On apologies and memes

Arghblephiz.
That's all I feel coherent to say about now.

Oh, and that I almost tried to pet a raccoon today, thinking it was my cat friend who guilt trips me when I've been drinking.

Life? Is crazy.

I arrived home nearly 15 hours after I'd left in the morning, which included 8 hours at work, 4.5 hours on campus, and 2.5 hours commuting between home and these places.

I'm having french fries before bed. I've decided that calories are an old wives tale.

I just sent the following text message to my guy: "So brain dead. French fries then bed. Maybe bath. Full sentences hard."

I'm also close to paying someone to do my dishes for me, because, seriously, my brain doesn't believe me anymore when I try to trick it into thinking that chores are *real* breaks. 

On top of all I've been stressing about, today at work, my boss thought he was giving me an "opportunity" by having me do an unexpected assessment and report. Generally, I would agree-- when the court doesn't want it in a week, especially the day after other epic projects are due. Someone pushed me back off the tightrope when I was finally taking a step again. 

The truth is, even though I'm already behind on blogs, I am still using what little browsing I can do as a procrastination tool, and I think this needs to be halted for a bit. 

As such, I may be MIA for a week. 

Then again, I may not be. 

While I still find myself wanting to post or comment, and I may do so, the reality is, I can't have another obligation on my plate this week. Feeding myself is difficult enough.

I hope you all can still feel the love emanating from the general vicinity of my laptop. 

As a way to break you all off my princessly words gradually, I leave you with a meme, as I was tagged by the fantastic fellow who goes by Therapeutic Ramblings (who is especially likely to feel my pain at the moment). All of these answers are in no particular order...

8 Things I Am Passionate About

1. Psychology (though it doesn't feel that way at the moment)
   
2. Constant learning (non-psych related-- hence my love for documentary films)
   
3. My guy (he's pretty great)
   
4. Traveling and random explorations (I find this to be so rejuvenating-- whether 20, 200, or 2000 miles from home)
   
5. Films (one day, I will take the full 2-3 weeks off when the film festival comes to town, and just soak myself in great cinema)
   
6. Writing (it makes the running dialogue in my head that much more productive)
7. Photography (I'm an utter amateur, but it makes me see the world in a different way)
8. Friends and family (cliched, but who would I be if it wasn't true?)

8 Things I Want to do Before I Die

1. Get my damn PhD
   
2. Own a car (26 years old, and still no dice. Wanna see my shiny student loan?)
   
3. Husband and babies and kittens and all that jazz
   
4. Go to the Galapagos Islands
   
5. Own a piece of waterfront property (preferably a home with a very large deck)
   
6. Learn to scuba dive
   
7. Have visited every continent (though I'd be willing to scratch Antarctica)
8. Do some valuable research or advocacy in mental health

8 Things I Say Often

1. Indeed
   
2. Fair enough
   
3. For serious.
4. ...Bitches! (primarily when paired with something exceedingly nerdy... like "I'm doing mad multiple regressions, bitches!")
   
5. Fabulous! (There's a flamboyant drag queen inside me yearning to get out. He also wants me to rethink my choice in cushions.)
   
6. You're a *fill-in-the-blank*. So, if someone asks me to pick up a towel, I will promptly declare "You're a towel!" (points if you know where that comes from)
7. Over-the-top (apparently the best descriptive term in the world, next to fabulous)
8. Boooooooo

8 Books I've Recently Read
(caveat-- reading for fun is a little few and far between lately. I'll try to not have the entire list be nerdy!)

1. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
   
2. The Gift of Therapy by Irvin Yalom (I heart Yalom. For serious.)
   
3. Can You Hear the Nightbird Call by Anita Rau Badami
   
4. Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder by Marsha Linehan
5. Clinical Neuroscience by Honestly No One Cares
6. Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier (I just started reading this one in little bits-- it is an ethnography from the Duke's Sociology class, but really fascinating so far, about the street vendor/panhandler culture in Greenwich Village)
7. Keep Sweet: Children of Polygamy by Debbie Palmer and Dave Perrin (super disturbing, especially as it is happening in our own backyard)
8. Runaway by Alice Munro

8 Songs I Could Listen to Over and Over 

(to be fair, these rotate every once in a while)

1. Rootless Tree- Damian Rice
   
2. Ugly Before- Elliott Smith
   
3. Breathe Me- Sia 
   
4. Amen, Omen- Ben Harper (I actually have a rule about this song that I can't listen to it more than once at a time-- it has such a delicious effect that I want to savour it. Even though it makes me cry.)
   
5. Elevator Love Letters/Heart- Stars (To be fair, these are two songs. But they come after one another on the CD, and I always listen to them together, so they just fit like that for me.)
   
6. Lodestar- Sarah Harmer
7. Backseat- Arcade Fire
8. My Moon, My Man- Feist

8 Things That Attract Me to My Best Friends

1. Quirky sense of humour
2. Genuine kindness
3. Sense of adventure
4. Passion
5. Overanalyzing tendencies (need someone to share it with!)
6. Trustworthiness
7. Confidence
8. Compassion

I'm feeling a little apathetic about tagging. I know its a cop-out... but be gentle with me today!