Today was a good day. A busy day day. I had a full day of classes of course, but I woke up late and missed my first one. Good thing it was only Chemistry lecture. I believe I got some good work/learning done in my classes today despite running a little behind.

I am proud of myself – I stayed away from the buffet (it was calling my name too, smelling sooo good…taco day I think and usually I can’t resist some tacos, haha) at school and worked out at the gym today, even though my work-out partner was a no show. I did my 20 minutes on the treadmill and then worked it on the weight machines. I was feeling good and got quite a bit of energy from it.

I am finally beginning to like it – well that isn’t right exactly, it is hard to explain but I crave to make this a consistent part of my routine again but do a better job of it. I want to get in there every day. I rented a locker there and decided to keep some toiletries, towels and work out clothes there to make it easier. I even tried to sign up for a class, African Dance, but no one else has signed up for it yet. I am sad because I think it would be a good class, great exercise and fun. I have been interested in that ever since I saw that African Dance  troupe (Kuungana) at Mott.

I stayed after my classes to catch a spoken work artist, Ise Lyfe. He is a poet, writer, rapper, comedian, and public speaker. Today he kicked off his tour “Is Everybody Stupid?” – a man after my own heart, LOL. The show was put on at UM-Flint to cap off the MLK recognition celebrations.

The show was basically Ise showing a PowerPoint of photos he has taken around the country, and some photos from history while he talked. It was really good, super funny but it had a serious message and made you think about what is going on with our culture in this country, think about history and legacy.  I have thought about many of the points he made but he really brought everything into focus. His main message is to think about things – don’t just follow the culture, trends or your peers blindly; just because the majority is i.e., listening to a certain type of music or artist doesn’t necessarily mean it is good. He touched on a lot of different cultural and historical subjects. I loved it! Though it wasn’t really aimed at a middle aged white woman. I wish more people would have went. I thought there would be more students there, and more English majors but sadly a lot of people missed out.

After the show all in attendance got to meet Ise and have a question and answer session. Mainly it was African American students there, and they all had positive things to say about the show but wished that more of their peers would have made the effort to be there because they really could have benefited from the message. It really is a shame. I also wish more of the after discussion could have made it away from our campus concerns and talked more of larger issues such as how to help Flint create a positive image and race relations. All in all though I was not disappointed, I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot from sitting and listening to what everyone had to say. Bonus – we all got free CD’s!

It was a long day though and I was glad to go home to my husband. Now I am about to crash. Forget homework!

http://www.iselyfe.com/

Happy Martin Luther King, JR. Day everyone and kudo’s to everyone who is serving in remembrance of the man. King was  a great man who lost his life too soon, in service to others. I was thinking about what he did – advocated non-violent protests to promote equality for African Americans (and others), and how big of an impact that had on the Civil Rights movement. He truly was a genuis and a blessing to this country.

I stole this quote from a friend’s FB,

“I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr

I will have to ponder this – words I certainly need to learn to live by.

Another semester beginning …. and recaps …. because it always helps me to look back in order to move forward.

School starts today, yay! Noooo, not yay but I am trying to be positive. I could really use a couple more weeks vacation to relax, work on getting my house and stuff organized, and to write. School is so demanding that I don’t have time to do much else. This semester I am going to try to keep my assignments under control so I can do all those other things – things other than school work.

I was so grouchy yesterday, maybe because I new school was starting today and I only got done half the things I wanted to get done. I will just have to live with it and really keep my New Year’s resolutions to not procrastinate and waste too much time.

Last Semester Recap

Last semester was challenging to say the least. I had 14 credits plus my internship (which is 3 credits and about 10 hours of interning a week) so I was actually carrying 17 credits, or 6 classes which included Wind Symphony. Why the f— did I do that to myself? I learned some lessons during that semester – well I did, but I didn’t because I believe I have about the same load this semester – 17 credits but only 5 classes and no Wind Symphony and no interning. UGH! Anyway, I did well on most of my classes last semester, all but 2 that I had to just let go (It hurts me not to get A’s, ha) and say ‘whatever’. As far as the new semester, I am going to try my hardest to keep everything under control but I am prepared to drop a class if I can’t handle it all – graduation be damned! I can still graduate but I would still have stuff to finish up during Spring semester. I am thinking about getting a Bachelor of Arts anyway and I intend to be on campus in 2011/2012 while I prepare to take my GRE and apply to graduate school.

The highlights of my semester:

I loved my internship. I interned with Dr. D who is PsyD and teaches at UM-Flint as well as does private counseling and grade school (WISC) testing. I was able to sit in on counseling sessions with him and I learned a lot. Dr. D mainly counsels children so I was able to participate in some sessions (I played with the kids) which was fun. The whole experience helped me to realize three things: 1) I really love counseling; it is a job I would enjoy and I wouldn’t even get all sad about people’s problems; 2)Even though I need a lot of training, it is something I can do and excel at; 3) I would love to work with children. Previously I wasn’t sure about working with children because I thought I wouldn’t have the energy for it. While there were some sessions that were draining, a lot of the times I actually gained energy from working with the children.

Dr. D was the highlight of my semester really. Not only did I intern with him I took his class, Intro. to Clinical Psych. I loved that class. Dr. D is a great lecturer and makes stuff fun. I also learned a lot about how to get into grad school and what degree to pursue. Assignments for the class weren’t too demanding – we had to do an intake interview on an Intro to Psych student or a Developmental Psych student. I had to pretend like I was a psychologist and interviewing a client on their first visit. I was a little apprehensive to do this but I loved it. I actually did two interviews and I learned much about what my strengths and weaknesses are. My two ‘clients’ were very interesting too. By saying that I do not mean that they needed psychological help, they were just very interesting people.

I loved playing in Wind Symphony last semester. It was a lot of work though. Every semester that I play I get a little better, but I still think I am not quite up to par yet. I had my first paying gig as a musician, LOL. We play for graduation every semester and this time we got paid to do it. I am going to miss it. I couldn’t fit it in for Winter semester and I will be graduating so I wouldn’t be able to play for that anyway.

I started working out at the gym at school…I made some new friends last semester, and we had a lot of fun… I am also starting to develop relationships with the psych faculty at school so I am excited about that. I am hoping these highlights from last semester will transfer to the new one.

Vacation Recap

I should say Christmas break because it really wasn’t a vacation. I had exams right up until December 22, and then I had to scramble to get ready for Christmas. Luckily I had done the bulk of my Christmas shopping early.

Christmas was good but hardly relaxing, going hither and yon. Plus over break I was trying to get my house in order so in addition to Christmas decor and wrapping paper all over the house, I either had books or clothes all over the place too (I picked up for Christmas eve, Christmas Day and New Years, of course, haha). I had wanted to get a lot of reading and writing done but I didn’t even get to it.

This Christmas I even got to go back to Greenfield Village’s Holiday Nights. I was excited about that, I hadn’t been in a couple (2 maybe even three years, yikes) of years. I hate to miss it because that event does a really good job of making a person think about what the holidays should be about. My husband got us a membership for Christmas. I love it there so much, and this winter I want to make time to go to the Henry Ford museum.

New Years Eve my husband and I had some family and friends over. It was fun but kind of low-key. Everybody, I mean all the adults, are just wore out. The kids on the other hand, were running around and having a blast playing wii, foosball, and The Sims. I went and partied with the kids for a while after midnight and they actually got me all energized. I thought to myself, “I need to hang out with these youngins more often” LOL. It kind of goes along with what I found out about working with kids in my internship.

Anyway, over break I did get some stuff accomplished, had some fun, wasted some time doing things I enjoy, and relaxed a little.

Last and Least

Oh, my husband had to go to court over a child custody matter. It is a long story I will try to break down. I am glad it is over though, especially before the new semester started because it was just an annoying and inconvenient waste of time over something totally stupid and blown out of proportion by my husband’s dumb ex. How do you like that for a summary?

Actually I am going to finish this story up in my StepMom blog:

Just A Stepmom

http://stepmomj.wordpress.com/

“You have to believe in yourself

when no one else does.

That’s what makes you a winner.”

– Venus Williams

Birds falling from the sky? That is scary. According to officials from the United States Geological Survey that is not that unusual. How come I have never heard of it before now? And two incidences within a week in two seperate places seems a bit more than unusual. It does seem like an “end of days” scenario or at the very least a bad omen.

“More birds fall from sky — this time in Louisiana”

 ‘These large events do take place; it’s not terribly unusual,’ says U.S. official.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40904491/ns/us_news-environment?GT1=43001“

The Drowsy Chaperone – the silliest musical I have ever seen, but very funny (I love the character Adolpho). I guess most musicals are silly but this one is kind of a spoof on musicals. Me, my husband and some friends went to a free performance of the musical at UM-Flint tonight. Haha, I didn’t tell him it was going to be a musical – that’s how I got him to go. I am not so big on musicals myself, well I say that until I think how many I actually like! Sometimes they just seem a little cheesy but they are a lot of fun. I think it is better to see musicals live.  

From what I hear the cast and crew are going to a competition (I am fuzzy on the details but I know they went to a competition last year) with this play so they needed to perform it once again for an audience before they go. I hope they do well. It was a good performance and some of the actors have wonderful singing voices – some of the songs were quite good. I know that watching them perform makes me want to get back into theatre. I miss performing!

http://www.umflint.edu/theatredance/seasons/2010-2011/the_drowsy_chaperone.htm

Just wanted to say hey to my biggest fan. Yes I saw you in court today. Yes I have something to say about it but I have other things to do (read, more important, ha) right now. What do you want to know? Do I like how it turned out? Pretty much, yes I do. Actually it could have been worked out without having to go to court but c’est la vie and I like sitting in court listening to the cases. I really like the judge – she seems fair and willing to listen (I sat and listened to her in November probably before you and your lawyer realized she was the correct judge, ha again). Do I think you will hold up your end of the bargain? No, I don’t. Do I think this was about a certain someone’s safety or more about your needs? What do you think, or why don’t you tell me.