Holly's Bloggy

I just happened to be browsing through my live journal in my sad attempt to "start on my papers for school", and came across THIS! So I decided to fill it out... ENJOY!

2009 year-end survey!!!!
1.What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Went to graduate school, went bowling, celebrated Valentines Day with a significant other, attended a taping of a game show (Wowowee), went camping, attended a Laker game (or attended any sporting event for that matter), had a pap smear (eww what a nightmare), danced with a guy (NOT a choreographed waltz as one might dance during a debut), experienced seasonal allergies.

2. Did you keep your new year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I don't believe in New Years resolutions. If you tell yourself you can't do this or you must to do that, chances are that you'll fail and end up doing it anyway, and then feel guilty afterwards. Instead, give yourself a better reason for changing rather than "it's my new year's resolution"...

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
KuyaNikko's gf had baby Julie this past October!

4. Did anyone close to you die?
Yes, my Lola Julita. I love you Lola... rest in peace...

5. What countries did you visit?
the Philippines.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
financial stability and *hopefully* more freedom

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
July 9, 2009, when Lola passed away.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Giving David a birthday present well worth the effort and money and keeping it a secret! Geez!!!

9. What was your biggest failure?
Can't think of anything I did this year that would merit the description of "biggest failure".

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
occasional sicknesses, colds, allergies, headaches, and the like.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Laker Tickets.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
David's. My Brother's. Auntie Shirley's.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
I'd rather not say.

14. Where did most of your money go?
1. Bills, 2. food, 3. gas, 4. sometimes clothing.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
David's return form the Philippines before my birthday.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
I don't know.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? same.
ii. thinner or fatter? same.
iii. richer or poorer? same.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Living life.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Worrying about what people think, especially when I'm doing nothing wrong. And bejeweled.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
Spent it first at my dad's grave, then at DownTown Disney having dinner with the Tuyay family.

22. Did you fall in love in 2009?
I guess you can say that... if you're the type to consider love as a spiral or process in which certain instances with the other person make you fall deeper and deeper in love with him/her...

23. How many one-night stands?
zer0.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
American Idol. Go Kris Allen!

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Yes.

26. What was the best book you read?
The only books I read were for school. Textooks. None of them receive the "best book of the year" title!

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Owl City.

28. What did you want and get?
A new purple Ipod Nano... Thanks baby!!!

29. What did you want and not get?
A first time experience at New York.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
A tie between Star Trek and Avatar.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I went to Disneyland, ate at BlueBayou with David, then had dinner with a few close friends and immediate family at Naples in Downtown Disney. I turned 24.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Having my dad around and not just in my dreams...

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Who cares.

34. What kept you sane?
Playing the piano. Talking things out. Confrontations that aim for clarification instead of accusations and arguments. Sleep.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
None.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Don't really care.

37. Who did you miss?
My Dad and my Lola.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
All the people I met this year were great!

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
When it rains, it pours. Which means that things can be going smoothly for a while, but when something bad happens, for some reason or other, more and more bad things happen to follow it. It's weird, I know.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
"All you need is LOVE!"

This session, I've been taking a class on Marital Systems and Theories, & Domestic Violence (that's one class, despite the long name). Honestly I was getting super psyched about going into couples therapy! I mean, that's the whole reason why I wanted to go into this field... to bring down divorce rates and help people stay together! Plus, some of the stuff I learned has been very helpful in my own relationship But all those happy thoughts of having married couples fall back in love with each other shattered in the past few weeks with the introduction of... DOMESTIC VIOLENCE.

Basically, perpetrators of abuse, whether it's physical, emotional, psychological, financial, WHATEVER... are scary people. Not only is his (or her, yes women sometimes are capable of being perpetrators) spouse in danger, but the therapist, (ME!) would also be in danger! So I started thinking... maybe I'll just stick to counseling children in schools. That way, I won't be dealing too much with domestically violent people.

But that thought was immediately shattered when my professor told us a story about a time when he had to carry around a gun with him because a man was hunting him down. My professor had Child Protection Services take the man's children away because the man was abusing them. So the man got angry and sought revenge on, of course, the therapist who took his children away. Even the police got involved to find and arrest that man. YIKES.

So after tonight, I was REALLY wishing I stuck to animation... or even followed relatives' advice and went into nursing! Ughh... Or I could just work through the church and be a PREmarital counselor I'm sure that by pointing them in the right direction before they get married will help them lead happy lives together :D ... I hope...

I finally found the sheet music to this Japanese song by Maaya Sakamoto!!! I've loved this song since 2007 and always wanted to play it on the piano. Now I can! not only is it a really nice piano, but it reminds me of the time when David was still "courting" me If you figure out the translation of the song, it kinda describes how i felt back then... anyways, have a listen!

Ok here's a humorous little anecdote from work yesterday. I went to the middle school with the Wii and Guitar Hero. I like this school because the kids kind of grew on me already We had to play a game inside since it was too hot to play outside. I split the class up into 2 teams, and gave everyone a slip of paper. Each kid had to write down something nobody knows about them and they don't mind sharing. They weren't allowed to write anything fake or inappropriate. After everyone was done, I read a slip of paper from one team and the opposite team had to guess who from the other team wrote it.

So I started reading their random facts, such as, "I hate soccer" or "I've been playing softball since I was 5".

Then I came to one that totally stumped me. On the piece of paper was the phrase "I'm black" but it was crossed out. For sure that was not true because no one in my class looked even remotely African American, and they would lose a point for writing something untrue. So that phrase was crossed out, and this is what was written instead underneath:

"I am Jabinis."

I struggled to read it out loud. "Okay, this one says either 'I am ja-BI-nis' or 'I am ha-BI-nis'" I didn't even know how to say it. It might have been a word in Spanish, so I said it with the H sounding J. Everyone was confused. I repeated it, and still no one knew what it said! So a few of them started running up to read it also.

Finally, one of the boys who had a bowl haircut said, "I think it says 'JAPANESE'!"

I couldn't stop laughing, and neither could the rest of the kids. The boy who wrote it confessed it was him, and the rest of the class didn't believe him. Turns out he IS in fact half Japanese. But I wondered... if he was half Japanese, wouldn't he have known how to spell it? Oh well... I let it go and laughed.

Why have I not written in this in so long? Beats me. But anyways, here's an update!

School's going great. Found out I'll be graduating January 2011. That is, assuming everything runs smoothly. Around March/April 2010, I'll be taking my advancements, which is a verbal type test where a panel of faculty members will give me a case study and I have to discuss my diagnostic impression of the client, treatment plan, goals, etc. Sounds very intimidating, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right? Once I pass that, I can start my practicum. Internships, basically. 3 term's worth of it, while taking my few remaining classes. Ooh! And by next June 2010, I'd be eligible to take my Comprehensive Exam. WOOT! And once all that is over, I'll be officially finished with my Master's program at the end of Fall session 2. So technically, I SHOULD be graduating fall 2010... but since their system is weird and Fall session carries into January, that's when I'll be done. Bleh.

ENOUGH OF THE BORING STUFF!

Work's been great. Lately, I've been substituting at this middle school in Ontario. I usually don't like going to middle schools because kids there got mean attitudes, but this place is pretty cool. They end everyday with "clubs" where they break off into different rooms where they can play Guitar Hero in one room, Wii in another room, watch a movie in another, or just play outside. Very kick-back school, and they give lots of hours! I hope I get to sub there again.

Back to the topic of school, it's getting down to the ending weeks of the session, and I have a billion things to do still: 1 page paper, project, final presentation, and finals. I only have one final for one class, and it's just gonna be a couple of case studies. No sweat. Then there's the paper. My topic will be couple's therapy and the treatment of anxiety. The presentation is basically a wrap up of one theory of couple's therapy. Finally, the project is to create a comparative chart on poster board comparing and contrasting the 12 different couples therapy theories. That's the one I'm most worried about. It's gonna take a long time!

In a nutshell, I won't be able to hang out much because of all the stress from school that I'll be dealing with. BUT the cool thing is that once the session is over, it will be MY BIRTHDAY!!! It's like stress stress stress... BIRTHDAY!!! Hahaha, PLUS, David will be back from the Philippines! I have much to look forward to once this session is over... but before that, I need some serious focus and motivation on school work!!!

Ok dry post... sorry... I'll have a more interesting post eventually. stay tuned!