Monday, March 31, 2008
#1. Got this e-mail from the director of the Counseling Center first thing this morning. Its a news article about a woman who came into her UNIVERSITY COUNSELING CENTER with a gun and took her FEMALE COUNSELOR hostage. Check it out HERE. Hearing of female counselors being held hostage in a University Counseling Center is always a good way to start out the morning. Not to mention my dream last night....One of my clients locked us in my office and tried to kill me. I'm not making that up either. WARM FUZZIES
#2. Read this study today, "Ranking the States: An Analysis of Depression Across the States" It was researched and written by Mental Health America and Thomson Healthcare. It looks at data from 2002-2006 comparing depression levels and suicide rates in all 50 states. WHO WAS RANKED NUMER ONE ON DEPRESSION STATUS COMPOSITE SCORES???
YOU GUESSED IT....UTAH
Here's an exerp from the study:
"Utah was the most depressed state. Among adults in Utah, 10.14 percent experienced a depressive episode in the past year and 14.58 percent experienced serious psychological distress. Among adolescents in Utah, 10.14 experienced a major depressive episode in the past year. Individuals in Utah reported having on average 3.27 poor mental health days in the past 30 days."
HOW STATES RANK.... (the lower the score the better)
SOUTH DAKOTA 1
HAWAII 2
NEW JERSEY 3
IOWA 4
MARYLAND 5
MINNESOTA 6
LOUISIANA 7
ILLINOIS 8
NORTH DAKOTA 9
TEXAS 10
GEORGIA 11
VERMONT 12
NEBRASKA 13
FLORIDA 14
CALIFORNIA 15
MASSACHUSETTS 16
PENNSYLVANIA 17
VIRGINIA 18
NEW YORK 19
NEW HAMPSHIRE 20
ALASKA 21
MICHIGAN 22
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 23
DELAWARE 24
ARIZONA 25
ALABAMA 26
NORTH CAROLINA 27
SOUTH CAROLINA 28
KANSAS 29
WISCONSIN 30
TENNESSEE 31
MONTANA 32
MISSISSIPPI 33
COLORADO 34
WASHINGTON 35
NEW MEXICO 36
OREGON 37
CONNECTICUT 38
INDIANA 39
ARKANSAS 40
MAINE 41
WYOMING 42
OHIO 43
MISSOURI 44
IDAHO 45
OKLAHOMA 46
NEVADA 47
RHODE ISLAND 48
KENTUCKY 49
WEST VIRGINIA 50
UTAH 51
HERE'S TO UTAH...At least we're number one at something.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
In lou of my new playlist, i felt inspired to write a bit about the soundtrack to my life as present. Some songs old, some new. I've said it before...melody and I have a strange almost obsessive relationship. I see my life in tune. Here's some bits...
Disclaimer...I'm revealing the yuppie in me that i hate and love...Indie music. It's the Subaru's cousin, but my very best friend.
SORROW
DAMINEN RICE, Cold Water
A FINE FRENZY, Goodbye My Almost Lover ("lover" being freedom)
INGRID MICHAELSON, Breakable
BRANDI CARLILE, Tragedy
SUFJAN STEVENS, Sister Winter
HUMORED DISTAIN
LILY ALLEN, Smile
TEGAN & SARA, The Con
PARAMORE, Here We Go Again
LOVE
DAVID GREY, This Year's Love
BEN HARPER, Forever
MOLDY PEACHES, Anyone Else
MISSY HIGGINS, The Sound of White
ISRAEL KAMAKAWIWO'OLE, Somewhere Over the Rainbow
VAN MORRISON, Brown Eyed Girl
SPIRITUALITY
JEFF BUCKLEY, Hallelujah
SECONDHAND SERENADE, Awake
INFLUENCED
FALL OUT BOY, Sugar We're Goin Boy
RED JUMPSUIT APPARATUS, Face Down & My Guardian Angel
HOPE
PAOLO NUTINI, Autumn
TRACY CHAPMAN, Fast Car
FEAR
KENDALL PAYNE, Scratch
JOSHUA RADIN, What If You
Dear social work Gods or Goddesses,
Just wanted to say thank-you. Thank-you for ruining my weekend. You truly have provided me with a weekend that rivals all of the most terrible weekends of my meager existence. Why? Why would you think it is by any means humane or decent to hold a 16-hour licensure prep-course on Friday and Saturday?
___________________________
The Soup was especially insulting and fantastic last night. Two of the my favorite lines from the evening...
[when referring to "Rock of Love" (a show where white trash gold-diggers fight for Bret Michael's love)]
AND
[when referring to a daughter-parent competition where teams compete to suck the most filling out of a conole on "Thats Amore" (a show were women complete for the affection of some random Italian guy)]
"Look, we’re just here to engage in pastry falacio with our daughter; we didn’t know it was going to get to tacky"
No need to watch TV pop culture...Just watch The Soup
Friday, March 28, 2008
Better late than never right? Todd and I had a wonderful Easter weekend. We spent it in Swan Lake with Todd's family. It was great just spending time with the family. We had a lovely and a ginourmous Easter dinner followed by a knarley Easter egg hunt. I was quite proud of Todd and I bc we got TWO Cadbury eggs AND 25 cents. Another AWESOME aspect of the egg hunt was the "grandma's hunt". There were three grandma's present who went on their own hunt. I hope I get the change to do that someday. I'll elbow those granny's to the ground! We also had some killer Phase 10 Games...one of which I won. What now. Oh, AND We got to introduce Ty to the Gambles family. They love his crazy little terrorits self just as much as we do!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
This one's for you Aubree!
The Rules: Tell 10 interesting/weird things about you, when finished, tag 3 other people!
1. I have a weird thing about my feet being clean and NOT dry. After I shower, I have to put Vaseline and socks on for at least 15 mins. I also wash my feet like 5X a day during the summer
2. I have a skin allergy to metal. Meaning, the button on my pants gives my stomach a perma-rash and I can't really wear jewelry...I don't even have my ears pierced.
3. I, like Aubree (the one who tagged me) got through school pretty quick. Like her, I graduated from H.S. with my Associate's degree.
- So, I graduated H.S in 2003,
- Had my bachelors in 2005,
- And will have my masters by 2008 (thats with taking a year off to get work experience). Not so proud of it though..I was SUCH a loser!!
5. When I was 11, I would steal my dad's books about therapy and read them. NO shit. I distinctly remember reading this HUGE book on case studies. I had the dictionary near by and had to look up about every other word. That's how I learned the term masochist... I think I called my mom that when I was like 13.
6. I have a love for mini horses. I seriously want one so bad!
7. I can't stand the feel of flour on my hands...blaaah. I have to wash my hands like 50 times when I'm baking
8. I preach about progressive feminism yet i do most the cleaning, make my honey his lunch for work and bake him homemade cookies about every other week. What the hell?
9. I've played the violin since I was 5
10. My lips are crazy red. It's hard to explain but they're so bloody red! One time me and Todd's sisters and nieces all put on the same tube of lipstick. Everyone was laughing so hard at me because my lips were sooo much darker on than theirs. I looked like a hooker. It's really weird.
I may need to hunt down and kill the person who came up with the idea of tags. Okay, that's not entirely true, I like hearing what other people have to say.
SOOO....I already got this tag but I didn't want to let cute Ally down so here ya go. Same questions, perhaps new info.
*10 Years Ago...
- I was 13.
- You all should know by now how I felt about middle school.
- I was definitely in an ugly phase.
- I had just learned how to tame my wild curly hair... ish. This was before flat irons were big so the straightening didn't look so hot. It looked mostly like a very massive blond fro.
- Man was I sexy.
- I was really into the band Staind. Scary eh? They wrote songs about hating everyone and I related.
- I was playing basket ball and softball. I had attitude and none of my coaches liked me.
- I had a crush on this boy named Brett. He was a hottie..butt-crack hair part and all. My best friends Brooke and Mckell also shared this crush. We would compete with each other for his attention. Ah haha.
- Walk Ty before school
- Go to a whole 11 hours of school
- Go to the Dentist during lunch (btw that really sucked...4 years without going to the dentist=11 cavities=me wishing for death)
- Call Jenny
- Basically survive my day from hell
- Own a beach house in Hawaii
- Hire a hit man to take out Ron Paul (and perhaps a few Republican Senators)
- Start a non-profit for somethin cool
- Clone Ty
- I'm cynical...okay people know that about me
- I think flossing is for the birds
- I pretty much hate yuppies. Take your Subarus, organic food, coffee mugs, I hate-everything, but love everyone attitude and SHOVE IT! (Can you tell I'm in Social Work at the U)
- I also hate Utah County Culture...take your fastly approaching bankruptcy, Prozac poppin, Bermuda shorts-wearin, scrapbooking ASS and SHOVE IT! (Wow...can you tell I've been in class for 11 hours?)
- I really believe that before this life I was a fish....I could fully live in the water
- One of my biggest hero's is Machiavelli. He pretty much rocks.
Good times.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
So we finally made it to Las Vegas! We chose L.V for our little getaway because it was somewhere warm that didn't take too much travel. Todd and I don't have the best track-record with Vegas...the two times we've been together we got in big fights. We were determined to break our streak and I'd say were did! We has soo much fun!! It was St. Patty's day so we had a great time celebrating with all the crazy partiers in green. We spent a day and a half in vegas seein the sites and just playing. We stayed in the Sahara Hotel. Bc we booked the room on Travelocity, we checked in early and waited in a huge line for a good hour with everybody in the rat race trying to get a good room. It paid off though bc we got first dibs on a king sized bed! What a fun two days! By the end of the first day our feet ached and we were completely spent. I guess that's a sign we did it right! Here's some highlights.....
MMMMmmmm
Most of them did flips, splashed us, and did all sorts of other tricks that were fun to watch
We got to sit right on the edge of the pool
The best part was undoubtably getting to see the baby dolphin Sergent Pepper. He is a nine-month old dolphin born in the facility!! In this picture he is in the middle next to his momma, aunt and distant cousin.
I watched this dolphin's blowhole for a good 15 minutes...so interesting!
Almost shark-like
You also get to watch the Dolphins in their tank from underground (I was a little wet from before)
It's almost like in the wild!
They like to watch us too!
Yea for the Dolphin Retreat!
This Alpaca was just staring at us! It was so funny and random!
There's a leopard in the upper left corner... He was sleepin 
This guy was pacin...what a beast!
My kind of relaxation!
A giant chia pet!
Tulips...my favorite
There were so many beautiful plants and flowers...both real and artificial
This picture didn't work out so well, but it's the tropical waterfall inside the Mirage
Making a wish! (He is flicking in the penny if ya can't tell)
The Beatles' REVOLUTION
This is the sign on the bathroom door. I thought it was funny... It says, "you go girl!!!"
Poor Todd being my photo biotch
Aren't we fabulous??
Matchin!!
The most exotic looking M&M's
We got hot pink, purple, all green (means horny) and all blue (like Viagra). The pink and purple were thank-you's to the fam for dog-sitting
This was basically Todd's paradise...he lives for peanut M&M's
Paris in Vegas??!
Todd nor I had ever been to the Wynn... so we trecked down to check it out 
-Day TWO-
This camel in front of our hotel looked so familiar so i had to take a picture next it....
This is why!!!! I think I was 15 (resist the urge to compare my body size)
Isn't this picture classic?
Todd had so much luck on the slots! With less than two bucks he won over $20!!! Gotta love Vegas!
So awhile back the travel channel did a feature on the "10 BEST HOT DOGS IN AMERICA". Slots of Fun in Vegas was one of them. So, when we unknowingly passed it we had to have lunch there! Again, Todd's paradise. 
These suckers were HUGE!!!
That concludes our SPRING BREAK GETAWAY!! 
