The Happiness Thread

Oh, so it's eggnog. Or at least something similar.

 

Pretty much exactly eggnog, but without the booze.

 

@Iain Aschendale

I think we need to congratulate Ash I'm becoming the staff member! I don't know who the other two are though, might be people on my ignore list, lol!

But congrats guys, I hope they pay you for it.

Edit: okay, I see who the other two are, and they are definitely not on my ignore list, lol!

Congrats to @big soft moose and @jannert , good luck keeping me inline, LOL! Now to go cause trouble

 

I liked, unliked, and then liked again. Just consider that to be three likes.

 

Woop woop! I now have 2 sponsors!! You guys are giving me warm fuzzies!



I am making of point of sending thank yous to each of you, but I don't think it's working this time around.

 

IDK why, but this hits me in the funny bone.

 

The security guards that need to go hands on in inpatient psychiatry have seen some things. They are severely underpaid. I'm pretty sure most of them only do it because it's good on your resume if you want to become a cop. Aah poop. Makes me glad I no longer work in the hospital.

 

I imagine they get paid more and deal with less malarkey than the people on the other side of the bars.

 

Well, the bright side of working at a jail in Texas is that I have the opportunity to practice my Spanish frequently. We have a large population of Spanish-speakers, many who don't speak a lot of English, and I try to talk to them in Spanish in the hopes of making them feel less overwhelmed in a lousy situation. Granted, my grammar probably sucks, but I can usually at least get the gist across of what they are asking or I am saying to them. I use Google to look up words I don't know (just had to look up "fingerprints" for example). But, given that prior to this, my Spanish was solely based on my high school classes (back in 02-03), I can say that I have definitely improved over the past 5 years of working here. I also get to practice my sign language. You'd be surprised how often we get deaf inmates. Most seem very happy when I try to communicate in sign language with them, as opposed to making them write everything out when they need to communicate. You can see their face light up. Granted, my ASL is fairly limited, but I also use online resources to help, and I can always fingerspell what I don't know.
Anyway. Long story short, it makes me happy that I can practice other languages, and it makes me happy when the inmates appreciate me making the effort to talk to them in a way they are familiar with.

 

Job perks they forgot to mention at the interview.

 

It's an extra skill to add to your CV/resume if you wanted.

 

Thats's so cool! I speak ASL as well...Not fluently, but enough to get the message across, and I can still sign a multi-verse song we learned in 5th grade. I don't speak Spanish or German, and my French is mostly limited to culinary terms, but there's nothing better than seeing someone light up in surprise and joy that you want to speak to them via signing. (A lot of hearing people are shy about signing in public or being in the vicinity of signing, because it draws a lot of attention, and expressiveness for clarity is a big part of the language.)

 

EL PAXO

'They're going to hang you in the morning you Spanish prick...'

'...No, no register... call the ASL guy, toute suite, and he can explain it with the sign language.'

 

I learned a lot of the basic signs when we were doing baby sign language with my younger son. He picked up on it really well and could sign around 15-20 signs before he could talk. He's older now, but I try to keep on top of what I learned so I don't forget it, and also practice fingerspelling. It's hard for me to 'read' a deaf person's finger spelling bc they go so fast and, as someone who has only recently learned it, I find it's difficult for me to translate hand signs into letters. I'm better at using the ASL alphabet myself than reading it from someone else.

 

I learned as a tween when I babysat the hearing children of a deaf lady. The kids taught me how to sign, and then I continued to study a bit. I'm really rusty and need to pick it up again, though.

Me too! I can speak ASL far better than reading it. Signing the word "slow" with a self-deprecating laugh and a "sorry" is really helpful, I find. More than anything, I think the goodwill of trying goes a long way, even if at some point someone has to start writing.

 

I know Jazz hands means applause.

 

Probably so it isn't confused with attacking swarms of mosquitos.

 

It makes me happy that you're trying to make their stay less miserable. I freely admit that almost everything I know about jail/prison is from TV and the movies, but I worked as a 9-1-1 operator for a few years and I know how dealing with that sort of thing can wear you down and put you into a bunker, "us-vs-them" mentality. Knowing that there's at least one guard out there (and I'm sure there are more, you are just the only one I've ever "met") trying to lower the stress level is a good thing.

 

It's a fine line between empathy and maintaining discipline/enforcing the rules but I do my best to try to walk it.

 

I have completed 3 of 6 sewing projects that I have been meaning to do for months now. I'm also working on a 4th.

 

So, I got back to work today. My partner mostly acted as though nothing untoward has happened these last few weeks. We've been getting on as well as ever.

There was only one point where she acknowledged that I've not been well; we were at the range when a younger officer from another team joked 'hey, old timer, you're not going to go all PTSD on us from the War, are you?'

I don't know what my face looked like, but her's was a picture- I think she realised she'd said something tactless- and my partner just appeared at my elbow and started whispering encouragement.

I'm lucky to have her.

 

True joy

I don't like to mix it too much. I drink it with a straw and sip the straight coffee and then a tiny sip of sweetened condensed milk and alternate. There's just something about that astringent bitterness followed by a kick in the teeth of sweetness. Gah

In my attempt to find an adequate image, I came across this. And now I am ordering some more ice cube trays because um yeah!

Also, SCM should come in a squeeze tube, because I'm not fat enough already. Okay now I have to google this.

If I didn't actively boycott nestle, I would consider this if it shipped to Canada.