Every felt like you were falling out of an airplane?

Well, I have, and did! Last weekend I took the plunge out of an aeroplane. Something that I had planned with coworkers back in January, on a whim. I'm glad it took a few months to carry out though until the weather was better and I knew what I was getting into. It was astonishingly safe. I really did not feel that my life was in jeopardy at any point, but it was still absolutely terrifying. More so once I saw other ppl falling out the plane ahead of me and then it was me with my feet dangling out of the door of our itty bitty plane and then me falling face first to the earth. That was also really scary. A lot of Ahhh! Oh my god! And then the dangling with the parachute above was nice and still scary. Then my tandem instructor spun us around, which was very terrifying. But we made it safely to the ground. It was incredibly hot too out there in Davis that day so it was a sweat fest through our jumpsuits. The air did feel great up at 13,000 feet, though.

I'm starting to feel like I need escapes like that from my work though. Jumping out of a plane, taking trips, getting away from Oakland. My job is getting to be overwhelming. I got some new cases and while trying to get a grasp of what is going on with the parents on those cases I've still got court reports to wrap up and issues popping up on my other cases. It's hitting that wall where I feel like I'm losing my mind because I can't do what I need to do in the time I have. And then just the pure newness still of the work itself and having to learn for the first time how to make a placement change, set up therapeutic visitation, how to determine when a kid can safely return home. And what kills me is that I'm always thinking about my clients. I'm writing this from home in Houston. A kind of respite from Oakland, but a plunge back into being at home and reliving all the reasons I had left. But it's better strangely. I can handle things better. My dad telling me that my job is horrible and I should do acupuncture. My older sister rifling through my stuff and throwing away my collection of pens. And it's ok! I would normally have thrown a fit and stewed with anger and vitriol. Well, we still have a few more days. Let's hope the sanity hold out. Or I will need to jump out of another plane.

Oh, I'll post pics once I get them of the plunge into the stratosphere!