Happy Memorial Day (almost)!

Yes, happy day to remember all the dead soldiers, as one of my clients put it. She's 7, so I'll cut her some slack.

As for me, I am just very, very happy to have an extra day off. I am also happy that all of my appointments for today (Friday) were cancelled, so I got to leave work early. I have been working waaaaay too much lately. Soon, I will go into my lovely backyard and lazily enjoy my comfy hammock as I sway in the gentle breeze. Sigh. I love the first few weeks of nice weather.

Interesting facts:

1) I look great! This is according to one of my clients (she's 9). One, maybe two, months ago, I got some new glasses. I usually wear contacts, but I decided that it would be good to have some glasses, too. I wear the glasses 2-3 days per week. A couple of days ago, I was meeting with the aforementioned client, and it was the first time she had seen me in my glasses. She told me, "Wow! You look so great in glasses! I wish I could have glasses." I did not correct her mis-thinking on this issue (that she actually WANTS to have to wear glasses), but I did send her silent anti-wanting glasses thoughts.

2) I am the epitome of female beauty! This is according to one of the girls' groups I am currently leading. It is a self-esteem group for girls aged 11-15 (frankly, I think a self-esteem group should be mandatory for all girls that age - what an AWFUL time in life). We were having a discussion about beauty, and they had just finished a drawing exercise comparing a "perfect" woman with a "real" woman. I asked them what a "real" woman who is beautiful looks like, and they told me that I was a "perfect" "real" woman and proceeded to point out all the various ways that they felt I was beautiful. They actually had me stand up, so they could more accurately point out all of my "beautiful features." Needless to say, it was somewhat embarassing...

3) It is not normal for children to be sexually abused! This is a fact of which I need to keep reminding myself, because my caseload seems to be bursting with sexually abused kids right now (of all ages).

4) I am going to the Grand Canyon in October!!! We got our backcountry permits (for our first-choice itinerary, no less), we got our plane tickets, and we got our car rental reserved! I am so excited. This is something that will keep me going through the summer. We are starting at the South Rim, going down into the canyon, across the Colorado River, up the North Rim, then back down, back across the river, and back up the South Rim. 6 days of backpacking in one of the most beautiful places on earth!!! Yay! I am soooooooooo looking forward to this trip. I wish it was tomorrow.

5) My friend Sue arrives back in the U.S. today! She has been in Honduras for almost a year and a half. That is entirely too long a period of time to go without talking to such a good friend.

Here is a great quote that I found about haiku:

“Haikus are an expression of complex ideas distilled into simple words.” I found it on the box of a frozen meal I was heating. It was a Kashi frozen meal, and, after this quote, they had a haiku about Kashi food. It was cheesy, but the quote was cool.

Follow up

So, I was just looking over my (somewhat boring) blog, and I realized that SOMEONE has been reading this...and leaving comments!

In response to said person's comment on my February 1, 2006 blog, here is a follow-up. In that blog, I gave the names of 4 friends of mine who I wished lived in Portland with me (of course, there are more than 4, since I have lots of friends living all over the country/world). Here is the list (in no particular order), along with 3 facts about each person:

1. Megan (currently living: Brooklyn, NY):
1. We have been friends since 3rd grade - almost 21 years now!
2. Was recently awarded a Fulbright to study radio use in indigenous communities in Mexico.
3. Is very skilled in improvisational comedy.

2. Natalie (currently living: St. Paul, MN):
1. Is a friend I met in Sitka - we were roommates for a time. She introduced me to Mike!
2. Just got her master's degree in counseling (marriage and family therapy).
3. Got married last fall and just got back from a honeymoon in Australia and New Zealand. She also speaks Chinese and lived in China for a time. (I cheated and put 2 facts on one line.)

3. Sue (currently living: Honduras)
1. Is another friend I met in Sitka. Well, actually, I had met her once before moving to Sitka, when she was a Jesuit Volunteer in Seattle. I had a friend who was her roommate and also a Jesuit Volunteer in Seattle, and I was visiting my friend when I first met Sue. Then, Sue and I both ended up living in Sitka the following summer. One of those "small world" things.
2. Is currently living in Honduras with her husband, where they have been for almost 1 1/2 years. However, his visa was recently approved, so she will soon be returning to the U.S! Yay!
3. Has run more than one marathon.

4. Emily (currently living: Montgomery, Alabama)
1. Is a friend from Kenyon, although we also studied abroad together in Cameroon. She was actually part of a ceremony wherein she became some kind of queen and now has some land rights in western Cameroon.
2. Recently finished up her master's degree in rural sociology. See her thesis here.
3. Has an (almost) 1 1/2-year-old baby boy named Stan. He looks just like her (except he has his father's blond hair)!

In putting together these facts, I realized that I have some pretty smart, interesting, and worldly friends. I hope some of that rubs off on me! :)

Hear me roar!

So, this whole "owning your own home thing" is pretty great, although there are LOTS of little things that no one ever tells you about it, like all the extra money you'll need to spend on top of the mortgage, or all the time you'll spend fixing it up and making it "yours," or all the freakin' yard work that needs to be done. This leads me to my point...

I AM A HARDCORE SUBURBAN BEE-YATCH!

Why?

Here is why:

Last week (well, actually, more like 10 days ago), I mowed our lawn - front and back. Not such a big deal, you say? I beg to differ.

You see, we don't actually own a "real" lawn mower. We own a used, slightly rusted, reel mower that we found on Craig's list for $15. For those of you not in the know, a reel mower is one that does not have a motor. You provide all of its power. Good for the environment? You betcha! Good for producing quarter-sized, pus-filled blisters on Vicki's hands? You betcha again!

Something happened to me while I was mowing our lawn. I became a determined monster. That grass WOULD be cut, and it WOULD be uniform in length. I found myself wearing my purple, knee-length workout pants and an old t-shirt at 6:00 on a Friday night, with the sun glaring me in the eyes and sweat pouring down my back and in between my cleavage (I know - I don't really have cleavage. A girl can dream, can't she?), but I would not be stopped. I could feel the blisters forming, but I would not stop (not even to put on gloves. Yes, I am an idiot). My back was actually aching, and I was short of breath, but I would not stop. I wanted my lawn to be as pretty as my neighbor's, with all its perfectly even edges. As I struggled through the 3-inch high grass with my hopelessly ineffcient lawn mower, I briefly wondered what the neighbors would think of me if they were to gaze out their window and watch me in my stretchy pants and gardening clogs. Would they be thinking, "Why isn't her husband mowing the lawn?" or "That woman is an idiot. What makes her think THAT thing could actually cut her grass?" Or, would they be thinking, "Wow! That woman is amazing! She has what could only be described as the worst lawn mower on the planet, and, yet, she is still getting the job done! Wow - she is a hardcore suburbanite! I want my daughter to grow up and be just like her!"

I like to think that it's the third choice.

And, in case you were wondering, my blisters have basically healed by now...which is good news, since it's time to mow the lawn again.