Props

The universe, she is a funny place.

I received an award today. But you, constant readers, need brief background first. From my days as an undergrad, through grad school and up to my taking the job at UTC, I received varying degrees of assistance from the Dept. of Vocational Rehabilitation, or more commonly known as the Dept. of Rehabilitational Services. What they provided varied, sometimes from year to year, but it usually was along the lines of room and board, my housing at school. My books, too, but I almost never used that because, taking a lot of poetry workshops, you need books of poetry, and you know how us poets are: we like to support the independent bookstore that operates out of a matchbox, in which I have to knock over nine racks of books squeezing through while the auditory anesthetic voices of NPR calmly fret over something or other, and, of course, this bookstore isn't a vendor with Voc. Rehab. So I always bought my own books and that was fine. Well, this agency's goal, in part, is to provide the disabled that can work the means to education or training so that they aren't dependent upon government aid their entire lives. Usually, this means a two year associate's degree or a bachelor's or some sort of training. All of which is great.

But then there's me.

They figured out fairly soon they had no real idea what in the hell I was up to. Poetry? What? People still write poetry?

So they pretty much left me alone, content I knew what I was doing, hopeful that someday, somehow, I might approach employability.

So last year, when UTC hired me, I think they could hardly believe it.

Today Voc. Rehab called to tell me I've won the regional Employee of the Year award, to be presented at a luncheon on October 24th.

I didn't have the heart to tell them.