The end of Lost... and other things

I can't believe Lost is over. This season I seriously procrastinated watching the episodes, because I felt like if I watched them at the time they aired, the show would somehow go away quicker. Dumb logic, I know. So I finally finished the series the other night and I'm both happy and sad. Sad because it's over, but so happy that they actually remember being on the island together. I think my biggest fear was that they were all going to just forget each other, and after all they've been through, that would have sucked.

I cried like a baby when Jack died though. It was so sad. Definitely sadder then any of the other deaths on the show. And who else was expecting Richard to just disappear when they were on the plane leaving the island. Well, I thought he would either disappear or would suddenly become some kind of crazy skeleton in his seat. Glad that didn't happen.

Anywho... True Blood season 2 came out, and of course I went right out to buy it. I saw it when it was originally on TV, but that hasn't stopped me from sitting down and watching the episodes one after the other like a big freak. I also have gotten my mom hooked on it. She think the vampires are seriously gross, but watches because it freaks her out so much. Haha. I got the latest Sookie Stackhouse book too, and just haven't had a chance to read it yet. I've been reading Nicholas Sparks, which TOTALLY is NOT my thing normally. But my grandma gave me The Last Song, and I read it just because it was there, and then I wanted to see the movie Dear John, but Sarah told me to read the book first because it's so much better, so now I'm some kind of weirdo Nicholas Sparks fan. I even went out and bought another one of his books because I was told it was really good. I am oddly ashamed of my sudden love for his stories, but oh well. I can't help that he pulls at my heartstrings.

Today I got this weird thing from Netflix that allows me to put a disc into my Wii and play some of the movies in my queue straight from the Wii/internet/TV/whatever. It's pretty nifty, and I can also watch some TV shows. The selection isn't wonderful, but it's pretty good considering that I could watch those streaming movies all day and night, and it won't cost me any extra. Danielle's really excited, because we were just talking about the Witches of Eastwick this morning, and she turned it on and it was one of the first movies to come up. Pretty cool.

I've been falling in love with Lost in Pacific Time all over again, and I've started writing again. Two events that are not-so-related, but really make me feel good.


Oh, BTW, I am so excited about this Peg Connolly Scholarship. I get to go out to Spokanel, WA in September, and while I'm out there I'm going to spend a few extra days and head out to Seattle for the end of the week and into the weekend. I love traveling, and I have always wanted to go out to Washington, so this is the perfect excuse.

The Best Day of My Life (so far)

Last night I went to an event called Arts through the Ages. It focused mostly on the elderly and intergenerational programming, and featured a panel of four young women who have different endeavors in art, writing and drama. I was particularly looking forward to hearing more about the writing program, being a writer myself, and also because I had JUST been talking with my mom and Rachael the day before about at some point doing a research study of the use of writing as a modality with individuals with dementia (and because I just did my whole case study on a huge writing project).

The Best Day of My Life (So Far) is a project created by a woman named Benita Cooper, an architect who was inspired to create this writing project after conversing with her grandmother and hearing all of her wonderful stories. In fact, she's working currently on writing a book filled with her grandmother's stories - something that I've always contemplated since my first grandma day in 2001 (*"grandma day" was created by me in 2001 after reading Tuesdays with Morrie, and becomming obsessed with the concept of spending one day a week with someone you love. I began going to grandma's after school every Tuesday. This lasted all through high school and college, although the days and times have changed through the years. Now they're on Saturdays, when I go over after work, eat dinner with her and then spend the night, and go to work from there on Sunday.) Anywho... Benita was so inspired by her conversations with her grandmother, that she decided to begin volunteering with seniors in the community. Now she has her weekly writing program at Philadelphia Senior Center every Thursday. The participants come together, and given a theme, put their memories to paper. The memories are shared through conversation, and through a blog www.thebestdayofmylifesofar.blogspot.com .

I found the entire thing extremely interesting. After working in recreation my whole life, and then completing my bachelor's in Therapeutic Recreation, I think it's amazing that someone so far removed from the health professions took the time and effort to actually begin a project like this one. I know she's looking for volunteers, so anyone interested can look her up on the blog, or on facebook (search "the best day of my life so far"). I'm hoping to be of assistance with some more clinical aspects of things, but really I'd love to help wherever I can. Hopefully I'll actually have time coming up to do so.

This week I won the Bill Dayton Memorial Award, which is an award for Therapeutic Recreation majors who go "Above and Beyond" what is expected of them for the curriculum. We are expected to do 120 volunteer hours, as well as our two internships. During my life I have volunteered at Open Door Senior Center, completed 3000 volunteer hours at Saunders House, worked in the home of a woman with parkinson's disease, ran a carnival and some other events at Coatesville VA when my grandfather was there, currently work weekends on the dementia unit at Harlee Manor while working Monday - Friday at my internship, and I've presented at two professional TR conferences. So I guess that's above and beyond. It's a very prestigious award, and even has a cash prize, so I'm very very excited about it. Considering that I've never really won much of anything in my life, that makes it even better. Congrats also to Rachael who won Outstanding TR student of the Year, and Jamie, who won the John Noisette Memorial Award for leadership! I think we have some awesome graduates this year.

My internship's been going really well. I really like it at Stapeley in Germantown, and I just enjoy going there everyday. I guess I'm lucky to be having such a good experience.

I've been attending a lot of farewell parties at work places lately, and it really makes me think a lot about my last months at Saunders House. I did 3000 volunteer hours, worked as a receptionist for almost five years, and worked for the dietary and development departments also. Not to mention that I did ALL of my boss' work that she passed off as her own, because she was too busy talking on the phone to her daughters, surfing the internet, and making racist comments to people in front of their faces. After all that, I never even recieved a thank you card. But then again, I guess that's what happens when you work at a really really corrupt place. At that place they got rid of you if you actually knew what you were doing. So sad for the residents who are all still there. Oh well. A million times happier now in a place where i'm being recognized for my hard work and loyalty.

MLK Day poem, and other things...

A lot has happened since the last time I wrote in this thing. Colin came to visit and stayed for about 3 weeks. We had an amazing time, and now that he's gone I miss him sooo much.

I've been working like crazy to try to make enough money to be able to pay my bills during my 40-hour/week unpaid internship. And between the monday through friday internship (starting tomorrow), and working both saturday and sunday at Harlee, I'm probably going to have a nervous breakdown by the time March roles around. Well, all I have to do is keep telling myself that I really really love TR.

This morning we made a group poem at Harlee for MLK day tomorrow. Here it is:
We have a dream...
of peace and happiness and goodwill toward everyone.
Nobody would have to be poor.
There would be no war.
Illness wouldn't exist, and no one would be sick.
There would be no more violence and no more hate.

Cute, right?

So Happy MLK day, everyone.

originally from www.auroracrew.blogspot.com

Life Update

So many things have been happening lately, and I haven't written a blog in so long.

First of all, Colin is here!!!! Yay! He arrived on Thursday night, and I got to spend the rest of Thursday and some of Friday morning with him before he ran off to Reading for a family party. And he would have come home tonight if now for this snow (now he's coming back tomorrow).

So speaking of the snow... it's insane. Today I waited outside in this blizzardy weather for one hour waiting for the 107, and it never came. So my mom decided to get up early and give me a ride to work. Then once I got there (20 minutes late), I called my boss who told me to leave at 2:00 or whenever I felt comfortable (I was supposed to leave at 5). I hung in there until 2:10. It was crazy. I have to be there tomorrow from 10-5, but it's supposed to keep snowing until 11AM tomorrow, so we'll see how things turn out. I'm definitely going to make it in... I'm just not sure what time it will be.

In other news, school's out for winter break. It was my last semester of class... ever! So now I'm free except for this pesky 600 hour internship coming up in mid-January. I'm kinda excited about it. I mean, at least it's not class. And I enjoy working, so it's not THAT big a deal.

Christmas is in six days. Well like five now in two hours. I still have to do like half of my Christmas shopping. I just haven't had any time, and I NEVER leave it off this late normally. But Colin never told me what he wanted (still hasn't, so any outside ideas would be much appreciated), and I just haven't gotten to the store to get my mom's gifts, although I know exactly what I'm getting her.

In February, on the fifth, there is going to be a special concert to celebrate the 5th anniversary of The Academy Is' debut Almost Here. Super exciting, except for the fact that it's in Chicago :( I wsh I could go to that. It would be so much fun. I wonder if they're going to play all of the songs from Almost Here. Tom should make an appearance. That would be pretty funny. I can't believe it's only been five years. It seems like ages and ages ago when I first started listening to them.

Another 5 year reunion is coming up: my high school reunion. Yikes! The prospect of a reunion makes me feel really old. I haven't decided for sure if I'm going yet. We'll have to see. I have a lot of stuff that night, including an invitation to the MLMs album release party. I'm not sure which is more important to me at this point in time, since there are approximately 10 or 11 people who I graduated with who I actually want to see again. Not that I'm NOT open to seeing the other again, but really, if I didn't, it wouldn't be a huge deal.

Friday and Saturday in the Woods

Adventure Challenge Programming, camping trip
Day 1:
We arrived at Camp Edge in Alloway, New Jersey at around 2:00PM on Friday. We headed to the ropes course right away and learned how to hook up our harnesses and about safety and then we basically got to play on the High Ropes course all afternoon and evening. I did pretty much all the activities that were available to do on the high ropes course. I did the Burma Bridge: (this isn’t me, but the pictures of our trip haven’t been posted yet), and then this other thing. I don’t remember what it was called, but basically, you had to climb up there and there were little wooden platforms about 2 x 2 feet and they were strung up with the wires, and you had to walk across them and then back, except there was nothing to hold on to and they were swinging all over the place. Then I climbed up the net and walked across a single wire, just holding onto a rope. And lastly I did the zip, which is basically just that I was strapped onto a rope, let go of the wooden platform, and went zipping down the wire at about 40mph: (again, not me, but so you get the drift).

Then we went to our little cabin in the woods and ate dinner. Some people still had to run activities (we had to lead a group activity), so we did that until around 10:30 at night, and then 12 of us went out to build a campfire and make s’mores. We also told a really dumb ghoststory (by going around the circle and each person making up a line) about 12 TR students who were standing around a campfire when the seaweed witch from the lake came out and dragged them all away. About 2 hours later, we put out our fire and went back to the house and Melissa, Allie, Steffen and I took the telescope out of the house and into the field, because it was beautiful and the stars were amazing, but alas… the telescope was broken, so we had to stand there with our head tilted up to see the stars. Totally worth it though.

Day 2:
We woke up at 7AM (it was horrible), had breakfast, cleaned the cabin/house, and then headed out to do the Low Ropes Course. We had to basically spend all day doing this, because coming out of the course, we’re all trained to facilitate a Low Ropes Course group, meaning that I could go work at a place with a Low Ropes Course. We learned how to do each activity, how to do different variations, and safety precautions and stuff. It was a really fun time. I participated in a lot of stuff, and of course being one of the smallest people in the class, got lifted and carried a lot. For instance, I went through one of the upper holes of the rope web (the object is to get through the holes without touching the sides, but each hole can only be used by the group once). So I was lifted and went through head first and supported by the other group on the other side. It was amazing, because I had so much trust in my group, that I knew they would never drop me, and I felt completely safe. I also tore up my arms on the tire thing (you have to get through the tire to the other side, but it was over my head and I had to get lifted into it and climb out the other side (insert tire burn on my arms here). Bruised and burned, it was still totally worth it. It was such an amazing two days. I can’t wait to see the pictures that people took of the whole experience, even though I probably look like an idiot in half of them.

Below is a picture of the wall (that I didn't go over. I was going to but I chickened out) at Camp Edge. It was our last activity of the day:

Warning: This Entry Has No Point

I'm procrastinating right now, just so you know. I just got done a test, and now I have to work on my 20 minute presentation for tomorrow. Hopefully it will go well. I have about half of the slides done, but I finished all the easy ones first, so now it's time to actually do all my research.

In my procrastination I checked out all my usual sites, then headed over to the FBR Secrets LJ. It's always good for a laugh. I agreed with a lot of them, and disagreed with a lot of them too. Then I fell upon #56, and now I need to scour my brain to get the extremly disturbing mental image out! I'm not going to go into it excep to say that it was an extremly graphic dream that a young man had about two members of the label, and it made him realize that he was gay, which isn't the disturbing part; it was the graphic language used by a 13 year old boy that was disturbing.

Also, Bill got a tattoo. Waiting on the picture proof still, but from what I hear it's all about Snakes and Suits. I don't know why he would get a tattoo depicting the clothing line he's involved in. Sounds silly to me. A very strange idea for his first tattoo. I was expecting something more along the lines of a GDB or a Santi or something.

If anyone wants to put on an Aurora costume and go to my class tomorrow to present on "Implementing Appropriate and Meaningful Art Groups for People with Dementia", please email me. It's the first day (eek!) and I'm following Mitesh who's bringing in the Wii to talk about Wii Therapy... a hard act to follow.

Professional Development Day and LOST 5.10

Yesterday was Therapeutic Recreation Professional Development Day at Temple.  Our Professional Seminar class organized it, and I think it was a huge success. We had representatives from agencies all over the area, and from all sorts of facilities. We organized the room into sections too, so that people could check out all of one type of agency at the same time.  For instance, all of the mental/behavior health agencies were together, and all of the Long Term Care agencies were together. There was also large representation from Pediatrics, Developmental Disabilities, Physical Rehab, and outpatient care (like LIFE and Time-Out Respite Care). I feel like I'm missing a group of people... IDK... NCTRC was there which is the national organization that we get certified through. Got lots of free stuff, and everyone loved the gift bags that we gave out (Elizabeth and I spent 4 hours making them on Tuesday afternoon).   I also got to see a lot of friends and TR buds who are now interning, and were there with their supervisors. Rachel (like I never get to see her... haha), Devon, Evan, Tad, Lisa, etc...  It was a really fun time.

Now on to LOST.  I am so confused. Here are my thoughts:

1. Now that Sayid killed Ben when he was a kid, does that erase all memory/experiences with Ben that everyone had in the future?  I mean, that's so significant, it would change EVERYTHING! The Dharma Initiative would still be kickin', Juliette wouldn't have been brought to the island, I was going to say the island would've never been moved, but they actually wouldn't have had to move the island anyway, because Charles Widmore wouldn't be after Ben, the Oceanic 6 wouldn't have left the island, because there's no Ben for Widmore to hate, and therefore no boat with a helicopter to take them away.  I'm so confused.

2. Sayid: seriously???? What the hell is with killing the kid? I know it's Ben and we all hate him, but he was actually kinda a cute kid and I feel bad for him. I mean, it's really not his fault that he turned into such a fuck-up. 

3. On the other hand, maybe Ben isn't dead.

4. Um, who else thinks that Sawyer is now a huge tool? Really, as soon as he put his hand up to vote with the rest of the group, I knew he'd completely sold out. The 6 came back to help the people who were stuck on the island, and he's so self-absorbed that he couldn't care less about what they gave up to be there and help him.

5. The funny thing is that I've never been a huge Jack fan, but now I love Jack just because he's so consistent. He's still the same exact Jack as the plane crashed.

6. How cute was Sayid when he was drugged and being all truthful and stuff? Adorable.

7. We still have no idea about where/when/etc. the rest of the people are. Bernard, Rose, random other plane people we never knew, Daniel, etc.

8. Although I do think it's fun that Michelle Dessler from 24 is now on the show (Horace's wife). I was severely depressed when she got killed off of 24, because I loved her and Tony (remember in the 1st season of 24 when we all hated Tony and thought he was the bad guy, and then he turned into the best character on the show?).  Maybe the LOST island is really TV heaven, and once you die in TV land you go to the island. lol, i don't know. That's a pretty faulty theory considering that that girl's character's name isn't even Michelle. But I think I'm going to cut off my LOST thoughts there before this turns into a 24 blog.