Whew!

Well, as of this evening, I'm officially finished with internship interviews. What a relief to have that part of this process behind me!

Yesterday afternoon, I interviewed with Cal State Long Beach Counseling Center. It went well, but I thought it was weird that they asked me some questions that were a lot more personal than most are. On Monday, I was supposed to have my second interview with USC, but I got stood up! There was some confusion and chaos initially, but I ultimately learned that my interviewer went home sick and just forgot about the interview. So it was rescheduled for this afternoon. It went well too. I feel like I finally got the hang of the phone interviews, although they certainly weren't my preferred format.

So now, I just have to make my ranking decisions. This is proving to be a much more difficult process than I had imagined it would be, simply because there are so many competing factors. I know my top 6 sites, but the order of those is pretty much up in the air. The nice thing about that, I suppose, is that I know that if I match to any of those, I'll be thrilled. I also know my bottom two sites. The ones in between are completely undetermined. I think Ramy and I are going to drive to USC and CSULB and UCI this weekend so that I have a good idea of exactly the commute I'm looking at with each of those sites so that I can take that into consideration. In the Los Angeles area, length of commute is definitely a factor that shouldn't be given too little weight! And distance in miles has almost no correlation with the length of commute.

My rankings have to be submitted and certified by February 4, so I have exactly a week to finalize my decisions. Then, it's just a waiting game until Friday, February 20, when I find out that I either matched or I didn't. If I matched, then on Monday, February 23, I will find out where I am going (a giant computer in the sky makes the matches, based on my rank order and the rankings of the internship sites - you only get matched to one site and are contractually bound to that site before you know which one it is). If I didn't match, then on Monday, February 23, I'll start a chaotic process called Clearinghouse, which is essentially a free-for-all of sites and unmatched intern applicants. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Rebecca continues to make us laugh, as she learns new words and phrases. Yesterday, she and Nanny Rebecca went for a walk. Rebecca loves to pick up pebbles as she walks and carries them with her (much like my old Rottweiler Princess did, oddly). Apparently, Rebecca had accumulated two handfuls of pebbles and was intent on picking up still more. As she would pick a new one up, she would drop a couple of the old ones. Nanny Rebecca asked Rebecca if she could help her by carrying some of her rocks for her. Rebecca stooped halfway before turning to look at Nanny Rebecca, shook her head and said, "No, I fine!" and succeeded in getting all her pebbles into her hands.

On Monday, Rebecca awoke from her nap and was disappointed that Ramy was not yet home from work. (He's in trial this week and has worked a little later than usual). Soon thereafter, Ramy came in the door. Rebecca ran to greet him and exclaimed, "Da-ee, I home!"

In the bathroom the other day, she noticed a couple of tiny ants crawling on the tile floor (no doubt they were doing a recon mission). Rebecca pointed to them and said, disapproving, "Oh gosh, what's 'at?" When I told her they were ants, she wrinkled her nose at them and said, "Oh, ca-ca! (translation: yucky)"

Lately, she has been going to sleep more on her own in her little bed in our room, rather than falling asleep in between us (judge all you want - our baby sleeps with us, and we're fine with it!). However, she also enjoys being sure that we're still right there and in delaying the actual falling asleep as long as possible, for fear she may miss something. Last night, Ramy had already fallen asleep, and Rebecca was certain that there was still more action to be had. She looked at Ramy, then back at me and said, "Dada?" I told her that he was sleeping. She heaved a big sigh, patted him on the shoulder, then lay down next to him and faked snoring as though mocking him.

She is learning the alphabet and her numbers. She gets A thourgh E right on her own but then mouths along and repeats after us with most of the letters. When counting on her own, she orders the numbers, "One...two...three...six...nine!" If I count with her, when we get to the number "five," she puts her hand up so that we'll give her five (the hand motion). She also has started saying prayers along with me. Although the words she says don't necessarily sound the same as the words I'm saying, we all know that God knows she's saying the Our Father (and adding in her own little prayers as well). She's also become interested in the idea of putting her finger to her lips and shhhh'ing us. She doesn't quite understand the concept though, because she really wanted Ramy to read a book to her. When he would read, however, she would shush him, but then she'd be upset if he stopped reading. Clearly, there's something missing in that concept!

So that's all our latest news and goings on. Ramy is doing a robbery trial and negotiating a plea for a murder case this week. He's been out of the house before 6 a.m. this week Hopefully his case will close tomorrow and maybe he'll get a verdict before the weekend. We're still hoping that he will get a DIC position in the coming weeks or months.

Auntie Debbie's birthday party

Sunday afternoon, we went to Ramy's aunt's 80th birthday party. (By the way, Debbie is pronounced Dee-Bee. I don't know why.) It was held at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown. For most of you Southerners who actually read my blog, you may think you like Chinese food, but it's probably because you have never had real Chinese food. I thought I liked Chinese food too, but when I was introduced to actual Chinese food, I was horrified. There's no orange chicken. There's no sweet and sour sauce. There are no crispy wontons. There aren't any fortune cookies. But I digress...

Ramy lived with his Auntie Debbie and her large family and extended family while he was in school at UCLA. Actually, she isn't really his aunt, but, much like us southerners, Filipinos call random family members "aunt" and "uncle". Ramy likes to joke that he was the son his Auntie Debbie never had (it's a joke, because she has four sons).

The birthday girl was in her element, and I think she had a turn on the dance floor with every gentleman in the place, including my own sweetheart:



Rebecca had a very enjoyable time. She got the chance to play with a lot of little girls and do a lot of dancing.





This is a video of her (and some of the other crazy party-goers) dancing to YMCA.


And if you think a crowd of Filipinos doesn't have it goin' on on a Sunday afternoon in Chinatown, you've never seen them dance the Macarena and Limbo!

Determination

This morning, I got Rebecca mostly dressed (she still needed her sweater) and she asked, "Shoes?" I told her we would get them in a minute. I turned around and did something else. When I looked back at her, I realized that Rebecca had decided to take the shoe matter into her own hands and put them on herself. And although they weren't the shoes I was going to pick to match her ensemble, she was quite conscientously putting these shoes on herself, after she had picked them from her shoe rack. For 15 solid minutes, she attempted to put her shoes on herself and then to fasten the Velcro mary jane strap. And she succeeded! She was quite pleased with herself.

I'm done with my in-person interviews...YAY! I interviewed at Kaiser Permanente this morning. My friend Julie was also interviewing there today, so we commuted together, which made the drive not seem as annoying as it really was, because we gabbed the whole way. The site was one of the most confusing for me, in terms of not being sure how to rank it. Eh, my mind is filled with conflicting things for how to rank places. On the way home, we got stuck in god-awful L.A. traffic and sat completely still on the freeway for well over an hour (plus a lot more time where we were creeping along). Very annoying. Luckily, if I did get matched to that site, I wouldn't drive it. I'd take the train from Pomona (about 5 minutes from our house) to Union Station and then take the Metro (subway) to Kaiser. There's a stop just across the street from Kaiser. So I wouldn't have to fight traffic.

I got my second phone interview with USC set up for Monday afternoon. Then Tuesday afternoon, I have a phone interview with Cal State Long Beach. And then I'm done!!! Then I just have to submit my rankings and try not to second guess myself until Match Day.

Rebecca has become a real chatterbox. Yesterday evening, she and Ramy had an entire conversation about how she got a box of Ritz crackers off the counter. He kept it going to see what she would say. She had much to say, although we weren't sure of what most of it meant. She did, though, because she would repeat herself if you asked her to do so. She also has a lot of inflection and is very expressive! I was on the phone with my friend Brenda last night, and Rebecca saw me and thought I was talking to Grammy. So she picked up the other phone and talked to Brenda. The next thing I knew, she had gotten my cell phone and had called my mom and was talking to her! She carried on a conversation with my mom about Daisy (my mom's dog).

Hooray for us - we have a three day weekend together again! I love it. I think tomorrow, we have something exhilarating planned, like having the carpets cleaned. The wild life we lead is enough to make anyone jealous, huh?

A historic day

I think almost everyone who knows me knows that I'm pretty left-leaning in terms of my political beliefs. To put it frankly, I'm a bleeding-heart liberal, on almost every social policy and I use reproductive choice as a litmus test in voting for national political candidates. So I was quite obviously going to vote for the Democratic candidate no matter who it was, and although I was really pulling for Hillary to win the nomination, I was an Obama supporter this past fall. It was a happy day for me to see George Bush ride off into the sunset with his cowboy foreign policy and to see a democrat back in the White House.

But putting aside my own personal political views, I was especially happy that the first inauguration of Rebecca's life was such a historic one. Of course, she won't remember the day (although, have I told you all that she knows Obama at sight and that when she sees him on television or in pictures, she points and proudly announces, "O-ba-ba!"?), but I have kept memorabilia of the election and inauguration for her to have sometime in the future. I also kept the letter published in last week's Parade publication that was from Obama to his daughters about what he wanted for them and for all America's children. It pleases me to know Rebecca will grow up in a time where she really sees that there is no glass ceiling for her, that there is nothing she doesn't have the ability to achieve, and that no dream is too unrealistic.

I'll admit that issues of diversity had never really been something I considered much in my personal life until I moved to California (hell, I was a senior in high school senior before I realized there were more than 2 races!). I think we're all guilty of not thinking of things like that when we're a member of the majority. After moving to Southern California and experiencing a few occasions when I was in the minority, I realize the feeling of comfort associated with seeing people who are similar to you. My first taste of that was when we went to celebrate Ramy's dad's birthday at a restaurant called Sam Woo. I was confronted with not only an array of "food" that resembled things I would have thrown out in the trash because they'd grown new lifeforms in the back of my refrigerator, but also with the awareness that of the probably 150 people in the restaurant, I was the only white person in the whole establishment. I'm not sure which caused me more discomfort. Obviously, it was a small thing that in no way compares with the real discrimination many people have faced, but it was a tiny little wakeup call to me. I've been even more aware of the importance of seeing people like yourself since Rebecca was born. She certainly looks different than most little white girls, and the fact that I've been so often asked if she was adopted is a pretty good indication that she doesn't look like me. I feel weird buying her a blonde doll, for some reason, and I want to be sure she sees things that are like her, while also having an appreciation for the richness that comes with diversity.

But anyway, enough of my waxing philosophic...how about a couple of goofy looking pics of me and Ramy with Rebecca on Sunday?




I interviewed at Santa Ana College this afternoon. It's a small site, but if it were accredited, it would be a good site. I'm ranking the non-accredited sites lower on my ranking list than the accredited ones, but I'd certainly rather get a non-accredited site than none at all or to go through Clearinghouse! It was a good interview. It kind of sucks that my most competitive site interviews were my first ones, because now I feel like I've gotten really warmed up on the whole interview thing! Oh well, what can you do. I also got notification today that I had been selected for a second and final phone interview at USC's counseling center. Most sites only do one interview and do their rankings based on it, but USC apparently thinks it needs multiple rounds of interviews to make their selections. So I made it to the last round with them and have to set up another phone interview with them later this week. On Thursday, I'll be doing my interview at Kaiser Permanente, and then next Tuesday, I'm interviewing with Cal State Long Beach. Then that's it for the interviews! I've tried to put off ranking my sites, because each time I would interview at one, it would suddenly shoot to the top of the list. At all but one of the sites, I could easily imagine doing my internship there and loving it. So I think it is best to wait until the end when I can more objectively think about each of the sites and rank them. The sites themselves are hard to compare, because they're such different places - how do you compare USC's counseling center with Patton State Hospital? The salaries are also quite disparate, and then there are considerations for the length of the commute, flexibility with time (many of the university counseling centers have 4-day work weeks in the summer and significant time off during the holidays, for example), and different avenues for doors they could open for me for future employment. So it's a lot to weigh and to pray about. Of course, the decision isn't completely in my hands, because all of the sites will be ranking me on their lists of preferences for interns as well. If none of them want me, then it doesn't really matter how I ranked any of them!

Rebecca had a fun day today. She and Nanny Rebecca went on a playdate. They went to hang out with a cousin of Nanny Rebecca's and her little girl, who is a month older than Rebecca. From the pic messages I received from them, they had a blast! They have plans to set up weekly playdates from now on, because the girls play so well together. Awesome!

It's a 3 day week for us, bookended by two three-day weekends! What a great life! Ramy's 9/80 day is this Friday, and although I contemplated going to a site visit/open house that day, I'm thinking that I probably won't, although I may try to schedule my USC phone interview for that day.

Happy Birthday, Ashley!

Yesterday, we went to Pasadena for Ashley Loh's 4th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. Here's a pic of the birthday girl:


Rebecca had a great time, as did all the other children there (and Lord have mercy, were there ever a lot of children there!).



Rebecca enjoyed getting to play all the games...



...eat pizza and birthday cake...



...and meet Chuck E. Cheese (I really wasn't afraid of the giant mouse, even though this pic looks like it)



What a great day! We hope Ashley had as much fun as Rebecca did!

Here's some video of Rebecca playing one of the games.

Man, it seems like this week has been really long. Between the craziness of having an internship interview every day this week and Nanny Rebecca being sick and Ramy and I needing to shuffle childcare duties, I'm so ready for the weekend. Unfortunately for me, I have another interview tomorrow, but then the weekend can begin.

Yesterday, I stayed at home with Rebecca until Ramy came home early at 3:00 p.m. so that I could leave for my interview in Long Beach. It was an interesting site, with a lot of good training opportunities. Unfortunately, it's in Long Beach. And although it should only be about a 45 minute commute with no traffic, it would be a nasty drive with a lot of traffic when I'd be going to work. Anything that requires me to take the 60 to the 57 to the 91 to the 710 to the 405 has a lot of opportunities for traffic nightmares. But it was a good interview, and I could definitely be happy doing an internship there (other than the drive), especially since it seems to be a really flexible kind of place. The ambitious side of me that wants the most amazing training opportunity is in constant conflict with the lazy side of me that wants to rank order my sites in terms of commute from my house. After I left there last night, I ventured away from where I was to find some fast food for dinner, and I got a little bit lost in the city of Long Beach. Yikes! Ultimately I found my way to a freeway with which I was familiar, so it was fine.

This morning, I interviewed at City of Hope. One of the first things I learned was that the great training director they'd had for about 20 years had had an aneurysm, and they weren't sure if she would ever be back to work but were thinking probably not. So it had totally changed the focus of the internship to a pediatric cancer site almost exclusively. Although I could swing it for a year and I'd rather do that than to be hanging around for another year, it is probably at the bottom of my list. But hey, that's fine. So far, all of the sites have seemed way better in person than I'd thought when reading about them on paper, so one turning out to be disappointing is still pretty good.

Then I met Ramy at his mom's house so that we could trade cars and I could get Rebecca from him so that he could go back to work. Now we're home and she's watching Dora the Explorer and her eyes are verrrrryyyy heavy. If I don't stimulate her, she'll fall asleep (yay!). Tomorrow, I'm interviewing at DBH. I'm excited to learn more about the STAR program. I'm so glad to only have two interviews next week!

A wild day

This morning, I got up before the sun rose and headed out on a long trek to South L.A. Back in the olden days when we watched the Rodney King riots on television and I thought that only people who were completely out of their minds would ever want to live in a place like Los Angeles, this area of town was known as South Central. In an effort to clean up its public image - though not really changing anything about the area - it is now called South Los Angeles). Anyway, I was interviewing for an internship in the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health's Community and Correctional Psychology internship. Honestly, before going down there today, I totally second guessed why I applied to that site and I figured that it very well might rank on the bottom of my ranking list. But after going, I realize that it really is an awesome site with really excellent training. I'd definitely be happy doing an internship there, except for the long commute. But as I was driving there this morning, surrounded by graffiti of gang signs, building covered in tagging, bars on every window, and pit bulls behind every gate, I had to laugh and wonder what the hell I was doing there. I thought to myself that if someone had told me, growing up in rural Tennessee, that one day I would be considering a job in a place like that and actually excited about it, I would have run away screaming. And it definitely isn't a site for the faint of heart or the squeamish! But it is another site that has surprised me in this process and that makes my ranking decisions harder and harder!

I came home to find out that our nanny was not feeling well. She ended up going to urgent care this afternoon and being diagnosed with bronchitis and is highly contagious. Great! So Ramy and I are doing the childcare shuffle tomorrow and possibly Thursday and praying that Rebecca doesn't get sick and that Nanny Rebecca will be all well in order to help us out on Friday.

Beauty

Is anything more precious than a sleeping baby?



Could anything possibly be as beautiful as this face?

Where did the weekend go?

Although it was a long weekend for us as a family, since Ramy's 9/80 day was Friday, it surely didn't seem like it! Friday, I had my interview at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA in Loma Linda from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. We had three separate interviews with supervisors in the rotations selected as being of primary interest, plus a Q&A with the current interns, a tour, and an overview of the internship and rotations with the Training Director. It is a really great site! My friend Tony is currently one of the interns there, and he has been really pleased with it for his internship. Going to all of these interviews is making my ranking decisions much harder!

Friday afternoon, we took Ramy's Acura to get maintenance done in Diamond Bar. He and Rebecca had gone to visit his dad at the nursing home that morning and she hadn't had a nap all day. That evening, we ate at Panera Bread and just chilled at home. I was exhausted from all of my interviews that week, so I slept in on Saturday morning and awoke to the smell of bacon frying, as my sweet husband was cooking breakfast for us. We spent most of the day Saturday trying to put the house back into some kind of order. I got the rest of Rebecca's Christmas toys unpacked and put away. Ramy made a run to Goodwill and cleaned the downstairs, while I straightened up upstairs. Rebecca took a late nap, and then we headed out to Pasadena for dinner. We had initially planned on going to Brea Mall, but it was so late by the time we left that the mall wasn't going to be open, so we just decided we were in the mood for some good Italian food and headed to Pasadena. We were starving, and we weren't satisfied with the 40 minute wait at Louise's Trattoria, so we walked to Mi Piace to put our name on their list too. They had a 35-40 minute wait, and that wasn't too thrilling to our souls either, so we walked over to Il Fornaio and found that they had a 25 minute wait. By this time, we decided that Louise's was going to be the best bet and we'd already killed most of the waiting time by walking around in Old Town Pasadena, so we just stuck with that. They have the most amazing fettucine alfredo.

Sunday morning, we were at 7:30 mass and then ate breakfast at Panera Bread, before heading over to check out the new market in town. I bought some groceries there, and then we came back home and read the Sunday paper and generally relaxed and played with Rebecca. We also went to visit our friends Ana and Simon and to see their new baby boy, Simon Jr. (or is he a IIIrd?). He's so precious! Ramy bought some rank-smelling fish at the asian market and ate that for dinner, while Rebecca and I stuck to more normal food.

This afternoon, I had a phone interview with the University of California, Riverside student counseling center. I hate phone interviews. It is so hard to tell how you're doing, because you can't see any kind of nonverbal communication, and they try really hard to give you no feedback. I think I did okay, although I felt like I was stumbling over my words more than in any other interview I've done. But it was fine.

This is going to be a really long week, I'm afraid. I have an interview every day this week! This is my schedule:

Tuesday: Interview with Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health Community and Correctional Psychology Internship program in South Los Angeles

Wednesday: Casa Colina in the morning and then interview at The Guidance Center in Long Beach

Thursday: Interview with City of Hope National Medical Center

Friday: Interview with San Bernardino County Department of Behavioral Health's STAR program (STAR is a component of the county's Mental Health Court, which diverts mentally ill individuals from the regular court system).

Thanks for all of the prayers on my behalf during this internship process. But even more importantly, thank you for the prayers of intercession for all of the people I've listed before in this blog. Please redouble your efforts on behalf of Caleb Gill. He has gotten some poor reports about his cancer progression and will be having more and different chemo.

Musician

Thought you all might enjoy seeing Rebecca, the aspiring musician, playing on her drum. Even better, you can turn it upside down and stir in it, like it is a mixing bowl!

Walking the dogs

Tonight, Ramy, Rebecca, Paddington, Sydney, and I went for a walk around the neighborhoods on our hill. Rebecca is delighted to be able to walk the dogs. Sydney is a bit much for her (Sydney is a bit much for anyone, actually, as the dog is determined that she is going to lead, even if you choke her in the process). Fortunately, Paddy is a bit more Rebecca's speed. Nonetheless, Ramy held Paddy's leash in the middle, just in case he should take off. But Rebecca loves walking with the dogs. She gets beside herself with excitement, and she enjoys telling the dog when to "go" and then will say "whoa!" when he starts getting a bit fast for her.

I interviewed at the Los Angeles Ambulatory Care VA today in downtown L.A. The interview itself went really well, I think. However, the parking lot adjacent to the hospital being closed caused me to take a little 30 minute tour of downtown L.A. to find parking. Then when I got out of the interview, all the streets around the area had been closed down, and they weren't allowing pedestrian traffic through. The reason was that there was a bomb threat and a suspicious package...

(Yikes! We just had a little earthquake!) Anyway...

So, in order to get to the parking structure in which I was parked two blocks away, I had to walk three blocks up, then three blocks over, then two blocks back down. In heels. Luckily, they were pretty comfortable heels, but nonetheless, not ideal. But fortunately, I had plenty of time and nowhere I had to be, and it was a nice day, so it wasn't too bad. The $13.20 for parking for the three hours I was there was a bit harder to stomach, however. I liked the site. They have really good training opportunities, including the ability to do neuropsych stuff without solely doing nothing but neuropsych. They have a really great specialty training in PTSD, as well as an advanced couples and family therapy program and a satellite clinic in East L.A. that has a lot of a community mental health feel. The staff seemed to be really nice and congenial, and they definitely have state of the art facilities. The VA is allegedly going to be going on a hiring spree for psychologists over the next three years or so, and they often hire from within, so it would be a good place for me. It's not going to be topping my list, much because of the commute into L.A., but I'd definitely be happy to spend a year there.

Tomorrow, I'll be interviewing at another VA, this time in Loma Linda. It's Ramy's day off, so he will be here with Rebecca, and who knows what exciting things they'll get into!

2 interviews

I had two interviews today. This morning, I interviewed at Metropolitan State Hospital in Norwalk. I left home at 6:45 to be sure I had plenty of time to get there - I did, even including a stop for some french toast sticks. As it turned out, one of the other candidates was a Loma Linda colleague of mine, so I enjoyed getting to talk to a familiar person. Actually, one of the current interns is another of my Loma Linda cohorts, so I knew a couple of people. It was a much more laid back atmosphere than Patton was, and there are some things about it that make it a stronger site for me and some things that make it a weaker site. So it makes my ranking decisions more complicated. I think the interview went well, although I was super pressed for time on the writing sample. I think I probably was not alone in that though, and I think what they were looking for was clarity and quality of writing, rather than how much you covered. So hopefully they got enough of that to like me. They fed us lunch, we had a Q&A with the current interns and the supervisors, as well as a tour of the facilities and an overview of the internship program from the training director.

I headed home and got here just about 15 minutes before my phone interview with USC. Rebecca was asleep, so I holed up in our bedroom. Rebecca never even knew I was at home until I came out of the bedroom and surprised her after my interview was over. The USC interview went really, really well, I think. I felt really good about the answers I gave to their structured questions, as well as my responses to their scenarios. They have a really great program that has a lot of flexibility to develop groups and establish consultative relationship across the campus, so it is at the top of my list, currently, for counseling center sites.

I'm at Casa Colina tomorrow, luckily. No interviews! I hear we are slammed with new admissions though, so I'll be busy. Then interviews on Thursday and Friday. Thank you for the prayers and positive thoughts today!

A day in the life of a public defender

It's a running joke in our family that whenever Ramy asks about my day, I go into lengthy details about everything that happened, the issues I saw with various clients, how Rebecca ate and napped that day, etc. When I ask Ramy about what happened in his day, his inevitable answer is, "Eh, I went to court." If I ask him if anything interesting happened, he'll think for a minute and generally will say that it was just a regular day. On a fairly regular basis, later on, he'll remember something like a fight taking place, a client's family threatening witnesses, seeing morgue pics or something that seems pretty eventful.

This morning, Ramy had to go out to the Norwalk court for the sentencing of a client convicted of murder. The guy got 58 years to life. This afternoon, he did closing arguments on another felony case back in Pomona. The case went to the jury and in less than an hour, the jury was back with a Not Guilty verdict.

Just a day in the life of a public defender...

A new year

It's a brand new year, full of possibilities!

Rebecca and I flew back to California yesterday morning. Grammy was sad to see us go, and we were sad to leave her, but Ramy was glad to have us home, and we were glad to be back with him. It's so nice to be loved and wanted by so many people! Hopefully it won't be too long that we have to always be flying back and forth and saying tearful goodbyes at airports. But the four suitcases all made it to Ontario with us, and we had a good flight. I had an eye doctor appointment soon after we arrived home, and then I ended up with a horrible headache and enjoyed a nice late afternoon/early evening nap. We were up and at church this morning, and I'm no worse for wear.

This is going to be a really crazy few weeks for us. Ramy has several trials scheduled (he's in closing on one tomorrow, in fact), and I am doing interview after interview. I have fourteen internship interviews, and I never heard back from one site. But 14/20 is pretty good, I think. I'm pleased with it and looking forward to getting the interviews over and done with and my rank ordering submitted, and especially to finding out whether and where I matched. So this is a big week with four, big, very important interviews, because these will definitely be ones that are high on my list! On Tuesday, I'm interviewing at Metropolitan State Hospital and then I have a phone interview in the afternoon with the USC Counseling Center. On Thursday, I'm interviewing at the Los Angeles VA, and then on Friday, I'm interviewing at the Loma Linda VA.

Ramy's mom was taken to the emergency room on New Years Day with chest pains. Although they determined that she did not have a heart attack, she had at least one EKG that was somewhat abnormal and has an enlarged heart. She came home on Thursday but will be having a cardiac stress test tomorrow. So please say a prayer for her, as well as for Ramy's dad who continues to be in exceedingly poor condition.

There are also several other people I'd like to ask for prayer on their behalf. My mom's good friend Marilyn Craig (one of the funniest ladies you could ever meet) has had a long ordeal with back problems and is having something incredibly dreadful-sounding done on Jan. 27. Please pray that this fixes her for good! Lisa Grubbs is also having difficulty after her cancer surgery (although she got excellent news of a complete physical and pathological response to her radiation and the experimental drug she was given) and possibly has an infection. Please pray that she is easily fixed up and back with her family and for her mom Joy who is a newly retired woman, eager to know that her daughter is back on the road to a full recovery. My friend Julie is traveling with Baby Addie for the first time tomorrow. It's a nerve-wracking venture for a mom and baby to get on an airplane, so I'm praying they'll have a good trip and that Julie's interviews go well. I'm sure those Yankees are going to want her to come to their stupid internship sites instead of letting her stay here to hang with me. (I'm only kidding...mostly).

Well, Ramy has taken Rebecca to visit his dad at the nursing home and to visit his mom at her house. In the time they are gone, I need to get all the Christmas decorations down, finish cleaning out my closet of clothes to donate to Goodwill, unpack five suitcases, and put away all our clothes and Christmas gifts. So what the heck am I doing blogging???