two of my favorites

Since I'm on summer vacay for just a few more days, I actually got to go meet friends for lunch-like a grown up! I went and met Margaret at her place and then we went to pick up Emily (Suz and her bling couldn't join us :( .) Of course there was the usual banter and laughing and it made me begin making a mental review of all the funny stuff that happened when we lived together. Oh, and Emily's blog about lunch helped, too.

~"sword" (or balloon figures) fighting/pictures on the couch when we were delirious from rush
~sledding down the riverbank when it was snowing

~our GENIUS decision to tie a rope to end of Nick's truck and have him pull on a box top up and down River Park Dr. because the road was icy. Oh, and we did this at night. We were fearless.

~"is the kitty in there?"

~Elvis

~my plotting to scare Emily in her room...worked EVERY time without fail

~Mr. __________ who lived below us...I can't remember his name to save my life

~the screaming match on the phone that Emily and I just sat and listened to

~Ruth

~when the family next door put a chain lock at the top of their door and their fat, obnoxious little girl asked Emily to help her get out

~my bike disappearing

~the Library

~Friends watching nights

~blowing up Peeps in the microwave

And after all that, we've each managed to become responsible, productive members of society!

old school

But not really. It's more like new school...better yet, new school year. Here are some pictures of what I've been working on the past couple of days. I think I'm becoming depressed that my summer is over in a matter of days...I refuse to accept it (isn't the first stage to recovery denial?). So, instead, I'm going to meet one of my dear classroom neighbors for a happy hour beverage in a little while. My room and hallway are pretty much as ready as they can be until I get a finalized list of new angels I'll be spending my days with. I'm sure I'll be in better spirits once I meet the new kiddos and their excitement rubs off on me. Not literally, though...I'm not Mary Kay Letourneau.

daddy's back in town

...Sarge's daddy, that is. The title line is so ridiculous and funny and I try to use it whenever I can...thanks, Belew! So, yes, Andrew is back from his trip to NY and Miami and we're going to dinner shortly. I spent four nights at his place with Mazie in tow...and we're both spent! It is tough to come back to my grand converted garage apartment after being in a house. Although I won't miss Sarge being in my way EVERY time I try to walk somewhere. I very much like my two pets to be a small and quiet kitty and the red beta she is obsessed with...not that I don't love Sarge. But I don't love his loudness when licking, his snorting, his ceaseless panting, or his slobbers. This is how Mazie has looked for the past 3 hours since we came back home. (I have no idea how to post a picture anywhere but at the top...any suggestions???)

Also, for those of you interested, I still have a wee bit of proactive-ness going on around my eyebrows. It's much better, but still slightly bumpy and a little red...the price one pays in order to not look like Frida Kahlo.

wax on, wax off

It's too bad that I haven't actually see the movie that quote comes from, but at least I know what movie it is! I thought it was appropriate because yesterday I got my eyebrows waxed for the first time ever...and hello, my pain tolerance has NOT increased with age.

I have hidden my tweezers from myself for nearly a month now because I wanted a professional to do a better job shaping my brows that I was doing. I saw an episode of Oprah once where she had some woman grow hers out for two months and then come back to her show so Anastasia (famed brow-shaping/waxing guru) could "do" her brows. I was not willing to look quite so disheveled, so I figured one month was enough for me. I actually handled the lack of tweezing better than I thought I would. I really only got the urge at night when I was watching TV and relaxing and could feel the new hairs that I would have normally plucked...but alas, I overcame the urge and did not go for the tweezers even once.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon about this time. I went to the salon where I get my pedicures because it's super clean and they understand more English than most places. I told the receptionist I wanted someone who was gentle because I'd never had my brows waxed before. Jenny (although I'm sure that's not her actual name...they all adopt an "American" name to make it easier, I think) kindly took me back to the waxing room. She put HOT wax on my left brow and then pressed the cloth strip down on it. Now, I've watched plenty of people have their brows waxed and I thought I understood that it may hurt a little bit. Um....I wanted to pull a Joey from Friends and just leave with my one brow done. OMG-I know I'm a weenie when it comes to pain anyway, but this was serious!! My eyes were watering within about .5 seconds of the pulling. Of course I had her finish so that I did not look like Joey. I think all in all, I was there less than 10 minutes, but it seemed like so much longer. Those of you who have to go to the girl doctor know what I'm talking about!

I'm very happy with the shape and "Jenny" was really nice. She put some baby oil (I think...it was something oily) and lotion on my poor brow area to help, although I'm not sure what it was supposed to do...it still hurt like crazy and I looked like a walking add for Proactive of the brows-all red and bumpy. She assured me that the first time is the worst, the second still hurts but not as badly, and then after that it doesn't hurt at all. We'll see. It was all red and swollen around my eyebrows last night, and I've still got some red bumps lingering...luckily I don't have a hot date tonight.

On a side note, for those of you who know about Mazie and Sarge's difficulty (mainly Mazie's) in tolerating each other, MAJOR improvements. She lets Sarge come right up to her and she even sticks her cute little black nose up to smell his nose. The only time she hisses and bats at him is when he goes to sniff her side...but I have faith that that too will cease soon. We've got one more night together and then Andrew's back from Miami! Yay!! :)

animal house

I'm staying at Andrew's house while he's out of town so I can take care of Sarge. This means Mazie tags along too. We had quite an eventful afternoon yesterday! Emily came over from Dallas for the night and brought Rocky, her little 9 lb. chihuahua/mini pinscher mix. Meredeth also brought over her new 3 lb. puppy, Lacey, to show everyone. Needless to say, it was literally...an animal house! And quite an entertaining one at that.


Sarge, who is a 115 lb. bull mastiff for those of you who don't know, and Rocky hit it off right away...maybe a little too much. I can't post their initial videotaped meeting because there was way too much inappropriate sniffing and licking. Mazie and Rocky like playing together too, although Mazie is not a fan of Sarge all that much...yet. Here's a little snippet of what the day/night/next morning was like...lots of sniffing, batting, chasing, and nonsense. :)

Mazie and Sarge both spent the afternoon passed out in the living room...

child life

I think I've gotten my emotions in check finally. I went to a Child Life information session on Thursday night at Cook Children's Hospital. I have been borderline obsessed with child life for about a 2 months now and visit the national website almost daily. TCU just started a graduate course track for child life, however, since I'm nearly done with my Counseling classes, my advisor and I decided it would be best for me to just stick with what I'm doing...I'm still qualified to enter Child Life as a counselor. I had been emailing with the director of child life at Cook's and she sent me the info. for the session.

Let me back up-what is child life, you ask? Well, it's hard to really sum up shortly, but while the job has traditionally been in hospitals, it is expanding to hospice centers and other similar medically-related places. A child life specialist plays with the "sick" kids, reads with them, prepares them emotionally for any procedure, provides support for the family-especially siblings, helps maintain their development, and can even go to little Billy's class and explain to them why Billy won't be at school for a while. Hello-this job sounds fabulous and so rewarding. Here's the website in case I didn't answer your question: http://www.childlife.org/.

Fast forward to Thursday. Part of the seminar was a panel discussion with 5 Cook's child life specialists. Great information, great examples and stories of what they do and how they deal with the exceptionally hard days and the days they get to go fishing as part of a group outing for the kids there. I could definitely see myself sitting on a similar panel one day. Then we get into the powerpoint discussion that explains more of the logistics of the job and shows some video clips of actual work from Cook's. I'm dying to be in those videos-I want this job! Then the explanation of the process begins...and my plan started to crumble. I don't know an easier way to explain all of this other than laying it out in steps:

To be a child life specialist (anywhere):
1-You must first complete a practicum which consists of working 3 half days shifts a week for a semester.
2-You then must apply for an internship which is full time for a semester.
3-Because applications and interviews for internship for the upcoming semester begin about two weeks after the practicum has begun, you're advised NOT to apply for internship while in practicum because you'd be competing with people who have already finished their practicum and therefore have a leg up on you since you've been at it for about 2 weeks. This means you have a semester of basically nothing (unless you're volunteering) in between.
4-Cook's is the only place in FW that has child life specialists right now. Dallas has 2.
5-On average, 30-35 people apply for the intership spots at Cooks...they accept 5-6.
6-Oh, NONE of the above is paid. Anyone have any lucky lottery numbers for me to play?? If you're counting, that's 3 semesters of no income. And if by chance you're doing all of this through TCU, it's going to be 1 1/2 years for you because TCU doesn't offer practicum/internship supervision during the summers.
7-Their advice about interships and jobs is to be flexible and willing to move. If I can take about 8 of my dearest with me, then I'll consider that. But right now, I'm really not all that much up for it...can you imagine me living in Temple, TX, which is where the next closest hospital with child life is?

I have, of course, analyzed this whole thing to death. I am still surprised at the emotional reaction I had to the disappointment-I was such a mope all day yesterday and on the verge of tears at all given moments. I woke up feeling better today, but still sad. I know a huge part of it is that I was SO excited and it feels like a giant bully just ruined something really important to me. I know, I know, everything happens for a reason. But I'm not there yet. I'm still angry and sad that something I think I'd be really good at and a job I'd love going to everyday are not nearly as in focus in my future as I thought. So, yes, I know there's a great power leading my hand, and heart, away for right now...and sure, it may be more accessible down the line. But I want it now.

I'll leave you with some more Patty Griffin:

Sometimes you wonder if you're walking in the wrong direction...

Oh, Moses

My plan was to write about the Child Life seminar I went to last night. I thought I would have all kinds of excitement to tell and things to explain. Turns out, Child Life is not in my near future, and I'm pretty upset about it...I started crying at a totally random, unrelated time at lunch and probably scared Andrew half to death...so I can't write about it yet.

Instead, here are the lyrics to a song I've had in my head for days now. It's by Patty Griffin, however, it came to me via April singing it...and I think it's a pretty fantastic song to turn up loudly in the car and sing to. Apart from the slightly derogatory name for the best friend, I love it! Wish I knew how to get the downloaded song on here. You should look it up and give it a listen or two...or ten.

Moses

Diamonds, roses, I need Moses
To cross this sea of loneliness, part this red river of pain
I don't necessarily buy any key to the future or happiness
But I need a little place in the sun sometimes
Or I think I will die

And everywhere is somewhere
And nowhere is near
Everybody got somebody with their wine and their beer
So I'm just this tragic figure in the corner over here
With an empty apartment
And a best friend who is queer

Everytime I see him he smiles
And he tells me how well he's walking these miles
But he never ever asks a single thing about me
If I die, he'd hear about it eventually

Diamonds, roses, I need Moses
To cross this sea of loneliness,
Part this red river of pain

And everywhere is somewhere
And nowhere is near
Everybody got somebodywith their wine and their beer
So I'm just this tragic figure in the corner over here
Go home to an empty apartment
And call a best friend who is a queer

Diamonds, roses,
I need Moses
To cross this sea of loneliness,
Part this red river of pain
To cross this sea of loneliness,
Part this red river of pain
To cross this sea of loneliness,
Part this red river of pain

as if!

So what exactly are "snaps?" Well, they are good things that happen. Sort of like a word you might use to praise someone for something they did well. It's also what you do to show that you liked someone's poetry reading...but I'm not using it that way. It's from a great movie that I've probably watched at least 20 times...take a look at a clip from it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHDcD_xhwAo&feature=related

Snap in the singular form can mean several things, none of which are related to this blog. Although I do like snap peas. It can mean something that fastens your pants together, a sound you make using two fingers, or my personal favorite: a term expressing surprise, excitement, and/or disbelief.

I almost stepped on a snake, oh, snap!!

My first time

In an attempt to entertain myself and avoid studying for class, I read celebrity gossip and stalk people's blogs. Last night I decided to create my own, mainly because I like seeing all the different designs you can choose from. That, and I can't really create my own celebrity gossip. Oh, and I actually really do like writing. But the life of a teacher who is on summer break and attending summer school classes is not all that exciting...so actually writing/typing something has been quite intimidating.

So I'll start with something that is not my own...I found this while reading someone else's blog, and I liked it! Feel free to copy and paste (although that would assume that someone is actually reading this).

i am: so tired of being sweaty and hot from being outside for less than a minute
i think: things to death sometimes
i know: a lot more about babies' brains than i did 2 weeks ago, and they are FASCINATING!!!
i want: to live in the spanish colonial house being built on 7th street in rivercrest
i have: a very sassy side
i wish: that every child that comes into my classroom had a loving home
i hate: sausage....ANY kind/form
i miss: feeling small in my elementary school hallways
i fear: loss
i feel: the texture of the clothes when i'm shopping
i hear: the a/c blowing like crazy
i smell: things using my "mcgruff" skills
i crave: snuggling
i search: for houses
i wonder: what will be different in my life in one year
i regret: not saying what's on my mind when i have the opportunity
i love: when i find the perfect gift for someone
i ache: when i actually workout
i care: about eating non-processed foods
i always: brush my teeth before bed
i am not: athletic
i believe: that everyone, young and old, has goodness in them
i dance: rarely
i sing: every time i'm in the car
i don’t always: respond to emails right away
i fight: not bottling up my thoughts and feelings
i write: to express those thoughts and really think through them
i win: at Connect 4 with 8 year olds
i lose: arm wrestling matches with andrew
i never: forget to buckle my seat belt
i confuse: the ages that goes with Erikson's theory of development
i listen: carefully but need a few seconds to process
i can usually be found: reading perezhilton.com
i am scared: of someone breaking into my house
i need: a ghiradelli dark chocolate square (from the freezer) everyday...sometimes two
i am happy about: going to a child life seminar in two days