Starbucks

Going to Starbucks, or anywhere that has Starbucks (Barnes and Noble, Target, Dominic's, etc.) makes me so happy. I don't know what it is, whether it is the delicious smell of coffee that wafts into your nose upon entering the establishment, or the delicious yet low calorie frappuccino lights that I drink way into the winter. I had a very busy day today, and tonight I am going to reward myself with some Starbucks. Gotta do something to keep yourself happy.

Exhaustion 101

This has got to be one of the most exhausting weeks I have had in a long while. But exhausting in a good way, like I've been doing a lot of stuff. My internship is just really picking up. There is this 4-year old girl at one of my schools who we have to be with all afternoon when she's there because her behavior is completely out of control. It is ridiculous, we had 6 adults in there on Tuesday and Wednesday to watch 7 children, mainy to keep control of the girl. I don't know if she is going to stay, they are hoping to refer her to an all-day program because there is no way she will be ready to go to kindergarten next year. She just does not know how to act. I feel exhausting after trying to control her all day. Then I worked at Barnes and Noble on Tuesday and Thursday night, and on Wednesday I went out to coffee with a friend I haven't seen since March. We were out for about an hour and forty-five minutes. Pretty sad, huh? I didn't mind since I wanted to watch the rest of Lost, my new favorite show. Now today is the first day I've had to sleep in in awhile, and tomorrow I'm going on a retreat until Sunday with the emerging generation group at my church. My friend Patty is going with me, so that should be fun. Hopefully there will be some interesting people to meet there (i.e. cute boys). I'm trying to plan out my outfits for the weekend but am v. frustrated because I have no money to buy clothes with, and a lot of my clothes are too big for me now, so I feel like I wear the same 5 outfits over and over again, and most of the clothes I have are more for summer. I really need winter clothes (i.e. pants and sweaters). I feel so unstylish. If only I had money, I could dress so cute....

Four-Day weekend

Well, I had a great four day weekend. I didn't do a whole lot, but it was nice to just relax. I saw some friends, played some video games, saw some movies. Everything I like. I have discovered how busy a school social worker really is. There is always somebody else to see, either a student, parent, or teacher, and then there is no time during the day to actually get any paperwork or planning done, so that all has to be done at home. I always feel not enough planned for counseling and group activities, which is hard for me because I am such a planner. But somehow I have been managing to get through everything. Yesterday, I had to do this content learning plan thing for U of I with my two supervisors, and it was kind of an evaluation type thing, and I was really happy with the remarks they were making about how I am doing. It sounds like I'm doing exactly what they are expecting right now and a pretty good job, so that kind of made my day. Now I am relaxing for a moment at the junior high where I just finished up my group before heading back to the elementary school. A rare moment to check emails. Yesterday was a hard day because this three-year old boy in our early childhood program died over the weekend of this rare form of brain cancer. His sister is in our school, so we went into her class to talk to them about death. How do you explain death to an 8 year old? It wasn't easy.

Life and Laguna Beach

Sometimes I wonder if I get suckered into things because I see other people doing them. Like, I've been watching a lot of Laguna Beach lately (not too proud to admit it-in my defense, I like watching all of the interactions between high schoolers because it helps me understand my own high schoolers better to work with them), and also Makeover Story, and they've been getting a lot of hair extensions, so now I've been looking around at hair salons to check on the price of hair extensions. Kind of expensive. I'm thinking about maybe getting them around December. We'll see. I kind of feel like I've been spending all of this time and energy and money on my exterior, and my interior has been kind of crumbling to bits from neglect. Like, I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last night with my mom and I was struck by this part where Willie Wonka makes this enormous chocolate palace for this Indian prince to live in, and it looks fabulous on the outside, but there is nothing of substance to hold it up, so when the prince tries to live in it, it melts on him one day from the hot sun because it can't withstand the heat. I feel a lot like that palace. If only I were made of chocolate, though.... Yum.