and she'll have fun fun fun till her daddy takes the T-Bird away

At Street Ministry Friday night I was talking about the fact that I like my job. Our summer student asked me a bunch of questions about what I do, something I found hard to answer because I do so much and yet so little, and then said "because it sounds fun". And I shot back right away, "it's not fun"! Then I had to think about what prompted my answer so I could explain better both to him and myself.

The truth is, my job, for the most part, is not fun. But that's okay, because I like it, and I find value in what I'm doing. Because there's a difference between having fun, and liking something. I don't necessarily have "fun" intaking people to IPDA. But I appreciate that in our society, it is important for people to have a safe place to sober out where they are protected from themselves and others and others are protected from them. I don't necessarily have "fun" dishing out soup day after day, but I still think it's something worth doing, and I know that people appreciate it.

All that being said, there are certainly fun moments on the job. Interacting with coworkers. Going on van patrol and doing crazy things. Pranks. Laughing with the clients. So many fun moments. And the fun moments can make some of the crappy moments seem more worth it.

Yesterday my supervisor was teasing me, and I stuck my tongue out at him. In front of the police. I totally could have been reprimanded for that. Instead he just laughed and said he never thought he'd see the day when I did that. My angel wings are too prevalent. Then we all laughed.