Wherein Ela remembers how much she likes a schedule.

Good evening friends!

It hasn't been too long since the last post (about 2 weeks, maybe?), but SO MUCH has happened! I spent days following my last post wrapping up clinic (hectic), CUP (enjoyable - I love presenting at the workshop*), and thesis ethics (currently being edited). I then spent the weekend organizing my stuff, and Sunday evening I headed out on the highway.

I'm back in my old bedroom, but my mum has completely redone it, and it's lovely. My parents were so cute my first night here... mum was bringing me towels (I do happen to know where they are, I did live here for 18 years!), and dad was telling me again and again to just help myself to whatever I want. He also reminded me of the one house rule: You can have whatever you want, but if it's the last one, make sure you write it on the list. Living with my folks is working out really well. It doesn't hurt that they're spoiling me rotten - my laundry miraculously gets done, dinner is on the table about 1/2 an hour after I get home, and if I write what I want on this little piece of paper by the phone, it shows up in the fridge a day or two later. It's like magic!

Aside from all of the spoiling, it's really nice to spend some time with my parents and grandparents. They're all pretty neat people, and I'm really enjoying being able to see them all a little more often.

Another nice thing is that I'm back on a strict schedule, and I'd forgotten how much I love it. Last semester was sort of all over the place, time wise (Monday and Wednesday at CUP, Tuesday and Thursday at clinic, Wednesday afternoon and Friday off...), and I didn't realize how tough that was for me. Now....

Monday- Thursday: I get up at about 6.15. I get dressed, go for a 30 minute run (I can run ALL THE WAY across Wetaskiwin in 15 minutes. That boggles my mind. I can't get ANYWHERE in Edmonton in that short a time!), come home, clean up, eat breakfast, make my lunch, and go to work. I come home from work, eat supper, do the dishes, do 40 minutes of toning with weights, watch some TV, talk to Jason on the phone, surf the 'net, etc. At 10.00 I get into bed. I read for 30 minutes. Then I turn out the light, and go to sleep. I like it!

Friday: Pretty similar to M-R, except that after work I drive to Edmonton. I eat dinner with Jason, I don't do any weights, and I probably stay up later than I should.

Saturday: I do as little as possible. No run, no weights, no work. It's nice. :) This will change when my ethics edits get back...

Sunday: Get up, go to church, hang out, drive back to Wetaskiwin at about 7, do my weights, get ready for Monday, into bed at 10, read for half an hour... :D

But the REALLY COOL thing is that stuff that happens in-between eating breakfast and coming home for supper: my placement.

Let me just say this: I LOVE MY PLACEMENT.

Today, I had one little guy from about 9-10. After lunch, I was walking through the halls to another child's classroom, and he spotted me.

"Are you coming to pull me out?" he asked hopefully.

"No, but you get to come and see me again on Friday," I told him.

"Friday?" he asked sadly. "That's a long way away."

I never thought I'd love pre-school/school-age treatment this much. But it isn't just the kids, as wonderful as they are. I have an amazing supervisor, who totally *gets* how independent I am, and who lets me run my own show. Nevertheless, she's incredibly supportive and is always willing to give me advice, or to jump in when what I'm doing isn't working. She is just FANTASTIC. And the Wetaskiwin SLP materials room is just awesome. They have every game, every book, every resource... all organized, all in good condition. I love going in there and poking around - you just never know what you might find!

My caseload is exciting and varied - from kids who are struggling with just one sound to toddlers who aren't making good eye contact to a stuttering case. I'm getting to see it all, and I couldn't be happier.

Great and varied clients + Excellent materials and resources + Superb clinical supervisor = one heck of a practicum. I love it.

Ela

*One participant told me that I was obviously very comfortable with my material, and that I had a great presentation style. "You didn't say 'um' or 'like' once!" It was such a nice compliment.

Just the blahs

Hello friends!

It is yet ANOTHER glorious day here in Edmonton (5*C and beautifully sunny!). I have had a lovely day. Which I especially appreciate given how 'blah' I had been feeling earlier in the month.

In fact, my lack of motivation, hypersomnia, changes in appetite, and general 'Debbie Downer' mood had me a little bit concerned that perhaps I was depressed. Jason told me that I really wasn't being myself, and wondered if I shouldn't be seeing the doctor about it. Kathie suggested maybe it was just the February blahs. I really didn't know. I didn't feel really 'sad,' so depression seemed a bit much. Yet it hadn't been a particulary grey or gloomy month either, so the 'blahs' didn't really fit either.

It must have been the blahs. The temperature has risen, the sun has been out every day, and I've been feeling like a new person. Yesterday I ran outside for the first time in (I'm embarassed to say) months. It was more of a walk than a run, and I had an asthma attack, but I was out there giving my best and it felt really good. I ran again today and had a much better time of it. Short-ish - only 20 minutes - but that's still better than being a lump of lard on the couch! So I'm celebrating being active and enjoying the sun, and I'm looking forward to more days where I can chug down the sidewalk listening to some of my favorite songs.*

I now have a new snowboard, so tonight I'm going to put my bindings (peeing men and all!) on it. Tomorrow I'll head over to Snow Valley and practice up some more - hopefully a shorter board will help me to feel more in control, and I'll be able to figure this turning thing out. Let's just say I'm hopeful, if not expectant. ;)

My clinic partner has been gone this week, and I've therefore had 2 solo sessions. Tuesday's was excellent - I was working with just 1 of the 3 girls, and she achieved some good things. I also made progress on some of my personal goals (like accurately taking data and being really enthusiastic and responsive to her accurate productions). Today's session... well, I was nervous. And I rarely get nervous. I'm very confident in my abilities as a student SLP. I know my strengths, I know my weaknesses, and I can work with them. But today I had a parent observing.

In my heart of hearts, I am an old-school, directive SLP. I do my thing in my room, then send the child home, and the parents are excited about the progress. I write them reports, they read them, maybe we conference... but I'm in charge, and clinic is separate from home. If I had no guidance, this is how I would run treatment. This is NOT the best way to do speech/language therapy. I, as the clinician, see the client for maybe an hour a week. They, as the parents, see the child... well, lots more. Treatment is most effective when the SLP can coach the parents so that they can provide the treatment at home. The SLP brings the speech/language expertise, but the family brings the 'child' expertise. They know their kid. They know what motivates him, what frustrates him, what works for him. You help them figure out tasks that move the child towards his goal, and then they work on them at home as well. You coach, facilitate, advise... and work yourself out of the picture. The ideal SLP is the one who winds up making herself obsolete to each client.

So having a parent in the room is a challenge for me. I feel a bit intimidated, and a LOT overwhelmed. Now I have to run the session, manage behavior, take data, AND include a parent. That means explaining what I'm doing in each task and WHY (vital! vital! Otherwise people think that all you're doing is coloring. Or climbing stairs. Or making a cow 'moo.' They don't see that each task also has a communicative component), and providing the parent with a role for each task. It's so great if you can include a parent, demonstrate the task, and then let her take over. You also want to ask for her input about her child. Does this task suit her child? Can she think of something that might work better? Can she see herself trying something similar at home? Does she have questions, comments, concerns, or advice? Including a parent in a session goes beyond having her watch - it's a chance for EVERYONE to learn. The child at the activity, the parent from the coaching, and the SLP from the parent's expertise.

I was therefore very pleased to sit down with my supervisor afterwards and have her tell me that I did an excellent job. I missed a few things, of course, and would love a second opportunity to go further in talking with mum than I did, but I did a solidly good job of having mum in the room. I successfully explained the rationale for our activities, talked with her about things her daughter finds motivating and frustrating, shared stories about her daughter's previous sessions, and invited her to provide any feedback she wanted, either today in person, or in the future through a communication book. It went really well. Yay!! I was so pleased.

So pleased that I went to the knitting store and bought the supplies for a new afghan!** It's going to be dark purple with wide turquoise bands and narrow lime green stripes. So cute. The lady at the store told me that she "likes people who are adventurous with colour." That's me! :D I'm excited to get started on it, so I'm going to go and get started.

I'm so glad it was just the blahs... it's so much better to be excited and loving life!

Elizabeth


*The Killers - All these things that I've done
SheDaisy - Don't worry 'bout a thing
Lily Allen - Alfie
Usher - Yeah


**Yes, I have one that's almost done. It's currently in Wetaskiwin. As soon as I get it, I'll put this new one on hold and finish the old one. But for now... it's all about the casting on.

Exciting

Hi guys,

I heard back from DriveABLE today, and am going in for interview on Friday morning at 10 (the delay was due to their HR woman being on holiday). If you have a moment, you might say a little prayer that I'll be calm and not chatter their heads off. :D

I had a lovely birthday last week, with lots of birthday greetings from friends (yay for Facebook), time spent with family, and a trip to the horse races with Jason. "Dover! Move yer bloomin' arse!" We made $3. I won't tell you how much we lost. ;) A good time was had by all! Last night we had dinner with his mum and grandparents, which was lovely. His granny and grandfather gave me Godiva chocolates as a gift... and I'm doing a TERRIBLE job of rationing them out.

Given my inability to hold onto chocolate, I went out for a run this morning. My endurance isn't as good as it was, but I managed to get in a good thirty minutes, so I'm feeling pretty fantastic. I'm planning to go again tomorrow - provided my legs don't hurt too much. * grin *

I'm off to turn on the oven and throw in a roast. We're having it with mashed potatoes and green beans/spinach sauteed with garlic. Nummers.

Love ya,
Ela

So much with the busy...

Hi all,

apologies for the lack of posts - unfortunately the last 3 weeks have been totally insane, and I just haven't had time to sit down and write anything. Today's post won't be anything brilliant... just a bit of a catch up. :)

Today is the last day of clinic. This summer we had clinic plus two classes: Assessment and Dysphagia (disorders of swallowing). Assessment was pretty closely integrated into our clinic process, so it wasn't so noticeable. Dysphagia was totally independent of clinic, and it was tough. I was so unmotivated to learn that I found it hard to pay attention in class. I wound up teaching myself most of the material the weekend before the final. :) Luckily, that works for me! And dysphagia is a disorder area I'd like to spend at least some time working in some day, so I'm glad I got something out of the class.

Clinic itself was a weird experience. The 4 45-minute sessions a week were great. I loved being with clients: both working with them and just getting to know them. The rest of the time was more challenging. There was so much group work, and so many overlapping roles with no clear delineation. There was a lot of paperwork, something I really don't mind working on solo, but something that is very challenging to try and complete with another person. Honestly, who writes reports with two people sitting at one computer? Yet this is how our clinic is structured in many ways, and I found it really challenging. Clinic was also hard because everyone is exhausted from the last 2 semesters of school. Tempers are shorter, endurance is a joke, and minor obstacles become frustrating hurdles to leap. If I could make one recommendation to the program, it would be that they give use TWO weeks in between winter and spring term, and only four weeks between summer and fall.

What makes all of the above worthwhile is the little girl who used to be about 25% intelligible, and is now closer to 55%. Her mum is noticing that strangers understand the little girl better, and the little girl isn't giving up so easily when people don't understand. That's pretty rewarding. And don't forget the older gentleman, unable to write more than a single word in May, who is now writing 3 word phrase to communicate his ideas. He's also added 4 words to his spoken repertoire, and his daughter reports that he's much more confident about trying to get his ideas across. That's pretty rewarding, too.

Other things sort of ground to a halt during clinic. My thesis, while not totally stalling out, certainly slowed in its progress. Luckily I've got fantastic supervisors, and they've kept me working on it a bit at a time, so I've got somewhere to go. My plan is to finish the prospectus this August - we'll see how it goes.

I basically quit running for a couple months there, which was a terrible choice. If anything, I should have been running more, to try and better cope with the stress. Instead, I chose to let the long days at school, the homework and the session planning, and my Robert get in the way. :) Now that clinic's winding down, I've had some extra time, and I've tied on my runners twice this week. It's pretty sad how slow I've gotten, and how low my endurance is, but I'm feeling really, REALLY good about getting out there and going. And with the month of August off, I see no reason that I won't be able to re-establish my runs as habit. Rob's also going to pick up a tennis racket, so we can play together. :) He's more into dangerous things, like rollerblading and mountain biking, so we're working on finding things that both of us enjoy that we could do together. So far, we've got tennis. ;)

Tomorrow is Meg's and my shared birthday party. Her birthday was yesterday, and mine's not til August, but she's going away to Africa for the whole month, so now seemed a good time to celebrate. I'm quite excited - she's hosting a semi-formal afternoon of desserts. I think it's going to be wonderful! The only thing is that I actually need a dessert, and baking is not something I'm feeling up for. I may have to check out a couple of the bakeries in the neighborhood, and see what I can find. :)

I applied for a part-time position, and I should hear back next week. The woman I applied to has actually already sent me an email, but it just said that she was heading out on vacation, and would be in touch. The company is called DriveABLE, and they assess people with cognitively impairing medical conditions. These impairments may or may not render someone unfit to drive, and adults suffering from these conditions need to be screened for whether or not they are safe to be on the road. The job that I applied for is one in which I would do the in-office testing. I'm quite nicely qualified for the position, as it requires assisting adults (mostly seniors) in demonstrating their abilities, even if they're language impaired. We'll see what happens, I guess. :)

And that's all that's new at the moment. I'll try and post a bit more regularly once I've got a bit more time. :)

Love you,
Elizabeth

Woah-oh, we're halfway there...

So, I made the deal with myself that if I ran 3 times/week and strength trained 2 times/week for six weeks, I could pierce my naval. Today is the half-way point, and I'd like to show you something:


It's a bit hard to see, I know. But all those little purple circles? They are enclosing the letter S, R and/or B. S = strength training, R = running, B = biking. And those purple circles say that I am right on track! Whee!

I haven't seen any change in my weight in these last 3 weeks, but I am seeing changes in muscle definition in my arms and legs, which is very cool. I motivate myself to strength train by looking at my cute little muscles that I haven't had since the height of my ice cream scooping career last summer. :) And get this: I'm ready to upgrade from the 3lb. weights that I do my 4o minute workouts with to 5lb. ones. Go me!

I've been biking to and from school and church as much as possible, although the rain held me up one day, and my hair did another. My helmet doesn't fit when my hair's in two buns, and I was too tired to problem solve that morning. :D

I've been seeing quite a bit of my friends lately, and in doing so, have come across a couple funny stories for you. We went out for dinner at Padmanadi's (I hope I spelled that right), and it's over kind of in Cromdale. As I was walking from the bus stop to the restaurant, I passed the "Mildly Chinese Herbal Centre." Next time I apply for my passport, I think I'll put down that I'm mildly caucasian.

On Thursday I went to MEC to get a bell for my bike, and I noticed a little placard in an apartment building's flower bed. It said "Thank you for not peeing your pet on our grass." Owch! I feel terrible for these people who are peeing their pets - how excruciatingly painful to have to pass a small mammal through one's urinary tract! And I know that this is what they meant, because three steps down the road there was a SECOND placard, with exactly the same admonition on it. Does PETA know that this is happening??

Bed time - fresh sheets and a good book await!

E.

Balance

Yeah, yeah, I cut the top of my head off. YOU try and take a picture of yourself standing on one foot. (Please ignore the empty wine bottle and the garbage that needs to go out... I'll be dealing with those later! And yes, my shirt *does* say "does not play well with others." I think that forewarned is forarmed!)

Anyhoo. This is actually not the kind of balance I'm talking about. I just thought it'd be cute. I'm talking about the kind of balance where your life doesn't consist of going to school, cleaning your apartment, watching TV, and reading books. *coughcoughthelifeIlivedayearorsoagocoughcough*. I was running through the river valley on Friday morning when I suddenly realized how much happier I am now than I've ever been before. (This seems to be a theme for this year. It's a good theme. It could stick around for as long as it wanted, and I'd be pleased. Thematically pleasing, that's my life.) And I think a lot of it is just that I'm so much more balanced than I've ever been before.

At heart, I'm an introvert. Being with people uses up my energy; being alone replenishes it. Lovely. Fine. Not a big deal. But I used to spend absolutely obscene amounts of time alone. Sitting next to someone for 50 minutes in a 300 person psych class really doesn't count as time with others. ;) The weirdest part is that, in many ways, I was convinced that I liked spending so much time with me, myself, and I. I have very 'happy' memories of puttering around the apartment for a whole weekend, never really seeing anyone else, except my roommate.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?? I would go INSANE if I spent that much time doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING now. When I think of all the time I wasted in front of the TV... yuck! And I was lonely all the time, because I never spent any time with any people! (Was that sentence good English? I think not. But you get the idea.)

Anyhoo. I was running in the river valley, and I realized that now, even when I'm by myself, I'm a lot happier than I used to be. Now, when I'm alone, I'm usually doing something productive, like running, or reading, or cooking, instead of sitting on the couch, letting my brain cells ooze out my ears. (I also sleep. Sleep is good.) And I value that alone time so much more because I spend a lot of time with great, great people. Megs and I are together a lot, I'm going for dinner with Chris tonight, Katie and I will be attached at the hip this summer... and yes, I'm still dating like a 'floozy' (as Adrian so nicely put it! *grin*)

So I'm taking care of myself socially, spiritually, physically (I love riding my bike. My brother tells me that I'm the kind of girl who takes something totally geeky, and rocks it. Hence my Cool Cat sunglasses, and my sexy bike. That's its name, by the way. One of my classmates christened it!), and intellectually. It's such a great feeling!

Also a great feeling: I'm officially able to make conversation with a rock now. I know, I know - you're all thinking "E., you never STOP talking. Why is this exciting??" The truth of the matter is that, yes, I can talk the hind leg off a rhino... provided that I already know the rhino, and am comfortable with him. But I really, really stink at making small talk with people that I don't know that well. This was probably my biggest weakness as an ESL teacher - I found it really difficult to stimulate natural conversation in the classroom without using some sort of paper prompt (a game, a story, etc.). I was a bit worried about this being a problem in my clinical life, as well. Then, well...

Then I started dating a lot more than usual. And seriously - one or two dates where no one says anything, because neither of you can think of anything to say? HIGHLY MOTIVATING. My use of open-ended questions, and "tell me more" has increased exponentially. ;) I feel a lot more comfortable in odd little situations, like talking to people at church whom I don't know well, chatting with the staff at school that I don't interact with very often, etc..., and I'm really hoping that it carries over into clinic. We'll see!

Well, this is a long and introspective post. (AKA - really boring for anyone that isn't me.)

Cheers!
me

No Excuses

So I practically abandoned my blog there for a while, and I really have no excuse. Was I in the middle of finals? Yes, but that didn't stop me from doing 800 other things that didn't need doing. Was I very tired? Yup, but I still managed to catch up on most of this past season of CSI:NY as well as a whole bunch of movies (Stick It, anyone? So great!). So, no excuses. In fact, I even logged into my blogger account a couple times, stared at the blank page, and gave up. Not this time! This time is:

An Update.

School. I wrapped up my first academic year of my Master's as of April 26. Yay! This wasn't my best semester ever - I did a lot of procrastinating, and I feel like I could've done better on some of the assignments. I was carrying an extra class, though, and a thesis, so I had a bit more on my plate this term than last term. But - no excuses! Clearly, I need to continue working on my organizational and motivational skills. :)

Work. I finished my RA-ship at COMPRU the 2nd last Friday in April. There's no budget for me to have a summer RA-ship, but I am hoping that my schedule this spring allows me to continue at COMPRU, just in a volunteer position. We'll have to see. Our department chair has a PhD student from the U.S. who is looking for someone to help digitize some files for her dissertation. The pay is quite good, though they don't know how many hours it will be for. Obviously, I applied, and I have an interview on Monday or Tuesday. I'm really hoping that I can get the position, as it would be nice to have a bit of extra income over the summer.

Friends. There's been quite a bit of socializing going on, including a tea party at Chris' place last weekend. The food was fantastic, per the usual, and Robin and Chris (my two male friends!) got to meet each other. Megan and Robin also met for the first time, which was pretty cool. Look at me and my interacting friends! I've also been getting to know another of the thesis girls pretty well - I'll call her Harley. She and I have been kicking around the idea of going for dinner one night this week, and I hope that we can make that work.

Running. As if you're all not wondering if I'm keeping it up. I'll admit, I slacked a bit during finals, only running once or twice a week, instead of three or four times. But I'm getting back on track. My weight management counsellor and I decided that my goals are to run 3x a week, and strength train 2x a week. Hopefully I can keep up with that! I had set a reward for myself - if I lost a certain amount of weight, I'd pierce my naval. However, I think I've plateaued, and I'm not sure I'm ever actually going to get down to my 'goal' weight. So I've changed that goal. Now it says that if I can run 3x/wk and strength train 2x/wk for 6 full weeks, I can pierce my naval. We'll see where I'm at on the 2nd Saturday in June. :)

Well, I'm off to have a bath. It was too cold and rainy this morning to run, so I stayed in and did a cardio workout (Turbo Jam - it's geeky, but I like it) instead. It totally counts!! Anyhoo, now I'm a little tired, and I smell a little funky, so I think a bath is a good plan. :D

Laters!
Elizabeth

How do you make a kleenex dance?

'lo. It's grey and gloomy outside. I feel grey and gloomy on the inside. Losing one's stats assignment and having to do it a 2nd time coupled with cold rainy weather and not enough sleep makes me feel LUGUBRIOUS. I am feeling LUGUBRIOUS today. So.

Ela's Tried and True Methods of Cheering Oneself Up

1. Listen to cheery music with a good beat. I recommend Josie & the Pussycats or Garth Brooks. If those fail, go with Get Set Go's "I Hate Everyone." (Careful... it's rude.) It sounds so perky! It's so vindictive!

2. Go for a run. Get up 45 minutes earlier than usual, and head out. Listen to some good tunes (see #1). Enjoy the dark. Enjoy the icy puddles. Ice for slipping, puddles for dripping! Run into the river valley, then realize how dark and stupid it is to do that, and run back out. Then enjoy the feeling of relief!

3. Sleep. Now this one is important. You see, if you get up 45 minutes earlier, you should go to bed about two hours earlier. Missing this vital step will lead to you sitting in research methods, staring out the window, and commenting that the weather looks like Mother Earth is throwing up. Nothing like nature with gastroenteritis.

4. Bad jokes. Nothing fixes you like a good knee-slapper. By the way... you put a little boogie in it!

Prior to losing my stats assignment, I had a really good weekend. The circus was really fun, and our high-wire guy also fell, so our circus was just as good as Jake's was. ;) Sunday Megs and I sang in church, and it went really well, which was fun. Mum and Dad were there, so they took us out for lunch (yum!), and then I spent part of the afternoon at the dog park with a friend which was very fun.

Class today is boring and tedious, but that's just life. Tonight my language and literacy class is coming over for a potluck in order to work on an assignment, so that should be fun. Then tomorrow I want to get up early and run again. We'll see how well that goes. ;)

Ok, lunch time. Yay for leftover maki!

love,
ela

Put your right foot forward, put your left foot forward, put your right foot forward again...

I LOVE the song that today's title is from. It's by Wet Secrets, an Edmonton band, and it's on my Sweatin' to the Indies playlist. If you feel like it, check out CBC Radio 3's website, and you can hear it - it's called Secret March.

I got up this morning, and the sun was pouring into my room, and my sheets were especially soft. Always a good start to the day! I got up, threw some laundry in, changed my sheets (I missed Fresh Sheet Friday - it'll have to be Fresh Sheet Saturday, which isn't as alliteratively pleasing), and then went for a GLORIOUS run. It was sunny but cool, my music was good, and there were lots of other pleasant runners out and about exchanging smiles and 'good mornings'. I'm pretty sure that this morning was my longest run yet, just because I didn't want to go back inside. The only problem is that with a bit of sun, a bit of wind, and a lot of exertion, I get runburn. It's like sunburn, only less peely. I got home about an hour ago, showered, cleaned up my room, etc., and my cheeks are still brilliantly red. Hot, I know.

Today I'm going to the circus with Johnnie. Jacob was disappointed that I didn't go with him and dad, so when I talked to him today he said "your circus won't be as good as ours. The high wire guy fell when we went!" Owch! I always feel nervous when the artists work without nets... and apparently, I have legitimate reasons for feeling that way!!

Ok, I need to go and do some homework, if I can get focused (unlikely!) Catch y'all later.

E.

Song of Myself - Whitman

The feeling of health, the full-noon trill, the song of me rising
from bed and meeting the sun.

This is how I felt when I got up this morning (read the whole poem here). The sunshine was streaming in through my windows, I had slept so soundly the night before, and it was just so wonderful to get up! I love mornings like this. I got up, checked my email, drank some water, ate an apple, and went for another run! And the sun was shining, and Chris sent me a new podcast to listen to (Sweatin' to the Indies, it's so great), and I just chugged along, developing a new route for myself. I got home, showered, ate something, started on our paper for 518 (Ok, so I listed all the heading in a word document and saved it, but I still call it starting!), finished reading a chapter for 509, and did my 598 multiple regression analysis. I'm on fire!

Last night I went to the Rush game with Lee; we did pretty well at the beginning, but wound up losing. Bummer. Lee had a rather black sense of humour that I found highly entertaining. I made a rather off-colour comment about the large number of little boys (9 or 10 years old) running around shirtless:

"It's kind of like a vending machine for pedophiles," I said.

In his best "old man pedophile" voice, Lee replied "Oooh, I'm in the mood for a chubby one. Let's have nougat!"

I'm not sure how many of you will find that funny... (A. Leslie, please don't show that bit to G&G!), but I laughed til I cried. Nougat!

Anyhoo, today Robin's making me dinner (his team lost the Superbowl, mine won, I get dinner!), and then I'll be doing more homework. I've actually been working on my thesis this weekend, but I need to put in some more time on it. I should probably also try and write something under a few of those headings that I typed in for 518. ;)

Tomorrow's church, and I'm teaching jr. church. The kids think I'm awesome because, and I quote, "you're the only teacher who knows how to work the DVD player." *lol* I'm looking forward to it. Hopefully it'll still be sunny tomorrow when I run, and it can be as enjoyable as it was today.

Loves you!
E.

Owch!

Hello boys and girls!

I'm finally feeling like I'm over the jet lag... but it took two nights of going to bed at 9 to get there! :) This morning I got up, and as I puttered through my AM ritual, I just had this great sense of "wow, do I love being back in a routine!" It felt so good to put my bagel in the toaster, boil the water for my coffee, make my lunch... just chug along, doing all the little things I do every morning.

School felt very similar - just going through the same things that I do every Thursday. Today's gift from our motor speech disorders' prof was a large eraser, in honour of our midterms that we just wrote. She encouraged us to reflect on what went well and what went badly, and prepare ourselves to improve for the final. My eraser looks like chocolate, so I reflected mostly on how much I like chocolate, but I did briefly ruminate on the fact that I need to be a bit more "functional" and a bit less "theoretical" when I study for the final.

I took the train home from school, then stopped at the post office to hand in my student loan papers (I am, apparently, exceedingly special, because I did this once in September, and am now doing it again. The other girls only had to do it once. Maybe they'll give me extra money??), then stopped at Shoppers to buy my bus pass (the U-Pass was approved, come September my bus pass will be included in my tuition!), and then headed home. I puttered around a bit, had a snack, and then decided it was time for a run. I haven't run in about 2 weeks - it was awfully cold around midterms, so I went to the gym with my roomie, but not as regularly as I'd been running. And then I went to Prague, where I was lazy and fun-loving, and not running. So I pulled on my gear (I looked super cute, in case you're wondering), and headed out. Can I just say that two weeks does a LOT of damage to how well I run? I only lasted about 20 minutes, there was more walking than usual, I had an asthma attack, and a stitch in my side! I staggered home feeling fat and lazy, but proud of myself for doing something about it, and stretched for a while - I figure I'll be feeling this tomorrow. Note to self: Back to running 3-4 times a week, stat!

(I would just like to point out that by 4 o'clock, I'd been to school, gone to the post office, picked up my bus pass and gone for a run. I'm feeling productive.)

And now: some pictures! I took very, very few photos in Prague, and most of them are of the giraffes at the zoo. I won't bore you with those. :) But here are a few of people, my favourite subject, and a funny translation.

Adrian and Adam - looking highly entertained!


Courtney and Petr - my fabulous hosts. They're so cute!

Emily and I - she looks fabulous. I look... tired. We'll say tired.

Pirates of Caribbean: you see, Czech doesn't have determiners (a/the), so why should English?? Also, they spelled Caribbean wrong - isn't that awesome?! Pirates of Caribbean! Elizabeth Swann! Will Turner! They even had a Pirates of Caribbean II drinks list on the wall, but I didn't want to look too touristy, so I just photographed the menu.

That's all for today folks - have a good weekend!

Love,
Elizabeth

Hey - time!

I was definitely not anticipating having time to post so soon... but I just wrote a quiz, and finished with an hour to spare, so I thought I'd sit down and write a real post.

Like I said yesterday, life is stupid busy. I've been having a fabulous winter term socially: lots of time spent with friends! I hosted a good-sized breakfast for dinner party that was a lot of fun, and was a first opportunity for a lot of my friends to meet each other. There was lots of laughter, and a round-the-circle discussion of what each of us would say if we had to come up with a tagline for the movie "Centre Stage."

Anna-Lisa came over last week and we ordered in Chinese food (which I've never done before - I've always gone to the restaurant) and watched some more Black Books. I gleaned a new pick-up line, and will be trying it out at the soonest possible opportunity. "Do you like to eat? I do. Would you like to do it in the same room sometime?"

I spent Saturday with my dad running errands, and got some sweet new jogging pants and another sports bra. Unfortunately, it's disgusting outside. I'm trying to get up the courage to go to the track in the Van Vliet, but that means running in circles in front of other people. Anyway, back to what I was saying.... Dad and I picked Jake up and then went for dinner and to the monster trucks at Rexall - so much fun!! They had some really wicked moto-cross, and there was a fistfight between the quad teams. Ah, nothing says "family sporting event" quite like a fistfight.

I watched the Superbowl yesterday while I studied for today's exam... and the Colts won! Chris says I can't call them 'my team' since I don't watch very many games (or any, aside from yesterday's), but I say that I can! So: My team won! I had a bet with a friend, and he now owes me dinner and dessert. Life is gooood.

I leave for Prague in less than two weeks now - but I've got 3 midterms to write, a project and paper to start, and thesis stuff to continue on with. I'll get it all handled by the time I leave, but I have to admit that I'm feeling a little bit overwhelmed with it all. I went for my medical (for clinic this summer) this morning, and the nurses were telling me I had to get my bloodwork done NOW (which I don't, but they were trying to be helpful), and I started feeling very stressed... so I hummed "Keep on the Sunny Side" all the way back to Corbett. Geeky, yes. Helpful? Also yes.

And hello! I leave for Prague in less than two weeks now. *wOOt* I'm so excited. I'm going to try and do it with two carry-ons and no checked luggage, but I'm going to have to practice packing for that stellar stunt. My friend Courtney's going to meet me at the airport, and then it's going to be a whirlwind tour of all my favourite people and palces!! After the people, I think I'm most looking forward to the food: I miss the old-school cabbage soup, goulash a knedlicky, and of course! fried cheese. Ah, my arteries are clogging in eager anticipation.

So that's my update. Later gators!

Ela

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

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