Expect the Unexpected

I was considering writing down some more of my "profound insights" about my time at Room in the Inn so far, but instead, I thought I would share just a few incidents that paint a little better picture of how unique my job really is...

*Last week, three participants were suspended because of a fight that broke out in the alley outside. The cause? Participant T grabbed Particpant A's butt. In response, she turned around and punched him the face. From there, it continued to escalate. Most of the staff believed that T kind of deserved what he got.

*Wednesday morning, Participant C came up to the support desk and asked me to write down the address for the Campus and to call him an ambulance. When I asked him why, he said that it was because he "wasn't feeling well." I explained that I couldn't call him an ambulance for that, but he could go next door to the clinic. He left in a huff, but 10 minutes later, we hear sounds of sirens outside. Participant C had convinced someone to let him borrow a cell phone and had proceeded to call himself an ambulance. The police were not so thrilled.

*Thursday, Participant X (I don't remember his name) wandered into the day room and started to put on an impressive performance of karate chops and combat moves while everyone else was watching and laughing. When we tried to pull him aside, he would just freeze into position like a robot until he started doing karate moves again. Eventually, some staff got him out of the day room and got him some help.

*Last week, Lucia (a JVC volunteer I work with), was leaving work when Participant G came up to her and said: "Oh, Lucia, you're so pretty", followed by "I hate pretty people!" and then walked off.

*Last Wednesday someone claiming to be Hank William's daughter gave us a packet about 10 pages long of song lyrics she wanted us to pass along to the song-writing class leaders, since she was going to be in Beverly Hills for the next 7-10 days. Then later that afternoon, a different woman also claimed to be Hank William's daughter. Isn't he the popular one...

Everyday is different...and inevitably, I can never fully prepare for what is going to come next...I kind of love it.