With great aspirations and a phrenic nerve to inspire us

(Thanks to Megan for the title)

I'm in the grad lab, working on my SSHRC application (major dollars for school next year if I get one). Why am I here? Because my computer at home is still struggling with viruses, and this needs to be done NOW. Also, I'm cracking up, and have screwed up my editing process, and am waiting to hear from Megs, who has the only copy of my program of study in existence. Stressful. But it'll all be done tomorrow! Yay!

I had a great weekend this weekend - Megan came over on Friday night and we gorged ourselves on pizza, homemade cinammon buns and Grey's Anatomy. I love girls' night in. :) Saturday, I spent the day at school doing a seminar on ethics. It was awesome. We have to do it as a requirement, but I would have done it anyway. We watched video clips of situations that might arise in the research world, and then discussed what we'd do and why. Very cool. Then mummy picked me up and took me to Winner's, where I bought a new coat, a scarf, two hats and a pair of boots. Very exciting, I tell you. :D

Yesterday was church, and then I went to Megan's where I worked on my SSHRC. Then she drove me home, and I made her dinner. While she was there, a lady from Knox called, and asked if I'd be interested in performing at a church music night. Megan and I promptly decided that we'd like to sing a couple duets, so that's going to be oodles of fun. :)

Ok, I'm off! Enough shirking the SSHRC!

Love,
me

Almost There

So. Six midterms. Ten days. No sleep. Lots of caffeine. No wonder I personally witnessed 10% of my class crying at some point or other in the last two days. I, however, have stayed strong, and survived. Unfortunately, I can feel my adrenaline crash barelling towards me, and I have a SSHRC application to write tonight. Note that I'm blogging instead.

So. The exams. Child Language Development went extremely well, and I'm very proud of myself (I already got it back!). Anatomy did not feel as though it went well, but I can't be too upset, as I didn't study enough for it, as I thought I knew the material. Whoops! The anatomy bell-ringer went well as well; I even recognized the calcarine fissure. Go me! Phonology was alright, I think, though very picky and detail-oriented. Audiology was WAY EASIER than I anticipated. I didn't feel ready, but the exam was simpler than I anticipated, so it worked alright. Then Speech Science, which I did feel ready for ended up being a bit more difficult, and much longer than expected, so it worked out less alright than audiology did. Overall consensus: it's all good, though I may have bombed anatomy (along with 1/2 of my class). And it's over!!

Megan and I went to a career fair tonight that was fairly cool. Every booth we went to was like "SLPS??? Of COURSE we need you? When do you graduate? Here's my number, call me when you're just about done!" So that was very, very encouraging. There's more than enough work to go around!

Dudes, I am so tired. Going to bed at 23.00 and getting up at 5.30 two days in a row coupled with midterm stress is just too much for me. So I should get going, and get my SSHRC done so I can go to bed. And crash. In order to be well-rested for tomorrow's anatomy lab with "fresh" laryngeal specimens. Fresh? Do I really want to know that they're fresh?

Love,
e.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Blogging

Or, you know, semi-sort-of-kind-of-a-little-bit-regular blogging... whatever! Anyhoo, the long and the short of it is that this next week is going to be ZOOISH for me. Wait. Not zooish. Zoo-ish. You know, "like a zoo." :) I've got 2 midterms done (one went well, the other... well, don't ask unless you want to see me tear up), and 3 midterms and a bell-ringer quiz left. I also have to get my SSHRC application done. None of this is insurmountable - just vastly time consuming. I'm incredibly proud of myself, because I super productive yesterday, and got through a bunch of audiology material, as well as sketching out a (very) rough draft for my "Program of Study" section of my application.

So adieu my friends, for likely a week. Not so surprising, given that I seem to post about once a week now anyway. :) If you are of a praying bent, you could feel free to pray that I'll get through all of this and maintain one of my program goals: to not have a mental breakdown!!

Love your very own stressmonkey,
Elizabeth

I do love endorphins

Hello dudes!

So, this last week has been busy and wonderful, as most of my weeks seem to be right about now. As I write this, I'm staring out the window at the snow falling, and trying to remember the last time I remember snow in October. Hmm.

Last Friday I did indeed go for coffee with a friend. I meant only to go for an hour or so (midterm studying was calling) but ended up sitting in the 2nd Cup for 4 hours. FOUR. It was insane, unproductive and a lot of fun. Turns out my friend knows another friend of mine, as they're in the same (bag)pipe band. Very small world!

I did indeed meet up with Elmo Saturday afternoon, which was also a lot of fun. He decided that our day needed a "theme" and his theme was "old couple Saturday." So we went to RONA to look at rocking chairs (he wants one for his flat), and then to Staples because we both love school supplies (I'm not alone in my weirdness!!), then for a drive out to Sherwood Park. He wanted to go to a very specific Dairy Queen, but we couldn't find it. He even stopped and asked for directions at an Esso.

"So you know where we're going now?" I asked.

"Well, they guy told me," he replied "but I couldn't understand a word he said. So no."

Mum says this fact alone made it an Old Couple Saturday. :)

We drove around looking at the sky and the changing colors for a while, continually mocked by the presence of many a Dairy Queen, but never THE Dairy Queen. At long last, we gave up, and went to one in Edmonton. ;) It was a lot of fun. He mentioned maybe calling yesterday, but didn't... Megan's thought?

"Maybe he's ... keeping the Sabbath?"

*lol*

Then Sunday was church with Meg, which was fun. We decided to skip skating since we both needed to study. She drove me home, so I thought it only fair to feed her lunch. She left at 2. So much for that good plan!! :D

And of course - Sunday night was my FIRST HOCKEY GAME EVER!!

It was so. much. fun. Seriously. I am the WORST player on the team, but the other girls are super nice, and not totally hung up on winning, which is great. Also convenient, since we lost 3-0. ;) We held our own, though - had the puck in their end quite a bit, but we're not very confident, so we didn't take very many shots. I'm playing forward, right- or left-wing, depending on whatever the person who just came off the ice was playing. I only fell over twice, and only one of those was because I ran into one of my own teammates. *eye roll* Other girls fell over, too though, so I didn't feel so alone in my ice snuggling. I even managed to smack the puck a few times, and always in the right direction. Go me! I loved suiting up in the stinky equipment and feeling all tough 'n' stuff. And at the end of it, I was completely wired on endorphins. I grinned the whole way home, and proceeded to send Meg some borderline hysterical texts. I burned through an hour of studying, and then the endorphins died. And I crashed.

I pushed through til about 23.30, but then succumbed and went to bed. I got up at 5.30 this morning to finish going through some notes, so I'm absolutely pooped right now. However, my midterm went really well (I think), so I'm happy. Tonight I'm going to put in a couple hours on anatomy (Wednesday's exam), and then crawl into bed a little earlier. :)

So that's life!

Love,
Huebert
(as my coach/GM/defenseman/leader/Anne calls me. It's very big-time - all last names! :D)

Wherein Elizabeth Loses Her Motivation

That is, she would have, if she had any in the first place. Seriously people, you go to the booster juice, and you can have an energy booster, a serenity booster, a shiny-white teeth booster - but where's the motivation booster?! Just think - I could be one raspberry-mango booster juice away from actually sitting down and studying. Instead, I'm drinking ginger-with-mint tea and blogging. Priorities!

Midterms start Monday, and I should really have my nose buried in the books. Instead... well, I came home from school, made Greek salad, finished Mansfield Park (for almost 2 hrs!), cooked dinner, went for an hour long walk (it's beautiful outside; 5*C is my favorite!), and am blogging. I did read a bit of anatomy in there, and I organized some thesis thoughts, but beyond that.... Oh dear. I usually manage to get through these slacker periods! At least I'm not stressed. :)

Tomorrow we get to phonate bovine laryngeal systems. That means we hook cow windpipes to vaccuums in reverse and make them 'moo.' I'm most excited. I think it'll be a riot! The bovine bits come from the slaughterhouse in Tofield, so maybe they'll moo me some news of the family there. ;)

My first hockey game is Sunday. I've had several people ask if they can come watch. Please don't get me wrong - I truly appreciate the support!! But I really don't want to make a total fool of myself in front of more people than absolutely necessary. Therefore, I'm requesting that y'all hold off til my 2nd or 3rd game, when I feeling a little more comfortable with my incompetence. ;)

This weekend's looking to be yet another crazy one. Tomorrow is anatomy lab, followed by skating with Megan, and then (maybe) coffee with a friend. Saturday morning is serious study time, then I'm meeting Elmo (*hee*) in the afternoon. Sunday is church, then maybe skating with Meg (have to check with her on that one), then cramming, then hockey game. Oi! Life is nutty. But I loves it.

Ok. I have seriously procrastinated in every way possible (yesterday I did laundry, ran errands, and looked for winter boots online). I've exhausted the procrastination avenues. Now I'll stick my nose in my anatomy notes, and let my mind drift elsewhere. No! No, I shall focus, and LEARN. Off I go. :D

E.

Male Model!

Oh yeah, two posts in two days. I rock! This morning I went to the 8am lab, so that I could go to a doctor’s appointment afterwards. It was a little early, even for my early-bird tastes, and it was so bleeding dark outside! Eurgh, clearly winter’s on its way. Anyhoo, I made it in to class, and collapsed into my seat to drink my green tea and attempt to wake up when I suddenly realized what was happening in lab. This morning was ‘male model’ morning. And a group of grown women had fits of the giggles when Nick, the aforementioned model, showed up and was promptly told to take off his shirt and lie down. Hee!

It was actually pretty cool. We learned to conduct a hands-on physical assessment of the respiratory system, looking for irregularities and asymmetries in the chest wall and abdomen. We also got to see Nick hooked up to a Respitrace, which allowed us to see the movements of his ribcage and abdomen in both a digital and an analog format. As he does different things with his breath (e.g. holding it, speaking, blowing out slowly) his RC and abs move in different and distinctive ways. It was pretty awesome.

So now I’m chilling in the waiting room. Dr. T’s an hour and a half behind (better than the day he was 6 hrs. behind!), so I imagine I’ll have quite a bit of time to read. I brought my hearing science book with me, but I also brought Mansfield Park. Guess which one I’m actually going to read? Yeah, that’s right. I’m so motivated to succeed. *rolls eyes*

Tonight is Tuesday night skating! *wOOt* My skates are now sharpened, so maybe my stopping’ll improve? Or maybe I’ll wipe out even more effectively? Tough call. ;) I suppose I’ll have to get SOME work done before I go – midterms are looming (not this week, but the next two).

I was grousing to Chris a little while ago that Google’s calendar didn’t have a to-do list function, and I really wanted one. Well, they must have heard me, because they’ve added the feature to the homepage options. It’s super sweet. Now when I open the internet, my homepage has my calendar, to-do list, Edmonton weather, email, Tetris (for those boring days!), and Google and Wikipedia toolbars. I love it!

Ok. I’m off to read Mansfield Park for a while. And then, maaaaaaaaaybe to read some HS/A (hearing science/audiology). Fun!

Later days,

Elizabeth

Wherein Elizabeth is thankful

Although she'd be even MORE thankful if she didn't feel as though she were going to have to wear sweatpants for the next week after all the food she's eaten this weekend!! :D But seriously folks: I'm a thankful girl.

As evidenced by my lack of posts, this last week has been a CRAZY one. Crazy. I'll go through it day by day - so if you're bored by that sort of thing, you should consider this your cue to move along. ;)

Sunday

On Sunday, I didn't sleep in. Nope, I got up, and went to church with Megan (she came with me to Knox) and then we went to her house. Her very nice family brought us Burger Baron burgers, which were awesome. Then we went skating out at her local rink, which was fun. There was hardly anybody there, so we had lots of space. She did twirly things. I went forward, and occasionally, just for the heck of it, tried to stop. I'm practicing.

Monday

Monday, Monday *da da, da da da da* (Hello Mommas and the Poppas! Did I spell that right?) I actually have no idea what I did Monday. Probably not much. *think think think* Nope, I'm pretty sure that it was a class and home day.

Tuesday

Tuesday night is skating night! After a short day of classes (Tuesdays rock!), I headed home, ate some dinner, and headed for my local. (In Prague my local was a pub. Here it's a rink. I think that says something about Czech and Canadian attitudes!). Anyhoo, I went to my local, and skated for my hour, and practiced my stopping. John, whom I affectionately refer to as my stopping coach (he's a very nice man who skates at my local, and was very nice to me when I button-holed him and asked him to "show me how to do that thing you do." "Stop?" he asked. "Yeah," I replied "that thing.") told me that I really need to just get mad at the ice. I figure I'll get mad at the ice once I've got some padding on.

Wednesday

Wednesday I trundled home from school, ate some dinner, and then got all dolled up. Chris took me to the symphony, and it was wonderful!! It's a weekday classics series, so as Megan says, they sure didn't make any adventurous musical choices. The oboist (spelling??) was fabuolous, and the guest violinist was phenomenal. I was very tired (because I'm that way a lot these days), so I had to work hard to stay awake. I was warm, and it was soothing (really soothing, not Inspector Clouseau soothing), and I may have head-bobbed once or twice. After that, I started watching the audience. They were REALLY headbobbing! It was fun. I even ran into a couple of Knox people, so I got to chat with them at intermission

Thursday

Megan and I went to an IVCF (inter-varsity Christian fellowship) dealy on campus. I saw people I know from undergrad there, which was cool. It had been a really tense day in class (hearing science and audiology was bizarre - I thought there was going to be a scrap!!), and I wasn't really vibing being all into it, but God got to me in the end (funny how he does that), and a) showed me how a seed I hadn't even know I'd sown is coming to fruition, and b) gave me a picture to really hang onto. I don't want to go more into it here, but if you're interested, give me a call and I'll tell you more. :)

Friday

We cadaver'd in the morning (the dead guys almost outnumbered us live ones!) and that was cool. We studied the thorax and the abdomen, and it was very neato. I'd tell you more, but my stories are way grosser, I mean more effective in person. :) So again with the calling me if you want to more about how big the liver really is, and how I was craving Tony Roma's by the time we were done. *lol* I'm a nutter, I know.

Meg and I went skating after that, at the U, which was good, except that her bag got lifted, whether accidentally or intentionally. :( Hopefully she gets at least some of it back - she filed a police report and all that fun stuff. Word of warning: Your stuff is NOT SAFE in the player's box on the ice. It just isn't! Lock it in the general changeroom, or skate with it on! (Now there's a mental image.)

Then it was home to the Wonk! Dad took me to my favorite restaurant for dinner, and then we went home and played crib. So fun!

Saturday

Saturday dad and I just lazed around. He cooked me my favorite meals all days, and bought me my hockey equipment that I needed (pink hockey tape, pink!). Actually - he basically spoilt me rotten all weekend. It was great. :) We played crib and watched TV, and went to a movie (The Departed - graphic, but good). And we ate. And ate. And ate.

Sunday

Mum, Dad and I ate. And ate. And ate. Dad bought me some shirts, and got my skates sharpened (it might help with the stopping...), and we ate some more. We played crib. I baked gingerbread cookies. We went to an Iceman game - it was great. The best bit was when our goalie clocked one of the other guys right in the face with his blocker. Sweet. Maybe I can be our team's muscle??

Monday

Mum, dad and I ate. And then mum and I drove into Edmonton to eat some more with her family, which was wicked, because there were a couple aunts and uncles I haven't seen in over a year. So that was mint. I don't think I need to eat for a few days now. Maybe I could hibernate?? No, wait - I've got class, and midterms start next week. Darn.


So that was my week. It's been wonderful having some time off, and getting back to school tomorrow is going to be a bit tough. :) My first hockey game's on Sunday, so I'm lookingforwardto/dreading it. Hopefully I don't make a total 'tard of myself. I also need to talk to my thesis supervisor(s) about some feedback I've gotten from a few professionals I've been in touch with. This whole thing is going to be harder than I thought. Typical!! :D

And now, it's bedtime. I'm wiped! Happy thanksgiving!

Love,
Ela