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.