Brain = Mush

I have been studying a decent amount for my big exam on Friday. I now have group counseling theories rattling off the tip of my tongue at any random moment, somewhat incoherent mumblings about psychosocial stages of development being regurgitated during my morning commute, harassment-bordering conversations with friends who just want to tell me how they are doing and end up in a completely informal therapy session, and scarily accurate dreams about the ABC theory of cognitive impairment. Yikes! And I still need to focus on my multicultural proficiencies and theories of cultural identity development. Did that make sense? Scarily enough, it did to me. I guess I have learned a few things in the last three years.

In other news - two wine-related anecdotes. I went to buy a bottle of wine yesterday and I got carded! The woman actually asked me for ID and made me show it to her. That hasn't happened in a while. [Related incident that just happened - my co-worker just accused me of trying to look like my high school students because I have my hair in a pony tail. I just wanted to get my hair out of my face.] Then, later, I was giving a random chick a ride to her destination, and I had wine glasses that I recently purchased still sitting in my car. The random chick asked me what they were for. Kinda confused (but apparently not as confused as she was), I explained that they were for drinking wine.

And my office is excellent at making me feel needed (which I sometimes doubt). One of my coworkers left me a stack of papers that needed to be copied on my desk from yesterday. It was a moderately complex copy job - double-sided and stapled - so it took four or five clicks to program the job. I handed them to her when she got in, and she explained to me that she had tried to do it by herself the day before, but she couldn't figure it out. So she decided to wait for me. It feels good to be needed.

VOTD

Ok, I decided to skip the lyrics today and just go right to the video. Heard this one on my Ipod this morning and now I'm in a great mood (it brings back a lot of old memories. This one is dedicated to my dad who says he has heard of the Indigo Girls but is not quite sure who they are.


Indigo Girls
Galileo

So Much Material, So Little Time

I'm back to school with a vengeance. Not only do I have classes now, I have a HUGE exam coming up next Friday that is starting to really consume my thoughts and any minute of spare time I have. This exam is basically the culmination of my entire graduate degree. Suffice it to say, I am a little stressed and starting to feel the pressure. So if it's quiet on this end of things, that's why. Maybe you will hear more after next Friday - hopefully good news :) Wish me luck and if you catch me wasting time on Facebook or other online time drainers - remind me to study!

GPS

I keep managing to get myself lost so I'm thinking about buying a GPS. Does anyone have any suggestions? Good/bad reviews? Thanks!

Creative Spelling

My co-worker liked to collect interesting and amusing names that he comes across. I just came across the following that made me pause for a moment - Champoux. I wonder whether this family actually has always spelled their name that way or if they just wanted to deny that they were named after the hair care product. Either way, I thought it was funny.

LOTD

It's been quite a while, but here's the LOTD, courtesy of one of the students at my internship.

This is Vindicated, by Dashboard Confessional:

Hope dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption
Winding in and winding out
The shine of it has caught my eye

And roped me in
So, mesmerizing,and so hypnotizing,
I am captivated,I am

{Chorus}
Vindicated
I am selfish
I am wrong
I am right
I swear I'm right
Swear I knew it all along
And I am flawed, but I am cleaning up so well
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

So clear
Like the diamond in your ring
Cut to mirror your intention
Oversized and overwhelmed
The shine of which has caught my eye
And rendered me
So isolated,and so motivated
I am certain now that I am

{Chorus}

So turn
up the corners of your lips
Part them and feel my finger tips
Trace the moment fall forever

Defense is paper thin
Just one touch and I'll be in
Too deep now to ever swim against the current
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip against the current
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away
So let me slip away

{Chorus}

Slight hope
dangles on a string
Like slow spinning redemption...


And the video (the lead singer is hot!):

Close Call

Passaic has really mean rules. They like to tow people's cars at the drop of a hat. Like, if you park on the wrong side of the street on street-cleaning day (and um, I am totally not impressed with the supposed cleaning that is involved), then they tow your car. Not a ticket, but tow. And because they are so mean, they make it incredibly complicated to get your car out. First, you have to go to the towing lot and get your registration and insurance from your car, then you have to go to the police station several miles away to get a notice saying that they release your car, then you have to go back the several miles to the towing lot to pay money to actually get your car. And all this must be done without your car, since it's been towed.

Today, I accidentally parked my car on the wrong side of the street. Oops. I just totally forgot what day it was and didn't even think about it. At 10:00 AM, I get an email from Princess D (who gets a big SSY for tipping me off) that she thinks I've parked my car on the wrong side. I know that my car will be towed if I don't move it by 10:30. I wrack my brain, trying to decide if I will be able to make it back to Passaic in time by bus, which I know isn't really feasible.

I have a couple co-workers who drive to work. One of them happened to actually be in the office at 10 AM this morning. I went to her and asked her if she would consider letting me borrow her car. I explain the situation to her and she offers to take me herself. We hustle on over to the lot where she parks her car. And we're off! She drives me back to Passaic, where we arrive at almost exactly 10:30, where my car is beautifully still sitting in its place. I move my car to the other side of the street, and we drive back to my office.

It was a HUGE act of kindness - my co-worker saved me a major headache and a lot of money as well. Thanks co-worker!

(cross-posted at Kindness Happens - don't forget to post your stories of Kindness!)

Whoa

I just bought my last notebook for the foreseeable future. Classes start for my final semester of my master's degree this week. I haven't applied to any further programs (and am not planning to right now). It's a weird feeling. Great, but a little bittersweet as well. Oh, and of course I bought way cool pens also.

Blog Blah

Haven't had a whole lot to post - it's been a fairly boring week actually, which I'm not complaining about, since next week is back to school and an insanely packed schedule that is even more overwhelming than my typical semester.

I did go back to my internship this week and it was nice to be reunited with my students. I really like them :) I got a brief education on the gangs present at the school this week. But I'm not wearing a bullet-proof vest yet.

I booked a trip to Alabama for late February - it's been a year since I've been down South and despite the unseasonably warm weather, I can't wait to get out of the cold Northern winter for a few days. I can NOT believe how much the airlines dare to charge for flights to Alabama. I ended up booking a flight to Atlanta and renting a car all for almost $150 less than the flight itself to Alabama would have been. Crazy.

A friend is in town from Baltimore for the weekend; it will be nice to see her since I don't manage to get down there these days.

Oh, and in TV news - Grey's Anatomy had their final new episode on last night (that I half-watched, will watch with more attention later online) until the writer's get their butts back to work. More exciting television news is that my dad bought me the DVD of Season 4 of The Wire, which is set in Baltimore, but about a school system that reminds me very much of my internship. So despite the stupid writers, I have what to watch for a while.

Oh, and a shout out to our furry friend, Holy Hyrax, who just made my co-worker incredibly happy by offering his expertise of PDF's with me. Thanks!

That's it for now - have a great Shabbos and weekend!

Pet Peeves

I have decided that I have two new pet peeves and I thought I would share them.

1) I IM with the best of them, and I will readily admit to using a few of the most popular acronyms out there. You can find me using "brb" (be right back) or "np" (no problem). But what irks me is that people have somehow decided that "lol" (Laughing out loud) has crossed over into normative writing practice and now insert it into emails, blog entries, dating profiles, etc., to laugh at their own, usually not terribly amusing jokes. It's one thing to respond with an "LOL" in response to someone else's joke to show your appreciation for their humor, but it's entirely another to "LOL" at yourself. Especially when it's not funny. Ugh.

2) Yes, the Ivy League colleges are known to offer a good education and be exclusively reserved for very smart people. However, I find it kind of pathetic when someone in their late 30's or even 40's described him or herself first as an "Ivy League Graduate." Um, hello, that was almost 20 years ago - have you done anything since then? I'm very proud of the fact that you got good SAT scores when you were 18, but have you used that intelligence and capacity for memorizing useless facts and words that don't show up in normal conversations for anything besides acting like you are big stuff for having $40K a year of your parent's money to throw at a university who probably does not brag about you the way you brag about it?

Ok, that's it. Just had to get that off my chest.

Good Customer Service

I would like to report on two instances of good customer service that have occurred recently.

1) I flew on JetBlue to go to Buffalo for my grandfather's funeral. They really do step up when it comes to comfort and treating their customers well. In addition to the leather seats, abundant legroom and personal televisions, they won my heart in an additional way. My flight into Buffalo was delayed for several hours, and I ended up arriving very late. Last week, I received an email from JetBlue, completely unsolicited, offering their apologies for my delay and giving me a $25 voucher on my next flight. I was quite surprised and pleased by this.

2) I went to the movies with a friend yesterday. My friend was running late, so I went ahead and bought her a ticket. She got to the theater while I was in the restroom and bought her own ticket, not realizing that I had already bought her one. We decided it couldn't hurt to ask at the customer service table if they could do anything about the superfluous ticket. They gave us a refund with no problem at all, in cash.

Happy Birthday!

A very happy birthday to my green-loving, picture-posting friend from Down Under who is one year older now (her birthday is on the 7th, but it's already Monday in Australia).

Everyone hop on over to Sarah's View and wish her a wonderful birthday!

End of an Era

My father just called and pointed me towards this article, discussing the "retirement" of Danny Siegel, who has run an amazing tzedakah organization for many, many years. He was a close friend of my father's and I have met him many times throughout my life. In addition, I have received the newsletter his organization distributes chronicling the disbursement of money to various recipients, all incredibly worthy causes. Reading through the newsletter has often caused tears to come to my eyes in appreciation of the amazing work that Danny has devoted his life to and the incredibly number of lives who he has improved based on his efforts. He is a true inspiration. Talk about making your life count.

LOTD

I'm back to the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack (have to enjoy the music while the stupid writers continue to be on strike and hold back new episodes from adoring fans like myself). This one is by Foy Vance:

Homebird

The orange was the size of a watermelon to me
Well at least is my memory
Sunshine made my bare feet burn upon the road
Far away we'd roam

I'd be hollarin' song in the back seat
The boys would laugh and tease about my black feet
They'd tell stories that would warm my soul
Motorbikes and chrome
Jimmy could not wait to get home

Homebird sing
Fly me high on an angel's wing
Homebird sing
Leave out nothing tell me everything

Everywhere we went just looked the same to me
The skies were blue and the grass was green
I wonder how different I might see them now
Yet I see them somehow

Through the fallen memories when that angel baby signs
Oh the little magic that a solo brings
Making up songs and words and singin from the soul
Oh the stories told
None and him and Jimmy could know

Homebird sing
Fly me high on an angel's wing
Homebird sing
Leave out nothing tell me everything

Homebird sing
Fly me high on an angel's wing
Homebird sing
Leave out nothing tell me everything


And here is a not so great video but at least you can hear the beautiful song:




In other news, btw - 9 degrees this morning!!! Brrrrrrrrrr!! Where the heck did double-digit temperatures go to?