Tis the Season...

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!! What a lovely, sunny day.

I watched A Christmas Story 1.5 times on tv today. I might watch it again tonight.

We spent the past few days visiting Bec in Virginia (Go Navy!), and then my parents came down (finally) to spend time with us in our now not-so-new anymore apartment ;) Twas all around a grand 'ole time, but now I'm exhausted from eating too many sweets and lying around watching movies. 'Tis the season.....for a double chin, as I say. Aw heck, that's what New Year's resolutions are for, right? Eat that fruitcake. Actually, it's narsty. Don't.

Speaking of which, I need to write out my resolutions (yes, I actually write them). I write down new things I did/learned in the previous year as well as what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming year.

Here's all I have so far.

In 2007, I:
*Got married
*(Nearly) Conquered my fear of shots/needles
*Realized that eating seafood is not entirely unpleasant
*Made a friend
*Enhanced my repertoire of dance moves
*Started graduate school
*Gained a better appreciation for classical music
*Moved from one overpriced area to another
*Discovered the location of Laos on a world map
*Started a blog (lame)

Tribute to Ant-tea

Yay! She won the Volunteer of the Year award out of everyone in our company! Aww, I'm so proud :) Ah yes, another year at the company prom. Last night was fun.

Everyone looks funny here doin crazy dance moves. Who are these people?

Heck Yes I Did

Made it through my first semester back in school!

The Good Life

This process of the good life is not, I am convinced, a life for the faint-hearted. It involves the stretching and growing of becoming more and more of one's potentialities. It involves the courage to be. It involves launching oneself fully into the stream of life. . . The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.

--Carl Rogers

Happy Hanukkah!

Our New Menorah


Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate! It's awfully early this year, but this freezing weather and yesterday's dumping of snow sure made it feel more like holiday time. Happy, healthy, and bright holiday season to all!

Excited to go home this weekend!! One more final paper to write, two exams, and then I'm done for a month. Woohoo!

Reflection

Today was one of those days where I felt pretty badly, questioned myself profusely, but found that at the end of the day things kind of made sense (unlike this sentence). I wrote about it in my head, wrote about it on paper, and geez, now here I go again.

I felt really badly after my presentation in class today, not because of how I thought I did (although that stunk too), but because of something I said. When I feel that I've done something to someone else that's unacceptable or wrong, if only by my own standards and even if the other person is completely unaffected, I feel it everywhere. In my gut, in my head. And that's how I know. The human conscience is so intensely powerful. I think it's what brings us to our knees when we've forgotten ourselves and compels us to make it right, if not this time, then the other times in the future. And although today has been tough, if I don't experience the emotions and question my own motivations, how will I learn? I'm feeling a bit better now (thank you Ali for the much needed talk!), because it has helped me realize a lot about where I am as a beginning counselor, and more importantly, about being true to myself and my character.

Then I came home and we watched The Namesake (rent it!), which really touched me, stirred up a lot inside, and left me crying through most of it. To me it was about finding yourself, the delicate yet messy complication of all the parts that encompass you and the person you are trying so desperately to be.

Even writing this blog has been so cathartic for me these past few months of transition. I'm myself in every line of it, and write on here with no theme or agenda. I can be serious, introspective, silly, tongue-in-cheek, and even release my oh-so-sarcastic side :) It's helped.

hmmm

going. . . . .



going. . . . .



gone.