About that new project - I attended meetings all week confirming the start date (February 6th) and giving us our first look at potential patients. We were given 40 charts of possible participants. My job for the next two weeks is to contact all of them, tell them about our project and see if they're interested in joining. If they are interested, I have to set up appointments and should begin seeing new patients the week of February 27th. This new project is such an exciting opportunity for me. I love the population that we will be working with and I love the fact that I am the only social worker. However, being the only social worker does have its drawbacks - I can't really take much time off unless I can find someone to cover my patients and if something goes wrong, I'm the one to blame. But I'm confident that this won't be a problem. So now I have to find a way to tell the Hospice team that I might not be able to keep all of my patients, but I'm sure gonna try.
On a completely different note, I've been spending the last week or so reading this amazing book, Unchosen by Hella Winston about Hasidic Jews who leave their communities. I highly recommend this read to anyone that enjoys learning about other communities and religions. It was a dissertation turned into a novel. I read it for a book club I would be attending at a co-workers temple on Saturday. The book was wonderful and it took place in neighborhoods that I have driven through on my way to see patients. It's as if Eastern Europe has been transplanted to Brooklyn. But it's Eastern Europe 50+ years ago. It's a separate world within this bustling city. This became even more prevalent when I went to the temple on Saturday. The temple is located in the heart of Boro Park, a huge Hasidic community.
Walking to the temple was a religious experience in itself, seeing the men walking home from shul with their long peyos (side curls),fuzzy hats, silken robes, white tights and ballet slippers (I'm sure they're not called ballet slippers, but that's what they looked like), carting around their many children (in one case, 8 children) and the women with their modest dress and head coverings (wigs included). They all looked alike but that wasn't the weirdest part. The neighborhood was like a ghost town. I was able to cross the street without waiting for the light to change. There wasn't a car in sight. None of the stores were open (all owned by Hasidic Jews and closed for the Sabbath). Very surreal. The book club was great and I was able to gain great insight from other's experiences with this insular population.
Saturday night was almost as surreal. Sam and I went to a local bar with a friend of mine from work to see her boyfriend perform. In addition to this co-worker, one of my supervisors was also there (with her partner). In the two months that I have been at my job, I have spent a total of 10 minutes talking to this supervisor. To be honest, I'm very intimidated by her. She kinda scares me. I walked in to the bar and she threw her arms around me. She spent most of the evening hanging on me, Sam and my co-worker. She was very flirty and VERY drunk. It's so nice when people fall right off of their pedestals. Makes us a little more on an even playing field. She hugged and kissed us goodbye and invited us over some night in the future for dinner. I'll try to maintain this friendship for two reasons: a) she and her partner are fun to be around and b) I think that she can really help to advance my career! It's almost like I didn't have much of a weekend since I was spending Saturday with co-workers, but I didn't mind.
Today, Sam and I slept late and had breakfast at our local cafe. We have an exciting week to look forward to. We have tickets to see Billy Joel on Thursday at Madison Square Garden. I was so lucky that one of my co-workers had a pair of tickets she wouldn't be using. I can't wait. And of course, I have tons of meetings and several patients to go see. I love this job!
Have a good week and I'll try to update more often.
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