My last couple of days

Drive-by style... Led a half-hour training in LSCI for one of the treatment homes, went from there to my first team meeting with the Advancement (fundraising) department where I learned a lot more about how Wedgwood raises the private donations that keep the agency healthy and the programs more than just bare-bones operations, and then back to my other job where I continued working on a power point training module designed to give staff some tips on how to work with small groups. Got a voicemail from a dear former co-worker who I hope to talk with again sometime this weekend. During my lunch hour I moved my grandmother out of the rehab care center she's been staying at back into her own apartment, then I had to get back to work. I returned to my Advancement office and confirmed that my writing assignments for the next edition of the Impact newsletter are complete and the final draft is on its way to the printer. I met with my two senior colleagues in Advancement to get some details on a few new tasks, one a progress report to a foundation seeking an update on the grant they awarded our school last year, and the other some preliminary work on a proposal that we're going to send out for more grant money. That, and some routine paperwork, emailing and communications stuff filled out the rest of my workday. I went home from there and we had a feast of leftovers for dinner. After that, I watched Robert Bresson's "Diary of a Country Priest" not just once but twice, the first time just regular, the second time with the commentary track, until Julie decided that she wanted to watch the movie itself so we watched the second half together. This film was made in 1950 and features one of the most interesting and intense exchanges of spiritual dialogue between a believer and unbeliever that I've ever seen in the movies. Another highly recommended movie - I'm really drawn in by the Criterion Collection and the fascinating variety of films they present with strong spiritual currents running through them.

This morning I was up early and once into the office I put the finishing touches on that power point training piece, which I will pilot with a few staff in the next few weeks before sending it into general release. Met with a new Assistant Supervisor to help orient him to his position and explain the "training tracking" aspects of his job responsibilities. Spoke briefly with a new intern who is doing some research on trauma-related treatment. Got confirmation of a conference call that we'll be setting up with a consultant in New York state on the same topic, which may lead to a trip to the agency he runs to learn how they structure their programs and apparently do a good job connecting with traumatized youth. Had to rush off to a business lunch with my two Advancement colleagues where we talked to the administrator of our school for expelled students and learned a lot about what she and the school has to do to help these kids get their education back on track and how to secure the funds necessary to keep it all going. Learned that the dropout rate is approaching 60% in Grand Rapids public schools and that our school is already full to capacity with far more referrals coming in than they can hope to enroll, and there's no clear sense of what the local community plans to do to slow down or reverse this trend. Then it was back to the office to work on that progress report and more email communications and some friendly chatter with folks in the office to wrap up the day. Learned that one of my former co-workers at Delta is going to be leaving Wedgwood for a job at another agency and he invited me to his farewell get-together next Thursday which I intend to do. I'll drop by after I finish making a new TV show that evening (which I'll have to join a little late because I'm also leading a training that afternoon from 5:30 - 7:30.)

Got home and we decided to have dinner at Applebee's which is usually nothing all that special but also typically a fine meal but tonight it wasn't because the service was slow and when our food arrived it was cold so we sent it back which I hardly ever do but this was really unacceptable and even though they worked diligently to try to make it up to us it was kind of a letdown to say the least but they only charged us for our beverages and I left the waitress a decent tip anyway because I think she felt pretty bad about how things went. We left the restaurant, dropped off Derek who is spending the night with a friend, picked up Alyssa from a local art gallery where she and three college friends were checking out an exhibition and I enjoyed going inside to find her, mingling for a few minutes with the trendy art poseur crowd just like old times. On the way home Julie wanted to watch another movie so we stopped by the video store and paid a two-dollar fine for a late return that was probably lingering in their computer since 2005. We rented "Thank Your For Smoking" since I think she's had her fill of my somber art-house stuff and wants to watch the same entertainment that other people are checking out these days which is fine and makes sense to me and I thought it was a pretty funny film, I always enjoy satirical humor, which she doesn't, generally speaking, but she heard good things about it and was curious so that was cool with me though I don't think she cared much for the swearing. We also rented "An Inconvenient Truth" which she's never seen but wants to because she has a hard-core Republican friend at work who is convinced that global warming is a liberal con-job done purely for political and financial gain and Julie wants to get all the information she can on the topic and thinks this movie is a good place to start. And now it's off to bed, get a good night's rest and help my dad move into a new apartment first thing Saturday morning.