It's a small world afterall...

So happy halloween... My hot halloween plans consist of sitting in my FUN policy class and learning how to be an unpaid political pawn for my professors agendas...yeah! Yet another one of those hoops to jump through... sometimes I feel like I am in the freakin circus! Yesterday in church of all places I heard about google earth... today I was entertaining myself by putting in different addresses of people I know and places I have lived and it was kinda fun, yet kinda creepy! It is crazy how close you can zoom in on addresses... I could see my parents camp trailer that is parked out back! The guy that was talking about google earth related it back to the movie the burbs... the program works just like the beginning of the movie, starting out with a global picture of earth, then zooming in on a particular house... Weird that the technology is accessible on the internet now!

Smiling through gritted teeth!

Maybe I am just being a bit irritable today but every friday and saturday it seems my Dad says what are your plans tonight? Ok so it seems like a fairly innocent question,right?... I just get tired of saying that the only hot date I have planned for the evening is with my books and whatever assignment that is due on monday or tuesday! I am sure that it is not my Dads intention, only my perception, but I feel like my Dad thinks I am lame because I ration out my weekend nights between schoolwork, friends, and more schoolwork! Then sometimes when I am home he asks questions like where is so and so, which irritates me even more cause it is like he is asking why aren't you doing something with so and so! Just needed to get that off my chest, back to schoolwork...!

Hippy day...

It was hippy day in my interventions class because we started our existential unit... It was kinda silly, but sort of fun. We all dressed up like hippies and sat in a circle and shared with eachother what drives us and what our goals are. Part of the reading for today was Sidhartha... A thought provoking book capturing eastern european thought. We had the opportunity to share our favorite passages, and I thought it was interesting that different passages touched different classmates with little repetition. The class time was interesting and lent for greater exploration of what the driving forces are in my life. I basically have come away with a greater desire to live life to live! I have renewed my desire to drink in all that life has to offer and to see all things within their context of the whole... hows that for existential thinking?...OMMMMMMMMMMM!

One year older... and wiser too!?

It's official I am now 24 years old. It is weird to me to think back at what I (thought) that I would be doing now, six years ago... Back then I had never even considered grad school, and to be honest I wasn't sure if it was important for me to finish a degree at all (after all I thought that I would be barefoot and pregnant by now)... well I guess I am one of those...barefoot:) I think it is good that not everything turns out exactly how we planned it, because I don't think I would have penciled in some of the wonderful adventures that I have had over the last six years. Birthdays for me seem to lend toward reflection on accomplishments made since the last year, and the things that I never quite accomplished:(... weird that I am half way through a grad program that I wasn't sure I was even going to apply at my last birthday! I am excited to look forward to the future because who knows where I will be in a year! I had a pretty good day. I slept in and spent the morning in my pj's watching taped episodes of the tv shows that I taped this week. It was nice to take a little time off (even though I know I have a ton of reading to catch up on over the weekend!) Tonight I went to the geriatric theater (I call it that because the two friends and I that I went with were pretty much the youngest ones there...we definitely skewed the average age down about a decade!) Maybe I will remember the theater when I am thirty and am needing to feel a bit younger! The theater was decorated in classic 70's style: done in greens and yellows with old couches that smelt like my grandpa's house. It was quite the experience for my friend... during the show my friend got sneezed on by the guy behind her(which made me nearly laugh out loud), and on our way to the car she said the lady next to her kept picking her nose! Good times, Good times, and overall quite the adventure!

weird...

I checked my myspace and it said that my age was 24... that totally doesn't happen till tommorow...today I am 23 and 364&1/2 days and that is sooo not the same!

What do you do?

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day and it hit me... so many of my friends I have or have had are unstable!? why is it that I tend to attract unstable people who are up down and all around? I was talking to a colleague yesterday on the drive to Rupert to visit the boys ranch, and I realized that some acquaintances that I have are just as unstable as clients that I deal with! The hard part is that with friends and acquaintances I am less able to help, because it is literally not my job, (and sometimes not my place) to make suggestions! It sucks because I see poor choices that friends are making in life, and cycles of behavior that they are slipping into, but I really can't do anything about it... sometimes experience is the best teacher I guess? Truth be told everyone is a bit unstable at times... For me it seems that every couple of years I have this internal drive to make a drastic change in my surroundings, but I think that is due more to my addiction to adventure! I guess we all have our vices!!!

Goodness

I have been sitting in the computer lab doing research for my ever so exciting graduate assistantship for hours and needed a break... considering the fact the computer wasn't going to start talking to me I thougth that I would write a little blog! A friend from Americorps found me on myspace and it was crazy to surf around in the NCCC alumni group. It brought back a flood of memories and made me think of stuff I haven't thougth of for quite sometime. I was doing some thinking about where the wind is going to be taking me in about 8 months when I GRADUATE! :)and I have thought about all sorts of options... The UK, New Zealand,the east coast, Seattle, Salt Lake, Portland????????????????????????????? and have come to the conclusion that I really don't know where I want to go! It sucks that I am going to be finishing with the only continuation to my original five year plan, and I don't have a next step planned! I guess I still have 8 months to wrestle with the possibilities, but that is really no conciliation!

The human brain is facinating!

I watched a film today in class about the addictive nature of the brain. At first I thought that it was going to focus just on drug abuse, but it encompassed so much more than the chemicals that humans injest into our bodies. The film compared the brain to a pharmacy that dispenses chemicals. The movie brought up a lot of the same theories about the brain that are covered in the film What the bleep do we know, but without the quantom physics. I love my area of study because I get to be submersed in human behavior which is just so facinating to me...(that is when I am not focusing on STUFF like policy!) Human behavior is so interesting because it spans across EVERYONE! In some areas of study the focus is just the one particular theory or problem, but with human behavior it spans across everyone... family, friends, aquaintances, strangers, and even ourselves... Why do you act the way you do??????

You learn something new everyday...

So I was typing along doing case notes on my client files, and I came by this little word function... If you press Shift colon, colon, 0 a little smily face appears ☺☺☺☺☺ just like those! (afer awhile you only have to press colon once then 0) you can even make frowny faces by pressing shift, colon, 9... but why would anyone need to make frowny faces?!

And the word of the day is... gentrification!

My word of the day was sparked by a presentation I went to yesterday about neighborhood change, it was interesting! The woman talked so fast it was amazing, but that is besides the point. Life is just trucking along at warped speed lately! It is amazing to me how fast time is flying. I had my very first home visit today, and I was pretty anxious about it. It ended up going fairly well? but I guess time will tell... I felt like they were all scrutinizing me, butI guess I was probably being hyper sensitive!? It is good to actually be out there doing the work instead of watching other people do it... I was beginning to get restless! I actually had a supervisory meeting yesterday! I am just going to have to be super assertive to make sure that they happen on a regular basis. I was glad that it happened yesterday so that I could ease some concerns about today... cause if not I would have gone to the meeting even less sure of myself!

On your mark...get set... GO!

This week has just been fast and furious! I found out that my graduate assistantship involves me doing the literature review for two professors proposed research... which means that I am going to be starring at a computer screen looking up articles in the library for 11 hours a week, could be worse I suppose! I am staying at my current practicum placement, which I have mixed feelings about. I have no doubt that I am competent enough to do what their expecting me to do, but it is also supposed to be a learning experience (not just an unpaid work situation!) I have only had one real meeting with my supposed practicum advisor so as can be imagined I feel a bit abandoned out there just winging it!I have in the last two days taken on my first two cases... I am struggling a bit, at times I feel like I am in over my head! I am a little anxious that the professionals and families involved won't take me seriously, but at the same time I have the very same credentials that half of the professionals involved have... feeling a little unsure of myself I suppose. I guess I am getting ahead of myself, because I don't even meet with the first family until next week. Time will tell I suppose I will just have to fake confidence until I feel it!

surviving the witch hunt...

I was in my class tonight and we had a speaker from a professional organization for a particular occupation. The beginning of the presentation was about political action as a necessity of fulfilling ethical obligations to the profession. Basically he was saying that professional ethics and codes of conduct supersede that of religious codes and conducts... there in was the beginning! The presentation during the question and answer session took a turn down hill in which the presenter was singling out a particular religion and it's beliefs for scrutinization... I just happened to belong to that particular religion! I felt my face get hot as he was throwing out practices with such disdain, he was trying to place logic to behavior without the background of knowledge necessary for understanding. He made a comment that I just couldn't swallow... He said that it is necessary to base legislation solely on evidence based research...(that is NOT possible when you are dealing with religious beliefs at all it is scientology vs religion!) I was impressed that individuals that were not part of my particular faith were able to recognize the biases that the speaker was presenting during his presentation, because all involved recognized the anti-religious soap box that this individual was towering so high upon! It was an over-all interesting experience and helped me to reflect on where my priorities really lie!

Ironic!

I thought it quite ironic that the only comment on my post about getting spammed was a spam?! Crazy! On another note I had a perdy good weekend... I loved the opportunity to be instructed and edified by the good word, but it makes me sad that I keep falling into the same crappy patterns of behavior :{ I made my fam a turkey dinner yesterday with all the fixins... It was my first time making turkey, and if I do say so myself it turned out pretty fantabulous! Sundays are my days to cook dinner for my family and I was getting bored with the same ol', same ol' roast and potatoes! It was lot's of fun making a turkey dinner, but it was a lot of work too... no wonder people typically just do turkey dinners a couple times a year! I attempted to teach my brothers how to make cinnamon rolls (at my mom's request) I say attempted because I don't think they got much out of it. I ended up doing the majority of it myself while trying to keep them in the same room! Ah well at least they know what it means to scald milk!?