Recent Thoughts and Occurrences: Post Christmas Edition

• Christmas was decent this year even though it was just me, my mom, and my dad on Christmas day.
• I wish my three brothers, my sister, my brother-in-law, and my two nephews could have celebrated with us though.
• I spent Christmas Eve night (not the entire night) with my friend Dustin and his family.
• Dustin and I did some last minute Christmas shopping the other day and he bought me a new purse from Old Navy. I love it!
• This was an Unlce John's Perpetual Christmas ;). First my mom was going to give Uncle John's calendar to the extended family for Christmas but decided, last minute, not to do so. However, my aunt gave all the families one and then, a few days later, we got one in the mail from Uncle John himself.
• On Christmas Eve morning, my cousin Grant (I believe he’s a 2nd cousin) passed away. His dad and some of the family were going to go hunting that morning and his dad went to wake him up but he never awoke. He was 25 and engaged. I was not close to him but I remember him from the family reunions and I always looked forward to getting to see him at the reunions. Sad.
• I have been so sick since Christmas night. Fever, chills, headache, nausea, dry cough, sore muscles. I stayed in bed all day yesterday and my mom took care of me. I can’t recall the last time I was this sick.
• My dad, Dustin (and possibly his mom), and many others in my hometown appear to have the same thing as well. So if you know where I grew up stay away from there.
• And beware – it seems to start with a light cough the day before it hits you.
• Yes, I’ve had a flu shot.
• I saw the movie “Fun with Dick and Jane” the other night. It was okay but definitely nothing special or nothing I’d see again. I love Jim Carrey though.
• In high school my friends used to tell me that I reminded them of a mixture between Jim Carrey and Alanis Morrisette. Hmm.
• I have changed my mind. When I saw Cinderella Man for the first time I thought it was better than Million Dollar Baby. Now that I’ve watched it a second time (on Christmas Day), I’ve decided I like Million Dollar Baby better.
• I am currently whitening my teeth with TresWhite whitening trays that my Dentist gave me. There are 10 trays to use for 10 days. After the first use I could tell a difference in the color of my teeth. However, my dentist told me I have what’s called Type C (or Type 3) teeth, which means they have a gray undertone rather than yellow (or something like that) and that Type C is the hardest to whiten and often don’t respond very well to whiteners. Oh well. I still have 4 or 5 trays left to go, so we’ll see!
• I am going to try to start drinking lighter colored drinks – I don’t have a good feeling, however, about it lasting though. I am too much in love with Diet Dr. Pepper. Self-fulfilling prophecy perhaps?
• P.S. My New Year’s resolution is to not have a New Year’s resolution.
• I have two papers to write over the break and then a presentation to work on as soon as January 2nd rolls around.
• This means I need to end this blog and try working on my homework.
• Thanks for reading.
  

A Weekend in the Life of an Arachnophobic

The other day my mother and I were driving down the road in her car, headed out to a Christmas get together with some of her friends, when terror struck!

Feeling the need to primp, I had pulled down the passenger side visor to look at myself in the visor's mirror. Upon pulling it down, I could have sworn I felt something fall down onto me. At first I looked around but failed to sight anything. Then, however, I found what I did not want to find -- a big, furry black and white spider (which just happened to be alive) resting right in between my legs and happily staring me in the face!

Panic set in! I frantically began wiggling around like a wounded snake, trying not to scream which I figured could have caused my mom to have a wreck. The evil looking spider then fell into my seat as I began holding myself up off of the seat, ready to hop into the back seat. All the while my mom was laughing at me. I managed to hit the spider with my wallet and it disappeared. At this point, my mom and I had reached our destination. I quickly jumped out of the car and my mom, not a bit afraid of spiders, got out of the car and inspected the situation in the passengers side area.

The spider was pronounced dead at the scene. Legs were everywhere. I had killed it with my wallet (which I later cleaned). I felt kind of guilty for murdering it, especially around the holiday season, so I said a nice prayer for it in my head. Come to think of it, that spider was probably more afraid of me than I was of it!

Oh well. Then, yesterday morning, just thinking the horror was over, I sat down at the breakfast table for breakfast and felt something crunchy on my leg. What was it? Well, it wasn't the crumbs from my food. No. It was the delicate, brown carcus of a deceased spider! I quickly lost my appetite. What is my deal with spiders this week? What's next? Ah!

Poetry Intelligence Quotient

I took this quiz on Poetry.com to test my "Poetry IQ" and here are my results, which I thought were pretty cool:

9 out of a possible 11

Score Range: 8-11 "You have an excellent grasp of poetic form, structure, and technique. People at this level have generally taken advanced-level study in literature or have completed advanced poetry courses. They have often spent considerable time writing, developing their own poetic "voice," and their own techniques. People at this level, particularly if they can apply their knowledge of poetic form and structure to their own work, are considered among the most talented of poetic artists."

"Seven"

I was tagged by Ellison…

List 7 things to do before I die:

1. Have my own private practice in psychotherapy and counseling
2. Climb a mountain
3. See the 7 Wonders of the Medievil Mind
4. Go to the Vatican
5. Join a secret society
6. Own a farm with lots of animals
7. Write a lot of great books (non-fiction psyc related as well as general fiction)! Also, perhaps publish some of my poetry (not that it’s popular to read poetry, but ya know!)

List 7 things I cannot (or will not) do:

1. Use illegal drugs (will not)
2. Drive while drunk (will not)
3. Go to school naked (will not)
4. Stop learning (will not)
5. Stop reading journal articles after I graduate (will not)
6. Dance (That’s a cannot – not a will not)
7. Live without the internet (will not)

List 7 things that attract me to my spouse (or Opposite Sex):

1. Intelligence
2. A decent body and appearance (It’s only natural!)
3. Sense of humor
4. Compassion
5. Good listening skills
6. Open-mindedness
7. Truthfulness

List 7 things I say most often:

1. “Really?”
2. "For real”
3. "Groovy"
4. "Whatever"
5. "Dude!"
6. "’Sup?"
7. "Totally!”

List 7 books or series that I love:

1. The Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown)
2. Angels & Demons (Dan Brown)
3. The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork (John C. Maxwell)
4. Man’s Search for Meaning (Dr. Viktor Frankl)
5. To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
6. Developing the Leader Within You (John C. Maxwell)
7. The Testament (John Grisham)
(There are many more but either I can’t think of them or I have run out of room!)

List 7 movies I would watch over and over again:

1. Forrest Gump
2. The Green Mile
3. Life as a House
4. Catch Me if You Can
5. Pearl Harbor
6. Now and Then
7. The Scent of a Woman
(Seven movies are not enough!)

List seven people I would love to join in (if they haven't already done so):

1. Shannon
2. Tricia
3. J-Walker
4. Shaheen
5. Janaye
6. Angie
7. Anybody else who wants to!

Women of the Asylum

Right now I am reading the book "Women of the Asylum" by. Jeffrey L. Geller and Maxine Harris. This is a required book for the wintermester course I am taking. Although we don't have to read the whole book, I have already read about half of the way through it (and I just bought it on Tuesday!), as have a number of my classmates. It is an intriguing read. If you liked Susanna Kaysen's "Girl, Interrupted," or other such stories of women and mental illness (or supposed "mental illness"), you might enjoy this book.

The book presents the first-hand accounts of 26 women who were incarcerated at some point during the years 1840 to 1945 in what were once termed "insane asylums". Some of the women were behind asylum walls for a year, while others were incarcerated for more than twenty years. Whether or not each of these women were truly "insane" is for the reader to decide.

Many of the women were put behind asylum walls for simply disobeying their husbands, for expressing unpopular religious beliefs, for spending too much money, and many other questionable, and often unreasonable, circumstances. A lot of the women were incarcerated for not adhering to the societal norms of the feminine role and the book seems to do a good job of telling this aspect. Furthermore, a vast majority of the women, once claimed to be "insane" by someone (a husband, a parent, a doctor) were never allowed the time of day to explain themselves, their thoughts or their actions, and rarely, if ever, was the mental health of the accusers looked into.

One woman inmate mentioned a sign that hung above the asylum entrance that read "Who enters here must leave all hope behind." The majority of women in the book speak of the many horrors of the asylums such as being chained to the floor in shackles, hearded up like sheep, nibbled on by rats, slapped and cursed at by nurses, degraded, dehumanized, and all the time having seemingly nobody as their advocates.

Some women in the book talk about how the asylums broke them in the end. Broke their spirits. Broke whatever true bit of sanity they had possessed. These women would spend a long time simply trying to recover from their experiences surrounding asylum life.

There's a lot more to say about this book but I will refrain from saying it all here. If the chance arises, read this book! History, like this, is so very important to stay in touch with. In the end, the accounts of the women in this book serve to remind me of how far society has come from those days. We still have our troubles, as all societies do, to work on -- but nothing like the mentally ill experienced back in the days. After reading this book, one might want to ask themselves, "If I were around back in those days, might I have been incarcerated in the asylums?" You might be surprised at your answer.

The Night Before Christmas?

This is just a random poem I wrote. It has nothing to do with me or anyone else I know. Sometimes I just think up weird things (stories, scenarios) in my head and then write about them! Enjoy!

"The Night Before Christmas?"







‘Twas the night before Christmas,
or at least I thought so,
when I waited for Santa
to come in from the snow.

I’d offer him cookies
and maybe some milk too.
If he didn’t want them,
I’d see what else I could do.

The hours flew by
and still he hadn’t shown.
Was this some sort of joke?
I felt so alone.

Then suddenly, in the chimney,
there arose such a clatter.
I went to check it out
to see what was the matter.

What happened next?
I’m not really sure.
I somehow awoke
to the words “There’s no cure.”

Something was wrong,
things just didn’t seem right.
As it turned out,
Christmas eve wasn’t that night.

In a room I was put
where the walls were padded.
A nurse called me “schizo,”
and said I was “combative.”

I don’t understand why
they let me believe
Christmas eve was that night.
Heavens! Now I just want to leave!

By. Holly H.

Games To Ask For This Holiday Season

Do you like or want any of these?

In alphabetical order...

CATCH PHRASE - If you have never played this game you are missing out! This game is a sort of mixture of Taboo and Hot Potato. Players must try to describe a word without saying the actual word or any part of it. As soon as the other person or persons on their team guess the word they must pass the word giver to the other team. The team who gets stuck with the word giver when the timer goes off loses that round. Very addicting!






CRANIUM - What could be more fun than humming, whistling, sketching, sculpting, spelling backwards, acting, solving puzzles, and answering trivia all in one game? I must say, though, "Data Head," is hell!






ENCORE - Two teams exist. A word or category is given. Teams must go back n' forth singing songs that contain the given word or songs having to do with a given category (e.g., Christmas). This is SUCH a fun game to play with a lot of friends! However, as I have found, one really must pay attention to make sure people are not making up songs and saying, "Oh yeah. Of course it is a song. It's an... uuum... campfire song. Yeah. That's it. A campfire song."






THE GAME OF LIFE - Start Life by either going to college or not going to college (without the hassle of having to argue with your parents). Get married (the pink and blue human figurines -- that fit into the car one goes through "Life" in -- can accomodate both heterosexual and homosexual relationships). Have kids (twins, even!). Go to mars. Win a film festival. Lose your home in a disaster. Retire. The possibilities in "Life" are endless.






PASS THE BOMB - A card with three letters on it is drawn from a stack. A dice is rolled which determines where players must use the three letters in a word (e.g., anywhere; anywhere but the beginning of the word; etc.). All player must come up with a word containing those letters in whatever place they belong. The bomb is passed. When the bomb blows, the player whose hand it was in loses that round and must keep the card. Those with the least cards in the end win. This really gets the mind on a roll!






PIT - This is, by far, the funnest card game I have ever played!
It is not normal cards that are used. They are cards that have the
names of different types of grains on them (e.g., "Oats" or, as my
friends and I like to call it "Opium," because it starts with an "O"). Players must trade cards with one another, not knowing what the card is, with hopes of collecting all cards of the same grain (plus or minus a "bull" or a "bear" in certain situations). The first one with all the cards who
rings the bell wins. This game gets SO loud -- and that's what makes
is SO fun! No need to wear hearing aides in this game!






SCATTERGORIES - A dice is rolled that determines a letter of the alphabet. Then, players have a sheet of paper with a number of different categories on it in which they must come up with a word for those categories and which begins with the letter that was rolled. The goal is to get as many words as possible before the timer runs out. Note: When the letter is "A" and the category is "Types of Furniture," the phrase "Antique Dresser" doesn't count! haha. Also, it's funny when a group of 5 or 6 people get the letter "W" and the category "Fruits" and nobody thinks to put "Watermelon," let alone any other word!






UPWORDS - I am the champion of this game! Based off of the
popular game of Scrabble, players simply build words as they do in
Scrabble yet can also stack letters on top of each other (to a 5-high
limit) in order to create new words. This game is VERY addictive!

Guest Author #2: Donika Martinez

The guest author of the following entry is another dear friend of mine, the great Donika Martinez. Donika is currently a pre-med student, planning to be a physician (and who will make a very good one at that). I have been friends with her for many, many moons. She and I were doubles partners in college tennis as well as suite mates at one point (our dorm rooms shared a bathroom). Had we beaten this particular doubles team in our last regional match together, she and I would have been headed to nationals in Tuscon, Arizona. Although we didn't win, we still played amazingly awesome!

Donika and I have many fond memories together. Some of the things I remember are:

Taking random midnight drives with her through the local cemetary; She and I getting pulled over by a cop (for squealing my tires) and her laughing at me as I pleaded with the officer, "Please don't give me a ticket. I just got out of defensive driving." Also, we were laughing on the phone awhile ago about this one time when I had about 10-12 girls all piled into my jeep to go see a "glowing" tombstone in a cemetary in a near by town. One of the girls, on the basketball team, somehow sprained her ankle in my backseat. LOL! Those are just a few of the many fond memories I share of and with Donika. She's a wonderful friend and a great person to know. So, here I present Donika's entry, which I really enjoy, called "Desperate to Meet Equilibrium":

"Desperate to Meet Equilibrium"

It’s almost everyday that I struggle to be everything that everybody wants me to be. The Good student, the Good straight daughter, the Good Christian, the Good employee, and the Good friend. I find myself tearing my mind apart figuring how I can please everyone at the same time. I’m often stressed over everybody else stressing over me. What can I do to improve our situation, how can I make you feel better, how can I help you? The real question is will you HELP ME? Yeah that’s right I’m not going to beat around the bush with you and say that I don’t need you but I do more than you think. I’m strong, on the outside, I’m confident, on the outside, I’m well organized, on the outside. In the inside I’m scared of the world and it succeeding over me, making me feel inferior, intimidation and defeat, drawing every bit of energy out of me and laughing at me and saying I beat you today! Pleasing is for the willing, for the those who go beyond themselves to do unto others as they do unto you. A verse yes but is it an action, maybe. Doing is sometimes seeing and seeing is sometimes doing. I’m tired of doing, tired of seeing, tired of not meeting far more than half way with everybody. Yes, I will continue to struggle for that balance of trust, giving, living and studying. I will not say I will be defeated by anyone or anything, or let the stress of everyday living bind me by my hands. But I will say this, CAN I GET SOME FREAKING ME TIME PLEASE!!!

"Being Human"

Have you ever thought
How lucky you are
To say you are
Human?

To be an ant means
To get stepped on.
It means gramps dyin’
In a raid by Pest Control.

To be a deer means
Your head getting mounted.
It means stuck in the grill
Of a ’57 Chevy at 50 mph.

To be a mouse means
You’re treated like a louse.
It means finding the gouda
Then suddenly being gone-ah.

To be a cow means
To be a Happy Meal.
It means being happy
Isn’t always happy.

To be a human means
To be alive.
It means we my die too
But with a greater chance of dignity.

By. Holly H.