Where the hell did March go? It seems like it crawled by last year...but then I didn't have spring break to speed it up. Not that I'm complaining or anything. Although I am feeling in a bit of a time warp. Simultaneously covering my car are a layer of frost and a layer of new tree buds. Is it spring...or is it winter?! Whoa, dude, slow down! It doesn't really matter to me, but I'm not giving up my flip-flops for any forecast at this point.
Well, for all of you that don't know, I have been granted the opportunity to pursue conflict mediation for my concentration practicum! Yay! My liaison worked very hard to set up some social work supervision so that I can make this happen in accordance with "what general practitioners are supposed to learn." I have to have an interview before any of this is set in stone. So in case it doesn't work out, I'd better start developing my BATNA. Heehee.
*BATNA is the Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement. It's mediation-speak. I'm a dork.
( 11:09 PM ) Meghan
Sunday, March 30, 2003
Finally someone understands! I knew I had a real problem...
Diagnostic Criteria for Fledgling Therapist Disorder (FTD):
1) Saying, "Wow, you are in bad shape! You should really see someone...oops!"
2) Overwhelming preoccupation with what to say or ask next.
3) Fierce desire to share personal information about oneself with the client.
4) Inability to tolerate silence during the session.
5) Desire to rush in and solve every one of the client's difficulties in the first session.
6) Fear of being exposed for the fraud she or he is, excessive beliefs that she or he was accepted to graduate school in an accident involving the cosmos, the United States Postal Service, and the registrar's office of one's undergraduate institution.
7) Fear of looking at one's watch during sessions.
8) Fear of entering a cab only to find one's most disturbed client behind the wheel (sometimes the client's entire family is also in the cab).
9) Inability to function as a therapist without one or more of the following: white lab coat, clipboard, pencil (previously categorized as Untherapeutic Item Dependence).
10) Fear of charging clients for services rendered. Individuals with FTD often report the dreadful feeling of "I wouldn't pay to come see me in therapy!"
11) Desire to grow a beard to look more "therapeutic" (occurs regardless of sex). This characteristic is frequently accompanied by overuse of the chin-stroking technique.
12) Belief that if a client does not appear for her or his scheduled appointment, the therapist must have failed during the previous session (therefore failing as a human being), and that shortly the earth will stop rotating on its axis.
13) Recognition that one is experiencing more anxiety than the client and the thought that one would not mind changing places.
14) Hyper-Rogerianisms (the overuse of reflection):
Client: Do you have any coffee?
Therapist: I hear you saying that you want coffee.
Client: Yes, I would like some coffee.
Therapist: You are adamant about having coffee.
Client: Get me coffee or die.
Therapist: (while observing one's watch) Oops, look at the decade, 90s already! Our time is up.
Week...finally...over. I just don't know how I do it sometimes. Well, yes I do. I wait until the last minute, complain that I never have enough time, sit in a simultaneous blank and emotionally upset trance wondering how I could ever have been so stupid, and then pull all-nighters until my body gets so used to it that trying to sleep after the whole ordeal makes me a nervous wreck.
In my practicum, we monitor what are known as Adult Daily Living skills (ADLs) for each of our clients. Mine are mismanaged shit. At least I can add hypocrisy to my list of graduate-level practice techniques. Woohoo!
But hooray for Cynthia's birthday that the week ended with much good fun! The gathering involved a well-balanced combination of both her high school and college friends. But it was somewhere amidst all the quintessential Freshman Year stories we shared, or maybe it was seeing the dynamics of old dorm friends when I began to miss JMU a lot. From the suite to the apartment and everything in between (well, maybe not everything). It's kind of neat, realizing that there are so many commonalties between people concerning school. I suspect that there's a rather large percentage of alumni who come away from college with a similar set of stories. Who doesn't have a "Remember that time in the 3rd floor bathroom" story? Or a "Could you believe her skank-ho boyfriend?!" story? Not to mention the "I'm so glad you were there the first time I got really drunk" story. In identifying these common themes, it now seems quite reasonable that we've been able to coin the phrase "The College Experience." Not that it's limited to university...I think we have a conglomeration of experiences as to why we're able to use "high-school" as an adjective.
( 5:40 PM ) Meghan
Tuesday, March 25, 2003
Crisis presentation complete! I'm expecting that only our group will have been able to integrate PowerPoint, Steel Magnolias, Noah Wyle, Snoopy, and a trunkful of stuffed animals into a social work presentation. Wow.
And after six-and-a-half months, I'm finally starting to make new friends! Ironically because of a group project, which I would normally loathe with every fiber of my being. So I might actually do something social with school people soon. An end-of-year blowout could actually be fun.
( 12:45 AM ) Meghan
Monday, March 24, 2003
And the awards for Best Oscar Highlights go to...
*Chris Cooper, for his genuinely kind and emotional speech upon winning Best Supporting Actor for "Adaptation."
*Adrien Brody, for most creative reception to an award by making out with presenter Halle Berry.
*Barbara Streisand, for most honest reaction to Eminem winning Best Song.
*The cast and crew of "Chicago" for earning Best Picture, which will ensure its theatrical release for another week so that I can actually see it.
I now return once again to my papers and all that jazz.
( 12:16 AM ) Meghan
Sunday, March 23, 2003
Let's do our part on this end to bring our troops home.
( 10:37 PM ) Meghan
Ah, sweet lovin' and an Irish Car Bomb.
Back to work...
( 2:33 PM ) Meghan
Wednesday, March 19, 2003
I'm gonna be a mighty king
So enemies beware!
Well, I've never seen a king of beasts
With quite so little hair
I'm gonna be the mane event
Like no king was before
I'm brushing up on looking down
I'm working on my ROAR
Thus far, a rather uninspiring thing
Oh, I just can't wait to be king!
And I can't wait to see "The Lion King" on Broadway this summer!! FIVE YEARS I've been waiting for this! Justinne has scored tickets because she is so wonderful (and wise for waiting until after the musicians' strike) and we are going to have the craziest, most bitchin' vacation ever! Start the countdown...nine more projects until the next adventure.
They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway...
Yeah, concentration is looking great on my end.
( 10:48 PM ) Meghan
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
In the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, the U.S. terrorist alert system went back up to Code Orange. In other news, the pond near the reflecting pool needs a new child-proof safety rail. And finally, Saddam and the boys have two days' worth of ultimatum, which means at least one thing. Please support our troops. They'll need all we can give right now.
( 12:20 AM ) Meghan
Monday, March 17, 2003
This day I call to me:
God's strength to direct me,
God's power to sustain me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's vision to light me,
God's ear to my hearing,
God's word to my speaking,
God's hand to uphold me,
God's pathway before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's legions to save me.
--A Retreat from Saint Patrick
Hmm...it's starting to look a little different around here. Leprechauns, perhaps?
( 1:00 PM ) Meghan
Sunday, March 16, 2003
I was going to bring my policy textbook to read after putting the children to bed last night, but I'm glad I couldn't find it--I much preferred reliving the world of Prince Caspian and the creatures of Old Narnia. Now if I could somehow incorporate them into my legislative analysis, life would be perfect.
On to Group Project Hell.
( 9:24 AM ) Meghan
Saturday, March 15, 2003
Sadly, no exciting adventures this spring break. No road trips or beaches, hook-ups or suntans. What's wrong with this picture? Where's the young and impulsive life of a college stu--
Oh, wait. Freaking grad school. No, I take that back. Freaking Motley Crue for cancelling my trip to Connecticut and New York. I'd kick your asses back to 1983, but that wouldn't take a whole lot of effort on my part. Fair warning, y'all...I now have massive amounts of fun that I'll need to work out of my system. So I guess this isn't all bad, really.
Beware not the Ides of March. Embrace if it commemorates your purpose.
( 11:21 AM ) Meghan
Wednesday, March 12, 2003
Yay me!
Follow Katie's fashionable example and check out Josie's Dollz! Phuh...and I was going to do work over break?
As you can probably tell from my formulated image, I am more than ready for spring. I'll gladly take the pollen over the snow drifts if it means leaving the jacket at home. I think I may even be on the edge of exercising...the constant blizzards have been a cold, damp barrier to my previous promise. So I'm going to break out the vibrancy! Before it gets too hot to say no.
( 3:40 PM ) Meghan
Sunday, March 09, 2003
I return unscathed from the world of the non-posting. A sebbatical was necessary. This week consisted of four spirituality journals, an organizational analysis, and a day as a substitute teacher. Ah, high school. Where learning is half the battle and the other half is shutting the hell up. Now I understand why there's violence in schools.
I was fortunately able to complete the week by convening with several generations of TJ alumni...many things were learned:
-General Tso's chicken made out of tofu is way better than it sounds.
-Five people nestled in the world's most comfortable bed the perfect beginning to a spring break makes.
-In "Risk," I'm much better on the line of defense than the attack. Which seems very odd since the outcome of the battles is based mostly on chance.
-I could design the menu for Outback Steakhouse. Apparently the staff was quite impressed with my clever substitution of caramel sauce to the Chocolate Thunder from Down Under. I'm expecting a patent and a lifetime of royalties within the next week.
-You can feel like less of a person just for having heard the most irreverant joke in existence.
-Spontaneous frappucinos are the best kind.
I need more of the above. Why oh why did I volunteer to go into practicum tomorrow and Tuesday? Oh right. That next practice paper thing.
( 6:44 PM ) Meghan
