Day Eighteen - Dreams/Plans/Goals that you have.

Oh dear. This is a big one.


I have a lot of dreams and plans and goals. I always have. But since I graduated from High School five years ago my career plans have gone from High School English teacher to Middle School teacher to Youth Pastor to Children's Pastor to Child Counselor to Resource teacher to Child Psychologist. I'm here at University working on my Psy.D. A doctorate in psychology so I can do research and increase awareness in the sensitivities of child development and socialization in peer interaction. So that's the plan. Do I expect it to change? Yeah, a little. 


My dream is to live in the urban core of a large city center (Toronto, Halifax, New York, Chicago) in a crappy apartment building with my husband and children, be friends with homeless people and do work with the children in the area. My children's context therefore would be this. The vision of this I have tells me its the best thing in the world. In actuality, it might not work so well. Do I expect this to change? A little. 


So that's that. My goals are mixed in there. You can identify them for yourself. 

Keeping up with the Cullens.

Day Seventeen - Someone you would want to switch places with and why.

Coming up with the answer to this question was pretty hard for me, but once I did it seemed pretty easy. 

 

Sufjan Stevens

Obviously. 

And to find out all my reasons why - because why write a post twice - read this post on my review blog (which I rarely post on, but you can follow if you want). 

Also, he has a new album out - which I have yet to hear but fully expect to receive for Christmas - and you can download it at a discounted rate here. 

Someone's gotta give.

Sleeping like this. I think so.

It's a regular thing we do. 

Day Sixteen - Another picture of yourself

I dressed up for Halloween on Wednesday because the community center I work out was having costume day then. I decided to go as a cast member of Degrassi High. This is not an unusual costume for myself, I realize, but it was a last minute throw together and really the only thing I had access to. Unfortunately, the costume itself didn't seem to vary enough from my everyday garb for anyone at school to acknowledge it or even look at me strangely. I get it. I do wear those clothes on a regular basis. But I don't wear gobs of blue eye shadow and a clearly defined cheek bone of blush. But alas, in this day and age of postmodern tolerance, everyone is just too damn nice to outright judge me.


Let me tell you, it was a let down.

Day Fifteen - iPod on shuffle: first ten songs that play.

This is a fun one. I am anticipating what they're going to be. AND I've linked each of the songs so you can hear them if you don't know them. 

1 - Bethany's Song - Laura and Olivia

2 - Edit - Regina Spektor

3 - The River Won't Flow - Songs from a New World - Jason Robert Brown

4 - Beautiful Calm Driving - Sia

5 - Tahquamenon Falls - Sufjan Stevens

6 - The Picture Show - Parade - Jason Robert Brown

7 - Her Voice - The Littler Mermaid (Original Broadway Recording)

8 - Bodysnatchers - Radiohead

9 - Menuet - Suite Bergamasque - Debussy

10 - All We Need - Starfield

And there you have it! That's a pretty good summation of what I listen to on a daily basis. We're missing a few key ones but with 1500 songs to shuffle through, we were bound to miss a few. 

So take a listen to the links and enjoy my tastes in music!

Also, this comic is funny. 

Day Fourteen - A picture of you and your family

I'm skipping Day Thirteen. It requires me to write a letter to someone who has hurt me recently and I don't know why I would do that. Plus it's fitting that it falls on Day Thirteen as its unlucky. So anyway. 

This is a picture of my family at my graduation. I insisted on holding my grad hat like that in almost every picture. It seemed to make sense at the time but i don't really get it now . . .  

Day Twelve - How you found out about Blogger and why you made one.

I found out about Blogger in the summer of 2006. My friend had one and she said it helped her work through her thoughts. Plus it was a way to share those thoughts with friends and family. Cute. So I made one too. I only wrote on it three times. Then I forgot the password. 


In 2007 I made another one, for the same reason and here we are. 


I never thought anyone would read it but I always wrote it as though people did. Lucky for me, now people are. More readers are always welcome . . . 

I missed a day - Day Ten & Eleven

It was bound to happen. I can't do things that are supposed to be done everyday, everyday. It's just not in my nature. It's not in my blood. 


SO! I'm going to do two at once. Cause I can. 


Day Ten - Songs you  listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped and mad. 
I've never actually had to think about this before so I'm working pretty hard to figure it out amidst the Political Science lecturing going on around me. 


HAPPY- Mother, Mother; Arcade Fire; Band of Horses; Feist. 
SAD- Sufjan Stevens (so emotional it melds with my emotion most appropriately)
BORED - Broadway Musical Soundtracks (it's like watching a movie!)
HYPED - Glee covers. (Such a cliche. but I would like to note that I don't actually own any of it. I just listen to it on Playlist.com) 
MAD - Dashboard. I am a legit Dashboard Confessional fan. I have every album and love absolutely every one. Because these albums span eight years of my adolescent and young adult development, they are largely nostalgic. In this way, their ethos is healing for my psyche when mad. Plus, Chris Carraba is largely the face of the Emo music genre (if you want to give it a whole genre) and that's an angry genre to begin with.


So there you go.


Day Eleven is another picture of you and your friends. 
That's what's at the top. I was leading our New Year's celebration in my TingTing's dance. That is my best friend and her husband. Their reactions to me here are pretty normal 

Day Nine - Something you're proud of in the past few days.

Pride is not an issue for me. Meaning I don't lack in it . . . 

Plus, I've been in an accomplishment oriented mood lately. In contrast to my complain oriented mood a week ago which you can witness here. So here's my list of prideful accomplishments in the past little while.

- I cleaned (and I mean cleaned) the kitchen and the bathroom. Stove, walls, floors. Everything. 

- I'm halfway through level two of Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred. I'm pretty sure my resting heart rate is down at least three beats. 

- I am going out tonight. It is a Saturday. I'm going out on a Saturday night. I'm not a social creature. I am sociable but I don't like social things. But tonight, Ashley and I are going to a restaurant downtown that is closing due to the relocation of its Australian owners. Lucky for them. So anyway. I look really nice and its going to be great. 

I'll take pictures. I'm proud of these, so join me in my pride too please. 

Thank you. 

Day Eight - Short term goals for the month

Boo on this topic. No one likes making goal lists. I remember the day my piano teacher made me make a goal list for the year. Short term and long term. I wasn't happy about it. My creative tendencies were supposed to be free of the constraints of goals and the guilt that comes with not following through on them. 


It's the exact same with resolutions. Making them only leads to the guilt of not following through. One time, my friend Jaci (recently engaged at that) made it her New Year's resolution to burn more candles. She followed through all right. 


Short-term goals for this month: 
- Read Harry Potter
- Go for coffee with Teri
- Clean the house regularly
- Case my next Economics exam 


These are stock and lame. But I like disappointment less than I like thinking ahead so I'm not making a better list. Sorry guys.
What are goals you think I should accomplish?

Day Seven - A picture of someone/something that has had the greatest impact on you

I'm not going to write anything. But I dare you to find this book and read it. Give it a chance. It was written in the late 1890's so it's a little dense. But only a legitimate little. 

Chesterton's Orthodoxy. Go. 

Day Six - Your favorite superhero and why

I love this day. I love this day because I love superheroes. I'm not a committed fan to read the comics (I'm not overly fond of the artwork) but I do in fact love the movies. I love most of all the X-Men movies.

I assume you're all assuming I'm going to say that my favorite superhero is Wolverine. And it's true. He is my favorite. But not my absolute favorite. I just simply love Hugh Jackman and his musical theater background and his mutton-chops when he plays a character that has metal knives that pro and re-tract from his knuckles. I'd like to point out though that wolverines are very ugly animals. I don't think Hugh Jackman depicts that ugliness very well.  


My actual favorite superhero comes from a movie by M. Night Shamaylan. I have Charyssa Looy to thank for this. She started my love for M. Night. 
David Dunn, played by Bruce Willis, discovers through a series of events (all of which include the outrageously talented Samuel L. Jackson), that he is a superhero. If you have not seen this movie, please, please, please watch it as soon as possible. 

Not to mention his character is married to a woman played by Robin Wright Penn, who could also be considered a superhero as her filmography is small and yet includes brilliance such as The Princess Bride, Forest Gump and New York, I Love You. Way to go, Robin. 

Day Five - A Picture of somewhere you've been to.

So the issue with this post is that I'm not much of a traveler. 
Lucky for me, this summer/fall seemed to be all that I was about. 

This is taken from one of the trails at Fundy National Park. I really loved this day. 
Not to mention, it was on this day, spent in nature (as I so rarely do) that I was wholly shown the grace of God.


I find that its easiest to visually see the grace of God in nature simply because it is. In spite of everything , all that has happened and is still happening, all the sin that surrounds us every day, we are; and the world is. And not only is the world, it is beautiful. What a shining example of his grace and glory and love. 

Day Four - A habit you wish you didn't have.

So I decided to divide the term habit into intentional and unintentional. I don't know if this fits with the actual definition of a habit but it seems fitting in my case. 


Unintentionally, I trip over everything. We live in a small apartment with lots of corners and a lot of cords. I don't know why we have so many cords. But I cannot seem to be aware of myself enough to avoid these cords. I also cannot seem to be aware enough of the corners to not run into them. I have bruises on my torso from walking into corners. 


Intentionally, I have a habit of eating things off of the counter. Bits of cheese, cracker, bread. Who knows how long its been there? Who knows what else could have been on that counter? But I have no qualms. And you know what else, I have a rock hard immune system because of that fact and I am sure this habit could be a lot worse. 

This just in!

Today in my teenage angst, I found that elderly women need no longer be limited to blue or purple hair in their old age! 

Her name was Ruth. She was beautiful and her hair was softly, but legitimately pink. It sort of looked blond, but it was still undeniably pink. I loved her. 

I hope I am beautiful like her in my old age. Not to mention, have pink hair. 

Day Three - A picture of you and your friends

This is a pretty good one. I didn't know how to choose. I live in many different worlds and no one picture seemed appropriate. This is at grad. I'm in there somewhere. 

Day Two - The meaning behind your blog name.

The meaning behind my blog name.
Well the blog started out as From an Over-Active Mind. That was when it was deep and philosophical. When I started this blog I had an over ruminating mind and thoughts needed to be written down or they wouldn't stop. 


Today in my teenage angst started when I was tired of being philosophical and just wanted to write about funny things that happen throughout my day. The name comes from the idea that our social and psychological angst is highest during adolescence. Though with age, we gain the maturity to deal with that angst in a healthy manner, it really never dissolves. Many of the fears and anxieties we held in high school, we will hold for the rest of our lives. 


Beginning every post with that phrase is just a cute little reminder of that reality. 
I hope this knowledge isn't turning anyone off . . . 

A Blog Project!

I tried to combine those two words to make some sort of awesome word-combo but it just didn't work. 

So anyway. I read this blog (click here for link), and I really like it. She has a way of posting beautiful, common, funny and exciting (Harry Potter Movie Posters for the up-coming release of the first part of the last movie!) things. Plus! we have seventy-seven mutual friends on facebook. That's a biblical number so I find it significant. 

So anyway. She started this blog project that gives you 30 days of blog-posts that basically expose you, in your entirety, to your readers. I've seen a lot of these lists but I'm particularly drawn to this one as its topics are varied and its expectations attainable. 

So here we go. 

DAY 1 - A recent picture of yourself and 

15 interesting facts about you

1 - When I listen to musical soundtracks I block the scenes in my head and become the character singing the song.

2 - In relation to the above, my most recent dream role is Mrs. Lovett from Sweeney Todd but my actual dream role will always be Diana Goodman from Next to Normal.

3 - I will probably never have long hair again but I covet every head of long hair I see. 

4 - I am addicted to television.

5 - I hate, hate, hate too loud bass coming from cars. If you're not in a gang, it's not the right context.  

6 - I have a cat named Lucy who is also a boy. I had trouble identifying his sex when I found him. 

7 - I will go anywhere and do almost anything (short of it being illegal) for free food.

8 - Yesterday I sat through a Canada's Health Guide seminar in order to get a free lunch.

9 - My favorite authors are those of Teen Fiction. If you want some easy readings, send me an 

     e-mail and I'll give you a list. 

10 - I advocate feminism. 

11 - Yesterday I was highly offended by Cosmo Magazine in its purpose and aim. 

12 - I like doing the dishes. 

13 - Because I read every night right before bed, I have a hard time reading without falling asleep. 

14 - I am not sugar fiend. 

15 - Crispers are my favorite snack food and today I will buy them 2 for 1. What a day.  

Just got back from a marathon.

Seems a little extreme, doesn't it? I don't plan on following this rule.

Study Habits.

Ashley's studying tactics may just be more successful than some . . . 

I can't get over this picture. Beth, please paint me this. 

Lookie lookie.

Look what I purchased for one dollar to wear on opening night next month. I may also be sporting a fabulous lightening-bolt shaped scar. My fan-dome has reached new heights! 

One Hundred!!!