3 posts tagged “weird”

I feel like such a tool.  I really shouldn't, but I do.  On MySpace, I found an ex-boyfriend from high school.  By ex-boyfriend, I mean guy that I dated for a couple months, then drifted away from, then kept close enough to make him think that I was interested so I could get his attention when I wanted to.  I tended to do that back then.  I would see him every now and then when he used to work with my then-boyfriend Greg.  Anyway, the last time I saw him was at the Monkey Barrel and he was totally sloppy drunk.  We didn't have much conversation at all.  I always thought that this guy was so nice and funny; he just wasn't the guy for me.  So anyway, when I found him on MySpace, I checked out his page and found that he's married and has five children.  He looked very happy and I genuinely thought that was great.  I decided to send him a message to say hello.  I didn't send him an add request, I didn't send my e-mail address or phone number... I simply said hello and glad to see he's doing well.  Today I was checking my sent mail and I saw "read" next to the message; however, his profile photo had been replaced by a red x and the word "deleted."  He read my message and then deleted his account!  Now, granted, I don't know that it was him that actually deleted it.  It very well could have been his wife, and she could have been unhappy that an ex contacted her man.  I know that I'm not trying to get her man, but I guess since she doesn't know me, maybe that made her uncomfortable.  Anyway, I feel like I made a mistake and shouldn't have contacted him.

So I came home with a story today.  Not that something weird doesn't happen most days, but today was up there with the top incidents... an incident that involved calling security.

I was scheduled for a telephone interview first thing this morning.  I finished my telephone interview and was waiting for the application for my second interview.  In the time in which I was waiting, I had three coworkers warn me that my second customer was "a little off" and "might be a problem."  Sometimes people end up reacting better to me than to the people that they see when they're getting assigned to an intake worker, so I wasn't too worried about it.  I went out to call him back to my office and he wasn't out in the lobby.  I went back out to the lobby about three different times over the next 20-25 minutes or so.  I got assigned my third interview while I was waiting for the second, so I went out to go call the third.  Then I was told the second had returned, so I went and got him.  I went out to the lobby for my second customer.  I knew that there was going to be an issue after he had kept me waiting all this time, but he was pulling on his watch, looking at me like I had just blown his whole morning.

We go back to my office and he has a seat.  We do the first two pieces of paperwork and things are going fine.  It wasn't until the third piece of paperwork, which was the voter registration form, that he started to flip out.  As a state agency, we're required to give customers the opportunity to register to vote.  He said he didn't want to vote.  I checked the box on the form that said that he didn't wish to register and asked him to sign it.  He kept repeating that he didn't want to vote.  I told him that I wasn't registering him, I was just required to put documentation in the record to verify that I gave him the opportunity to vote while he was in the agency.  He started doing this thing where he crossed his arms and started giving me the peace sign with both hands while he was repeating "peace" to me.  I asked him one last time to sign the form and he was like, "Peace?"  So, I just put that piece of paper to the side and said I'd come back to it.

The next issue was the one that completely pissed him off.  The address he reported as his mailing address didn't match the mailing address that Social Security used to mail him his check.  So, I had two different addresses for him, then he told me he was homeless and living on the streets.  Based on his appearance and smell, that was probably the truth, but again, policy requires that I put documentation in the record to clarify any discrepancies that arise.  He just started to go off the hook.  He was saying weird stuff like, "Why are you asking me a bunch of questions like I'm a bachelor?" and "I have one tooth."  (For the record, he had a total of about four teeth.)  A coworker of mine stopped in her tracks when she was walking through the hallway and heard him ask me, "What am I- on a witness stand?"  Mind you, this guy was not quiet in his communication; I'd later find out that even other worker's customers commented that someone needed to get that guy out of my office.  So, he keeps saying weird things to me and then he points at my computer monitor. He keeps pointing while he says, "You and that thing need to stop it... just like that television."  Another thing I'd later find out is that while he was in the lobby he was standing on chairs and telling others that the television was telling him to fly.  He eventually went up to the front desk and asked them to call the police because the television was bothering him.  I try one final time to ask him to clarify his living arrangements and he goes over and slams my office door.  Right as he started to go over to the door, I yelled "Please don't close my door."  When the door closed, I jumped back at repeatedly pushed the panic button next to my desk.  I've never used it before.  Apparently it does work.  My across-the-hall neighbor Joanna came over to my office after hearing me ask Mr. Crazy not to close the door.  She opened up the door and asked what was going on.  My down-the-hall neighbor Pat came down to my office and told me security was on the way.  Mr. Crazy started rambling on about how he didn't want to deal with white people.  I was going to try to keep him in one place until security got there, but Joanna went ahead and got him out of my office and into the lobby.

So security comes up to my office and asks me what happened.  I went through the general story and that's when my coworkers started interjecting the stories about how erratic his behavior had been, even before he came back to my office.  I learned about his flying, his request to call the police on the TV, and his history of mental illness.  A few months ago, I totally would have freaked out and started crying and panicking.  I didn't do that this time.  I stood strong and did not let it get me.  Food stamps are such a joke of a program in that we pretty much have to practically give them away to anyone who applies.  By that, I mean, he's a person who would be financially eligible for the benefit, so I'm expected to do whatever it takes to get the benefit to him.  So, I knew that I would have to try to finish the interview or find someone to finish it.  The security guard offered to sit in my office while I tried to finish the interview.  I called Mr. Crazy back behind our front door to the lobby and asked him if the security guard sat in on the interview, would he be willing to complete the interview in a calm, non-aggressive manner.  He then said one of the weirdest things that I have heard since I worked there.  He said he didn't want to be interviewed by someone "he would be affectionate with."  I was like, what the hell does that mean?!  The front desk staff, who are familiar with him, said that he does not respond well to white people and to woman in positions of authority.  There's two strikes against me.  He asked for a male to interview him and that's what he got.  My coworker Steve got him, and from what Steve told me, he was completely normal during the interview.

About ten minutes before I was about to leave for the day, Dave, a services supervisor, came over to my office and said he wanted to talk to me for a moment.  Dave said that apparently Mr. Crazy came back in the afternoon to get assistance with finding housing and he started to give one of the female service workers a hard time.  Dave overheard it and went over to her office and completed the service intake interview.  The outcome was Dave sending him to PRMC because he found out this man's long history of mental illness, for which he was not currently taking medication.  Dave told me that Mr. Crazy had spent over twenty years at Eastern Shore Hospital and was also incarcerated for a long period of time (Mr. Crazy was 55 years old, I believe... but then again, his age wasn't my primary concern).  Dave told me that I did the right thing by removing him from my office and having him reassigned. Dave stressed that the man was very volatile and he was not sure what he would be capable of, especially considering that he was off of his meds.

So I got home this afternoon and I checked out the court records for Mr. Crazy.  Mind you, the court records don't go back more than about 15-20 years, and most of the older records don't include much information.  Here's a short list of some of the charges he's been convicted of: first degree assault, second degree assault, battery, reckless endangerment, false imprisonment, concealing a deadly weapon, burglary, obstructing and hindering, and impersonating a police officer.  Mind you, many of the different charges were in multiples.  I just find it so hard to comprehend how this man has been allowed into the community!  And that we're paying for him to be in the community... unreal!

Just another day at the office...

Over the last few weeks, I've been having pretty vivid dreams that I've actually remembered after I have woken up (which is very weird for me).  Many of the them haven't been unrealistic in nature, but last night's was definitely out there...

Last night's dream starts with Ellen and I arriving at BWI airport to meet up with Tara.  The three of us were going on a trip somewhere (I'm not sure where) and we were flying on AirTran.  We get there and BWI has turned into this huge AirTran headquarters or something.  We only saw AirTran planes, AirTran employees, AirTran logos, etc.  So after we see Tara, the three of us go through security.  We make it through security and when we're gathering our stuff at the end of the x-ray machine, we're handed these three round coaster-sized tickets.  The security woman told us that we must be special and that they didn't give those out often.  The tickets had a list of karaoke song choices we were asked to look at as we were escorted to the VIP karaoke room.  We go into the karaoke room and it is set up like a recording studio.  The three of us start singing (I'm not sure what) and within a minute's time, I'm asked to leave because I'm "not as special" as they thought I was.  El and Tara keep singing through this, unbothered that I am being asked to leave.  So after I leave the karaoke room, I find an arcade is nearby.  Inside the arcade I see Tim and Ted playing a boston terrier game.  This was probably the weirdest part.  They were throwing live boston terrier heads into holes, kind of like skeeball but without the length.  The bostons didn't seem to be in pain; they were just being normal dogs (well, normal dogs without bodies I suppose).  So Tim and Ted weren't earning tickets or anything like that.  They were earning Weight Watchers points for each boston head they threw through the holes.  In between throwing, they would take photos of themselves using their cell phone cameras.

I don't really remember anything after that, but I have been puzzled about it all day.  Who knows what tonight will bring!