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Based on a story
a shoebox filled with content [part 2]
Homelessness, Mental Illness, Love, and Intelligence
Part One in case you missed it:
The director of the crisis residential program where I worked gave me impossible shifts. We rotated every 3 months, I worked two 3 month rotations with crazy hours that threw me into insomnia. It was a half-hour drive at night to get home, and 2 hours to unwind. The crazy hours forced me into a 4-hour sleep per night for almost a year. I had to take vacation time to try and stabilize my sleep. In hindsight, it felt like they were trying to get rid of me as if 64 to 65 was too old to work there.
I was squeezed out of time to visit Ernie. During the catch-up on sleep stay-cations, I went to Cath Creek, the coffee houses in town, and the homeless shelters, but no luck. I used all my PTO (equivalent to 3 months’ time off) to stabilize my sleep.
You’re wondering did I talk to management? LM was her name in her early 30s, I explained but to no avail. I could have gone to the…
