Horrible coincidence; Sitcom material

So, I had training yesterday at my unnamed practicum site for the year. I spent the day filling out forms, getting fingerprinted for my lovely background check, taking online tests, etc. All and all, it was predictably dull but reasonably pleasant.

After lunch and before fingerprinting, my supervisor asked me to come on up to the unit. He lent me a book to start looking through, talked to me about my various duties, the way that I will be trained, etc. Everything seemed to be great! It seems like it's very training oriented, and lots of good experiences in store for me. He told me about the people that I'll be working with,e tc. He did give me a small warning about a potential problem with a male doctor, and told me to let him know if there was a problem. (He told me that this particular person is prone to discussing sex incessantly, that sort of thing.) I met the rest of the staff, but that doctor wasn't in yet. Before I left to get printed, he asked me to come in and meet that doctor before I left.

Okay.

No big deal. After I did this lovely computerized finger-printing, I went back on up there. He leads me down the hall, knocks on a door, and leads me on in. Oh. My. God. I was in shock. The doctor is this incredibly creepy, slimy man whom I've encountered a few times. (Yes, this is the guy who pretended to be friends with Freud.) He commented on our previous encounters, and then I basically ran out of there. Pretty much as soon as I got to campus, I started bawling. I just don't want to have to deal with this fucking bullshit!

I'm calmer today, and I do see the humor in it. Out of all possible people to work with, I get stuck with the one person that I've met in the past several years who was truly creepy.

After Comps, I Pledge To:

It's almost over! This massive, horrid thing that has hung over my head all summer will be over tomorrow.

I am back in the coffee shop. (I'm blowing tons of money here, btw...iced mocha, black bean soup, chammomile tea...).

I am putting the finishing touches on this stuff. Soon, I will post my questions. (I have this weird thing, where I won't put the questions online until after I've handed in my answers. That way, if I have an interesting discussion with someone that compeltely alters my views, I can still sign my little statement of integrity without any guilt pangs.)

When I finish, I will nap.
When I finish, I will read a novel. (I have to admit, this is currently the most appealing. Sleepless on Sunday night, I picked up my worn copy of "She's Come Undone". Taking a break and a nap this afternoon, I flipped throug it yet again. I am finally to the point where I feel disappointment because I remember each page. I love novels, and it's been too long since I've had a new one. Oh, I adore novels! I haven't had new fiction since last Christmas when my sweetheart got some for me due to my loudly stated withdrawal. Ummm...I think I'm having novel-reading fantasies. I will sit outside with a novel and tea, and I will lie in the grass, and it will be joyous.)
When I finish, I will clean the apartment. (Wade keeps saying that he'll do the deep cleaning, but the poor guy does ALL of the daily things: dishes, laundry, scooping the litter box, emptying the garbage, cleaning up, etc. He works on it about 20 minutes every day. If I throw in a long shift once every semester, it balances out.)
When I finish, I will catch up on paperwork.
When I finish, I will edit my paper for the department journal.

Keep in mind, I only have a week before school starts. ..

Comps update...

Day 2 of Comps...

So far, so good.

Right now, I'm lounging in a coffee shop on page 4 of my second question. I briefly panicked after reading my first question.

The following, believe it or not, is a direct quote from that question:

"Trace the change in conceptions of self in contemporary philosophical and psychological thought."

Ummm...yeah....it goes on to tell me to go beyond my comps list. Oooookay.....

The other two were fine, though, even though I had a brief asshole mishap that resulted in me leaving one hell of a neurotic message on a professor's answering machine. He was quite kind, I must say.

So, I guess back to the grind for me....I want to finish up tomorrow so that I have a few days of editing.

Weekend countdown

Blogger hasn't been allowing me to post recently, which has been strange.

But, in the past week, Wade finished his dissertation, which was extremely exciting!

For my part, I have been busy sublimating. Here ya go:

The Night Before Comps

‘Twas the night before Comps, and all through the town
Not a fourth year was emoting, not even a frown.

The position papers were printed and stapled with care
In hopes that the committees would prove to be fair.

The students were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of easy questions danced in their heads.

And Jeff with his catnip, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a late summer’s nap.

When out on the street there arose such a clatter
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The street lights of Oakland all of aglow,
Gave the luster of mid-day to objects below.

When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But an analytic couch, and interpretations so clear.

With a little old Austrian, looking annoyed.
I knew in a moment it was the ghost of Sig Freud.

More rapid than eagles the diagnoses they came
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name.

“Now psychosis, now neurosis, now hysteria and obsession!”
“On Oedipus, on Electra, on intellectualization and projection!”

“To lie on the couch! To dream and tell all!”
“Now associate, associate, associate all!”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with resistance, mount to the sky,

So up to the Clinic, the therapists they flew,
With the analytic couch, and Sigmund Freud too.

And then, in a twinkling, I remembered a dream,
With layers of meaning, or so it would seem.

As I sized up the couch, and was turning around,
Into the room Freud came with a bound.

He was dressed all in tweed, from his head to his foot
And his clothes were all tarnished with old cigar soot.

A bundle of Rorschachs clutched in his hand,
How he looked like a blank screen I don’t understand.
His eyes – how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!

My reactions are transference, that much I know
But the beard of his chin was as white as is snow.

The stump of a cigar he held tight in his teeth
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath;

He had a broad face and a little round belly.
That shook when he laughed like a bowlful of jelly.

He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself;

A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
Interpreted my dream; then turned with a jerk,

Laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, from the armchair he rose;

He collected his payment, then wrote down a note,
And away he flew to meet Jung on a boat.

But I heard him exclaim, ere he flew out of sight.
“Happy Comps to all, and to all a good write.”