Wordless Wednesdays (because I've been too lazy/tired/sick for a real post)

Deep thoughts

“You’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” said my massage therapist.

“You must be psychic. You should combine psychic services with massage therapy,” I said.

No psychic ability needed; people who suffer from migraines or do a lot of thinking tend to have a ton of tension in the muscle that goes into the base of their skull. She told me the name of the aforementioned muscle, but I was too busy enjoying my massage to recall the name. Although I suffer from migraines, I haven't had one since my last massage, so I agreed with her clinical impressions. I also had a terrible run later that evening. The next day I learned that you’re not supposed to take part in strenuous exercise after having a massage. Good to know! But I digress…

There’s been a lot to think about recently. I’ll start with the potentially less life-impacting thing first: purchasing another car. We’re going to keep Jay’s truck Charlene as well as sweet Roxie, who has nearly 300k miles on her. Roxie is a great commuter car and good for at least half a million miles. We also wouldn’t get much money for trading her in. There are so many decisions to be made. New or used? What should we buy? SUV or wagon? There are a lot of models in the running. Jay wants a new car and thinks that is where all the deals are. Although I would love a new car, I’m leaning towards used so that we can get more bells and whistles (heated leather seats are awesome).

Now on to the real thinking – about life. I’m not passionate about my job. I’m not making a difference. Although I’m sure that if you asked some of the physicians, I’m making a difference in their lives by giving them a terrible schedule. I also listen to them whine and gripe about each other (the inference I get is that I'm also supposed to do something about the offender). Sometimes the complaints are legitimate, others not so much. Apart from the occasional “Thanks for the great schedule!” emails, there isn’t much enjoyment I get from work apart from my paycheck. Of course, this is not to say that I don’t like my job.  I gain satisfaction from completing a project or compiling and presenting data in new and exciting ways. I’m happy when people tell me that I’m doing a good job. These are basic things, but it keeps me sane. I’ve made a few friends. The money is decent and I like my bosses. This will do for at least the next few years.

However, it’s time for me to start thinking about #26 on my 101 list. That is “Figure out what I want to be when I grow up or figure out my degree path.” This happens to coincide with #8 on my bucket list: Get my 4 year degree. 

The fastest way to that four year degree is through either a business administration degree or a psychology degree. A psych degree is pretty much useless unless I’m planning to get a PhD (however I may do a double major just because I have so many psych courses already). The business administration field is just not my thing. A marketing approach might be fun so that I could be creative, but I don’t see myself as the business type. With a degree in social work, I could earn my master’s degree while working in the field. Ultimately, I’d like to either have my own private counseling practice or work in the schools. The benefit to working in the schools is that I would finally have that extended vacation time that I’ve been looking for. School counselor jobs are hard to come by around here, so I would have to be patient for an opening to come up.

Fortunately for me, Salisbury University offers a bachelors and masters of social work through the Higher Education Center at Chesapeake College. From the information I’ve been able to track down, there are four or five general ed classes that I’ll need to take before being able to enroll in the social work curriculum. I’ll find out which ones those are when I meet with an advisor, but I’m pretty sure they will be bio and history courses. 

As usual, this epiphany occurred a little too late for me to get my act together and sign up for fall classes. I will have the next few months to prepare my mind for the spring semester and make some tough decisions about how much time I can devote to the organizations that I love. 

Wordless Wednesdays

Summer Bucket List Update

The last week has been busier than usual and I’m quite worn out!

Last Wednesday I took the final exam for my PADI open water diver class. I missed one question on the entire thing and I doubt that I’ll ever hear the end of it from Jay, who of course was the first one done and got a 100%. For the record, both the test and the textbook could benefit from some editing. The test did send me into a case of the giggles and I thought I was going to totally lose it. There were six or so questions on hand signals and underwater communications. One of the illustrations was the signal for share air. The selections were along the lines of “a. I’m hungry!  B. Are you thirsty? C. Share Air.” Other favorite answers from this section were:  Will you be my buddy? <-- Low on air) Wave to friends on the shore/boat. (<--Help!) My finger is cold. (<--OK signal)

Seriously, my finger is cold? If someone selected that answer on their test, I would never want to be paired up with them on a dive!

This is the OK/My finger is cold signal

Although we haven’t completed our check-out dives yet, I feel pretty comfortable marking off “learn how to SCUBA dive” from my Seasonal Bucket List. After all, I've had four open water dives already - I just didn't know all of the skills until I took the class.

Our checkout dives are scheduled for the last weekend in September. Jay is suddenly gung-ho about diving, so I’m pretty sure that we’ll be getting our Advanced Open Water certifications next – likely in October. Apparently DCFD is in the process of assembling a dive team. So I’m sure that Rescue Diver will be on the list after AOW. It’s a slippery slope. Before long, we’ll be selling the house and buying a dive operation in Australia. Remember this lengthy post on experiences and choices? Maybe we’ll buy a liveaboard boat and charter dives in the Whitsundays! 

On to the next…

Running had been going well. I’m still terribly slow, but I’m building up my endurance. Technically I’m at Week 6 Day 3 of Couch to 5k. However, my last run on Saturday was terrible and there’s no way that I’m ready for a 22 minute run.

I’m backing up to Week 6 Day 1. This seems much more reasonable to me.

Since I've been doing Couch 25k, I haven't been paying much attention to what I've been eating. I felt like I'd probably lost weight since I've been good about exercising. Unfortunately, I haven't lost anything. I may have even gained weight. So it's back to faithful tracking with LoseIt. After all, I've gotta look good for my vacation to the Dominican Republic. 

Summerfest was over the weekend and I spent many hours scooping ice cream. 

Then I wandered, watched the fireworks from Harry’s, and had a bit too much to drink at the pub. 

I took a lot of photos there and most of them are blurry.

Lots of photos to come tomorrow on Wordless Wednesday. A summer photo dump!