My first post

Hello, Good People! Everyone seems to be blogging nowadays, so I thought I'd get in on the action. I will use my first entry as an introduction, to let people know who I am and what I do. I'm a mental health therapist for a hospital in Indianapolis. Although I've had a masters degree in counseling for ten years now, I'm not yet a licensed counselor, but I am working to that end. What I basically do at my job are crisis evaluations - meeting with people who may be depressed and/or suicidal to see if they need to be hospitalized on the psychiatric unit. I sometimes see people who are quite psychotic - they may be hearing voices telling them various things, or they believe that the CIA/FBI is after them, or they believe they're some famous/historical person.

I graduated from Cedarville University (it was Cedarville College at the time) in 1993 with a double major in psychology and behavioral science. I went straight to graduate school because it's very difficult to find work with a bachelors degree in psychology. I graduated from Wright State University in 1995 with a masters degree in mental health counseling. I learned a great deal from my professors at both universities, and I am indebted to them.

I married The Wife (sorry, she won't let me use her real name) in July 1996. She is from Danville, IL. I met her when we were both at Cedarville U. but we didn't start to officially "date" until Fall 1994. She graduated the year after me, and her degree was in business communications (I think - I'm sure she'll correct me on this). We moved into a little apartment in Dayton, OH (my hometown) and lived there for over a year before we got the itch to move to a bigger city. Well, we couldn't get much bigger than Chicago - we moved there in October 1997. However, we soon tired of the busy life in Chi-town and moved to Indianapolis (not quite as big a city as Chicago, but certainly large in and of itself) in August 1998. Except for a nearly two-year stint in Springfield, OH, when I worked for Wittenberg University, we have been in Indy since then.

I have been employed at several places since obtaining my degrees. I worked at a community mental health center in Dayton, a for-profit mental health company in Chicago that specialized in group programs for the severely mentally ill (the company apparently didn't make enough profit, since it has gone defunct since I've left Chicago), Wittenberg University (as a director over several residence halls), and the hospital where I work now.

The Wife is manager of the corporate services department for a corporate realty company here in Indy. She has worked there for over two years now. She has worked at several places since graduating from Cedarville University, including a national accounting firm, a hospital (in their public relations department), and a publishing company.

I have two children - The Sweet (5 yrs) and The Cute (5 mos.) - again, no real names, these are their nicknames we have given them. The Sweet will be starting kindergarten in the fall and she is very excited about it. The Cute will soon be cutting teeth (not so sure she's excited about that) and learning to sit up. I can't describe what it's been like for me to be a father - amazing, wondrous, frustrating, exhausting, exciting, illuminating.... It doesn't get much better than to have your child smile at you and hear her say, "Daddy, I love you."

I think I have revealed enough for now. I can't reveal too much or I wouldn't have anything to write about in the future, now would I?