summer in the cities

Yes, I know that I have been terrible at updating this summer! I'm not going to bother giving any excuses, I'm just going to have to go forward and try to do better from now on :) Sometimes I forget that not everyone utilizes Facebook, and hasn't been able to follow along with all of my summer updates. But while you all did not get to enjoy any blog updates over the past couple of months, I am going to recap the summer in one massive post. I'll highlight the main events of each month.

MAY

The big event in May was my graduation from the University of Minnesota. Of course, it was only an unofficial graduation since I still had two summer classes to complete. However, it was wonderful to have so many family members be able to make it to St. Paul for the big event.

Following my graduation, I made it home to Milwaukee for a week to help Emily celebrate her 9th birthday! I made it back to Minnesota in time to help my little man, Paxton, celebrate his 3rd birthday! It's hard to believe that I've been taking care of him for two years now. He's grown into such a little bundle of energy.

The big excitement over Memorial Day weekend was that my good friend Ellie and her long-time boyfriend Marty got engaged! They have been dating for about four years now, and live together in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul. Marty popped the question while they were at Ellie's parents' cabin in Hudson, Wisconsin.

JUNE

June began with more celebration. Ellie and Marty hosted a wonderful party to celebrate their engagement, as well as Ellie's 25th birthday.

Mira and I made a trip to Madison around mid-June to meet up with some of our old college friends. We decided to go all out and spend a little extra money to stay in a hotel. We had an awesome time. The weather was perfect pretty much all weekend, and we really enjoyed getting to reconnect with some of the old crew, like Rachel and Betsy and Candace. Rachel is working as the Communications Director for Mayor Dave in Madison, a position that she has held for about the past two years now. Betsy recently got engaged and is working as a nurse at the Children's Hospital in Madison. Candace is working for Epic Systems in Verona, WI doing graphic design and other things. She recently became an Auntie for the first time! Mira and I also discovered a new favorite Madison destination: Lazy Jane's cafe on Willy Street, where the best scones in the entire world can be enjoyed.

The most important event in June, at least from my perspective, is that I met and started dating Allie. We met in Minneapolis at a place called The Kitty Cat Klub right before I left for Madison. After I returned we had our first official date: brunch at The French Meadow Cafe in Uptown. From there, the rest is history :) Ooh and I should also throw in that Mira met a special someone as well: Jim, who is a good friend of Marty's. He lives in Iowa at the moment, but so far they have been making the long-distance thing work out. He's a fantastic guy, and he and Mira are a wonderful match!

Twin Cities Pride was at the end of June. Pride is always a super fun event, with stuff going on all weekend. I went out Friday night, then spent some time at the festival grounds (at Loring Park in Minneapolis) on Saturday afternoon. The best day, however, was on Sunday. We had a few people over for a delicious early breakfast and then headed to Minneapolis for the parade. Following the parade, I spent the afternoon at the Pride festival with Allie and our friends Emily and Brian. We had a great time going around to different booths and just enjoying the sunshine.

Summer classes throughout much of June. I took two classes over the summer. The first was Mediation & Conflict Resolution. That class was only six sessions spread out over three weeks. Even though it was a short class, it was extremely intense! Each class lasted from 9:00-5:00. The instructor for the class, Mark Umbreit, is the director of the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality and Peace Studies. He is a leading practitioner and scholar in the field of mediation and restorative justice. The class was unbelievably inspiring. One of the most touching and unforgettable days was when Mary Johnson, a woman from North Minneapolis, came to speak to us. Her son was murdered many years ago, and she has gone through the healing and forgiveness process and has come to forge a close relationship with her son's killer, as well as begin an organization that works to end violence through the facilitation of healing and reconciliation through families of victims and perpetrators. (Read an article about her inspiring story in the Star Tribune right here). Another very touching moment came when viewing an amazing documentary called Pray the Devil Back to Hell which documents a peace movement organized by Christian and Muslim women in Liberia. Amazingly, one of my classmates was from Liberia and actually was a member of the church where this movement began. He was able to share firsthand his own perspective with us, which made the documentary even more moving. I would recommend it to everyone (it's available on Netflix). It's so important to hear these stories that we in America often have such little awareness of.

My other class was much less inspiring, but still interesting: Psychopathology and Social Work Practice. That class ran throughout June and into July. It covered all of the basic mental health diagnostic type of stuff.

JULY

July was a mostly relaxing and enjoyable month. It included activities such as a wonderful party on my friend Trish's balcony in downtown St. Paul, a fantastic visit to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum with Allie, and a trip to Winona, MN for the Midwest Music Festival with my friend Emily. We went specifically to see one of our favorite local artists, Dessa, perform. I first tuned into Dessa back in May, after Emily introduced me to her. She is a quickly rising star in the Twin Cities music scene. She started out writing spoken word poetry and later became a member of the Doomtree Hip-Hop Collective. She's an incredible writer and performer and earned a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the U of M at the age of 20. At the age of 28, she now also has a Master's degree and teaches at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul. My friend Emily is more or less her number one fan, so we've become somewhat of Dessa groupies this summer, going to many of her shows. (Middle picture is of Emily and me with Dessa in the middle, at her show in Winona). The rest of July included lazy afternoons, coffee shops, outings with Allie and her dog Puffs (who is the second love of my life), and trying to escape the sweltering heat.

AUGUST

August began with a wonderful trip home to Milwaukee with Allie. We went to the Firefly Art Fair, had lunch with Katelyn and Emily at Alterra on the Lake, took Emily to the movies, went to the Zoo, explored Milwaukee a bit, and had a wonderful dinner with Grandma and Grandpa. The final day of our trip we made a stop in Madison, which had to be cut short because Allie was not feeling well. Despite the shortened ending of the trip, it was overall a lovely long-weekend getaway!

Other miscellaneous mid-August events included my friend Jessica's 23rd birthday celebration, the Pizza Luce Block Party in Uptown (where Dessa performed), and a visit with Paxton and his new baby brother Emerson, Melody's 28th birthday celebration, cheering Mira on as she ran a half marathon, and a fun ladies night where we all dressed up in formal wear.

Near the end of August, I got the big news that I was being offered a job as a Mental Health Practitioner for Fraser's autism program. Knowing that my job would be starting and Allie's classes at the U would be starting up soon, we decided to have a little getaway and go to her family's cabin near Spooner, Wisconsin. We spent about two nights at the cabin and had such a nice and relaxing time.

When we got back from the cabin, the next big adventure was attending the Minnesota State Fair, otherwise known as the Great Minnesota Get-Together. I went twice because Mira and I had gotten tickets to see one of our favorite artists, Brandi Carlile, perform at the State Fair Grandstand. So I went the evening of the 29th with Mira and enjoyed the amazing show. Then Allie and I went together a couple of days later and had the best time ever. We ate fried pickle slices, a turkey drumstick and a grilled marshmallow, banana and chocolate sandwich. We visited with alpacas, rode rides, and had an all around fantastic fair experience!

SEPTEMBER

The first official day that summer ended for me was September 7th, my hire date at Fraser. I had new staff orientation, which was pretty boring, focusing mostly on HIPAA and work safety, etc. The 7th was also Allie's first day of classes. She has been in school for 3 years now, but this is her first semester at the University of Minnesota. To celebrate the beginning of our new adventures, we went on a fancy date to an italian restaurant in Uptown called Il Gatto. It was a bittersweet evening, knowing that things were likely to change once our schedules became much, much more busy.

So that pretty much sums up my summer! Sometime soon I will post about my first week and a half at the new job.

Buh-bye hair!

In celebration of summer and heat waves, I decided to get my hair chopped off. Pictures are included below, for your viewing pleasure.

Amy and Mira's Quarter of a Century Fiesta!

Since Mira's birthday was on April 8th and mine was on the 30th, we thought that having a combined birthday celebration would make a lot of sense. So on Friday the 23rd we had a gathering of people at our apartment to celebrate the two of us turning 25 years old. It was a classy event, as our parties usually are, with guests requested to come in their party dresses and ties. We had a lovely spread of treats and wine, champagne, and more. Some of you may have already seen pictures on Facebook, but for the many of you who are not social networkers, I thought I'd post some select photos here as well!

The apartment, pre-party:

Birthday girls!

With my three favorite Twin Cities girls: Maria, Mira and Ellie.

Me and my friend Nilofar:

Me and my friend Emily:

Me and Melody (yes, I did change dresses... It was my birthday!):

Cupcakes!

This may very well be my most random blog entry yet, but it should be a fun one nonetheless! I have decided that cupcakes are just about the most fantastic baked good ever. They are fun and delicious and there's so much you can do with one. While I was home in March, I came across a fantastic cupcake recipe book at Goodwill for about $2. It is called Cupcakes! From the Cake Mix Doctor by Anne Byrn. All of the recipes use cake mix as their base. I have been having non-stop fun with this book ever since. My first experiment was the Peanut Butter Surprise cupcakes that I made for my mom's birthday. With a delicious peanut butter-y cake, chocolate buttercream frosting, and chopped up Reese's peanut butter cups on the top, these were a huge hit. The surprise? A Hershey's kiss baked into the center of each cupcake.

My next venture was into the muffin section of the book. I was signed up to bring snack to my Thursday morning class during the same week that Wellstone was on spring break. Since I knew I'd have Wednesday off, I thought "Why not use some of that free time baking something special for my fellow MSW students?" So I busted out the Cupcake book and tried out two muffin recipes. The Banana Butter Pecan was moist and delicious, with fresh banana, butterscotch pudding and chopped pecans sprinkled on the bottom and top of each muffin. The Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins used real canned pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie stuff), and were dense, yummy and chocolate-y.

The second Monday in April was our monthly book club gathering, and Mira would be hosting. It was also book club member Chelsea's birthday. To celebrate, Mira and I both made cupcakes from the book. Mira made the healthier option, the Lemon Curd Cupcakes with Whipped Lemon Cream Frosting and Raspberries and I made the more decadent option, the Cookies and Cream Cupcakes. The batter for my cupcakes was the most incredible thing in the world. I had to beat a cup of sour cream into the batter, which gave it this very marshmallow-y like texture. Then it had crushed oreos mixed in and half of an oreo cookie baked into the bottom of each one.

My next occasion for cupcake-baking came when I volunteered to bring some baked goods for the School of Social Work bake sale. So I made Pineapple Banana Smoothie cupcakes with Pineapple Buttercream frosting. They were so yummy! But as I was in the process of making them, I had the strangest feeling about the bake sale. I went to check on the date again, and realized that I was making the cupcakes a week ahead of time. Oops! So I ended up bringing the 2 dozen cupcakes to my Wednesday night class. They were a big hit.

Even though the Pineapple Banana Smoothie cupcakes were very delicious, I wanted to try something new the next week, when it came time to make something for the actual bake sale. So I tried out the Malted Milk Cupcakes. These were pretty incredible. It used a yellow cake mix as the base, with chocolate pudding and chocolate chips mixed in (among other ingredients). The frosting was a buttercream, with a couple tablespoons of malted milk power added in. Then they were topped off with crushed malted milk balls. I'm told that they were quite popular at the bake sale. In my opinion, they might have been the most delicious ones yet. Although the Peanut Butter Surprise may come in a very close second.

And that is all of the cupcake baking that I have done up until now! There are still many, many recipes in the book that I want to try out. But I won't be making any until another occasion comes up. Otherwise we just have a bunch of cupcakes sitting around the house, and that is NEVER a good thing!!

Minnesota Education Job Fair

Two days ago, I attended the Minnesota Education Job Fair in downtown Minneapolis. There were school districts from all over the Metro area, Minnesota and the rest of the country (even some international schools). My interest was obviously in positions for school social workers, which I was told schools would be hiring for. Before going, I had looked at all of the school districts attending, done research on certain ones, and printed off several copies of my resume.

When I got there on Monday morning it became quickly apparent to me that there weren't many schools with vacancies for school social workers. Most districts didn't yet know whether they would have any openings, and told me to keep checking online or submit my application to the pool for if any positions opened up. I was frustrated because all of that is stuff that I could have figured out on my own. Nevertheless, I got to have some nice conversations with a couple of different school districts. I stopped by the Minneapolis Public Schools table, the St. Paul Public Schools, and Bloomington Public Schools. At Bloomington I got to have a great talk with one of their recruiters, Raymond Yu, who is a principal at an elementary school in Bloomington. Soon into our conversation I discovered that he was the former principal here at Wellstone Elementary! We had a nice chat about Wellstone, and who was still working there, etc.

Two districts did actually have vacancies for school social workers. The Northeast Metro Intermediate School District had openings for two different positions, and I had a chat with their recruiter, leaving her a copy of my resume. Then I headed over the Wayzata Public Schools table and spoke with their director of Special Education services. They are hiring a Middle School social worker. We had a good conversation and she seemed really excited about all of my experience working with diverse and low-income student populations. She gave me her card and told me to apply online and then e-mail her after I had submitted the application. Wayzata is in Hennepin County and is one of Minneapolis's western suburbs, about a 30 minute drive. It wouldn't be ideal, but I could manage it.

Once I got back home from the fair, I spent a significant amount of time beginning online applications for various school districts. So far I've submitted my application to St. Paul Public Schools, Bloomington Public Schools, NE Metro Intermediate District, and I'm working on my application for a number of others. The Wayzata position hadn't been posted yet, so I e-mailed the recruiter last night and she told me that it had gotten held up but should be posted soon, and that I should make sure to keep checking.

So hopefully something will have come out of this experience. At the very least, I got some practice in speaking with potential employers and learning a little more about different districts. With a any luck, I'll be back in the schools next fall!

Two good reads

Usually I don't have much time for pleasure reading during the semester. However, this semester I've managed to read two really good books that weren't part of my assigned coursework but were still related to my field of study. Both are books that I would highly recommend.

The first book I was easily able to reconcile taking the time to read because for my mood disorders class we have an assignment to read either a memoir or self-help book on the subject of mood disorders. As it turned out, a book that I had been wanting to read fit right into that category. The

book is called An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison. Ms. Jamison is a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and also one of the foremost authorities on manic-depressive illness. She also happens to have strugg

led with this illness for the better part of her life. I've read various accounts of manic-depression (more commonly referred to as bipolar disorder these days), often in the form of a memoir written by a child of someone who had suffered. This book was unlike any I had read before because not only was it from the perspective of the patient, it was also from the perspective of a clinician and expert on the disease. She writes about it with a clarity and understanding unlike anything I've read before, while at the same time describing t

he stunning depths of her cycles of depression and mania. It's a wonderful book for anyone interested in really learning about man

ic-depression, and it's also just a good read in general.

The second book that I have been working on whenever I get a little time for extra reading is called The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog: What Traumatized Children Can Teach Us About Loss, Love, and Healing by Bruce Perry. I had read some articles written by Dr. Perry last semester and always appreciated the way that he wrote about complex issues in a readable way. This book is no different. Dr. Perry is a long-time child psychiatrist, former Chief of Psychiatry at Texas Children's Hospital and currently Senior Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy. This book chronicles some of the stories of the children he has worked with, children who have experienced profound traumas such as genocide, witness to murder, and extreme neglect. He was brought in to work with the Branch Davidian children in Waco during and after the whole stand-off. What's so interesting and unique about Dr. Perry's work is that he is very concerned with the neurobiology behind trauma. He explains in very user-friendly language about how the brain is affected by early traumas, and he discusses his methods for helping children to overcome this developmental damage. It's a topic that I'm very interested in, and it's great to read about his methods. Some of the accounts are very difficult to read because they're just so traumatic, but it's worth it for anyone interested in this subject.

Papers, papers, papers...

This past week has been very writing intensive. Social work classes have always been more paper heavy than exam focused, but besides finals week I usually don't have a lot due all at once. Last week though... First, I had a paper due on Sunday by noon. Technically I didn't have to turn it in until a couple of weeks later, but it's the first part of a two-part paper and if I wait to turn it in later then the entire thing is due at one time. If we turn the first part in early, our instructor said that she would give us feedback on it so we can make possible revisions. This paper was for my advanced policy class on family and child welfare policy. For the first part of the paper we have to pick a problem statement related to children or families and write a review on the literature. Basically, what is the problem, why is it a problem?, what social, environmental and biological factors influence the problem? The second part of the paper, due later in March, will be exploring two different programs/policies that address the problem and evaluating them.

The problem statement that I chose was on childhood obesity. With the rates having more or less tripled over the past 30 years and Michelle Obama starting her first big initiative on the issue, it's definitely something that I knew I'd be able to find a lot of research on. However, I wasn't thinking about the fact that many of the consequences of childhood obesity are health-related. So to review the literature on the medical consequences of childhood obesity, I had to read all kinds of articles from medical journals that took me quite a bit of time to get through, mostly because I had to look up a lot of words. I'm a social worker -- I have no idea what C-reactive protein is or what "biliary excretion of cholesterol" means! However, once I learned a lot of the most common conditions and terms, I was able to get through things much quicker, and also became a pro at reading abstracts, introductions and then skimming down to the results and discussion parts of research articles. Because I'm big on corroborating -- I'm not going to write that childhood obesity can cause precocious puberty unless I can cite more than one piece of literature -- I had to read a lot of what was basically the same thing over and over. However, now I feel a whole lot smarter. I wanted to tell my instructor that she's lucky she now has a very comprehensive overview of the consequences of childhood obesity that has been translated into understandable language! I also looked at the social and economic costs as well as the different possible causes or influences. It was quite the paper and I was up until 3:30 AM last Saturday finishing it. Haven't been up that late finishing a paper since undergrad.

I felt like I had barely finished that paper when it was time for me to write the next one. I had another paper due on Wednesday for my working with immigrants class. This paper was very similar to the other one, in that it was meant to be a lit review on a problem statement. Only this problem statement had to do with a problem in the delivery process of social services to one or more immigrants/refugee groups, and unlike the 10-15 pages that my last paper was, this only had to be 5-6 pages. I had gathered my research already, but hadn't read through any of it yet and hadn't started writing. Tuesdays are my days off, so I had planned to spend all day working on it. My initial plan was to write about the lack of cultural competency in completing mental health screenings with immigrants and refugees. I read a few articles Tuesday morning, went to the gym, ate lunch, then settled myself into my favorite neighborhood coffee shop.

I started to get increasingly frustrated with the lack of research and finally realized that my problem statement was much, much too broad. So I decided to narrow it down, but this meant that I had to do all new research. Since I already have quite a bit of knowledge on the Somali community thanks to my diversity project from last semester, I decided to make my problem statement on the under-identification of mental health needs among Somali children. I was surprisingly able to find quite a bit of research on Somali mental health, and many of the research articles actually focused on the Somali community in Minnesota. I found some fascinating articles, but unfortunately once the time came for me to go home and get ready to leave for tutoring, I had just finished reading and hadn't even begun writing.

I got home from tutoring around 7:20 and immediately got to work, finishing the paper at just about 11:30. In the paper I reviewed the history of the Somali community, explored the mental health concerns and cultural considerations relating to the population, and explained the need for more accurate mental health screenings of Somali youth. I think it turned out to be a very interesting paper, and I got to write about one of my main areas of interest, which is treatment of trauma and intergenerational trauma transmission. Perhaps I'll even post the paper on here, if people are interested.

So finally I got to have a break from papers, although then it was time for me to study for a quiz in my Friday mood disorders class. There's never a break in the life of a student! At least this semester, the papers that I'm writing actually make me feel as though I'm learning something. That always makes for a nice change!