A dream of mine is to someday have the capabilities for fountain soda, Sonic ice, and a full-size Skee Ball game in my house.  I just have to graduate first…

The good news is that all the snow made it so we got to chillax some, and I got some mad cookie skills from Wylie’s mom. (I have been practicing them here at home…excellent skills to have, I must say!)  In between the chilaxing we were very busy! We visited Concord, where I learned that it is REALLY fun to kick snow piles. And we went to Boston twice, and it made me want to go back when it is not 7 degrees with the windchill because everything is so cool! I saw Harvard Square (though not Click and Clack, even though I was looking!), and Boston Common, and Newbury Street and the “T” (not named for me, though I will continue to tell myself that it is), and the North End (where I had some amazing manacotti and a canolli and dined next to some very adorable old men, who in the story I made up in my head about them had something to do with important Italian families…if you know what I mean , and lots of historical things like the place where Paul Revere is buried! It is very cool to see the things I learned in history class.

We also squeezed in a road trip to Pittsburgh to see Wylie’s sister in The Nutcracker. It was really awesome and some pretty incredible stuff that those dancers can do. Along the way I saw the ACTUAL Eerie Canal (and I sang the song, and it made my heart do a little backflip to be right there singing about Sal!). And a trip to the beach at Plum Island. Again, it made me want to go back in the summer, but I was pretty enamored with a snow-covered beach!

It was a jam-packed trip, and I was glad that I had taken an extra day off to rest up before going back to work.  The spring semester looks like it is going to be pretty amazing at the SCS. I will be co-leading a group for first generation college students this semester, and I am super excited. We are also starting to think about looking for jobs for next year (if you know anyone who needs a really incredible, though unlicensed, psychologist, I’m SO your girl!)…which is kind of stressful. And, I am dedicated to finishing my dissertation this semester…in between practicing my cookie skills.

This week was really fun because we were having interviews for the next round of interns, and three awesome kids from my program at Auburn got interviews here, so we had some REALLY fun company!

Today was for relaxing, and I did it like a champ. I finished reading (for the second time) Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. Can I just say that he is maybe the most funniest man alive. We also went and saw The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. It was very pretty and visually amazing, though I felt that the story left me wanting a little more. That being said, I am sure it’s not that easy to put a movie together when you didn’t get to finish it as planned, so I am overlooking some of that…

OK, one of my resolutions is to write on here more often so it’s not these mini-novels every month or so, and then I can start sharing more funny stories about our neighbors and their eternal quest to get their cat inside at odd hours…

I hope you are all having 2010′s that are off to great starts!

[nggallery id=9]

It was exciting to get to show Wylie where I am from and give him a chance to see the desert and saguaro’s and, most importantly, The Thing!!! (He was less impressed than I had hoped, but if you are ever on I-10 just East of Tucson, you should definitely stop. It is well worth the $1 and you can get some DQ while you are there.)

We made it to my house about 26 hours after we left here, and that was pretty good time, I think! The week was jam-packed from the start–we tackled “The Mountain” at Mary Coyle’s (which included 7 lbs of ice cream), saw the Hoover Dam (and the new bridge that will be done soon), had a great time in Las Vegas (we saw Big Elvis, had frozen hot chocolate, and absolutely fell in love with Love–the Cirque de Soleil that features the Beatles). It really was an amazing trip–complete with Steak & Lobster for Thanksgiving dinner! (For $12.99, of course. It WAS Vegas!) It was really wonderful to spend some time with my family and for them and Wylie to get to know each other.We were also able to meet up with two of my super BFF”s along the way…and that was awesome.

Things are starting to slow down a bit at the SCS this week and next as the students have finals and leave for the holiday break. I am happy to be filled with a good dose of Blevins Family fun and frolic, and Wylie seems to have survived and reports that he is willing to return for more!! Hooray!

[nggallery id=6]

In the meantime, I have had some good reasons for being absent. In the few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, things at the Student Counseling Service really kicked in to high gear. I was seeing a ton more clients, and hence, was really wiped by the time I got home. It has been really great to be learning so much about therapy and being a therapist full time, but I will be honest that there is a bit of an adjustment period. Luckily, Wylie is very nice and supportive. In addition to all those students who somehow just realized that they should have been doing their homework all semester, we have been reviewing applications for interns for next year. I am enjoying being on this side of the process, that is for sure. The SCS got about 90 applications this year and we will invite about 30 folks for interviews…it is very interesting to see how it is done.

We have been fortunate enough to squeeze in some R & R on the weekends–today we went and got massages, which was awesome. And the weekend of Nov. 14 we went to Houston to see some friends. (The son of my dad’s BFF from his Air Force days and his wife). I was pleasantly surprised by what Houston had to offer, and it was really fun to see Joe and India and their wonderful pooch, Lennon. We went to a showing of The Big Lebowski in a park downtown, explored the Montrose area vintage shops, and saw the butterflies at the Museum of Natural Science.

It was a really wonderful weekend, and a much needed break…and a nice getaway from Bryan/College Station. We are looking forward to getting back to Houston in the spring for some rodeo action, and some NASA action as well…

[nggallery id=5]

Well, Vegas and some other things. Over the week of Thanksgiving we drove out to Phoenix where Teresa’s parents live. From there we drove up to Las Vegas for a couple days. Then it was back to Phoenix, and then back home to Bryan. It felt like a whirlwind trip and like a lot of it was spent in the car (it was), but we enjoyed it.

The drive out was fun, and it was the furthest I West I have driven. We decided to drive all night as opposed to spend the night in a hotel. This was partly to save money, and because we thought we could do it. We ended up driving until something like 3am before stopping to sleep for 3 hours at a truck stop/gas station. We saw lots of deer along the side of the road, both alive and dead, and I think I saw a coyote. On Saturday we arrived at Teresa’s parents house early evening and had a lovely dinner before sleepily hanging around until we had to go to bed. The next few days were filled with driving around Phoenix, a big-bash-birthday party for Teresa’s dad, and a hike that showed me some neat cactuses.

After those few days in Phoenix, we drove up to las Vegas for three nights. We stayed at Paris Paris for two nights, which was fantastic. Being right on the strip was amazing. At night we could hear the fountains from the Bellagio. For our third night we moved to The Rio, which was very nice, but is a little off the strip.

Let’s see, what were some of the things we did while in Vegas… Well, we watched the Bellagio fountain, we ate at Serendipity3, we walked through Caesars Palace, we ate at the Hofbrauhaus, and went to Freemont Street. We gambled at the Hard Rock Cafe, Paris Paris, Binions (I think), Caesars Palace, The Bellagio, and Bill’s Saloon (where we saw Big Elvis). We also had a steak and lobster Thanksgiving dinner, well I did not, but everybody else did. And to finish our trip we saw the Beatles Love Cirque de Soleil production at The Mirage. That was fantastic, we all loved it. There was a chance we were not going to see the show due to some lighting problems, but Maria, Teresa’s sister, did some phone magic and ended up getting us better seats to the later show. Wooh!

On the drive home from Las Vegas we drove to the Grand Canyon, which I had not seen before, and Flagstaff Arizona.

Next it was a day again in Phoenix before driving back to Bryan. It was a great trip, and I was glad to be a part of it. Many thanks to Teresa’s parents for for being very generous and including me on their yearly Christmas trip, which was moved up to Thanksgiving time this year.