Sippi Lovin'

I don’t exactly know why, but I’ve felt compelled to post here lately. Perhaps it’s because life as a graduate student has finally slowed down. I no longer work 70 hour weeks, now it’s more like 50, and even when the going gets rough, I seldom have any work to do after 7 PM. For a while, OK a long while, I avoided anything that even remotely resembled work and quite frankly, this blog resembled work.

For those who haven’t heard, either through the grapevine or straight from my mouth, I’ve accepted an internship at the Southern Mississippi Psychology Internship Consortium. As a result, Michelle and I will be spending an additional year in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The best news, of course, is that I will be spending that year on internship and not as a student. Short of moving back to Minnesota, this was the best possible outcome. The program is accredited by the American Psychological Association, the pay is right, the training model is generalist in nature, there are opportunities to work with patients across the developmental spectrum, and we won't have to move. Michelle and I are very excited and look forward to moving back home one year from now.

Now, as for that new-found free time I alluded to earlier, I have been trying to reacquaint myself with the act of reading for fun. In the past four months I’ve read, “Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States” by Pete Jordan, “Faithful: Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the Historic 2004 Season” by Stewart O’Nan and Stephen King, “Chasing Lance: The 2005 Tour de France and Lance Armstrong's Ride of a Lifetime” by Martin Dugard, “The Long Hard Road out of Hell” by Marilyn Manson and Neil Strauss, “Positively False: The Real Story of How I Won the Tour de France” by Floyd Landis and Loren Mooney, and “Paul Wellstone: The Life of a Passionate Progressive” by Bill Lofy.

None of the books could be described as a “tough read,” but I enjoyed each. If I had to pick a favorite, I would probably choose Pete Jordan’s “Dishwasher: One Man's Quest to Wash Dishes in All Fifty States.” It’s not particularly well written, but the stories are entertaining and his thoughts on Hattiesburg were especially interesting. As for the most disappointing book of the bunch? I would have to say Marilyn Manson’s “The Long Hard Road out of Hell.” That may not come as a surprise for some of you, but my own high expectations left me feeling let down. It’s always been obvious to me that Manson is an intelligent individual who finds creative ways to shed light on the hypocrisy of our society, but his book also reveals him to be depraved, narcissistic, ignoble, and an ass. That being said, many critics praised this book. The central difference, I think, between their takes and mine is that most of the critics seemed shocked by his honesty; while I expected nothing less, and believed (hoped?) that his willingness to be open about his depravity was an indication that he now understood the stupidity of his past indiscretions…I don’t know if I’m convinced.