Thanksgiving Break!

I am so excited, today was the first of my four days off of both school and work, and it is wonderful. I took a nap this afternoon. I can't remember the last time I took a nap. It's been at least 6 months, I think. I have been busy, busy. I went to another barbecue on Friday night with Kristin, I worked all day on Sunday at Barnes and Nobles, internship Monday day and then went shopping at the outlet mall on Monday night, and then worked all day on Tuesday between internship and Barnes and Noble. And now, rest. It feels so nice not to have to be doing anything. I have family coming in tonight, and so I'm all excited about Thanksgiving tomorrow. Lots of good food and family, and then shopping on Black Friday, my favorite non-official holiday of the year. I have already been scanning newspapers hoping to find some good deals. I am getting behind on movies, I still haven't seen the new Harry Potter film which is kind of driving me crazy, especially because I won't see it until next weekend, like December 3rd. And everyone else has seen it already. The group of peeps I am going to see it with can't see it until that weekend, so alas, I do what I must. And I really want to see Pride and Prejudice but haven't gotten to see that yet, either. I have all these friends I have to return calls to that I haven't gotten a chance to until now. Hopefully this will be a weekend to catch up on some non-work related things. I hope all of you have good breaks as well!

Social times

I had a really busy weekend, but it was really, really good, too. I did a lot of socializing, which was good for my soul. On Friday, I went with my dad and grandma down to Joliet to meet my sister and her husband for lunch. We ate at Red Lobster (yum), went to the mall, and then went to Barnes and Noble there for some half-priced coffee. Friday night, I went to this barbecue with a girl I've been getting to be good friends with at Barnes and Noble. She's a year younger than me and a Christian. She was also an English/French double major in college, so we have a lot in common. She's friends with a bunch of guys from Wheaton Academy who have a weekly Friday night barbecue, so I went with her to that. It was so much fun, it reminded me of college again. It was just a bunch of Christians hanging out together, and we were all around the same age, post-college twenty-somethings. And it didn't hurt that there were probably about 15 people there, and only 5 of us were girls. There were definitely some attractive guys there. I felt proud because I was able to talk to a bunch of strangers and think I did rather well. That's something that has always been a problem for me. I get shy around new people, but I think social work is making me more outgoing because I have to talk with strange people all the time. :)

Then on Saturday my sister came up to meet my mom and I for lunch before going to a babyshower. I did homework in the afternoon, and then went to Woodfield mall that night with one of my high school friends, Willie. We shopped and then saw Derailed in the theatre and then spent an hour in his car talking about relationships. I was getting his guy's perspective on things.

Yesterday I went to church in the morning and then worked at Barnes and Noble from 1-11:30. We had this big holiday meeting with all of the employees at 9, and it was long. I feel so tired this morning now after only 6 hours of sleep last night. My body needs more. But overall, I am feeling a lot happier than I have in a long time. I'm not sure why. Part of it, I know, is because I have started doing my devotions again before I go to bed at night. I am feeling closer to God and it is filling my soul's needs. And I'm feeling successful in my social life because I have been busy with a lot of different people doing fun things. I am really kind of happy to be making a girl friend here in Wheaton. I have lots of great, wonderful friends in other parts of the world, but I like having someone close by who I can do stuff with. We have done something together each weekend for the past three weeks now. She's a cool girl. I guess God does do stuff in his own good timing. I just wish sometimes it were a little faster.

Tough Crowd

I am literally shaking right now as I write this. I just came from a group at the junior high (now I'm eating my blessedly quiet lunch) where I had to make one boy go to the principal's office. He was being so disrespectful and kept talking when I was trying to make them watch a video. I kept giving him warnings and he kept being disrespectful and mocking the video, so I told him he could go back to his study hall. Well, he got really mad and started yelling how he hated me and how I was the one who needed therapy and if I cared about him at all like I said I did then I would be trying to help him instead of sending him to study hall. He was literally standing up and yelling at me, and I wanted to run and hide like a wounded animal. I hate confrontation, and when it is some junior high boy yelling such hateful stuff at me, it makes me feel even worse. I want to cry right now but I need to hold it together until the end of the day. And rationally I know it wasn't me or anything I did. He has an Emotional Disorder diagnosis, which means he reacts very emotionally and out of proportion to the situation, and he doesn't even know me besides. But the words he said sure found their mark. Luckily, he won't be allowed to come to group again, so I won't have to deal with him again. But I feel bad for him, I think that he is a deeply unhappy boy. There are other boys in that group who are also ones I need to keep an eye on. Please pray that this group gets better. They just need very structured activities right now because they cannot handle anything else, which of course means lots of work on my part. The pace is definitely picking up for me in my internship. I have 4 case studies to do where I have to meet with parents to get the student's history, I have one FBA and BIP to develop, I have three kids that I will begin one-on-one counseling, and I have two groups to do. Not to mention everything else that pops up over the course of a day. But overall, it's a really good busy. I like it that my days go by so fast, and I like most of the kids I see every day. Tomorrow through Saturday I'm going to a social work conference, so that will give me a little breather until next week.