A long week...

This last week has been kind of difficult. My grandpa (my dad's dad) died this last week on September 25th around 3:30 am. My mom came in and told me the news. Around 6 am, after not being able to fall back asleep, I decided to call in to my internship site and work and let them know I couldn't make it that day, a decision I think was a good choice though I debated it for a long time and didn't send the emails/texts out until after 7 am.

Grandpa was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a while ago and had been holding pretty good through radiation and chemo treatments until about July. The chemo wasn't doing much and the side-affects really sucked so they decided to stop treatment and focus on pain management. His death was expected but still sad. I know this would be an appropriate venue to write about memories, etc., but I'm not going to. Maybe later; sorry.

Coming back to school this week has been a little strange. Although I only missed one day at my high school placement, I missed three days at my elementary school, so it was strange to be back at either one. I also missed my first day working as a peer supervisor at the mental health clinic in Beaverton. My poor supervisee had to share a supervisor that night. I feel kind of bad, but what are you going to do? Stuff happens and we cope and move on.

This weekend Jesi is coming to visit her boyfriend for some kind of business conference thing (it's just an excuse to have her come up to Oregon). I might meet them for dinner Saturday night since I'll be downtown that day. And I think they are coming over Sunday night? I don't know what's going on. I'm just going with the flow and not worrying about it.

That's kind of how I am approaching a lot of things right now: go with the flow and don't worry about it. Classes officially started this week (which feels weird since I've been in "school" at my internship sites for about a month now) and Wednesday night we went over some of what our action research project will entail and I'm like, "Yaaaaaayy..." (that was an unenthusiastic "yay," fyi). We are supposed to have a topic in mind by next week and I'm a bit stuck. I could do something with stress and academics at the high school (I'm already going to be probably running a group already and possibly doing some in class work), but I think I might want to do the project at my main site (since I am kind of focusing on elementary), but I am not sure what I want to do at that level. I'd like to approach a topic that concerns TKK (third culture kids... kids who grow up abroad as expats) since that's the demographic I would like to work with eventually. Speaking of which, our new program person, Jan, worked as an elementary school counselor in Belgium for a while! And one of the counselors at my high school placement know several people working as high school counselors abroad. So I now have several potential contacts to help me figure out how to get placed in an international school in the future.

And that's my life right now: internship, school, work (once or twice a week), research, and sometimes watching Criminal Minds while scrolling through Facebook or Tumblr. It's thrilling. And tiring. I have found recently that I feel ten times better if I get in bed (like, to SLEEP, not read) 9 hours before I need to wake up rather than 8. I need to get better about going to bed earlier. I was pretty good the week before going to California for the funeral, but I stopped regulating my bedtime this last week so I need to get back on the horse, so to speak. Goal for this week: SLEEP! I like it.