This is the magnificent words for decor design that appears above our bed - it's the lyric from my favorite Stevie Wonder song. I chose this because it's a sweet as sweet gets and truly how I feel about Tyus. If you've nevr heard the song, I definitely recommend it as a summer download - it'll make you fall a little deeper.
So one of the programming boards I help advise is putting on an SATC event tomorrow night. A roof-top "mocktail" party, SATC give aways from HBO (some really good stuff I'm mad I can't win) and then a bus ride to an exclusive theatre showing of SATC at the Arclight in Hollywood. It's dress to impress (cuz we know how much I love dressing to impress....) and free! Soooo cute! I think it's going to be a great event. A few of my cohort members and I are going and I think it's gonna be fun. What amazing events students put together - student affairs DEFINITELY has it's perks!
So i was browsing blogs earlier today and came across something i found a little offensive, but without going into specifics, as it's that person's personal space and she is entitled to her thoughts, i won't disclose too much. In reading responses to that person's post however, i couldn't help but note the reassurance (and what almost seemed to be acalades) she received for a post that was probably offensive to several people on several levels.
This got me thinking about the first amendment to the Bill of Rights, freedom of speech. At some point, we decided free speech means saying whatever the hell we want without concern for where our words may land, and whom they may affect. Brings me to a word for which I have mixed feelings, feedback. Never more than over the course of this year have i realized that feeback is not one sided - there are two parts to giving feedback; the giving and the receiving. So often we get hopped up on saying what we have to say, thinking very rarely of the individual who may hear, or read what we have to say. Am i suggesting walking an eternal line of political correctness and holding onto your thoughts (me, the queen of speak first, think later?), no. What i am suggesting is that we measure the origin of our words. Are we speaking to hurt, to humor, to inform or simply to purge ourselves of thoughts too uncomfortable to keep to ourselves?
My mom always talks about speaking things into the universe - if you want good things to happen, you have to speak them into the universe or, don't put bad things into the universe. So i wondered what exactly that blogger was putting into the universe? I wonder about the things I sometimes put into the universe and how my words may be ill-received and sometimes even ill-intended....
So I had a dream last night that was disturbing on so many levels.... In the dream I was me, age 27 but in high school, albeit "upper classman" high school where me being 27 was totally normal. (In telling this to my boss earlier he says, well that's just college - ok, fine, college but it felt a HELLOFA LOT like high school - lockers, the whole bit). So in this dream I'm dating a guy who happens to be the dean of students and assistant VP of Student Affairs at CSUN (for his sake and my embarrasment we'll call him W) W also happened to be his present age which I imagine has to be mid 50's. For those who need a visual, picture Richard Roundtree....still need a little more help? Ok, Shaft. W looks like Shaft. Yeah.
So I'm dating W, (who looks like Shaft), me 27, him 50-sumthin and we are the "it" couple on campus! He meets me at my locker, we eat lunch together every day, he drives me home from school - it's perfect! The only problem is (naturally) me. I'm a social butterfly who is attending to everything and everyone BUT this fine mutha(Shut yo' mouth)! So, he dumps me. Not publicly, very quiet, very easy, he lets me go. So quiet and easy that I don't even know about it until I see him with his new girlfriend, Molly Ringwald! Now, for all general purposes I would say I can't be mad at her, that I should've been mad at W, but that red-haired hussy knew we were together and she started dating him anyway! Don't get me started on W, who was kind enough to mail me an invitation to their wedding, which I attended (arially btw). I just remember looking down on their beautiful wedding thinking, those sonsabit**es!
Ok, so as a counselor (in training) I am supposed to be able to help my clients deduce meaning from the crap above, but I've got nothing. Now what's wrong with me when the girl sweet enough to play sugar in a movie about C&H is stealing my man....a man old enough to be my father? A man who happens to be the dean of students at my college? Who even knows what the dean of students at their college looked like? All I can say is, when I start dreaming about the dean as my love item I am DEFINITELY too wrapped up in school. Hooray for summer! (And by the way, Richard Roundtree does the real life W NO justice! He's a great looking guy, classy, smooth as eggs (afro and mustache a little 70's-ish) and he is highly respected in his field. I definitely look up to him, but don't know the next time I'll be able to look directly at him)
I was thinking and thinking and thinking of what I'd call my blog when I finally decided to take it up again. The last one (years ago) was called In Progress. That was at the begining of (yet another) weight loss journey, finishing up my undergrad and looking into graduate schools, and so many other life changes that the title was fitting. This time around, I wanted something which noted the growth that's taken place over the years since last blogging and in my life in general.
I've never done more reflecting in my life as I have in my graduate program over the last year. Self reflection, assignment reflecting, behavior reflecting, reading reflecting, and no, it's not thinking...it's reflecting. With that, I've really placed a big emphasis on the difference between reflecting and thinking and as this blog is dedicated to my thoughts, (and because I'm often referred to as a human dictionary) I thought reflectionary would be a fitting title for my blog. I look forward to having my friends, (that's you), share in my reflections and promise to keep it informative, contemplative, and interesting! In exchange, I ask that you share your thoughts and opinions with me as well!
Enjoy!
I have been off of blogging for three years now - I was heavily into it and going really hard at it, but the domain I was using went public and that did NOT work for me, so I stopped. But the combination of all the new things happening in my life, (grad school, ZphiB, new career on the horizon, really coming to love my new field), my first year of grad school being done, my weight loss journey, and my friends getting into blogging (Mrs. Romero and Ging), I thought I'd get back into it at least as a release during the summer!
So here I am. A good (and talented) friend is putting together a blog layout for me and I'm super excited to see it! I'm looking forward to this summer of sharing my thoughts in my own private forum!
