Karla Noyes' Captain's Log Series

7/1/17 It turns out that Friday, like love, is a state of mind. Every day last week felt like a Friday, relaxed. A week of Fridays. The real Friday felt like Saturday, and it was pay day. Not bad. Now I’ve got 4 days off. Amazing. I’m going to hold on to this pay check much harder than the last ones. I got called in for another ‘talking to’ Thursday. I think the next one will be the last and I’ll be shown the door. This time I was rude (again) by speaking too loudly (shouting) at a meeting “Can we have just one conversation in the room? I can’t hear the presenter.” Apparently everyone got to weigh in about how very terribly awful I was, and how I embarrassed the department (again.) My 2 nd level manager really likes me but there’s only so much complaint she can cope with. I told her I feel like I’m being picked on, like in a flock of chickens, and there are 2 people who don’t make eye contact or speak to me, “I’m sorry, that’s unprofessional.” “I don’t complain about them. I’v...

6/25/17 I just can’t get over family. You don’t see someone for a decade, or two, and when you do it’s ‘total acceptance.’ This surprises me every time. And you can speak to them differently, too, to a friend you might say “When you roll through the flashing red light I feel very anxious because I’m needing safety, would you be willing to come to a complete stop next time?” To a family member you can say “What!? They don’t have flashing red lights where you’re from?!” and receive a cute, sheepish grin. Some of you may know that I’ve been straightening my teeth with Invisaline for the past 3 years(!) God was texting during the installation of my teeth. He tossed them in like throwing dice. For 40 years I’ve been embarrassed to show them, all you got was lips, sometimes smiling. I’ve become a connoisseur of other people’s crooked teeth, thinking “Mine are worse than yours,” or, “Wow! YOU’ve got crooked teeth!” To my son,  “Your slightly crooked teeth are cute, they have charm...

6/18/17 This is going to be short and simple. Only worked two days this week and spent three with my half-brother Bill and his wife Lynette visiting from Virginia, both very interesting people, well, of course, they’re teachers. We had a fondue picnic in the Plaza with my x, Dave, and his charming wife, Grace. Grace provided a salad where we got our whole 5-A Day for the week in one delicious serving! The weather was cooperative: warm with a soft breeze in the shade. Sipping David’s Pinot Noir and playing with our food, delightful! The next day I spoke every last word I know about the history of Sonoma as we walked around the Sonoma Mission, Barracks, Toscano Hotel and Casa Grande Complex then lunch at the Girl & The Fig before walking over to General Mariano Vallejo’s Home. Bill & Lynette were interested in all of it! I’ll share one metaphor I’d forgotten: There is a flaming, red-orange Pomegranate tree outside the entrance to the Mission chapel. Technically, the Pomeg...

6/10/17 This really is a fascinating place to work! In the Crisis Unit they help people develop skills to fit into society, for example, Impulse Control, that’s a big one. How do you handle someone tailgating you? Do you imagine they have someplace important to be, a medical emergency, pull over and let them pass? Do you slow down to ‘teach’ them to back off? Or do you ‘flip them off?’ I think staff at the Sonoma Developmental Center would recommend you pull over. I can imagine that some people, including clients, might feel that this required ‘polite’ behavior forfeits an element of their personal uniqueness: I will pound on the glass at the nurses’ station because you all and this place pisses me off!  They (we) are trapped here and must conform. Do you remember the 1967 British series The Prisoner ? “A major theme of the series is individualism… versus collectivism. The series aimed to demonstrate a balance between the two points.” Balance, huh? I don’t remember that...

6/3/17 I bought the fixings for Norwegian meatballs for this week’s potluck. I even found geitost, lingonberry jam and Norwegian flatbread at my neighborhood grocery. Didn’t find the pickled herring but I’ll look elsewhere. I’ll let you know how the party goes. I don’t think I’m in any danger of being fired, yet. I’m working primarily as an assistant to another employee. There’s a story or two I could share about her but some other time. She’s someone who makes me convinced we all are somewhere on The Crazy Spectrum. She is just this side of institutionalization, IMHO. I did have the opportunity to scan with the other OTs and participate in their chatter. One is my age with a couple of grandchildren, another is younger with a 24 year old daughter, another is younger still with a 3 month old baby, then there’s a single man in his early 20s still living at home. He holds his own among all these women, and they look out for him, like the mothers they are. “Have you spoken with Hum...

5/28/17 It’s 6:30a.m. and the birds have almost stopped singing. Recently I’ve been getting up at 5a.m. to give myself an hour in the day, a gift. I open all the doors and windows and sip my coffee in the dark listening to the birds, wrapped in sound. It starts at 4:45 in complete darkness with the quiet twittering of small birds, Oregon Juncos maybe, and builds to a clashing, clattering crescendo by 5:45 with everyone making as much noise as they can! Black-headed Grosbeaks (I love their songs the best): https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black-headed_Grosbeak/sounds Hooded Orioles: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hooded_Oriole/sounds Plain Titmice, Bushtits, House Wrens, California Towhees, Robins. Everyone and more! Singing and chirping and carousing! Even the Red-shouldered Hawk puts in a crashing, discordant screech above it all! By 6:15 it’s pretty much over. We have an old nest constructed of mud and grass on a light fixture above our scr...

5/20/17 “A new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds Republicans are far more likely to cite a culture grounded in Christian beliefs and the traditions of early European immigrants as essential to U.S. identity.” From: https://www.apnews.com/f958cdd9cfcf435db14ba2f79ac50c36/AP-NORC-Poll:-Divided-Americans-fret-country-losing-identity I’d say Republicans don’t work for the State of California. You cannot believe the variety of cultures, colors and gender mixes we’ve got here. It’s useful to be confronted with your prejudices, uncomfortable but useful. I got over working with gay men long ago, there being quite a few in the restaurant industry when I worked decades ago. Clearly there are lesbians working at the Developmental Center, they have jobs in Plant Operations and are just one of the guys; they get the job done. Working with people of all colors makes you realize they are just people. One prejudice I was personally confronted rece...