Loose End Roundup

My flickr account occasionally gives me little gratifying (or not) gifts. A few weeks ago someone from Schmap!! asked if they could use one of my pictures from a recent hiking trip to Sol Duc Falls in their online travel brochure/app. Why not? So I said yes and it is one of the many featured here under Olympic Peninsula. I feel like it would have been more useful if they had at least tagged the location where the shot was taken. If you know me, and want to look for the photo, it is under my maiden name.

Speaking of Maiden Names, I have been considering going back to mine for years. Every 6 months or so I look up the how, why and when, then look at the cost and put it off a bit further. $150 isn't that much to pay to change your name, but then you have to send a certified copy of the name change to every creditor and institution that you do business with as well, and each of those suckers costs $5. Then there is the passport. Mine doesn't expire until 2012. To change your name on it is the same as getting a new one. And what about my certificates and degrees? I guess I could just file them away instead of having them on the wall. So I keep putting it off. Maybe it can be my alter ego, my superhero name. I can have it embroidered on my undies. >:-P

I had a whirlwind of news on my mentee last week, that put me emotionally through the ringer--mostly today when I sat down to put my contact log together. She called her social worker and said she was going to turn herself in and wanted a foster care placement. The social worker found one but in Covington, so when the time came, Mentee refused to come in because Covington is so far away. I am on a fence about this--the reason she ran away last time was because she was stuck out in Shelton. Maybe she is just being realistic about her ability to live out in the middle of nowhere? But understandably, the social worker threw her hands in the air and said "whatever! Figure your own sh** out" (my interpretation). That basically means she will have to turn herself into the authorities and go to detention, then get another placement. This is another black mark on her record of abandoning her baby. She won't answer the phone when I call, or she sometimes does, but hangs up on me. We never got to make the bond I was hoping for and for a while she thought it was my job to spend time with her. I am sure that colored things. Or maybe she worries that I would turn her in. It hurts that I can't help her or her son. I can't see him unless she gives permission, so I don't know how he is either. Anyhow, I will keep her in my thoughts, but I am going to stop feeling guilty (or try to) for not being closer to her. For now, it is out of my hands.

I am still riding to work once or twice a week, despite being sick or tired or just grumpy. I am starting to feel fit, rather than just staying the same, which is helping motivate me through this ugly fall weather. Random thoughts I have had while riding: REALLY glad I bought the rain pants from REI and coat from Second Ascent, I love how the leaves look on the library lawn after it has been mowed, I really don't mind the rain--it feels like home.