St. Patty's Day, World SWK Day, and the stories of my life

Apparently Chicagoians are in no lack of Irish or wanna-be Irish people. St. Patty's Day festivites were enough to make me now what to puke when I see the color green.
My apartment is situated in such a way that there are about 5 Irish Pubs just next door and around the corner. So I bet you can bet what that brought!
Loud, drunk, green-wearing Irish wanna-bes, and lots of them. Festivities began last Thursday and have finally hit a lull today. Morning and night those bars were packed with people. At one point in time I could very clearly sing along to the music on one of the pubs while sitting in the comfort of my apartment. Not that I minded. I always like some good music. It is the cigarette air and the smell of alcohol that makes me turn my head a little. Guess I'm just not the clubbin' type. Who knew?
I was able to avoid all the chaos (don't worry, you Spring Arbor-ites, no smoking or green beer for me!), but it sure was loud around here. I already get the blessing of falling asleep to breaking beer bottles outside my window on a weekend-nightly basis, but these past few days it has been even more musical. :-)
Let's just say that I'm thankful that the festivites are over.

On an unrelated note, yesterday was WORLD SOCIAL WORK DAY!! So happy belated World Social Work Day to all my social work buddies out there. Hope it was a great one.
And it was for me!! Yesterday I hit my 200 hour mark! This means that I am officially half way done with my internship hours. We need 400 to graduate and I am now on the down slope. As much as I love my internship, this is still a good feeling. I'm ready to be done.
The homework, on the other hand, is still very steeply climbing up-hill. I'm not even close to the down slope on that one. Unless you count the fact that I think I'm slipping backwards with the weight of it. I just hope I get it all done. For the first time in my educational career (okay, that isn't totally true), I'm not 100% confident it will get accomplished. (Don't worry, mom, my education is not going to waste.... I will still graduate..... though I may not pull off the 4.0 this semester. Then again.....)

On top of all that is going on, my future has been taking some unexpected (?) changes (don't worry! I'm still getting married in August!!!!!!!) and, low and behold, a bug of some sort has seemed to find me in my weakness.
The combination of stress on top of stress, added in a little more stress isn't a very good combination. Perfect opportunity for those pesky little viruses to attack. I hope I feel better soon....

Nonetheless, things are starting to look up. I'm finding priorties again and hopefully this will help everything else fall into place. And, since I didn't get a Spring Break this year, I'm going home for the weekend. Hardly a Spring Break, but a breath of fresh air will be greatly appreciated.

Off to free Chinese food and Kung Fu Panda night! (A much needed homework break)!!

And the rain came down

It downpoured today. Hard, drenching downpour.



I liked it.

Observations

Today 1.5 miles on the expressway = 4 minutes. I think I'm going to start timing that very short stretch that I am on 90/94 (or, the Kennedy, as it is known around here - they rarely go by their numbers) and find out what my average was.

I was a little later today than usual (had a slow start out of bed, then, got almost to my car to realize that because it was such a beautiful day I had switched coats and everything I needed was in the other coat pocket so I had to walk all the way back). However, no worries, I was still at my internship with plenty of time to not do much for 7 hours (I ditched a little early today - Happy Friday!!!).

So far I have seen an equestrian policeman on the sidewalk in the middle of the city and a policeman zoom into the middle of traffic on a 4 wheeler. Umm, buddy, I don't think you're going to catch too many speeders that way.

I love watching romances. As in, 2 people in love, not romance movies. Though those can be okay, too, depending on the movie. Cute, budding romances make me happy.... not the trashy or obnoxious PDA romances. Although, they do indeed make me miss my 'other' more than anything.

I prefer to watch sports on TV, when the people I am watching it with are into it. We went to a Chicago Bulls game at the United Center tonight but sat so far up in the nosebleed section (literally, only about 4 rows higher than ours) that there wasn't a lot of sports spirit. Especially not in our group. But it was fun to hang out with people none the less. The man selling ice-cream made me happy though, even though I wasn't about to shell out the cash to buy a tiny ice-cream bar. I just wasn't expecting ice-cream at a basketball game.

I have no shame in coming home early on a Friday night. I think I'm getting old. And I am totally okay with it. Maybe a movie tonight? Maybe to bed early? Either would be fine by me.....

I decided like 2 weeks ago that it was my mission to get the homeless man's name. He was always in front of the walgreens that I walk past at least twice a day. He likes to call all the ladies "angel" or "sunshine" and, quite frankly, it makes me happy. He is in a wheelchair and is not begging, though I'm sure he would be more than willing to accept friendly donations. Anyways, I decided that I needed to get his name. I decided this about 2 weeks ago. And I haven't seen him since. It makes me sad. Maybe he moved on without me.... I'm feeling slightly left behind. And I never got his name.

And, to end off this post, a Psalm that has gotten me through the past couple rough days:

Psalm 121
I look up to the mountains - does my help come from there?
My help comes from the LORD, who made the heaves and the earth.
He will not let you stumble and fall; the one who watches over you will not sleep.
Indeed, he who watches over Israel never tires and never sleeps.
The LORD himself watches over you!
The LORD stands beside you as your protective shade.
The sun will not hurt you by day, nor the moon at night.
The LORD keeps you from all evil and preserves your life.
The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go,
both now and forever.

The Labyrinth

Sorry to you faithful followers.... I actually forgot that I had a blog to post on. Whoops.

I suppose a lot has happened since my last post.... but I don't think anyone wants to hear a play by play of my life. If you do, you can call and I would love to fill you in.

This morning for my class we went to a Catholic Church that has an outdoor labyrinth. Think maze on the ground but with no dead ends - just a path to the center that you take both in and out. The purpose of the labyrinth is to give one a chance to mediate on God. One way of approaching it is to "release" on the way in, giving God all of your stresses and worries and concerns, ask to receive something while in the center, and focus on reviewing and implementing it in your life while walking out of the labyrinth.
It was a great concept.... though kind of a tough situation - the middle of the city, near a construction zone, cold, and our whole class of like 25 people was there, doing it all at the same time so we were kind of tripping over each other and you could only go as fast as the person in front of you, causing some back-ups. And, unfortunatly, I got dizzy. But I think it was because of so many people moving so many different directions while I was trying to focus only on myself and the small path in front of me. Maybe I should do it by myself sometime.

However, I love the idea of doing something meditative to bring myself back into God's presence. That is for sure lacking for me while I'm here.... it is rough staying plugged in.

Well, on that note, today is a rather overwhelming day.... I feel like I have so much work to do and I can only feel the hours and the days slipping away. Will everything get done?? I know, one thing at a time..... but sometimes it is tough figuring out what one thing to start with.

Guess I should go start somewhere....