Fall is here

So I am back from my summer break from blogging. Fall is in the air and I'm so excited to say it's the first day of fall!

I'm now working at De Paul which is a drug and alcohol center in downtown Portland. I am the family therapist (one of four) and I work mostly with couples and parents/adult children. I also do a women's group where their family members are invited and they learn about how addiction affects families and support one another in recovery. It has been challenging, new, hard, and exciting. Working with other really sharp clinicians who have totally different experience and academic background has been one of the best parts.

September is a month we have not fully experienced here yet together, since we moved from LA 11 months ago. It is definately my favorite month! The air is warm and the days are sunny (but not too hot) and it is crisp and cold in the mornings. Ahhh.

Donovan and I have also enjoyed spending more time with my mom lately, now that we are living with her. We have enjoyed walking and playing with Dimen regularly too. She is such a gentle dog. I will post funny pics as soon as I can.

I hope you are all doing well and had a fun summer! Let me know how you are doing!

busy bee

So work is busy... and so great! The thing I want to communicate here though is that my new job is rad, my boss is the bomb, my coworkers are great, my closest coworkers (all family therapists and all Christian ladies) are even greater (one is from Enterprise, to boot). I think I enjoy remembering it being 10am and then not knowing how it got to be 4pm, that happened today! I definitely enjoy being downtown and eating at food carts every day! It's really engaging and the clients are so grateful for their services and I feel like it's such a good fit for me to be there.

Today one of the long term clinicians left the agency today and as they all did their termination/processing the top boss lady talked about spirituality and work as a therapist and how we all should feel called in our being to be a better person as we work... summing it all up by saying "we get paid to learn about ourselves and become better people!" I love this place. Although I would potentially make about 40% of what I would make doing private practice if I kept this job over my entire career, I am still seriously considering never changing jobs, it's that perfect of a fit. Who knows, maybe some years down the road from now things will change. Maybe.

In the meantime I'm getting in 5-10 client hours a week in my private practice. So I'm kinda a workaholic, although I despise that word, what it represents, and never thought I would say that about myself. In fact, I pride myself on not being that person in a lot of ways. But duty calls for now, and for a while there Donovan and I only had those two jobs to depend on. Although just within the last few days he has gotten paid for an old job AND received another project to work on.

Don is learning to cook and cleaning more in the meantime. We are also moving out of our apartment in two weeks to save some money and look for our own house. Pray for us on this big endeavor, our transition period, and our financial situation!

Right now I am sitting on my porch, about to do my session notes for the evening and enjoying the last bit of summer sunshine of the day feeling very tired, content, and excited.

For the future: we are going to Seattle to visit my great friend Lindsey who will leave for Africa for a year soon. Pray for our travels and for our time with her and as a couple while we're in Seattle. Also, Donovan and I celebrate 3 years on the 22nd. This also is a prayer request because this time of year often brings up big questiosn for us while we do an (informal) evaluation of where we want to go in the next year and what our plans are.

I love you all!

plastic

This lady is incredible and so inspiring to me. Kinda reminds me of going to Costco with Ruby and being super convicted about my use of plastic :) !

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7591751.stm

The author talks about giving in and buying a tube of toothpaste because homemade toothpaste tastes terrible. What are the things you would draw the line on if you did a month without plastic?

another way to live life to it's fullest...?

I made a deal with myself to live life to its most before I start my job. There are just so many things that you can do when your schedule is flexible and you work mostly evening hours. For example, my favorite coffee shop is open 9-4pm... crazy, I know! Over the last week I have traveled to a beautiful part of Portland I have never visited before in the West hills, gone to my favorite meat market that is 45 minutes away, went to my first Oregon MFT meeting, watched my cousin's dance recital (and went to a soccer and baseball tournament), and gotten a million ridiculous chores done that I was putting off.

And then I got the flu!

I guess it's better to have it now and start my job later in June rather than try to do two jobs and be sick at the same time. So I'm trying to look at this as another thing I am checking off my list... being really sick! In the meantime I am watching way too much TV, sleeping, and trying to eat.

I got the job!

Here is the story in a nutshell for those of you who may not know it. I walked at graduation in June of 08 for Fuller, although I still needed more practicum hours to be a MFT in Oregon so I did the summer term too. How anti-climactic to walk at a graduation when I am not fully completed with my work. I worked at two sites during the summer and did one course. During that time (Jun-Sep of 08) I started looking for jobs in Oregon online, thinking (oh so innocently!) that I would find one and be able to start in Oct of 08 in Portland when I moved here.

When all of Sept, Oct and Nov had rolled by and I still did not have a job, I opened a lease to rent space for a private practice. My thoughts were it would just be temporary while I applied to some jobs in the area. Then the economic crisis hit. Then all mental health funds were comprimised in the State of Oregon. Then all the clinics eliminated jobs, cut funding and some even closed their doors. Then in Feb of 09 I finally got interviewed at two places at once to my delight! One of them said they wanted to hire me then hired someone else. The other eliminated the position after they chose me as their top pick. Then my father died. It seemed to me that my private practice would have to become full time if I were to ever have work.

Although I never stopped hoping for more work in my private practice, at this point I really turned on the heat. I spent more money that month on marketing than I ever had before. I started seeing couples as well as individuals. I went from having 4-5 clients a week to having 10 client contact hours every week.

In the midst of this I got an email from a friend telling me about De Paul's open position. Casually, I sent in my resume thinking my chances were small. I did 4 hour-long interviews for De Paul and kept my emotions guarded, remembering what happened at the previous two places and praying that whatever was supposed to happen with De Paul would happen. At this point new unemployment numbers come out in the States saying the national unemployment rate is worsening, now last compared to unemployment in 1982. I am sober in realizing the competition I have in full time therapist positions in the Portland area and how my practicums are not the best on paper expereince compared to other therapists I'm competing with positions for.

Over the next two weeks my small group pray along with Donovan and I that God would make this possible. My group believed in me when I lost hope and faithfully said "You WILL get it!" After exactly 12 months of job searching (so exhausting!) I was so worn out. After the last interview they said they would call me that afternoon (Friday) with the news. I didn't hear from them all weekend. Then Monday passed by. Then Tuesday. I thought I might call them to check in, but I didn't know what I would say. I waited. Weds afternoon they called and gave me the job!

I'm now a full time employee for De Paul Treatment Centers :)

I will be doing both in-patient and out-patient family and individual therapy focused on drug and alcohol treatment. All I have to say is Yea God. The odds were not good for me in many ways but you provided a job and with that financial stability, the ability to use my learned skills, a stable schedule (which I live for!), and every single thing that the income from that job will provide. And I thank you.

oregon in the summertime

I have to warn you. Life in Oregon is different because when the weather warms up, everyone evades all responsibility and plays in the sun. It's true. So if you don't hear from me too much on my blog you can better believe I will be doing one of the below activities, as I was doing some of these this weekend, instead of blogging.

swimming
sun bathing
eating, reading, or playing games on my patio
having a cocktail
going for a run or walk
playing bocce, frisbee, or frisbee golf
going to a park
vintage shopping on Belmont
biking

Isn't it ironic that when life gets cool enough to blog about you don't want to sit down and blog it out?

In true note format I will continue, since the last one was so fun. Some things I used to do as a kid in Portland that I truly miss doing (most of them that my dad facilitated/paid for):

water skiing
boating and then going for a picnic somewhere pristine
fishing
camping
camping
more camping!
(one thing I don't miss is long trips to Kah-nee-ta!)

I miss him.

Well, I'm off for a run. It's going to be in the 80s and high 70s all week :)

update

Our time at the farm was so relaxing. We hung out with the three dogs and had so much fun. We watched movies, went to an awesome natural hot springs in the mountains, toured around the area and saw Tamarak in progress, saw the "dong dong diddily dong" town (as my sis calls it) and laughed at their different accents (secretly of course), and ate A TON. I had great bacon fresh from the farm and lots of homemade foods. Yum. I learned how Paula has to be a little creative sometimes when she doesn't have a lot of stores nearby and how her food is actually a ton better and fresher! It's so inspring. Paula said when we left the puppy, Rex, moped all day and was sad that we weren't coming back. I miss him too! The bred of dog they have is amazing and so smart, it makes me want one too. Maybe it's a good thing I haven't bought a dog yet! (You'll have to see my facebook pics and check out my pics from the weekend including Rex and the two other doggies)

In other news, I am still waiting for my 4th interview to be scheduled, whew! It's hard to be patient. This is definately a season of waiting, which is hard for me, but I'm trying.

Last but not least, I'm coming to Pasadena in June! I'm so excited! I will post again about things I'm hoping to do/things I want to eat/people I must see as the time gets closer. It will be June 17-23. I can't wait to see my LA friends!