Immediately after hitting publish on my previous post, the beeper so delightfully started screaming, which lead to an hour long conversation with a student about why it’s not appropriate to call the police when you’re bored and that using words like “I don’t feel safe” and “I need to got to the hospital” are not good ways to entertain yourself on a Sunday evening. However, they are good ways to terrorize your foster mom, which I think was also part of her intent (she really didn’t want to do her chores).

I haven’t recently lamented here on the topic, but I am so tired of snow and cold. I cannot wait to move somewhere where temperatures in the teens doesn’t mean a kind-of-cold day, but rather the end of the world. I never again want to spend a day digging my car out of one spot, driving slowly across town, and digging out another spot, only to repeat the entire process a few hours later. DONE. If I had the finances, I would quit my job this very instant, move somewhere with better weather and be much, much happier.

Another unconnected thought – this comic pretty much sums up my life lately. Bah Humbug.
 

In other news, I started watching Slumdog Millionaire the other day, and what I’ve seen so far is amazing. It’s the type of movie you need to watch when you’re curled up next to someone you car about and you can reflect on how good your life is together, not the type of movie you watch alone – it’s too sad, but it is good so far.

Mmm… I smell coffee brewing, roommates must be up – I must get some before it all disappears!
 

Update on the crisis beeper – it’s only gone off once. A student went missing and her mom didn’t know what to do or where to find her. After conversations with my supervisor and the police, we were able to point the police in the right direction – the house of one of the many boys she was sexually involved with. In fact, she was having a foursome with him and two other boys. Gross. I do not want to think that my kids are having sex, and I certainly don’t want to think that they’re all hanging out and having foursomes. blah! But overall, the beeper hasn’t been as bad as expected. I’ll keep my fingers crossed tomorrow [a holiday!] it stays quiet.

In an attempt to dig myself out of debt (I won’t be that bad off once I manage to get this whole ordeal with my old car figured out), I have decided that I no longer need three computers. I mean, I knew this before, but I just haven’t put the effort into wiping them clean and listing them for sale somewhere. If anyone’s interested, I have an old Acer Travelmate C300 and a Dell something that I’m looking to get rid of. The tablet is probably best used for parts, or going to someone who loves to fix old computers, and the Dell would be a great kid computer, or just something to replace an overworked older one. It works really well, still zippy, but I simply don’t use it. My cute pink laptop is my primary now, and I need money more than I need a tower shaped paperweight.

Last night S. and I went to see The Corn is Green, a three act comedy. It was well acted, but the play itself was pretty boring. In a world full of high action and high drama, the classics only retain their appeal if the characters are complex and thrilling. This was not the case here. However, Kate Burton, who played the lead [and also Ellis Grey on Grey's Anatomy!], was very good. She made it worth sitting through all 3 acts [S. may disagree, he was ready to leave after the 1st - our typical bail out plan when something is not worth our time].

Have a nice holiday!

Update on Monday – I went to my ten o’clock appointment, and no one opened the door. Ugh. I called and she apologized, saying that she was stuck at work at didn’t know if she could make it – could we reschedule? Nice heads up. Whey not call in advance, not wait until I’m at your door to cancel? Oh well.

Yesterday was a pretty stressful day as well, and when I left at 6:15, I was exhausted. I had a lovely evening with S., who keeps me sane. I don’t know what I would do without tickle fights and cuddle time. He makes me smile so much :]

Despite my wonderful de-stressing time last night, I woke up this morning feeling like death. I decided there was absolutely no way I could go in to work feeling like that, so I called in to work and went back to bed.

When I woke up, and decided that I had to relieve the ache in my kidneys, I looked at the clock and almost fell over. It was 2:15pm. I slept from 11pm to 2:15pm. What the heck?? My roommate and her boyfriend have been holed up here sick for the last three days, home from work, and lots of kids at school are sick, so I’m not too surprised my body needed extra sleep. But that much??

I am excited for the upcoming three day weekend. Yipee!

I haven’t written much about my job in here, which I tend to forget when I post. I assume, like the people I talk to in real life, my readers are already well-versed on the basics of my position. For future reference, here is my overview: I am a family therapist at a large, well-respected Northeastern therapeutic school. I spend part of my day in the school, doing individual therapy and part of my day making visits to the kids homes, doing family therapy. There’s also a large component of meeting with various services involved with the kid, writing IEPs and treatment planning, coordinating everything between home and school, and often I get to attend field trips to the hospital, or wherever else I may be needed. Every day is different, you never know what to expect – and I love that aspect of it!

Thankfully, I thrive on this unpredictability (I am young, resilient, and my obsessive compulsive and perfectionistic tendencies manifest themselves in ways more compatible than not for this position). However, sometimes it is a little annoying.

This morning I climbed out of bed, got all dressed and pretty (a difficult task, I am not good at mornings), and hopped in my car to go see a family I had an appointment with. They live about 30 minutes away from me, I was running a few minutes late because of traffic close to my house, so I called to let them know. The reply on the other end was “huh, what? I didn’t know you were coming today!” This is a lie. I called Friday at 5pm, after I was supposed to be gone for the day, to remind them. Fine. There is a bit of a communication barrier with this particular family, but the dude I spoke with understands me! I think. Anyway, after ten minutes of sitting in traffic, I had to turn around, sit in traffic going the other way, and now I am eating breakfast and updating Pink Confessions before I head out to my ten o’clock. I had a busy day stacked today anyway, I guess I don’t mind too much.

As part of my job, I occasionally get to take home one of the crisis beepers that is part of our always-someone-on-call policy. This week, I am lucky enough to get one. It has to be on me at all times, and I must be lucid enough at all times to answer it, and respond as an intelligent therapist would. It rarely goes off, but when it does, I have to be ready.

So… it has not gone off once this week (not surprising, I’m on back-up this week, primary next). However, I have made sure that it is glued to my side at all times – just in case. Like a good therapist, I take it in the bathroom with me, it stays on my bedside table as I sleep, and I am quite attentive to its needs.

So, today, when I was grocery shopping and I realized it was not on my person, I kind of panicked. I knew my jacket was in the car, which is where it undoubtedly was nestled in a pocket, but what if someone needed me when I was in the grocery store?!?! Well, I hustled through my shopping and upon being reunited with my jacket, I was horrified – the beeper was not in its resting place!

The first thing I did was call S., who I had dropped off at home before my foray into the supermarket, but he did not have it on his person, and had no recollection of me doing anything abnormal with it. I rushed home, hoping that it was on my kitchen table, trying to not freak out. But, alas, not there either. After about half an hour of ransacking my house and car, and paging myself hoping that the beeping would lead me toward it, I slumped against my car disappointed – it was nowhere to be found!

I exhaled deeply, trying my best not to cry, because this stupid beeper is not only expensive, but a huge responsibility that I had failed at. This was part of my job description. How was I going to explain it to my boss??

As I took another few deep breaths, I started to think I was going crazy. I very faintly heard a beeping sound somewhere behind me. Or maybe it was the beginning of a headache, I wasn’t sure. I decided to investigate. I had already retraced my steps from the morning. I had looked up and down the driveway that I shoveled out, I had reshoveled the walkway, just in case is was hiding there, and I had even gone behind the house and examined the trash can where I had disposed of the kitchen trash.

Yet, the beeping was getting louder as I walked, and it seemed to be originating from the back of the house! I ran up to the rubbish can, lifted the lid, and again lifted up the bag that I had tossed in there earlier. Again, nothing. Then I turned around. The beeping was behind me again. All I could see were my boot prints in the foot of snow, so I slowly stepped in the same indents as before. As I walked, it got louder again… somehow I had walked past it? After a few steps, with no obvious abrasions in the snow, the sound dimmed again. What?!?! I walked back and forth a few times, then decided I just needed to dive in – I started furiously digging in the snow with my bare, cold hands, and I finally retrieved my prize – a snow covered, black pager, emitting a high pitched whine. Whew!

Needless to say, this thing has been pressed to my skin since the moment it was retrieved. I am afraid to let it down for even a fraction of a second, for fear that I lose it again. Tomorrow I trade it in, but only to exchange it for the primary crisis pager. Maybe they do it this way so that we have one week where we lose the darn thing, and the second week, when it really matters, we are so scarred from the almost-lost that we cling to it desperately?

So, I have tried do-it-yourself furniture from pretty much every store: Staples, Office Max, Office Depot, Target, Wal-Mart, and even Ikea. Some have been successful (I loved my bookcases from Office Depot), and some have been disasters (Ikea furniture falls apart as soon as you put it together, and Target makes the most ridiculous, poorly designed, dysfunctional dressers imaginable). I have been the route of designing and creating my own furniture from scratch (mush more successful when my father and his many power tools are involved, less so with cruddy power tools, and an apartment floor that is actually level). I am well-versed in buying furniture from traditional stores, and I have also spent much of my time on Craigslist and at second hand stores.

Now, without the option of self-creation, I am again faced with the question of “what is the best place to purchase transitional furniture that is the “best” (within my price category, most sturdy, and doesn’t look like crud)?

I recently bought a chaise off Craigslist, for a room that I only need to have decorated for another 8 months. After that, it can go in the trash, or if I want the effort, resold. It was only 50 bucks, has crayon that can be covered with throw pillows, but is quite comfortable and inexpensive! My current bed is nice – a floor model from a traditional furniture store, and it will sell for the same as I bought it from when I next move. I also bought an excellent desk chair as a fatwallet deal that retains great resale value.

But now, I need another bookcase. I loved the ones I had in my old place, but when I threw down 150 bucks each, I was hoping for more longevity, which my cross-country move did not allow, and I sold them a year later for only half the original price.

I know I am moving across town in September, and again 8 months later. The second will be cross-country, and I don’t know if any belongings, other than what fits in my car will go. And right now, I am poor.

So do I buy myself something icky and toss it, allowing myself to live the hobo lifestyle for a year or two, or do I suck it up and buy something that makes me feel nice, settled, adult and accomplished every time I see it, the way I felt about everything in my previous apartment, and feel about very little in my current?

It is strange. I am poor, but having nice things does bring a sense of pride and accomplishment (my mother would be appalled). Can I make it through two years of feeling unsettled and using cardboard boxes, if I know that better is coming? It is so hard to downgrade after living in comparative “luxury”!!

I suck.

woooah. This wordpress update is madness! The dashboard page is completely different! 

I don’t have a point to this post, except to say that I am spending a great deal of time making internal changes, which will undoubtedly not at all be obvious to you, the reader. Even less so if you are using Google Reader or some other aggregator. Google Chrome does not like the word aggregator. Am I messing up the spelling? Oh well.

Another techy side note, I like Google Chrome, but am annoyed that it does not yet allow addons. I want my flashget addon! I want auto fill (something the google toolbar does, but the google browser did not include – what?!?!)! Graawr!

Also, I don’t know how to easily add my signature from my iPhone. Annoying.

So… I have been bad. As usually. 2008 finished and I did not post nearly as much as I should have. Surprise! I have renewed my domain for another year, and will not fool myself onto thinking that I will be a regular blogger, but I will keep it around – most likely with rare spurts of activity. I downloaded the iPhone app for wordpress today, which may help with those rare spurts. I find that I am no longer lacking for content, but rather for time, and drive.

So, I guess I’ll throw a short story on here for today. I have this kid that I’m working with who has aggression issues. Right before winter break, he got frustrated with his best friend, and punched him in the face – breaking the kid’s nose… And breaking his own hand! He’s going to be living with a nice cast reminding him of that mistake every moment of the day for the next few weeks :/

Ps – update on my car, I LOVE IT! Yesterday the dealer called, just to see how things are going, and of course, I was raving. He told me that they found some extra keys for it – and when I went to pick them up, there was one extra cut key, and two remotes! I was so excited – it was like Christmas!

Do you ever have those days where you get a little manic, a lot anxious, then make a major change and come out with a completely new, optimistic outlook in life? I do!

When I was younger, this change would often occur with a body modification – either something tame like a hair cut, a new hair color, or more drastic like stretching my ears or the crazy time I decided to get my tattoo…

As I aged, the choices would be more tame such as chopping off twelve inches of hair, or ordering pizza on a night that I should be eating left-overs (laaaaaa-ame. I know), there was one time that I bought a super expensive purse (that I still use every day and still adore btw).

This time was stress induced – as usual. But the more drastic ones usually came on in spring time. The birds chirping, the weather finally warming, a feeling of rebirth in the air… But not today!

Okay, this came a bit out of necessity, but…. I BOUGHT A NEW CAR!

On Friday I went to get my car inspected (my current state requires such), and I found out that the jerks who repaired my car after my last accident (not my fault! a truck tire blew in front of me, went under my low-clearance vehicle and took out my catalytic converter), put in the wrong piece, and it will cost 3,250 bucks to put the right one in, so it will pass inspection. Bummer. I have an appraisal guy coming out tomorrow and I’m seriously hoping they just total my car and write me a check…

So – car shopping ensued! After days of nothing but research, test drives and dealers (poor S. he was very supportive through the mania/anxiety swings), I found one I wanted – a pre-owned Hyundai. I went home to think about it and research more, and found a second pre-owned that might be comparable. After test driving it Sunday, I decided it was a better choice, because although it had more mileage, it was an entire year newer – giving me a full 12 more month under warrenty. Although, it wasn’t the gorgeous color that the other was.

So – tomorrow I pick up my new mania induced change. Yipee!

(oh yeah, I also made another totally uncharacteristic choice. I joined a gym :/ yikes. We’ll see how this one works out…)

I think every post I write will probably being with “It’s been a while. Life is crazy right now…” so instead of apologizing every time, just assume it, okay?

Work is going well, but I am finally beginning to appreciate weekends in the way a typical nine to fiver does (or an atypical 8:30 to 8er). Weekends are time that I get to spend with S., time that I don’t have to wake up early, time that I don’t have to deal with “the grind” that I am just beginning to understand. blah!

Last weekend S. and I finally made up up to the Whites, which was quite nice. We stayed at a little B&B and did some light hiking the first day (deciding at 4pm that it was too dark and cold to continue up the trail), and did a bit better the second day, being better equipped with long underwear and managing to stay on the sunny side of the mountains. However, we did come to the realization that we probably won’t go northward for the remainder of the year to seek outdoor adventure.

This weekend sharply contrasted last – we went on a search for the perfect suit in the most elite Boston shops. Prada, D&G, Neil Barrett and other hot designers were all appropriately critiqued while sipping on rose champagne at stores such as LouisBoston and Barney’s. Today we again tried to brave the outdoors, but were quickly dissuaded by the frigid wind cooling our food faster than we could eat it. We ended up sitting inside sipping hot cocoa and eating cheese and apple pastries while reading case studies instead. Perfect.

Tomorrow I will be spending about 8000 hours at the RMV trying to get my car registered in this silly state before spending another day in the aforementioned vehicle listening to podcasts while driving to see clients at the far reaches of the state. Any suggestions for listening material that will make me feel more intelligent when I’m done, but still make me laugh? Right now I’m loving Radiolab, but the new season hasn’t started yet. I wish Mental Floss and SEED could make podcasts… Another criteria – I have no interest in trying to learn a language on my way to work. Yes it’s educational, yes it makes me laugh (at myself), but it is far too frustrating after a day when I cannot my perfectionist tendencies at work.

Another interesting tidbit about my life: I have developed a serious coffee addiction in the past few weeks. I acquired a wonderful coffee maker which allows me to set everything up at night (including grinding my own beans) and wake up to the smell of delicious Pamanian brew. I hop out of bed, heat up some milk with splenda that I froth into perfection and the rest of the day am delightfully hyper and frantic. It is lovely :]