The Clients

I must admit to stealing a fellow blogger's idea. Lorraine over at http://dothedishesfirst.blogspot.com/ has this charming way of referring to her husband as "The Spouse" and her daughter as "The Child". I stole it. I hope she won't mind, but it's just too cute and clever to pass up. I used it recently when referring to my friend, Carla. She's now known as The Hag and seems to like that moniker.

"The Clients"
I'm employed as a substance abuse counselor for an agency that houses those who've been homeless and receive housing subsidies due to disabilites. We have 170 such clients housed in a nice, new building in downtown Chicago. With 45 clients on my caseload and since I'm the only counselor on site during the weekends, my working life is usually raft with dramatic potential.

I'm a pretty easy going guy, but one thing I will not allow is loud music in the building. Each client has a 270 sq. ft. apartment which makes for some pretty close living quarters. An out-of-control boom box is just way too disturbing to way too many folks to be allowed. It amazes me when The Clients seem incredulous over the fact that they have to turn their music down. Once client seemed to feel that since he was young and single, he should be allowed to play his music louder than the others. I told him that if he felt he just had to play his music loud, he should go purchase a house. Plain and simple.

One client died last week of a heroin overdose and the body wasn't discovered for about four days. Gee, there's nothing like encountering haz-mat police tape first thing in the morning. (By the way, drugs don't kill people. Very pure batches of heroin do.)

I love my work. I really do. I get a little frustrated when The Clients act like children, but then again, there was a lot of child-like, bratty behavior in the seminary as well. I guess that whenever there people living in community, there will always be people banging on their high chairs.