last month

I just had my last spring break of my life...a whole 3 days off of classes! I got to go back to mn for a few days and saw amazing friends. I don't think I had an hour when I wasn't seeing someone. I love it. Also, went to Iowa to meet my roomie and ry-roomie while I was back...got an awesome "kum and go" gas station mug present! yes, I guess that is a chain of gas stations in Iowa, who would EVER have thought to name it that! Love it. In between hanging out with long time friends, I tried to fit in family bonding time too. Now I'm back in Oregon and getting ready to have a long day at work tomorrow.
The crappy thing about actually taking a "spring break" is that I fell behind in homework. I'm in the LAST month of classes, which means I'm working by ass off to visit AA meetings, write my dissertation/reports for class/practicum reports, and watch video tapes from my TA position. Pretty sure the anxiety is in high swing, so I'm hoping to make it through this month with all my hair on my head!

if you're bored

I came across a pretty funny site today, maybe it's the psychology nerdiness coming out! But if you have a spare moment and looking for a fun website...check this out.
iamneurotic.com

I like it alot!

Enjoy

relief at last

i'm moving to IDAHO for internship! and...I get to go with one of my roommates, Jen and her new future husband! not that'll we will be moving in together just living in the same town and at the same internship site :) yay!!! i'm so glad this terrible process is over

phew!

i matched today!!! i got my email at 5:21 am that said "Congratulations You have been matched to an internship position." I was very relieved..at least half way. Now there is the stress of WHERE i matched. I get another email Monday morning that will let me know what part of the country and when I will need to move. so anxiety will be hiked up again sunday night.

match day

tomorrow is the infamous "match day" for all psychology doctoral students in the country. it's the day that we find out if any of our interview sites liked us and we liked them enough to match and have an internship next year. i'm expecting an email by 8am tomorrow that tells me IF i matched...a yes or no if any of the internship sites I visited in January will be where I go. Needless to say, this is one of the most stressed i've been about anything ever. i feel that i've been good at ignoring the whole thing until this morning when my anxiety started to step into high gear. in an effort to not stress out i started looking for stress relievers online. the best so far is:
http://www.midnightfun.co.uk/modules/bubblewrap/

I particularly enjoy the creepy voice when you start a new sheet and the "manic" mode which is like rapid fire! next best thing to have a room completely padded in bubble wrap!

certified

i certified my rank order for internship last night. nothing like the avoidance strategy of waiting til the last 24 hours...

Internship sites!

FULL PASS

got a full pass on my dissertation prelim...thus i'm approved to apply to internship, yes!!

essays

just finished my theoretical orientation essay! only 2 more to go...research and diversity! woohoo

prelim

i have my dissertation prelim tomorrow at 12:30! needless to say, i don't have a ton of time to blog about it since i need to organize my presentation. i have 3 potential options...full pass, provisional pass, or no pass.

flat tires

One of the things that sucks about my days is that often other "business' hours" don't fit with mine. For example, I got a flat tire yesterday. My tires are not old and so are under some kind of warranty. The funny thing about warranties is you can't go to joe shmo across the street. The other "funny" thing is that the place is closed on Sundays, and closes at 6 during the week. Since I work 8-6 and don't get home til 7, I'm a little at a loss. This combination of events makes it near impossible to get my tire fixed before Thursday!! Can't wait until I have a normal job and schedule like the other 95% of the world.

to do:

* find more internship sites to apply to
* write essays
* update CV
* calculate client hours
* find sample reports
* forum posts for class
* Supervision log
* Grade
* find a ride to work tomorrow

new stuff

I'm missing my "roomie". I get to see her for dinner tomorrow...which reminds me I haven't called her...I'll call you tonight chelle! The next week is so, so busy and then I think I sort of have a week off. yay! my dissertation prelim is scheduled finally, so I'm meeting with my committee on Oct 16th to see if they like me enough to let me continue :) Also, their pass on my dissertation gives me clearance to apply to internship. So, just a little bit is riding on this!
I also bought my ticket for New Years tonight! It's going to be one doosey of a flight...leaving Vancouver BC at 8:20pm and flying all night to arrive in Jacksonville at 10:30am the next day! whew. Maybe I'll invest in one of those airline sleep sack things that I saw in the Inflight magazine.

whistler, bc

I'm going to Whistler this Christmas with my friend Jen! So I've been trying to scope out some deals on ski jackets and clothing. I found this today at The House online. Great deal and SO cute! I ordered it today, can't wait for it to arrive!

hahaha

The cockberg was photographed by Andy Rouse* in the Bransfield Strait near Antarctica.

fire retardant clocks

So at GFU most of the graduate programs are at a smaller campus in the city rather than the main campus. However, my program is one of the only graduate programs on the main campus. We used to be relegated to a small corner of one of the buildings and tried to juggle all of our classes between 2 rooms. Furthermore we've gone through a lot of changes over the past 2 years. From trying to hold class in a room with literal jackhammers outside or cranes accidently breaking through windows, to being moved into the old hospital before it was ready and having empty buckets catch dripping water right next to our laptops. My cohort has seen it all to be sure!

With all of that you'd think I'd be happy with having a decently renovated building with our own space finally. But there always has to be someone create more red tape and stupid rules. Over the past 2 semesters all of our clocks in our classrooms have slowly been disappearing. It was until today that I found out our security people have been taking down our clocks because they are not fire retardant!!! honestly, wtf?!? fire retardant clocks?? are you serious GFU??? God forbid we have a fire and the 12" clock on the wall is the one thing responsible for burning down the building!

I found myself looking at the empty space on the wall all day hoping for the end of class yet not knowing how much more I had to wait...Also, I google searched for fire retardant clocks and I don't think they even exist!!

"They are young, mostly girls, and they are slaves. They do not receive payment for their services, which are legion inside the massive warehouse. They launder bedding for an international hotel chain, fix watches for a Korean watch maker, manufacture fireworks for an American Indian reservation and stamp seals on plastic cups, which are exported to the United States. They eat and sleep where they work, and many have not been outside the building in years."

~http://freedomprojectinternational.org/

single and looking

i'm looking for a cheap sewing machine if anyone knows of someone trying to get rid of one...

the P.O. crew on the 4th of July

summer '08

I only have 3 more shifts left at the crappy summer tux shop job...last day is Saturday and I'm so glad to be done. I've gone back every summer since I've lived out here and this one is the shortest so far. I'm SO done with crappy retail jobs with managers who don't know how to do their jobs and seem to think I care if we meet our weekly goal or not. ridiculous. and so this is my last week at mr f. and I couldn't be happier about it!


Summer has been great. I've been able to relax and have a blast with my good friends out here in Oregon. Also, had some of my favorite people ever from MN come out and visit earlier this summer! I can't say how nice it is to meet friendly faces from back home at the airport. It's refreshing for me and probably a little bit selfish. But I know it's not easy for them to get out here and I love them so so much. So I thank you guys, you know who you are!!!


Oregon adventures this year have been amazing! State Fair in Salem is coming up and I plan on seeing if they have as many "foods on a stick" as the MN fair. Also, I'm going to miss the butter carving of the dairy princess! Best 4th of July of my life up in P.O. thanks to the wonderful people out here that keep me sane and out of "school" mode every once and a while :) I don't know why I'm so lucky to have the people I do in my life! OH, and Dave Matthews at the Gorge Amphitheater is coming up in a week and I think I'm too excited to sleep already! omg...


Lets see...I guess classes start in about 2 weeks. That's got to get any grad student excited, right?!? Maybe excited isn't quite the word considering I've got to haul major ass on my dissertation in order to be OK'd to start application for internship. Plus, I am doing a year long Grad Assistantship which will be supervising 1st year grad students in their beginning clinical/therapy work. I'll have my own little group of students to supervise and watch endless hours of "1st year therapists" :) I'm also starting to look at internship sites that I may be interested in applying to...so if anyone has recommendations for geographic locations to avoid let me know!!


I also started my clinical practicum site for the year about 1 month ago. I'm seeing patients, all ages all diagnoses, at a big medical corporation in the area. I've already been putting in 14 hour days and it's been challenging. I swear I'll be ready for anything internship throws at me :)


So, those are the latest updates. Nothing else big, yet. More to come I'm sure