The Joy of Madness

Wow 111 degrees!

It is so hot here today. I just went past the electronic Mcdonald's sign and it said that the temperature is 111! I just returned from an advisory board meeting downtown and it was like a sauna in there. There was no air conditioning. It was like hell. They let us go early. I feel pretty good though despite it all. I got paid. I am considering making my meeting more social. On August 1 we are going to meet at Hollywood and Highland (a mall) to hear jazz and taste wine alfresco. I am going to ask the members if they would mind if we do two meetings per month off site or in other words away from the clinic. On July 29th my area's groups are going to Venice Beach for the day. I invited my sister who is visiting from Texas.

Next week my family and I are going to San Diego for a couple of days. That should be fun.

I am not going to the clinic I have been getting treatment for mental illness anymore. Instead I will contact some private practitioners for treatment.

In September they are having a memorial for the mental patients who died while living at state hospitals and were buried in mass graves. It will be held at Metropolitan Community Hospital in Norwalk, California. I was thinking that maybe in addition to this we should do a public demonstration to protest poor treatment in institutions of mental disease as they are often called here.

My friend wants to purchase a house and I am going to walk her through the process. I attended a seminar on grants and special loans for low income or disabled people and I am going to go to the appointment with her at the mortgage lender to get her prequalified. She is in a depression and needs some assistance with it. She owns a mobile home and wants a ranch house with a pool. She actually asked if I would go in on the house with her and I agreed; but upon further consideration I realized that my income is insufficient to be of use to her in her purchase. I might rent a room from her though if it seems like the right thing to do later. I would take great satisfaction in helping her because she is so depressed where she lives now. She lives near a freeway and she must scrub the pollution off of the walls. Her daughter has asthma and the situation is unmanagable. I think her condition would improve if her surroundings changed. She is the one with the dr. that had her overmedicated. He recently cut back her meds and she is a bit more animated now. If it is permitted I would like her and her daughter to Big Bear with Project Return in September. If I had a friend there it would be so much more fun. Last time I went I felt very lonely.

I can't seem to get up off my duff and go register for classes for Fall semester. I need 6 more units of child development so that I can work in a preschool. Actually I could work in one now with no units; but I would be an aide not a teacher. The aide job pays $11 per hour to start. If you begin with 12 units you earn $12 to start. If you have your units + some experience you earn more. I think it pays 2,700 per month. I need a push. Someone to weigh the pro and cons with would help too. If I just took courses including a cooperative education course I could volunteer and still earn units and the required experince for the teacher position. There are so many options I just get bewildered. It is hard to find the impetus to begin. I don't know if the americorps thing is the right way to go.

I am going to have a swimming party in August probably August 6th. I want to confirm with my mom to be sure the date works for her. I want to BBQ turkey burgers and have general picnic food.

I would really love to get to go to The Getty Center tonight to see the last concert in their summertime concert series. I am trying to hook up with Will tonight for that.

Posted by Butterfly Emerging at July 22, 2006 10:07 PM