It was the worst of times...

I know I've said if before, but I'll say it again...

I have a job that puts me in the position of dealing, on a daily basis, with people who look me directly in the eye and lie their asses off.
It comes as naturally, and easily, to them as breathing.

And, as I was up for hours last night stewing about it, I recognized anew that the toll it's taken on my soul and health have been significant.

Some forms of erosion can be beautiful.
The erosion of my faith in humanity and in the goodness of other people with whom I share the planet while subsequently raising my blood pressure to near stroke levels... not so much.

I spent my day yesterday dealing with a nest of liars.
What?  You didn’t know that was the official designation?
Well, sister, it is where I work!
Keep your murder of crows, your crash of rhinos, your pace of asses and your clutch of chicks… in our building, you can’t take a step without landing in a nest of venomous liars.

First in the ER –
parents who, when told they had to live outside a 50 mile radius to qualify for ‘meal tickets’ (a coupon worth $5.00 in our cafeteria), hopped on their ‘smart phones’, googled mileage and then called Registration into the room (within 3 minutes of the end of our conversation) to change their address to a location 52 miles away!

Can I just say that is totally how I want to move next time …
telepathically – and without lifting a damn box or wrapping a single tchotchke in newspaper!

BTW – maybe if you stopped spending so much money on the latest cell phone, you’d have some change to buy food for the 3 hours your kid is in the ER… just sayin.

And then, up on the inpatient floors, an interminable process of trying to discharge a 6 mos old who had an unexplained arm injury – sustained while with her  ‘adoptive’ family… who initially said they knew nothing about her bio mother or her family… only, come to find out, they WERE her family – well, cousins - and they’d only had the baby for 2 days, not 6 months and they’d just spoken to mom before bringing the kid to the hospital!

A mom, BTW, who, when told by state child protection services to come pick the baby up, sent another female cousin in to masquerade as her because she didn’t want to take time off from fixing a friends hair!
The cousin-masquerading-as-mom gave moms correct birthdate (which would have made her 27 - and trust me, the lady sitting in front of me was no more 27 than I am) – but then she slipped and improvised, adding that the baby she was there to get was the youngest of her 11 children and her oldest was 19!

(Again, trust me, I’m no math wizard… that’s one of the reasons I went into Social work to begin with… but I have enough basic skills to know that would have made her first pregnancy when she was 8 - - and, while not impossible, also highly unlikely).

She wasn’t phased at all being confronted with her duplicity – and, when informed of the stunt, the state worker wasn’t concerned about the attempt at deception either.

At that point, I was so beaten down by dealing with all of them, I just wanted them the hell out of our building!

I have NEVER counted the days to retirement more than yesterday - - except for today!

Which is another story - -
which may or may not be true…

Hell, if you can’t lick ‘em – join ‘em!