Where's Waldo?

There are all sorts of interesting individuals who work in child welfare. I introduced you to Marge, now it is time to introduce you to Waldo.

Words cannot begin to describe Waldo. In a nut shell, Trasheka and I are convinced that Waldo is a 60's reject who probably dropped acid one too many times in college. (He may still for all we know.) He has actually reported to Trasheka and I that when he closes his eyes, his visualizes the colors that are in music. (Can we say fried brain?)

As a worker, Waldo is awesome. I truly can not say enough positive things about him. Waldo is one of the few workers that I know that will spend his weekends with kids in his caseload who do not have a visiting resource. He uses his own money to buy birthday gifts for his kids and makes sure that something special is done on their birthday. Like I said, Waldo is awesome as a caseworker. There is one problem though, we can never find Waldo when we need him. It is pretty common to hear someone ask "Where's Waldo? Has anyone seen Waldo?" We usually find Waldo coming out of the bathroom, surfing the internet when he should be in a meeting, or outside chain smoking.

This morning was one such morning. My supervisor, who was in a pretty foul mood this morning (probably because she was at work) came barreling in my office and asked "Where's waldo? I'm looking for him and he is not in his office. His computer is still covered, has anyone heard from him?" I told her that I had not seen him but he was most likely in the field seeing his kids to make sure that they were okay after the storm. She walked off stating that if he had not made it in the office by the time she got out of her meeting, she would call him.

As soon as she was out of hearing distance, I called Waldo on his cell phone.

"Waldo, where are you?"

"At home."

"What are you doing at home?"

"Well, the office is closed today."

"No Waldo, it's not, I am sitting here in my office and our supervisor is looking for you."

"The office is open today?"

"Yes, that is what I said, why did you think that the office was closed today?"

"Well, the news said that the public schools were closed today, so doesn't that usually mean that our office is closed as well?"

"No, Waldo it does not mean that our offices are closed when the schools are closed. Public School employees work for the county, we work for the state."

"Oh."

"Waldo, how long have you been employed with child welfare?"

"6 years, why?"

"And in 6 years, two hurricanes, and one tropical storm, when have you ever been told that when the news says the public schools are closed that our office is closed too?"

"Um...never."

"So why would you assume that the offices would be closed now?"

"So I guess I need to come into the office?"

"Um...if you want your job tomorrow."

"What if I called in sick?"

"Waldo, it is 11:45 am, do you think our supervisor would go for that?"

"No, I guess not. Okay...I guess I better come in to work. Thanks for calling."

I don't know if Waldo ever came into work or not. When I came home and told Military Man, his response was "Is Waldo naturally this dumb or is he on a dumb ass streak right now?" I honestly don't know. All I know is this, if they were giving out dumb ass awards, Waldo would get the award for being the biggest dumb ass in child welfare.