Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Playing with stitches.

It's become difficult to not fiddle with the stitches poking out of my hand. When I'm meeting with clients, I have a tendency to want to play with something, and if a pen or paperclip is not readily available (ie in my and already), I have found that I have taken to pulling on the little blue strings hanging out of my palm. It's quite fun, really, though in hindsight may have made my clients a little queasy/question my sanity.

This weekend was wonderful. Saturday, I finished cleaning the apartment (with my gimp hand and all) and managed to get lost going to WalMart to pick up some pictures (you'd think that after living in a place for nine months, you'd know how to get around). My mother in law came over Sunday morning, and we got to play with her for a while. We went hiking, went to church, and then ate an amazing meal prepared by Lori. Seriously, the more time I spend with her, the more I like her. It's so nice to have someone that wonderful living just upstairs. She invited us to go to the temple with her and Devin tomorrow evening, and on Saturday, we're going to see Devin's band play. His band's myspace page is myspace.com/forgottencharity. Have a listen and be jealous that I get to hear them live on Saturday.

So I'm a sucker for advertising, and there is this potent commercial for animal shelters and the like with Sarah McLachlan talking about donating money to help save the lives of these poor little animals with the saddest faces that have been abused and/or abandoned. It makes me want to go to the shelter and adopt a dog/cat right away, but I can only do that so many times before Bobby loses his mind (Peli was adopted from an animal rescue, and with how much I have spoiled her, I don't know that we could really afford another animal at the moment). Instead, I've been looking at another option-- dog training. We've been taking Peli to a puppy class, and she's enrolled in intermediate training and click a trick training (the first starts May 21st and the other in July), and after those she'll be doing advanced training and good citizen training, all so she can become a therapy dog. After finishing the puppy class, we can already tell a huge difference in how good she is behaviorally. We don't use a leash when we take her hiking because she always stays close, and when she does wander off a little bit, she looks back to make sure she can see us still and always comes when we call her. She was making me nervous yesterday on our hike when she was going down a steep drop to look for sticks, and after a couple times of telling her "no," she stopped. How great is that? Now, if dogs in the shelter were a little more well behaved like Peli is, it would be so much easier for them to be adopted. Bobby makes fun of me for having so many causes, but this is one that I can actually accomplish something in. I want to become a certified dog trainer and then volunteer my services at animal shelters to help "crazy" dogs become more adoptable. In looking at the programs offered to receive the proper education, it looks like it is going to cost a pretty penny, but I would be doing something I absolutely loved. I love helping people, but my experience at Center for Change showed me that I become really emotionally invested, and that's a big no no. If I was helping dogs, then I could become emotionally invested, because I would be training them so they could go to a loving home (and the ones that won't get adopted, I want to be a foster mommy for... now, if I can just convince Bobby of that...). It's always a happy ending that way. No more worries about my clients self harming or committing suicide. What a relief!

That's not to say I don't absolutely adore my internship, because I do (even if my clients have frustrating days, like today... hoo, boy). I recently moved into an office with a case manager who is graduating this week, and I found out today that he's a convert to the church and has had similar feelings and reactions to BYU as I have. He's so insightful and bright, and it's nice to know someone else out here who is a convert and has questioned a lot of things because of the culture of the campus. I am truly grateful I have figured out how to separate the gospel from different means of application. I know the church is true, and that Christ is at the head of this church. I'm not perfect all the time, and it's unfair of me to expect others to be. BYU is a collection of people, and people make mistakes sometimes. If BYU was the gospel in perfect application, it wouldn't be on this earth anymore. I'm not to the point where I can fogive BYU as easily for those little kinks in the makeup as other campuses, but eh. If I were perfect, I wouldn't be here either.

I'm so happy right now. Life is going so well, and I'm not even on my prozac. Here's to maintaining this feeling.

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