12:12

Once upon a time I was a residential care worker in a facility for disturbed youth. I was very young and very serious; determined to do well in a place that ate staff up and spit them out.

At the time, I had been working there for about a year, long enough to be considered senior staff, but not quite long enough to be promoted to management. We worked in partners, one male, one female for the most part, with a floating third person on the shift. The organization was having a growth spurt which meant that all of my good partners were being promoted and moved laterally faster than I could keep up with the changes. The bad ones were dropping like flies as well. I started to worry about my deodorant.

And then came Bruce. Bruce was stability incarnate. He was experienced in the field, happily married and an all around stand up guy. Best of all, Bruce had a sense of humour.

As with all group living situations, the client group was mirroring the staff group. The crazier things got with the restructure, the crazier the kids got. And that my friends, was not a pretty thing.

One night, very early on in our partnership, Bruce confessed to me that he thought that a lot of the behaviours we were dealing with could be avoided by utilizing the simple but effective frontal lobotomy. I agreed to try it but only if I were allowed to perform the procedure myself - with a spoon. We laughed maniacally and then noted the time. It was twelve twelve. We agreed that at lunch the next day, we would launch a mass lobotomizing session.

Sure enough, the next day was as torturous as the last. Lunch was served at twelve sharp. Soup and sandwiches were on the menu. At exactly twelve twelve, I gripped my spoon and turned to face Bruce. He raised his spoon in salute. Our relationship was cemented.

Bruce only lasted eight shifts in that hell hole but every time I see a clock that says 12:12, I am reminded of him. So I guess it's not surprising that today, at 12:12, as I was being offered the job at Internationally Known Charity I thought of Bruce.

Wuh_freakin_hoo! I start on the second of May! Thanks to all who crossed something on my behalf - your work here is done.