I've realized in the last few weeks that no one really uses LiveJournal anymore to update their friends on their lives anymore. It seems like other social media outlets have replaced LJ as a means of sharing information. I don't have a problem with this; Facebook is a fantastic tool, and I actually created a Twitter account a few weeks ago to keep up on news in real-time.

I intend to keep updating my LJ periodically, though. It seems almost...peaceful here in comparison. Besides, I have a lot of history on this site: I've got posts dating back to my junior year in high school, over 8 years ago. I love going back and reading all of my thoughts about what I was going through, and seeing how it compares to me today. I also know that some people in my family only keep updated on my life through my LJ, and I don't want to let them down, either.

The new semester of my third year as a grad student at NIU began a few weeks ago. It has been a mixed experience for me so far. I'm only taking 2 classes instead of 3, in exchange for more hours in the Psychological Services Center (PSC) each week. As a third-year student, I have to help with intake interviews, when new clients come in for the first time and we meet with them to get a feel for how to best plug them in to therapy/assessment services.

One thing I'm very excited about is a new clinical training opportunity I've just picked up. I'm going to be assisting with group therapy sessions on Saturday mornings to teach social skills to elementary school-aged children with autism. The sessions are at a group private practice in Naperville, owned by a woman who graduated from our program. I think this will be a phenomenal training experience, so I'm really looking forward to getting plugged into this!

I am still teaching Intro to Psychology. This will be my last year teaching. I enjoy it, but as I've said before, education isn't my passion, so I will be glad to trade it in for a clinical externship next year (at least I hope so - crossing my fingers for that).

My thesis has been moving slowly and not-so-surely. This is mostly my fault, because it inevitably finds itself at the bottom of my to-do list every week. I really just need to plow through the last step of my data collection, and get it done so I can get my Master's and start focusing on other things like candidacy exams for the PhD program, clinical work, and my dissertation.

Despite loving so many aspects of the graduate school experience, part of me has been kind of cynical lately about school. I am really reaching the point where I want to be done with formal education so I can just start working a real job already. I basically work a full-time job of being a student with classes, clinical work, and research; and then I work the equivalent of a part-time job doing my homework. It's just tedious sometimes.

I will probably have more updates soon, because I've had a lot of stuff going on recently, but I had this on my mind and I wanted to share before I lost the motivation to update again.

My summer has been remarkably relaxed, and I am quite grateful for that.

I've made pretty good progress on a lot of the things I was hoping to accomplish this summer. I've watched a few Best Picture movies; I've completely re-read a textbook on psychotherapy, one that I think will be really helpful for my career; and I've beaten a bunch of fun video games. I can't believe that I owned a PS3 for a full semester and barely touched it until this May...was I really that busy last semester?

No updates in the girlfriend department, unfortunately. Oh well. :(

I recently rediscovered my love of reading. I had a $20 gift certificate to Borders that needed to be spent and a lot of time on trains lately, so I bought a couple of fantasy books by Brandon Sanderson, the author who is finishing up Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series after RJ passed away. Sanderson is a solid writer, especially in terms of pacing and character development, and I don't remember the last time I read high-quality fantasy books by a different author. (This is mostly my fault; I've spent way too many years of my life reading work by RJ alone.) I've finished Elantris, Warbreaker, Mistborn: The Final Empire, and I'm now working on the second Mistborn novel.

I'm also glad to say that I finally have a new car! It's a 2005 Dodge Stratus with only 88K miles. I bought it from my dad for a great price, and it's fantastic - much better than my '97 Dodge Intrepid with 170K miles. The Intrepid lasted me 7 years, but I've had serious car problems in the last year, including the last straw in June when an important belt attached to my engine overheated and melted. I'm looking forward to driving it around more.

Tomorrow morning, dad and I are leaving for our annual fishing trip in Ontario, Canada. Unfortunately, Adam won't be joining us this year, so it's just me and dad. However, I'm really looking forward to a chance to just spend some time with him, relax, read, play some card games, and just generally have a good time. I really do have to get a lot of work done with my thesis and other research projects when I get back, though...

I hope your summer has been going well, and that you've been enjoying it like I have been! I'll see you all around in a week.

So...yeah. I haven't had a real update in months. Sorry about that.

Generally speaking, the last few months have not been that exciting. I had another successful semester at school, which went very well. My semester was not nearly as busy as the fall semester was, so I'm grateful for that, but it certainly kept me busy. I'm grateful for the opportunity to relax this summer while still getting things done on my thesis, making progress with my clinical abilities, and other fun goals I have. The list of summer goals includes some of the following, among other things:

-- Watch more movies from the Oscar's list of Best Picture winners
-- Run a 5K race (I've worked my way up to running 2 1/2 miles without stopping!)
-- Lots of video games! It's been way too long since I had time to do this.
-- Re-read some of my clinical books, now that I actually have time to process them more in-depth
-- Do some (very) preliminary research into career paths in clinical psychology, and possible internship sites
-- Make some puzzles and put them up for art in our apartment
-- Get satisfactory work done on my thesis, so I can finish data collection and earn my M.A. next year

After reviewing my old posts, I realized that the only things I've shared since early February were song lyrics. Those songs reflect some things I was going through this semester. My girlfriend and I broke up a couple of months ago, and I didn't really want to write about it yet because I wasn't ready to. Suffice to say that things unfortunately didn't work out between us, but I feel like I've learned from that relationship and I'm ready to move on.

This weekend, I went to St. Louis with my roommate David and some of my other friends from Hope, and we had a surprise birthday party for another Hope friend (Joe Stodola) who is a biochemistry grad student at Washington University. I've never been to St. Louis before, and it was a blast. The food was great, the company was awesome, and we had a lot of fun! I am constantly reminded of how blessed I am to be surrounded by such caring friends.

My sign language skills have really flourished in the last year. It seems really crazy to me to think about last summer, when I took my first ASL class at NIU, and how much I've grown this year. I was hoping to take a month-long intensive class this summer, but unfortunately it seems like it's going to be canceled due to low enrollment. :( I guess I'll have to keep working on my skills on my own. Thankfully, I have lots of great opportunities to practice in the community.

I'm not sure if ASL will play a part in my professional life or not, but at the very least, I could be a paid interpreter for church services or something in the area. I was actually contacted recently with an offer for a part-time interpreter job for a church, but I turned it down for now because I'm not confident enough to be an interpreter...yet. My goal for the next year is to develop my fluency to the point that I'm actually comfortable doing that. If I can do that, then I could get some extra money every week to interpret at a church, which also might serve as a stepping stone towards building competency in signing professionally, allowing me to provide therapy with Deaf individuals.

I also want to take some time this summer to review my notes from my music theory class at Hope. I've been to a couple of music concerts lately that have been so amazing that I almost found myself wishing I had studied music instead of psychology. Although I feel that my current career path will better help me provide meaningful services to other people who really need help, I want to make sure that I make music an integral part of my life. I think I should study music theory and history as a hobby. I could use more hobbies, anyway. I also want to pick up the guitar again...I've barely touched mine in a while. Oops.

I'm going to go play video games for a bit and then head to bed. Ah, the simple joys of summer. I hope you all are doing well and enjoying your summer, too!

Hi! Long time no see. Sorry about that.

I have plenty of random/miscellaneous things to talk about, but I'm busy at the moment, so I just wanted to say one thing. I've been having random issues with my LJ account with spam users commenting on my posts. So, I've now changed my settings to only allow my LJ friends to post comments on my entries. If you want to share comments, please friend me and I'll add you to my list!

Hope all has been going well for you. :)

I'm not surprised, not everything lasts
I've broken my heart so many times, I stopped keeping track
Talk myself in, I talk myself out
I get all worked up, then I let myself down

I tried so very hard not to lose it
I came up with a million excuses
I thought, I thought of every possibility

And I know someday that it'll all turn out
You'll make me work, so we can work to work it out
And I promise you, kid, that I give so much more than I get
I just haven't met you yet

I might have to wait, I'll never give up
I guess it's half timing, and the other half's luck
Wherever you are, whenever it's right
You'll come out of nowhere and into my life

And I know that we can be so amazing
And, baby, your love is gonna change me
And now I can see every possibility

And somehow I know that it'll all turn out
You'll make me work, so we can work to work it out
And I promise you, kid, I give so much more than I get
I just haven't met you yet

They say all's fair
In love and war
But I won't need to fight it
We'll get it right and we'll be united

And I know that we can be so amazing
And being in your life is gonna change me
And now I can see every single possibility

And someday I know it'll all turn out
And I'll work to work it out
Promise you, kid, I'll give more than I get
Than I get, than I get, than I get

Oh, you know it'll all turn out
And you'll make me work so we can work to work it out
And I promise you kid to give so much more than I get
Yeah, I just haven't met you yet

I just haven't met you yet
Oh, promise you, kid
To give so much more than I get

I said love, love, love, love
Love, love, love, love
(I just haven't met you yet)
Love, love, love, love
Love, love
I just haven't met you yet

Loneliness, pacing up and down these hallways
Second guessing every thought
Mystified, just spinning 'round in circles
Drowning in the silent screaming
With nothing left to say

Every time I reach for you
There's no one there to hold on to
Nothing left for me to miss
I'm letting go, letting go of this
Lost my mind thinking it through
The light inside has left me too
Now I know what empty is
I've had enough, had enough of this

I believe that love should be a reason
To give and get back in return
(To give and get back in return)
I want to breathe in a new beginning
With someone who will wrap her arms
Around what's left of me

Every time I reach for you
There's no one there to hold on to
Nothing left for me to miss
I'm letting go, letting go of this
Lost my mind thinking it through
The light inside has left me too
Now I know what empty is
I've had enough, had enough of this

I'm tired of barely holding on
To something that's already gone
I'm tired of being the one
Who's in this all alone

Every time I reach for you
There's no one there to hold on to
Nothing left for me to miss
I'm letting go, letting go of this
Lost my mind thinking it through
The light inside has left me too
Now I know what empty is
I've had enough, had enough of this

Every time I reach for you
There's no one there to hold on to
Nothing left for me to miss
I'm letting go, letting go of this
Lost my mind thinking it through
The light inside has left me too
Now I know what empty is
I've had enough, had enough of this
I've had enough, had enough of this

Was it you who spoke the words that things would happen but not to me
Oh things are gonna happen naturally
Oh taking your advice I'm looking on the bright side
And balancing the whole thing
But often times those words get tangled up in lines
And the bright lights turn to night
Until the dawn it brings
Another day to sing about the magic that was you and me

Cause you and I both loved
What you and I spoke of
And others just read of
Others only read of the love, the love that I love.

See I'm all about them words
Over numbers, unencumbered numbered words
Hundreds of pages, pages, pages for words
More words then I had ever heard and I feel so alive

Cause you and I both loved
What you and I spoke of
And others just read of
And if you could see me now,
Oh love, no
You and I, you and I
Not so little you and I anymore, mmm...
And with this silence brings a moral story
More importantly evolving is the glory of a boy

Cause you and I both loved
What you and I spoke of
And others just read of
And if you could see me now
Well I'm almost finally out of
I'm finally out of
Finally deedeedeedee
Well I'm almost finally, finally
Well I'm free, oh, I'm free

And it's okay if you have to go away
Oh just remember the telephone works both ways
And if I never ever hear them ring
If nothing else I'll think the bells inside
Have finally found you someone else and that's okay
Cause I'll remember everything you sang

Cause you and I both loved what you and I spoke of
and others just read of and if you could see me now
well then I'm almost finally out of.
I'm finally out of, finally, deedeeededede
well I'm almost finally, finally, out of words.

This has been quite the memorable week. It's had its ups and downs, but overall it's been a good one.

Monday was a long, hard day for me. All of my Mondays this semester are going to feel long, because I'm on campus from 9:30 until 7 with meetings, classes, teaching, and supervision. However, this Monday in particular was hard for me because it was the two year anniversary of when my older brother Eric passed away. I still regret that Eric and I weren't as close as I wanted us to be. We weren't interested in many of the same things, and I never lived with him after my parents divorced...but he was still my brother and I liked spending time with him. Miss you, bro.

The rest of this week has been dominated by one of the worst winter storms I've seen in a long time. It started Tuesday afternoon when all afternoon and evening classes were canceled. The forecast called for 12-18 inches of snow, gusts of wind over 50 mph, and...wait for it...thunder snow. That's right. Thunder snow. I've neve heard of this, but apparently Michigan has had it before. It's when you get a thunder storm, but instead of rain as precipitation, you get snow. Wicked awesome!

Tuesday night we did in fact have a brief bout of thunder snow, as well as everything else that was predicted. It looks like we've easily gotten over a foot of snow, and we certainly had the wind. There were snow drifts up to the height of my car trunk on Tuesday. I'm still not sure I could get out today, although the landlord had people over all afternoon yesterday trying to clear out the snow from our parking lot.

Yesterday, my classes were canceled so I didn't have to teach. I managed to get some work done for classes today, but spent most of the day relaxing and playing video games. Then, to my very pleasant surprise, we got emails from the school saying that today's classes were canceled too. WHAT?! Awesome! Apparently it's very cold out, and combined with the fact that the school probably still hasn't had time to actually clear up all of the snow around campus, they decided to give themselves another day to recover. Fine by me.

So, I've been sitting in my apartment since Tuesday afternoon. I'm sure we'll have school again tomorrow, so I have work to do today for the class I'm teaching. I also need to try and reach my clients to see when we can meet. Regardless, I am not complaining about the unexpected two days off!

Tomorrow, my girlfriend Anne (!) is coming to DeKalb to visit for the weekend. She is a close friend of mine from college, and she is currently a third year med student at UM - Ann Arbor. She's just finishing up her cardiology rotation, so she has a weekend with nothing to do. I'm really looking forward to seeing her because we haven't had a chance to spend time with her since last month.

Hope you all are doing well and that your week has been great!

Everytime I see your face
My heart takes off on a high speed chase
Now don't be scared, it's only love
Baby, that we're falling in

I can't wait to tomorrow
This feeling has swallowed me whole
And know that I've lost control
This heart that I've followed
Has left me so hollow
That was then, this is now, yeah you have changed everything

Everytime I see your face
My heart takes off on a high speed chase
Now don't be scared, it's only love
That we're falling in
I would never do you wrong
Or let you down or lead you on
Don't look down, it's only love
Baby, that we're falling in

I'm standing in your driveway
It's midnight and I'm sideways
To find out if you feel the same
Won't be easy, have my doubts too
But it's over, without you I'm just lost, incomplete
Yeah you feel like home, home to me
Everytime I see your face
My heart takes off on a high speed chase
Now don't be scared, it's only love
That we're falling in
I would never do you wrong
Or let you down or lead you on
Don't look down, it's only love
Baby, that we're falling in

All those nights I stayed away
Thinking of all the ways to make you mine
All of those smiles will never fade
Never run out of ways to blow my mind

Everytime I see your face
My heart takes off on a high speed chase
Now don't be scared, it's only love
That we're falling in
I would never do you wrong
Or let you down or lead you on
Don't look down, it's only love
Baby, that we're falling in
Don't be scared, it's only love
Baby, that we're falling in

This has been such a relaxing vacation. After last semester, I am so glad that I've had such a chance to relax over my Christmas vacation.

I survived the end of my classes, exams, and papers. The lack of homework, papers, and projects in the last few weeks has been quite a change of pace. The last two-ish weeks have been spent hanging out with friends, family, and my girlfriend (!). (Anne and I have known each other for a long time, and we started seeing each other again in October.) I've spent a lot of time in Grand Haven, Lake Ann, Holland, and Kalamazoo.

For the last two days, I was in Houghton, MI helping my sister move into her new apartment. She just got a new state job with the Department of Human Services working with people who need financial assistance from the state (EBT, WIC, etc). I've never been to that part of the U.P., and I actually really liked it! There was a ton of snow, and it seemed like a really beautiful town. Maybe it's just because I really enjoyed getting to know DeKalb after moving there, but it was fun exploring Houghton as a town that Laura was moving to.

David (my roommate) and I have been watching Stargate: Atlantis on Netflix. It's not the most amazing show I've watched, but it's really entertaining and I like it. Even better, all five seasons are on Netflix instant play, so I can watch them whenever I want. I'm about a third of the way through season 3, and it's fun so far.

In a few days, I'm going to drive over to Ann Arbor to meet up with Anne and two of my other close friends, Andrew and Emily (yay!), then it's back to DeKalb for the beginning of the spring semester. Hopefully next semester will be a bit easier than last fall...hopefully.