And so begins the gentle descent.

Morning my friends. It's Friday morning, 8 am, and I'm not at school. I'm not skipping, I'm not sick, and no one died. It's just that we wrapped up our Augmentative/Alternative Communication class last Friday, and it's now done for the term. This leaves my Fridays open for me to get other things done, which is fantastic!

Today, for example, I'm going to an elementary school in Riverbend to give two presentations on hearing protection. I'm looking forward to it, actually. Our prof warned us to be prepared to engage with the kids about how hearing is important to us, so I was trying to think of examples that students in my classes might be able to connect with. Obviously, announcing that hearing my boyfriend tell me he loves me is going to make them gag, and telling them that hearing my profs teach is going to make them think I'm an obnoxious keener. ;) As I puttered around this morning I came up with two examples I think the kids will like. One, when I'm playing World of Warcraft I need to be able to hear the rogues stealth. For those of you who don't play (i.e., the 98% of my social circle that is sane and not uber-geeky), a stealthed rogue is character who's almost invisible, and who is probably going to kill you. Two, I like being able to eavesdrop when I ride the bus. It makes those long trips so much more entertaining! I'll let you know how those presentations go.

My thesis is coming along slowly but steadily. I feel quite good when I realize that I've worked on it just about every day now. I feel like I'm staring into a black abyss complete with a balrog when I realize that I'm meant to be done this draft by 'the end of the month' and today is 26 October. Someone needs to get cracking!

Yesterday was one of my CUP co-worker's last days, so we all went out for lunch. Over the course of the meal, my supervisor called down the table to ask me where my hometown was.

"Oh, I grew up in Wetaskiwin," I replied.

"So did L-----!" my supervisor said.

"Neat! Did you know Dennis Huebert? He worked at the high scho--..."

"Dennis Huebert? Like MISTER Huebert?" L----- asked, incredulously.

"Yeah, he's my da-..."

"Oh I knew him. I knew him well. I spent a ... fair ... amount of time in his office!"

It was so cute. You just never know where you're going to run into someone that your dad had to pinkslip these days!

Aaron (Jason's best friend and Megan's boyfriend) flew into Edmonton yesterday to spend the weekend here for his sister's wedding. He and Megan and Tish and Larissa all came over to Jason's to spend the evening just hanging out. Those three boys together are utterly ridiculous, and I do believe that Jason just about laughed port out of his nose while Tish came close to aspirating a large chunk of pepperoni pizza. Now that's the mark of a good evening. Larissa, Megan and I were much more subdued. ;) There was some talk of the six of us going to Banff for NYE, something the boys have done frequently, and that Larissa did last year with them. It sounds like it could be a lot of fun... let's hope that I learn to snowboard by then, so I'm not stuck in the lodge, by the fire, with a book, and a hot chocolate.... Wait. Wait just a minute. Not learning to snowboard is starting to sound like the better option here. :D

A sort of spare moment

Clearly, life's been a little crazy recently. I often think about getting a blog post up, but there aren't a lot of free moments around to do so! I'm stealing this one on the grounds that I just wrote a midterm and I therefore deserve a short break... even though I do need to do an aug. com. assignment and a fluency lab tonight. :)

So here's the nutshell version of "Things in the Life of Elizabeth."

Work. I've been doing 3 hours a week at COMPRU, and really enjoying it. I'm splitting my time between digitizing casette tapes and analyzing the cookie swallow portion of modified barium studies. This is great, because I'm gaining familiarity both with speech software (Computerized Speech Lab) and with swallowing studies. I've also been fortunate in that my supervisor has granted me access to her lab's database of research articles, giving me the opportunity to look at articles that aren't available on-line without having to go to the library. (I hate going to the library to get articles. It's a total gong show, given that you can't safely leave your things ANYWHERE, and the photocopiers are always far away from the journals that I need, and there's never anyone around to show me how to doubleside.) I now have a stack of articles on nasopharyngoscopy that I can work into my thesis!

I really like my new position at CUP as well. I'm there 12 hours a week, and I've been getting some great experience in academic writing as well as with the ethics process for research. Both of these are skills that are applicable to my thesis, so yay! I like the people that I work with, the work that I do, and the theoretical premise behind the existence of the organization. Could it really get any better?

School. I officially wrote the final midterm of my Master's program today, and that's feeling pretty good. I did very well on the first midterm I wrote (Adult Language Disorders II), and am feeling good about today's as well (Fluency). It's a busy term, and I have lots to get done yet today... including writing the goals for our Augmentative/Alternative Communication class and completing the second lab for Fluency (it's a lot of counting stutters and determining severity, etc.). My goal of doing all the reading this term has completely bitten the dust, and I'm mostly just reading for Adult Language and Fluency, since those seem to be the two classes where it actually matters. Things are quite stressful right now, but will be much, much better at 12 on Friday, so it's manageable.

I met with my thesis peeps today to discuss my prospectus. Dr. B feels that I'm getting close enough to completing it that I should incorporate the details into my current draft (e.g., table of contents, reference list) and submit it for a final read by the end of the month or so. She and Dr. H will read and edit it twice, and then it will go to Dr. R (my committee member) for another read. Given all of this, it's coming close to the time for me to pick a date to defend my prospectus. This is a mini-defense; only Drs. B, H and R will be there. We sign the formal contract delineating our roles and responsibilities, and then I go to ethics. This is feeling stressful and worrisome, given how much work I still see needing to be done, but if my peeps think I'm getting close, then I'm getting close, and I'll get through this somehow.

Life. Life has also been busy. I've been attempting to attend church, Tegan's Bible study and Knox's Bible study, and doing so with limited success. I'm kind of now aiming for 2 out of 3 in a week, but have settled for just one a couple of times. :) Jason and I have also been spending some time with his friend Tish and Tish's fiancee Larissa, which has been very nice. We went bowling last weekend, and that wound up being a lot of fun. We also try to hang out with Kathie and Brandon and Al and Scott every couple weeks or so, mostly to play board games, which is excellent. It's really nice to spend a Sunday afternoon just playing games and hanging out.

All in all, life is hectic but good. I'm stressed and a bit frazzled (my English skills are going down the tubes, which is always a sign that I'm tired), but enjoying my classes, my work, my friends, and my boyfriend. Plus, my wonderful sister has taken the burden on of finding me something to wear to Tish and Larissa's wedding as well as to my grad celebration in December. I tried, but my dress shopping attempts mostly resulted in tears and a dress that I loved but both Kathie and Jason thought looked cheap. Yay for Kathie finding me something nice!!

Love y'all,
Elizabeth