Happy Advent!

It’s been a while since I posted. Work has been fine—no major incidents or issues. There was one dude who got hit by a car, but he wasn’t severely hurt. I guess I’m getting more and more used to life back here, because things shock me less and less. My first six weeks here were so filled with huge, strange emergencies, but I didn’t know that they were anomalies. So it’s a little less crazy in terms of horrible things happening, but no less so terms of how fast we move around here. I would never have believed how often so many people have to go to the doctor for so many problems if I didn’t work here, or who have a whole other host of issues that need tending to.

A quick aside—I think a lot of the tenants think I’m a receptionist, not a case manager. Maybe that’s because I’m the youngest person here, or maybe that it’s because I’m young and a woman, but it’s still frustrating. On the other hand, the ones that know that I’m a case manager often come to me with a problem that I have no idea how to fix. It’s one of the drawbacks of never having the same day twice, I suppose. That’s a weird conundrum—the people I can help don’t think I know what I’m doing, and I have no idea how to help the ones that do believe in me. (This is a fairly broad generalization—I do a lot of work most of the time! I’m just referring to a few specific issues that tenants have.)

Community life is going well. Last night we made an Advent calendar from today until Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun! Amber got a little wooden frame that used to be part of a set of barnyard toys. She put in little dividers so that there were twenty-four slots, one for each day. It’ll be exciting to see what everyone else put in, and what we are given to meditate upon for the day. I added a few… actually, I’ll wait until the days that we open the Advent calendar to tell you what’s in it! Oh, I love this time of year!

Speaking of Christmas-y stuff, the JVC Camden Christmas Extravaganza shall commence this Saturday. (Yes, it has an official name. Shut up.) We’re going to take our community Christmas card photo, then get a tree, then have dinner at Buca di Beppo’s, compliments of Amber Rose’s parents! (Thanks, Col. and Mrs. Yakkel!!!)

I’m starting the countdown for my visit home—23 days! Just over three weeks! I am so excited!

Love to all,

Molly