Weekend Update.

Oh man, I am slacking on the blog this summer. For good reason, though.

I'm currently in the middle of my last two classes of my grad school career. Okay, that's a little misleading. Technically, I still have "classes" left, but one is a practicum (10 hours in a school, 4 hours in a clinic, and supervision every week) in the fall and an internship (40 hours split between a high school and an elementary school and supervision every week-- hello, full-time job!) in the spring. But those are so much more like the "real world" than school that I'm refusing to think of them as classes. In the meantime, I'm taking a semester's worth of statistics in 4-weeks-- Lindsey + numbers + condensed amount of time... maybe not my best choice, but I've got the ripping-the-bandaid-off mentality-- and I've been in a group therapy class since the beginning of summer, which is fun because we end class with an hour's worth of actual group therapy. In a classroom full of women, there is some major venting to be done.

In other news, my computer has started going crazy: my screen zooms in and out as it pleases and the trackpad (that's the "mouse" for those who aren't laptop savvy) is sporadic and unresponsive, all things that significantly slow things down. However, I'm terrified to turn my computer into the Apple people as it is my lifeline to paper-writing and statistics crunching. So, hopefully, me and old Max-- the name my Mac got by Alex continually referring to my computer as one of thousands of Mac's... I just thought he was bonding with my computer by naming it-- will make it through til July 25, when I can take it to the computer doctor and nurse it back to health.

In the midst of my classes, though, I am maintaining full weekends-- the joys of wedding season! This weekend, however, we had a welcome respite from weddings (not that I don't love weddings; I so do) and we took full advantage of our free Saturday by floating down the Cahaba River.

Now, this is a truly lovely past time. Yes, the sun beats down on you, but the water is so cold and moves at a relaxing, almost undetectable speed. You can rent an extra tube for your cooler-- stocked with nothing but water and ice cold Coca Cola Classic, to be sure-- and then you just let your worries drift away down the river.

That is, you could let your troubles drift away down the river if your beau's ex-girlfriend wasn't floating 10 feet ahead of you.

We arrived at Limestone Park Canoe Rentals-- a cinder block shack guarded by a leashed chow and a wife-beater clad gentleman, cigarette unashed and burnt down to the filter hanging from his mouth and beer-belly hanging over his belt-- around one o'clock to meet up with my friend Laura and her crew, but they were running a little late. We claimed the best tubes we could find-- some are more firm then others-- and waited on our friends and the next pick-up truck taxi to take us to the river's edge. As we waited, I hear Alex mumble to himself, "Oh no..." followed by a nod and a "Hey, how are ya?" only to look up and see The Ex walking up with her own entourage. For the next four hours, we drifted just yards behind them, trying to tread water the best we could but bumper tubes was inevitable at some points. Splendid.

Now, I've got some pretty serious experience with bad ex-girlfriends, and this is really the best situation I could ask for... although, I didn't ask Alex why on Earth he would have been so stupid as to date anyone before me, but he seemed stumped by my query... but there's just nothing comfortable about yesteryear's baggage. But as one of my favorite soundtracks says, "I've got baggage too; I'm looking for baggage that goes with mine."

Anyway, the rest of the weekend was spent lounging and catching up on our new favorite show-- really, it's our only favorite show as I don't watch ESPN and Alex refuses to admit that he loves TLC too-- Game of Thrones, a mix of Camelot, Lord of the Rings, and anything else with dragons and violence.

And this morning we went to Briarwood again; a preacher from Covenant Seminary was the guest speaker today, and he was fabulous. Literally brought tears to my eyes. Preached verse-by-verse on Romans 5:1-11... and let's be honest, I'll probably rehash it in a blog later this week, so I'll spare you for now.

And that's that, folks. Tomorrow, it's back to the grindstone. Statistics and crazies wait for no [wo]man.