Baby it's cold outside...

Yuck. The weather has been so yucky lately. I know that I live in Edmonton, and I know that comes with some chilliness, but -47*C (-53*F) with the windchill is a little much. "My" car (as in Jason's car that I drive) won't start and doesn't have a blockheater, so I'm carless again. Oh, ETS - how I didn't miss you. At all. On the other hand, I'd forgotten how fun it is to wear ski pants (*vwip vwip, vwip vwip* all the way to school), and how neat it feels when your eyelashes freeze together. Luckily, it's warming up, so I don't have to worry about freezing any exposed skin in less than a minute!

In other news, everything else is going really well. Clinic continues to be both fun and challenging, work is interesting and enjoyable, and I'm getting work done on my thesis (ethics application and presentation for my proposal defence). These things are what the majoirty of my life is based around right now, and that's Ok by me. I'm finding this term to be just the right amount of work, and I'm feeling pretty balanced. (A little more exercise is needed, but once it warms up a bit more I'll get back to the gym with B.).

Jason and I have been hanging out with our couple friends lately, which is fun. We played Settlers of Catan with Al and her husband two weeks ago, and then we went to Kathie and Brandon's this weekend for dinner and a game of Zombies!!! As gross as it is, I kind of like this game. :D Jason and I also hung out with Jake on Tuesday, which was lots of fun. We played some video games, a round of Zombies!!! (I won!), and then some WoW. Good times were had by all (thank you Minnie Johnson of the Wetaskiwin Times Advertiser). Tish and Larissa have been trying to catch us to go out for wings with them, but we haven't managed to line our schedules up yet. And B. and her boyfriend want togo out for dinner and then learn how to play Settlers, so that's going to happen sometime in the near future too, I think.

It's kind of weird to be in a place in my life where I have couple friends. This weirdness obviously needs to be counteracted with individual friend time! And so, I had breakfast withTegan (whose real name I will use from now on, as she no longer has the same schedule as me, and you cannot stalk her via my blog) last weekend, dinner with Robin and Caitlin the week before that, and dinner with Rachel (the newest friend in my life) last night. All in all, very satisfying.

So that's where things are at right now. Hope you're all keeping warm and drinking loads of cocoa with those little mini-marshmallows.

Love,
Ela

Happy New Year!

Hello friends!

A happy 2008 to you all - it's been good to me so far, and I hope it continues that way.

New Year's Eve in Jasper was a really fun getaway. Our first day, the four of us (Jason, Aaron, and Megs) sat in the hotel room and played the Wii's Big Brain Academy. It was sooo addictive. And it was really funny - As long as the teams were 1 boy and 1 girl (didn't matter which), we were evenly matched. However, girls against the boys meant that the girls lost. :) My one criticism of the game would be the lack of language tests - I think a big brain is one with a good vocabulary! Some definitions, synonym/antonym pairs... things like that would have made it better.

Our second day was the day on the hill... and let's just say I didn't do too well. My inability to carve really bit me in the arse... or more acurately, my quads. Trying to heelside my way down the whole mountain didn't work out so well. The time has come for me to learn to carve, and this will require me to get over my fear. Think I could find a psychological snowboarding coach? :) If it isn't too cold tomorrow, maybe I'll hit the hill again.

Our third day, the boys hit the hill, while we girls lazed about, wandered the town, and relaxed. As it was New Year's Eve, we went out for dinner at the Fiddle River, and it was lovely. I had lobster for the first time - wonderful! We then crashed back at the hotel and watched Hot Fuzz. An excellent film. We had a champagne toast at midnight, and it was such a nice way to ring in 2008 - sitting with good friends, watching a good film, and drinking champagne.

We drove back the next day and attempted to find somewhere to eat some lunch. Not much was open, so I suggested the truck stop in Hinton. Jason says "are you sure they even serve food there?"

"Um yes - see the giant knife and fork on the sign?"

"Well, I've never really eaten at a truck stop. You're such a small town girl!"

Hard to argue with that, really. :)

My semester has been going incredibly well so far. Mondays and Wednesdays I'm at CUP, where I'm working on various projects and am developing an idea for a possible publication. Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm in clinic, where I'm working with 3 little girls (all under 4) who have language delays. This is different from my client this summer who had speech difficulties, but intact language (can't remember the difference? Look here.) These little girls are darling, and I'm already enjoying working with them. Fridays are free for thesis work.

Some extra nice things? (1) My clinic partner, B, is fabulous. I just love her. She's hard working and efficient, and a complete pleasure to work with. (2) B and I are going to the gym together Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, which is lovely. (3) My proposal draft is completed, and is under final edits. I'm hoping to defend it by early February, and then get cracking on my actual research. Whee!

One sad thing is that Jason agreed to take social dance classes with me once a week (waltz, foxtrot, etc.)... but the class was full. :( There's only one class a week offerred late in the evening, the only time that Jason is certain to be free... and the wait-list is 6 couples long. Oh well... maybe next semester!

That's my update for now - have a lovely weekend!

Elizabeth

Progress

Hi friends!

When last I left you, your darling Ela was in tears at the bottom of the Snow Valley bunny hill. Since then, Jason took me for a second lesson, which was slightly better. There was a lot more standing, some controlled 'floating,' and even some appropriate stopping. There was not, however, a whole lot of fun. I was still really frustrated with my inadequacy, and Jason was doing a very good job of being patient with my cranky attitude. Leaving the hill after 4 or so hours of up the carpet down the hill, I was starting to regret agreeing to learn.

The Christmas season then leapt upon us, and I was kept busy writing finals and getting gifts together. My finals went really well - even the one that I wrote in 35 minutes. *grin* It was the last final, and I was SO ready to be finished. We had a really nice 'graduation' banquet,' where the girls looked lovely and the boys looked handsome, and one of my classmates delivered an absolutely perfect poem about our experiences as the class of '08.

Christmas was wonderful. Christmas Eve Jason and I were with my family at K & B's house. We ate a nummy dinner, exchanged gifts, and played with Jake's new Wii. Big Brain Academy? So much fun. Sadly, Jason wasn't feeling 100%... and he started feeling worse as the night wore on. Christmas morning we opened our presents for each other - I got him symphony tickets, Starship Catan, and Carcassone: The Castle. He got me Mulan, Finding Nemo, and Leonard. Who's Leonard? Leonard is a Warm Buddy sheep, and I love him. He is SO cute. SOOOOOO cute. And I love him deeply. He's wonderful. He's the best gift ever. :) I also got PJs and Christmas socks from mum and dad... and snowboard pants.

My old ski pants didn't like to stay up, as they didn't have a belt or drawstring, and the slid down off of my yoga pants all the time. My new ones are gorgeous, and they have an adjustable waistband. Well, you can guess what new snowboard pants mean... they mean it's time to try again. I mentioned that I was heading to the hill today, and my uncle asked if I'd like to take my two cousins along with me. These two Californian boys are both natural athletes, and had been once before, so I readily agreed. If it had required me to attempt to teach them something, I would have said no way. :) Jason had to work, which is too bad, so it was just the three of us who went out to the hill. And you know what? It was GREAT! The boys had a couple rough runs to start, then figured it all out. By the time we left, they were going off a jump on a slightly more difficult hill... one that I'm so not ready for yet. :) They looked fantastic.

How did I look? Well, not quite like them. I'm not a natural athlete, and I have a healthy respect for what gravity can do to me. That being said, I did a pretty good job. My drifting (the bit where you go down the hill from side to side) is looking good, especially heel-side. I need to continue working on my toe side control - it's hard to move from side to side when I'm so worried about mowing someone over. Dangers of going down the hill backwards, I guess. :) I'm also getting a lot better at standing up from a seated position. And the coup d'etat of the day is that I can get off the carpet, strap in my 2nd foot, and snowboard the more level portion of the hill. It used to be that I'd get off the carpet, UNSTRAP my 1st foot, and walk over to where the hill is steep enough for me to get going when standing perpendicular to the hill (the easiest way to control your speed). Now I can board that part of the hill by switching from being parallel to perpendicular. Because it's so level, I can control my speed while I'm doing this. The next step is to practice switching from parallel to perpendicular while going down the steeper portion of the hill.

It was so great to go out and spend 4 or so hours on the hill and to really enjoy it. I'm sorry that Jason didn't get to share my first day of enjoyment - given that he had to put up with so much crappy attitude earlier on. But at least now I'm feeling more ready for Jasper for NYE. I'm going to go tomorrow morning, too - and continue with my practicing. After that, I'm going bowling with my cousins which should be very fun. Possibly also painful, given how my arms are feeling after pushing me up onto my feet a zillion times today. :)

I am really looking forward to our New Year's Eve in Jasper. Turns out the hotel has a hot tub, which will come in wildly handy after a day on the slopes. :) Our NYE reservation is at the Fiddle River Seafood Restaurant, and it sounds like the food should be really good. Plus, the day that Megs and I spend reading and lazing (while the boys board the harder runs) is going to be excellent. I can sense it from here. :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish you the best in 2008!

Love,
Elizabeth

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

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.)

In my Defense, I am an Idiot

Oh, another Audiology Professor quote. And no, I haven't quit blogging... not yet, anyway. A big thanks to those of you who said you're still reading; it totally perked me up. And I need the perking.

It's the end of the semester, and I'm exhausted. I went to bed at midnight and got up at 5.15 to try and prepare for today's exams. Audiology went alright, but I'm feeling a sick sense of dread about speech science, which I write in 36 minutes. I tried doing some last minute studying, but it just wasn't working for me. To make matters worse, I've got a sore throat, and sense a bout of flu or maybe tonsilitis coming on. I'm so tired that I could curl up in this cubicle and sleep... but I've got tennis tonight, an English lesson tomorrow, 2 more finals to study for, and a couple of batches of cookies to bake. Oh, and two textbooks to read for my thesis meeting Friday, along with a timeline to develop and research questions to write. I just want to go to bed and stay there. Forever.

But enough whining! My life is filled with fabulous people doing fabulous things. Last night was Knox's JoyFest, which Megs and I sang in. It went pretty well, and we looked fab. Witness the evidence here:


My sister and her family, my grandparents and my mum were all there, which was lovely. Also there was Allen, the new boy I'm seeing. And that's all you get to hear about that. ;)

Friday and my last exam can't get here fast enough. Hello 12 hour sleeps, plus afternoon naps. *sigh* It's going to be decadent. And then off to California!!!! (Abuse of punctuation, I know.)

Sorry this was such a crap update, but I'm just too tired to think right now. Better posts shall come... just give me some sleep and a miracle cure for whatever illness is awaiting me 'round the corner.

Love,
Ela