Licensure memo. Feel free to skip.

I just ordered a copy of my OSU transcript to send to the Massachusetts Social Worker Board. They also need a "Letter of Good Standing" from the Ohio Social Worker Board, a supervisory recommendation, two other professional recommendations, an application form, information about my education, and about $200. Then they'll give me "permission to test," which means I'll be approved to shell out another $175 to take the ASWB (Association of Social Worker Boards or something like that) Intermediate (Masters-level) exam. That's almost $400 that I have to pay just to have a Masters-level license in the state. In another year I'll be set to take the Independent license exam which is, you guessed it, another $175 or so.

Where on earth do they think I, as a social worker, am going to come up with that kind of money? As if the high-paying social work jobs are just floating around.

At this point, I would like to say DAMN YOU, OHIO for not having an Intermediate-level licensure. If they did, I would have already taken the freaking exam and could just apply for reciprocity. If I stayed here another 6 months, I could test for my Independent license and reciprocity that. (Heh. I just made reciprocity a verb.)

On the plus side, I imagine the Intermediate exam is not terribly difficult. The Clinical exam is supposed to be the really hard one, and this is a step below. So I guess I should just start reading over all of my notes from the MSW program at some point. And I have the study guide on reserve from the library - I'm #2 in line and hope the other people return them soon. Still, for $400, I have to pass that bad boy... and cross my fingers that all of the paperwork for licensure will be set by June 1st. Massachusetts is sending me the application right now. I have a copy downloaded from the internet, but the lady on the phone wants me to file a sort of conglomeration of the "new" and "transfer" applications, since I /have/ a license in another state but it's not the license I want to transfer. Fie.

Hate Speech

Yesterday, my Jennifer and I were standing outside the chinese buffet on High Street in Clintonville waiting for crena, Scott, and the kids. We were there for maybe 5 minutes, so we're doing anything other than that random loitering-type-thing people do when they're waiting and trying not to look like goobers. So there we were, in Clintonville, the Lesbian Capital of Ohio.

A beat-up Toyota Camry drove toward our general area in the parking lot, and slowed down when it got to where we were standing. A man rolled down his window and yelled at us, "No fucking gay marriage! No fucking marriage for fucking gays!" (Or maybe it was, "No fucking marriage, you're fucking gay!" It was hard to tell.) I hadn't been looking in that direction, but when he started hollering I couldn't help it. And that's when I noticed that he had two small children in the back seat of his car. At that point, I got furious.

Regardless of his personal feelings on same-sex marriage or homosexuality in general, and heck, regardless of the subject matter even, what kind of message are you sending to little children when you stop in a parking lot, roll down your window, and yell obscenities at two strangers who are standing on a sidewalk? I wanted to yell back, "I work for Children's Services! That's a great way to raise your kids!" but of course that would be a) feeding into his misery and b) another model of bad behavior. So Jen and I just stood there, and he drove off.

You know, I can totally understand and have no problem with the fact that some people believe that some of the things I do are wrong. I mean, sure, I'm in a relationship with a woman and all, but there are people who are opposed to social programs, and who are opposed to divorce, and who are opposed to non-Christians, and who are opposed to swearing and a woman's right to choose and close dancing and hip hop music and other things that I happen to be fond of. I believe in freedom of speech and thus I believe that people should be able to say whatever they want about whatever they want, and I believe in freedom of religion so I support their right to belong to a church that I don't agree with. But I just don't understand the thought process that is behind rolling down a window to shout obscenities at strangers any more than I understand protesting against a particular group of people at a funeral.

I find myself wondering what sort of dialogues this man and his children had last night in response to his little outburst on High Street. And then I have to consciously stop thinking about it, because it makes me very angry. Dude, seriously, spare the vulgarity and the hatemongering in front of the kids, hunh? If you have a problem with your assumption of who I am or what I do (I mean, it's not like I walk around wearing a tshirt that reads, "Yes, she and I have sex" or a neon rainbow flag over my head), come and talk to me about it if you want to, but don't scream the fuck-word at me across a parking lot in front of some little kids.

T-minus 2 months and counting.

The greatest gift of life is to know love.

Congratulations to the newly-married Mr. and Mrs. Kyle and Rebecca Satterfield! May you have many years of love and happiness, and the kind of stuff fairy tales are made of!

( We're better off for all that we let in. )

The Wicker Man

Steve just came over with a bottle of wine, and by random selection, we watched The Wicker Man out of my Netflix movies. I love Netflix because there is no other way I would ever watch a 1973 pagan thriller complete with silly Scottish accents and full frontal nudity. Steve's Chardonnay was definitely well received, and by the end of the movie I decided I want Jennifer to make me a "Salmon of Knowledge" costume to wear to my smurfbrother's wedding reception. It's fishalicious!

The movie got better and better as I drank more wine. It was kind of like my practice last winter of drinking a bottle of wine while watching Survivor, and by 9:00 PM, every episode was the Best Survivor Ever. Hee.

If you ever get a chance to see a really ridiculous movie with bad choreography and lots of weird musical interludes, I highly recommend The Wicker Man. It's only 88 minutes long, so really, what have you got to lose?