October Entertainment

So it's Friday night in Wilmore and what is there to do? We could see a movie...We could stay in and watch the World Series...We could go out to Wal-Mart...OR we could carve a pumpkin!! Wanting to get into the Fall spirit and take advantage of something fun, Peter and I went to the pumpkin patch Friday night and picked out the perfect pumpkin. You should have seen us. It was silly how carefully we looked at the pumpkins, asking each other "Do any of them jump out to you?" I guess they kind of all looked alike if you know what I mean. But then we found one. A couple of hours later after some creativity and some grunt work, he came to life.

















This is Umpkin the pumpkin. I designed him and Peter carved him. I'm very proud of him!
















See any resemblance?





















Kinda spooky, huh??
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Changing subjects, last weekend I journeyed to St. Louis to visit Jessi! After seeing my Jessi two times in one month I am feeling pretty spoiled. But I couldn't miss out on her birthday. I got to see her new (at least new to me) apartment in the city (so cool!) and see some other fun friends from college. This is a picture of Jessi wearing a part of her present...Irish sunglasses. Very Jessi. Entertaining at least.
















I thought about making her wear them to dinner but I forgot. We went to dinner at the Lemp Mansion. It's supposedly St. Louis' most haunted mansion. Aparently in the early 1900s three people commited suicide (yikes!) in the house and it's been haunted ever since. Although I had been there before, I was getting really freaked out. I was okay until all the lights in the house went out and all the servers were like, "This is strange." The music was still playing, and the light shining on a huge painting of a lady from the early 1900s was still shining. It was the only thing I could see. When the lights finally came on we saw a plaque telling of a suicide that had happened in the room we were seated in. I'm not really sure how I feel about ghosts but it was all a little too much for me. I am not as much into living on the edge as I used to be. Maybe it comes with age. After a little bit of chocolate fondue at the Melting Pot it was all good. It was fun just to hang out with three great friends from college.

After my little excursion though this week has been tainted by the overwhelming feeling of being behind in my schoolwork. So Umpkin is about as exciting as things are getting around here this weekend. Jackie has to study.

Dr. Jackie

Well it's official...I'm a therapist. Well at least I saw my first actual client today. Now some of you might say, "Hey, Jackie, you saw clients all summer. What are you talking about?" Those were clients that I saw once and were passed along to other people. My job was to listen to their story and then recommend the proper treatment for them. Today at my new practicum I became someone's "counselor." This means I am going to be seeing her for twelve weeks and working to establish goals for her. I was supposed to have other clients so far too, but right now she is the only one who has actually showed up for more than just an intake.

That brings me to a crisis point. All I have learned to do so far is listen and diagnose. Now comes the difficult task of actually learning how to set goals and create interventions to reach them. I am a fish out of water for the moment...but I am going to learn to grow legs and use them. That is the good news. But after one session, I am already realizing how far I have to come. Listening to my supervisor is mind-boggling. She can listen to how our session went and offer so many points of advice and insights into what was happening and what needs to happen. I can't wait until it comes so naturally to me too. But it will be a long process. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really going to be ready to have a job as a counselor in June. That's not that far away :0 Yikes! I've got work to do...

Tallstacks Festival

This weekend I went with three dear friends to the Tallstacks festival on the riverfront in Cincinnati. The festival is a big deal in Cincinnati seeing as how it is only offered once every four years. It's a festival for art, music, and heritage. They give riverboat tours, set off fireworks, and people walk around in funny pioneer costumes. I left my costume at home...bummer! Actually we were only drawn to the fectival because two of our favorite bands ever--Over the Rhine and Wilco--were playing concerts there! So that was exciting.

Here are some pics:















We actually broke a couple of the rules of the festival. I was trying to be frugal and hence packed sandwiches, chips, and a cooler full of soda. Found out when we got there that they didn't allow coolers through the gates. But when you have a cooler that looks more like a backpack or a purse, you're in luck! This is us eating our PB&J sandwiches for dinner on the riverfront.















Karin Berquist of Over the Rhine. This woman's voice is hypnotizing. I have secretly wanted to be just like her for the last four years of my life because I wish I was as talented as she is! I have seen them in concert (sometimes for free, sometimes not) at least ten times and each time is a new and exciting treat. Sometimes it's just Karin and Linford doing thier own intimate thing and soemtimes there's backup singers or their band. Sometimes it's jazzy, lounge-style. Sometimes it's fuller and more energetic. This Saturday they were accompanied by various musicians playing the banjo, the mandolin, saxaphone, upright bass, trumpet, violin, the list goes on...My favorite is when Karin plays the pineapple. (It's a like an egg shaker)
















Linford Detweiler (her husband) also of Over the Rhine. He's got a goofy singing voice as can be evidenced by their children's hit "Poop in the Potty" but he is a talented pianist, guitarist, and composer. And he must have good taste if he married Karin. These pictures kinda look like I was really close but it is really all a result of cropping out the bald heads in front of me.
















Wilco was awesome!! Only the second time I had seen them. It was also very different than the last time I saw them. That was before they got really popular. I will have to say that the prvious atmosphere of being able to sit down and see everything clearly was better to the atmosphere this time--packed in like sardines, unable to move my arms around, let alone my legs, and staring at nothing but the backs of people's heads. This picture was managed only by raising my arm over my head and snapping the picture. It turned out surprisingly well. I wish you could see the sweat that was being thrown up in the air from the way Glenn Kochke plays the drums. He really gets into it!















Again...this is Wilco. To be honest, I don't know which ones are in the picture. I am pretty sure the blurry guy on the left playing the guitar is Jeff Tweedy. Like I said, I couldn't see what I was taking a picture of. Old Crow Medicine Show took the stage before Wilco came up. Apparently it's country music for drunk frat boys. There were plenty of entertaining people around us for sure. I think Audrey was about to get asked on a date until she told him she was a Christian. This guy decided not to be a Christian because George Bush is against gay marriage. Apparently George Bush is the national Christian spokesperson. Who knew! I thought that was kind of funny though. I was laughing. That was right before a crowd surfer fell on my head, tore my hat off, and proceeded to stomp around on it. Yeesh!