This is why people love Florida

David and I spent last night in St. Augustine at a very nice hotel, a la Priceline. We've been having some good luck with Priceline, and while we're always a bit nervous using it, they pulled through for us again and we saved $20 off where we otherwise would have stayed. This was OUR time and I really felt that. David and I had some really good talks on Tuesday as we drove around FL-- we talked about where we are headed in our lives, what's important to us, who we thought we were, who we actually are, etc. It was very good to have the time to breath alittle into that space. We haven't had that lately.

This morning we slept in. Well, David slept in. I woke up around 7, worrying about all the work I have to do in the next 2 weeks before the semester ends and trying to do some work online. But, I soaked in the sleeping-in-feeling from David and enjoyed it. We got a late check-out, ordered omelettes and brought them back to eat in our room. Ah, it was lovely.

Then, get this! We went swimming in the ocean! It's the day before Thanksgiving and we went swimming in the ocean. The water was a bit chilly, but it was a beautiful day. I didn't originally think I wanted to "go under", but the waves had other ideas and I was quickly paddling up and under the wave crashes and having a grand time. David and I ALWAYS feel better after we swim in the ocean. It doesn't seem to matter what's happening--our bodies just relax and we feel at ease.

My favorite moment today was after we had been swimming. We had changed into dry clothes and were driving back into St. Augustine with the intention of walking around some. I had this feeling of peace all around me as I drove with my hand in David's and felt the sun shining through the window. We were about to cross over the bridge into downtown when all the traffic stopped. For a moment I got frustrated, but then I realized we were stopping because the drawbridge was going up to let 6 or so sailboats through. Why am I frustrated? I have time! ;) I turned off the engine and David turned on one of our favorite songs. Tears welled up in my eyes as I felt the perfect peace and love of that moment-- holding my husband's hand, watching the tops of the sailboats pass in front of us, listening to a favorite happy love song...

Good stuff.

Gratefully Alive Still

I have been very absent from this blog lately- I'm sorry about that! I have missed the connections with those I've met through my blog and hope I haven't lost all my readership from my long no-blog period. Part of my problem I think is that I often post these long discussions on things in my life. That's fun and I enjoy it, but lately I just haven't had the time. So, maybe as a means to continue blogging I could change my ideas of what constitutes blog material and just share alittle something. Any other suggestions for ways to keep blogging when you are busy? Suggestions welcome.

Lots has been happening. I've been to Philadelphia again and am now in the home stretch of the semester. I'm taking a lot of courses and have gone through a lot of reworking to find a way to manage it all. I've had to decide that I don't need to do EVERYTHING at once, because if I do, I really burn out. So, I'm just trying to do one thing at a time. In the meantime I've been seeing my clients, but as the inevitable cancellation happens and a client leaves, I haven't been inviting people on my waiting list to fill the slot. I feel pretty guilty about not seeing the people on my wait list, but I just don't have the time. When I have a break in my client schedule, I just do schoolwork, and I'm realizing that I'm enjoying schoolwork, while I'm not enjoying the work-work so much. So, there ya go.

School feel enriching and interesting and challenging and emotional and intellectual...and just good. Hard, but good. I think this long-distance learning thing means a whole lot more reading and writing than I normally would be doing if I were on campus, and more intense class time. But, it's making it possible for me to go to school from Gainesville, so that's good stuff.

The semester ends December 10, which means that all my papers need to be postmarked the week before that. So, I'm busy researching and writing at the moment. I'm so impressed that I get total access to databases and articles through Temple University's online library site. Very helpful for papers. I have to tell you how grateful I am for my tech-savvy husband. I have been spending the whole semester doing searches through the library site and I keep getting very bad results. Like, I either get 2 results, or 6,000. The last three days I've intensively been searching for sensory stress issues for autism and had found THREE articles! That's it. I need atleast 20 for my Music and Medicine paper. David figured out that I'm using the wrong search principles. Apparantly I can't search in the ways I do on Google. I have to use this older system that I've never heard of. After he helped me I suddenly got exactly what I wanted. I was both very grateful to him, and incredibly frustrated that I've basically wasted 3 days on this. Oh well. I really never would have thought to search:

stress and autis$ not mother$ not parent$

This week David has off from school- well, he sees patients on Monday, but other than that he's off. I closed the clinic too, so we'll get some time together. That is very exciting since I haven't had enough time with my hubby. I'm happiest when we get some good, close moments in a non-busy day. We'll head to St. Augustine for a night and just enjoy ourselves. Also my mom will come over for Thanksgiving. Sounds like fun.