Latest reads

I've been reading My Life in France by Julia Child for a while and finished it last Thursday. On Friday, I started Julie and Julia and finished it in the same day (I was flying to Cincinnati for my JVC community member Carin's wedding and was stuck in an airport for a couple of hours, plus two almost two hour plane rides). I did enjoy My Life in France. You could really sense Julia Child's exuberance about what was going on and her excitement and frustration over writing Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The movie Julie and Julia pretty much accurately described her experiences and lifted them right from the book. Of course, there are certain elements that they didn't describe in the movie, including what happened after the cookbooks were published, but I liked it. A lot.

As for Julie and Julia, I didn't enjoy that as much. I actually couldn't help but think of Amy Adams whining the entire time I was reading it. It certainly was good, and it was good to read as a companion piece to My Life in France, but I certainly wouldn't pick it up on my own to read without having read the other book first.

I also read Eat, Pray, Love. I started that on Friday and finished it today. When I read a book, if I am into it, and I have nothing else to do, I will devour it. I LOVED that book. It basically was poetry and I loved how Elizabeth Gilbert broke up her experiences into different stories, but still made them flow together in a way that made sense. I, of course, enjoyed it far more than from the movie, and didn't picture Julia Roberts the entire time, which was good. I like Julia Roberts as an actress, but I think that since the book wasn't a narrative like Julie and Julia was, it was easier just to take it for face value.

Another school year starts...

I start school again tomorrow. It's kind of weird to be going into my third year of grad school. Even though I have two years left, I can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel (which is a really good feeling). I only have class one day a week this year. I am taking Advanced Biopsychosocial, which means that once I am finished I can a) be licensed - which I intend to do when I graduate - and b) can diagnose people once I am licensed, and said diagnosis can be accepted. Ah the power. However, I think that people are often misdiagnosed and are even given diagnoses as a "label", or as a way to be able to receive services. I am not totally throwing out the idea that diagnoses such as ADHD, autism, or bipolar disorder exist - I have certainly seen them in my line of work (given the fact that I have been working with physically, mentally and developmentally disabled people for almost 10 years...scary!). However, I think that parents often use it as a convenience or use it as a way to "explain" their kids behavior when it may just come down to what is going on in the child's life at that moment. I'm getting off my soap box now though. I am also taking Social Work Research and have to do a big project. I am thinking about comparing two methods of teaching kids with autism - an individualistic method and a group method - and coming to a conclusion about which may be more effective for the child. I will later expand that and do a thesis next semester (I may need to have my head examined).

Having school only one day a week will be helpful. It will give me more time to be able to see clients, even though I will have to work until 8 at night a couple of days a week. However, I like this job because it is giving me the flexibility to do what I need to do, and it pays me what I am worth so to say - they see that I have my bachelor's degree, that I have a lot of experience, and that I am getting my Masters. I don't think I would have been able to find anything else that could have given me that flexibility that I need and recognized me for my skills. I may have to work one weekend day, but I am leaving that for Saturdays. Hopefully I will be able to be done early enough so that if something is going on up in Bangor, I can go up with Chris. I will just have to make sure that I get my work done before I go up.