nonlinear

A commissioned piece that traveled down to some dear friends in Florida this week. 

Greetings!

Happy to say that I am 6 days away from putting down my DSM-5 for a while.

The psychopathology final will take place this Wednesday, as well as my final Supervision class for the summer. 

We just have to turn in papers and do a brief presentation. 

That leaves me with my research class...but my hope is that with my other classes and my additional work hours at EYM out of the way, I'll be able to focus and write a nice first draft for myself. 

You're probably wondering what my research will be about...

It might be a little difficult to grasp this because art therapy lives in a very strange land...

but I will be researching the therapeutic potential of hope through the process of my own art-making, specifically while working with the oncological population. 

I'll be doing art-based inquiry, which means I'll meet with oncology patients to make art and hear about their own stories of hope (or not hope); then I'll do my own art making in response to our session (called response art). In the spring I'll analyze all of the art that I made (the data), find themes, and then write a paper. It's a pretty nuanced way of doing research, so I won't blame you for thinking it sounds bizarre. 

Like I said, art therapy lives in a very special world. 

And otherwise...

I've been making a lot of art and attempting to force myself to work on my homework...it feels almost impossible at times. 

Ben and I had our one year anniversary on July 20. 

I realized that I did not include a picture of our house sitting job, but that's basically what we were doing that weekend. 

It was for our church friends, who happen to live in a really beautiful farm house about 30 minutes from MKE. Ben was out there longer than me, feeding the sheep, chickens, cat & dog, as well as a few other chores. Austin drove over from Columbus, OH to join us, so his sister Taylor came over from Madison. It was great to spend some time in the country with friends. 

Then Ben and I drove back for church and ate our favorite food in the world...Pho and Bahn Mi...at one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants. 

We have a little celebrating in order yet, because I don't think we tried hard enough and I was busy worrying about homework. :)

Maybe after class is done. 

sailing

Been working on these little 3-D Block Canvases. They're super tiny. I think it says a lot about me needing control these days....

OH, HIIIIIIIIIIIIII.....

Yes. Long lost me.

Been a bit hectic these last few weeks.

My family visited last weekend...but I honestly don't remember if other big stuff has been going on.

I'm in a whirlwind of class, practicum, babysitting, working....

It's gotten a little ridiculous.

But I'm happy to report that 2 classes will be out of my life by July 30.

I'm also trying not to have a panic attack as I write that because even though I'm starting to close out a few more classes, I'm also supposed to start writing a research proposal within the next week or two.

And let's just say the "research" part has been lacking.

I'm not the only one (WE ARE VERY, VERY BUSY). 

But I need to step my game up this next week and start doing some serious reading/writing for my annotated bibliography. 

First draft of my proposal is due August 8.

Final draft is due August 22. 

AND THEN THE BUSIEST SEMESTER OF MY ENTIRE LIFE WILL BEGIN ON AUGUST 25.

My schedule is a little horrific.

I'll let you know if it turns out that I'm not that busy...

but don't be surprised if these posts occur at 1 month intervals. 

I would update you more on my family's trip to MKE, but all you really need to know is:

baseball, beer, bloody marys, kittens, lake, macaroons, ice cream, food (in general).....

YAY FAMILY

summerfest

I'm not tired yet, so I'm going to take the opportunity to write you all.

I just got home from my first Summerfest!
I went solo because Ben had a gig, but I have to say that it was A LOT of fun going by myself.
Going alone means you just kind of get to go wherever you want without having to check in with someone.
Oddly freeing.
I DID see EYM friends there, so I was alone, but not lonely. 

Hugest music festival ever.

They actual refer to it as "The World's Largest Music Festival," whatever that means. 

Kind of awesome, as long as you're prepared to be surrounded by a dense crowd of people and pay a lot of $$$ for beer and food.

I actually ate beforehand and only bought one beer, so that was helpful.

AND I not only got to see some big names like Ziggy Marley and The Hold Steady....I also got to see my dear Express Yourself MKE friends play in their amazing local MKE bands. 

Not even on smaller stages...

They OPENED for Ziggy Marley!

Ugh. They're so amazing.

I took the shuttle, which in my opinion, is always a good idea in MKE. 

A lady was trampled at the Ziggy Marley concert, broke her leg, and they hauled her off in an ambulance.

Glad I left to go check out The Hold Steady before Ziggy got started.

My friend Cammie told me what happened when I returned to ride the shuttle back with her. 

So despite the negative ending...I had a really good time and I REALLY want to go back next year.

We'll see what we're doing by then. 

Today was an fellow AT student friend's birthday, so we're celebrating with her tomorrow evening. 

4th of July also means I don't have to go into the hospital tomorrow...so I'll probably be reading for Research during the day...because in grad school all holidays mean "time to catch up". 

Happy 4th, ya'll.

nashville

Woah.

The days are moving fast lately.
Been a ridiculously stressful and busy week.
Didn't plan for it to be that way, but it sneaks up on you.

Nashville was phenomenal!
What a great city.
We rolled into town on Thursday evening (after adding 1.5 hours of wading through construction to our 8.5 hour drive) and met up with Frank at his favorite BBQ spot, which happens to be located right next to his favorite craft brewery.
We ate, relaxed, caught up on wedding news, and listened to live country music in the sweltering heat.
(The gross 90-degree weather reminded us why we left the South.)

We spent Friday sight-seeing in Nashville:
biscuits for breakfast
Country Music Hall of Fame
a couple record stores
Hattie B's hot (spicy) chicken for lunch
amazing Indian food for supper
(we're really about the food, if you couldn't tell)

Most of Saturday was spent at the hotel.
I had a lot of homework to do.
Ben lounged, exercised, slept, watched World Cup, etc.

And that evening we went to Frank and Jen's fabulous wedding!
The whole evening was really lovely, and so worth the trip to see some of our favorite folks get married.
The sun wasn't out, so we didn't roast. :)
So grateful.
It was also a treat to see some old Tallahassee/FSU friends.

We got home on Sunday evening and it's been a whirlwind ever since. 

Research class started on Monday. 9a - 1p. 

I studied SO HARD for my psychopathology midterm (diagnosing mental illness), which I took last night and did quite well on. 

(OHMYGOODNESS I WAS STRESSED OUT!)

I also helped with summer group at EYM on Tuesday and Thursday since one of their group leaders couldn't come in this week. 

I babysat on Tuesday night.

Didn't even go into the hospital for the first time this week until TODAY!

Had a 1/1 session that went really well. 

I'm looking forward to hopefully having more of those. 

Open Studio is tomorrow afternoon/evening, and then a cancer survivorship event on Saturday. 

SUNDAY IS MY BIG, LONG DAY OF REST!

You can tell my thoughts are all over the place, so I'm going to go rest up for what's to come!

soul collage

This seems like a good time to write.

Might as well since I didn't feel too motivated to do a lot of homework today.

Hopefully tomorrow is the day!

Friends from Minneapolis, Tim and Liz, are staying with us this weekend. 

They're in town for a wedding, but we got in some good hanging out as well. 

We made a big breakfast this morning, took them down to Bayview to a record store, and then to St. Francis Brewery for some Bloody Marys, beer samplers, and beer cheese soup. 

They're fun and entertaining folks.

This afternoon I gave Tim a haircut and french-braided Liz's hair for the wedding. 

I am full of skills that I just don't put to the test that often. 

Below are three "soul collages" that I made at the hospital's open studio on Friday. 

I have to be there 2-7 pm, so I had plenty of time to make them.

You basically have a smallish sheet of white cardstock, then you look through magazines and pick 3-5 images that you're attracted to (you're not supposed to think about it a whole lot, just pick), then arrange the pictures and glue. To finish it up you look at the imagery and write from the perspective "I am one who..." by filling in the rest of the sentence based off the images you chose. 

So I would think of the qualities and characteristics of flowers, fish, open sky, etc. and write about how I connect, represent or embody those characteristics. 

Kind of neat. 

Great for self-learning and introspection. 

mirror lake state park

We drove up to Mirror Lake State park this last weekend.

Had a great time exploring this gorgeous area just north of Madison.

We arrived on Friday night and set up camp.

I was pretty excited to break in our mostly new camping gear that we received as wedding gifts. 

I have a dream to go back for a partial week at the Winfield bluegrass festival in KS someday and really put it to good use.

Because we're both used to getting up early, we awoke at 6:20 am on Saturday morning, had breakfast, and went on a nice, long hike. 

We basically had the trail to ourself because nobody really gets up that early on a Saturday, except us.

We spent the remainder of that time reading psychopathology (just me), taking naps, drinking some beers, eating some food, and preparing for some rain to head our way.

Little did we know that a VERY large storm was headed our way.

Ben made the extremely good point that we may end up sitting in our tent, trying to stay dry for the remainder of the night. 

Then our stuff would still be wet and muddy in the morning. 

Since there was no really good reason to go through all of that....we packed up as it was starting to sprinkle, stopped at Culver's for ice cream, and headed back to Milwaukee. 

Sad we couldn't stretch it out until Sunday, but grateful we didn't get wet. 

It was actually kind of nice because we had extra time to lounge at home and prepare for the week ahead.

I was at the hospital 9:30 am - 6:00 pm today, so I'm pretty wiped out, but I had two really good 1/1 sessions, and a occupational therapy rehab group. 

Successful day.

I'm also currently at 377 internship hours!

By the end of next week I will have reached the halfway mark of 400!

This summer semester is already flying by...and we just got started. 

We'll be back at colloquium (our big art therapy camping trip) as knowledgable second-year students in 3 short months. 

Grad school scheduling blows my mind sometimes...especially when I finished two bachelors degrees in 5 years. 

This is lightening speed. 

And we're going to Nashville to see Jen and Frank get married...NEXT WEEK!

rhythmn

Oh no!

I'm definitely procrastinating right now. 

I went to the hospital this morning to do a short presentation on art therapy at staff orientation with a fellow intern of mine.

It felt a little chaotic because the other intern wasn't feeling well, so she texted that she would be in late. 

Then she came right before we were supposed to leave.

Another one of the interns happily volunteered to help me with it since she wasn't feeling well, but we didn't have a lot of time to go over things.

Regardless, we got through it and it went pretty well!

It will be even better next time.

Now I'm supposed to be readying psychopathology...and I just don't want to.

But I'm going to do it anyway.

Just wanted to share my painting above that I made for a good friend down in Chicago. 

Kind of a break through piece for me. 

It's started me down a new path of art making.

Also, routine is starting to establish itself again, and I always appreciate that.