Turning Over a New Page and Of Course There Is Maybe a Ghost On It 😂👻

Well well well… what has seemed impossible for perhaps five years total has amazingly happened! I’ve been offered a “real job” where I’ll be paid to do what I feel I was put on this planet to do: HELP PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP.

I’ll soon start my new job as Care Manager for a small organization called Life Navigators. I’ll have 40 clients who identify as having some kind of disability and – essentially – my job will be to ensure they’re “okay”.

In my mind, my job is to protect those deemed “weak” by the world from a hungry, cruel world. And, since I was told most of my clients (who have homes) live in Milwaukee’s “inner city”, the hunger is sadly likely to be that much more strong.

My new organization appreciate passion and rocking the boat when needed, and it has been voted “best workplace” three consecutive years in Milwaukee County. That’s really saying something for a place that provides care.

So… after three interviews and a case note exercise, they exceeded my asking salary and… I start sooooooooon.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

I can feel free to bear my teeth and show my tattoos and apply my street skills and be as savvy and kind as my being will allow me to be.

I can’t wait.

AND THERE ARE CASE NOTES! So I’ll just get to write write write write about each client and what they’ve got going on and how I’m feeling about it and how they’re feeling about it and WHO IS HELPING AND WHO ISN’T 🔨

AND… in short, it’s a dream job.

At the same time, I’m finding myself a little sad to leave my current job because I’ve grown quite attached to my colleagues who I so rarely saw but saw enough to befriend.

But, as I told the youngest one here, I’m an only child orphan who is always looking to add to her Family Collection.

“You’re ‘Child’”, I said to him.

He seemed happy about that and this in turn made me happy.

Weirdos unite.

AND I’LL MISS THE CLIENTS THAT I HAVE COME TO SEMI-REGULARLY SEE. I saw two today and they were so sweet to me. All curious and supportive of my new job. We were all almost emotional.

I’ll also miss the state wood inspector Randy.

NO MORE RANDY. 😭

But all I’ll soon be doing is checking in on people via home/shelter/corner visits so my desire to collect and wrap my humans in a care bubble is soon to be realized.

Besides, my husband still works at the place I’m leaving and we only have one car so I’ll be dropping him off/picking him up and… I’ll go on to haunt the place.

Speaking of haunting, I’m back to paranormal ponderings.

June Carter Cash continues to make great progress in her supremely awkward way.

She now almost greets us at the door when we come home from work and she now timidly follows us to the door when we leave for the day.

But… and I fear sharing this on social media because June is so loved by her shelter’s Facebook group, if they hear she is having issues, they may form a lynch group and come for me.

Yet, ever since last Saturday, something has been off with June.

I mean, more than usual.

It’s like she is traumatized (which she is… clearly) but SPECIFICALLY and NEWLY traumatized.

Like something happened.

She was very strange last Sunday as we went to get her treats at the regular place and then took her for her first park walk.

And then Monday morning I woke up to June being right next to my side of the bed.

At the same time, my side of the bed is now a new safe spot for her and that’s… strange. She runs there instead of her bed.

But – whatever – she is awkwardly blossoming.

However, when we arrived home from work on Monday evening, June was shaking more than we had ever seen.

Because her shaking was visual. It was really dramatic.

And then she suddenly refused to go in her bed without some hardcore encouragement. Before, she’d wag her tail and jump into it.

So when we came home Tuesday night, she didn’t almost-greet us but was, rather, back to whining but now standing on the stairs rather than laying – trapped via her PTSD – in her bed on the second floor.

She simply seemed to be avoiding her bed but also making forward progress…?

On Tuesday morning, I had moved her bed to the second floor window spot but, rather than jump right in it as she would usually do, she walked the short distance to the other side of the room.

Usually, she’d jump on her bed before I had finished setting it down but now… she seems scared of it.

I can’t imagine what happened – if anything – but nothing in our house is disturbed and there is no sign of entry or anything.

And, sure, this could be part of the natural “getting adjusted” period.

However, our house makes a LOT of noises. It is 120 years old so weird noises come with the old house territory.

And there are lots of weird noises. They mostly come from the kitchen. We hear them when we’re sitting in the living room.

I sometimes look up at the living room entrance and expect to see someone walk into view.

Also, last Saturday night, I also heard a new weird sound which was some kind of cry which sounded more animal than human and, we had all just laid down in our respective beds, so I sat up and said, “What the hell was that.”

David did not sit up and continued laying down and muttered, “I-don’t-know-that-was-weird” and then soon began snoring.

June also heard the sound and sat up and she and I made eye contact in solidarity.

And then the sound continued 15 minutes later. David was fast asleep or pretending to sleep.

And Tuesday night it sounded like our dryer was on. So I turned on the lights and walked down into the basement and… the dryer wasn’t mysteriously on.

The water heater was abnormally loud and I guessed that’s what had been making the rhythmic clanging.

In real terms, a broken water heater is more annoying than mysterious phantoms but… either way, the noise stopped.

So maybe June’s bed has turned out to be a monster and it’s terrorizing June during the day.

That would suck because it was Amazon’s most highly rated dog bed.

But June seems much better now that we are at the end of the week. So hopefully whatever it was that set her back has stopped and she can move forward.

And hopefully with this new job I can move forward.

And – as for the ghosts – this house continues to be one of the more mild homes we have lived in (despite all its weird noises) so we hope to keep this record going.

As we all contemplate where the Russian-Ukraine war/WW III is heading… I hope we’re all able to also find some peace and joy in each day.

Hope you’re each staying safe and holding on.

Thanks for reading! 🖤