who are the people in your neighborhood?

so, i know i haven't written a real post in quite a while. and while i am sincerely sorry to all those who wait with baited breath every week for a new installment of "what's going on in dena's life", to you i say: you need a real hobby. i just finished my last day of the semester, and, let me tell you, december has never looked so good! the only grade i know for sure is my internship, which i passed (on a pass-fail scale). yea, me!!! i should be getting an A in my policy class, cuz i did very well on the paper re-write and the final was pretty simple. there's only one class i have no idea about cuz i don't know what i got on my paper, project presentation or final. those were about half the grade, so i'm keeping my fingers crossed. i'll keep you posted. but, in the meantime ...

i was thinking today about all the ... ummm ... interesting people i've met in the last three months, mostly at the hospital. these are the people in my neighborhood.

today, i met the quintessential tucson hippie. i would have sworn to you she just stepped out of 1976, cept i would have only been a year old. she had the glasses and everything. she made the point to tell us about 6 times that she's been in tucson since 1989. i guess even 15 years in tucson doesn't qualify you for unquestioned "native" status. (yes, we're very picky about who can claim to be "from" tucson. including people whose families were here before the border got moved.)

i got to shadow another social worker this week. it was really great to get another perspective on the whole hospital/social work thing. claire has the pediatric floors, including the ped icu. she's totally amazing at what she does. every day all she sees are sick babies and their families. and she does it all with so much compassion and warmth. i think what struck me most about her was her gentleness. i could tell the parents just felt like they had a supporter and they opened up to her. she seemed to have all the time in the world for each parent, despite the fact that she had 2 other floors of patients to see. i know this was just a snapshot of her day, and probably there are times she feels rushed or irritable with parents. but, she presented a way of interacting in the world that i respect. she told me that she loves what she does and will be there till she retires.

there's more, but it will have to wait for another night ... i'm beat. oh, and remind me to tell you about my new job. all i can say right now is: i thought drug running would be more lucrative.

Thursday, December 14, 2006