When I walked into the café, he was waiting for me. Another lunch meeting.

I sat down. The café was busier than usual. Every table was occupied. The line was almost out the door.

I had to speak loudly. "We are making a drastic change," I explained, "To a project that we have been working on for about a year. What are your thoughts?"

I leaned close to him to hear what he was saying.

"I think two things," he said.

The door opened, I looked.

The rowdy crowd and blaring voices distracted me.

I leaned in closer. [more]

This is the last week of our summer program. I asked the boys how they felt about the program ending. They sat silently with their heads hung low. [more]

I walked into the room angry because six of the boys did not come back to work after cashing their checks the other day. Now they were back.

I sat in a chair outside their semi-circle. A few of the boys tried to talk to me but I ignored them. "She’s mad," one of the boys said under his breath. I was glad they could see that I was upset.

In my head I was fussing, "Why do I continue to do this?" [more]

I’ve been on vacation from work all week. It’s rare that I find the time to be alone. This week I thought about . . . [more]

The boys were very suspicious today. I am not sure what happened. They had many questions, all of which I have answered many times before.

One of the boys assumed I was a federal agent, because otherwise he couldn’t understand why I would take them out to dinner and give them a job. "She must be working for the feds." [more]