I ate old beans.

School starts in a week (well, technically, five days). I'm ready to pee my pants in anticipation. It's a little bittersweet, because it is a short program and it means that after this Thursday, I only have one more first day of the semester (and I'm a geeky kid who really enjoys school), but on the other hand, I really like school! So Thursday is a very exciting day for me.

A week from Monday also marks the first day of my practicum at Valeo in Topeka, which I'm pretty excited about. At first, I had no idea how I was going to jump into a clinical setting and be able to actually do psychotherapy, but after looking over the orientation materials, I'm feeling a little more calm about the whole thing. I can tell that I'm getting back into the love I have for my field (my BSW level position burned me out a bit) because I went to the library the other day and left with my arms full of books that were all sorts of social work-y and documentaries to match. I've already read through An Unquiet Mind and encourage anyone and everyone to pick it up. It really humanizes mental illness, bipolar disorder in particular. It's also incredibly well written, so I managed to finish it in a couple days.

I'm a little in love with my Blackberry. It's having some technical issues (or I'm having some technical issues-- jury's still out), but for the most part, it's amazing. And orange. Which I also love. Right now, I have Pandora going on my phone, which is delightful since I have a bandwidth cap on my home internet, but unlimited data on my phone (three cheers for having a husband who works for Sprint), so I get to listen to all the Owl City radio station I want. Delightful. I also spent much of my morning in my sick bed (see the title of this blog) watching Grey's Anatomy on Sprint TV. uhMAYzing. PS: If you didn't know, Season 5 comes out September 15th, which gives me just over a week to re-watch the season before Season 6 premiers on the 24th. In case you were wondering, yes-- it is VERY important to re-watch the previous season. Never mind that I'll be in graduate school with a 24 hour a week practicum with a 1.5 hour commute three days a week and working part time on top of it all. My goal this semester is to not procrastinate at all... let's see how well that pans out.

On that note, I'm really glad we opted to get rid of the nutrition class. On our first day at church here, Bobby and I saw that some sort of program was needed. We had really high hopes for the exercise group and the nutrition class, and in the beginning, there was a lot of excitement. Then it faded to the point where no one was interested at all. It was the epitome of "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it eat its fruits and veggies." I find it fascinating how our culture has evolved to the point where the people who eat right and exercise are "fanatics," and it's considered politically incorrect to call someone's extra weight or obesity a problem, and even suggesting they change their lifestyle so they can become healthier is insulting. Maybe when Bobby goes through his graduate program, he'll learn techniques for approaching individuals in such a way that they find less aggressive and more genuine, which is actually how he feels. I guess the bright side of people not being ready/willing to change is that I now have 5 extra hours a week where I'm not preparing and giving a class. That means more time for class, and more time for keeping up with my homework.

I'm really excited about this semester. I have a really good feeling for what's to come.