GAG!

Our vacuum has been dying for awhile now, it took a turn for the worst right around American Thanksgiving. Money was tight due to Christmas so we decided to make do with limited suction. This might work for “normal” people, but with 3 cats and 1 dog we returned from Christmas Vacation to a reeking house. Nothing could be identified as the stinky culprit and we concluded that it must be the collecting grim in the carpet. Last night we went to Wal-Mart and got a new vacuum. It sucks wonderfully! To our dismay, we now believe that the old vacuum may have been dying long prior to Thanksgiving. Last night I vacuumed not 1 or 2, not even 3, but 4, full to overflowing, canisters of dirt, animal fur, and grim from our living room carpet. GAG!

Christmas Presents

I was very blessed by my christmas presents. I got the regular soaps & lotions, and a horse calendar for the house and a great Ansel Adams one for my office. My parents got me a gift card for EMS, I think I'm going to get a backpacking cookset. They also got me monogramed towels, tres chic. Andrew's parents got me a ton of books that were on my list: Jane Austen, The Constant Gardner, The Time Traveler's Wife, and The City of Fallen Angels. So if any of you are reading these books or plan to, let me know and we can discuss them. Keep checking back, I may write a couple of reviews.

Andrew got me an amazing gift, a transition bag. What's a transition bag? Well it's a huge backpack with compartments for everything you need race day. Spaces for my wetsuit, water bottles, gatorade bottle, bike helmet, running shoes, bike shoes, etc. Most triathletes use a milk crate to carry all their stuff. Me, I'm not so coordinated at 7:00 in the morning, I just can't seem to balance my milk crate on my bike and carry whatever else happened to not fit in the milk crate that morning. I can't wait to use it.

California Update

California was awesome! The weather was beautiful, unfortunately I didn't get much time to spend in the sun as programs went from 8 am to 5 or 6 pm depending on the night, and then there were evening programs too. By the time Saturday came I was ready for a break. I had the opportunity to go to Laguna Beach and explored tidal pools with lots of mini-ecosystems, it was beautiful.

The seminars were very informative and now I have lots of books that I need to find online and different therapist I want to research and learn more about.

I must say that the most intense seminar I went to was Patch Adams. Yes, the same one the movie is about, although I haven't seen it, I'm sure they toned him down for the movie. He is very passionate about what he believes in. One of the things he does is take groups of clowns to struggling countries and try to give the children (and adults) a little bit of joy and escape from their problems. Then when he comes back he shares with others the things he saw there and encourages social change. He really got to me with his stories and pictures, esp. from Darfur. It will rip your heart out if you look into some of the things going on in the world that we just close our eyes and ears to. I encourage you all to learn more about Patch Adams projects by checking out his website. I'm sure revolutionary is what will come to mind.

www.patchadams.org

Conference in California

The rest of this week I will be attending a conference in California put on by the Erickson Foundation. The Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference has an large number of well known therapists, actually giants in the field of psychotherapy. Can't wait to meet some of these people I had to read in undergraduate and graduate school. I'm going with 3 other co-workers, very excited! No posts til I get back, although with my posting irregularity I'm sure it will not even be noticed.

World AIDS Day

According to UNAIDS estimates, there are 38 million adults and 2.3 million children living with HIV, and during 2005 some 4.9 million people became newly infected with the virus. Around half of all people who become infected with HIV do so before they are 25 and are killed by AIDS before they are 35.

Around 95% of people with HIV/AIDS live in developing nations. But HIV today is a threat to men, women and children on all continents around the world.

Listen to Bono & Alicia Keys as you watch the photo montage.