my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

ok, so the title of my blog for today is super lame, but I think that song is funny, and eventually my blog will relate to it.

my internship went really well today. the other counselor was gone for a majority of the day so I got a whole lot done for once. everyone also seemed in a somewhat good mood.

last night was my first parent teacher night ever! I was so excited about it!! I'm such a dork when it comes to stuff like that. I even had my first parent teacher conference ever!! luckily it was with a student that I really like... ha, well... I really like all of my students a lot, but this one is my favorite one for some reason. It think it's because he was one of the first ones I met who has been with us long-term. anyway, it went well.

this evening me and alicia were both bums. it made for a very successful evening though. we experimented and made mint chocolate-chip milkshakes, ate extra butter popcorn, and watched gossip girl all night. yay! I really value nights like this because they make me feel normal. I feel like I get so wrapped up in being busy here in the city and going out to do stuff so often that I forget how nice it is sometimes just to stay in and chill out watching tv with a roomie.

booo for today.

well... there's no point in denying it right now... but I was severely disappointed with my internship today. don't worry friends, I'll be perfectly fine and back on track/motivated tomorrow (hopefully), but today I got really bummed out by it.

It's just so easy to get discouraged and annoyed when you know for a fact that what you're doing is the right thing, but others are too close minded and jaded to realize it.

I'm a smart person, I know that... and I know and understand my role as a school counselor. I'm also the kind of person who is going to advocate for myself AND my students instead of being walked all over. At times, I feel like this causes more trouble than it's worth... but at the same time, if someone doesn't say something... then who will? and how will change occur?


ha, I think I've ranted and shared enough. I miss you friends!

cough. cough. sniffle.

I've had a bit of a cold lately, and it's been hard to get enough rest due to annoying guests here at the loft lately, so this evening after work I got some pizza with my colleague mike, then came back to the loft and slept for an hour or so. the private room is empty, so right now I'm just in here chillin' on the couch and watching tv.

the pick up artist 2 is on VH1 right now. it's probably my favorite show ever because it's so absurdly hilarious.

here is a picture from when my sister came to visit. I was impersonating the statue of liberty at the time, but she kinda didn't take it where you could see all of me. regardless here it is with a few other random ones.

me and ms. liberty

random door in chinatown I thought was cool

since I'm from the south, my school made me go through here before I was allowed to live in NYC.

me and the brooklyn bridge <3

fall leaves @ liberty island

sunday.

my sister is in town visiting... more details later.

me and alicia were dying to see the panthers game, so we, along with my sister searched high and low for a bar that had it on. we FINALLY found one. it was a lot of fun cheering for our team... we were the only ones in the entire place who were rooting for them. too bad they lost. here are some pictures from it:

take 1

take 2
(I thought take 1 was too close, so the guy who had the camera thought he'd be funny and take this one)

take 3 (much better)

these wings kinda sucked, but we at them anyway.

(the loft where we live)

(random pic in the elevator)

(random pic in the lobby area)

the students I get to counsel.

so I love the kids at my school.

most people would probably be annoyed with them because they are "seemingly" difficult, but I could probably laugh at some of them all day, cause they try to pull some of the craziest things on you. it's funny how much kids can lie sometimes or play dumb like they don't know what's going on... but in reality, they TOTALLY know whats up. I can't really say what exactly is happening or where these thoughts come from due to the whole counselor confidentiality thing I have going on... but I still wanted to type my thoughts about it anyway, even if I have to be vague.

so yeah, the kids are hilarious to me... but they have no clue that they are!

I really enjoy being a professional school* counselor. :)

*please DO NOT confuse a "professional school" counselor with a "guidance" counselor. they are two totally different things!!

the subway.

today after work I was a guest at the new york institute of technology's internship class. to get there, I had to go towards the upper west side. I decided to take the W train to get there quickly, and found a seat. I was just about to turn my ipod nano on when all of a sudden I hear a booming voice scream,

"allllllllllllllll aboarrrrrrrrrd! I hope you guys are all ready for the party train this afternoon, cause if not... you picked the wroooooong boxcar!"

then all of a sudden these three somewhat elderly men break out into a acapella bee-bop type of song and dance in the aisles. see, random things like this happen ALL of the time here in the city... there are always people walking from car to car. usually they just beg for money, or play some crappy little diddy on the violin... but these party train guys were hilarious. they were sooo overly cheesy too. I mean "party train!??" who seriously says that. I don't know if words can fully express the whole situation and what it was like to be there... but the moment they actually used the word party train, the whole car of emotionless looking new yorkers dressed in all black suddenly transformed into a car full of gleeful individuals who looked curiously around, smiled, and even exchanged eye contact and giggles. a business man and two ladies who didn't seem to know each other even broke out into a dance. it was a magical moment in time. bizarre, but still cheeseily magical.

then I got off the party train.

ok, the ending of my story was a bit abrupt, so here is a picture of me at my internship. I made the bulletin board:

I'm either really super lame, or overly dedicated to learning more about counseling...

so today was quite the lazy saturday... at first.

I stayed out way later than I should have last night showing the german guy who was staying here some cool places in the east village and teaching him about american culture... so I woke up fairly late then just layed around and watched a movie. eventually I ventured out into the daylight for some chinese food. after that I decided to try out a new coffee place I had saw on 3rd ave and read a bit from this book that rivers suggested I should read. I think I may have FINALLY found a decent coffee shop! it has good coffee and good lighting. it could use some more comfortable seating, but they play old 20's and 30's music in the background, so that makes up for lack of couches and comfy chairs.

after that, for some reason I was highly motivated to become more organized. (this is the part in my day where I turned super lame... maybe it was the coffee?!??) soooooo, I bought some post its tabs and a new notebook to keep track of the things I need/want to know about my students, and the counseling services I am providing for them. I wrote a lot of stuff in that, then decided to look up stuff on the internet about group counseling and counseling in alternative schools. I found tonsssss of things online, and pretty much just read research articles for the rest of the night.

yeah, so despite my saturday sounding way more dorky than I intended for it to be, I had a very good day and feel like I got a lot of things accomplished.

proof I am actually here in nyc.

so my homegirl a-dawg reppin' from da HPC informed me that m-cat didn't really believe that I was in nyc cause I never have any pictures of myself on here. here is PROOF that I am in fact living in manhattan:

me!

me and autumn!! :)

good week.

I've had a really good week I'd say. I've been really really busy though, so sorry for lack of interesting updates. yesterday we pretty much doubled in population at the school were I am at... so we are ridiculously busy. I like it though :)

I'm so exhausted from the week that I really can't remember what all I've done. I've been addicted to the shake shack, so I've eaten there a lot when the line was short. I think I may go eat there right now instead of sitting around the loft.

the night before last me, alicia, and laura went to cafe wha? in the village. (I'm so 'new york' now cause I call all the areas in manhattan by their names... ie. the east village, midtown, hell's kitchen, gramercy park, tribeca, flarion, etc...) it's a cool little place that has an AWESOME house band, so it's fun to go to and listen to cover songs. (and make a fool out of yourself as you sing and dance to them)

alright, I'm done with typing, I'll mayyyyyyyybe update again soon... stay tuned!