The Goings-On Of Life

It's been a few days since I've posted here, so I figured it's time for an update! My weekend with Megan was great :) We made the most of it and managed to make a 2 day trip feel like much more. I think we got a total of about 6 hours of sleep the whole weekend. But I'm all recovered now. The plan is for her to come down for a real trip in a couple of weeks and she'll probably stay for about a week. The bed feels empty again now, and I'll have to adjust to that, but I'm left with a smile on my face from our visit.The 10:4 challenge officially ended a couple of days ago, and unfortunately I did not meet the 10 pound goal, but I'm still proud of myself. I lost 8.6 pounds, which is more than I've done in quite some time! In fact, since Katrina (now a little over 2 years) all I've done is gain weight. So to lose any weight at all is awesome. Carl has given me a chance to redeem myself though the RIP5 Challenge! This one is to lose 5 pounds by October 31st. Weight now is 187.4 pounds. So the goal is 182.4 pounds by October 31st. The 10:4 challenge did lead to some healthy changes for me. I've started drinking a lot more water and juice instead of cokes all the time. I've also cut back on the fast food, though I could definitely cut back some more still :/ In fact, if I just stopped eating fast food all together for these 2 months, I know I'd lose the 5 pounds...but I know I won't, so I'm not going to set unrealistic goals. I'm just going to be more conscientious than I've been!

The RIP Challenge has been so much fun, and it's only day 4! I kicked it off with Rob Zombie's Halloween on Saturday. I absolutely loved it! Halloween is probably my favorite classic slasher flick. Halloween and Halloween II are both excellent in my book. I'm even a big fan of 4 & 5. I'm also a huge fan of Rob Zombie's films. House of 1000 Corpses and The Devils Rejects are some of my favorite horror movies since the 70's and early 80's. When I heard he was doing Halloween, I got so excited and it was better than I expected. Warning! This film is not appropriate for those who are easily offended or do not like gore. I saw plenty of people who brought their children, I guess expecting just another horror movie (not knowing anything about Rob Zombie obviously), and they all walked out after the first 5 minutes of dialogue. Zombie did a great job with this film. The first half explains the origins of Michael Myers...the creation of a serial killer, his home life, his mental illness (some sort of dissociative disorder), and makes the movie believable...instead of just some supernatural horror movie killer, he's human...we actually feel for him, for the horrible childhood he has and for his illness. The second part of the movie is an almost exact replication of the original Halloween, but with a few twists, modernized, and with the more believable background story that we now know. I loved it!Just in time to be the mascot of the RIP challenge, I received my little purple poppet in the mail today :D He (I've decided it's a boy) is very cool and came with one of these little hands that I've been seeing and have been wanting! Here he is posing with Dracula that I have really been enjoying. It's such an atmospheric read, and even though it's hot as hell in New Orleans right now, it's managed to fool my brain into believing that it's Fall.

Tomorrow is a day of all things job related. I have a meeting with my licensure supervisor in the morning. She sounds really sweet over the phone, so I'm looking forward to meeting her. Then I have to start all of the paperwork and do the drug test and all of that fun stuff. My very temporary start date is September 24th, but that's subject to change. It all depends on paperwork going smoothly and my licensure paperwork being filed quickly...which in Louisiana post-Katrina..."quickly" isn't a word that's heard very often.

I missed short story Sunday this past weekend, so I'll be playing catch up next weekend. Regular blogs should now be back on the schedule.

I Got A Job!!

No clever title there, just the basic facts :) After nearly 4 months of searching and all of your helpful and very much appreciated crossed fingers (and toes ;), I finally landed a job! And it's perfect...exactly what I was looking for.

It's a job with the state as a "school based mental health counselor." I'll be placed at a school in New Orleans that's mostly for kids who have been kicked out of other schools, so there will probably be lots of behavior disorders...but I love a challenge ;) The program is set up to help rehabilitate kids who have behavior disorders, depression, ADHD, and anxiety disorders. I'll be working with adolescents, which is the exact age group that I wanted, and will be doing individual, some group, and family counseling when I can get the parents involved. I'm so excited about this.

Since it's a job with the state, the salary is decent...not great, but decent...the benefits are incredible, and there's job security. The program has guaranteed funding for a good amount of time. There's lots of supervision worked into the job, so it's perfect for me as a first job out of school. Now I just have to play the waiting game as I get all the paperwork lined up for my licensure and all the paperwork that I have to go through for the state. My guess is that it will probably be anywhere from 2 weeks to a month before I'm actually working, but the job is there, and that's all that matters!

The hours are 7:30-4 Monday through Friday, so I'm going to have to do some serious readjusting to my sleep schedule (as I blog at 1 AM). Blogs will probably be a little less frequent, but rest assured that I will most definitely still be blogging and reading away ;)

Home from the interview

Today was the interview for the guidance counselor position, and I think it went really well! It's a little different than normal counseling, but I knew that going into it. Alot of this job involves scheduling classes with the students, keeping them up to date on TOPS, assessments, etc. but it also includes therapeutic work as needed with both the students and the parents. I was told that it's important to interact with the kids and go to football games and such, and that would be no problem for me. Gives me an excuse to be a kid again.

The most promising thing is that she said she's looking for someone with experience in the clinical stuff, pertaining to specific disorders. This is perfect because I'm fresh out of school with all kinds of clinical knowledge. She was excited about that and said that I could give a few pointers to the veterans over there. She also liked that I'm exposed to the different medications used to treat disorders, because they don't know alot about all of that. She said that she wants to start doing some groups at the school and liked that I had experience with that too. So needless to say, she was excited that I have the "fresh out of school" perspective. She also liked that I had an insider's perspective on how bad adolescence can get. I met with the principal and assistant principal as well, both of whom remembered me and said that they were glad to see me.

Pretty easy interview. Not as much of a problem as I thought I would have. So now I have to wait until next week to do the second interview. She said she'll "definitely be calling me soon," which sounds promising. I find about about the pay, etc. at the next step. I have a specific number in my head and they need to hit that. Oh! She's also an LPC supervisor, so I can get my LPC through her which rocks. That can cost a pretty penny. All in all, I'm excited and it will be nice to have summers off.

In the meantime, I have a splitting migraine. I took my meds, just waiting for them to kick in. So if you are awaiting a phone call from me *cough*jroy*cough* I'll call you as soon as this damn headache goes away.

My how things can change in two years

I had to go get a copy of my transcripts from LSUHSC today for my internship. I'm not sure if I told everyone, but in case I didn't, I will be working on the child and adolescent unit at River Oaks Hospital in River Ridge. But anyway, I get my transcripts and see that my cumulative GPA for my master's program is 3.833. You'd think that would be a good thing, but I was so upset (and still am) that it was not higher.

Then I started thinking. Two years ago (December '04) I graduated from UNO with my Bachelor's with a cumulative GPA of 2.49. I have to admit that was all my fault. I skipped class quite often and just didn't put forth the effort I needed to at UNO. I didn't like that school. In addition to that, I didn't really know yet what I wanted to do when I graduated. I always knew I wanted to do counseling, but I didn't know what my options were yet. Luckily, I did well on the GRE and had sufficient experience and desire to get into my master's program. I have no idea what I'd be doing had I not gotten in to the program.

But it's uncanny how much things change in a couple of years. To be unhappy with a 3.8 GPA is a place that I never thought I'd be. I've only missed class twice since I've been in this program, I apply myself like never before, and actually enjoy school for the most part. Sure I miss my lit. classes from UNO, but overall, I enjoy my master's classes much more than my undergrad classes.

I also find myself getting professional journals in the mail, I got a business card holder for christmas along with plenty of things that will decorate my hopefully future office, I want a private practice, I have liability insurance now, I'm buying "work clothes". It's just amazing to me to see where I am today compared to where I was two years ago. Peter Pan, it's time to grow up.

New Year....New me (hopefully)

So I'm sitting here thinking what the new year may bring. Hopefully by the end of 2007, I will have had many changes made to my life. I will have a masters degree, I will have a job that I am happy with, I will have my own place, I will have gone to Italy,I will be happy overall...oh! and I'll weigh about 50 pounds less assuming that I start going to the gym more often.

I've never really been one to make new year's resolutions, but I feel like for the first time I'm in a point in my life where I can truly make resolutions that will actually matter. So my new year's resolution is to loose weight...and though I, as everyone, have said that before, this time i actually belong to a gym...we'll see how that goes.