Inspiration

Inspired by Maggie over at MightyGirl, I have started a list of 100 things that I want to accomplish in my life. The inspiration probably also comes from the antidepressants that I recently began taking. Better living through more serotonin. I feel like myself for the first time in years, in ways that I hadn't even noticed had slipped away. Enough of my troubles..here's the list...

1. Travel to all 7 continents (3 down after this summer)
2. Set foot in all 50 states
3. Give birth to at least one child
4. Adopt at least one child
5. Live in an historic home (>100 years old)
6. Live outside the United States
7. Backcountry camp
8. Visit all the national parks
9. Start a not for profit
10. Write thank you notes to important people in my life (friends, teachers, relatives)
11. Make a quilt
12. Take my children on an international vacation
13. Go on a spiritual retreat once every five years
14. Spend a day in silence
15. Fast for more than a day
16. Write a book
17. Get published in a professional publication
18. Provide therapy for free
19. Raise an organic garden
20. Plant fruit trees and bushes
21. Visit Greece (AGAIN)
22. Learn another language
23. Tithe
24. Make a large stained glass window
25. Compete in a 5k or a triathlon
26. Read the entire Bible
27. Read a great novel every year
28. Have sex on the beach
29. Own a dog
30. Provide a home for a homeless person
31. Serve in some sort of ministry always
32. Take a road trip with my best friends every couple of years
33. Do something selfless for my husband
34. Create a new tradition for my family
35. Do a gift-free Christmas
36. Raise a cow for meat.
37. Own a goat, and milk it for all it’s worth.
38. Make goat cheese.
39. Slaughter a chicken
40. Raise chickens for their eggs
41. Lose 20 lbs. and keep it off.
42. Breastfeed a child (my own!)
43. Play softball competitively again
44. Coach a kids’ sports team
45. Anonymously pay for someone’s meal at a restaurant
46. Donate something meaningful to my tiny hometown.
47. Forgive those who have hurt me.
48. Keep a journal.
49. Go snow skiing.
50. Tell my story to whomever asks, without apologies.

Tennessee Bound!

I got my first choice, which just so happens to be in Tennessee, in the exact city where we hope to put down roots!

I'm excited, but also very sad, because it's now certain that our life here in Chicago is coming to a close. :( However, I know that moving back has been inevitable and I'm excited about the life we're going to build together there.

Wahoo!

Oh Where Will We Be Living?

This message provides you with your Match result for the APPIC
Internship Matching Program for internship positions beginning
in 2008.

Congratulations! You have been matched to an internship position.

Information on the specific program to which you have been matched
will be available on the Matching Program web site beginning at
10:00 a.m. EST on Monday, February 25, 2008. This information will
also be sent to you by e-mail on Monday morning, February 25, 2008.

Come on, already!

So, tomorrow is big day #1. It's the day when I find out if I matched to an internship site for next year. It's odd, because there are good things to come, match or not. If I match, fantastic. If I don't, then we're going to travel for much of the next year. The biggest disadvantage would be having to do this process all over again.

After tomorrow, then we sit tight all weekend waiting to hear where I matched on Monday. Boy, do I need to stay busy this weekend. I'm dying already.

Impatient, again. Am I sensing a theme in my life?

This whole internship process just takes SO long. Last spring, about April, I started look at the online database to determine where I would apply. Huge spreadsheets were made with all the contact info, as well as notes on what makes that site appealing.

Fast forward to July, when (during studying for my written comps) I revised my vita and submitted my recommendation letter requests with a tentative list of sites to my department. August was spent further narrowing and refining that list. September, October, and November were spent writing essays, filling out the 20 something page application, gathering transcripts and making psych reports anonymous, and photocopying and more photocopying, and more photocopying followed by spending a pension at the post office.

For much of late November and early December, I waited. Waited to hear about interviews, as I waded through rejections. For one week in December, I did nothing. Then it was off to interviews. I traveled for long expanses of time from December 28th through January 25th. Then, I had about two weeks to obsess with my husband about now we should rank the 10 sites where I interviewed. My neuroses kicked in and I decided that I almost would rather have my second choice rather than my first choice, because then I feel at least I didn't choose it...God, the system, and National Matching Services made my decision for me.

I enter my rank list of 8 of the 10 sites where I did interview, but then just before the deadline switch my number 3 and my number 4. Then February 6th ended, and things were left where they were.

So since that date, I've waited. The waiting killed me when I was wanting to know if I got interviews. Now the waiting is killing me, yet again. I had been pretty damn chill about all of these past few weeks, until some switch in my brain turned over yesterday. Now, I. AM. DYING. TO. KNOW.

So, on Friday, February 22nd, 2008, I will wait to see if I have matched. Then I will live every moment for the next Monday morning, when I find out where!

Then there will be a huge let down, I'm sure.