Ok, so I have been "tagged" by Ali to write 10 things about myself...because I am a Sugar Doll? Unclear. But here are 10 tidbits about me!
1. I named my food baby a few weeks ago after a potent lunchtime margarita and shrimp tacos. Shrimp in Spanish is camaron and since I was full of delicious shrimp tacos I found it fitting to name my distended belly Cameron. Cameron has been around since Wednesday night thanks to Sally being home, Thanksgiving and Sol y Luna.
2. Saturday night, after some serious imbibement, some friends of mine were in line at In & Out. They asked me if I wanted something. I replied, via text, "yeah. ketchup, sauce and pickle only." They showed up and gave me a bag of pickles and ketchup. For future reference, I like my In & Out burgers with ketchup sauce and pickle only. Hamburger included. But don't worry, I ate the pickles.
3. I hate taking out the trash.
4. Vacation for me involves as little activity as possible. Put me in the sun, in a comfy chair with a drink, music and a ton of books and I'm set.
5. I'm initiated into the Columbia University marching band. I was visiting my BFF there freshman year the weekend they traveled to Penn and had initiation so....I went through it too.
6. My 24 birthday is on Wednesday. Today, at CPK, the waiter didn't even bother to offer me the free wine sample because he assumed I'm underage. I know people say "oh you'll love that when you're older.." but here's the 411: I'm NOT older. And I DON'T like it.
7. I've become addicted to Whole Foods sandwiches and Trader Joes salads.
8. I believe the most important parts of a complete apartment are a comfortable bed and a comfortable couch. Everything else is elementary.
9. My drink of choice used to be Long Island Iced Teas. Since college...those have not treated me well. I adjusted to bacardi and diet coke. However, I think I have finally settled to vodka tonics. Really, I wish they served cheap cheap champagne at bars because that's always my preference.
10. I wrote a post about watching too much TV and how I cannot add more. And I meant it. Until I was told to watch Modern Family and I got curious. I accidentally watched the 3rd episode first and thank God I did because after I saw the following sequence I knew I HAD to keep watching
Let me set this up: Mitchell and Cameron are gay and just adopted a little girl. They are going to Costco for diapers and Mitchell (the red head) has never been and doesn't see the appeal because, as Cameron says, he is 'snobby.' Then this happens.
My new favorite line in life is "I'm sort of like Costco...I'm big, I'm not fancy and I dare you not to like me." Modern Family is the most recent show added to my DVR with some Intervention mixed in as well. Also, the way they met is F-ing adorable.
So there are my 10 tidbits...I hope I didn't disappoint. Cameron is still alive and well, in case you were concerned.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
THE YELLOW ONES DON'T STOP
So this post stems from many things that are going on in life right now. First, the holiday season is rapidly approaching (and my birthday, ahem) and one of my favorite things are the holiday movies that are released between Thanksgiving and New Years. As wonderful as an inspiring rom com on the big screen can be, what is even better are the movies TBS, Disney, USA, ABC and countless others play. A classic, which I didn't expect to love, is Elf. I tried to find a YouTube of when Will Ferrell gets hit by a cab (whilst in an elf costume in NYC) and then later when he prevents Zooey Deschanel from walking into a crosswalk, exclaiming "THE YELLOW ONES DON'T STOP." If you have not seen Elf, move that to your #1 queue in Netflix NOW. (Sidenote: queue is an English term. I still have to think about what it means every time I see it) For me to say that about a Will Ferrel movie even after Taladega Nights, Stepbrothers and Semi-Pro, you have to know that I truly in my heart of hearts laughed out loud at that movie.
So, with the theme of being hit by cars and applying the theories of operant conditioning (heyo, grad student here) you see that Elf has learned NOT to walk in front of yellow cars (taxis) because of the negative stimulus he received (being hit by it). Now, if you live in a large city you know that there a lot of factors that go in to how terrible drivers are. Living in LA, I NEVER assume a car sees me or that they would even stop if they did. I park across the street from where my apartment is so crossing the street without a light is a daily occurrence for me. I don't cross against lights, I wait to make eye contact with a driver when I'm in a cross walk before actually walking in front of them and in general I wait for a lull before just waltzing into a street.
My dearest roommate, however, is highly optimistic. By optimistic, I mean has a death wish. I practically throw my arm in front of her (ala your mother stopping suddenly at a yellow light) every time we approach an intersection. She sees a car approaching, looks at the crosswalk and is like "welp, time to go now!" People in LA text, talk on phones, look at billboards, contemplate their next botox injection and whether or not Justin-Bobby will ever get that smug look on his face slapped off. They do not think about pedestrians, crosswalks or, many times, street lights. But god love my roommate, she puts her faith in those white hashed lines and steps boldly into a busy street. NBD. As I pass out from a heart attack.
Now, beloved roommate has never been struck by a car and bats her lashes seductively at cars as we walk by AND TOTALLY GETS AWAY WITH IT! I would get honked at! I would feel guilty! people would curse at me and shake their fists! But not the roomie. Sigh. She is Zooey Deschanel and I am Elf.
So, with the theme of being hit by cars and applying the theories of operant conditioning (heyo, grad student here) you see that Elf has learned NOT to walk in front of yellow cars (taxis) because of the negative stimulus he received (being hit by it). Now, if you live in a large city you know that there a lot of factors that go in to how terrible drivers are. Living in LA, I NEVER assume a car sees me or that they would even stop if they did. I park across the street from where my apartment is so crossing the street without a light is a daily occurrence for me. I don't cross against lights, I wait to make eye contact with a driver when I'm in a cross walk before actually walking in front of them and in general I wait for a lull before just waltzing into a street.
My dearest roommate, however, is highly optimistic. By optimistic, I mean has a death wish. I practically throw my arm in front of her (ala your mother stopping suddenly at a yellow light) every time we approach an intersection. She sees a car approaching, looks at the crosswalk and is like "welp, time to go now!" People in LA text, talk on phones, look at billboards, contemplate their next botox injection and whether or not Justin-Bobby will ever get that smug look on his face slapped off. They do not think about pedestrians, crosswalks or, many times, street lights. But god love my roommate, she puts her faith in those white hashed lines and steps boldly into a busy street. NBD. As I pass out from a heart attack.
Now, beloved roommate has never been struck by a car and bats her lashes seductively at cars as we walk by AND TOTALLY GETS AWAY WITH IT! I would get honked at! I would feel guilty! people would curse at me and shake their fists! But not the roomie. Sigh. She is Zooey Deschanel and I am Elf.
Friday, November 06, 2009
On a serious note
Seeing as I am (almost) in the mental health profession there are many times when people ask me questions that I wish there were answers to. Yesterday, I gave a 3 hour midterm presentation on school violence which included a role play in which we asked class members to take on select student roles (ie student who called 911, friend of the shooter, student who froze). It was amazing to me that every student with a role, whether it required them to be empowered, demeaned or severely traumatized, had those emotions within them and displayed them with no reservations (making my role as the clinician doing the debriefing more powerful than I had anticipated). We all know what it is like to feel weak, inferior, betrayed, angry or immobilized.
When we let them break, we found out about the shooting at Ft. Hood and that the shooter is a psychiatrist. In the presentation, I learned that the shooter at Northern Illionois University had been a graduate student in Social Work, a chilling thing to think as I'm presenting to a class he very well may have also taken. So often we spend so much time and energy caring for others that we forget to care for ourselves. Or, we project to others that everything is fine when really we are in grave need of help, even if we can't immediately accept it. So when people ask me why others go crazy, my only answer is that we are all varying degrees of crazy, but the lucky ones have received a (possibly unspoken) psychoeducation on how to manage our anger, stress and disappointments without lashing out at a world we've decided is out to get us.
In the aftermath of the school shooting in Santee, CA a San Diego news channel canceled its scheduled programming and displayed only a message telling people to turn off the TV and spend time with their children. This is what I'm doing now. Stop reading your blogs. Forget about your Farm on Farmville. Ignore Dr. Grey and her dark and twisty issues. Take some time and do something for yourself. Then, go see or call someone who is consistently there for you when you need someone and just check in with them. In this moment, the only thing we can do to prevent such horrific tragedies from occurring is to provide support and recognize that everybody needs somebody sometimes.
When we let them break, we found out about the shooting at Ft. Hood and that the shooter is a psychiatrist. In the presentation, I learned that the shooter at Northern Illionois University had been a graduate student in Social Work, a chilling thing to think as I'm presenting to a class he very well may have also taken. So often we spend so much time and energy caring for others that we forget to care for ourselves. Or, we project to others that everything is fine when really we are in grave need of help, even if we can't immediately accept it. So when people ask me why others go crazy, my only answer is that we are all varying degrees of crazy, but the lucky ones have received a (possibly unspoken) psychoeducation on how to manage our anger, stress and disappointments without lashing out at a world we've decided is out to get us.
In the aftermath of the school shooting in Santee, CA a San Diego news channel canceled its scheduled programming and displayed only a message telling people to turn off the TV and spend time with their children. This is what I'm doing now. Stop reading your blogs. Forget about your Farm on Farmville. Ignore Dr. Grey and her dark and twisty issues. Take some time and do something for yourself. Then, go see or call someone who is consistently there for you when you need someone and just check in with them. In this moment, the only thing we can do to prevent such horrific tragedies from occurring is to provide support and recognize that everybody needs somebody sometimes.
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