I was warned...

...but warning didn't quite do it justice.

When I went first to visit the PA Lindamood-Bell Center, I gaped. Wow! said I. This place is huge and lovely! There's plenty of room, there's lots of awesome little offices, it's easy to get to, and it's in the middle of everything! I mean, it's near a lot of little places to eat, it's about a mile walk from our place, I could take the train if I were feeling really lazy, and there's employee parking if I feel like driving! They've got a student load comparable to ours in Morristown (30-35 students), but with literally twice the space! This will be sweet!

Then the place caught on fire, and, long story short, they moved out, first to temporary space, then never to return. Instead, they moved to space in a private preparatory school for special needs students. Now, my director told me, it's small and uncarpeted, and also unairconditioned, and at least four people have already quit over this, and did I mention they have spiders? So I can't say I wasn't warned.

The new center is literally three rooms -- two for student instruction, one for three offices and a receptionist. The clinician room is a closet, where each clinician has a hook on which to put stuff. There's a single file cabinet for student files, which works out well, since they can only handle twelve students. There's a refrigerator in the hallway, with a bunch of snacks piled on top. The air-conditioning units are self-contained things that, I swear, look like boxy Daleks. Everybody has to fill out timesheets because the IT guys can't get the card reader networked. And it's all up in a school complex on top of a hill, tucked back in a bunch of woods, pretty far removed from everything, including mass transportation.

I don't say this as a means of complaining. I say it because I'm just thinking, these poor guys! And they've even been settling into this for a month or so -- I mean, I'm coming in after the major crises have been resolved. At least everything is somewhat stable now.

And I start Monday. This is definitely going to be an adventure. Time to put on my best optimistic face!