where has italian ice been all my life?
not too much time to write right now, as jeopardy is strangley on at 7 here instead of 7:30, and i would like to watch it for the first time all fall!
things have improved some since last friday. sarah saved my whole weekend (and week, and possibly life) by coming to visit on saturday night. turns out there is a train that comes from philly for only $4. so she came out and spent the night and we went out with brynn on saturday night. it was exactly what i needed, to see a friend from home/school (it's funny how here, i now refer to school as home too). we had a blast at mangos (the bar in our virtual backyard) and at dunkin donuts. i fully utilized the convenience factor of my location that night- mangos and dunkin donuts! heh. sarah, if you read this, thank you again for being my savior last weekend! i love you!!!! and can't wait to see you again!
chip is coming up tomorrow. and i am so happy. i definately am not a fan of the whole long distance thing. one can not survive on phone conversations alone. i have so much respect for all of my friends at school who left their loves back at home or somewhere else (diana, lindsey, and cassie).
we are going to oktoberfest tomorrow night. there'll be a whole posse of us, which should be quite fun!
work is going well. it started off great this week, and its slowly getting less great as the end nears, but not bad- just less great. i will tell you, there is no greater teacher in patience than a child with autism in the middle of a tantrum. hitting, biting, kicking, chinning, scratching, screaming, throwing. all in a day's work though, i suppose.
tomorrow we take our kids to the mall (the most wonderful perfect beautiful mall, which i will describe in a moment). hopefully this will go well. this is our first real outting of the nature. today we went to the group home, to work on skills like cooking and cleaning. but that is not out in the community. i just pray i can keep all of my patience in the middle of the mall if/when a tantrum starts! i've been doing well so far in school.... one phrase that katie vingoe told me about her experiences in china that is my daily motto at work:
"if you're going to laugh about it later, you might as well laugh about it now."
ok, this mall.... the christiana mall.... it has all that i have ever dreamt that a mall would have. it's huge. with every type of store. there is even a steve madden store! i have only seen this in nyc, but here, in the heart of little ol' newark, de, there is a whole store devoted to the wonderful collection of steve madden shoes! and there is a macy's! and then all of your wonderful typical stores. i went there on sunday and had the most fantastic time just walking around by myself for hours, checking everything out. it truly is my happy place here. ;)
another bonus, is that i went to a meeting on monday and figured out how/when i am going to get paid and get my benefits. i will get my first pay check tomorrow! YEEHAAAA :-D and benefits are now in effect. hallelujiah!
on that note, i am off to watch jeopardy now.
hope geneseo is treating you all well.
and a special message to LINDSEY: i hope that things are going great at home! newark is only 140 miles from NYC! we should definately utilize that sometime soon! i miss you hun!
ok. now i'm really out.
xoxo.
things have improved some since last friday. sarah saved my whole weekend (and week, and possibly life) by coming to visit on saturday night. turns out there is a train that comes from philly for only $4. so she came out and spent the night and we went out with brynn on saturday night. it was exactly what i needed, to see a friend from home/school (it's funny how here, i now refer to school as home too). we had a blast at mangos (the bar in our virtual backyard) and at dunkin donuts. i fully utilized the convenience factor of my location that night- mangos and dunkin donuts! heh. sarah, if you read this, thank you again for being my savior last weekend! i love you!!!! and can't wait to see you again!
chip is coming up tomorrow. and i am so happy. i definately am not a fan of the whole long distance thing. one can not survive on phone conversations alone. i have so much respect for all of my friends at school who left their loves back at home or somewhere else (diana, lindsey, and cassie).
we are going to oktoberfest tomorrow night. there'll be a whole posse of us, which should be quite fun!
work is going well. it started off great this week, and its slowly getting less great as the end nears, but not bad- just less great. i will tell you, there is no greater teacher in patience than a child with autism in the middle of a tantrum. hitting, biting, kicking, chinning, scratching, screaming, throwing. all in a day's work though, i suppose.
tomorrow we take our kids to the mall (the most wonderful perfect beautiful mall, which i will describe in a moment). hopefully this will go well. this is our first real outting of the nature. today we went to the group home, to work on skills like cooking and cleaning. but that is not out in the community. i just pray i can keep all of my patience in the middle of the mall if/when a tantrum starts! i've been doing well so far in school.... one phrase that katie vingoe told me about her experiences in china that is my daily motto at work:
"if you're going to laugh about it later, you might as well laugh about it now."
ok, this mall.... the christiana mall.... it has all that i have ever dreamt that a mall would have. it's huge. with every type of store. there is even a steve madden store! i have only seen this in nyc, but here, in the heart of little ol' newark, de, there is a whole store devoted to the wonderful collection of steve madden shoes! and there is a macy's! and then all of your wonderful typical stores. i went there on sunday and had the most fantastic time just walking around by myself for hours, checking everything out. it truly is my happy place here. ;)
another bonus, is that i went to a meeting on monday and figured out how/when i am going to get paid and get my benefits. i will get my first pay check tomorrow! YEEHAAAA :-D and benefits are now in effect. hallelujiah!
on that note, i am off to watch jeopardy now.
hope geneseo is treating you all well.
and a special message to LINDSEY: i hope that things are going great at home! newark is only 140 miles from NYC! we should definately utilize that sometime soon! i miss you hun!
ok. now i'm really out.
xoxo.