Friday Night

Ahoj!

It's Friday night, and I'm just relaxing. A friend from school came over tonight for a beer and a movie, and she's just left for home now. I'm planning on having a hot bath, a book, a cup of tea, and then my bed. It's fresh-sheet Friday, my favourite bedtime of the week!!

Tomorrow I'm going for a run (I have been SO good about keeping up with it!! Megs is my accountability partner, and we make a great team!), and then Chris is coming by to help me get going with a stats software package for Dexter (my 'puter). I'm hoping to get lots done tomorrow afternoon (509 assignment, Duffy reading, Chpt 2 for research methods, Chpt 5 for aphasiology, and thesis stuff), and then Robin's coming over for dinner!

Sunday is church, of course, and I'm doing the reading this week. We're studying Esther, a book that I love, and Lyle has a take on it that I've never heard before. The last sermon in the series was chapter 2, so I'm all over chapter three. I'm spending the afternoon with Megan, and then hoping to be productive in the evening.

Monday is school, and then I'm speaking as part of a panel on what it's like to be in the SLP program. The audience are a bunch of first-year undergrads, and I'm betting they're going to look SO YOUNG!! :D

To end this boring, list-like post, I have a question. I want to do one of my practicums seriously abroad (I'm hoping Australia). I wouldn't mind doing another one a little ways away, though, but I'll be a broke student. What I'm wondering is if any of you have family anywhere neat where I could maybe go and stay with them?? I totally understand if you don't, but I figure: if I don't ask, I'll never know!!

The tub is full! I'm off to relax. Later days,

Ela

Lies, Damn Lies...

...and Statistics. I was working on my stats assignment today, and I enjoyed one of the questions. So much did I enjoy it, I decided to share it with you.

1. What does the confidence interval tell you? HINT: I want you to explain it in words as though you were telling a 15 year old niece what it means. It might help to think of political polls and the kind of information we are given about the results.

Well sweetie… a confidence interval tells us how sure we are that our answer is right. For example, you and your friends think that Frankie is about an 8 on the hotness scale. Some of you say 7, some of you say 9... but on average, he's an 8.We might say that we’re 95% sure (pretty darn sure!) that all the girls in your school think Frankie rates between a 7.5 and an 8.5. It’s telling us how sure we are that the number from your friends (our sample) represents the number that all the girls in your school (the population) would choose.

What I find especially enjoyable about this question is the assumption that you would use political polls to explain confidence intervals to a 15 year old girl.... I felt my interpretation was somewhat more relevant. ;)

Other than that and the fact that my carrots in my lunch were sweet today (not bitter, as they sometimes are) today sucked. I won't go into the suckitude, but suffice it to say that I'm exhausted, overwhelmed, and cranky. I wouldn't advise approaching me unless you're waving a large bar of chocolate in front of you like a white flag. Then I promise I won't be cranky. Just sullen and silent as I inhale your chocolate. I need to go for a run and work off some stress... bye for now!!

E.

High on the hill lived a lonely goatherd...

What do you think those two are staring at, up there on the mountain?

I've also been wanting to talk a bit about this great resource my brother turned me on to. It's called Pray-as-You-Go, and I really, really love it (if you click the link, it takes you to its description). It's a daily prayer devotional developed by the British Jesuits, and I highly reccommend it. It isn't preachy at all; it's beautiful music and someone with a lovely accent reading a scripture and asking you questions about it. I've worked it in as part of my bedtime routine. Read my Bible, then listen to this as I straighten up my room, then read a chapter of my novel, then off to sleep. (Actually - both links might take you to the same place. But you can click on the little tabs underneath the Pray as You Go logo to see the various bits of information.)

My life is feeling incredibly stressful at the moment, and I therefore don't have much to say. But I'm starting to consider my options for August... and I've been graciously invited to Campbell River. I am seriously considering this as an option, and so if you think of me, you could pray.

Ok. I'm off to class.

Ela




And isn't he cute? Chris took this picture at the Provincial Museum, and I just think it's so cute. I need to go back to that exhibit, and figure out just what it is that the two of them are looking at....

Six Weird Things

I was tagged by Karlie to do this meme, but I can't figure out why... I'M not weird. Not me! ;)

THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the ‘6 weird things about you.’ People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says ‘you are tagged’ in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

1. On our "torso" anatomy day (thoraic and abdominal cavities) a couple of the girls were feeling a little queasy. I was thinking (though I refrained from mentioning it at the time) that I had a sudden craving for ribs for dinner. Tony Roma's, anyone?

2. I really, really like tuna fish with ketchup and pickle sandwiches. And you are not allowed to mock it unless you've actually tried it. I got the habit from my grandparents. When we had tuna sandwiches, grandpa always dipped his in ketchup, and grandma always put a little dish of sliced dills on the table. All together, it's fabulous!

3. I lay on my side until I'm thisclose to falling asleep. Then I lay on my back. When I wake up about half an hour before my alarm goes off, I roll over and spend those last few minutes on my stomach.

4. I still really enjoy watching cartoons. Kim Possible, Recess and the Weekenders are very fun!

5. When I was a little girl, our church library had a series of books for kids about life skills (personal hygiene, good manners, etc). I loved those books. My absolute favourite was all about how to clean your room. I signed that book out at LEAST once a month, took it home, and cleaned my room by its guidelines. I haven't taken the book out in years now, but I still clean my room following its rules. :)

6. I don't like strawberry gum, strawberry candies, or strawberry cosmetics (e.g., lip gloss). However - I LOVE strawberries!

I'm going to tag Marta and Prairie. I know, I know - it's not 6. But I don't KNOW six people who actually keep up with their blogs!!

Ela

There are no words.

My life is surreal. Idiotic and bizarre things happen on a regular basis. We all know this. But tonight was especially special.

Allan took me for ice cream, and on our way back, 3 rather drunken men passed us.

"Excuse me miss, c'n I buy a smoke off ya?" slurred one.

"Sorry, I haven't got any," I said without slowing our pace as we passed them.

"Hey buddy! Hey buddy!" another of the men yelled at Allan.

"I'll give ya thirty-five bucks for yer old lady!"

We kept walking - a look of shock on my face, and one of pure grumpiness on Allan's.

"Forty! I'll give ya forty! Ok, Ok - Fifty bucks for yer wife!"

I was horrified! I wasn't worried - Allan was considerably larger than this guy - but I felt so demeaned. For starters, I'm worth WAY more than a mere fifty bucks, and on top of that: if you want to buy me, you bargain with ME, not the man I'm with! What is this, a junta??

Ela

Gloriously Tolerable

Ah, funny quotes from The Onion. Life right now feels wonderful and stressful. Gloriously tolerable, indeed! There is so much to do this semester, and it feels like I go to school for most of the day, come home, eat supper, and then get right back into the books. I'm working very hard at being more disciplined, but it's tough. And then I worry about falling behind, which is really not the best use of my time.

But I'm getting better!! I've got my term very nicely organized, and I'm doing Ok at keeping on top of things. I'm a bit behind in my readings, but not much, and I plan to spend Saturday morning getting caught up. I've also been good about keeping up with my New Year's Resolutions. On the whole, I'm pretty proud of myself. :)

I had a thesis meeting today. I always dread them, I think because it's all so new to me. I go in there feeling very uncertain of whether or not I've actually accomplished anything that I was meant to have. You can all imagine just how well that works for me. *eye roll* Anyhoo. Today I went in there armed with some re-worked research questions and a new idea for my main objective. One of my research questions came out of our 598 class' study of an article on cheap red wine!! Know what's awesome? That's the research question my peeps were most impressed with! Go me! We spent about 45 minutes making revisions, Dr. B provided me the context for an epiphany (I finally have a way to deal with my lit review! It suddenly has a very concrete purpose!), and then it was time for me to go. As I packed up my stuff, Dr. B told me that I'm right on track, and that I deserved an 'atta-girl!' I earned an atta-girl!! Me! A blurb, a badge and an atta-girl. Life is gloriously tolerable.

There's this other new thing that I'm up to. It's new. And I wasn't going to share it, because I don't really trust myself to keep up with it. But I've done it four times now, and I've got a support network going, so maybe I'll tell y'all about it, and you can silently cheer for me. :) A while ago I was on the net, looking for some information about my health coverage through ASEBP. I'll confess, I was procrastinating. As I mosied through the website, I found a survey all about how healthy one's lifestyle is. Nothing says procrastination like a survey!

I started filling it out, and there was a box you could tick that said something like "if this survey suggests that you are at risk, would you be interested in having one of our Mayo Clinic counsellors contact you?" I clicked yes, a) because I didn't think I'd be eligible, and b) because it sounded research based, and I want to put good vibes out into the research world. You know - I'll do their survey, and then hopefully I'll get enough clinicians to do mine!! :D When I finished the survey, it blithely informed me that I was at risk for weight management and stress management. At risk enough to warrant being enrolled in their program for improving one's health. Crazy.

So Monday was my first "appointment." My counsellor phoned me at a pre-arranged time, and we went through the initial background information. Then I had to choose which program I wanted: weight or stress. I feel pretty confident about my ability to handle stress - I survived last semester! However, given that I'm still pretty...'curvy,' I'm less certain about my weight management skills. So I picked weight. She gave me some very good information about lifestyle diet changes (all well grounded in valid and reliable research!), and then we worked together to set some goals. My job is to drink at least one bottle of water a day, eat way more fruits and veggies, and to... um... well... *coughcoughrunthreetimesaweekcoughcough*

Are you done laughing yet? I know. I know! I am not a runner. But right now... well, it's what fits my schedule and my budget. I could go to the UofA gym after class, but that's at around 4, and that's when it's super busy. I don't like waiting half an hour to get 20 minutes on the elliptical machine. Plus (and I know this is dumb, but I'm allowed to have hang ups!) I feel intimidated by the gym bunnies. *blush* So running it is. And like I said, I've gone 4 times. Not in a row! It's not so bad. I go for 20-30 minutes, alternating 2 minutes of running with one minute of walking. The walking sometimes gets a little longer. ;) And it's Ok. Megs is my accountability partner. My counsellor asked me to schedule my runs in like appointments, so that I'm less likely to miss them. I tell Megan when I'm supposed to go, and then she 'encourages' me to go and do it!! And, of course, guilt trips me if I don't. *lol* Kidding, kidding.

Tomorrow Megan and I are having Christmas, and exchanging our gifts. Friday, Allan's coming over. I think we're going to Marble Slab for ice cream!! And then I'm planning on challenging him to a Scrabble game... *rubs hands evilly*... he's going down! And that's all you get to hear about that. Saturday night I'm hosting a breakfast-for-dinner party that's going to be wicked cool. And Sunday will be a day of church and rest. Oh life! So busy! So gloriously tolerable!

Ooh - I had a confrontation today! The guys who live downstairs really love their bass. And really, who doesn't love them some good bass? But bass that's very loud in my apartment makes me sad. And grouchy. So I got dressed (yes, I was in my PJs at 7. Don't ask). I trundled down the stairs, turned on my winningest smile, and knocked at the door. I think running earlier today may have peaked my endorphins a bit. I was, dare I say it, downright perky. A guy around my age answers the door...

"Hi! I'm Ela! I live upstairs! I'm a full-time grad student, and I'm trying to study! Your bass is really loud in my place! Could you just turn the bass down? The volume's fine, it's just the bass!" *big winning grin!*

The poor guy was blindsided. What are you going to say to the gloriously perky girl at your door, grinning like you're fabulous (or she's nuts), and burblingly requesting that you turn down, not the volume, but just the bass?

"I'm sorry, of course I'll turn it down" he said warily. I think he was worried I was going to burst into a cheer... (I'm sexy! I'm cute! I'm popular to boot! I'm bitchin'! Great hair! The boys all love to stare! I'm wanted! I'm hot! I'm everything you're not! Don't hate us 'cuz we're beautiful, 'cuz we don't like you either! We're cheerleaders!) or maybe blind him with Julia-Roberts-wattage smile.

"Thanks!" I chirped, reaching out my hand to shake his (why? Why did I do that? I don't know. It was the endorphins. I think I was drunk on them).

"Uh, I'm Jimmy..." he awkwardly said as we shook hands, me smiling all the while. "And uh, I'm really sorry about the bass...."

"No worries!" I grinned. "Have a great night!" And I smiled one last time, and headed back up the stairs. And it's been quiet all evening now....

Kill 'em with kindness, Uncle Dave. Kill 'em with kindness.

Love your gloriously tolerable Ela

Miluje te, Praha!

Hi everyone,

my post's title means (roughly) "I love you, Prague." And I do love Prague. You all know that. And so therefore, you might be interested to know that I'm going back to Prague for reading week! Yaaaaaay! Things just fell into place last week, and it's so amazing. I'm incredibly, incredibly excited. There aren't words. :) Right now I'm working on making some arrangements with friends; I'm hoping they'll allow me to sleep on their floor for a few nights. Once more details are ironed out, I'll share them with you.

I had a really good weekend - hope you all did, too. Friday night I spent with Al. We watched some of Dylan Moran's stand-up comedy, and then the first season of Black Books and laughed ourselves silly. We also had some girly talk... and I didn't get home til 2. Very tired on Saturday!

Saturday was Chris' tea party, at which I cooked the samosas and discovered the amazingness of vegan chocolate cake from Cafe Mosaics. It was so, so delicious. I want one for my birthday! Chris had his usual selection of fabulous people there, and it was fun to chat with everyone. Allan and I left at about 6.30 to go to the Edmonton Rush game. I'd never seen lacrosse before, but I'm now totally hooked. It's very fast-paced and fun to watch, and the crowd really gets into it. I'm definitely looking forward to going to another game.

I went to church this morning and just about froze on my way there. I crept through the doors just in the nick of time, and went to sit with Allan who joined me this morning. I think that my Knox peeps were looking at us curiously and thinking "hmm... wonder who Elizabeth has with her this morning?" ;) Last week Megs had a male friend with her, so she and I discussed setting up a system where we bring a different man each week, just to give our very quiet church something interesting to chat about! :D

So that was my weekend! I'm off to do some reading (which may or may not be school related) and to go to bed. I can't believe that tomorrow's Monday already....

Elizabeth

Craniofacial Osseointegration & Maxillofacial Prosthetic Rehabilitation Unit.

Hello blog peeps.

No, I'm not a thug. The whole 'peeps' thing got started when Drs. B and H were debating about who was going to supervise my thesis. My material falls under Dr. B's domain, but the format is distinctly Dr. H's. Therefore, I started referring to them as my thesis people, which one of my classmates cleverly shortened to 'peeps.' My thesis peeps! So you can be my blog peeps. Don't you feel special?

Today's title is courtesy of Dr. R and my research assistantship. I'm doing the aforementioned assisting at COMPRU, a place that I couldn't remember the long form of the name for. But now I know it, and am sharing it with you! I went in for my tour today, and it's very cool. My part of the neatness is determining how intelligble samples are. Dr. R tells me that this could potentially be very boring, and so she will also attempt to arrange for me to sit in on various other things going on in the lab. These things could count towards my clinical hours! This is all seeming to cool for words. I also get to wear a badge. A badge! A blurb and a badge. It's all too much for me. ;) COMPRU does a lot of prosthetic work, which is just phenomenal. The befores and afters of the more detailed work that I saw at the clinic today are just unbelievable. I am so thankful to have the opportunity to work there!! :D

Today Megs and I got our topic for our Child Language Disorders project. We get to discuss the use of sign as an augmentative communication device, which is very cool. Please note that we aren't talking about using sign with normally developing children. It's become a recent fad for parents to teach language-normal kids to use signs, supposedly because it aids communication pre-lingually (before the kids are using words). However, research indicates that the iconic signs (signs that look like what they mean, as in reaching your arms up to indicate "pick me up") are used by kids anyway. And the more advanced signs that they teach? The kids learn them about the same that they start using words. So what's the point? And the other thing? Normally developing kids might use the signs... but they tend to say the words as they're signing. Again, what's the point?? Anyhoo, our project will be looking at teaching language-delayed kids signs, in the hopes of them being able to use them in place of words, while they're working on developing learning language. Very cool.

I also got my assignment for my Motor Speech Disorders project. I'm researching Bell's Palsy, which should be very interesting. It's so neat - each of us got a different neurological condition, and we each make up two pages of information, and then we copy all of them, and make a book for ourselves! So sweet!! I'm quite excited, can you tell?

Ok. I've got to go do some homework before Grey's Anatomy starts. Later days!

Ela

Pedantic, Dogmatic and Didactic

Hi all.

Today was... loooooooooong. Can I just say that having to be at school from 8.30 - 18.20 is a bit much, even for me? Luckily my hockey game was cancelled/forfeited (due to weather) so I got to just come home right after.

It was hard to get up this morning, as I stayed to watch Allan curl last night (he curls at the same place I play tennis, half an hour after my lesson finishes), and ended up getting home after 11. Too late for me. But luckily enough my first class was interesting enough to actually hold my attention. It was the class that just us thesis kiddos take, and it's tag-team taught by the only two men in our department. We went around the circle, each explaining our thesis, and I of course had to go first. whee!

Our other classes were also good. We were quite concerned that the late one (15.30 - 18.20) was going to be pedantic, dogmatic and didactic, but it wasn't! It's taught by a woman who is clearly an incredible clinician, and it was very cool to hear her case studies that she used to support her argument for client/family-centred treatment. More on that another day, when I'm not so wiped.

As I rode home on the train, 2 girls not in the thesis class were asking me about it. I told them about having to go first in the sharing portion, and one of the girls said "well that's typical. You're the person everyone looks at when there's an awkward silence." I was quite taken aback! Compared to others in my class (and I KNOW that a ton of you aren't going to believe this, but it's true) I say very little. But as I thought about it I realized that the few times I do speak up are generally when it's gone silent because no one wants to attempt an answer.

I asked Megs about this in an IM conversation, and she said "You are good at dispelling awkwardness. It's something I really appreciate about you, actually." Another aback-taking! But as I thought about it, I felt like something clicked. It's true - I do speak up to try and dispell tense situations. I'm not afraid to look like a bit of a goof by taking the risk and trying to answer a question that I don't really know the answer to. Sometimes I end up looking like an idiot (like yesterday... I answered "median" but meant to say "mode." "Median" was the right answer, so Dr. H was congratulating me, but I had to stop him and say "I actually meant mode, so I clearly don't know what I'm talking about." Everyone had a laugh, and we moved on.) and sometimes I end up getting it right, and feel quite chuffed. :)

I've now had each of my new classes once, and I kind of feel like vomiting when I look at my organization stuff. My calendar is stuffed with fun things like "3 midterms in 2 days" and a bajillion assignments (we didn't have very many of those last semester). Add to that a thesis, a research assistantship, an ESL student, a co-presidency, a hockey team, and a social life... well, it's going to be hectic. So advance apologies for the weeks where I up and disappear on you.

I now have two funny stories for you, oddly both about Allan.

First: I wanted to bring him a small present from the States, so I picked up a king-size Almond Joy. I love Almond Joys, and you can't get them in Canada, so I figured I'd share the joy.

"I hope you like coconut," I said with a smile.

"I'm allergic to coconut," he replied.

Laughing, I replied "Very funny. Seriously, do you like coconut?"

"Seriously, Ela - I'm allergic. I told you that before!!"

The boy. Is allergic. To his present. And I KNEW that!! Uh huh. Only me. I am the only girl who would bring back a gift made of the ONE THING he's allergic to. I emailed mum, and asked her to bring some Paydays back with her. If he winds up being allergic to peanuts, I'm calling the whole thing off...


Second: We were discussing random Christmas related things, and gifts came up.

"I got new orthotics" he said "since I've got such flat arches."

"Interesting" I replied. "The lady who made my orthotics back when I was in junior high said I had the highest arches she'd ever seen."

There was a short pause.

"Is one of your arches higher than the other?" he queried.

"That's a weird question - I don't think so.... Why do you ask?"

"Oh... I was just wondering if there was a higher-archy."

*ba dum dum*

And that's all you get to hear about that.


I'm off to bed now!

Love,
E.

Revelling in my Boredom

So it's 6.30 on a Sunday night, and I'm totally bored out of my gourd. However. It's actually very enjoyable! This semester is stacking up to be craaaaaaazy so I'm enjoying what could be the last night where I sit at home with absolutely nothing to do. If only Sunday night TV were better....

In point of fact I've already got a to-do list going for the semester, and could be working on stuff for my thesis, but I decided to give myself the day off. Mostly because I'm feeling seriously brain-dead when it comes to my topic. So I'll come up with brilliant things on... Wednesday. Wednesday feels like a thesis day.

Tomorrow it's back to class (where'd the holiday go??), and I'm half looking forward to it and half dreading it. *sigh* Tomorrow I have Clinical Research Methods, Adult Language Disorders I and Language and Literacy. The clin prof is one of my thesis peeps, and he's very cool, so that should be good. And I'm all over the adult stuff, so I'm very interested in the adult lang. class. I'm less looking forward to the literacy class, but it could be cool, so I'll attempt to maintain an open mind.

Then it's home for sushi! Allan's meeting me at the LRT, and bringing me dinner. And that's all you get to hear about that. That will be followed by my tennis lesson. I hope I don't suck too much after a few weeks off! :D

Tuesday is a stupid busy day. I've got Motor Speech Disorders (v. cool), Child Language Disorders (not so cool), and my 'directed readings and research' class that all of us Thesis kids have to take. It's going to be small and therefore (hopefully) entertaining. The crappy bit is that I'll be at school from 8.30 til 6.30. They moved one of our classes from mid-afternoon to late-afternoon, leaving us with a 3 hr break and class til 6.30. I understand that sometimes things have to be moved, but this is very yucky. 3 hrs isn't quite enough time to make it worthwhile for me to go home. I'm hoping my English student will keep her lesson in that time slot, and then at least it's filled up. Anyhoo. Tuesday night is my first hockey game of the winter term, and it's at 11.43 in Dresden. Feel free to attend.

Megan and I made New Year's Resolutions together on New Year's Day. I've actually got nine of them, but I'm not going to tell you all of them, I promise. What I am going to tell you is this: Whilst Megs and I were shopping in Capitola (hello, Victoria's Secret!), we went into a Payless. The clerk there said that her resolution was to buy one new pair of shoes for each paycheque she earned. I have no comment on how responsible I feel this is. What I do have a comment on is the fact that this lady had a resolution that would actually be enjoyable to keep. What a thought!

Therefore, I made 2 resolutions that are actually fun ones. One is to entertain in my home once a month, so watch out for dinner party stories! And the other is to maintain my outside friendships. By 'outside' I mean non-speechies (those rare birds I so seldomly see!). I've got three or four quite good friends that I just don't see often enough, and I really want to hang onto and deepen those friendships. I hope that they're all Ok with nights of laying on the couch and chatting... I sense that's going to be about all the energy I've got. ;)

So that's where things are... back to school on the morrow!

Love,
Ela

PS - did you know that "education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence"? (It's a quote from Robert Frost.)