Confidence

I felt very confident about my skills as a youth worker today.  I was praised by my co-workers and the children and young people showed respect for me.  I learned that one of the children specifically mentioned me when talking about our group to her older siblings.  That felt nice. 

After the session was over and my co-workers said, "Hey, that was great what you had going on over there", I was a little taken aback, b/c I didn't even think of it and it all seemed so natural to me.  That was indeed a great feeling, though, and it helped boost my confidence and made me think maybe I can do this.

Random site of the day 


Pasted in from old geocities blog on 2/28/13 - archived here.

October 21, 2003

Terrific Tuesday.

Random site of the day

This was pasted in from my old geocities blog on 2/28/13, which is archived here. Back then, I made a page for every day, so I made pages ahead of time and sometimes never got around to blogging that day.

October 20,2003

Just another manic Monday...

Random site of the day 

This was pasted in from my old geocities page on 2/28/13, which is archived here. Back then, I made a new page for each day's blog and would often make the pages up ahead of time. Sometimes, I didn't get around to blogging that day, which is what happened here.

Hanging with Jay

I spent all day at Jay's house.  It was nice to be off the mountain, and since he is centrally located, I could walk to shops and stuff while he was working on his Master's work.  It was nice.  I finally got to go to a charity shop - the Cancer Research shop.  Funny, that is the place I worked for in London the first time I went.  Anyhow, the charity shops are really small here, so the prices are a bit high, so I just got some wee toys to put on the bus for the kids.  I also found a Halloween color-in for the wee ones, but I needed a photocopier to make copies, but of course, there is not a photocopier to be found in Belfast on a Sunday.  In the end, I took some booklets from a video store called Xtravision, b/c they had a coloring contest thing in them.  :-)

Now I am cooking some french fries and I'm going to make a veggie burger.  Jay and his housemates ordered pizza, but Jay failed to mention to them that I don't eat meat, so there was none for me :-(

Somehow, slowly, but surely, I have managed to spend a lot of money this weekend.  All I really wanted to spend money on was my photos that I wanted to pick up from the pharmacy, but the two times I've gone, they've been closed :-( Doh! Now I probably can't even afford to pick them up!

Just have to make it through this week, then I'm on holiday for a week, yippee!  I am going to Enniskillen, which is an area with lakes and it's supposed to be really pretty and all, so that should be nice.  This week at work, we'll be doing the Halloween celebrations with the after school kids, so if you have any cool Halloween activity ideas, please let me know!

Well, I think my fries are done, so I'll be off. 

Hope all is well.

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

Random site of the day 
My housemate Peter's web page 
Northern Ireland Tourist Board 
A paper about Quaker Cottage 
Some photos of the cottage 

This was pasted in from my old geocities blog on 2/28/13, which is archived here.

Happy Sweetest Day!

Happy Sweetest Day! :-)

Ah, the joy of Saturday. I woke up at 8:30 am, just b/c my body clock is used to that, so I had breakfast, chatted to my housemates and then back to sleep I went. My housemates went to climb one of the mountains in the Mournes today. You'll note that I took a pass on that one. I did ask Peter if you could swing by the pharmacy so I could pick up my photos, but alas, there was not enough time, b/c they were taking a bus that left at 9:40. Ah well, maybe I'll take a cab later on today.

I spoke to Jason at 2:00 a.m. this morning. He went out with his flatmate and had said that he might come over to visit afterwards, so I was up waiting for him. Well, actually, I fell asleep about 11:00 pm and then woke up at 2:00 am to wait for him. He didn't come over in the end, and I don't even know if he made it home safe last night. I haven't talked to him yet today.

My dreams last night were so bizarre. I keep having dreams of Grandmother, where she's alive, again, after she had been dead. (For those that don't know, my Grandmother passed away in March of this year). I also dreamt that I traveled back in time and saw my Mom and Dad when they were kids, and my Grandmother when she was younger and I was there with them, just watching their actions very closely. Grandmother was taking care of my great-grandmother (whom I never met), who was actually not here mother, but her husband's (my Granddaddy) mother. It was all so real.

This time next week I should be in Enniskillen, which is a town in Northern Ireland. We are on holiday next week. Yippee! Oh darn, I just remembered that Jay's competition is on Saturday...think I'll have to change my hostel reservation. I'm just taking a bus there, so I'll buy a ticket that day.

I really need to take a shower, so I best be off. Hope all is well with everyone and you have a great Sweetest Day!

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

Belfast Photos


This was pasted in from my old geocities blog on 2/28/13, which is archived here.

TGIF

Friday, yippee!

We are all so glad it's Friday, it's unbelievable. We're getting along good today, b/c we share in the joy of the weekend. We made a house trip to Tesco to get our groceries, which is a Friday ritual, b/c that's when we get our money. We dropped Suzanne off at the bottom on the Shankill Road so she could mosey about and then Peter and I were going to pick up my photos from this summer when I volunteered in England, but the place closed at 6:00, so I was s.o.l. Ah well, it's been 4 months, what's another day or so?

I worked a bit on this website and added a new photo page! Yippee! There is a link to it on the home page, but in case you missed it, I've put one over to the left here.

Tomorrow is Sweetest Day. I'm sad to say, that they have never heard of this holiday here in Northern Ireland. I guess Hallmark has yet to penetrate this market!

Hopefully, I'll be able to see Jay tomorrow, but who knows with the amount of work he has on. I am going to see him in a weightlifting competition next week. I get so nervous with those sorts of things, though, b/c I care so much about how they do. Like it was a good while before I ever saw Brian perform stand-up, and when I finally did, I was so nervous that I felt like taking a Xanax!

Hope all is well with you.

Lots of love,
Sabrina

XO

Photo page

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Cubs & Babies

Hello all. I just had some country vegetable soup and I was reminded of my old British friend, Phil. He had went grocery shopping with me when I first moved into my house in London, and he made this soup for me, b/c I couldn't even figure out how to light the stove! It was my first meal in my new home. Funny how things trigger your memories.

So, I don't find out about the Cubs until yesterday and then find out today that they lost! You're breaking my heart here, people. Keep a girl informed, would ya? I tell you, though, I really do feel sorry for that guy who got that ball in the previous game. I really believe he didn't see that the player was trying to catch it. Poor guy.

Today was a fine day. I had three wee babies this morning, all three months (they were all born in July, and no, they're not triplets) and wouldn't you know it - they all three started crying at the same time. I managed to hold two at once and rock one in her little car seat thingie, so it all worked out in the end. In the afternoon, with the 8-10 year olds, we made loads of Halloween decorations, in preparation for our celebrations next week. We're doing the Halloween stuff next week since the Centre is closed the week of Halloween and we're all on vacation.

Talked to Jay briefly. Oh, you can see a photo of me and him on yesterday's page. Poor guy has so much going on and my schedule isn't exactly flexible either, so we might get to see each other at the weekend, but we'll see...

I better go. Ta ta.

Hope all is well.

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Happy Birthday, Brian!

Today we didn’t get out of work until 8:00 p.m. Considering that we start at 9:00 a.m, that’s one heck of a long day, wouldn’t you think? Yes, but it’s a labor of love…no, really. It’s been a bit more work this week, because we’ve started a new group of families, so a lot of our groups have doubled in size, and we’ve been learning people’s names, their likes and dislikes, and trying our darndest to entertain them, or at least engage them in interesting tasks. This week has been mainly Halloween decorations, which has really been loads of fun. My personal favorite are the paper chains because they are so easy to make and really easily make a room look decorated. The kids get such a kick out of how long their chain gets. Next week will be Halloween parties, so that should be even more fun!

Hope all is well.

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

Me & Jay

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Chewing Gum & Skeletons

Well, today I had the great pleasure of sitting on chewing gum. Yes, if you’ve experienced this pleasure, you know what I’m talking about. Nothing like getting a big load of gum on your nice clean jeans. And when your jeans take three days to dry by hanging on the rack, that’s just an extra kick in the butt! Ah well, it’s just part of the joy of working with kids. In their defense, though, I should say that the gum was on the floor, not on a chair or anything, but still, gum should go in the bin, am I right? Sure, I am.

So, with the wee ones we made some skeletons. The problem with making skeletons with wee ones is that at least one of you should know where the bones go. Secondly, we had to make the connecting holes for them and put in the wee fasteners, because it was all too much for their little hands. One girl was complaining that her hands hurt from just cutting out all the bones.

Tonight I was supposed to go to my counselling course at the local university, but I didn’t go. For one, we didn’t get out of work until about quarter to seven (the course starts at seven). Secondly, I couldn’t get a ride; Peter wouldn’t give me one and I can’t afford another taxi cab this week. Third, I have developed the beginnings of a “changing of the seasons” cold and all I really wanted to do was go to sleep, which is exactly what I did, at about half seven (7:30). I couldn’t even be bothered to make myself dinner. However, when the phone woke me up at what seemed like the middle of the night (11:00 p.m.) my stomach was growling, so I had a bowl of Cocoa Rice cereal. I was not happy with the cereal. I expected it to be like Cocoa Krispies or whatever it’s called, but it was not. I mean, sure it is a knock off brand, from Lidl, which is just like Aldi, but still, I was unpleasantly surprised with what was going on in my mouth. I forged ahead, though, determined to make the rumbling in my stomach cease, and finished off at least half of the bowl, like the trooper I am :-)

Hope all is well.

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Cramps, alarm & new group

Well, I was pretty useless most of the day and lay in my bed, on the floor, the couch, or wherever was handy, moaning in pain. Yes, my friends, today was cramp day, and that means I was not in full working order. I was mostly lying about in the fetal position whimpering like a small child. I did manage to make it over to work for most of the day (the bit that involves actually working with the kids, not the clean up or set up or any of that business). We had a new group starting today and I really wanted to meet them all and get to know them.

Also, the burglar alarm went off again this morning, so I phoned up the company and they said, “we’ll send someone right out.” I was like, no, please don’t, b/c firstly, I want to sleep, and secondly, we’ve got new folks coming in and I’m sure we want to not have any work going on while they’re here. “Oh, but he’s in your neighborhood, and he’ll be in and out, no noise or anything, plus it’s included in your contract.” Well, what can I say, the guy wouldn’t take no for an answer. So alarm guy comes over, despite the alarm having turned off on its own. What is the first thing alarm guy does? Yes, that’s right, sets the alarm off. Oh, sure, that’s no noise at all. My chances of sleep or shower (b/c there was a strange man in my house) are completely shot by this time, so I just go over to work.

The new children were just absolutely lovely. This is like our (the volunteers’) special group b/c we’re meeting them on day one, and we’ll be here for their full year. It’ll be so interesting watching their progress. Just in the month and a half I’ve been here, I’ve seen the kids develop so much, imagine what we’ll witness within a year’s time!

Then it was back to the couch, floor, or bed and wingeing and moaning.

Oh, but then I went to the doctor. I got some more Paxil. Yippee yi yay. Oh happy days. They don’t call it Paxil here, they go by the generic name, but it’s the same thing. That appointment meant I had to miss counseling this week, but I phoned her up and I’ll just see her next Monday. This doctor thing absolutely had to get taken care of. I swear, for awhile there, I thought I was going to have to fly back to America to get my bloody medicine. But all is well, now.

Hope all is well with you.

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Driving Lesson & Shopping

I had my second driving lesson in the bus. This time, though, I drove Wee Bessie, which is not as wide as Sunny Boo, the bus I drove yesterday. It’s easier for me to handle in that way, then, but the clutch is a bit funny, and my driving instructor said (based on his driving it) that he thinks there may be something wrong with it. That’s all fine with me, b/c I’d rather contend with that clutch that the wideness of big old Sunny Boo.

Anyhow, we drove all over the place, and I was really feeling good about it. I told him about how I always had a small car at home and if people there could see me driving this big old stick shift bus on the other side of the road, they wouldn’t believe their eyes! Hill starts are definitely my weak point, but I just have to practice at it. I’m quite content with my progress. First I learned how to drive a stick, in the car I was comfortable in. I also learned how to drive on the other side of the road. Now I’m learning how to drive a bus that is a stick. I feel like it’s just lots of bits to learn that just get put together bit by bit.

As soon as I got home from the driving lesson, me and the roomies hopped back onto Wee Bessie (Suzanne insisted on the front seat, which was a bit weird) and went to pick up Peter’s German friends and all go to Tesco. Yippee. I spent a whopping £16 on groceries, which is the most I’ve spent since I’ve been here, but £5 was on a special shampoo and I bought like body wash and whatever.

Hope all is well.

Lots of love,
Sabrina :-)


Give us some of yer banter!

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities page, which is archived here.

Driving the bus

I had my first driving lesson in the bus. Peter was away and he took Wee Bessie, which is the bus I had wanted to drive, so I had to drive Sunny Boo instead. Sunny Boo is newer, but it’s bigger, and it is really bumpy. I couldn’t for the life of me remember what time my lesson was today, so I was just ready by noon (the earliest we’ve had a lesson) and waited around. It was at 2:00.

Can you tell how exciting my weekends are?

The lesson went fine and I drove all around, though, I was mostly on empty roads, but empty roads mean higher speed and higher speed means less control and less control means one concentrating Sabrina. The instructor kept looking over at me asking if I was okay. I think maybe he was just projecting onto me, b/c I swore I saw him praying once!

Hope all is well with you.

Lots of love,
Sabrina
the bus driver :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities page, which is archived here.

October 10, 2003

Friday! Yippee!

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.
At that time, I made a new page for each day's blog, and often made up the pages ahead of time. Sometimes I didn't get around to blogging for that day, which is what happened here. 

October 9, 2003

Thursday.


This was pasted in from my old geocities page on 2/28/13, which is archived here. Back then, I made a new page for each day's blog and would often make the pages up ahead of time. Sometimes, I didn't get around to blogging that day, which is what happened here.

Long Day & Dishes

The longest day of the week -Wednesday. We work the latest on this day because the after school group starts an hour later. They are the oldest group, so I think that has something to do with it. I was so tired at the end of the day. Yet I managed to stay up until about 11:30 to do a load of laundry and take a shower. I feel like I'm so behind on everything. I have to schedule time to make a routine phone call. Because we work during all business hours, for me to make a phone call is like a special treat. This is not like calling home or whatever, but you know, the day to day business of life.

I cooked again for the mummies today. It went fine, but it wasn't as good as yesterday. I felt like an overworked housewife! While I was cooking, someone was telling me to get back to the babies, and vice versa. Then I had to clean up after everyone when they left!

It was nice to see our babies again, though. This group is the group we went on residential with. We all felt so much closer to them all. One of the wee girls started walking since last we saw her! Awww...

Then I came the five steps over to my house and had to do everyone's dishes here! It's my week for dishes, but I felt like I'd been cleaning all day! Oh well.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Love,
Sabrina :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Cooking & Counselling Course

Wow, I guess I haven't updated this in awhile...It's now Thursday.

Anyhow, on Tuesday night, I went to my class at the local university. I am taking a counseling course. It will last for ten weeks. It was so nice to get away from the cottage for a bit. It was also nice to be in the university setting again. Since it is a night class, there are a range of ages and professions in there. It was nice and people talked to me during the break and after class about things I had mentioned during class, which I thought was nice. All very friendly.

I had to cook for the mummies today. We all take turns and this is my week. My boss, again, flipped out. He didn't like what I was going to make and then was like, "well, what are you going to do, I have to have a lunch for them today" and just freaking out. I was as cool as a cucumber anf was like, hey, chill out, I'll make spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread, ya big goof. He comes off as laid back and all, but he's been freaking out on me lately.

The lunch went super, though, and they ate it all up! :-) It never pays to panic.

Hope all is well.

Love,
Sabrina :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Boss drama

I am feeling in a pink kind of mood today. I guess it is appropriate since it is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Anyhow, it was back to work today. We basically just cleaned everything, including the buses.

My boss pissed me off today. Oh dearie me, was I livid. If you know me, you know that I am not one to keep my feelings to myself and well, this was no exception. I was not rude, but I was forthright. "I do not like your tone; I don't like what you're implying; that's not true", etc, etc. Essentially he was giving me grief b/c I didn't tell him about my anxiety at the time of application. First of all, I swore that I had, but apparently that was with the organizations I had applied to, and secondly, he didn't ask. It has not affected my job performance, and the only reason he knows is b/c I told him. I was asking about seeing a dr to get some more of my medication. He just flipped his lid. I could go into more detail, but frankly, it pisses me off to think about it and I talked about it at length with my counselor today.

Today was clean up day. We all cleaned our assigned rooms and I did the mountain of dishes that had piled up. We'll see how it goes.

My roommates are sitting here in the living room. They are watching a game show which is asking a man very hard questions. So far he has gotten 25 correct. I don't know how many they ask. Suzanne just said he's brilliant. Peter said he's not normal.

Now we've moved on to a guy who kissed his girlfriend's brother...oh British soaps...

Check out the links on the side over there. I've put some new ones on. Hope you like it!

Love,
Sabrina :-)

The Onion
Common Dreams
Northern Ireland Tourist Board
Craig's List

On 2/28/13 this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Jay's new place

Hi there,

I wasn't able to update this yesterday b/c geocities was having technical problems or something.

Well, I had a driving lesson. It went super and I was driving all over the place, changing gears with no problem. Next weekend my lesson will be in one of the minibuses. Yippee! It is so defeating when I feel so confident in the car but can't do a thing in the minibus.

The roomies and I had a meeting about chores and what not b/c the state of our house is a bit atrocious. I wrote out a schedule of dish weeks and allocated rooms and it should work out well. I think up to this point, no one wanted to step on anyone's toes about the issue.

I went to Jay's last night and saw his new place. It has like six stories with a few rooms (or even just one or two) on each floor. It's very interesting. You wouldn't find a place like that in America! We would never allow for all those stairs!

Things with Jay are going pretty well. We are just taking things slow. I have to say, though, that it is so nice to have someone actually remember something I said to them. Like, when I tell Jay I have a driving lesson, he remembers, so then the next time I speak to him after the lesson, he'll ask me how it went. Simple things like that mean so much...especially when I haven't had that in forever.

Well, that's all the news for now. See you later, gators!

 Love,
Sabrina :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Forgotten Pay

I feel much more well rested today. I have a driving lesson at 3:00 pm. I’m excited about it, but feeling a little weary, as when I tried to transfer my awesome driving skills to the van, I landed flat on my face. Oh well, I’ll just have to keep on practicing.

Grant “forgot” to pay us on Friday and so now we have to wait until Monday for our pay. I spent my last few pounds on pizza last night. My stomach was grumbling, grumbling, and I already had to go to the cottage to borrow two pieces of bread for a sandwich at lunch time, and the “Sabrina, the animiated series” pasta shapes I heated up were disgusting. I just bought them b/c they had my name on the label :-)

I have pizza left over for lunch today, though. Maybe my roommate will drive us to the grocery store so I can buy a loaf of bread for 38 pence and a frozen pizza for 50p. That should do me until Monday.

I should be hanging out with Jay and the boys tonight watching DVDs. I’ll get to see his new place. Should be fun.

If you’ve noticed that my entries have been shorter since residential, it’s b/c I sliced my finger with a knife (on accident, just to be clear) so I’m typing with the wrong fingers, which goes very slowly, makes for lots of typos, and annoys me. Thus, I keep it to the point!

Until next time, my friends…

Love,
Sabrina :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Okay, so I’m back. I sliced my finger open, got beat up repeatedly by ten year old boys and changed diarrhea-ridden diapers that would shame a grown man, but I had a great time! No, really. I’m super duper tired and still have to do loads of laundry and clean out the buses, not to mention shop for next week, as I am cooking for the mummies, but it was great! Hey, I’m serious here!

I worked mostly with the after school group, which are children aged 5-15. I did spend one day with the wee ones, though. I feel really close to them all, and hopefully they to me. It will be interesting to see how our relationships are when we’re back in Belfast.

Perhaps I'll fill in more specific details later, but I just wanted to say that it went well. Yippee!

Love,
Sabrina :-)

On 2/28/13, this was pasted in from my old geocities blog, which is archived here.