limbo-ing is scary. apparently.

at my friend's ABBA-themed birthday party

cool life moment

As terrible as I may find my hometown newspaper sometimes, it did give me one of the greatest gifts of my life: my chosen profession. I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in English (not intending to do anything degree-specific). I wished to find a helping profession that appealed to me. Many, many do not. Every now and then I would wonder about teaching (at some level in the public school system), but the fit did not feel right. And that is one profession I firmly believe that if the fit doesn't feel right, you probably shouldn't be doing it. It is one of my most admired professions, one of the most important professions, and I sure didn't want to screw up at it. Social work crossed my mind a few times too. I knew I wanted to go to graduate school...but certainly not in English. Anthropology or American Studies sounded fun, but again, I was uncertain about putting in the time and money for a degree I wasn't sure how I would use. I worked at a job I liked with co-workers I loved, but I knew it wasn't my career.

In May 2006, I read an article in my hometown newspaper about a speech-language pathologist in one of our local schools. She spoke about the connections she made with her students over the years. That plus my love of language plus a strong personal tenet that everyone should be able to tell his or her story led me to research this profession I was mostly unfamiliar with. It took a while to make the life change and some major things miraculously fell into place, but here I am nearly halfway through my speech-language pathology education. Kind of amazing, really.

Oh, yes, the cool life moment. So the slp interviewed in the article was not someone I knew. I knew who she was because her daughter and I were in the same graduating class in high school. I didn't know if I would ever have a chance to talk with this woman and let her know the huge impact she had on my life. This semester we were assigned to interview an slp for a project. I immediately thought that this was my chance. I was nervous because I generally prefer to stay in my comfort zone. I know several other slps, any of whom I could have had a comfortable conversation with, but I made myself not pass on this opportunity. I contacted her, she quickly and enthusiastically agreed, and we talked on the phone last night. So cool. I hope to be the kind of slp she is.

october? what october?

I just looked up the date of what I am planning to post about, and it was at the end of September. Exactly one month ago. How is it possibly the end of October?! I mostly don't even remember October. October has been horrible. Those probably sound like contradicting statements. October has been mostly horrible due to all of the work required in this month. Because of all of this work, I barely even remember the month passing me by. Sadly, the work is not yet finished, but at least 3 of 4 tests are. Phew.

On to what I had planned to post about.

At the end of September we had some visitors from Germany stay with us. Brian's mom was an exchange student in Germany in college, and the following year one of her German friends did the exchange to the US. Her son and daughter-in-law are the ones who stayed with us. They got married in July (I think) and are biking across the US for their honeymoon. We had a very nice visit with them -- cooking a meal for them, walking around on campus, and staying up way too late chatting. Then they decided to stay another day! I had class all day until 8pm, but Brian was able to go to Celestial Seasonings with them and then we went out to the Dark Horse for supper when I was finally done with my long day. It was so nice to meet them. Brian had met the son, but it had been 14 years since they had seen each other.

the day i was trapped upstairs

One week ago today, I was trapped upstairs for two hours. Trapped by my own squeamishness. I happened to wake up quite a while before Brian did. I was on my way downstairs to make coffee and sit down with my laptop for a bit. I turned on the light above the stairs, and I saw it -- the mousetraps in disarray. Mousetraps, yes, plural. This little guy was crafty. The first night we had one trap at each of the places we'd seen him going in and out of our living room area. He just ate the peanut butter right off of those. Then we put two traps together at one location -- the one he was likely using to go between adjacent apartments and ours. Still with the peanut butter eating and no trapping. Then we were going to be gone overnight. This was the perfect opportunity to get him comfortable with our three trap set-up since we would leave them not set (who wants to trap a mouse and leave him sitting for a full day? yuck.). So Friday night was the first night of the three traps, the middle one had peanut butter, and the two on the sides had none, so he would have to walk over them to get to his PB. But no danger for him on Friday night. We were finally able to outsmart him on Saturday night when we were back. But it left me trapped upstairs for the morning. I caught a glimpse, and that was enough. Glad we got him and super glad I have someone willing to deal with the gory aspects of it.

on your porch

.
Just lyrics...

I was on your porch,
The smoke sank into my skin,
So I came inside to be with you,
We talked all night,
About everything you could imagine,
'Cause come the morning, I'll be gone,
And as our eyes start to close,
I turn to you and I let you know,
That I love you.

Well, my dad was sick,
My mom she cared for him,
Her loving nursed him back to life,
And me, I ran, I couldn't even look at him,
For fear I'd have to say goodbye,
And as I start to leave,
He grabs me by the shoulder and he tells me,
"Whats left to lose? You've done enough,
And if you fail then you fail but not to us,
'Cause these last three years,
I know they have been hard,
But now it's time to get out of the desert and into the sun,
Even if its alone."

So now here I sit,
In a hotel off of Sunset
My thoughts bounce off Sam's guitar,
And thats the way its been,
Ever since we were kids, but now,
Now, we've got something to prove,
And I, I can see their eyes,
Then tell me something, can they see mine?
'Cause whats left to lose?
I've done enough,
And if I fail then I fail but I gave it a shot,
'Cause these last three years I know they have been hard,
But now it's time to get out of the desert and into the sun,
Even if it's alone,
(Even if it's alone)
Even if it's alone.

I was on your porch last night,
The smoke, it sank into my skin.

i always wondered why...

The other day I was doing my time in the Dx room (MA students have to man the standardized test/protocol room for 2 hours per week) when a 2nd-year walked in and asked me, "What does that symbol mean?" I was wearing my MCC shirt. I showed her how it was half of a cross and half of a dove put together. She said she was so glad to finally know that because, "My mom had a Mennonite cookbook and I always wondered why it had the state of Texas on it!"

Too funny! The other reason I am posting this at this time is as a precursor to telling you all that I am super excited to experience the Rocky Mountain MCC Relief Sale this weekend! I am SO curious about how it will compare to the Kansas Sale, what foods we will discover there (crossing my fingers for verenike but don't actually think there will be any...I wonder if there will be New Year's cookies...?), etc. It's kind of a terrible time of the semester to go, but I really want to experience it, and some wonderful friends of ours invited us to go with them, so how could we pass it up?

ohhhhhhh, mouse

You are NOT welcome in this house!! If you get close to me, I will demonstrate the stereotype of a girl with a mouse around: a scream (though probably only one short one) and getting up on furniture. You give me the heebie-jeebies. I can barely stand to walk near the path that I saw you scurry hours ago. Two things I cannot stand in my house (at least not contained): rodents and reptiles. Spiders, other insects, eh. Usually I just leave them alone or I will transport them outside. Confession: we currently have probably five insect pets. They're kind of cute. But, mouse, ew, ug, squirm, stay OUT of my house! And please, please, please don't let me be the one to find you in your trap.

Writing this post has made me thoroughly heebie-jeebied, squirmed out.