Woke up 8 cranky teenagers.

Broke up a fight between 2 teenage girls. During breakfast. Sigh.

Served lunch to 8 (still cranky) teenagers.

Nearly got killed serving lunch. I now have much respect for cafeteria ladies everwhere. Feeding a pack of teenage boys should be labeled as an extreme sport.

I simply defended myself with my verbal kara-tay and lightening quick ability to smack the boys' hands if they grab at the food.   

Convince 6 cranky and sleepy teenagers to attend group therapy.

Hand out what seems like hundreds of writing assignments and early beds (the instituional equivilant of groundings) throughout the day for clients breaking Ward 10 rules.

Get cussed out for handing out all those assignments and early beds.

Hand out more assignments to those who Cuss me out. :)

Chased a moderately retarded 16 year old client around the unit in order to cheer her up. (Oddly, it cheered me up too....)

Threatened to sit on the same moderately retarded girl in order to cheer her up after I became too winded chasing her. (There is a therapeutic reason behind this--don't make me explain. It's a technique I learned from a co-worker.)http://www.grandin.com/inc/squeeze.html

Spent some of my downtime having an amazing conversation with one of my male clients about his life. (To this day--I can still remember everything he told me and it's years later...)

Ate too much candy.

Got excited when the afternoon staff arrived. Especially Big John! There's nothing better than seeing a former NFL!!! player walk onto the unit. That man was like a chocolate wall--and mades all staff and clients feel safe when he entered Ward 10 (or 11 or 12 or 13 for that matter).

Watched several clients dance to the local hip hop/r&b radio station on unit.  If I have to hear Soulja Boy one more time...I'm going to scream!

Forced into performing a line dance, The Cleveland Shuffle, with the clients. Did so as I drank my 1000th coffee of the day. 

Spent 20 minutes printing out what felt like endless coloring sheets for clients. Do they ever get tired of coloring? Um...no. No matter what ability or gender...our clients love coloring sheets. Can I get a shout out to American Greetings (owners of CareBears & Strawberry Shortcake) and Marvel Comics (Spiderman) for keeping our clients entertained all these years.

All of this couldn't not be done with out the amazing help of the other Ward 10 crew! You know who you are! Love you guys!
End of the day!