That is great. I assume you followed up with more for them, right?
 
And thank you, Windsparrow. I definitely am dealing with the fallout from the suicide prevention seminar, but I think it was a great opportuinty, and I expect it to be powerful tool, yes, in my work. We run a small nonprofit that is a traveling music school. We go to places on the Navajo and Apache reservations and teach music to the kids, using music as a way to live out a little love to them. We work with a lot of marginalized youth from a marginalized culture, so suicide is a high risk. This past six weeks or so there were five suicides in one local town, three in another. In a neighboring county a couple of months ago, there were 38 attempts; 17 youth, and a total of 17 completed. So it`s a huge, urgent problem and I`m grateful to have had the training available, although I am extremely wearied by it. The SO is doing a good job of looking after me, though. So I`ll be all right, but will just take some time to process.

I went to a wedding where the couple's first dance was to Fairytale of New York, though not the Pogues version, but the assembled guests all sang along loudly. Which may have been the point.

That may be our first dance (the Pogues version) but it's kind of hard to dance to!

We're going up the aisle to a Tom Waits song "Never Let Go." It was one of the first things I decided about my wedding. I still have to work all the timing out on it.

You're such a great person, Liese.

She is, isn't she?

Thirded on Liese's stellar qualities.

ETA: They just ordered two from the distributor so they don't need more at the moment. I made it clear I'd be happy to bring some more by when they decide they need them but I kinda think they won't bother since dealing with individual artists is probably viewed as more of a PITA than calling up CDBaby/SuperD. Although they get a better deal going directly to me.

I don't think I've said, Liese, but I'm really glad you did that training, even though it's been hard. Not only because of the benefit to the kids you work with, but also I hope it will help you to feel a little less helpless in the face of seriously troubled kids.

Direct care is HARD, Liese. It is emotionally and mentally draining, which leads to physical.

My direct care positions have all ended at about 9 months, and only one move was not due to burnout.

I'm trying to insist on Fairytale of New York being played at least at some point in the reception. The Girl says it's a Christmas song so we can't have it in May. (Thinking about it, that's a reason to be more cheerful about having to postpone the wedding. She'll probably put up with the song in December.)

My sister walked out of the church to Wouldn't It Be Nice by the Beach Boys. I'm jealous of that inspired choice. We might end with The Beautiful South, for no particular reason.

And smonster, thank goodness, YES! It was your ratio that I meant to respond to. I hope it is not too late, but by all means, you need to get that ratio down as low as possible, and 1 to 10 is definitely too high. Especially with at-risk populations, kids particularly, you are dealing with learned behaviours that can be problematic in interacting with each other. Not their fault; this is what they`ve seen modeled in the past, but you need to provide an environment of safety first, and the reality is that you can`t do this without sufficient staff. 1 to 5 is much better, and preferably no fewer than 3 leaders in any given overall group. That allows you to physically break up fights if that might be an issue. And it allows you to send one adult off with someone, without leaving the entire group in one person`s hands. That strategy also helps with gender and sexual abuse issues. You can make sure that any one on one work is monitored and the opportunity for abuse or even the appearance of abuse is tempered. In our experience, often with victims of abuse, you have to be very careful because they may be unable to accuse the perpetrator of the abuse, especially if it tis a member of the family, and a youth worker may be the nearest handy person to accuse. So the better staff ratios help with making sure these angles are always covered.

Aww, guys. I was busy typing all that out and look, compliments! I seriously thought of you guys during the class as part of my support system and why I`m able to do the work I do.
 
I will want to talk further about my training later on, so ask me again later. I will whitefont specifics in case it`s triggery for people.
 
And I will probably make a Press PSA later too, but just so I don`t chicken out: I`d like to say I am making myself available to talk about suicide and death issues to anyone here or your friends who want or need to. I obviously don`t think a weekend class makes me an expert, nor am I trying to supplant your everyday mental health care. But I want to let it be known you should feel free to approach me if ever you have the need.