Taking up a new hobby...

This weekend was a GREAT weekend. The only part that would make it better...well, two things... one, to make it longer and two, that I didn't feel so crappy on Friday and James and I could have gone to wrestling.

Anyway, Saturday day we chilled and then Saturday night we headed off to the Magic Castle. We had a fabulous night of great magic shared with good friends and fellow magic connoisseurs. Never in a million years did I think I'd be a fan let alone a connoisseur and critic of magic. Yet I am and we saw some great stuff last night. The highlights: Scott Alexander, Jason Byrne, Denny Haney and Tony Picasso. All of them were entertaining and most of them HI-LAR-I-OUS.

Sunday morning was church and breakfast...and a little shopping. It was there at Borders that I decided to take up a new hobby. Origami! I had done some origami this past week as a part of a group that I help co-facilitate. Then in the bookstore an Origami book caught my eye and I then decided now was the time. I have now created two "simple swans" (simple...hah!), one simple bird and then a peahen. I've figured out how to do a squash fold and haven't figured out the crane. I've also made a frog but he is kinda of a mutilated frog. Oops!

We hung out with great friends (and fabulous photographer), Will & Jessica...and their adorable daughter, Charlie! Then home to the beginning of the Indiana Jones trilogy only to have James fall asleep and me distracted by my pursuit to be a disciplined and diligent origamist.

Tomorrow stars Spring 2008. It's a very long, long day tomorrow. Boo! Maybe I'll do some Origami with the reading and homework I have to do this quarter.

Reflections while eating the bunny's head

It's Saturday early evening and I'm enjoying a few quiet moments of rest and reflection. I've just gnawed off the head of a dark chocolate Dove bunny. It was frozen so really the gnawing stopped at the head. I digress...

Monday is the start of the Spring quarter and the start of my last quarter in graduate school. Early June I'll be conferred both an MA in Theology and a MS in Marriage and Family Therapy. I can hardly believe that my graduate school career is coming to an end and that I have to reengage in real life. I remember the anxious feelings I had in finishing my undergraduate degree and then have to navigate real life. I share the same feelings now. The process of resume writing, application completing and interviewing will commence and hopefully at the end will be a full-time therapy job paying a okay wage...a wage that will at least be enough to start paying off my lovely student loans. I'll say goodbye to clients I've known for a year and a way of the grad student life that I've known for more than three years. I'll wait for offers and receive rejections. I'll have new colleagues and new clients while still keeping old clients and old colleagues. I'll collect hours and countdown to licensing. The days and months will roll by and I'll say a year of marriage instead of a few months. One day I'll hopefully find out that a little one resides within me and I'll be wife, therapist... and mom.

So much of life has already passed. Growing up. Getting a bachelor's. My first career. Newlywed. Two master's degrees.

So much of life still awaits. Years of marriage. Babies (if God so blesses us). Licensed therapist. Full private practice.

So, as sad and anxious as I am about the transition that is to become... there are still big dreams to realize ahead. The fruition of those dreams will be that much more amazing than the ones I've even realized and am realizing right now...

I have the success and failures of the past to spur me on. I have a husband who loves and supports me and hopes, vision and dreams to keep crystal clear in my sight.

My anxiety turns to excitement...

Career update

One of my supervisors asked me if I would like to practice under her license and at her office after I graduate. I now have a place to start my private practice and take clients that want to come with me after I finish my practicum. I'm still going to be looking for a community mental health job so I gather hours quickly but I am relieved to have the ball rolling in the next phase of my career.

Yipee... and if you need the name of a therapist... you now know it!

Spring Break and Star Wars

Today is day two of spring break. I'm practicing the art of doing nothing. This is extremely hard for me but at the same time totally what I need. I had a list of all these things I wanted to accomplish on my spring break. I've done a few of things but also realize that I am tired and I am tired of doing. The quarter system does promote this type of lifestyle but it is also a lot like the ebb and flow of my life. You go, go and go and then crash and burn. I am working on balancing that extreme. James is the major player in helping my recovery from myself. The sad reality is that the end of spring break is sooner rather than later. I still have to work and I have many, many clients in the next four days. That reality in itself makes me feel less guilty about being very unproductive and sloth like today.

James and I have been making our way through the Star Wars trilogy. I had of course seen the original movies but hadn't yet seen all of the newer movies. So, Saturday night we sat down to watch Episode I, Sunday night was Episode II and last night was Episode III. Of course James had to break out his green light saber and battled our couch and then me. You'll remember from a previous post that our couch was already defeated once and that not only have I been chopped in half at the waist but after last night I am headless. James still promises to get me a red light saber so we can battle. Oh, I can't wait.

Good feeling...

This week a client asked me if I was going into practice after my time at my practicum site. They noted they felt like they had a good connection with me and would like to carry on with me if at all possible. That was a great feeling.

Now, I just have to figure out the next steps for me in my career. That's a rather large mountain I need to climb soon.

Trip to Ohio

James and I traveled out to Ohio last week. Other than being snowed in on the night we were supposed to leave and having had spent three hours on a plane before we were told that we were snowed in, we had a GREAT time. James put on magic show for Emma's 2nd birthday. Both Carrie and Emma were hamming it up as the assistants. Like mother, like daughter.

My new favorite show: In Treatment

HBO did a clever thing to let people download the first three weeks of In Treatment. I got hooked and am now enjoying a limited subscription to HBO for the duration of the show. :)

It's a fictional show about a therapist, his clients and his own process as a therapist. It airs every weekday night at 9:30pm and this week is Week 7. Each night is dedicated to a different client. For example, every Monday night you see the session with Laura and Tuesday night the session with Alex is so on. For obvious reasons, I really enjoy this show. I am a therapist albeit novice. It deals with many issues that therapist deals with as well as stories we are familiar with. It's showbiz so it has that dramatic spin to it (for which I am thankful because the kind of pushback he often receives from his clients is crazy) but it is enjoyable to me.

Check it out. You can watch full episodes online on a weekly basis.

Giddyness and lots of posts

I realize a pattern at the end of quarter. I get giddy and then I start posting on my blog incessantly. Call it what you will. I LOVE the end of the quarter. The relief and freedom I feel when it all ends is GREAT. Then we have two weeks off of school. Yipee! I'll still see clients but I welcome the slower pace and change of schedule. I love a little bit more freedom. I was thinking today of goals for that week. I want to put away the rest of the wedding gifts and maybe finishing my thank you notes! Deep clean my increasingly dust laden house. Read for fun. Read for my professional development. Generally get my head together and do some fun stuff that is life giving for me. The tough part is sticking to the goals and not letting time be eaten away by other stuff that doesn't fit into the category as fun or for me.

Then March 31 is the beginning of the end. End of school. End of practicum. Preparation for graduation. Preparation for starting my internship. Endings and beginnings and that seems so crazy to me.

You know you're married when....

1. On the bathroom counter, there is a can of WD-40 and Goof Off.
2. There is a wrench attached to magnet extendo gadget on the desk.
3. The basket on the ottoman contains a can of Zippo lighter fluid encircled by a roll of gaffer's tape.
4. That I know what a ratchet set is now.