Tuesday, September 18, 2007
New Apartment
Okay, so I am finally moved in to my more permanent residence, I was living up on Cumberland up by central park (aka sketchville) for a while, (15 days) and witnessed such things as random people selling a carton of cigarettes singly to passers by, people peeing on trees at twelve noon, and also a gang meeting or two. I usually just pretended to talk on my cell phone or something as I walked by the park. Now however, I am living with Sarah Livesey, on Edmonton St. by the Legislature, and it is an amazing apartment/condo, my bedroom is huge and so is the balcony (perhaps we will run a few plays for passers-by on the street). I still have yet to find out what switch activates which lights and which plugs, and I also need to get a few items, lamps etc. but overall I am thrilled. The only thing I can complain about, though it is also kind of humourous, is the shower. It is so incredibly powerful. I just got out of it and I feel like I just survived a monsoon/hurricane, the wind it creates from the mad rush of water entering the room is enough to make my shower curtain fly about like Marilyn Monroe's skirt in Seven Year Itch and the water comes out so fast I swear it can cause bruising. Though it does make me clean. All in all I am quite happy about my new place :)
Monday, September 10, 2007
It Has Been A While
Well, I am currently sitting in Starbucks on Osborne with my laptop waiting for a friend and I thought I would use the wait time to update readers on how my summer was and what my plans for the year are and other etceteras. First, I am no longer an involuntary lifer as my previous entry states, everything worked out with Prov and I will be able to get my TESOL certificate this April and also finish my degree at the UofM. If you want to know more about how the situation worked itself out though you are going to have to ask me in person.
As far as what I did this summer, I worked with two special needs youth one of them is my brother and another was a client in Gimli that I was with last summer too. I must say that this job is absolutely my favourite job! I don't know of many other jobs where one can make twelve dollars an hour to go to IMAX or the beach or to play super smash brothers. Though don't misinterpret this, there is a lot of work behind the scenes going on trying to help my client to live as normal a life as possible, and I also had to be a math tutor and language teacher and other such things. My highlight of the summer though was my last day of work. The mother of the child I worked for wanted me to take him and his friend go-karting, needless to say I was a bit skeptical of the day being a fun day. There was also a 30% chance of thunderstorms in Winnipeg that day, our backup plan was to go to IMAX and watch a movie or two. My client really did not want to go go-kart racing and really wanted to go to IMAX and so the whole way to Winnipeg he was like "Justin I see clouds... Justin it is going to be too rainy for go-karts" I kind of wanted to give in to his desire to go to IMAX, but I knew that I could only do that if it rained. We finally arrived at thunder rapids, (the go kart place) and I went in and bought eight tickets (good for two go kart races a round of mini-golf and bumper boats). I suddenly realised that they had passenger karts, where a driver and passenger could sit side by side, I was relieved and took him in that and showed him the gas and the brake and then how to steer, I handed the wheel over to him and he drove decently until his friend drove by and he started trying to swerve into him, and then into the walls... we finished that round of go-karting then did bumper boats and a round of mini-golf, and then I got a call from his mom asking how the day was going, I told her what we had done so far and she then asked me if my client had gone on the kart by himself, and no I told her that it was a passenger car and I got him to steer a bit. Then she said what my greatest fear was, "I want him to have a try doing it himself." Normally letting special needs children do things by themselves is not too bad because their aide can jump in and help them or pull them out of the activity if it is too hard. I say normally because this time there would be five race track employees who are supposed to deal with any problems which happen on the track, and there was an eight foot fence around the track and a locked gate designed to keep it that way.
I worked up the courage in my heart and gave my client the "rules of the track"
1. No hitting other cars on purpose!
2. No hitting the walls on purpose!
If you do either you have to restart your timer. (the timer is basically a positive reinforcement tool which allows my client to be able to trade in tokens which he gets every time the timer is finished for either TV. computer or money, or various other things)
It was only two rules, pretty easy to follow, I got him to repeat them back to me and then after I knew that he knew the rules I walked him to his kart. We were having seat belt issues because my client was sitting on the buckle so I had to call a race track attendant over to help, I didn't want them to know that my client was special needs because I didn't want them to not allow him to race which surely could have happened, so I just got them to quickly tell me what to do to fix it and then I got him buckled in. He was first in line and almost drove off immediately way before the light turned green. I said "wait till it starts" and "good luck" and then was escorted out by a race track worker to wait behind the gate. The race began and I watched my client start to drive, all by himself! he had a bit of a slow start, but he did a perfect job, all the way through the track. He finished the race, and I kind of half expected him to get out of the car immediately even though everyone has to wait for the okay from the race track officials, and he did wait. Though when he was allowed to get out he was the fastest up and shouted "I DID IT JUSTIN, NO RESTARTS! FIRST PLACE FOR ME!!!! AND TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS IN PRIZE MONEY!!!" I was so happy. . . . and I admit, I cried a little bit, and I am even now remembering it, but it was definitely my best memory of the summer. And proof that with a little training a child with autism can do anything, even drive!
~Justin
As far as what I did this summer, I worked with two special needs youth one of them is my brother and another was a client in Gimli that I was with last summer too. I must say that this job is absolutely my favourite job! I don't know of many other jobs where one can make twelve dollars an hour to go to IMAX or the beach or to play super smash brothers. Though don't misinterpret this, there is a lot of work behind the scenes going on trying to help my client to live as normal a life as possible, and I also had to be a math tutor and language teacher and other such things. My highlight of the summer though was my last day of work. The mother of the child I worked for wanted me to take him and his friend go-karting, needless to say I was a bit skeptical of the day being a fun day. There was also a 30% chance of thunderstorms in Winnipeg that day, our backup plan was to go to IMAX and watch a movie or two. My client really did not want to go go-kart racing and really wanted to go to IMAX and so the whole way to Winnipeg he was like "Justin I see clouds... Justin it is going to be too rainy for go-karts" I kind of wanted to give in to his desire to go to IMAX, but I knew that I could only do that if it rained. We finally arrived at thunder rapids, (the go kart place) and I went in and bought eight tickets (good for two go kart races a round of mini-golf and bumper boats). I suddenly realised that they had passenger karts, where a driver and passenger could sit side by side, I was relieved and took him in that and showed him the gas and the brake and then how to steer, I handed the wheel over to him and he drove decently until his friend drove by and he started trying to swerve into him, and then into the walls... we finished that round of go-karting then did bumper boats and a round of mini-golf, and then I got a call from his mom asking how the day was going, I told her what we had done so far and she then asked me if my client had gone on the kart by himself, and no I told her that it was a passenger car and I got him to steer a bit. Then she said what my greatest fear was, "I want him to have a try doing it himself." Normally letting special needs children do things by themselves is not too bad because their aide can jump in and help them or pull them out of the activity if it is too hard. I say normally because this time there would be five race track employees who are supposed to deal with any problems which happen on the track, and there was an eight foot fence around the track and a locked gate designed to keep it that way.
I worked up the courage in my heart and gave my client the "rules of the track"
1. No hitting other cars on purpose!
2. No hitting the walls on purpose!
If you do either you have to restart your timer. (the timer is basically a positive reinforcement tool which allows my client to be able to trade in tokens which he gets every time the timer is finished for either TV. computer or money, or various other things)
It was only two rules, pretty easy to follow, I got him to repeat them back to me and then after I knew that he knew the rules I walked him to his kart. We were having seat belt issues because my client was sitting on the buckle so I had to call a race track attendant over to help, I didn't want them to know that my client was special needs because I didn't want them to not allow him to race which surely could have happened, so I just got them to quickly tell me what to do to fix it and then I got him buckled in. He was first in line and almost drove off immediately way before the light turned green. I said "wait till it starts" and "good luck" and then was escorted out by a race track worker to wait behind the gate. The race began and I watched my client start to drive, all by himself! he had a bit of a slow start, but he did a perfect job, all the way through the track. He finished the race, and I kind of half expected him to get out of the car immediately even though everyone has to wait for the okay from the race track officials, and he did wait. Though when he was allowed to get out he was the fastest up and shouted "I DID IT JUSTIN, NO RESTARTS! FIRST PLACE FOR ME!!!! AND TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS IN PRIZE MONEY!!!" I was so happy. . . . and I admit, I cried a little bit, and I am even now remembering it, but it was definitely my best memory of the summer. And proof that with a little training a child with autism can do anything, even drive!
~Justin
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