This randomness was meant for the wee hours prior to T-Day, but I was too tired lazy to post:

You know it's time for bed when you forget the pumpkin in the pumpkin spiced cookies. =P

Since I started working in my new position, it's been somewhat of a whirlwind process. The plan for my first week was to "shadow" someone else, to get a feel for what I should be doing. However, within the first 2 days, I was thrown into transporting/visiting others' clients on my own, and learning all the paperwork that goes with it. Not even 2 weeks later, I got my first couple of clients. It's been busy, but good. I'm learning a lot, and I think I'm getting better at not letting things get to me so much. However, there are those days, when you have to ponder on life and how everything is connected. This last thought spurred from events/conversations that occurred during my shift.

My first client passed away over the holiday weekend. She was diagnosed with a mental illness (bizarre behaviors, forgetful, delusions, depression), and came to us. She was hospitalized within a month later, where they found a brain tumor the size of an orange. The professional medical opinion was that her symptoms were probably caused by the tumor. Why it wasn't found sooner, no idea. I was in shock when my coworker first told me. Then I cried a little. Now, I'm okay. I feel like I'm in a haze. Despite her issues with her mom, her mom has been such a crazy good support for her. I felt sad for them. I felt guilty that I didn't get to visit her last week, but I know it wasn't like I could do anything about it.

The reason I didn't get to visit the aforementioned client last week, was that I got stuck with another client, waiting for him to be hospitalized for homicidal thoughts. Just my luck, his thoughts progress to include me during transport to the medical center around the corner. Needless to say, it was kind of dumb to agree to it, and now I know better.

In light of the holiday that just passed and of all the changes that have occurred in the last few months, I feel so very grateful that my family and friends are here to support and love me, no matter what. I'm especially grateful to have awesome coworkers, who really look out for one another. Oh, and chocolate was especially helpful to my sanity this week. =P Life's waaaay too short for me to worry as much as I do. I'm slowly learning to let things go, even if I don't like it.

Jeez. I can't believe it's been months since I've posted. Oh wait. Yeah. I can. Just too tired to spend an extra couple of hours on the computer after driving around all day. I've promised pictures, I've promised updates. One of these days, it'll happen. Maybe this weekend. Maybe not.

Alas, life goes on.

While doing research for my paper due Thursday, I cam across this and smiled:

( I'm printed! Well, sort of... )

Sans a few typos, this was the press release I created for my group when I interned last year. I received a lot of calls for it, and ended up with a couple of cool kids in my group. Squee!

In the past 2 days, I wrote 2 incident reports about clients getting injured in my presence. My supervisor said that I get a gold star for writing up the most incident reports of any employee in the program. Even the company safety officer recognizes me as "the one who was bitten by that kid". My coworker thinks that we should start bubble wrapping our clients when I'm around, or give them one of those sumo wrestler padded suits.

I'm beginning to wonder if that black cat that crossed my path last week is the culprit of my poor luck. =?

The Hubby and I watched CSI tonight on the DVR, and I found a few things intriguing:

• The new chick, Ronnie Lake, made reference to being offered a position to the other CSIs in Miami and NY. Yeah. Not too exciting, but the intriguing part was me catching this tidbit before The Hubby did (he picks out everything).
  
• They briefly made mention of a delicacy in my culture (Philippine culture): balut. ( Don't read this cut if you're easily squeamish. ) I have never eaten the stuff 'cause I think it's gross, but the reference was kinda cool. Random though. It had nothing to do with the story plot. *shivers at the thought of balut*
• They had bees featured in this episode, but their appearance was also random. This tidbit stood out because in the last couple of weeks, we've had 4 or 5 bees dropped dead in our home office, in front of the window. 2 questions come to mind: where are they coming from, and why are they dropping dead?  =/

Gotta love CSI. The random facts they put in go very well with the random thoughts in my head. =D

I'm so happy to be home, ready to curl up with The Hubby to watch Prison Break and Heroes. It's only Monday, and I already wish it were December.

Weekend was good, really uneventful. Mostly sleeping and eating chocolate. =P

I'm in class, and my prof just announced that we will be given name cards to place at our desks. I feel like I'm in kindergarten again. =P *L*

*Update:

Okay. I officially felt like I was being treated like a grade schooler. During the break, my classmate asked to borrow my laptop to check his email. He gave it back to me after class resumed, and the teacher reprimanded us both, in front of the class. 0.o ( I wouldn't put it past her to tell us to write, I WILL NOT SEND EMAIL DURING CLASS, on the board 100 times. )

Lots of stuff have been happening, and I'm glad I have today to just relax at home. There's some good, some wacky, and some lessons learned. So, here are some bullets of my musings:

• I spent some time with friends I haven't seen in months or even years. It was a nice and fun dinner, and I hope we do it again.
  
• I don't know how nurses/doctors do it: 12 hour work days are so exhausting! I've just about passed out by 9 o'clock every evening for the past week.
• It is very unlikely that human bites can result in a transfer of HIV, Hep B/C, or AIDS, (which I knew); however, they do warrant a Tetanus shot "just in case" because of minor skin breakage.
• Tetanus shots hurt, with an annoying "I fell asleep on my arm and now it has a dull ache" kind of feeling.
• I went on a shopping binge at Old Navy and Kohl's. I got a few henleys, polos, shrugs, and khakis, all for about 15-50% off. I ♥ sales. =)
  
• I'm in a baking mood. I can't wait until it's closer to The Hubby's birthday, just so I can bake him cookies.
• Carissa and I baked peanut butter chip double chocolate cookies last weekend, and I couldn't figure out why it tasted gross to me. Then I made the connection: unsalted butter does not compare to salted butter. She had unsalted, and we already sent her hubby out in the humid weather to get vanilla. Ah well. At least I know for me, *whispers* and I didn't take any myself. =P
• Kashi's having a Free Snack Event. I'm getting a free chocolate cookie from them. =P I also tried their dark chocolate chip and cherry granola bar. Yum!
• I don't think I want twins anymore.
• Pickle chips--not pickle-flavored potato chips--are delicious with a mayo dressing.
  
• I can't believe it's already halfway through September. I think I might actually make these 12-hour days work for me for the end of the sem.
• I found out "escucha" means "listen". And all this time I thought it was blackbirdshaq's play on words. *L*
• Pan's Labyrinth was a great movie.
• I talk a lot about food.

All in all, it was a pretty busy week. This weekend made up for more than enough for all the wackiness in the beginning of the week, and I'm pretty content right now.

Friday before a long weekend, and I'm at work. =P Half of the building is empty because people took an extra day for holiday, so it's eerie quiet. 0.0

Right now, I'm avoiding some of the tasks I have to do because it involves straightening out the group room. The summer program ended for the kids last Tuesday, so they won't return until Wednesday next week. There's lots of time, and barely anything with which to fill it. I'd check email, but IT decided to ban outside email access from the office. Without warning. In less than 24 hours. 0.o No messenger clients either.

I'm just waiting until the clock strikes 5, so I can run home. The Hubby's grandma's birthday is today, and I made some cinnamon-nut biscotti for her. I want to dip some in chocolate before wrapping it up.

Not much else going on right now. Hopefully the time goes quickly.

I wanted to say that I somehow found a way to reference one of my favorite shows, CSI, into one of my quiz questions. *giggles*

2 questions down, 3 more to go! And a paper, and a presentation. Well, I'm not surprised that understanding death and terminal illness would be so much fun work for a summer class. At least it's almost done.

I woke up with my left eye puffy and a bit swollen. I know I did some crying at my counseling appointment, but usually the swelling is gone by the next day. I looked closer, and there's a teeny-tiny bump under my eye. What is it? A bite? Did I rub something into my eye last night when it was itchy? Allergies? I think the most likely culprit is a tiny bug, feasting on me while running last night. =? Oh, bother. No contacts for me today, unless I want the kids to think I'm winking at them all afternoon. =P

In other news, as per usual, I'm running late for work, and should've left already. I still need to get some lunch. *sigh* I'm beginning to hate late Fridays.

/whining

Work's still pretty busy, and is keeping my very tired. However, I was able to catch up with almost half of my flist's posts, and do a little exercise this week.

Things are going pretty well. Counseling appointments are productive, as is work. I actually feel less anxious about "screwing up" with the kids, and am now kind of enjoying it. The kids are actually taking me more seriously, and I feel really confident that I'm helping them in some way, without damaging their already fragile support system. =)

In addition to work, the past couple of weeks surrounds around food and family. This weekend will be no exception. Fortunately, there will be a light at the end of the tunnel. We're having a birthday dinner for my bro this Sunday, and that will be the end of it. He's now 21. *sniff* They grow up so fast. /sniff. May Madness is coming to a close, and I won't really have to worry about another birthday until mid-July. *big sigh of relief*

The Hubby's good. He's been tired as well due to May Madness and my work schedule. Summer hours should help alleviate the fatigue in a couple of weeks.

I forgot to mention the pressies I got recently, but I'm too tired to remember them all, and I want to include pics. The ones foremost in my mind are: Cadbury Flake and a thoughtful saying of Friendship in a beautiful frame from lizabug, a plush monkey PEZ dispenser from my sis, and a fun Disney princess paddle ball from blackbirdshaq. That's because I saw them this morning. =P Maybe I'll get to them this weekend.

Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend!

Proofread, printed, and packed.

Gooooood night!

ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Since I decided to take a break from working on my paper for the rest of the night, I decided to sneak a peak at some people's myspace pages after dinner. I looked at on friend's, whose page boasted 270 friends. 0.o That's a lot of people. It makes me wonder how many of them are actually friends. That's about 1 friend per day, for 2/3rds of the year! 0.0

After being shocked with that friend count, I decided to look up my "ex-boyfriend" from grammar school, inspired by one of the other people I looked up. Since I had no idea what his email address was, I just typed in his first name. *ping* There's 6 on the list. Strange. There's a guy that looks like my bro at a quick glance, but isn't my bro. His first name was similar too. Hm. Let's check it out. *click* Yeah. At a quick, far away glance, he could pass off as a stunt double. *look again* Wait. That's my ex. In emo gear. 0.o How bizarre is it that I decide to click on the one myspace profile that looked like my bro, and happened to be my ex??

Watched it on tv this morning. Decided I wanted to put the dvd on my Amazon wish list. Discovered that this year is the 20th anniversary of the movie release. No wonder it's been playing on cable so often lately. =P

A leetle procrastination goin' on, but the tv will be shut off now.

• 2 papers and 3 more classes to go.
• Sent out the evite for my bbq.
• Cadbury caramel eggs are only good at room temp. Not frozen. The creme eggs are the reverse. =P
• My computer fan doesn't seem to be working, so The Hubby plans to look at it this weekend.
  
• The weather's nice again. I'm loving it!
• My body seems to be broken this week. My head feels fuzzy, and my eyes are stinging from looking at my comp screen. I hope I'm not getting sick. =?

I think it's time for a nap. Then, my first paper.

I've been a bit preoccupied with food lately (translation--baking and craving chocolate like there's no tomorrow). Thus, I baked some triple chocolate cookies today, and I lusted after the chocolate pizzelles I made the other night. I haven't tried the cookies yet, but one has my name written all over it. After lunch, of course. =P

Since rice is for dinner, I made myself a spicy tuna salad rollup, toasted on the Foreman. Yum.

I have about an hour or so before I head out to work. I'm deciding between watching an ep of CSI, or napping. Or both? *ponders*

20 minutes later...

Tasted the cookie. It's very chocolatey and delicious. They kinda taste like the vegan brownie recipe I have, except it's a bit more cakey, which I like. =P I'll have to make it again. =D

Yep. I think I'm gonna watch CSI and nap. I believe I have enough time for both.

Someone has coffee in my class. I smell it. Mmm. I don't like the taste of coffee, but I do like tea. So, that's what I feel like right now. I want some tea with milk and honey, and a milk chocolate toffee wafer from Janam Tea. Or chocolate chip oaties. Yum!

This is what my mom asks me when I told her I was going to buy some bubble tea for Cris and me. *ROFL* She continued to say it 2 more times before she paused long and hard, saying it correctly. Before we hung up, she chuckled, saying, "Enjoy the 'bubble butt'."
*L* My mom's too funny.

I'm having a good morning so far, and I know my day's only going to get better. I got my lazy butt out of bed and actually went to the gym to do some swim laps, then came home to have a healthy breakfast. Right now, I'm taking care of some laundry and straightening up before The Hubby comes home tonight. Yay! ♥

It should be time for sleep, but I'm still packing. My sleeping's been off this week, so I feel exhausted right now. However, I must stay positive and not be my usual, whiny self. Heh.

Hmm. What happened since this morning? A few things. I got back my take home midterm, and did pretty well. I went all over the place to look for crap to eat for lunch (always seems to be a major craving when The Hubby's away), and found potato wedges with fried chicken. Internship activity was pretty light: I made playdough with the kiddies, and did paperwork. Making a mess with the playdough was the most exciting part of the evening. =)

I just finished watching LOST and Survivor: Fiji. I'm almost done packing, so it's just about time for bed.

Nighty night!