Mma Ramotswe, my cat, and all things Jewish

I've had some free time in the past couple of days, and i've spent it reading  In The Company of Cheerful Ladies, a book in one my favorite series: The Number 1 Ladie's Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith.  These books are not only enjoyable and relaxing, but they're also an amazing example of an author successfully embodying a main character (in this case, 2 main characters) of the opposite gender.  Some of these portrayals (James Patterson's Lindsay Boxer springs to mind) are so ridiculous that I often spend the whole book ridiculing this person's inaccurate portrayal of their main character rather than the plot (although I have to say, in  Patterson's 1st to Die, it's hard to pick which is worse.)  Kudos to McCall Smith on creating Mma Ramotswe, a character that women can identify with and respect at the same time.

Another thing I've spent my free time doing is cleaning up after my cat, who has decided to lick herself far too often, leaving me to suffer (and clean up) the consequences. And also the vet bill for her new flea medicine and rabies shot...

On a far different note, I had my interview at Jewish Family Services, where i'll be interning for the next year. My initial impression was that it's going to be a really awesome place to spend time and won't seem like work at all.  Here are some:

Reasons Why I'm Excited to be working at JFS:

• I'm going to be working with a totally new population, culturally as well as need- and age-wise, which is always exciting because I love learning new things and meeting new communities
• They're closed for Jewish holidays, which means I have nearly every Wednesday in October off (of course, I have to work other days to make it up, but still...wooo!)
• I've always been fascinated by Judaism and now I can learn about it firsthand without having to consider it as a religious choice for myself.
• It's going to be a nice break from my ARC work; i've always enjoyed spending time with the elderly (except the extra-cantankerous mean ones, but there are some of those in every population)
• And finally....because I might be heading up a new program for special needs! Yay!! This I'm really excited about, since I feel like it might be a spring-board to a real job post-grad school.

In closing, I think that being totally psyched about my Clinical Diagnosis and Assessment text book is a good sign that I'm going into the right field....