Saturday, April 30, 2011

Things I dread

This list is not going to be exhaustive, by any means. But some things are just in the forefront because they either just happened, or they have to get done. :)

1. Getting my oil change. I hate the moment when I see the tech heading for the door. Because I know it's going to involve a lot of talk about something I don't understand. And it's going to probably involve more money because I've put off the decision for several oil changes.

2. Cleaning my bathroom. I don't think I need to say more about that.

3. Dusting. Part of that is my fault. I am a clutterer. Dusting would be so much easier if I was a simplist. But aren't surfaces meant for putting stuff on? what else would they be there for.

4. End of the month paperwork. There really isn't any more that I have to do. It's just that there is more of a pressure to get it done on time. I'm pretty good at turning my notes in on time, but I am consistently about 3 hours late, mostly because I have things first thing on Monday morning.

5. Making big decisions. I think I'm pretty good at the little decisions. But the big ones are a little harder for me. They are so much more final once they are made. There are a few exceptions, but not many. Moving to Peoria after graduating was a major decision, but I always had such a peace about it. Buying my hybrid was pure impulse. Amy and I went to look and I came home with it. Have I regretted the decision? Sometimes. The hybrid was second generation at the time (I think) and I can't say that it has lived up to my expectations, but I would have never convinced myself that it wasn't the right choice at the time. And I still do get better gas mileage, just not as better as I would like.

6. Getting to the end of a book. Sometimes I wish they could go on forever. The best books for me are the ones with epilogues that are 10 or 20 years later. Than I know what happened to the characters.

7. Change in general. You would think after 30+ years I would have gotten used to it, but I think I'm a slow learner. Stuck in my ways. Stubborn. Some change is good. Like when you put fresh sheets on the bed. I like that change. Or when I get some new clothes, also a good change. But why should I sit in a different place in church, for example, if I like the place where I usually sit (although I did recently venture out and have found that I like the new place too. Now it's just a matter of deciding which I like more!).

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Sun. Shine.

In my job I encounter many people suffering from depression. Depression is one of those things that is hard to empathize with when you are not feeling depressed. You just want to tell a person, "Buck up. Get over it." I know, isn't that very therapeutic of me. :)

Well, when the sun doesn't shine for almost three weeks, at least not for more than 2.5 seconds, I begin to understand a smidgen of what depression is like. I mean, yesterday, I was rude to people, I was in a bad mood, I was lethargic, I just wanted to lay on the couch and do nothing, I couldn't focus at work, and I was close to tears.

Today, as I was driving home from work, the sun was shining in full force. I don't think I can quite describe how I felt. I was almost giddy. And hyper. And I came home and got more done than I have all week. I mean, laundry had been sitting out in the living room since Monday (I know some people may think that's not a big deal, but I'm usually pretty good about putting laundry away the day I do it). And lets not even talk about the dishes that were exploding across the kitchen.

And I hear the sun is supposed to be shining ALL DAY tomorrow! I am so excited!

And you know it's bad when every morning the weatherman on the radio says "It's going to be a gloomy day today." Gloomy? Is that even a technical weather term? Couldn't he be a little more upbeat than that?

And now I think my roommate and I are going to watch an episode of NCIS. We never do that, so we thought we would treat ourselves :)

On this, my 600th post...

I would like to take a moment to say...Actually I have nothing profound, but I thought, I don't get to these posts very often. You know, the ones that end in 00. :) I feel like it should be acknowledged. There has been a lot that has gone before #600. There will probably be a lot that comes after. I mean, maybe not important stuff or life changing stuff, but at least its stuff that keeps some people coming back for more. Okay, maybe most of them are family members who feel like they have to read. But still, they do read, so I have to keep writing. And that is why I am going to post #601, because I can divide things up and make it look like I write more than I do. And #601 is the real reason I got on here tonight. Sorry #600. You are only going to shine for about as long as it takes to type my next thoughts into another post. But you have been acknowledged. I mean, ask #432. It didn't get a special shout out.

Okay, I must now stop talking to my blog posts as if they can hear me! :)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Living vicariously through someone else's pictures

My mom was just in Georgia for a week for Easter, so my sister-in-law started putting pictures on Facebook. She had captions for many of the pictures but not for this one. So, I commented and said that it was definitely in need of a caption because I wanted to know what was going on. I mean, I don't think you can capture a picture of someone laughing much harder than this! Ann commented back and said that John thought it was hilarious because the goat was rubbing on Grandma's arm like he was a cat. :) It is by far my favorite picture. I just wish I had video to go with it.

Monday, April 25, 2011

I have no idea why I am doing this

I have no idea what made me think of this particular college moment. Well, sort of I do. If you really want to hear my train of thought. I was thinking about the scene from NCIS that I posted on Facebook. And I realized that part of the reason I thought it was so funny is that it was a little over the top, kind of like a skit. Than I thought, skits. I remember the skits we used to do for Campus Crusade. Than I remembered, I was in one of those skits. Than I started remembering that I was a bully in the skit. Than I remembered that I had pictures from the skit. Than I went and got the album so that I could share the pictures with you.
I honestly don't know what the whole skit was about. I went to a college without a football team, so we were the "first GC&SU football team." I'm not really sure how/why I was the bully, but we all thought that it would be funniest for me to play the bully. Something about me being short, I think, but I could be wrong.

Just thought I'd share...

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Titles and the problems that go with them

Remember recently I posted about Chapter Titles and how much I like them in books? Well, this week I realized why adult fiction writers might not bother. I realized that the titles to my blog posts are like chapter titles. And let me tell you. Sometimes I stress (okay, slight exaggeration) about what to title a particular post. I mean, it is what will grab the reader and draw him/her in. Right? So now I think, maybe titles are for the birds. Maybe I should just start titling my post with the number of post that it is. In this case, this post would have been titled #596. But, ultimately, it's not as interesting.

I had a most relaxing day yesterday and woke up at 8:30 today ready to go shopping. I spent WAY too much money but got some really cute stuff. I got a couple dresses for the summer, a pair of shorts, a skirt, and some shirts. Now, if the weather could just get a little bit warmer so I could enjoy the new clothes that I bought...

Friday, April 22, 2011

Planes, Trains, and Lawnmowers

I know everyone will read this post first, but from my previous post, I stated that I thought of something to blog about and couldn't remember. Before I even made it out of bed, I remembered. It wasn't as profound as I remembered, but than, you have to realize that a)rarely, if ever, am I profound (okay, maybe this is just a lesson I have to remember) and b) I had a really long week at work and I was feeling a little loopy last night because I was so tired.

And now for the background story :)

When I moved into Dad and Amy's house several years ago, it was winter. When spring/summer came I quickly realized that a ceiling fan was great, but I was going to need a window fan to pull some cool air into my room. So, I bought one. It became my best friend. But it had one fall back at first. It was really loud. I debated for the first week whether I should return it and get something quieter. But I kept it. And soon, I had trouble sleeping without the sound of this fan. It ran sitting on the floor even in the winter time. Fast forward to last fall. My fan broke. So sad. It wasn't completely devastating (the lack of white noise) because I had added another fan to my room since moving into the apartment (no ceiling fans here). But I still went to the store to buy a fan. Little did I know that fans are seasonal. You can't buy fans at the beginning of winter in Illinois. Well, not with any great variety. You can only buy space heaters. I didn't need one of those. So I suffered (slight exaggeration) the whole winter with just one fan for noise.

But as soon as I could open my window at night again, I realized I missed my little fan that sat in the window. So I made the trip to the aisle where the space heaters were for the winter and I found my old fan sitting on the shelf. With a slight variation: "Quieter model." Hmmm...I liked my noisy fan. But I decided to give it a try.

For the last couple of weeks, I will wake up in the morning and think I hear a lawnmower or a prop plane off in the distance. I think it's slightly odd, but I get up to start my day. Than as I sit down to have my quiet time I turn off the little black fan and realize that it is producing the sound of a lawn mower in the distance. :) I wonder if that means the old fan sounded like a really close lawn mower?

One of my favorite things

I have a friend that keeps an ongoing list of her favorite things. So this morning I would like to tell you about the favorite thing I am experiencing at this exact moment.

Lying in bed at 9:45, listening to the rain and a thunderstorm with my window cracked, snuggled under a blanket, knowing that I don't have anywhere I have to be at any point in time today if I don't want to go. No agenda. No work. Just a lot of nothing (okay, technically there is a lot that I could be doing, but I don't have to, which is the point). And I can handle a rainy day when I can stay inside and it is actually raining. I don't like cloudy days that don't ever produce any rain. But wait, this is about my favorite things. :)

After I type this I am going to do one of three things (because I can't help but keep a mental to-do list, even when I don't have an agenda).

1. Spend some time in the Word reading about events leading up to Christ's death on the cross. Reflecting on what that means for me and all that Christ did so that I could live for eternity with Him.
2. Finish the current fiction book I am reading. Possibly still snuggled under the covers, but maybe I'll move to the couch.
3. Take a shower. :) I don't drink coffee, so showers have always been my coffee. I'm not a very grumpy person in the morning but chances are better that you'll get a more coherent Teresa if you wait to talk to me until after my shower. And for some reason, my voice is a lot quieter in the morning, so sometimes you might have a harder time hearing me if you talk to me before my shower. I guess the shower clears out my vocal chords.

Because I have nothing planned for the next two days and because I have been super busy this last week, you can probably expect several blog posts from me over the weekend. I was composing something in my head as I was falling asleep last night. I thought about moving enough to write it down. But I didn't, and now I can't remember what it was. I'll try to come up with it, because I remember thinking it was a really good idea.

Alrighty then, off I go!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

A blanket, ear muffs, a pair of gloves, and some long johns

A couple of weeks ago the boiler broke at work. It was warm enough last week that I thought it was fixed. But than the temperatures dropped this weekend. Enter Monday morning, the most glorious of days because I get to go back to work after those horrible weekends (hee hee, I promise there was no sarcasm in that sentence. Just ask Emily about the happy dance I did on Sunday to psyche myself up for Monday!). I entered the building and thought, Hmmm...it's kind of cold in here. Kind of? Understatement of the year. Most of you know that I am rarely ever cold. I wish I could take a picture of what my life at work has been like for the past two days. I seriously tried typing notes yesterday with gloves on but it just wasn't effective. But I did wear my coat most of the time I was at my desk.

Then today, I woke up to rain. And as I was getting ready for work, it was to thunder. I decided that since I wasn't going into any schools, I didn't want to have to dress up today (not that I really every dress up, but today I really didn't want to). So I wore a long sleeve shirt and a hoodie sweatshirt. And I FROZE all day. I sat with a space heater blowing on my feet. I made hot chocolate just so I could hold it in my hands. I wanted a blanket, and some ear muffs, and a pair of gloves, and some long johns.

I think even I'm ready for some warmer weather!

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Surprise!

So, some people have told me I'm good at keeping secrets. I think it's an admirable trait to have. I don't know if I really am good at keeping secrets. Because the funny thing is, I process through talking, so it's really hard for me to keep things to myself. The key is to process with people who are removed from the secret.

I've been keeping a secret for about a month now. My dad was coming into town for the PCS auction, but they didn't want anyone from the school knowing. So, Dad told me I couldn't tell anyone. Yikes! So I told Danell. She's only met my dad once, she lives in Texas, and she certainly wouldn't tell anyone from PCS. I also told my roommate, because she CAN keep a secret. And I told Kari, who actually has TONS of ties to PCS, but can keep a secret. And I decided it would be too hard to keep this from her. And it turns out, there was a major church event that I would have had to give her an excuse not to help with, so I'm glad I told her.

It was good to have Dad in town. I got two free meals out of the deal today as he saw people he knew and would ask if I could come too! :) It was good to hear how things are going in Arizona. And it was good to spend some one-on-one time with him bcause I rarely ever get that (even when he lived here).

It was also good to hear how the boys are doing that they are parents to. I only spent about a day with the boys, but I feel like I know them a lot better than that, so it was good to hear stories about them. They have one new boy in the house that I haven't gotten to meet yet.

And I got to play Ticket to Ride with Dad! :) We were pretty evenly matched, I'd say. All in all, it was a good weekend!

Bladders :)

God made every part of our bodies for a purpose. I've often questioned what the purpose (besides the obvious) of my small bladder was. Today, at church I realized the reason for my small bladder. Fellowship, community, a chance to catch up. :) I was washing my hands today and saw a friend at the sink beside me. I said hello, we caught up on a few things. I laughed and told her that if it wasn't for my bladder, I would never see some people at church. She laughed and agreed with me. We decided that God gave us a small bladder so that we could have a chance to see each other and further our relationships! She told me I should blog about it, so here I am, blogging about the reason for my small bladder! :)

Friday, April 15, 2011

June 3rd

You know you're a big fan of a certain television show when you here a date in real life and it reminds you about that show :). That has happened to me twice in the last two weeks. And when something happens twice, it is enough times that you should blog about it!

Last week I was listening to the radio while getting ready for work and they announced that a comedian was coming to town on June 3rd. I sat there for a few seconds thinking, "June 3rd. June 3rd. That sounds familiar. Do I have something going on that day?" Than it hit me, I smiled, put my makeup down, and ran for my phone. I texted Kinsey and said, "Is June 3rd the day that Luke and Lorelai were supposed to get married?" She texted me back with a quote from the show.

Than, today I was skimming my blog to see who had posted something new and I see the title "June 3rd." My first thought was again, "That was the day Lorelai and Luke were supposed to get married. Surely, that's not what Jill is blogging about." I clicked the link, only to find that Jill is not obsessed with Gilmore Girls like I am.

Apparently, things happen in real life on June 3rd as well. Like comedians coming to town and babies being born, just to name a few.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

I don't really want to jinx it, but...

I heard a rumor several weeks ago that something AMAZING is going to happen in Peoria. I mean, life altering, people! But I have been cautiously optimistic. I haven't shared it with many people, because, well, what if it is just a rumor? What if I announce for millions to read hear on my blog, and than it never happens? Will people think I'm a liar. Will it spread like wild fire and than more and more people will be disappointed? I mean, really, I think lives are at stake here. What's a girl to do? So, you didn't hear it from me. A little birdie told me that Peoria is going to be getting a Chick-fil-a AND a Chipotle!!!!! Yes, all my food dreams will come true! :) Okay, maybe not all of them. They would have to get rid of gross, nasty MacAllister's and bring back Fazoli's for that to really happen. And maybe put in a good shaved ice stand in the summer (they had them all over Fort Worth during the summer). But after that I'd be set. Oh, and Blue Bell ice cream in the stores, specifically birthday cake. But after that I really would be happy as a clam. But remember, you did not hear from me that Chick-fil-a and Chipotle will be coming to Peoria. And I don't know when. Just that there is a place picked out near Northwoods Mall.

Monday, April 11, 2011

One good thing about being single

You know it has been crazy weather when your laundry for the last two weeks includes (but is not limited to) sweaters, long sleeve shirts, short sleeve shirts, tank tops, jeans, and shorts. I'm liking the spring weather much more now that it is back in the mid-60s. It was way too soon for 80 degree weather. Oh, so why is it good to be single, you ask? Because I was thinking of what I wanted to post today and realized that some people might think it's crazy that I am doing two weeks worth of laundry. But that's normal for me. I may throw in some random things here or there but for the most part I only do my laundry every other week. It's great, because it's one of my least favorite chores!

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Don't worry, you're in the right place

I don't like a lot of change in my life, but somehow, every once in awhile, my blog needs a good sprucing! :) This is the third title I've had for my blog and who knows how many times I've changed the background. But this is the first time I've changed the fonts, which might be something I play around with a lot. I haven't decided if I like these fonts or not. But don't worry. Same me. Different background. Different title. Different fonts.

Waiting for the Other Shoe to Drop

I am currently reading through the Little House on the Prairie books. I am really enjoying them. I just started the third book this morning before I dragged myself out of bed to start my day. I loved this series as a child, but am learning that I really don't remember much of the books, so it has been fun to experience them again as an adult. One thing I have enjoyed, that I forgot I liked as a child, is chapter titles. How come adult fiction books rarely ever title their chapters? Just numbers. One, Two, Three. School Days, Winter Evening, Winter Night. So much better. The title of this post is a chapter title from a book I remember reading as a child. I cannot remember the name of the book. And I don't even really remember what the book was about. But I remember that there was a chapter about one shoe dropping and than another chapter titled "Waiting for the other shoe to drop." Isn't it funny how certain things stick in your memory? I kind of wish I knew what the book was, because it makes me want to read it again! All that to say, I wish adult books had chapter titles! :)

Friday, April 8, 2011

Meet Little Cuddles and Big Cuddles

Almost 10 years ago, I worked at a Christian bookstore in Georgia. That spring, I bought Daynah a stuffed animal that I thought was cute. They came in two sizes. I bought her the bigger one. Than I decided I wanted one for myself, but we didn't have any more of the big ones and I couldn't order it, so I bought one of the little ones: Meet Little Cuddles. She's cute and cuddly. But mostly she has been decorative in my room. So, basically, she looks good as new. Daynah thinks this is a travesty. She thinks that I have not loved Little Cuddles enough. Neglected her by just sitting her in my room. You always want a stuffed animal you give to a child to be "the one." You know, the one they choose to make their special stuffed animal. Having younger siblings, I felt the same way. Thus, my plan was to give Daynah and Josh lots of stuffed animals, just to make my chances higher :). I lucked out with Daynah:
Meet Big Cuddles. Loved with a capital L. I wish I had thought to take a picture of the two Cuddles' together when Daynah was here in February, but I didn't. Where little Cuddles is white, big Cuddles is grayish in color. Where little Cuddles has fluffy fur, big Cuddles has lots of matted hair. Where little Cuddles has never had a bath, big Cuddles has been through the washer several times. I love that Daynah has a Cuddles in her life! :)

4/4

It's probably sad/pathetic that I find this tidbit entertaining. But I will share it anyway, because this blog is all about being real :). Emily and I watched an episode of NCIS on Monday (4/4/11). I was just looking at the case for the disc we are on, and the episode we watched on Monday originally aired on 4/4/06. If we moved through the season at the same pace the shows originally aired, we wouldn't be able to watch another episode until 4/18. But we're not moving at that pace, because we are going to watch another episode in a few minutes.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

An Unfortunate Epiphany

I cannot ever write a book.

The End.

Oh my goodness, in so many ways those two sentences are making me laugh in my head. I was penning this blog post in my head on the way home from Bible study after said epiphany, and there are so many directions I could go from here. Needless to say, the directions I will take are the exact reason I can never write a book.

Phrases like...on a side note...let me backtrack...did I tell you (fill in the blank) because it might be important...just so you know (fill in the blank), but that's not really important to the story...

My epiphany really combines two stories from the last month, thus making it an epiphany, because neither thing in and of itself would cause me to come to the conclusion that I could never write a book.

Story numero uno. Last night I was talking to Danell (which was apparently a dangerous thing to do because boy, could I tell some stories from that conversation. But I won't. Because it's not the point of this blog post. Sheesh, my epiphany just keeps smacking me in the face!). We were creating a fictional ending to an event coming up in my life. The fictional ending is not so important and will stay between the two of us, but Danell suggested that part of the ending wasn't good because would I really want someone else to get the credit for the ending? I told her I would just leave that out of the story when I told it to my future children. No big deal. Danell laughed at me. She did, out loud even. She stated that I could never leave such a critical piece of information out of a story. She stated, in fact, that I would not only include that information but I would also include some sort of statement about needing to give the background for the critical statement. I laughed out loud and admitted that she was 100% correct in calling me out on this. End story numero uno.

Story number two. I've had several "conversations" through blog comments and Facebook recently about series of books and the apparent love/hate relationship many of us have with series. I love the character development and the continued ability to live in someone else's life that comes from a good series, but I don't like the needless detail or ways that author's appear to drag a story out in order to get one more book into their series. End story number two.

And now for the epiphany. I could never write a book because I would be the author who included way too much detail that would cause a book to drag on forever and ever. So, don't look for me on any best seller list in the near or distant future. I won't be there. :)

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The Retreat...Finally

I haven't been in the mood to blog lately, but apparently telling my blog readers that I was going to blog about the retreat is making me feel guilty for not actually doing it, so here I am. Blogging about the retreat. I should warn you that this might be a little long.

Our speaker for the weekend was one of Bethany's missionaries. He and his family are living in South Africa but are home until July, so they came to speak at our retreat. Josh mostly works with youth, so he is a very dynamic speaker. He taught three sessions that were all about Cultivating Everyday Faith.

The first session was from Psalm 111 and talked about seeing God work everyday. We first looked at defining God's works from the psalm. We then looked at responding to his awesome works. During this session I was most convicted of how little I tell about what God is doing in my life. I will often talk about what I am doing for God (I went to church. I am going to Bible study. I served in such and such a way.) but I rarely talk about what God is doing in my life, which is so much more important (God blessed me by giving me extra rest. God answered this prayer that I have been praying about. Did you see the awesome sunset that God painted tonight?).

During the second session we looked at the life of Abraham, focusing on questions to cultivate our faith. Questions we asked were: Am I where God wants me? Will God protect me and my family? Will God provide for me? Does God keep His promises? Do I love God more than anything else? As we looked at Abraham's life we found that sometimes he had faith in these situations and sometimes he lacked faith, but ultimately, God called him a man of faith.

During the third session, we talked about how God controls the unknown future as we looked at the first chapter of Ruth. We looked at how to find hope in our present circumstances for the unknown future. We talked about how we shouldn't allow human logic to control the unknown future. And how to recognize that God controls the unknown future. Josh did an excellent job. I had to review my notes over the weekend so that I could better process what I had learned. And typing this has again helped stamp the information in my brain.

What else did we do at the retreat, you might be asking?

We ate. The camp food was soooo good. I was pretty sure I gained about 8.5 pounds. By the end of the weekend, I was eating more per meal than I normally do, especially for breakfast. My last breakfast consisted of two pancakes, two bowls of Fruit Loops, some juice, some bacon, a banana, and an orange. And I pretty much made myself stop there, even though I was tempted to eat another pancake.

We played. Organized games. Free time. Group games. The first night I even willingly (and joyfully) participated in the getting to know you game. Ask Kari, I even mingled like I was supposed to! We played Family Feud and Jeopardy. And we played some minute to win it games. During free time I was talking to the girls who were planning the group games. They asked me what I thought of wheel barrow races. I told them that I would not joyfully participate in that game. As a matter of fact, I would loudly complain and moan and groan about it! Luckily, they didn't make me play.

We slept. Yes, we did do some of this, I promise! The schedule actually allowed for more sleep than past retreats.

We rode in vehicles a lot. 3 1/2 hour trip both ways. On the way there, I rode with a new friend in her car because she had to come back early. I know what you're thinking...she got to listen to 3 1/2 hours of Teresa's stories because they were still getting to know each other! Wasn't she lucky! :) On the way home I was able to ride in one of the vans. And I didn't make the van driver stop for a bathroom break!

There you have it, the retreat in a nutshell! Well in Teresa's version of a nutshell anyway!

A new problem I've discovered about being an adult

I realized this morning that I have started hitting my snooze 5 times for a total snooze time of 30 minutes. That means, if I stopped needing to hit the snooze button, I could technically get 30 more minutes of sleep. Well, not really because the last two snoozes are consistently making me later to work than I want to be. So, back to the title of this blog. When I was in school, I would naturally reset my body alarm every semester. By the end of the semester I might be hitting the snooze 5 times, but at the beginning of the semester, I would be back to a more manageable 2 snoozes. I think it was the newness of the semester. Or the excitement of new classes. Or simply a different schedule altogether. But, now that I'm an adult and no longer operate on a semester system, I have no natural resetting of this system within me. The only solution (obviously) that I can think of is to set my alarm 5 or 10 minutes earlier. I know, it's pathetic that my first obvious choice is not to just get up after 2 snoozes. Or maybe I should go back to school.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Conversations with friends

Danell has already confirmed that her husband thinks we're weird, so I probably shouldn't blog about this, but it's part of who I am. Yesterday, Danell and I entertained ourselves while I was working by sending texts back and forth. Me: Let's meet at the Barnes and Noble in downtown Ft Worth and read The Truth Seeker together! Danell: I'll be there in ten minutes :) Me: It might take me 20! :) Danell: I can just stop for a Dr Pepper while I wait for you. Do you want me to get you one? Me: From Sonic? With light ice? Definitely get me one! Danell: After we read in downtown can we go get hot wings and dip our fries in ranch dressing? Me: Yes. And then we can get a Jamaica Me Crazy after that. If we can't spend the time together in reality, we're going to at least create a perfect day with all our favorite things in our dream land! :)

Life as I've Known it

I just walked outside in my flip-flops to take the trash to the dumpster. I love the change in shoe seasons. It was good to hear that flip-flop-flip-flop. Kind of like I love the first time I wear my clicky boots in the fall. Sorry I have been absent for the last week. This week was one of those weeks where I was just trying to survive until the end. I battled exhaustion most of the week as I recovered from the retreat weekend. I worked the longest week of work that I've worked in a long time. I won't bore you with those details because I don't really want to relive it and because I survived it so it's a moot point (insert flashback to a Friends episode where Joey says "It's a moo point. You know, like a cows opinion." This is what I think about every time I say something is a moot point.). Wednesday I closed my Wheat Thins client. It was a hard day. I had her as a client for a year and 4 months. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but she definitely ranks in the top 5, maybe even number 1. I talked her into admitting that she would miss therapy just a little bit :). I don't know if it counts if I had to talk her into it, but I'm counting it. As she was getting out of the car at her house she said, "Goodbye forever!" I just laughed at her. She didn't really say it in a mean way. I've also opened 4 new clients in two weeks which has added to my exhaustion. New clients take so much more energy, and it was energy I definitely did not have this week. But new clients bring new stories, so I guess that's a positive! My goal is to get more details of the retreat on here before it, too, becomes a moot point (see, same Friends clip running through my head!).