"Start walking now before the storm starts"

February 21, 2015

That's what I was just told by the nurse who's working tonight, when I asked if there might be time for me to be driven to the laundromat which is almost half a mile away, straight uphill.  

When I said that the staff are here to help the clients and that it was inappropriate for her to treat me as if I were asking for an unreasonable favor, she raised her voice and started repeating the word "Enough," invoking what she considers to be her staff-to-client privilege of treating me like I'm crazy.

A couple of days ago, I asked a staffperson if she would take me to the laundromat.  She said that she wouldn't, because her car didn't have enough gas.

I tend to be careful about when I ask to be taken to the laundromat and whom I ask to take me there.  Tonight, I was told "You've had all week to do it."  That's not entirely true, if you consider that:

-Both times that one of the male staffpeople has driven me over the past weeks, he's been condescending to me.

-I feel that it's better to avoid being in a car with male staffpeople when I can avoid it, not because I'm concerned that they'll harass me, but because I have been treated as if no harassment by anyone has ever happened at this facility.

It's true that a female staffperson had time to take me to the laundromat yesterday morning and I chose not to do my laundry at that time.  I knew that there's usually another female staffperson on Friday and Saturday nights who tends to be consistently nice to me. Last night didn't seem like the right night to ask for her help; I was told yesterday afternoon that last night would be her last regular shift working at the unit, that she'd found another job.  I didn't think I should ask her to take me to the laundromat on her last day. 

What I didn't expect was to be told tonight, by her supervisor, "Start walking before the storm starts."

This is a picture from today which I took from the window of my room at the unit at Quincy Mental Health Center:

Copyright L. Kochman, February 21, 2015 @ 3:56 p.m.