CCP Lab

That's the title of the program I'm working with, with Dugan. It officially started on Monday, and it is going well. We have four young adults enrolled, although only two have shown up yet. Oscar, who is kind of "in charge" of motivating them to come the first two weeks, and rounding them up so they show up on time, hasn't been able to find the other two guys this week. Of course, they were only enrolling in the program to look good for their parole officers- they didn't actually want to get back into school. The two that have been coming, E and A, do want to get back into school, so they have personal motivation for showing up.

Right now, though, they're no-shows.

We were having some trouble with the computer system up until yesterday. It just would not load the learning programs. We've got that ironed out, and I deleted about 100 students from the computer who went to the school that we bought the used system from. So now, in addition to working, the system works fast.

I like the guys who have been coming. We get along well. And I have to say, these are about the friendliest and most intelligent "youth at risk" that I've ever worked with. From what I've seen, they have a lot going for them. From what I've heard, they have a lot to overcome. So I really hope they come back.

We've got a good team working with this program. It's kind of the pilot for the CCP Lab with Dugan and Holy Cross, and I hope it goes well, because it is a good idea at least. The guys will earn a half-credit in 25 class days. And as well as catching them up so they can start Dugan mid-year, it's kind of a transition into school. Four hours a day, four days a week. Not a bad deal, really.

But anyway, work is going quite well. I'm going to attempt to give Project HOPE presentations next week, with Yesica there to supervise and make sure I don't miss anything really important. So, yes, things are picking up.

Home is quite good as well. We had a few rough spots recently, but we all seem to have come to some sort of understanding, because we're all getting along well right now. I think I might actually miss them while they're gone over Christmas. I"m used to having them around, and while we've always been friendly, I think we're becoming friends at this point. It's kind of nice, actually.

I was pretty frustrated on Tuesday, though. I've been checking out loads of books from the Library for my Art class. I had 17 books checked out at one point, so I made a list of the books and their due dates and I've been careful to turn them all in on time. Well, I have a late fee for three books now. 30 cents. Not my problem at all. Tiny error on the Library's part, not a big deal. My problem is that they also say that I have 8 books overdue that I returned on their due date. I made a special trip out of my way into the Loop to do so. But rather than taking my grocery sack of books up to Circulation on the 3rd floor like I normally do (the library has 10 floors), I just dropped them into the book drop downstairs. I even handed one of the books to the woman sitting behind the information table/book drop because some of the pages were loose and I didn't want to cause any more harm to the book. That was over two weeks ago, and they have no record of me returning the books.

I've been trying to sort this out, but no one there believes that it is even possible that they made such an error. They say, one or two books, I could see. But EIGHT? There's no way. And they repeated that No Way thing many times, so that they never had to say that I'm a liar or a thief. They did, however say that I had to pay for the books. I said No, I don't have them. They said they'll look for them and that I should come back in a week. I don't know what to do. It's not my error, but somehow I feel like I'm at fault anyway. And legally, I guess I am at fault. I have no proof other than my word that I returned the books.

On Tuesday, after all of this happened, I was so angry and frustrated and impotent feeling. I had called my Archivist Friend Elizabeth for advice before I went down there, and she said to go to the people who can make decisions. I was referred to Customer Service. The librarians I spoke to, while being much more friendly, could do nothing but look for the books, which they didn't have. But ew, those were the worst customer service people I have ever dealt with. They actually made me cry. I was in a terrible mood all day, until, about 8 hours later, it occurred to me that if that was the worst of my problems, which it currently is, then I'm not doing too bad. So, while I am still frustrated when I think about it, I am feeling better. I still don't know what to do if they can't find the books. I don't have them. I returned them on their due date.

So for now, I wait, and I enjoy work, which is a lot of fun. And I enjoy dinner at Calypso, that John (well, the Claretians) treated us to last night for Christmas. My new theory is that dinner at Calypso just might be able to fix everything, because, you know, damn. That was some good eatin'. Aw yeah.