The daily grind.

I remember a day about three years ago shortly after whatever the latest depressing economic news happened to be had been announced.  My boss, Ted, and I were walking toward the back of the store to go pick up some supplies for the bakery.  As we walked he said, "I pity your generation Kate, you won't have the opportunities my generation did.  It'll be hard to find a job and hard to support yourself.  I'm not trying to depress you, I just feel bad for you."  He wasn't the first to make those statements, and he wasn't the last. In fact, people still repeat those words to me today! But being a true teenager/young adult, in a moment of true rebellion/naivete, I politely smiled and nodded and made up my mind to get a job and not listen to him in regards to this anymore. Ah, to be young!

In any case, God blessed me with a job that supports me and amuses me.   I normally don't like to even think about work on the weekends, much less write about it.  I am definitely one of those people who likes to forget they have a job on the weekends!  However, for some reason I decided I wanted to write about my job for today's blog.

For those of you who don't know, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infant, Children (WIC) is a federally-funded venture meant to provide nutritious foods and nutrition education to those demographics that traditionally are more at risk to fall through the cracks, specifically women and their children.

At 8:30 a.m. I walk through the doors of the health department and head to my office.  Our first clients walk in the door at the same time, so while they're filling out all sorts of paper work and proving things like identity, income, and residency to our admin team, I set up for the day.  Each morning I put my purse away, change my Hoops and Yoyo calendar, start up my computer, print off my client roster, grab the roster, fill up my water bottle, and then talk with whoever is in the hallway, in that order.  If things are going smoothly, I will see my first client around 9:15.

Each of the client's fills out a questionnaire when they come in.  The form has about 20 questions meant to give me an idea of how to guide my nutrition assessment.  This, in addition to the lab results of height, weight, and Hemoglobin, dictate what we talk about.  We cover everything from encouraging people to make sure they eat a variety of foods from all the food groups to eating iron rich foods to help prevent anemia, from making sure they're not mixing formula incorrectly to helping trouble shoot breastfeeding problems.  For kids it seems like we spend a lot of time encouraging the parents to be parents and not let their kids be dictators.  I think I talk to every mom about limiting juice so their kid doesn't get cavities...or weigh 50lbs when they're three.  Once we're all done talking, I print up their food package.  Clients get a pretty decent package these days- things like eggs, whole grain bread, cereal, fruit and vegetables, in addition to milk and cheese.  On a typical day I see between 15-20 clients, with each session taking anywhere from 20-30 minutes.

That's the magic that happens four times per week.  On Wednesdays I teach class.  This is about eight 20 minute sessions spread out over the course of the day that are directed at prenatal women, children 1-5, and infants of different age ranges.  It's quite fun, I get to sit in a room and discuss nutrition topics with 10-20 moms.  Sometimes it's quiet and I just basically talk to myself.  Other times it gets rowdy, especially when people start throwing misinformation around and you have to tactfully tell people the correct information.  It sounds easy, but if you saw all the background work and dealt with all the nonsense that goes one with hosting a class, you'd know why I am exhausted and have a headache when I leave work on Wednesday.  I go to church about an hour after I get off work, and there have been a few Wednesday night prayer sessions at church where my first prayer is "Dear God, please help me stay awake for the next hour and a half!"

I am very thankful for my job.  It's steady, it pays well for entry-level, and it's a way to use my degree.  I enjoy getting to talk with a lot of my clients and provide them with just a little support to help them through the month.  It's also a source of frustration. (Ask my mom, she bears the brunt of my frustration!)  For every person who is on the program because they just need a little help for the month there are people who are the third generation of their family to be on WIC merely because they feel it's their right to get free food from the government (That is truly what people have told me).  It's a source of sadness too. For every family who is just in for a supplement to help them through the month, there is a girl who has little or no family support and no support from her child's father- she is the one who checks yes to box number 7: Do you skip meals or have limited food because of a lack of funds?

 People who work in WIC are typically cocky about "knowing" that their jobs will be around forever.  Since we serve such a limited demographic we don't come close to running out of funding money.  A lot of clients are unlikely to see a change in their income or nutrition status for a variety of reasons, so we'll always have a client base, and funding follows the clients.  Honestly, I wish we could see people in the community give just enough to help these families get by for the month or take these young single mothers "under their wing" and mentor them to their own success and see the WIC program shrink! (Shhh...don't tell my boss!!)  But that's a dream for further on down the road when I have more resources and more knowledge about how to start something like this...I think!

So minus the last two paragraphs, that's my job in a nutshell.  There are more intricacies to the job, but they are very boring and only worth explaining if you need to know them!  This is what I do five days a week, 7.5 hours per day (if I'm lucky!)  Like I said, it's a great job and I'm getting to learn a lot even as I am sharing information with clients.   I hope to get a few more good years out of it before I move on...not that I am planning on getting fired, I just have a feeling that this is only a temporary stop in this part of my life.

I hope I haven't bored anyone with my post today.  I know it's a departure from how and what I usually write, but like I said, it's what I felt I should write today.  And now, as always, it's late enough on Sunday night that I need to be thinking about getting ready for work tomorrow! It should be a peaceful night..the rain and mild temperatures will provide a peaceful background for sleeping! Have a great night everyone and have a fantastic week!

Six months down...

I really dislike overly used phrases.  When women come into my office after having a baby and start asking me if a reduced appetite is normal or pregnant women ask me why they are so weepy all of the sudden, I hate telling them, "It could just be hormones."  When moms come in with kids who eat like crazy one day and then pick at food the next day, I hate telling them, "Well, that is sometimes how two-year olds eat."  I don't know why it bothers me, I guess I just feel like I have a wide vocabulary and I should be using more of it instead of repeating the same several words over and over again.  Maybe I could say, "Well ma'am, in the first several days after the birth of your child, chemicals in the brain....." Yeah, even I get bored with those terms!  In any case, I am about to use another of my least favorite overused phrases: Time flies when you're having fun.  That's right, this Friday marks a momentous occasion: I will have lived in South Carolina for six months.

I'm not sure where all that time went.  On the one hand, it seems like I have been down here forever.  On the other hand, well, I have no idea how six months has gone by so quickly.  (Probably the same way almost a year has gone by since my college graduation and almost five years from my high school graduation!) So skipping over my blog's most overused phrases ("I haven't changed...I have changed...") I just want to dedicate this blog to everything that has happened in the last six months.

I learned that it takes one person a long time to go through certain supplies.  I have a bottle of hair conditioner that I bought two weeks before I left and it's still 1/4 full.   Just today I ran out of the cooking oil I bought the first day I was here.  

Friday evening I finally unpacked my last box.  Yes, 5 months and 3 weeks after I moved in, I unpacked my last box.  And inside that box were some decorations that I bought specifically for this apartment.  

I knew many years ago that I would be just fine living by myself.  Sometimes I enjoy the quiet and I do like to have things set up "my way."  That said, about a week ago I decided that I do need to eventually live with someone, because even with all my friends and co-workers it's just nice to have someone there with you at home, someone you can share with all the time.   

Since I now know that I can achieve even my most lofty dreams, I have decided my next dream is to live in my own house, specifically one not attached to someone else's house.  I try to give no thought to my upstairs neighbors, but every time I think I've gotten past their latest antics they up the ante.  Now they have a guitar.  And they like to sing.  On the patio.  At 12:30 a.m.

The women of the South have taught me that if you are over 18 and not in college or high school, you really should have no reason to not be married to/dating/living with someone.  And if you don't have children already, they will suggest you get started immediately, if not sooner.  One of my co-workers keeps telling me about this guy named Kyle: "All he wants to do is get married and have babies."  Yep. That's a good reason to marry Kyle! I have no problem with marriage, and I can envision myself happily married to the right guy, but I can't tell you how obnoxious it is trying to politely change the subject. 

I have learned what pluff mud, joggling boards, mosquito hawks, and palmetto bugs are.  I have tried boiled peanuts, okra, and true Southern sweet tea. I have geeked out over finding starfish on the beach.

Well, these are just a few of the things that have happened to me in these last six months.  So much has happened in the last 180 days and I'm sure that events will continue to unfold in a similar fashion for a long time to come.  Lastly, I am a procrastinator and need to get ready for work tomorrow.  Ta ta for now!

Spring Fever!

I will first ask your forgiveness for the following paragraphs.  They will border on bragging, but it's just too nice to not write about what's going on right now.

We went through a little bit of a cold spell last week.  It was down in the 50s and low 60s for highs.  I was comfortable, but it was quite humorous to hear everyone talking about the "last cold spell of the spring."  Even the lows weren't that low, but I still got yelled at for not wearing a coat.

I went out yesterday and bought plants for my patio.  I now have a hanging basket filled with a light orange Gerbera daisy, a "spiral grass" plant, and some draping, petite white flowers that attract the giant bees swarming around my patio.  I have a four-tier flower stand that is now filled with a combination of alyssum, petunias, snapdragons, and marigolds- which are supposed to help keep the mosquitoes at bay this summer. Combined with my new patio furniture, my patio looks pretty darn nice right now!

Right now it's about 77 degrees outside.  If you sit in the sun it is pretty warm, almost uncomfortable, but one step into the shade and it is perfect.  Currently I am sitting in my living room, watching the wind gently play with the blinds which are filtering the sunlight streaming in from the west.  The effect it creates is just about my idea of a perfect summer morning should look and feel like.  I am saving up to buy some sheer panels so I can hang them up and have an even "softer" look to the windows in the apartment.  Ahh...so pretty and relaxing!

With exception of the oak trees, I think just about every tree in the area is in the process of blooming or budding.  The pear trees looked like giant snowballs for a few weeks, and now their light green leaves are beginning to poke out.  The maples are just about ready to open their leaves I think.  I learned what a myrtle tree is and discovered a few blooming ones in the park.  The side effect of all these trees is the amount of pollen they produce.  My blue car is now a weird shade of pollen yellow that sometimes appears green if you look at it in the right light.  It is quite a sight!

All the birds are out early in the morning now. It is quite relaxing to wake up to robins, cardinals, chickadees, and mockingbirds singing their little hearts out.  The other day there were two white water birds of some kind, but they took off before I could get a better look at them.

Also out now are the little lizards and fire ants.  I love the lizards! They are not any bigger than my hand and they just sit and stare harmlessly at you until you scare them away.  Fire ants, I am not a fan of.  So far there aren't too many of their hills around, but I am adding them to the list of things I want to avoid while I live in South Carolina.  Also on that list is being stung by a bee and getting bit by a poisonous snake.

Well, this is all I can think to write about at this moment in time.  I also need to go out and plant some more flowers I bought at the dollar store today and take Cooper for a walk before he goes crazy.  I hope you don't hate me now! Enjoy, and send me updates about Ohio's spring if you care to! Arrivederci!