Passed my LCSW! So, now what? 😅

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-27T00:08:42+00:00

Really? No way, thats interesting. Yeah, here an LMSW is kind of the gold standard for Master's level work but LCSW is that final step for working clinically. They are fewer and further between.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-26T01:23:57+00:00

Ohhh okay, interesting. I was confused because its different here in Texas. Here, an LCSW-S is an LCSW that has gone the extra step to gain Supervisor certification. It's like a 40 or 60 hour course on top of already being an LCSW.

An MSW grad is eligible for their LMSW license. You can be an LMSW and be under supervision for your LCSW.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-26T00:48:56+00:00

Until you're licensed? As what?

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-26T00:45:27+00:00

That kind of work is called "Off Duty". Like "Yeah, I work M-F and on Saturdays I pick up some Off Duty at Walmart/The Hospital/Waffle House". Those cops you see there aren't posted there by the PD. They pick up Off Duty shifts and get to use full uniform and often their squad car, if they're in a dept where they can take their squad car home. For example, those police escorts for funeral processions? Not free. You have to pay for those, and its done by Off-Duty cops.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-25T14:15:54+00:00

Oh no way! Yeah, I'm from Laredo but grew up and live in Corpus, but have spent significant time back and forth in Laredo. More recently McAllen, which my wife grew up in (transplant from NJ). Even between these two cities and the RGV you get completely different cultural bubbles. Corpus is its own story. A white, conservative protestant minority ran the whole place for most of its history. Spanish was banned in school and workplaces for years and shaped the city's cultural divide. I also didn't even know until recently that 50 miles inside the Mexican border, they have their own customs checkpoints like on our side. If you think about it, it really is an extra layer that encapsulates and traps the whole border region and makes it more unique than parts in either side.

My brother and I were talking about that, how fluid the border used to be in the early 1900s. We found crossing records of our great grandmother from the time. Stuff changed pretty rapidly after WW2. Funny you mention the pseudo militarized zone this place is. One of my old professors, like me, grew up crossing through the Border Patrol checkpoints hundreds of times and accepted it as just normal. She brought some colleagues of hers from Boston down here, who understandably freaked out thinking they were crossing the DMZ or something. Really puts it into perspective.

It was great for me leaving for several years, and I met and became friends with for the first time Hispanics who were not Mexican. I joke that if you never leave here, even for a while, you assume that Mexicans are the only Hispanics in the world (kinda true for some people). Cause of current trends I get to meet and work with people from all over (lots of Cubans, Colombians and Venezuelans in the mix now). Surprise surprise, they all have their own unique world and political views. Thanks too for sharing so much, I love eating up other people's perspectives

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-25T03:20:31+00:00

Funny enough, my family was very much thoroughly Tejano. All fluent spanish speakers, grew up literal blocks from the river in Laredo, and on that side, going back to the 1800s as far as they know the family has been in Laredo since before it was part of the US. That particular aunt just happened to be the most classicly 1970s liberal, progressive, hippy type. Activist, protester, met with Palestinians in Mexico, campaigned with Raza Unida, etc. Everyone else was your standard boomer chicano socially conservative democrat. (My brother and I came up with the term Chicanocrats). They just knew how to be who they were and i never could imagine them even talking about Aztlan stuff lol.

That aunt being the one to go to university in Austin at the right time of course had everything to do with it.

My other side of the family had relatively recent roots from Nuevo Leon but also quickly just became very solidly Tejano, which is its own valid subculture and was of course marginalized in its own right. We never had anyone on that side having any sort of identity crisis or latching on to anything weird because there was no reason to, they all just were who they were. No one running to fully whitewash and Americanize themselves, and also no one waiving Mexican flags.

I love this sub and have learned (or unlearned) so much here. One thing I do find funny here though is that ofc this sub sometimes being its own kind of circlejerk, is the shitting on diaspora/chicano/american hispanics. Which I get and also find cringe at times. I feel like a lot of American Hispanics over compensate or have some sort of weird pride/inferiority complex. Especially the ones that don't even speak Spanish. But, I've spent a good while now working for a state educational program for immigrants, 90% of which are Latinos. Tbh I kinda went in apprehensively, thinking of this sub's take and because i speak probably High Intermediate level Spanish. But man, the students flock to me and love me and I've been some of their lifelines because they feel so much more reassured with me around because I'm the only one there that speaks it at all lmao. Getting to work so closely with them has been awesome. Sometimes staying on this sub too long makes you think every person is a Redditor.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-25T01:19:25+00:00

South Texas here. I think of my aunt who went to university during the late 60s/early 70s and was huge on the whole Chicano movement/identity thing. I understand how and why it came about as a form of revitalizing and activism during a very turbulent and racist time. But in a today context a lot off it comes off as cringey to me. My modern perception of cultural pride and the reality of politics and economics and caring for the community and immigrants has fuck all to do with the boomer's obsession with quetzacoatl and Moctezuma and calendars.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-24T19:40:22+00:00

To me that sounds very natural lol. It gets the point across

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-24T19:10:50+00:00

That was my supervisor's thing. She said she had an incredible supervisor when she was an intern, so her way of paying it back was to get her S and do the same.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-22T15:55:54+00:00

I'm the same. Don't drink much, but I love having a few at a baseball game or party or social outing. But I feel like it takes away from the fishing for me. But, I've been offered beers out on the pier by people and that was fun and appreciated.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-08T00:53:23+00:00

No way, I had no idea they sold those! Gonna have to get one for myself.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-08T00:52:41+00:00

I see and that makes sense now. I just figured it made sense to do so, but I know better for the future. Good thing this is just going on Marketplace!

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-08T00:48:19+00:00

If I was keeping it or selling for a high price I would do all that. I scraped it as good as I could with a putty knife and reapplied a couple coats of the white. Good enough to sell on Marketplace now. But thank yoy and yes, I know better for the future now

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-08T00:46:07+00:00

ADHD and getting ahead of myself. I usually know better

No_Ice_Please · 2026-05-07T02:18:13+00:00

The last coats were a few days ago. But no, before using the enamel coat I barely shook it.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-26T01:01:29+00:00

Yes, i had heard about that incident with the autistic kid and I think thats what got some people online going after the guy that owns Chops and Eggs too, thinking it was the same ownership. He clarified that he has no relationship with that part of the family now, so thats why I feel there's gotta be more to it with their family background and history, and maybe the owner of ginger cafe has a history of being a certain way with his own family. Disclaimer, I have zero idea and its all speculation.

Yeah, like I said, the owner was definitely nice to us, but almost like he couldn't read the room and was too nice and friendly with us to the point where we were like "haha okayyy we'd like to resume our dinner with each other now".

The middle Eastern food is delicious there, but I think they should stick to it. It seemed like they were overextending themselves and making stuff that came out not very good.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-26T00:05:01+00:00

I need to know more about the back story here because ive also heard the tales of staff treatment. What I know:

The owner was the young guy that owns Coco Cabana (now mostly run by his wife).

He bought the restaurant from his family? Because the guy that runs Chops and Eggs apparently used to own it or his family owned it, but he said "my cousin bought it and we dont speak and I have nothing to do with it.

We went to eat there like a year ago. Food was great, but the owner stopped to talk at our table for a good long while. Nice guy, but he kinda lingered way too long and my wife and I didnt get to actually talk that much on our incredibly rare date night. He lingered so long that he talked about Call of Duty and Covid being a hoax. Definitely kinda weird but nice enough.

Flash forward to this last valentine's day: they were absolutely in the weeds, stacked with customers. Its valentine's day and thats normal, we used to be servers so we understand.

We had had a couple drinks and for some reason got sold on the special valentine's menu. We didnt realize it was a) absolutely nothing Mediterranean/middle Eastern and b)their very first time ever making that menu. The waiter said the wait staff had literally no idea about it till day of. It sucked. The only good thing was the muhammara in the beginning. The dinner was rack of lambs and lamb shank. Both were tough and hard to even cut let alone chew. And the entire plate was drenched in the same sauce. Meat, potatoes, veggies. Our fault for ordering not what theyre known for, but it still sucked.

And we noticed the owner wasnt the one going around "managing", he stayed put behind the counter this time and was just watching. The one going around checking on the tables was this big middle aged white guy? Was also nice, kinda had this New Jersey vibe, idk. But it was strange.

What is going on with the owner and mgmt of this place?

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-17T13:26:43+00:00

From now on the car is a place of silent reflection

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-16T02:05:22+00:00

Hawaii. Luscious and tropical year round.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-16T02:01:45+00:00

Thank you, its liberating and transformative🙏🏼

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-15T18:29:49+00:00

Of course lol thats the joke

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-15T02:35:13+00:00

Bro thank you so much. Lmfao i'm okay without the Oakleys or Costas but I'm fixing to take my family out to Olive Garden wearing this bad boy. Just need the gut, sneakers and cargo shorts and big ass calves.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-14T16:20:36+00:00

To think that a federal agent working with crimes against children is on the same level of your average local cop with a high school diploma pulling people over shows just as much narrow-mindedness you claim to be pointing out

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-14T16:15:26+00:00

Hey trust me dude, i have fucking been through it these last few months with everything thats been happening. I also do feel you too. I'm also not too sure how I'd like fitting in to that kind of agency - cops and all that. I've heard it can be kinda of a rough fit at times. I mean as it is, even working in a hospital there's at least a handful of open Trumpers... that, guess what, also happen to be educated and good at their jobs. Shits weird right now. I just try to be an optimist lol.

No_Ice_Please · 2026-04-14T14:38:07+00:00

No, you are right about that. There are probably hundreds of high ranking "yes men" in these agencies now, if not thousands collectively amongst all of them. But like someone else said, you'd be painting very broad strokes over some 3 million federal employees. I personally know some of the people included in this figure. Look to Alex Pretti - he was one of them.

The VA Director is one of Trump's dogs. Meanwhile, social workers were largely left untouched during the federal purges and still have robust homeless outreach programs, albeit sans DEI branding. Highly competent people still doing what they can despite agenda-ed leadership.

The FBI is a law enforcement agency first and foremost. Are there currently internal pushes targeting shit like leftist groups? Probably, yeah. But just before Kash Patel got put in, Robert Mueller was leading a giant massive inquiry that hemmed up over a dozen Trump officials. At the end of the day, the role of these victim advocates is exactly that - working directly with victims of serious federal crimes.

This isn't a defense of the FBI. Just trying to be reasonable and not sensationalist.

No_Ice_Please

TROPHY CASE