Life in Stumptown

The job front: I can’t remember if I told you or not, but I was asked to do fingerprints for the job interview I had on Friday with Columbia Care, an inpatient mental health facility. I had plans to leave early yesterday and get them done on the way to work. When I got to the sketchy place I had found, there was a really long line. I was supposed to go to one of the shelters that day and I didn’t have an address to find it because no one knows it for confidentiality. Since I was unsure of my route by landmarks, I figured I should skip the line and figure something else out. But, later that day, when I parked at the police station by the admin. office, I walked by the door and to throw something away and read that their fingerprint lady just happened to be in on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 11-2. Being that it was Wednesday at noon, I thought, “Hey, thanks God, that’s pretty good timing.” So, I dropped them off last night after interning as planned. And today, I have an interview for an on call position with the Portland Women’s Crisis Line (a domestic violence hotline). So, things are looking up!

The school front: I turned in my first paper on Tuesday. I will have a stats take home midterm next week. I still like my classmates and what I’m learning about. I read a lot — today about the economics of China (The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs) and a little bit later about hypothesis testing in data analysis. You see why I don’t tell you about school; you probably don’t care. We actually did have some pretty amazing guest speakers in my generalist practice class on Tuesday and I learned a lot about current social work legislature in Oregon, how the Oregon legislature works (it’s a citizen legislature that only meets bi-annually for six months), and about social work licensure here. But, I just really don’t feel like it’s blog-worthy.

The internship front: I was at a shelter all day yesterday and loved it. I love how much everyone is invested in their job. I would be honored to have any position with this agency. Everyone I’ve met has exceeded my expectations for them being wonderful, helpful, welcoming, interesting, etc. It’s a complete 180 from some of my other experiences and I feel lucky to be there.

The church front: I tried out a new home community last night with Amanda. Loved it! Everyone was extremely welcoming and really cool. I’m gonna go back on Wednesday with Rob and they’re having a potluck so it will be an awesome opportunity to socialize too. Dilemma, though…they meet on Wednesdays and I will have class that night from October through December. So, I’ll see how I’m going to deal with that at some point. Maybe I’ll try out others during those months. We’ll just wait and see…

The social front: Tonight Sarah, Elena, Jacob, and I are going to Last Thursday, which is an informal street festival of sorts in my neighborhood. Artists, street musicians, and entertainers set up shop along Alberta Street and I hear it’s prime time for people watching. I’ll give you a full report with pictures. Saturday, Beth, Elena, and maybe some others are going down to the waterfront for Flugtag. What is Flugtag you ask? German for flying day — it is an event Red Bull sponsors in which teams build flying machines and attempt to gain flight off a 30 foot platform and are judged on flight, creativity, and showmanship. And this is not just Portland being weird…it’s in multiple cities in the US. I’m pumped   And…I got to talk to Dana and Joey yesterday and it was just great to catch up with both of them.  Dana is always good at telling me exactly what to hear and it’s just always nice to go back to the comfort of a friend from ninth grade.  Old friends are the best

The boyfriend front: Rob just got a little nervous that I’m about to publicize details. I’m not…I’m just ecstatic that he (I mean I) ruined the surprise last night and he told me that he changed his flight to Saturday night. When I found out that he was considering hanging out in New Orleans after his family left for three days with the possibility of staying in a hotel, I insisted he contact United immediately. Why give a hotel money? Give it to the airline instead… So, he’ll be wondering around Portland on Monday and Tuesday instead while I’m interning and at class, but we’re both really excited That’s all on the boyfriend front…you’ll have to call me if you want the juicy details

I should probably get back to my reading now…India’s economic system is next…aren’t you jealous

I had the fantastic opportunity of attending one day at the Oregon Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault conference. The first two workshops were mediocre — but the last workshop was somewhat earth shattering.

Let me first tell you a story. And I should warn you that it’s pretty brutal, but I want you to understand the magnitude of what I learned about a family.

Most of Oregon is comprised of rural areas and small towns. In southern Oregon, there’s a place called Grant’s Pass. A woman named Wendy lived there with her husband of 18 years Aaron, and their four boys, Randy, Marshall, Joshua, and Tyler. After one or two years of being married, Aaron began to severely abuse Wendy. Imagine laying in bed with your husband and he tells you that his fantasy is to become a serial killer. For seventeen years, Aaron did unimaginable things to his family. He knocked Wendy’s teeth out. He filled their home with holes in all of the walls, which Wendy used the boys’ artwork to cover up. He would make the boys beat each other up, and if one refused, he would beat that child. He would light wire on fire and make Wendy hold her wrists to it. If she moved, he would beat her. Eventually, that got old, and he just held fire to her wrists. He would take her to a spot in the woods where he would give her ten seconds to tell him why he shouldn’t kill her. Wendy and her boys lived in fear. If they left, he would go through family members until he found them. And if he found them, their death would be inevitable. The system failed them. Tyler told his preschool teacher that when he was old enough, he wanted to kill his father. A school full of mandatory reporters, and nothing was done. The police came out to the home multiple times. Once, they asked Wendy what they should do with Aaron as they had him in cuffs. They asked her this in front of Aaron. Of course she said to let him go, otherwise, she would be in more danger when he was released. So, one night, Aaron was causing a disturbance around the neighborhood threatening to kill the neighbors. The police came, Aaron went inside, and told Wendy and 17 year old Randy to get rid of them. He had surveillance cameras around the house, so if Wendy told the cops to come inside, Aaron would hear her. Randy tried to get them to come in with his eyes, but nothing happened. Later than night, Wendy saw no other way out, and she and Randy killed Aaron, in what most people would certainly label justifiable homicide. It was him, or them.

The DA issued a plea bargain — 10 years in federal prison for Wendy and 5 in jail for Randy. In a small, somewhat close minded, town where Aaron’s family carried a lot of weight, Wendy couldn’t risk Randy being in jail until he was 43 on a jury’s verdict. She never did get the lucky outcome. She wanted her son to have freedom for the first time at 23 instead. Randy went into custody just before Wendy was released on bond (for which her family had to sell property).

At this same time, there was a young man named Tommy Davis trying to make a film about family preparing for a member to go to prison. Tommy had already made one film, that was well received at independent film festivals. For his second, all of his characters just backed out. He googled “out on bond” and Wendy came up. He contacted the DV advocate (a social worker). She looked into him and found that his first film was about social change, so she didn’t think he’d sensationalize the story like the rest of the media did. She presented the idea to Wendy, who was in favor of it.

So, One Minute to Nine is a film that tells the story of Wendy’s family in the last five days before she went to prison. We got to watch the film, which is probably the most eye opening illustration of domestic violence I have ever seen. Everyone that worked on this case says it is the worst domestic violence case they have ever seen — social workers, attorneys, judges, etc. After the film, the three youngest boys, the advocate, and one of the defense attorneys sat on a panel and we had the opportunity to ask them questions. This was the last public viewing of the film until September 2009 when it will be on HBO, who just bought all of the rights.

It was an honor to be in the same room as three boys who have endured more in their 17 and 15 years than I most likely ever will. A fellow social worker very accurately stated that domestic violence is too kind, it should be called terrorism in the home. Wendy and her boys were tortured emotionally and physically everyday for 17 years, living in fear that any act to stop this would result in their death. And it’s not just Grant’s Pass. This is Anytown, USA, and very much brushed under the rug. To say it is heartbreaking, is a complete understatement. It’s beyond words…

http://www.oneminutetonine.com/

I had a job interview Friday morning.  It was at a place called Columbia Care which is a residential treatment facility for adults with mental illness.  It’s way out east (well, 20 minutes) and in a nice, big house which looks much more like a house than an institutional setting.  The interview was very laid back, but definitely not as laid back as the first one, so that’s a good thing!  I would be facilitating a variety of groups ranging from social worky to social and keeping up the house as well.  I feel like the job would be a good fit and would allow me to learn more about what it’s like to be mentally ill at a level in which one cannot function independently on a daily basis.  They called me later that day and told me that HR cleared me to the point to come back and get fingerprinted, so I feel like that’s a good sign.  I have to pick up the fingerprint package and take it somewhere to have them done.

I also got gas for 3.91 and feel that is worthy of posting in here.  It is illegal for you to fill up your own tank in Oregon, so I think gas is a bit more expensive here to offset the cost of hiring more workers.  It’s typically 4.15-4.30.  Ouch, I know.

I met my new friend Nicole (from class) at this super cute coffee house in the Nob Hill area.  It’s called Coffee Time.  It has many different rooms and they have interesting dividers, such as a gigantic circular hole in the wall or two small holes with tables like a counter in between and chess boards painted on them.  The whole back room has a mural of people everywhere in kind of a bar scene and one of the other rooms has a mural of an old room with a fireplace that looked similar to the one in Goodnight Moon and the mural has red curtains on each side of it.  So, I didn’t get much work done, but Nicole and I had a really good time getting to know each other.  She reminds me of seventh grade Lauren Sorrows and I think she’s the only person that is ever more prepared than me.  Although, I’m not sure if she carries around a Tide stick and a nail clipper, but most likely.

We went to Flicks on the Bricks last night to see the Goonies.  It’s apparently a must see around here because it was filmed in a small coastal town named Astoria, which is about an hour west of here and also on Cannon Beach, which was the beach Elena and I went to.  So, they put the movie on a big screen (think Movie on the Oval) and about 2,000 Portlanders camp out with blankets and lawn chairs on Pioneer Square to watch it.  It was so much fun!  Sarah and I drove to pick up Amanda, then we parked at Lloyd Center, met Sarah’s friend Annie, and walked over to the Max station (which is in fareless square at this point) and headed downtown.  Amanda and I held down our spot while Annie and Sarah got Chipotle (and chips +guac for us!).  That was really great because it gave me and Amanda a chance to talk and I’m so excited I met her.  She’s a pretty sweet girl and a fellow Mid-westerner (from the state up North).  I asked if she could pretend to be a U of M fan in November so we could have a rivalry.  She went to Michigan State.  So we had met at the 80s party originally, I should have mentioned.  I’m going to try out her home community on Wednesday.  I love new friends   A little while later, Nicole (who I grabbed coffee with earlier) arrived with her husband Rob.  And then Elena and Jacob got there later.  And then Amanda’s roommate Mary.  So, I just love large random groups and it was a great time!  Next time, I’ll wear more clothes though because I keep forgetting that when the sun goes down, it’s chilly out here!  It felt like a Football Friday in the fall. The movie was really cute though.  Here’s a picture of Amanda, me, Nicole, and Rob.  Please note: I was trying to dress Portland and that was a jean skirt, hot pink tights, and pin striped Chucks.

Day’s off have been hard. I have wanted to stay home to prevent spending money on gas or excessive amounts of coffee drinks, but this leads me to feeling isolated and unproductive. Also, this particular day off, I stayed home in the morning to wait for the cable guy to come to hook up the internet. Turns out, this house has never had cable, so he would have to drill a whole through the house to hook up the line and he says there is a good possibility of him breaking the structure in doing so. So, I had him leave and will wait until Beth gets back from vacation to consult with her about this. Although, according to Rob, it is very possible and I just need someone smart enough how to drill a hole without breaking things. So for now, we will continue to crowd around the hot spot (which is the couch facing the window) to steal the neighbors’ internet. I spent the morning looking for a job, signing up for an online babysitting connecting service, posting another photography ad on Craigslist, etc. I think God is making me go through this for a reason. He thinks it’s good for me to struggle sometimes. He’s right. He usually (fine…always) is. Perhaps I’ll take my clients more seriously now when they tell me they can’t get a job. Plus it makes me depend on God, put my faith in Him rather than my own fruitless job search, and trust that everything will be okay. I just kind of feel like a bum in the mean time. And when I get discouraged like this, I sleep. So I had a lovely hour and a half nap that afternoon. I know, quite the cycle. But, I did get some reading done and by the time Elena got off work, my extroverted self had traded the money saving mentality for the socialization craving and we went out to dinner.

Elena’s IPhone got a new widget. (I can just hear Crissy’s voice repeating back widget with a giggle as I type that by the way…I love picturing people’s reactions to my blog). It is slot machine decision maker called Urban Spoon. Portland is home to many Thai restaurants so we thought it was about time we break down and try one. We locked in Thai on the cuisine wheel, shook the phone, and our fate for dinner was decided — Thai Pod. I love having dinner with Elena. We always pick two things and split them so that we can try more. There’s just something about sitting down to dinner with a good friend and having lots of food in front of us that we pick at forever that makes me really happy. After dinner we went to Lloyd Center, which is a big mall with an ice skating rink in it, and we picked up a few things.  Thursday ended much better than it began.

On Wednesday I got to go to Portland’s juvenile court, which size-wise is a lot more like what I’m used to.  But, in terms of dignity, a lot better than Columbus.  There’s no long, noisy, chaotic hallway of shame where everyone just sits between 9 and noon, waiting to hear their name yelled out because apparently no one in the city considered that HIPPA concepts and the NASW Code of Ethics should apply to court too.  Cue me stepping down from my soapbox.  There’s little alcoves by each court room that the parties can wait in and it seems that each hearing is scheduled and the judges keep to their times.  The judge also addressed each party by Mr. and Ms. as opposed to Mom, Dad, FCCS, etc.  This means the judge cared enough to not only read the last name but remember it.  And finally, the judge addressed the client with a rationale of her decision while looking her in the eye as a social worker would, rather than just spitting out a ruling and distributing papers.  That being said, I’m impressed with the court system here.

Then I got to go to DHS (department of human services) which houses both self sufficiency (TANF or welfare, although I hesitate to use that word) and CPS (child protective services).  Wow!  A brilliant idea to eliminate animosity between the two offices!  Put them all in one big room together and make them share a lunchroom.  I was shadowing Erin who is the liaison between DHS self sufficiency and Clackamas Women’s Services.  I also got to see the 4-6 month shelter as we went there to help a woman fill out child support paperwork.

I’m struggling to remember how I spent my evenings this week, so I guess we’ll just leave that a mystery to both of us.

Tuesday is class day.  I pack my lunch and ride the bus to school.  I even have a nickname now.  Flashback to grade school, huh?  Just with a lot more reading and longer papers.

My generalist practice bridge class went on a homeless immersion tour around Old Town/China Town, which is where the majority of the resources for the homeless are.  A woman who worked for an organization called JOIN along with a man who used to be homeless took us through the neighborhood and told us a little about each of the organizations and his experience using them.  At the end there were two men who also used JOIN’s resources who told us their stories.  I’m going to tell you about Buck.  Picture a 70 year old man wearing camos, a blue and orange striped collared button up shirt, a baseball cap with a silhouette of a babe on it, a white mustache that goes down to his chin, and he talks exactly like Forest Gump, especially when he says Vietnam.  He is from California and used to be very wealthy.  He had a triple wide, rather than just a double wide, a big red truck, named Big Red, a boat, a motorcycle, 15 pairs of parakeets one single one named Freddy, a dog named lady, and a wife named Bonnie.  He adored Bonnie.  She was an Indian German and the best Kraut he knew.  Sometimes he called her Sauerkraut.  Well, Bonnie was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer and it took her life.  He couldn’t stay in that town after that, so he gave everything to Bonnie’s family, took Freddy, Lady, and the $80,000 cash he had and went to Vegas.  He lost half of it and ended up in Utah driving a rickshaw.  One thing lead to another, and he was soon on the streets in Portland.  So, that’s the sad part of the story.  I think it’s a testament to the assumption that many people are on the streets from drugs and alcohol.  That may be true, but we also met Larry who was an orphan in Chicago.  When he graduated high school in ‘67 he had no where to go.  He was on the streets from that time until 2004.  We never do know someone’s story, so we should be cautious to assume and place labels.  Anyhow, here’s the funny part — at the end of Buck’s story, he asked me to come up by him.  He put his arm around me and said there’s one like me in every group and he’s got a nickname for “us.”  We’re all thinking he’s gonna say “Shorty” and get a big, hearty chuckle out of it.  Nope.  “It’s Dusty,” he exclaims!  Dusty, you ask?  So did we.  “She’s so short that when she farts, the dust rises!” Followed by the big, hearty chuckle and an eruption of laughter from my class.  I turned a nice shade of red.  Let me put this in perspective for you.  My best friend has a nice 9-5 downtown job.  She has perks such as getting another IPhone from work (she already has one from her last job) along with an unlimited coffee card and $100 bonus for finding her boss’ missing DVDs.  A formerly homeless man nicknamed me Dusty in front of my grad school class due to flatulence.  Welcome to the humble world of social work.

So it seems that blogging might just be a once weekly thing for me. Here are some highlights:

Monday:

I interned. Things are still slow. I can’t do much until I take my 40 hours of DV training. Elena says not everyone knows social work acronyms. I often forget this as I’m typically been surrounded by social workers (old roommates, work, classmates, boyfriend, etc.). DV means domestic violence. So, I’ve been reading a lot. And shadowing people. Which is fine, because that’s how I learn. I’d much rather learn this way than being thrown into a family of 11’s caseworker. Not that that has ever happened. I’m also supposed to be co-facilitating a group with a girl named Stacy. Stacy is another friend I made. She’s my age and also a grad student at PSU. She interned at Clackamas Women’s Services before I did and now she works there. We were going to co-facilitate a girls’ group and a boys’ group, but no one showed up. That was a bummer because I was really looking forward to actually practicing social work, but Stacy and I had a chance to just talk instead, which was cool.  Here’s a picture from the beautiful bridge I get to walk across to get to my internship from where I park.  The heart of Oregon City:

That evening Elena and I went to Washington Park. So, Washington Park is in the West Hills and home to many smaller parks such as the Japanese Garden, the Zoo, the Hoyt Arboretum, and the International Rose Test Garden. Also, Washington Park is the largest, forested park within city limits. The drive was a bit reminiscent of the Rockies. The Rose Garden was gorgeous. I can’t wait to return in September when the roses are in full bloom.

I had every intention of going to the photography group at church Saturday morning, but wasn’t feeling much like a joiner when I got up.  So, instead, I ran a few errands and grabbed coffee at this new place down the street — Rumpspankers.  Yes, that is actually the name.

Sarah and I lounged around for a bit and then hopped in the car to head to Sauvie Island, which is a teeny tiny island formed from the split in the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.  It’s probably 5 square miles.  There is only one bridge on and off and the island is made up of farmland, wildlife preserves, and beaches.  It’s about a 30 minutes drive from our house.  We went berry picking!

After the blueberry farm (which, I should mention we made complete fools of ourselves at as we wondered around the wrong field for 10 minutes looking for blueberries only to be chuckled at and redirected by the farmer across the street because blueberries grow on bushes not trees and then we struggled to get out of the parking lot which doubles as a grassy field) we were going to loop around the island but decided to stop at the next farm over which also had raspberries and we thought we’d like to add to our berry collection.  So, first we made friends with Victor the goat and Lucy the llama and some various hens or perhaps roosters in the petting barn.

We wondered through the market and decided the produce was much cheaper and fresher here than the grocery store, so we picked up quite the variety.  Em and Laura, I got cherries!  They weren’t free, but they also weren’t moldy, so I’m sure you can imagine my excitement!  And on the way out, we made a quick stop at the beach (sans parking permit, so very quick!)  If you look very closely at this picture, you can see Mt. Hood in the background — don’t worry, Dad, I’ve been assured that there’s plenty of warning and time to evacuate before volcanoes blow!  Mr. Herman’s been concerned lately about earthquakes and volcanoes…

We took St. John’s bridge home, which is a beautiful structure and apparently there’s a gorgeous park underneath it called Cathedral Park.  I’d like to go back sometime!  We stopped at Sarah’s favorite fast food restaurant for dinner, which I will admit is hands down the best fast food I’ve ever had.  It’s a local chain called Burgerville and it carries seasonal items such as Walla Walla sweet onion rings (Walla Walla is a place in Washington that grows sweet onions) and their milkshakes change seasonally also.  I got the Tillamook cheeseburger.  Tillamook is a local town and cheese factory and I’ve got to tell you I love their cheddar!

It was a lovely Saturday!  Sarah and I had girl talk all day…which means we talked about boys — a lot!  Alright, I’ve got to get ready for church now…this lazy girl is going to the noon service, followed by an afternoon of chores and studying

I had a job interview on Friday morning. It was at an inpatient substance abuse treatment program for African American women and their children. I think the online description wasn’t quite accurate. Basically, I think I’m a bit overqualified for the position, which is not the problem. Nor is the fact that I was not asked any questions at the interview, or that it took five minutes for her to find an application in her filing cabinet, or I could list some other things. The issue is that it’s an on call position and she couldn’t give me an estimate of hours I’d work and I would be asked to be available for the graveyard shift. Well, I just really can’t be walking to my car in the middle of the night in that area of town and not know how many hours I’d be guaranteed each week. So, I probably won’t take the job if I even get it. I know I’m not in a position to be picky, but I feel I can be wise.

So, I got a bunch of reading done on Friday afternoon and then caught the bus downtown for some fun with the girls. And when I say the girls, I am referring to Elena and Sarah, although, I’m sure you could have guessed this as you don’t have many options. Elena and I got dinner and then met Sarah to see Mamma Mia. Musicals are so fun! It made me reminiscent of my 17th birthday party (which some of you, well, Bethany, may remember had a “Dancing Queen” theme) and just itching to have a dance party. I maintained my composure and we went to Sand in the City afterward.

I’d like to interject that I’m home alone at night and the kitty just snuck up on me and nudged me in the back of my head and I about jumped out of my chair.

So, Sand in the City is an annual Portland event in which corporate teams create beautiful sand sculptures in Pioneer Square that benefit an organization called Kids on the Block. It was amazing because the sand sculptures weren’t blocked off in anyway and we saw them at night. Apparently the public is very respectful of things like this and the city doesn’t have to be concerned with vandalizing. It made me really miss Matthew — he would have loved this! There’s even a big sand box for the kids to play in. So, here are some pictures of Sand in the City and also of us posing with the animals by the little fountains at Pioneer Square.