March 30's List (Day 30!): To My Future Self... Take time to smell the roses : Time just goes too fast. Remember to focus on what really matters : What my hair looked like or what my outfit was today won't matter when I think back 10 years from now. How I loved Philip and others in my life will matter. Continue to view life through the eyes of a child : I want to always feel wonder and be curious, even if others think I am naive. I'm back from DC! I love traveling, but I think we all get those small twinges of anxiety over it, especially when flying, so I'm glad to be safely back on the ground where I belong and feel comfortable. I'll make a post about my time there later on, probably tomorrow.
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Things to be excited about this weekend: 1. A quiet, but productive, Friday night (cleaning, laundry). 2. Sleeping in and getting manicure at Fox and Hound's on Saturday. 3. My daddy's wienie roast (perfect weather, bonfire in the backyard, my aunt's pumpkin cookies with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting, s'mores, lots of other ridiculously delicious and calorically abominable foods, seeing family and family friends, talking about being engaged, etc.). 4. Sleeping in again on Sunday, but this time with my fiance. 5. Watching Hocus Pocus , Sleepy Hollow , Ghost Hunters , American Horror Story , and How I Met Your Mother while snuggled up with my fiance. 6. Hopefully going to see Calvary United Methodist Church and deciding if that's the place for sure. 7. Busy Corner (chicken melt) and Janet's cake with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday. 8. More tv/dvd watching and snuggling with my fiance. Yaaay. Pretty much my favorite weekend of ...
Today's List (Day 3): Things I'm Looking Forward To 1. My birthday 2. The 4th of July 3. Getting a full-time and permanent job 4. Having insurance and vacation time 5. Moving in with my love for the first time 6. Getting engaged 7. Getting a doggy 8. Planning our wedding 9. Getting married 10. Going on our honeymoon
My Best Year Yet 2011 "May this be a year that I love to live. Have fun, achieve, have much to give, Pursue, attain, forgive, forget. In short, may it be my best year yet." - Russell A. Kemp Dr. Phyllis put this up at the beginning of our first capstone class on Wednesday. I thought it was nice way to start the semester, especially since many of the things that we talked about during class were/are very stress-inducing (resumes, cover letters, job searching, interviews). In some ways I do think that 2011 will be one of my best yet... but last year will be quite hard to beat! I'm feeling overwhelmed with all of the stuff I have to do and I can't believe I feel this way this early in the semester. Sometimes I think my feelings of overwhelmption come from being around others who are also overwhelmed. Perhaps the collective stress just weighs us down and gets to all of us even more. I think this semester is going to be particularly hard due to t...
Well, it's official. I'm moving to Stowe, Vermont because I'm winning the HGTV Dream Home Giveaway . I'm also pretty sure there a few colleges nearby that need me as an employee. Seriously, though... look at how gorgeous this house is. Ridiculous. 2011 will be a good year. There will be a lot of major life changes this year. I'll graduate from grad school, I'll get a job (hopefully), and I'll move (possibly, hopefully)... to Vermont. :P Much excitement in the future!
I got $550 worth of pounds for England today from our family friend, Pam, who was able to exchange the money without a fee at her bank. (The money is so beautiful, by the way. Way better than dollar bills. I think the 20£ bill is my favorite, though. Purple, of course.) It's almost like every day now something is happening to make this thing feel even more real. Lately these "things" have been detailed emails from John (supervisor at Cambridge DRC) about my project there and Carrie (who I will live with) about myself, her family, and Cambridge. It's so exciting--I can hardly stand it! I'm not sure if I really want to count down the time I have left at BroMenn or the time until I leave, but... I have 25 working days left at BroMenn and 47 days until I fly to London! The time will go super fast and I realize that. I'm not trying to rush it; I just want to savor my last month at BroMenn because I will miss it. Besides, there are quite a few things to get th...
It is so amazing to me how much better my mood is when the temperatures are warmer and the sun is shining through just a bit. I've been in this weird funk for the past few days. I think it's been a combination of subconscious sadness from the anniversary of Mom's death (6 years), the realization that I have homework over spring break, my resistance to doing that homework, my annoyance with myself for having that resistance, slight PMSing, and other factors. But this morning... ahh--this morning! This morning I walk out the door and it's practically warm enough to not be wearing a coat! A jacket, maybe. And this automatically put me in a better mood. I was even able to walk in to the building from the parking lot and not be uncomfortable. Spectacular. And it might get even better as the week progresses. I heard something about a high of 63! Perhaps spring will really come this year after all. I'm pretty excited because last night I discovered that iTunes has a ...
I was talking to Dad about my visa application being accepted--yes, that's right! ACCEPTED! Then I told him about officially submitting my resignation at Advocate BroMenn yesterday. It was probably a mistake to talk about that because I brought up the fact that the person in my position will have a "significant pay increase" compared to what I make and his opinion is that I should keep the job and still go to school. I'm not going to lie--I've thought about it too since I've known that it would probably be a career-track position. It's a tough spot to be in because I could really use the money. I could continue the program part time and finish in three years instead of two. I just really need the student experience in an assistantship next academic year and if I don't have it, there's basically no reason for me to get the master's degree. I'm not sure if Dad gets that aspect of it. I could go through all of this to get the degree and then...
Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. See? Why do I get nervous? Maybe it's healthy. (Even though it doesn't feel like it most of the time.) I can't stop smiling thinking about the fact that I'm actually going and every day will be surrounded by people who talk like that. I'm so excited about the project I'll be working on--a fabulous opportunity to be in an environment that I know nothing about and to use skills that I haven't used before and to get myself out of my comfort zone. Ahh!!!!! I'm so in love with my future.
It seems like the worry about the future never ends. For months it was the practicum this summer. Now it's the assistantship for next year. I'm wondering if I worried too much about the practicum and have neglected the assistantship--my peers seem ahead of the game on this one. (Not that it's a competition, but it kinda is.) I only have four GA positions that I'm interested in enough to even bother applying. In order from most interest to least interest: 1) Advising at Heartland--I should meet with Cecilia probably some time next week to discuss the possibility of being paid as an GA advisor there. She seemed sort of optimistic when I met with her in December and this would be the ideal situation for me. I cannot express how perfect it would be; it is exactly what I need experience-wise if I have any chance of getting an advising job in the future. 2) Advising Social Work majors at ISU--I'm not even sure if advising at ISU is possible at this point. They may be c...
I really hope this week produces something. I hope that by Friday I can say, "I am going to the University of Cambridge to work in the Disability Resource Center from May 24-July 9 and I will be working on benchmarking for international students with disabilities. And then I will leave for a two week trip in England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales with family friends from July 11-25. And then I'll be coming home!" That would be nice. This week starts class up again. I'm not quite ready. This time I've realized that I'm ready to be done with grad school, minus the practical experiences. My internships, practicums, and graduate assistantships will be very important, but I'm so over writing huge papers and worrying about class presentations. Perhaps I'll feel differently when it's my full-time job to do so and not in addition to my full-time job. I do love learning and enjoy class time. By the looks of the syllabus, this class will be a little bit les...
I always see pictures from people's weddings on facebook and I get jealous. I feel like I'm still grieving not having the perfect set-up in life by now, but at the same time I know that it's just not me at this point to settle down, put on the wedding dress, throw the big party, buy a house, and be bored afterwards. Can't I still have adventure after I do that? Maybe that's why I'm running from it... because I can't. I do love this dress though. I wouldn't want it to be so poofy and I wouldn't do so much bling up top. I love the vintage look of blusher veils, especially this birdcage one. (Too bad it wouldn't go with this dress!)
I've been very bad about this blogging thing and it makes me sad that I haven't kept up with it. The trip really has had me in a whirlwind ever since I returned and it probably won't slow down until the end of September. I am constantly fascinated by how quickly time goes by. It's already been two weeks since I got back. It's been one day since Erin's wedding. It's been one year since Celeste's wedding. It's been six years since I met Philip. Holy crap. My life is literally flashing before my eyes, and I'm not even dying. (Or so I think...) I have some serious living to do in the next few years. I decided that about a year ago. Ever since I became okay with not getting married by a certain age and not having kids by a certain age it really opened up possibilities for me. I will go to England for a summer and I will go to Wilmington, NC or Erie, PA for a summer. I will move away for a job if I have to. I will do as the Romans do. I do not want...