If it's the beaches' sands you want Then you will have them

side note: if you haven't caught on yet that i love the beach...then you probably haven't been reading this. haha :)

Because I like lists, that's how I'm rolling today.

~I worked out today, & my new favorite machine now is the rowing machine. Exhausting, but it works your whole body basically, especially your arms. I realized that I adhere to the "no pain, no gain" school of thought. If there isn't some sort of pain/muscle soreness/exhaustion, then I feel like I didn't have a productive workout.

~I've been thinking about my future a lot lately, what I want to major in when I go back to school, what kind of career I'd like to have, etc. The other day, the thought kind of just hit me - work with soldiers/those affected with PTSD using art therapy. I don't know yet if this is something I'll get serious about, or just an idea to maybe get my thoughts turned in a different direction (God has a tricky way of doing that sometimes ;) ). I've thought about doing art therapy before, but I don't know enough about it to make a good decision yet. I've found a few websites that might be of help to me, and I should probably go check out some books or something. And maybe talk to an art therapist to get a better understanding of it. I was thinking maybe having some sort of studio where soldiers about to be deployed or just returningcould come for workshops/classes/studio time. The whole idea behind it would be that making art could help them deal with all the trauma & stress & everything else going on in their particular situations. And perhaps if they're returning, and they have PTSD, this could be a way to just help cope with it. I also thought about how it could involve the families, their spouses and kids. I don't know, just some ideas. I don't even know if this kind of thing is needed though, or if anyone would be willing to do it. I know soldiers and their families have access to free counseling through the military, so this would be an extra service that most likely they'd be paying out of pocket for. And I don't know how many people would be willing to do that, especially for art therapy. But then again, out of all the counseling available free of charge, I bet art therapy is not included, much less available (or if it is, probably rarely). I need to do a lot of research on this...

(If you're still reading, high-five to you! haha)

~I've been reading "Long Day's Journey into Night" by Eugene O' Neill, and I'm actually enjoying it. Didn't think I would since it was written in 1940, and I'm always skeptical about reading older works because I'm not sure if I'll like it. Especially plays, I usually don't like reading them, but this one's good. I suppose I tend to underestimate how much people have in common, even if they lived in two separate centuries. That's the great thing about reading, you get lost in another world, and authors have this magical way of weaving parts of everyone's personality into their characters, so that anyone could relate.

I should be the host of "Reading Rainbow: Revisited." :) Gosh, I loved that show - Levar Burton, you rock.

~I saw Avatar. And I liked it. I thought it was really good, surprisingly. I say surprisingly because I thought it would be one of those movies that didn't live up to the hype, but it actually did (with me at least). I thought the artistic quality was amazing - the colors, the graphics, everything.

~Last, but not least, I've discovered The Avett Brothers! I've heard of them, but never listened to their stuff, until a couple days ago. One of my favorites, thus far:

If it's the beaches

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See you tomorrow for weheartit Wordless Wednesday!!

Mazel tov!