Off and Gasping!

Well the first week of the first term is over and I'm still reeling. Had to work today, but was hoping it would be slow and I could pre myself for doing my first Rorschach admin tomorrow. No soap, I was swamped all day with all sorts of interesting but DEMANDING work, so I didn't even limp in my front door until 9pm. Ouch. On the bright side, Entree was on the hood of my car peering at me through the windshield before I could get the engine shut off. Delightful welcome home gift!

My first admin of the ink blot will actually be to myself, which is what I wanted to do today. This is my last chance to take it before I will be 'corrupted' by knowing all the various answers and interpretations in the manual, so I'll write down what I see, circle where I see it, and then score it later when I have a clue how to do that. Then tomorrow I have a friend lined up to administer to in the afternoon. Me in the Am, her in the Pm, then another friend later in the week and two more next week. Whew! That's three more than required for the class, and we'll be doing an admin on someone we don't know (another student) for our midterm. I always try to get as many practice sessions in as I can, but in this case I want to test one of my clients at Juvenile Hall and the person is going to be leaving early next month, so I need to be proficient enough that my administration is solid by then. I want to do my project on using projective testing with forensic populations; specifically violent offenders.

Then there is the WMS admin that needs doing too. That will start after next week's classes and I'll try to do at least three or four of those outside the course requirements too. The results from those tests will determine what others we add to the battery. My supervisor has been wanting to start me doing neuropsych tests anyway, so hopefully I'll be able to work with real clients fairly soon if I can get myself up to speed quickly with friends and classmates.

Couples therapy rocks. One book is Gottman, of whom I am already a huge fan and have studied in depth, and the other is by our program director, who has done some great work on multicultural couples, among other topics in couples counseling. I think I'll do the project in this class on homosexual couples.

Practicum doesn't seem to have a specific theme this term, as it has in past terms, but I like the instructor thus far. Our cohort dysfunction showed its ugly head in that one, but you know, I just don't give a shit anymore. I was irritated right off the bat in my first class by two people, but made a resolution (seemed like the right time of year to do it) to be more positive this term, so I refused to let myself think about it and didn't discuss it with anyone and found my day was much brighter for it. Score 1 for not triangulating this week! Went out after class on Thursday (we don't finish until 9pm) and hug with the first years, one third year and a few of my own cohort. It was great fun, but even with only one drink the late hours and the smoke kicked my butt. Not sure I'll attend next week, but it's good to do from time to time. Good networking, too.

Readings are insane and probably impossible, but the material is so interesting I don't see how I can make myself skim it. Sigh... might as well just buy stock in my favorite coffee houses. Here's a sad factoid about me; my birthday gift card (Dec 9th) to one coffee place was used up when I tried to run it yesterday, and my Starbuck's card only has $14 left on it. The latter was a Christmas gift. Sob! gonna have to cut back somewhere else though, because I can't see surviving this term without chemical support.

Got my first paycheck from work and immediately decided I shouldn't have taken any deductions. Shoot, will have to go back and set that to 0 instead of 2. What WAS I thinking? I can always rob someone to pay my taxes...