Friday, September 24, 2010

Feeling kind of old and doubling over laughing because of it!

As you can see from my last two posts, I'm in a random mood. And I keep forgetting things I want to blog about so you're getting lots of small posts instead of one long one. Plus, my roommate might kick me out after she sees that I did, in fact, publish this story!

Tonight she asked me how long high school football games are. First of all, I'm not a football fan. Second of all, my answer was "I haven't been in high school in 13 years. No wait--12. No wait, it was 13." (Remember, I'm not so good at math).

But that reminded me of a conversation that has been ongoing in our apartment because it tickles my funny bone. I was telling her a random conversation I had with someone else that ended with us talking about me dating a pro football player and having to be interested in football. At the end of the story, Emily said she didn't think I should worry about dating a pro football player. She stated that at this point in our lives we could maybe date retired pro football players, but not actual pro football players. And that means I wouldn't have to worry about looking interested in football on national TV! Okay, that didn't sound very funny when I read it. But while the story doesn't translate well onto the blog, rest assured, it has brought great amusement to some pretty stressful days this week!

Odd reminiscing

I started a new Bible study a couple of weeks ago. The book we were given is loose-leaf, so I needed a notebook to put it in. Check. Then I decided that instead of taking notes from the video in my little church notebook that I usually use, I would use good ole' college ruled loose-leaf paper. So, last night I pulled out my paper at the table to watch the video and take notes. It was a major deja vu moment. I guess there are times I really do miss school. But I'd much rather relive it this way with no tests or stress! Did I mention my notebook has a big ladybug on it...no boring colored notebooks for me! :)

So maybe I'm a little "quirky"

If I get an email that someone has posted a comment on my blog, I delete the email, go to my blog and read the comment directly on my blog. I never open the email.

If I get an email about something from Facebook, I open the email and read what the comment was. I rarely ever go to Facebook first.

If I'm on Facebook and I see that someone has posted on their blog, I never click on the link from Facebook to read the new post. I always go to the person's blog directly.

Sometimes I don't even understand my own quirkiness, let alone trying to figure out the quirks of others! :)

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Knowing people's names

Creepy? Kind? Good customer service? Pathetic? Those are the words that come to mind, but all for different situations.

Today, I stopped by the Chinese place by my old office. I walked up to the counter and the man said, "Teresa, what would you like to order today?" Granted, I have been eating there for 4 years, and most of the time I call in my order and give him my name, but it still made me feel...pathetic. Because I eat there so much. But it also makes me feel good that he remembers my name.

And for another story...I know, two in one day...I hope I'm not giving anyone a heart attack. The way my schedule is right now, I go to Pekin 3-5 days a week. They are doing construction in a very inconvenient place that I haven't figured out a way to conveniently bypass yet. And I often forget that it's there so I don't always give myself enough time to get where I'm going. Luckily today I just went from one client's house to Pekin even though I would be getting there early (or so I thought) because it took 45 minutes to get to the house! It normally takes me about 20-25 minutes. But the thing that irritates me the most is the drivers who decide to ride in the lane that is closing until the last possible second and cut in front of all the other cars who have been waiting a really long time because of the cut-in-front cars! But then I felt really bad because I was purposely riding the fender of the car in front of me so that no one could cut in front of me. I mean, seriously, those cars probably added 10 minutes to my trip. Okay, deep breaths. I'm over it now. Well, until tomorrow when I have to sit in the traffic again. If my car was bigger, I would straddle the two lines so no one could get through, but I'm not quite that aggressive :).

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Waiting

Don't worry...it's Saturday. I'm not waiting for anything profound or mysterious. But I'm a little ashamed to admit what I am waiting for...

The return of prime time television. I have been waiting for NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles to start since the beginning of September! I just finished watching the last two episodes of each show from last season to prepare me for the new shows on Tuesday! :) And every week I go to cbs.com to see if they have any previews for the new shows. I even set up the VCR (aren't I old-school) on Tuesday to record so that I could see if they put any previews there!

And I'm thinking of watching the first episode of Hawaii Five-O. The previews have me intrigued. We'll see if I continue to watch it.

Monday, September 13, 2010

A funny (or gross) story...all about the perspective

I almost forgot this client story until this morning in supervision. Last week I had a 7 year old male client. I took him to the park. Not my first choice because he is severely ADHD and doesn't often think about the consequences of his actions. But we normally meet at my supervisor's church and it was locked. Anyway, we went to the Pekin lagoon. While we were there, my client had to go to the bathroom. Since they were setting up for the Marigold Festival, there were port-a-potties close by. We ran (only because he doesn't really know how to walk). When he came out of the bathroom, he exclaimed "That was awesome!" He couldn't stop talking about how totally cool that bathroom was. He described it to me. I tried to sound completely interested (since that's what a good therapist does) but inside was gagging because I didn't think ever in my life I would use the word awesome and port-a-potty in the same sentence! Like I said...it's all about the perspective!

Monday, September 6, 2010

To Blog or Not to Blog

It has been 3 weeks since I have blogged! To say the least, my life got a little bit crazy once I got back from vacation! And then the decision becomes, do I play catch up on the last 3 weeks, or do I just start from today (this is why I don't keep a journal, because I get frustrated when I don't write in it for awhile and then I just stop writing altogether).

I don't want this to be a melancholy, woe is me, post, which is part of the problem. I want to give some honest answers to what has been going on, but I don't want to complain or sound like I have a horrible life :). Because I don't. I am very blessed to have family and friends who love me.

Dad, Amy, Daynah, Josh, and the 3 cats left for Arizona on Wednesday morning. It has been an up and down week emotionally. This weekend was hard because, being a holiday weekend, I would have spent quite a bit of time at the house with them. I get teary at random times, and have been over the top emotional anyway. I cried buckets reading a book that I have read at least 5 times. I cried during at least two movies I watched this weekend. I cried when I talked to Dad on the phone to see how they were settling in. I cried when I had to eat frozen chicken fingers for lunch yesterday instead of something cooked on the grill.

But I've also laughed a lot. Kari's family adopted me Saturday night for dinner and games. That was a lot of fun. Emily has been a great roommate and kept me company throughout the week and listened to me, no matter how silly or sappy I would get.

And always, I have a great Lord who wants to shower me with His blessings. Two weeks ago I went on a weekend retreat with my Sunday School class. The speaker spoke about God's will and also gave us some tangible ways to break down affliction/suffering/trials so that we can see what God is up to in our lives. With that, he gave us lots of Scripture to apply the questions to. So, I have been going through those Scriptures each morning to discover what I can learn from this particular trial in my life. Over and over again, I come back to several facts. First, God is a God of love. Second, God calls me to suffering so that I can share His glory and goodness with others. Third, God has a good purpose for my life. Fourth, God does not have a plan B for my life and He knows exactly what He is doing. Fifth, I need to stop trying to what-if my way through this situation and move on to the what-now. Sixth, God fills His Word with "so that" statements so that I can know His purpose. It is not a mystery. They have been good lessons to learn, and I look forward to continuing to learn them in the coming weeks.

On top of my family moving, I have been getting geared up for AWANA. It starts this Wednesday and I am getting really excited for the new year. It is daunting to think about but also something I am familiar with. I am ready for the school year routine to settle back in. I also start a new Bible study on Thursday night, different from the Career Impact study that I normally do, so I'm excited to see what God is going to do through this study. My work schedule has been crazy since school is back in session and clients haven't gotten used to the new schedule yet. I'm ready for that to settle down a little bit.

This three day weekend could not have come at a better time. I have filled it with basically nothing. My only plan was dinner on Saturday night and church on Sunday. I have completed two puzzles. I finished a book and am pretty far into a second book. I have watched five movies. Basically I have relaxed. Today I need to get some things accomplished, like cleaning and doing some organizing, but other than that, I'm going to continue to relax.

There you have it, a "brief" catch up on my last three weeks.