London update.

London is FANTASTIC. I have been to see the Tower of London including the crown jewels, the Borough Market, the National Gallery and Trafallger Square. All very cool. I was dissappointed they wouldn't allow photography in the jewel house or the National Gallery. The Monets failed to impress. I was expecting something similar to what I had seen in MOMA in NYC. We were able to see the extensive exhibit of Rueben, some works by Michealangelo, and Madona and Child by DaVinci. Quite impressive.

The Tower of London is equally impressive. There are remnants of the Roman wall predating creation of the Tower in 1066 by William the Conqueror. The Medieval Palace gave alot of insight into life in the Tower. There were a couple of oddities like the non-12th century wall paper on one of the walls. The walk along the wall between the towers making up the palace have an excellent view of the River Thames and the Tower Bridge. Later in the week, we'll be taking a river excursion to Greenwich.

I'm finally here.

I got into Heathrow about 30 min late yesterday. I was not prepared for the extent of the jet lag. I felt like I was floating around cause I was so exhausted. I still feel a little spacy but not nearly as bad. 14 hrs of sleep does wonders.

Grocery shopping seems like it should be the same every where. It is but it's not. We had to head to Tesco for some food. I had no idea what I was looking at much of the time. Some of the product looked the same but Pam assured me it wasn't. At other times, the packing looked very foreign but the stuff inside was the same. At least they have Coke Zero and McDonalds and they haven't changed.

Pam went to work today so I'm on my own. I'm puttering around her place and will shower and venture out into the neighborhood after a bit. Tomorrow I hope to be up to exploring the Tower of London.

My flight leaves at 9:30 am day after tomorrow.  I am mostly packed, have seen all of my clients, and bought my toiletries in 3oz containers and have them stored safely in their 1 qt ziploc.  ARGHHHHHHHHHH  I still have to work tomorrow. 

 

 

 

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Eadam, Mutata, Resurgo.-- The same, yet changed, I rise again. 

 

"Language is the autobiography of the human mind." - Max Muller

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Windows Live™: Life without walls. Check it out.

7 days left

I am sitting at my desk trying desperately to care about the mountain of paperwork in front of me. The thing is, I can't seem to focus long enough to write a treatment plan or review a client's progress. On the other hand, if I don't get it done this week, it won't get done until I get back from vacation in a couple of weeks. Life is full of choices.

It has come to my attention

that it has been at least a week since I posted. Nothing much to write. I am trying (unsuccessfully, I might add) to wait patiently for my trip to London. I now have 8 days. I think I have everything I need. I have my packing list together. I just have to wait for the day to arrive.

15 days

enough said

three weeks left

Three weeks from today will be my last day of work before I head off on my vacation. That means in 21 days, I will be on the plane heading out of O'Hare to Heathrow. WOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

30 days is too long, yet, not long enough.

It's funny to me how 30 days can be too long and, at the same time, not long enough. I have 30 days left until I leave for London. I am really excited and can't wait time is dragging. While on the other hand, I have a treatment plan review for each of my clients every 30 days. It always seems like I just did the client's review when it's time to do it again.

Life is what happens when you're making plans.

I am sooooooooooo tired of waiting for April. It seems as if nothing else could be more exciting than traveling to London.

I realized the other day that I can't just sleep until time for vacation. For one thing, I would not have any more paid time off. I know from experience that it is more interesting to follow someone's blog when they actually add entries more often then once every two to three months.

I thought I would mention I sent my application packet to the Oregon State Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists to get started earning hours towards my LPC. This will create more employment opportunities including working for Providence for almost twice what I am making at the non-profit I am at now and/or private practice. It's not that I couldn't do private practice now, the LPC adds credibility and allows me to bill insurance. I have about 900 of the 2400 required hours of client contact. Only 1500 to go. woohooo

My feet hurt.........

A little birdie told me I should start a walking program before I go on vacation to London. I started today.

I talked to my friend at work and we decided to walk for about 30 minutes on tues, wed, and fri. He doesn't work on mon and has a noon group on thur. Several other coworkers have expressed interest in joining the walking group (of two) but no body seemed to remember this today so off we went.

Downtown Portland is a very interesting city to walk in. The various styles of architecture provide a variety of back drops and lots of people walk their dogs. My friend tells me I can spot a dog a mile away. I love dogs. They give off this vibe that says they are begging to be talked to in a ridiculous baby voice and petted. Most dog owners smile indulgently while I speak nonsense to their four footed companion. They know what I mean.

Any way, back to the walking. We walked around the Pearl District (NW Portland) for 35 minutes before heading back to work. I was fine for the first hour. For the next 1-1/2 hours I had to fight to stay awake. Then my energy leveled out but the muscles in my rear end and legs started to stiffen. Who'da thunk that 35 min of low impact walking would have that effect? Not me.

Good thing tomorrow is thursday. It's an off day.

It came today............

My passport showed up in my mailbox today. The postal worker wasn't kidding when she said it would be here in less then three weeks. I turned the application in on Feb 6th and my passport shows up 11 short days later. I wasn't sure. I have been pointed in the wrong direction by postal employees before. They are government workers afterall.

My summer spent working for the Youth Conservation Corp with the USFS taught me a thing or two about working for the government. Drive an hour to the job site, take a break. Work for an hour, take a lunch, drive to the next site, take a break, work for about 15 minutes, take a break. Do I need to go on or do you get the picture? My mom assures me this is not the typical USFS way of doing things but I'm not convinced. This is coming from the women who's first question about kids at school was, "Do their parents work for the Forest Service?" hehe (just kidding, Mom)

I hate waiting.

The worst part of traveling isn't the crowd at the airport, confusion caused by flight delays, or even the headache resulting from the baby next to crying for the entire duration of the flight. It's the wait.

When you first decide to take a trip, you get really excited, going online to research sites of interest and travel arrangements, creating an intinerary, and planning your wardrobe. That takes a week, two at the most. Then you have to wait. Wait for your passport, wait for your plane tickets, but mostly waiting for the day your trip begins.

This happens with concerts, too. Tickets go on sale, you get psyched up about the show, but then you have to wait at least a month for the event. By the day of the event, the excitement has lost some of it's glow.

I am hoping a trip to London is a big enough event it doesn't have the same effect as a concert.

and now a word from our sponsor

I just got back from dinner with the majority of my GFU undergrad cohort. I haven't been able to attend the last several get togethers so it's been awhile since I've seen or talked with anyone. You might wonder what this has to do with my trip to London. Well, when you see people you haven't talked to in over a year, it gives you the perfect opportunity to gloat in an inconspicuous way about your upcoming vacation. It's a short hop from what have you been doing since graduation to "I'm going to London in April." After all, I did turn in my passport application on Friday so that counts as something I've done since graduation.

It's done.......

I spent half of my lunch hour standing in line at the passport window of the downtown post office. The people in front of my were having difficulty with their application and I started to worry that it was seeming too easy and I had forgotten an important step of the process that could end up in a lengthy dely.

Not to worry. My paperwork was in order, my pictures were satisfactory (to them, not me), and my ID was adequate. I have to say I have a bit of anxiety about them taking my birth certificate but Liz had no problems so mine should be fine.

According to the postal worker, I should have my shiny new passport in the mail within the next three weeks. That seems really fast but she said it a couple of times. We'll see.

The only thing left to do is to wait.

One more thing.................

Travel plans.............. check.
Tickets........................check.
Luggage......................check.
Tour guide..................check.
Supervisor approval..check.
Passport......................uh oh.........

Looks like I need to make a trip to the post office with my application, pictures, and the appropriate fees. That's on the agenda for this week.

At long Last

I have my tickets to London. Finally. No more speculating about when I might get there. Now to get the paperwork sent in for my passport. The only thing I need to do is to locate my birth certificate.

It's 3am and I can't sleep.

I jsut got done buying my miles. It probably seems crazy but I just couldn't sleep. Might be the heartburn, might be the excitement.

WOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just got off the phone with Alaska Airlines. They had my original flights still open so I was able to rehold the same flights. I will be able to go in to the website on Friday, buy my miles, and then call to pay the taxes and fees and it's finalized. WOOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be leaving Portland on 4-21 and getting into London on 4-22 then returning on 5-5. I can't wait. I have a long list of things I want to do and see that has been fine tuned from a much larger list. It's really helpful to have a local available for consultation purposes to maximize time and $$. Alot of stuff is free but there were things I had on my list that can be done cheaper.

We'll be taking a day trip out to Cardiff so I can check out the Doctor Who museum. A must see for any fan. I am also really psyched to see the British Museum, National Gallery, and London Zoo. It wouldn't be a vacation without a visit to the penguin exhibit. hehe Then of course there is always the local points of interest that don't make it into the travel books. Good thing my travel guide wasn't booked for that weekend and doesn't charge much.

Anticipation

So now I get to wait. Wait for Friday to buy my tickets. Wait for April for my trip.

I mentioned my trip in our team meeting this morning and my supervisor is ok with getting the dates for my trip on Monday.

The fun begins.

I spent over an hour on the phone with Alaska Airlines on Friday night only to find out I can only save my flight booking for 3 days. I won't have the funds available until this Friday so I took the risk, had them save my flights, and will try to call them tonight to convince them to save the booking until Friday. It's not like I can't call back on Friday, it's just that with frequent flier miles you have to take what you can get and there may not be any seats available when I call. Oh well, that can't be helped. What's supposed to happen will happen.