Wherein Ela is something of an idiot

As an attempt to apologize for the lack of posts (given the hectic semester), I thought I would share some entertaining stories with you regarding my various spectacular talents.

Ela is a Spectacular Skipper
A few weeks ago I was in thesis crunch time. My supervisors were strongly encouraging me to get a substantial (Ok, Ok, they wanted the whole thing, but I knew I wasn't going to be able to swing that) portion of my proposal turned in for edits, and there were quite a few demands from other classes as well. In light of this, I chose not to attend one of my 8am classes, and instead committed that time to wrapping up some loose ends on my draft. When I got to school, it was about 10 am, and the class I had skipped should have ended 10 minutes previously (8-9.50). As I came up the stairs, I could hear the professor still lecturing, so I headed down the hall to the washroom. On my way there, I bumped into one of my supervisors, and she pulled me into her office so we could quickly discuss an email I'd sent her the night before. We're chatting away, when all of a sudden I can hear the instructing professor's voice coming closer and closer.


Oh yes. Can you say awkward moment? In comes the instructor - she's demoing an amplification system to the entire class, carrying a microphone around to show my classmates how, if you forget to turn the mic off, people can hear everything you say. Everything. Including things like "Oh, Ela! Why aren't you in class?" Yeah. Uh huh. Hm. That was awkward. When I walked into class about 5 minutes later, my face turned as pink as my pashmina as all my peers howled with laughter.

Ela is a Spectacular Snowboarder
Jason loves snowboarding. Loves it. Every beautiful day we've had this November, he's complained because it isn't snowing. So when he heard that Snow Valley had managed to get enough artificial snow down to open, he decided it was time for me to learn. We went to Totem and bought me some used boots and bindings (the bindings have a little stick figure on them... and he's peeing. I think it's because the brand name is Liquid, but still! He's peeing!), and he had a board for me to use, so we headed out to the hill.

Those of you who know and love me know these two things about me: 1) I have no athletic ability whatsoever, and 2) I'm afraid of things that involve falling and hurting. Therefore, this whole thing of 'learning to snowboard' seemed a little daunting. Nevertheless, I was determined to be a trouper. Off we went. Snowboard on? Check. Waddling through the snow, dragging said snowboard, to get to the carpet up the hill? (It's like a conveyor belt in the snow that you stand on to get to the top.) Check. Buckling other foot into snowboard? Check. Standing up? Not check. I can't get on to my feet from a bum-sitting position. Jason pulls me up. We commence down the hill. I fall a lot. Only it isn't really falling, because I never get going fast enough to actually fall. I just sit down every time it feels like I might be going fast. Which is frequently the case. Jason is very patient, and encouraging, and holds my hands the whole way down. Yes, you read that right. He snowboarded down the hill in front of me, holding me up. He is amazing. I.... I.... I suck. Let's just be honest.

Next time up, I realize that I'm really quite good at standing up from a kneeling position. This, however, means that I'm facing UP the hill - as in I'll have to snowboard down it BACKWARDS, since I don't know how to turn. Also, I'm afraid of falling, so I'm hesitant to stand up straight. Therefore I'm sort of scooting down the hill, butt in the air, hands on the ground. The bonus is that I can look through my legs and make sure I don't hit anyone. Jason tells me that this is not adequate. I cannot, he assures me, snowboard in the mountains for New Year's Eve on my hands. Darn. I practice standing up. Now I'm getting Ok at going backwards down the hill. Can't really see anyone, have a hard time going straight (lots of weaving), and I can't stay up for more than 10 seconds before I panic and kneel down, but I'm Ok.

Time to practice getting up off my bum, right? I need to be able to go down the hill facing forwards. I try. And try. And try. And my legs are burning, and my butt is wet (my ski pants kept sliding down), and I am SO FRUSTRATED. I can't do it. Jason hauls me to my feet, and we head down the hill. I can now stay up for about 12 seconds before panicking and sitting down. Impressive, I know. We get to the bottom, scoot over to the conveyor belt, and the man in front of me says "first time snowboarding?"

"Yes."

"Yeah, I could tell. You're quite a sight up there."

.... Um... thanks? Geez!! Way to boost my confidence, mister!

"You should try... (insert litany of advice here)."

Yes. I'm so sure that I want to try your advice, part of which included 'floating down the hill like a leaf.' I'm not really a floater. I'm more of a 'tumble down the hill like a rock' kind of girl.

Back at the top, I'm trying to get up to standing from my bum, and it's still not working. I'm cold. I'm wet. I hurt. My ego is seriously bruised from leaf-boy (I had myself convinced that everyone was too busy focusing on themselves to worry about the crazy girl in the red coat with the peeing men on her bindings). And I can't. Get. Up. I am very frustrated. Tears spring to my eyes. But darnit! I AM BEING A TROUPER. Jason pulls me up, and we head down the hill. Towards the end, I lose control, and snowboard over top of him. My knee gets slightly twisted. Just a bit. Not very much. I cry. I try to stop. I AM BEING A TROUPER, DAMNIT! Nope. I'm not a trouper. I'm frustrated and I hurt and I'm tired and I'm crying and Jason is saying...

"Want to stop for today?"

Oh thank the Lord. Do I ever want to stop! Hurray for stopping! I'm totally Ok with stopping. Yes, yes, I'll try again, but we can be done for today! Jason has told me that he can teach me to do this in three days, and this is one day down...

"So that was two and a half hours."

What?? That doesn't count as a day??? Oh shoot, what have I signed up for?

I'll keep you posted.

Ela

So it's a little more 'bumpy' than 'gentle'

Hi friends,

I thought the wind up to the term would go a little more smoothly than it has, which was highly optimistic of me. :) I'm still in four classes, my thesis still needs work, and I'm still putting in at least 15 hours a week at work. I managed to go head to head with some sort of flu-thing this week, and that's got me a bit behind.

But Fridays - lovely Fridays - are now a semi-free day for me. I'm going into school at 11 to practice using the PERCI-SAR system (which used to be called PERCI-SARS... at least, until the SARS outbreak!) and to figure out where the protocol for using it came from. (You always get clients to say 'pee pee pee' and I need to know why!) Then I've got a hair appointment this afternoon, which I'm really looking forward to. I always find them so relaxing, and I like having fancy hair. It's time to do something about 67 different colors that in there, so I'm thinking I might be a slightly darker brunette come this afternoon at about 4 o'clock.

Tonight we're going to pick up Jason's new car, which is tres exciting. I am especially excited because he is allowing me to drive his old car. We've made the switch on the insurance (I'm now the primary driver), and we're going to look for a new bumper and hood for it this weekend (it's a little beat up, but a perfect about-town car for me).

I'm feeling a little behind in my schoolwork these days, given how much time I've given to my thesis recently, but I'm hanging on to the fact that I usually wind up feeling this way at the end of every semester, and I've always made it through before! I'm really enjoying resonance (a class that is the 2nd half of "Voice and Resonance"), and since it's the topic of my thesis, I'm feeling slightly ahead of the game.

The rest of this month is looking a little hectic. There's still lots to be done on my thesis, my workplace is holding another workshop, and this time I will be one of the presenters, there are school projects and such.... And then there are the social things! It was Jake's birthday on the sixth, so we're going to his house for some cake and celebration tomorrow. Then it's Jason's and my six-month anniversary on the 17, so I think we'll probably go out for dinner. Jason's good friend Tish is getting married on the 20, so that should be a fun evening... all in all, I think the next three or four weeks are going to fly by!

Well, I should go and get cleaned up and head into school. Corks up my nostrils*, here I come!

Love you,
E.

*It's how you use the PERCI-SAR, I swear. And if I were you, I wouldn't ask too many questions unless you want to come and try it out. ;)

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

Unbalanced: A Question of Priorities

I'm feeling frustrated at the moment. Yes. Frustrated is a good word. Frustrated in a vague general sense at our society's "live to work" attitude (I wish I were in Italy: "work to live" baby!), and more specifically, at being in a career where many of our instructors, mentors, and role models give lip service to 'balance' in their lives, but model a workaholic's existence.

I'm not even sure where to start, my head is so a-jumble with ideas and frustrations. Hm... It seems like the English 10 'funnel' of 'start general, end specific' might be a good way to go. So here goes!

Generally speaking, I believe that work is just one part of our lives. I believe that if I sign up for a 1.0 FTE position, I should be working 40 hours a week, not 50, or 60, 80. I fully understand that there will be exceptional times and circumstances wherein it will be necessary for me to stay. I'm Ok with that. What I'm not Ok with is being expected to work a 1.5 or 2.0 consistently after having been hired for a 1.0.

I feel similarly about school. YES, school is a priority. YES, it's important. YES, unlike a career, it is time-limited (as in, your program only lasts so long, be it 4 years or 2). That doesn't change my belief that school should not be the 'be-all, end-all' of my existence while I'm a Master's student.

Many members of my program have priorities that look like this:
1) SCHOOL
...
...
2) family/friends/significant other
3) hobbies
4) themselves

Their priorities are, of course, their choice. What concerns me is when I see a number of these women exhibiting clear symptoms of emotional and mental unwellness because of their obsession with their schoolwork. It concerns me to hear classmates talk of never getting enough sleep, of never seeing their friends, of having no time to do the things they love. How is this healthy? At what cost are they doing their very best in the program? Is it honestly, well and truly worth it? Is it truly their 'very best' when they're exhausted and frustrated?

I believe the answer is 'no.' Research shows that our degrees will be obsolete in 3 years - what will matter most is our experience in the field. CASLPA (our national college) explicitly states that it expects new graduates to be generalists, not specialists. And one or two of our professors have acknowledged that what really matters is a solid grounding coupled with the ability to know where to look when you have a question. With all of that in mind, why are we worry ourselves sick about cramming every morsel of knowledge into our heads, knowledge that most of us will have forgotten by the time we get to our first jobs? Why isn't our focus on grounding ourselves in the field, and becoming familiar with the resources available us?

Our focus is on being over-achieving excellence monkeys because a) we're SLPs, and most of us are Type A overachievers to begin with, and b) because that's what our role models show us. I have heard several professors in my department discuss the high burnout rate in speech, advocate for balance, then be in their offices from 7am til 7pm 5 days a week and be editing student work over the weekend. I have heard ONE clinician advocate for balance and actually demonstrate it in her career - and the whole time she was telling us about it, her tone was so apologetic that I'm convinced she gets very little respect for what I believe is a wise and healthy choice.

Today it was suggested to me that perhaps I might find it necessary to put Jason 'on hold' and 'see what he's made of' during this heavy semester. This comment stemmed from something that I had said about it being difficult to have a boyfriend who works an 8-5, and has evenings and weekends generally free. Jason wants to spend much of that time with me, and I would like to spend that time with him as well. My priorities look quite different from those above:

1) Me and my health (including faith, physical and mental health, etc.)
2) School, friends, family
3) Hobbies
4) Other commitments (e.g., junior church)

I consider my family and friends to be just as important as school. Quite often I don't get to see my friends as much as I'd like because of school commitments. Conversely, sometimes I don't do all of my readings because meeting with Al for a coffee is more important. It's a difficult balance, but one that supports my number one commitment: me and my health. It's distressing to me to be told that for four months, I should put everything on hold and go 100% all out on schoolwork. Firstly, I'd make myself crazy doing that. I need the social part of my life in order to be sane. I need to walk away from schoolwork, and not just once or twice a week. I need some time every day where I can be just Elizabeth, not Elizabeth-the-student. Secondly, it would do a lot of damage to the relationships in my life. It's hard to maintain a friendship when you give no time to staying in touch or being available. I'm not asking to maintain 36 different friendships - I'm thinking of three that are vital to me, and that I have no interest in 'putting on the back burner' just because school is heavy. Thirdly, I have no desire to implement unhealthy, unsustainable patterns in my life. If I do nothing but school for the next four months, either I'll be burnt out or I'll be well-practiced to do nothing but work for the next four. I never want to be a workaholic, and I've no desire to practice being one now.

Clearly, my schoolwork is important. I love being a speechie, even if it is a lot of work. I know that sometimes Jason's going to get to go off and have fun while I'm sitting at my desk, writing yet another draft of my proposal. I know that sometimes I'll get a little bit less sleep, or only run twice in a week, or not get to soak in the tub and read a novel. All of this I know, and can accept. What I'm not going to accept is not seeing my friends, not growing my relationship with Jason, not hanging out with Jacob, not going to church... just because it's a heavy term. Some readings aren't worth it, some assignments can be done quickly, some extra credit can be skipped. The people in my life are just as important to me (moreso!) than this degree. And I believe that I can have both in my life. It's just a question of priorities.

Ela

I should probably be doing something more productive...

Hey guys,

well, it's 2.30 in the afternoon and my next class doesn't start til 3. There are lots of things I could be doing... working on the voice homework, the aural rehab homework, my thesis, the readings, the voice paper, the aug. com. communication board, the questions for aug. com.... but I thought I'd just chill. I have to be at school til 5.50 today, so I'll savor this little break. :)

My classes are fantastic so far. Aural (re)habilitation is all about working people who are deaf and hard of hearing, and involves loads of guest speakers telling us all about the method that they think is best for that population. There are tons of options available, and it's really interesting to evaluate them for ourselves. This prof also doesn't believe in exams, so instead we turn in a portfolio of homework and answer questions based on it. This is very cool, but also challenging for an Ela. Elas like to leave things til the last minute. Elas do not like to have to keep up on homework on a regular basis. It's going to be good for me, I know... it's just going to be challenging!

Adult Language Disorders II is fantastic! The professor teaches like she's talking to you over coffee. She's incredibly passionate about her material, and that's so contagious. I love it. :) It's also cool because we're talking about cognition, memory, attention - all topics that fascinate me.

Next up is voice and resonance, and it's fabulous, too. The prof has flipped the class around, and we're learning about treatment first, which I love. We spent today watching dyads act out certain therapy techniques, and guessing which was which. Very cool. :)

Then there's fluency (stuttering). The prof is incredible - so organized and knowledgeable. Also, she can imitate any sort of dysfluency on demand, so she's great at teaching via examples. Bummer - she uses pop quizzes, so I have to stay on top of the readings. ;)

Finally, there alternative and augmentative communication, which seems pretty sweet. I have to make a communication board for Megs to use on Friday... that should be fun.

So classes are good, but there's a metric load of work to do, plus my thesis, and my RA-ship. It's incredibly busy, and it's hard to be motivated to work on the evenings/weekends when Jason is off work and I'd prefer to be hanging out with him. Therefore, I've been trying to get everything done on Tuesdays and Thursdays and then Friday afternoons. It's sort of working - I've gotten lots done, but not everything. It doesn't help than unexpected things keep popping up, well, unexpectedly. ;) I'm sure I'll figure it all out eventually. Right now it seems to involve obsessively scheduling using G**gle calendar: "right, Tuesday 8-9 is thesis, 9-10 is reading, 10-11 is homework..." It's a bit exhausting.

My RA-ship is also looking fantastic. Yesterday I was trained on how to analyze a modified barium swallow, and it was so cool!! There are 6 or 8 different things that I have to look for, and it's so neat to watch a swallow in slow motion and to see just how much happens in so few seconds. I actually witnessed nasopharyngeal pentetration yesterday: the client's chewed up cookie wound up sitting on top of his velum/soft palate in the nasal cavity - say it with me now: 'ow.' I'm also digitizing some cassette tapes, and continuing with the AIDS transcription. Busy girl!

Well, it's time for fluency now - catch you later, gators!

Elizabeth

Sleepy!

Hi guys,

man, I'd forgotten how tiring sitting in a chair and learning all day can be. It's a good thing our classes are interesting, or else I'd be doomed. ;) The hard part of being in class from 8-5 is the urge to boredom eat. Today I packed a lunch heavy in fruit and granola bars, so I could just sort of munch all day. Mmm, munching. I had a plucot (plum crossed with an apricot), and its sticker said it was a 'dinosaur egg.' It was actually quite apt, as the fruit is a mottled red and green, and could quite easily be the offspring of a terrible lizard!

Truly, my classes are fantastic so far. Very interesting, and only one textbook that says silly things like:

"We often start out by asking our clients if they are ventriloquists. When they inevitably answer 'no,' we say 'you should try it - you hardly open your mouth when you speak!'"

I'm totally pooped, so I'll have to tell you more about the classes later. Mostly, I just wanted to show you what I've been up to. Jason's teaching me to sculpt with polymer clay, and I wanted to show you project #2. My first creation was a purple bug that I gave to Megs, and I have no photos of it. Suffice it to say that he was a little rougher than this one. I also have a third in the works, but it's not quite finished yet.

Without further ado, I give you: Baby and Frog. Artist: Elizabeth Huebert. Medium: Polymer clay. Date: September 9, 2007.




Hope you all are having a good week so far!

Ela

Back, Back in the Grad School Groove

Hi friends!

Well, it's September 6, and that means that I've officially completed Day One of the last semester of classes for my Master's. Very exciting. :) The first day went well (even if it was a little long): great professors, interesting courses, and of course, sitting next to Megs.

Our schedule is roughly 8-6 Mondays and Wednesdays, and 8-12 Fridays. Tuesdays and Thursdays are reserved for clinic (practicum). 8-6 (5.30, really, since Dr. C let us out early!) was a long day for a first day. I hate change, this semester is looking busy, and I was tired. When I went to Jason's for dinner, I cried the whole time I did the dishes.

"Ela! What's wrong?" he asked.

"Nothing," I snivelled, dripping tears into the sink. "I'm just tired and overwhelmed and there's no way I'm going to be able to do everything this semester. There are projects and papers and assignments and my thesis and my RAship and I want to work part-time since I don't have to do clinic til January."

Watching me cry still, Jason asked "are you sure that you want to do this? I mean, if you honestly think that you can't manage it?"

I sort of laughed through my tears. "My Master's? Am I sure I want to do my Master's? Of course I'm sure! I'll be fine tomorrow, I'm just overwhelmed and overtired tonight."

"Well, Ela, you know that you have Tuesdays and Thursdays and Friday afternoons to do your homework, so if you just manage your time..."

I started crying harder. "Jason! I'm too tired to be rational right now. I just need to feel overwhelmed tonight, Ok?"

"Well, Ok, but I don't understand why you would CHOOSE to be out of control!"

I dropped the spoon I was washing back into the sink and started to bawl. I went and sat in the bedroom on the floor with my head on my knees and sobbed. Jason figured it out quickly. He sat down next to me, put his arms around, and said nothing. :)

Sure enough, when I got up this morning I was feeling wide awake and ready to tackle the world. I went and bought my last few books, organized my student loan, and got my UPass. That was followed by organizing my bookshelf, getting the semester's binders ready, arranging a meeting with my RA supervisor, and reading an article and outlining its subtitles for a group project meeting tomorrow. I am feeling confident about this term, and am looking forward to it!

This afternoon I want to spend about an hour on my thesis and get started on the term's reading. I was all set to only do the vital ones, but Megs has resolved to do all of them. Can't let her be the only one who does! We'll see if I can keep on top of them. ;)

I also have a job interview tomorrow at 1.30. If you're thinking of me, you could pray. :) It's an RAship that's 12 hours week working on a knowledge mobilization project. The opportunity sounds fantastic, so I'm hoping the interview will go well.

Also exciting is that I obtained a 3hr/wk. RAship through the department. I'm back with Dr. R at COMPRU. As I volunteered there over the summer, I've actually been with them for eight months, and have spent all of that time doing transcription. I go in, I put on head phones, and I write down the 50 words and 20 sentences. I score these for intelligibilty, and file them. I like the job because it's a nice balance of mindlessness (the job isn't difficult) and focus (you have to pay attention or you'll screw it up). As much as I like it, eight months is a long time. :) I asked Dr. R if that's what I would be continuing with, and yes, it is. HOWEVER - I get to split my time between transcription and analyzing modified barium swallows!! This is watching a video x-ray of a person swallowing radioactive barium in order to determine if there are any abnormalities in the swallow (e.g., delay or misdirection). This is so cool. I'm so excited! Dysphagia (problems in swallowing) is an area that fascinates me, and this is a fabulous opportunity for me. Yay!

Well, my 10 minute break is up - it must be time to start reading. I'll catch you all later!

Love,
Elizabeth

Alas poor August - I knew it well

Hi friends,

I cannot believe that August is over. Just can't. In fact, I refuse. :) In my mind it is going to be August 31 for at least another week or two.

The past week has been very enjoyable, and the weekend's been even better. On Friday, Jason and I had a lazy evening, bumming around and playing World of Warcraft. Yes, I have been geekified: Jason's got me into the WoW thing. I'm still pretty much only interested in playing if he's playing (we play side-by-side). We'll know I'm REALLY far gone when I start playing alone. :D Yesterday we took Jacob to the Telus World of Science, and I was really impressed with how great the exhibits were. They have a robotics centre (sadly, it was closed when we got there) where you can actually program a small robot to perform a rescue mission on Mars (3D terrains built on tabletops). We're planning to go back so we can try that out. They also had a station where you could build Lego cars and race them. Jason and Jake really got a kick out of that! Jake built a little car that was pretty much unbeatable: true boy's bragging rights. Today, Jason and Kathie and Brandon and I played Cranium Pop 5, Settlers of Catan: Cities and Knights, and Settlers of the Stone Age. I liked Pop 5 best, as it's something I'm actually good at. I totally got Jason to guess "Lance Armstrong" by pretending to ride my bike across the room. :) The best bit was when Kathie was trying to get Brandon to guess Shrinky Dinks by curling up into a teeny ball and then frantically pointing at her crotch. It was hysterical!

School starts Wednesday, and I'm so not ready to go back. I'm considering going to ogle school supplies tomorrow or Tuesday in order to psych myself up. Nothing like some new post-its and sharpies to get into the "let's learn!" mode. This term we have: Alternative/Augmentative Communication (e.g., sign language, voice production software), Voice and Resonance (an area of relative expertise for me, given that my thesis is based on resonance disorders), Fluency (stuttering/stammering treatment), Adult Language Disorders II (which absolutely HAS to be better than ALD I, which was an absolute WASTE of tuition), and Aural Rehabilitaion (about which I know absolutely nothing, except that it's taught by a fantastic prof). I'm pretty interested in all my classes, and there are no surprise profs this term, so it should be good. Actually, typing that all up has kind of piqued my interest again... maybe Wednesday won't be so bad?

Some of you have been asking about my interview at DriveABLE. It went very well, and it seems that I would be an excellent fit there. My understanding is that when hours become available, they will be in touch with me about training. The small issue is that they're hiring pre-emptively: they're currently able to handle the volume of assessments that they have. They have good reason to expect an increase beyond their capacity at some point in time in September/October, but they can't be sure when, and they can't be sure by how much. Therefore, they're simply not in a position to guarantee a start date or weekly hours. They were very open and up-front about this, which I really appreciated. I'd very much like to work there, so we're kind of at a 'wait-and-see' point in the process. In the interim I've also applied for a GAP (graduate assistantship program, I would be a research assistant or a teaching assistant, as I was at Compru in the winter term) and another research assistantship that's a bit more intense (12 hours a week, lots of research and writing about community research and knowledge mobilization, both topics that interest me). And for both of those positions, it's still 'wait-and-see.' Guess what I'm doing these days? Yeah. Waiting-and-seeing. :D

That's my news! Not much else to report, I'm afraid. Hope all's well with you.

Love ya,
Elizabeth

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

Swiper, no swiping!

Recognize the quote in the title? Yeah, me neither. Apparently, it's from Dora the Explorer, an extremely popular TV show for little kids (kind of in the 3-5 range, I think). I also think that it's mostly a girl thing - and therefore something that I missed out on with Jake. The problem? Our little girl in clinic loves Dora. Like, wearing the t-shirt, carrying the back-pack kind of love. And I don't know it! Caillou, Sponge Bob, The Weekenders? Blues Clues? I know the quotes! I know te characters! I can SING THE BLEEDING THEME SONGS! But Dora? Dora, I know not. I may have to rent it this week to get myself caught up... ;)



Also, me and change? Not a good couple. It's like change is a 5'4" guy with halitosis and a momma's boy complex. And he's needy. And has bacne. And, and... did I mention he's short? And skinny! Yeah, real skinny. Anyhoo. Last semester, I was typically done school at about 3. Today, our meeting didn't wrap up til about 6.15. Have y'all heard the term 'hangry' before? It's when you get 'angry' when you're 'hungry.' I had a serious case of the hangry today. Also, a serious case of the "my brain shut off at 3, I kept it going til 4 because I had a client, but now I'm done." I couldn't quite yawning in my meeting with my clinical educator. I felt awful... and am contemplating sending her an email apologizing! Riding my bike home was nice, because it's so sunny, but it was also tough. The wind blows straight down the bike path... and there's a big chunk of it that's uphill. I almost couldn't pass a guy out running... *blush*

I mentioned meeting our pediatric client today - and she's a dolly. So adorable, and you can totally tell she's spunky. I bet my sister was a lot like this little girl when she was small. Willing to cooperate as long as what you're doing is interesting, but lose her attention, and you're in trouble. :) Luckily, Katie is the pro-star with the kiddos, so we're going to have wicked cool sessions. I'm looking forward to it!

So now I'm home, and I should really be doing some strength training, but I can hardly keep my eyes open. I'm thinking that going to bed with a book, or laying on the couch watching poker sounds good. I'll be... strength training... my... eyes. Yeah. THAT'S it. :P

Ok. The horizontal position is calling my name. (Damn right I'm good in bed... I can sleep for days!)

Laters!
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

Ugh, change

Hey dudes,

I imagine that at least one or two of you is wondering how my week has been so far. Two words: totally overwhelming. However, I've learned how to deal with that emotion. You just let it be! I'm giving myself til tomorrow afternoon or Saturday morning to just be overwhelmed, and not do anything about it. Then, Saturday morning at the latest, I'm going to start with the to-do list, and get myself organized and on-top of things.

That's a quote from September, describing my feelings about the first week of my Master's. It's also pretty apt regarding the first week of clinic/practicum. A completely different schedule (far from having no class on Friday, I'm in class at 9, and have a last meeting at 5.30), information overload ("you need to meet with your partner all the time, your consulting partners twice a week for an hour, and with your clinicial educator twice a week. "), and a few nerves about the fact that we're going to be dealing with REAL PEOPLE (no more video case studies!!). It's all a bit... well, overwhelming. But I've just been going with the flow for now, and I spent Wednesday evening organizing everything, so I'm feeling better about where I need to be and when.

My direct partner, Katie, and I are getting along great. It turns out that we have really similar styles of organizing ourselves, and similar levels of confidence in our abilities as therapists. I'm really enjoying working with her. Our consulting pair, J & N, are very different from us, which is great, because they'll be able to give us feedback on things we may not even think about.

This week we got our clients' files to read, in order to prepare to meet them, and to get ready for assessing their communication abilities. I was going to tell you a little bit about them just in general (nothing that would ever enable you to identify them), but I've decided not to. It just seems a little risky to put that kind of info out there on the web. Suffice it to say that both of our clients appear to be friendly, bright, and highly motivated. We're really excited to meet them! One little tidbit: it's really difficult to develop an interview that includes an adult who only has two words in his/her spontaneous speech. I'm just saying. (Katie and I have come up with some fantastic ideas!)

I'm continuing to learn how much my past experiences are going to support me as a therapist. It's pretty cool to have those moments that are "Oh! This is just like when I did __________ at _________________ (previous job)." I'm so excited to start being a clinician - to learn my strengths and weaknesses, and to be a part of my clients' lives.

Speaking of clients' lives, we had CPR today (ba dum dum). We have to have the healthcare providers' CPR, which is a bit more intense than the typical one is. I can do perform CPR on infants, children and adults, and I learned how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator). That's one of those zappy packs that you see on the hospital shows, y'know: "Clear!" *ZAP* :D They've made a small, idiot-proof version, and I learned how to use it. Very fun. If you're going to have a heart attack, make sure you have me around! (I jest! I jest!! I'd really like to go through life having to NEVER use my mad CPR skilz).

So that's where this week is at. A lovely friend of mine gave me a MEC gift certificate, so I'm going to head over there tomorrow to get a bell, a new lock, and a basket. It's going to be great!

Laters,
e.

Back to School

Hey all,

so I've been back at school for two days of spring session. Today, I had to have a nap when I got home. *blush*

I was feeling a bit worried and stressed about this whole 'clinic' experience, and had really put off thinking about it for quite a while. Yesterday was an "orientation and jumping in with both feet" kind of day - a day that a few of my peers found disconcerting and a bit stressful. For me, it actually calmed some of my concerns. We finally sorted out some of our schedules, and got a sense of what the spring would look like. Today we continued in that vein, and learned about what our clinical educators (the SLPs who supervise in the clinic) expect of us. As we talked about it, I realized that I'm in a wonderful position: I have done a LOT of this before!

Being observed and critically evaluated while practicing a professional skill? I spent four full weeks doing that in September '06, during my teacher training. I can handle that. Communicating with someone where communication is difficult? Eight months in Prague working with non-native speakers of English. Legal documentation for confidentiality, monitoring contact, tracking treatment? Six months working for the Edmonton John Howard Society. I am feeling much, much better about my ability to do this. I'm also smiling to myself, and thanking God for the circuitious route I took to get to speech!

One of our textbooks this term is Counseling Persons with Communication Disorders and Their Families. This book is wonderful, and is inspiring a new interest in me. A few of you know that, during my fourth year of uni, I had some serious doubts about becoming an SLP. I was also considering law or clinical psych. Eventually I decided that speech was really the place for me. This textbook, along with our assessment class, is showing me that speech is a field that is slowly beginning to incorporate more and more counseling strategies. This is so exciting! It appears that I'm going to have the opportunity to pursue my interest counseling alongside my interest in speech and language. Sweet! (Hmm... PhD in clinical psychology...)

So school and my excitement are both a little tiring. I think I'm also tired because yesterday I got up and ran for 45 minutes before school, and this morning I got up and did an hour of strength training. THEN... I rode my 'new' bike to and from school!


Ok, so 'new' is stretching it. It's actually older than I am. But it's comfy, the tires hold air, and it gets me from point A ("downtown") to point B ("school"). Let me tell you - pedalling home in the wind is very tiring! But it's fun to be out with all the other cyclists, and I get to school a bit faster than I do when I take the LRT. So huzzah!

Well, that's all that's new... bye for now!
e.

PS - What did the Buddhist say to the hot dog vendor?

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

Do you think she'd look at you if you were poor?

Do you think I'd look at her if she were ugly? Fair's fair.

*grin* That's a line from the movie we watched tonight called A Good Woman starring Scarlett Johannsen (spelling?) and Helen Hunt. It was an interesting look at what life in the upper-middle class British world was like in the '30s, something I don't spend a lot of time thinking about. ;) The best bit was the costumes - they were absolutlely divine. It didn't hurt that the film was set in a beautiful Italian villa, either. The background helped make up for the lack of plot.

I spent today working on school stuff (finished another 3 sections on my thesis survey, go me!) and starting to study for finals. I'm amazed at how basic some of the earlier stats stuff seems now. At the time of the assignments, I was totally overwhelmed. Now, looking back, it's like "what on earth was so confusing about a Mann-Whitney U? Geez!" I'm kind of dreading tomorrow's session though - where I hit the stuff I'm pretty sure will still confuse me. Analyzing the SPSS output for a factor analysis? Gross. MANOVA? I'm not even sure I know what it stands for! Luckily, my newest book, SPSS for Psychologists, arrived in the mail yesterday, so I at least have a resource to go to!

I've got 2 projects and 6 finals coming up, and I was seriously contemplating being panicked this week. But I sat down and looked at my calendar yesterday - and they're actually spaced out rather nicely. Provided I can stay relatively on top of things... *grin* Yeah, right - because that always works out for me!

All right duckies - I'm off to study the lecture on Correlations. Go r-values! Make predictions! And then maybe I'll have a chaser of myasthenia gravis. Nothing like a little damage at the neuromuscular junction to give you some lower motor neuron issues. Yay flaccid dysarthria, fatigue and breathiness!

G'night,
Ela

That was odd...

My life is frequently full of odd moments. For example, I was talking to a friend this past week, and telling hime all about my language and literacy class. The following is an excerpt from our conversation:

It's [the class] really, really, really, REALLY boring. Though I did have the opportunity to say "The pigs are stacked! Who stacks pigs?" and "They sacrificed the pig to the pig god!"

Yes. I kid you not - we were looking at a picture for a story elicitation task, and the prof asked what we thought was happening. My first though was "they sacrificed the pig to the pig god!" I ask you this: would YOU want YOUR kids doing a story elicitation task where animals sacrificing one of their own was an option?

Life has been, as is now apparently the norm, incredibly busy. According to my timeline, my thesis proposal is to be done in two weeks. Ahem. Well - I've got 3 paragraphs written... that counts, right? I need to bus down to the Wonk and hide out there for a while and try and get some work done. Edmonton is just too full of fun and fabulous people!

Thurday night I went for Thai food for the first time, and it was awesome. I can't wait to try more of it!! Friday was the Rush game, and we won! wOOt! That's our 4th win of the season. Such a great game - and there was a wicked fistfight. I love a good scrap! Yesterday afternoon my small group and I went to help the Food Bank fill their truck for their current drive. Things were a little slow at first, so we went into Zeller's and bought sidewalk chalk, a frisbee, and a pool noodle. We drew on the asphalt, we threw the frisbee around, and... we played the animal game!! It was SO fun! Nothing like wailing on your friends with a lime green noodle. :) If you watch Shaw on Monday at 4, you might see us - one of the volunteers was a Shaw cameraman, and he shot some footage. None of the noodling, though. ;) Then last night was coffee with a friend, which was very fun. The 2nd Cup by MEC has the most beautiful painting of irises done in oranges and yellows that would look great in my place. Anyone have $600 they'd like to loan me to buy a painting? ;)

Today was church, which was great - we wrapped up Esther. Lyle told us to 'always remember, and never forget' to celebrate God's goodness. There's so much sadness in our world (and today we heard about a lot of people's sorrow - my heart hurt for them), and it is right to mourn for that - but it is also right celebrate the blessings. I think I might need to host a "celebrate the blessings" party sometime!!

So that's life at the moment - tomorrow night Megs and I are baking sweet rolls, so I can take them into my stats class on Tuesday morning. It should be fun!!

Later days!
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

The Essence of a Sound

Ahoj!

Today was a very special day. One of my thesis peeps had her lab gifted with $135 000 from the Edmonton Oilers' Community Foundation, the single largest donation that the Faculty of Rehab Med has ever received. Dr. B has 14 of us grad students (she's a VERY busy lady!!), and we all showed up to support her. :) The money is going to be used for research on the effects of intensive voice therapy for children with cerebral palsy, and little boy with CP was there. So was ALL of Edmonton's media - so check the news tonight, or the papers tomorrow. I doubt I'm in any of the pictures, but that's my lab!! I also met Ethan Moreau (and got his autograph *grin*), and Kevin Lowe touched me on the shoulder and said "excuse me." Oh the excitement. ;)

The best bit was afterwards, when Dr B. pulled all of her students back into the lab (after everyone had left) and thanked us for supporting her. She pointed to the little boy with CP who was out in the hallway, and said "when you hate your exams, when you hate me, when you hate that you have to write another draft - remember this. Remember him. Remember that your research will change his life. No matter what population you work with, remember this." And then she got a little teary-eyed, and so did most of us students as well, and then we hugged. It was amazing.

And remember my blurb? http://www.rehabmed.ualberta.ca/carolboliek/gradstudents.htm I'm on there!! It's very exciting. I have a blurb.

Other exciting things? I have a new English student who wants 4hrs of lessons a week. This is great! I think it's just about the right amount of time for me, and I'm looking forward to it. I'm also duly nervous, since - hello! - it's 4 hrs a week. I need to do some serious lesson planning sometime soon, and as finals will soon be upon me, it'd better be sooner rather than later. I'm still excited, despite the fear, since this is a real answer to prayer.

Oh, and the blog title? Dr. P used to work with a professor who loved to talk about the "essence of a sound." You know, a /k/ has "k-ness," an /l/ has "l-ness," and a /p/ has... well, sound it out. ;) (If you don't get it, email me.)

Love,
ela

Feeling Fruzzled is so not Monton

Ok. I've been putting off writing this post for a while now, mostly because life has been SO busy that I haven't had a lot of time to write. The time that I have had has been spent staring at the screen, attempting to figure out where on EARTH to start.

I last posted on Tuesday, so I guess that I should go from there. Here's hoping I actually remember what happened after that!! Tuesday was the last day of our long weekend, so heading back into school on Wednesday felt like a particularly nasty kick in the teeth. It was like 4 Mondays rolled into one. Luckily, one of our classes was cancelled, so we got to go into Steeps instead, and sit around drinking tea and attempting to study. :) After that we had a super wicked guest lecturer in our Phonology class, and we learned the zen way to do non-linear phonological therapy. Very cool, though I imagine Greek-like to the non-speechies among you. :)


Thursday we only had Audiology, so we headed in for that class. It was another guest lecturer, and it was also fabulous. This one was all about FM systems, both personal and sound field. The research supporting their use in the classroom is unbelievable. Without the sound being distributed via one of these systems, kids in the back corner of the classroom receive only 55% of the speech information the teacher is presenting. Now, if this is a kid who does all the readings, pays close attention, and participates in discussions, it's likely not a big deal. They're going to possess enough context to function successfully. However, let's all think back to our school days, especially the days where we go to pick our own desks. Who was sitting in the back corner? The smart kids? Or the kids who don't pay attention at all? They're incredibly disadvantaged by location alone, and a sound field system could potentially make a huge difference. FM systems also encourage teacher awareness of speech patterns. One study indicates that teachers slow their rate of speech by 10-15% simply because they're wearing a mic. By slowing down, the kids are able to absorb more of the info. Also, because they don't need to yell, teachers can be more expressive, thereby creating more student interest in what's being said. Seriously - what's not to love? I'd really like to get into some schools and do some in-services on this topic, because a few small changes can bring about some major results for kids.

Friday I wrote my A&P exam on laryngeal and cranial anatomy. I was terrified, because I hadn't really studied a lot in advance, and mostly just crammed the night before. However, I must have crammed in the most premium way possible, because I found the exam to be well within my abilities, and only had to lay my head down on the desk and mutter "oh no" once. After that I had my practical exam with Dr. V. For this exam, she pretended to be a 4 y/o and I administered a standardized test to her. When's the last time that you had to tell your very professional instructor that if she can't put her listening ears on and pay attention, then she can't hold Benny the Bunny?? Yes, that's right - I took in a prop, a small blue rabbit. I had it in my pocket, not really even intending to use it, since I figured I'd only need it if she were naughty. Well - she made the administration portions of the test very easy, so made up the challenge with behavioural issues. Benny the Bunny totally saved the day. I love Benny the Bunny - he's my Speechie Mascot now. :)

After my exams I went home to sleep for as long as I could, which wasn't very long owing to having had too much tea earlier on. Darn!! People started showing up at around eight, and we had a little pre-party at my place before going out to the Stonehouse for some dancing and hanging out. Some friends that I haven't seen in years were there, so it was very cool. I was the first to leave, heading out at around 1, and none of the guys offerred to walk me home. I noticed, but wasn't overly upset, since I don't live too far from the bar. About a block and a half into my walk, footsteps came running up behind me, and I got a little tense. It was one of our guys, apologizing because he'd forgottten that I don't drive, and had therefore not come with me right off the bat. "I'd never let you walk home alone this late!" he said. After hearing about the stabbing on Whyte the same night... well, I think I'm done being Ok with walking home alone. From now on, I want someone with me!

Saturday I went out with Robin and his friend, and we had a really great time just hanging out. I bought a new earring for my cartilage piercing, and it's sooo pretty. It looks like the one on the top left, but the silver balls have fuschia stones set into them. I love it!! That night, my cousin Chris and I went out for a beer at the Druid, and just hung out which was very cool. You know, when we were little he drove me crazy with his demands to always have the Fisher Price farm (it was SO much better than the city!!), but he's ended up being a pretty awesome guy. ;)

Sunday morning was church, which was very hard to stay awake in given my lack of sleep every other night. Then I went to Meg's for lunch, since we both had a lot to tell each other about our weekends. She ran me home, and I was doing a bit of homework when a friend called and invited me over for dinner. I've never seen the series Firefly (a Joss Whedon TV show that's got a HUGE following in smart people populations!), so he wanted me to see some of it. We watched the first three episodes, and I didn't get home til after 11. Seeing shoes at the front door, I assumed I was the last one home, and locked and u-barred the door behind me before heading to bed. At around 2, the phone rang. I was so tempted to ignore it, but knew I'd just stay awake worrying it was an emergency, so I answered.

"Hello?" I croaked groggily.

"I can't get in the door!" the voice replied.

"Who is this?" I asked, since I've had people I don't know ask me to let them in the building before, and I'm so not Ok with that.

"It's your roommate!"

"Oh..." I sleepily answered, pressing the "open door" button and crawling back into bed. Suddenly it hit me... if she wasn't in the apartment, she sure couldn't open the u-bar - I'd locked her out! I staggered back out of bed, flipped the u-bar back, and headed straight back for the snuggly comfort of my quilts. So much for assuming she was home.... Assume - it makes an ASS of U and ME.

Today I came into school for our first lecture on swallowing, and it was very cool. The instructor started by explaining why this is important, the impact it has on quality of life, etc. A very awesome way to start a topic out. Big picture first, then fill it in. We had a long break after that, so we headed into Steeps again (man, I love Steeps), where I got my head around some potential ideas for my potential ESL students, and started reading Megs' copy of East of Eden. I hope she finishes it soon... I want to read it. I'm only about 15 pages in, and there have already been many quotable quotes. My favorite so far is "Liza had a finely tuned sense of sin." ;)

And that's it! You're up to date. I'm heading off now to work on an Audi project, eat some dinner, and go for my tennis lesson. Love it. :)

Cheers,

Ela.

PS - I want to get this slogan put on a t-shirt, or maybe a sign for my door, or maybe both, plus a bumper sticker. I feel this way more and more often...

Please don't supply any more information. I'm already too well informed.

I have a great picture of it, but it's protected, so I can't show it to you, sorry! If you're desperate to see it, let me know, and I'll email it to you. :)

PPS - New words for my dictionary:

Fruzzled (Adj.): a combination of frustrated and puzzled
That material is so confusing! I was totally fruzzled trying to get through it.

Monton (Adj): dervied from the fandangus Steeps' dessert, Monton refers to something beyond fabulous, something nigh unto fandangus.
Check that hottie out! He's so monton.