarge. But we kept it together enough to, at least, not escalate things. From his parting salutation, I was reminded of the pride banner hanging over the disabilities services office:
And I thought, "Well, how wondefully inclusive of him"
- On the tutoring side of things, I was talking with one of my tutees. He's majoring in mechanical engineering and told me he's interested in becoming "an agricultural engineer on Mars". Whoa.
Apparently, there's a fair amount of research going into the colonization of Mars. Still, I think it'll be a while. But hey, he's young, and it's nice to have a focused goal.
Meanwhile, I struggle to grow a decent garden here on Earth.
