First day

My first day of internship went well. I was just at the main office for orientation, as I will be again tomorrow. I'm off Friday, then will be at my clinic on Monday and then have another department training on Tuesday. But essentially, I'll be at the Upland Clinic on Monday-Thursday, and then we have our intern training stuff on Fridays. The first thing we found out today was that our jobs should be insulated against the dismal state of California's financial situation. BEcause of the way our jobs are classified, however, we could technically be on the chopping block in a showdown between the county and the union. However, our salaries come out of a protected class of funds that can't be used for anything else, so eliminating us wouldn't save the state any money or the county any jobs. San Bernardino County has been pretty Republican, so they've never really allotted any money for mental health services, so all our department's funding has always been state (and federal). That is actually good for us right now (although probably underserves the general population), because we aren't having to absorb the double blow of cuts from counties and the state, as is the case in Riverside County. The rest of the day was basically just getting to know each other and our training director, who has the most interesting background of almost anyone I've ever met. He's just incredible, so I feel really lucky to be training under him, even though there will be a bit of chaos, as this is his first year as the director of the internship training program. He's been involved in the program for years and worked closely with the outgoing director, who is retiring after having been there forever. We found out more about the requirements of the internship, which is pretty rigorous, as well as about the different training opportunities we have. Tomorrow will be more of the same, probably more in depth policies and procedures, of which the County of San Bernardino has no lack. I came home with two 4 inch binders of stuff on the department and specific to the internship.

Rebecca had a great day. She went to see Madagascar 2 at the movies and apparently had a blast. Nanny Rebecca sent me a text to say that she was cracking up at our Rebecca in the movies, because she was laughing and having such a good time. The next thing I heard was a picture message of Rebecca asleep in her highchair, with her fork in hand and a half-eaten plate of lunch in front of her. Apparently, she was worn out from the movie fun!