Internship!

I've started two internships in relation to school in the last couple of months. In May I, along with a half dozen other students from my cohort,  went through training to volunteer at the local Small Claims court. We did 6 hours of training specific to Small Claims (in addition to our year of education and 40 hour certificate required by the State) and then went through a series of observations, and are now co-mediating cases with other professional mediators. Small Claims is precisely what I went through during my own court hearing after my relationship with Matt, and I am so proud of myself for being able to walk into a court room every Monday and not be gripped with fear. Our courtrooms don't have baliffs, which helps, and it's very informal, which also helps. Most of the cases coming in are debt collection, or landlord-tenant disputes, but the cases we end up with are primarily personal disputes. Not quite as extreme as what happened with Matt, but in essence, two people in some kind of professional or personal relationship who got into a dispute about something. For example, an argument over a car you sold your friend on a payment plan or something. Or a couple who split up and couldn't decide who gets what furniture from their apartment. Those kinds of things. (Mediation is confidential so I can't actually talk about any real cases, but these examples would be similar.)

That's my first internship. I'm about a month and a half into it. I like it!

This is me going in to court a couple weeks ago. I swear, the expression on my face ONLY expresses my hate for my hair that morning. LOL

Next, my real internship, which I am getting credit for. (AKA paying $5,000+ in tuition for because it's required for my degree.) I'm working for an adoption agency which specializes in adoptions for older children coming out of foster care. They want me to create an adoption mediation program for their company to help the kids transition better. Adoption mediation typically means negotiating open adoption agreements between birth families and adoptive families. For example, agreeing to exchange letters and pictures once a month, or a birth day visit once a year. Things like that. It's a TON of research because they want me to do everything from research the current laws to working out the mechanics of the process to investigating other programs that are out there. Oh and fund it. It's kind of a lot. I almost played with the idea of switching my thesis/terminal project to this topic, but I don't know if I could handle it. I'm only 20 hours in to this thing and I'm already like, "Whoa." It's a lot!

Here's me at my internship! All of the volunteers work together in a room with a bunch of computers. It's a little warm in there so I am unfortunately having coffee substance abuse problems. It's a struggle!

Me at my new desk! First time working in an office in EIGHT YEARS! 

You're also welcome to check out my internship blog. It's not super exciting, but it like, exists, so feel free:  http://adoptionmediation.blogspot.com/

Lebanon Strawberry Festival Run Race Report (#7 of 14)

Race #7 of our 14 in 2014 Race Series. Time: 41:07

 

The Strawberry Festival probably could have been pretty interesting if either of us had been locals, but we both felt kind of "other'ed" in town, and didn't really feel a part of anything. We saw part of the parade, but we missed the giant strawberry shortcake that was supposed to feed 10,000 people. We just never saw anything. No booths, or anything. We had trouble finding the start too.

 It was another early race, a good hour away. It was a long, straight out and back course. I got a RAGING belly ache in mile 2 and thought I was going to literally have an accident. (aka, poop my pants). I felt awful, and wanted to quit a lot. I made it though. The weather had just started to turn warm and I think this is one of the last races I wore in capris/pants before I switched to an old pair of bike shorts I had found that work much better for me.

The one exciting thing we DID do was go to Dutch Brothers afterwards. I had never been and Sarah swore there was a Frappuccino like item that only had 65 calories. It was tasty! (Sugar Free non fat double torture!)