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.)

There's a dead bird on the awning

And for once it's not a quote from my audi prof. As I came up the stairs this morning (I had been out teaching), I looked out the front window from the landing - and saw a dead bird curled up on the awning. He looked so serene, so peaceful - and for a moment, I envied the bird his deadness. Ok, Ok, I jest. It's just that it's been a very stressful few days, and curling up somewhere quiet for a looooong time seems appealing right now!

Speech Science went... well, it went. I'm pretty sure I passed, but I can't say much beyond that. Thank goodness Child Language and Audi went better. And I've got more time to prep for Phonology and Anatomy, so I think they'll be fine, too. So I just need to study for those, get my ducks in a row for my thesis meeting, plan Friday's lesson for my ESL student... and it'll be the weekend, and school will be over! Yaaaaaaay Christmas!

However, I'm already thinking about January - my first batch of texts arrived from Chapters today. Aphasiology!! Motor Speech Disorders!! Research stuff... less exciting, so no exclamation points. I'm so pumped to finally be getting into material based around the adult population. I'm not terribly interested in working with kids (not that there's anything wrong with kids, it's just that I'm drawn to the fascinating world of adults), and so this semester has felt like a bit of a slog at times. Bring on the grown-ups!

Ok. Hear that whimper? That's the dysphagia (swallowing disorders) material calling my name. And it's actually pretty interesting (it's adult-focused!), so I'm going to go and read it.

Loves you.

Ela.