Back!
Wow, I can't believe that I'm back and am already through with my second day of school. Here's the latest:

1. My clients look pretty interesting so far. One aphasia client, one fluency client, and then my continuing adult language client. Plus, I totally lucked out and got a great diagnostic team. It's all adults, with the best supervisor, and Laura's on it. Seriously, getting assigned diagnostic teams can be kind of dicey in terms of personalities, schedules, etc, but ours is as ideal as it can get. I think I have been a lucky duckie since last quarter my children's diagnostic placement was perfection as well. I am extremely grateful.

2. My classes are a mix. One should be pretty basic and the other stands out as the most challenging course of the program. It's taught by the leading expert in the field (who basically spearheaded the field) and it's going to be tough. It's also from 4-6 two days a week, which is rough in terms of energy, but I must deal. She kept on mentioning the class from last year and how they let her down, but I think we started off on a good foot by answering lots of her cranial nerve and anatomy questions. Today we reviewed many things, but especially the pyriform sinuses. And I ask you, what is a day without reviewing pyriform sinuses?

3. The weather is warming up the slightest bit. The other morning it was sunny, which is a good sign.

4. Last night we went to Dave's self-organized roast for his 27th birthday at his workplace, Lucky Strike. He reserved the very chichi wine room there and had a slideshow of pictures of himself going on the two giant screens in the room. The drink menu was personalized (one being "the Willi-Yum and Mary") and there were signed head shots of himself scattered throughout the room. Dress was formal attire. I love that it was his 27th birthday. This is the same guy who organized a scavenger hunt throughout Chicago for W&M people over W&M's homecoming weekend. He should be an event planner. Kevin has some of the shots that he helped put together in honor of the event over at his blog.

5. ...But Dave had *another* birthday dinner for some of his friends on Friday night. It was at Tango Sur and it was great. Todd and I went, and then afterward went straight to the Double Door to catch the end of the National playing (Todd got on the list to get in for free, which was awesome since it ended up being a sold out show). We found the best place to hang out at the Double Door which is on the second level where you can nestle in some comfy couches with a view of the stage.

6. I met up with Christie's Stefan on Saturday night, who was in town for a photo conference. It was so nice to see him since it had been since New year's 2004 (too long). He's as sweet and great as ever, but it would have only been sweeter if Christie were able to come as well. We had cheap Thai food and then went over to the California Clipper to see Todd's friend play blues guitar. I like the California Clipper as a bar since it's pretty laid back, and so does apparently everyone else in town since approximately five hundred people streamed in after us (okay, not that many, but almost).

7. Sunday I went along with Todd to Wilmington for his grandma's 80th birthday party. Grandma Rita rocking the house!

Whoa: Your Logo Here got cited in Salon. I am extremely impressed. Also, as YLH pointed out, here is their article on the debacle the site is following.

In the company of celebrities
Our friend, Your Logo Here, has hit it big time in the blog world (over 20,000 hits with this!) with his following of the 24 year old conservative blogger for the Washington Post. This blogger also apparently went to our alma mater.

For the record, I love YLH's rabid research on politics, but I support the continued occasional posting of international fat cats as well.

Kicking and screaming
My time in DC is coming to an end today and I don't want to leave. I'm looking forward to seeing Todd and Chicago again, but my time here was free of responsibility and full of fun. This is compared with a lot of my time in Chicago, which is filled with stress, pressure, and not a little teeth gnashing. I was thinking about it, though: three quarters of school are left and when each quarter is a little more than two months long, we're talking like seven months (tops!) of school left.
Part of me thinks: So short!
The other part of me thinks: ...but it's seven months long.

The highlights of my trip include:
1.) Hanging out at home, laying around in my flannel pajamas, wrapped in a blanket. Heavenly.
2.) Hanging out with Anne, Suzi, and Annie late night with good conversation over wine and snacks.
3.) Seeing Des, Bry, Anne, Dee and Dave over a spectacular brunch that Des made, the menu of which deserves a blog entry all of its own.
4.) Hanging out with Grace and Jonathan in DC in Grace's sweet apartment.
5.) Andean food at happy hour prices with Suzi and Anne in Courthouse.
6.) Rock It Grill with Annie on Tuesday: the one halfway house dude who we see every time we go (which is every three months or so) still got up there and sang "End of the Road" and the guy has gotten good! It's the weekly practice.
7.) Dim sum in Wheaton, MD with mom and my grandfather. This place is so good that it's worth the trip to Wheaton, MD.
8.) Sunshine (although it needs to be noted that before I arrived, it was apparently in the 80s in the DC area and yesterday? In the 40s. Gah!)
9.) Staying at home for my mom's Vietnamese food feast. My favorite meal ever.

So, while it'll be nice to hang out in Chicago before the school pressure sets in on Monday, it's sad to leave family and friends in this area.

Mr. Darcy
So my mom was walking through the room when a commercial for the "Pride and Prejudice" miniseries dvd was on. The excellent series that made Colin Firth the star that he is, you know the one. Then the following conversation took place:

Mom: What was that man's name?
Me: Mr. Darcy.
Mom: Oh, Mr. Darcy reminds me of Erik.
Me: (puzzled silence)...why?
Mom: Because he's so sullen!

Touche.

Ladies...(all the ladies, louder now, check me out, all the ladies)
Oh man, I just watched two episodes of "Campus Ladies" on Oxygen and that shite is hilarious. I did a little reading up on it, and it makes sense since the women starring in it are Groundlings, and it's executive produced by Cheryl Hines. Apparently it's been renewed for a second season. Hooray!

Isn't she...
I totally sat and watched the entirety of "Pretty in Pink" since it was on HBO today. I loved and still love that movie. A few observations now, though:

1.) James Spader, Andrew McCarthy and Molly Ringwald all look and dress like they're in their early 30s. And we're supposed to believe that they are high school seniors (which I totally did when I first saw it).

2.) John Cryer as Duckie is ahead of his time. One of the best characters of all time in a John Hughes movie.

3.) I love Andrew McCarthy a la the 80s era, but he needed a serious intervention when it came to his hair. And also his clothes.

4.) I remember at the first viewing, I thought that Molly Ringwald's prom dress creation was like the most stunning and gorgeous things of all time. I must have been high.

Touting
For any of those who haven't heard, I figured that I would use the blog for publicity for the reading of Clarence's play, "BRAIDS."

It's at the:
Round House Theater in Silver Spring
Saturday, March 25th

You can find info about it here.

I wish that I could be there for it, but I'll be gone by then.

Vacation all I ever wanted.
Spring break is here and it's the best. I sleep in, I see friends, I enjoy the warmer, sunnier (but still brisk) DC weather, I play tetris to my heart's content. There's a week left now, which is still ample as far as I'm concerned.

I managed to get through the end of the quarter just barely. I ended up having to go to school both Tuesday and Wednesday for meetings and then left for DC on Thursday. That's all I've got right now, but I'm enjoying myself and that's the most important news. More later, I'm sure.

Just about done.
Man, I feel mentally drained. I did find some time to relax this weekend, but for the most part it was all about studying and report writing. I am over it. Officially. I know, I know...almost done, but this past week has been crazy with the non-stop of it all that it has felt like the loooonngesst seevveeen dayyyys ever. Now I know the secret to stopping time: have lots and lots of assignments due.

Last night we went to a good-bye dinner for some of the people in my year who are graduating this quarter. They started with me, but they're OUT. It's the light at the end of the tunnel to hear them talk about getting j-o-b-s. I know I complain about my program a lot, but I do know that I enjoy the field. I can't wait to get out there and get my hands dirty. I think what makes things miserable is the addition of classwork. Next quarter isn't going to let up, but come summer, when I'm actually off-campus at a placement, it'll be a whole different ballgame. I actually also came to the conclusion this quarter that while I enjoy my adults, I prefer the preschool population. They're just more hilarious overall.

The good news is that I did get to watch the finale of "Flavor of Love" and New York was ousted to noone's surprise. I did see the ad for the reunion show and New York is going to get down with Pumkin. Dudes, I'm looking forward to it. And now it's time to go to bed and deal with aphasia and all its glorious syntactic theory tomorrow. Ask me about verb argument structures and the complexity approach to treatment and I will tell you a tale.

65
That's the temperature today. The weather forecast predicted that it would be overcast all day, but it's actually been mostly sunny. I cannot describe to you how blissful it is to sit here with the windows flung open, feeling the fresh air and the breeze and *wearing short sleeves*. It's heavenly.

Actually, it would probably be an efficient use of my time to categorize items into "heavenly" and "not heavenly" right now. The list is as follows:

Heavenly:
1. The (aforementioned) weather.
2. Lunch today at The Bongo Room. Really, this restaurant deserves its own category, it's so awesome. Attention: all forthcoming visitors to Chicago, you must remind me that we need to go here, because it is not to be missed. Whenever we've passed it before, the lines have been snaked around the building and now I see why. The wait on the weekends can be long and the food can take a while, but the prices are reasonable, the coffee is amazing and their menu is gorgeous.

I got a fresh breakfast burrito with guacamole on a spinach tortilla and cilantro. Yum. I decided not to go the route of the sweet desserts which this place is better known for, but Todd got the carrot pumpkin cheesecake pancakes, swimming in sweet cream cheese and cinnamon sugar. Lord. I tasted it and it tasked like *carrot cake*. They also have french toast that is like completely chocolate. And their eggs benedict? One is made with roasted duck and scallions. Food porn, for real.

Not-so-Heavenly List
1. Exams. Specifically my cumulative aphasia exam which is on Monday.
2. A diagnostic report that is due Monday. It's going to be a teeth-gnashing process to write this very long report and I haven't started. My goal was to get started today, but it's been easy to put off because I've just been turning to aphasia. So let me publish my deadline for myself: after I finish looking at my aphasia notes I'm going to at least type *something* for this g.d. paper. Gah!

The pain begins. Again.
Ah, yes, everything has officially started in terms of end-of-quarter craziness. So explains my long periods of absence.

Today we did our last school screening at this Montessori school in the city. It was a lovely school that used to be a Catholic girls school, so the building is old and it still had its old lockers and just oozed history. Has anyone ever spent time in Montessori schools? I never had before. The classrooms were great: huge and light filled with lots of tables and rugs and places for kids to spread out with their stuff of interest. Everything was sun lit or lamp lit and I wanted to walk in, go lie down on one of the rugs, and go to sleep--it looked that inviting. The kids were definitely different than other kids we screened. Compared to students of the same age that I had seen at other schools, these kids were not all about pleasing you. They were smart and thoughtful and serious like little adults. It was definitely a different experience.

At one point, this one five year old kid who seriously did not crack a smile the entire time, and had his body turned away from me during the 20 minutes we spent together, was telling me about how his favorite place to go was Rainforest Cafe (go figure).

Me: Cool. Did you know that my brother used to work at Rainforest Cafe?
Kid: [very seriously] I did not know that.

It was awesome too, because the kids are given various chores to complete. I kept on passing these two five year old girls were were standing in the hall scrubbing lockers. They wore pristine white smocks and had actual tiny buckets of soapy water and colorful sponges. I didn't see them complete too much actual cleaning within the time that I kept on passing them, but they were a sight to behold. Like characters out of some "The Little Princess" play or something.

I think perhaps you had to be there, but it was a kick in the pants. I'm intrigued by the idea of Montessori, but think that its success would depend on the kind of kid who goes in there. How do kids who do better in structured situations fare? Probably not too well. I know that there are a ton of studies out there that look at Montessori vs. traditional classrooms, and I should go out there and read them. After I write this aphasia paper, that is.

Laaazy
I had a lazy weekend. Like lay around and watch lots of "Flava of Love" lazy (has anyone watched this show? These ladies are crrr-aazy. I just can't stop watching the girl who calls herself New York, though). Reports are due next week and there are only a couple of weeks left to the quarter. You know what that means, folks? THREE quarters left to go before graduation. I think the countdown might begin now.

Saturday, Todd's brother came by with Ava, Todd's baby niece. She just turned two months old and she's perfection with her rounded and smooth cheeks. For lunch that day, we walked over to Calvin's BBQ, this awesome little orange bbq shack that's a few blocks from his place. I hadn't been there since early January, which was the last time we saw who we call "the sassy waitress." She super sassy and flirty and friendly, and in anticipation of seeing her again we deemed that day "Sass-serday" (instead of Saturday...get it? get it?). Except the last time we saw her, I think that Todd hurt her feelings a little. She was giving us a hard time about getting take out and Todd, in the spirit of the sass, said back "we just didn't want to hang out with you." The crack in her sass came through when her face fell. It was a sad moment in Sass History.

In other news, I just might have the best friends one could ask for. I'll leave it at that for now.

TLC is freakshow central.
Todd and I totally watched lots of freaky shows on TLC this weekend. We watched an entire show about a guy with hypertrichosis (think "wolfman"). The guy's name was Chuy and it was a very sad, enveloping story about his efforts in finding a job in his native Mexico.

Directly following this show, there was a show called "The Man Whose Arms Exploded." It was about some dude who took so many steroids his biceps started leaking blood. "Exploded" might be a bit of a hyperbole, but it was gross nonetheless.

Before the hypertrichosis show, I watched a show called "The 750 Pound Man."

And THEN, we almost started watched a show called "The Tumor Ate His Face" but then had to turn it off because there was blood leakage. Man, TLC is definitely in the game to steal my time.

James has the hook up.
He linked to the most excellent video of the fat, fat, fat cat in China. It made my afternoon, so I had to link to it as well.

Such a rock star.
Here's a quick run down of my schedule yesterday.

9:30: wake up
9:30 - 5:40: sit on the couch because--dude!--it's like one degree outside and I'm so not even kidding about that.
5:40: Todd and I go to our belated V-day dinner at Tango Sur, this Argentinian steak house on Southport.
6:10-8:00: Enjoy some gastronomically amazing filet and a nice bottle of red (read: costs more than $10).
8:30: Get back to Todd's place, and collapse on the couch with plans to leave at 10 to see his friend play at a nearby place.
9:30: Asleep.

I seriously fell asleep at 9:30 and slept for 12 hours. Part of this was the fact that the food was so amazingly rich. I do think that Tango Sur is my new favorite nicer restaurant to go to. It's lovely and small and candlelit. The meat was succulent as all get out. We shared this filet dinner for two that came out on its down sizzling platter with lots of garlic and portabello mushrooms. Oh my gah. The place is BYOB as well, which always makes a place a better deal. But our nice dinner was less than $40 without tip, which is pretty awesome for a special occasion place.

Huge
Today we went to school screenings in Skokie. I always enjoy them since the kids tend to be hilarious, bright, and happy to "play talking games." They also are so easy to please. One of the activities is to look at a picture of absurdities and to describe what's going on there. The kids will seriously lose it over the picture of the father sitting in a high chair at dinner.

Anyway, today, I was talking to a five year old, and we were at the vocabulary part of this particular screener. So I asked the kid to describe "huge." The interaction went like so:

K: So, what is "huge"? Tell me what "huge" means.
Kid: The great white whale!
K: Very good!
Kid: Can I tell you what else is huge?
K: What?
Kid: Your head!

Hmm, kid has a point. It reminds me of the drunk guy that we came across at a restaurant in China. When informed that my mother was from Southern China, he thought for a bit and then very seriously informed us that he could tell because people from the South tend to have big heads.

Happy Valentine's Day!
Many hugs and kisses to all. It's a lovely sunny day in Chicago with an excellent taste of spring in the air. It's pretty wonderful.

Weird week
It's been an odd one this week. I think that this mainly comes from the fact that I (and the rest of my classmates) are recovering from what was a busy midterm week. I was seriously wrung out at the end of last week and haven't really been able to do anything of substance since then. This is a bad thing since I had to accomplish a very complicated aphasia take-home mid term during that time, so let's just leave that one to the gods, shall we?

So there's that, and then there's the getting over the cold. I think I'm about 90% there. I'm still a storehouse of snot, and the bottom of my nose is all red and chafed, but I'm not longer congested and that is a big old plus. I wake up now without one nostril feeling like it's blocked up with cement. And today I worked out and didn't wonder if that was possibly not the wisest decision in the world like I did on Monday and Tuesday.

And then there's the late night engagements at school popping up. One was a last minute meeting MANDATORY(!!!!) called for those of us going off campus this summer (four months away, mind you). It was at 8 at night in our building. In the middle of a snowstorm (okay, more like a flurry, but it felt like a storm at the time). Beforehand, I met Lauren, Hillary and Katie for Chinese food (more on that later) and then we headed back to the building for the meeting. It was so odd and absurd trekking back there to the deserted campus in the swarming snow. The meeting went for an hour and a half, which is...awesome. The good news about the meeting was that it reaffirmed that general closeness of the off-campus practicums which means that we're that much closer to being d-o-n-e.

Then there was an aphasia lab from 6-8 that I had to go to tonight since I can't attend my old one now that my new client is scheduled during that time. Nighttime labs kill me for some reason. I'm pretty much useless after 5, which I know is pathetic since there are people who work full time and attend school at night. I don't have that sort of fortitude, though, so I'm like a limp rag after being on campus all day. This lab was particularly brutal as well since it was about syntax. We're talking transitive/intransitive verbs, wh-movement, NP-raising, obligatory three place verb syntax. Don't be too jealous, y'all.

But I want to talk about the Chinese place that we went to on Wednesday night. It's not actually a Chinese food place, although they have Chinese dishes on the menu. It's mainly Korean, since about 60% of the menu is Korean food, the people who work there and own it are most likely Korean, and the clientele (this place was packed) are a lot of young Korean students. But the place is called The Mandarin House, go figure. You would never know it was there. It's this little divey looking entryway and the inside's decor could best be described as striving-for-old-European with the dark wood and the dim lighting. But I love that it's crowded and doing great business and its food (both Korean and Chinese) is good, so yay for the Mandarin House!

So that's that. The weird week is winding down, thankfully. Tomorrow I don't have too busy of a day and then the weekend will be spent catching up with erstwhile friends since Todd is going to be whooping it up in NY. I so wish that I could have tagged along, but I decided to be responsible when I realized that I couldn't really justify shelling out the necessary money and time for a trip to that lively, wonderful, heady and expensive city. (Aside to Mom: I hope that you're proud of me for making the mature decision here.)

That's the latest from this bedraggled grad student.

Happy belated Chinese New Year
A week late, but better than never. My family went out to have dim sum at the best dim sum place ever back in DC, and I may be able to get some dim sum this weekend. Again, better late than never.

Still a little sick, but improving. I'm going to go to bed early again tonight which will help to kick this cold.

That's all that I've got for now. Hopefully there will be more exciting things to report as the week goes on.

Still alive
Well, this week is almost over. Both midterms and the final are done, the presentation is given, and the paper has been turned in. Everyone is sick in our program, and I finally fell under the scythe of it last night when a head cold tromped my ass. This afternoon I got home from class and didn't do an ounce of work. Instead, I wrapped myself in a big blanket, drank approximately twenty three gallons of herbal tea, and contemplated my early bed time tonight. There's stuff that's going to be due early next week that I could get a start on, but I can't motivate. I'm quickly reaching the stage of Uselessness.

But the good news is that tonight I'm going to get cheap Thai food with Pam and then am going to come home and go to bed. And that is something worth celebrating.

Sunday Rainy Sunday
It's rainy out, but it's warm! It's like 50 today. I'm locking myself to my desk all afternoon. It's been a good weekend, though. Last night we went to go and see The Life and Times at the Empty Bottle and they were pretty awesome and before that we had yummy bbq at Smoke Daddy. A perfect night out, in my humble opinion!

In other news, I've been vulnerable to being waylaid by various movies that are playing on tv. I sat down to eat my lunch today before doing some work and then ended up watching an hour of "Say Anything." I love Lloyd Dobler.

And that's all that I've got, sadly. So in lieu of anything interesting going on in my life, I'm going to post an email that Todd sent me on Friday. He gets off of work before noon on Fridays and will usually spend the afternoons napping on his big, comfy couch. Here's the message in its entirety; it totally cracked me up when I read it at school.

-----

Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006 13:32:47
Subject Line: oh no he di'int!

I have to tell you about how awesome this one thing was on Maury just now.

They had a woman and her longtime boyfriend on the show for their 3rd appearance, and they explained that here were how the first two appearances went down:

-The first time, the woman had just given birth to their first baby, and he claimed it wasn't his and that she was lying and cheating on him. She took a lie detector test and they did a paternity test, and they proved that she never cheated on him and that the baby was in fact his baby.
-The second time, she had just given birth to their second kid, and he was claiming again that she was lying and cheating on him and that the baby was not his. In addition, he was claiming that she was drugging him at night to make him sleep very heavy so that she could go out and f*** around on him with men in his family. Whenever she would get out of bed in the middle of the night to feed the baby or go to the bathroom, he would then claim that she was f***ing dudes in the hallway behind his back. She took lie detector tests and they did a paternity test, and they found that she was telling the truth about never having slept around on him, and that the second baby was also his.

Miraculously, they stayed together after this.

So they came back on the show for the third time, because she says that she heard he was f***ing some woman in their home on a day that she was in the hospital with their sick child, frantically trying to get a hold of him. He said this was not true, and that other than the two times that he had cheated on her that he had already told her about (previous to them ever going on Maury), he has never cheated on her. She was also pretty sure that he had cheated on her a bunch of other times because of all of the accusing he had done to her. He took a lie detector test to "set the record straight."

The results of the lie detector test were that he had in fact cheated on her, with over 10 women, some of which were prostitutes that he had paid for sex.

When faced with his lies and indiscretions, he told Maury that he loved his girlfriend to death and was sorry, and wished he could get a "second chance."

----

There are so many things that I love about this message, but what I love the most is that he sat down and wrote it before the show was even over, since Maury ends at 2.

Hooray!
Woo, woo, WOOOO! Midterms are upon us once again. Next week proves to be one of the best *ever* with two mid terms, and one final exam and a paper/presentation on corticobasal degeneration for our half-quarter class. Man, life so rocks right now, I can barely stand it. Today I was growling with my bad mood, but I managed to find time to work out which helped alleviate much of the crankies. I'm hoping that this weekend also finds time for some down time besides studying/writing/organizing. And that is seriously all that I have to share, which is tres triste.

Monday...the saddest day of the week.
But, the good news is that Monday's officially over. Today was busy with lots of reports due, and I managed to finish them this weekend *and* do fun stuff as well (not that typing out reports isn't like the most funnest thing ever), so that was successful.

I got to see Brendan on Friday night, as he was stopping in town on his way to Denver, and that was awesome. The next day, Todd and I went out to lunch with his old roommates who have moved to Denver (Hot Doug's! We got there at 3:52, right before it closed and got in there just in time), and it was cool to hang out with Jackie and Rob again. And then that night I was pious and stayed home to write while Todd went to see some bands play, but then joined him later to go over to have wine and enjoy Trader Joe's vittles with Kiley and Steve. So, I was pleased with the amount of people we got to see this weekend.

What else? Oh, a funny moment during one of our diagnostic sessions this morning. While the 4-year old was standing there stacking plastic bowling pins for an activity, one of our supervisor's singing Elmos started going off from within the cabinet. It was actually startling and freaky until we figured out what was going on. The dad who was there was hilarious, though, since this is what he dryly said: "I think Elmo's trying to come out of the closet there."

Voice overuse
That's what one does to oneself when you do all day school screenings like I did today. I still like them (no planning, no reports, easy clinical hours!), but I come home and I'm completely wiped out. I got home about an hour ago and am allowing myself a couple of hours to decompress and to eat some dinner and drink some non-soda and non-coffee in the form of herbal tea and then it's back to the grindstone. My first diagnostic report's draft is due on Monday along with our mid-quarter reports (already!), so I'm trying to get cracking on them now when I'm not too rushed and/or frazzled over the whole deal.

On another note, I'm watching tv right now and the commercial I totally hate is on. Anyone seen that stupid Kraft Cheese Crumbles commercial where they use EMF's "Unbelievable," but now..."Crumb-balievable?" It's not quite so lame as to be amusing to me, just lame enough to really offend me.

Long, long, long overdue
I've been meaning to add Jackie's sweet blog about her adventures in Denver to this webpage and it's finally on! She's an excellent graphic designer so you can see that all over her photos and stuff.

Destined for Success...and Pessimism
Apparently babies born in the winter tend to be bigger, brighter, and more pessimistic than their summer counterparts, according to this article.

Compared to summer births, those born in winter were significantly longer at birth, and were heavier, taller and had larger head circumference at age seven. They also had higher scores in a series of intelligence exercises. By the age of seven, winter- and spring-born children were 210g heavier, 0.19cm taller, and had head circumferences significantly larger than summer and autumn-born children. The results also show that babies born in the winter were the longest, while winter- and spring-borns weighed the most at the age of seven and were also the tallest.

I should be studying for dementia right now
...that's the class that I'm talking about. It's a half-quarter class and we have our "mid term" tomorrow. The class is relatively interesting (as interesting as a three hour class can be), but let me tell you, it's going to make my new hobby diagnosing dementia since I'm knee deep in "early signs" right now.

Anyway, since I actually need to study, I'll update quickly. I wanted to share that Jonathan and Claro were in Chicago this weekend, which was lovely, lovely, lovely. I spent Saturday with them, having lunch downtown and then just hanging out at their swank suite on the 17th floor in a hotel by the John Hancock building. The room was airy and filled with sun and I was blissed out lying on the couch with my shoes off gabbing. And not doing any work. That evening we went to Wicker Park/Bucktown and hoped to try the much ballyhooed Hot Chocolate (swank dessert place) but there were billions of people up in that piece so we turned around and found another place.

Sunday was lazy: brunch with some schoolmates and then work all day before meeting up with Claro, Jonathan and Ting for dinner at this sweet cafe called John's Place in Lincoln Park.

And now it's Monday night and the week is AWN.

But the other big news is that I did my first diagnostic test today! It was on a 12 month old, and the child was like sent from the heavens, he was such a treat. He was round and sweet and sociable and cooperative and I swear, I thought that I was going to seizure up or something from how goddamn adorable this child was. At one point he tackled a stuffed Pooh bear who was roughly his size into a hug and a squeal of joy. There are no words. The testing was the fun part and now the report awaits me, which should be a pain in the ass to say the least. But it's all part of the learning experience is what they tell me.

FTBSITTTD
James Frey is getting raked across the coals these days. I still think his tattoo is hilarious, though. The above standing for "Fuck the bull shit it's time to throw down."

A Reason for Being
Hey, Speech Language Pathology/Speech Therapy was listed in US News as one of the "Excellent Careers for 2006."

Three day weekend
Our first diagnostic got canceled this week so I had Monday off today. I used it to extend my very chill weekend, lesson planning and studying for our first aphasia quiz tomorrow with leisure. Man, I like this schedule so far. I was talking to Lauren before about how the beginning of my quarter has been pretty relaxed but I have this awareness that there is a very large, very heavy piano that is hanging above by head by a string, that piano being a very un-subtle metaphor for my schoolwork induced stress. This is all to say, that the smack-down from the piano has been postponed and I am glad.

What did I do this weekend? Nothing much at all, happily. I got to see Katja a couple of times while she was in town and the rest of the time was spent shopping and watching really, really terrible movies on tv. Let's talk about shopping first...major sales, dudes! Robin gave me a gift certificate to Banana Republic for Christmas so I stopped by the chaotic BR at the Oakbrook Mall this past Saturday. I got an organza skirt that I adore (priced $25 down from $88!) and a heavy wool cardigan ($30 down from $128...yes, overpriced to begin with). It was all free to me, but yay for the bargains.

In terms of terrible movies, Todd and I watched the following:
1. "Mother, May I Sleep with Danger"...for the third time. All times had been in chunks, so now we managed to piece the whole complicated story together. Tori Spelling, horrible acting, a hilariously whacked out storyline; these all equal perfection.
2. "Save the Last Dance" which celebrates an inter-racial teenage romance and crappy hip-hop dancing and ballet. I don't know why we sat there and watched the entire thing, but we did. Todd and I commented on how the movie was basically about us and the issues with our inter-racial relationship.
3. "Lean on Me": the last time I saw this was when it came out (1986? 1987?). I frickin' loved it then, and spent the entirety of the film convulsing from inspirational chills. Now it's kind of hilarious. Morgan Freeman is so pissed off! And he walks around with a bullhorn! Awesome.

Things that I love in 2006...so far.
1. The Soy and Flax seed tortilla chips from Trader Joe's, "spicy" variety. Dudes, I don't think that I can describe how good and fiber-filled these chips are. Add some kalamata olive hummus and you have reached a nirvana-like state.

2. The new OXO brand coffee mug that Todd gave me for Christmas. This thing is so awesome for two reasons:

a. It has a click button that will close off the sippy part, so when you knock the thing over (and you do), no coffee exits.
b. It keeps the coffee warm for hours! HOURS I tell you!

Let's talk cute.
The New York Times has an article on "the cute factor" and what makes it up. The baby panda at the national zoo is featured (of course!).

Cuteness is distinct from beauty, researchers say, emphasizing rounded over sculptured, soft over refined, clumsy over quick. Beauty attracts admiration and demands a pedestal; cuteness attracts affection and demands a lap. Beauty is rare and brutal, despoiled by a single pimple. Cuteness is commonplace and generous, content on occasion to cosegregate with homeliness.

and

Scientists who study the evolution of visual signaling have identified a wide and still expanding assortment of features and behaviors that make something look cute: bright forward-facing eyes set low on a big round face, a pair of big round ears, floppy limbs and a side-to-side, teeter-totter gait, among many others.

and

New studies suggest that cute images stimulate the same pleasure centers of the brain aroused by sex, a good meal or psychoactive drugs like cocaine, which could explain why everybody in the panda house wore a big grin.

(via Wonkette)

End of days and beginning of days
Back in Chicago! We got back yesterday afternoon after a relatively painless trip back from DC. Dulles was crowded and a nightmare (I *so* dislike the security line at lovely Dulles), and we had to sit on the runway for a little, *and* we had to circle in the air for awhile before we could land in O'Hare, but we were only delayed by like an hour and a half overall. Not that bad considering that people were lying on the aisles of O'Hare as we were walking through and I had heard that there were cots set up later on during the day. There were hailstorms and thunderstorms in Chicago that morning. But, please note that it's still kinda mild. No hats and mittens are necessary right now, folks.

The last day in DC was nice and relaxed. Todd and I went to the lovely Great Falls park and walked along the trail awhile. I liked the brisk fresh air and stretching the legs a little after a couple weeks of slothdom. It was partly sunny and not too cool, so a perfect day for a walk. After that we headed back home where my mom cooked up a serious (srrrsss) feast of honey ham and roasted chicken. Man, I love home cooking. It was tough to come back to Chicago the next morning, particularly since we had to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to get to the airport. Basically I had gotten accustomed to DC again, to the comforts of home and family and all of my good friends closeby, and of course, vacation. When I thought of the impending stress of school and the gray coldness of Chicago, I wasn't too psyched.

But the good news is that it's good to be back. I had my first day of class today, and my schedule is set up so that I have all three of my classes today, so got to experience them all. I feel pretty optimistic about all of them; one will be somewhat of a doozy, but at least it's interesting stuff. I also got my clinic assignments which are reasonable and not too tough. I had been particularly anxious about my diagnostic team assignment, but I got my first choice (working with pre-school kids) with my favorite supervisor and a very cool group, so I am kneeling down to the clinic gods as we speak. It could have been much more difficult.

So, yeah, the first week is not quite as crazy as I was anticipating which I like very much...I like easing into stuff. Tonight I went out with some school mates to ring in the beginning of the quarter to one packed Evanston hangout and had a bloody mary to die for.

But one more quick note about DC: I can't stress enough how well I ate when I was home. All of those lovely people who treated me to meals, you know who you are, belong in some kind of Museum of Awesome. Mom and Dad pulled out all of the stops, especially when Todd was there (dim sum at the best place in DC, roast beef, pecan pie, etc) and steak and cheesecake made by Jonathan and Clarence also needs to be noted. Can you see why I didn't want to leave?

Happy, Happy New Year!
Happy 2006. I like the sound of the year already. While '5' is a hard number, all sharp edges, 6 is smooth and like honey. (Like that? I got more where it came from, I'm sure).

Last night Dee and Dave hosted a few people at their beautiful place in Falls Church. Everyone brought food, drink, and we played board games and it was a lot of fun. We watched the ball drop and then everyone fell off bit by bit, all of us out of there by about 1 a.m. I can't believe how pathetic that is; even *last* year we all managed to after party a bit and not go to bed till at least after 4 in the morn. This time we were all fighting to stay up past 12:30. Todd suggested that this was perhaps due more to the mood of all of us, focusing on board games and delicious dips rather than partay-ing down and trying to get our money's worth from some bar admission. I liked that this year was pleasantly slow and laid back, but I hope that turning 29 doesn't mean that I'm bidding farewell to my ability to stay up past midnight.

But in other news, it's our last day in DC before heading back to Chicago tomorrow. Although I look forward to returning to the city, I'm not looking forward to the cold or the impending stress of the quarter. I'm trying to keep positive about it all, but I know that this next quarter is going to be a tough one. Classes start on Tuesday. Gah!

In the Hizzouse
Todd arrived a couple of days ago! Yesterday we spent at the mall. No, not the national mall...the actual mall. We went to acclaimed spots such as The Gap, Banana Republic, and all of that good stuff. Yeah, it was awesome.

Last night we went to Arlington and saw Des, Bryan, Annie, and Anne which was fun. Afterward I took Todd to the Galaxy Hut, which is still my favorite tiny bar in Clarendon. We got there at the right time, before 9 when the crowds descended (we all even got a booth!). I swear, I hadn't been there in so long when it *wasn't* crowded, that it was like Christmas. Anne and Annie left after one beer since they had the dreaded work the next day, but Todd and I stayed to watch the karaoke (!) which ended up being a lot of fun. There was one lady who kept on going up to sing and she picked both "Voices Carry" and "Luka." The two only songs about domestic violence that exist as far as I am aware.

The good news is that the sun is out today, though. And it should be in the 50s, I believe. Yahoo!

Happy Birthday to Lauren one of my school mates.
Girl, see you soon.

Happy Birthday to Jenny
who was lucky to see on the East Coast yesterday.

Birthdays everywhere!

fyi
Apparently the link that I added for "Eat This" is from a separate week so you'll have to do some scrounging around to find the actual episode. Whoops.

Food Network Debut
So Laura and I are *finally* on that Food Network show "Eat This" (an 'online exclusive'! ooh la la!). We had been faithfully checking every Monday and our segment in the episode on specialty meats is finally posted.

You can find it here, it's week four, episode thirteen. Laura and I can be found about 3 minutes and 39 seconds in when Dave Lieberman visits Hot Doug's. We had originally filmed like fifteen minutes of chit chat about the various sausages but that was woefully cut out.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Birthday to me!
It's the best day of the year, the day when I turn 29, which is kind of unreal to me, but what the hell. Also, it's been a pretty sweet Christmas where I received my awesome new iPod nano, which I love, inscribed and everything from my parents. It's teeny tiny and super cute. Among other things, I also received the first season of "Lost" from Robin on dvd. I never watched an episode before, but I just sat down and watched four in a row, it was that addictive. The day is going to be a lazy one since it's 4:20 and I haven't even changed out of my pajamas yet. Again, best day of the year. My mom is cooking a big old turkey for dinner tonight and we're contemplating over whether or not to have a cake (*I'm* contemplating whether or not I want to bake one or not).

Thanks to all of those dear ones who have called and emailed with birthday greetings today.

In other news, yesterday Clarence took me out to lunch and then to go and see "Munich" which I thought was pretty good. I had already watched "One Day in September" before which I thought was great but sad as hell so I was expecting more of the same. "Munich" follows the aftermath more, and it was definitely absorbing. Uncanny moment: Clarence and I had talked about the dude in "Amelie" at lunch and how he looks like Jonathan and discussed what other movies he's been in ("The Hate" is the only one we could come up with). That dude ended up being in "Munich"! Weeeeiiird.

I also was going on and on to Clarence about how awesome my new contacts are. He's been wearing contacts forever so he said that hearing me go on about that was like if I was talking about how cool it is to use credit cards or something, which I can kinda see. It's like: where have contacts been all of my life?

Erik got a new/old car today too. It's keeping in the Honda tradition in our family and it's from the early 90s with lotsa miles on it, but dependable as all getout. I kept on saying that I should have held onto my awesome Hyundai which was tri-toned and had a gold bumper to pass on to him. Who wouldn't want to roll up to high school in that thing?

A baby is born!
Todd's niece, a healthy baby girl, was born this morning! A Christmas eve baby, after my own heart.

Sitting proudly between my two favorite boys. 

The tree! I liked this one because it small and sweet.  

Suzi, Anne, and myself 

From last night. Clarence had gotten chastised for not smiling in the picture before so he obliged with fervor this time around. 

Last Tuesday, I met up with Suzi, Madeline, and Anne for brunch. Madeline showed off the car that she was borrowing from a friend. A picture was in order.  

To Do Lists
I love my "to do" lists during the holidays. During school quarters my lists would be like 18 items long. Yesterday, my list was comprised of two items.

1. Decorate tree.
2. Go to Suzi's.

My kinda list.

Anyway, Suzi's was a lot of fun. Anne and I went over there and met up with her and also go to see Jonathan and Clarence as well who were fresh from their Key West trip. They regaled us with stories that they heard from their ghost tour which were like the most awesome ever: necrophilia and little dolls named Robert! Really, can a ghost tour offer anything better?

The best picture from Stuffonmycat.com in my humble opinion. I think that I might need to make this my wallpaper. 

As Des pointed out:
this website, Stuff on my Cat, is worth some minor celebration. Lord help me when I look at the cat in overalls. I think I need to add it to the blog, actually.

Shopping Online...
...is where it's at. I did 99% of my Christmas shopping online on Friday, and everything arrived today! I'm seriously impressed. And I managed to garner some major savings as well through strategic use of promotions, sales, and this and that. I am pleased, and feel that I got my money's worth. Thank you, Internet.

Oh my god
There's a webpage for Jean Teasdale, my favorite editorial writer in The Onion.

Warning...
Last night Annie and I went for our bi-annual visit to Rock It Grill on Tuesday nights to watch the regulars go at the karaoke. It's amazing, because after visiting there three or four times over the period of a year and a half, we're starting to recognize them and know some of these guys by name (Mandingo, for instance...although it should be noted that Mandingo had a sore throat last night so after struggling through one song, he got off the stage, promptly folded up his pool cue and was outta there).

Our favorite guys from the halfway house who regularly hit the stage with aplomb were there. That one older, hunched over white guy got up there and sand "End of the Road" again just like last time, but this time he was better! (he must have been practicing every week).

There were also a couple of serious, talented karaoke people like a couple of women who sang the hell out of some Alicia Keyes songs and ROCKED "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (best karaoke song ever).

But the best...the BEST...was this rowdy table of college-age type people that contained one parrticular character who we nicknamed "choking hazard." Why that name? Well, my friends, because he advertised as one in that he had the klassiest t-shirt of all time that was emblazoned with a huge arrow pointing down to his groin area with the words "choking hazard" plastered across it. Niiiice. Who wants one for Christmas?

The girls at the table were having a grand time, and the best was when they drug themselves to the dance floors and slow danced to Eminem's "Forgot About Dre." Ben joined Annie and me later on in the night and we all noted that this would make an excellent song to dance to at one's wedding.

So, as always, an excellent night at the Rock It on a Tuesday night. And major thanks to Annie who treated. :) She knows the way to my heart.

A whole new world
I got contacts today! I finally broke down and did it since I was realizing that those times when I was taking off my glasses were getting fewer and fewer as grad school has addded a strain to my vision for sure. It was getting to the point that I hoped that I wouldn't pass anyone I knew on the streets since I never recognize people from a distance and didn't notice a person who might be waving for my attention until they were like five feet away.

So: freedom! And I got my contacts in within two tries: the woman who helped me and the doctor were impressed.

I got my eyes checked and my contacts at the lovelu Dulles Town Center mall. I haven't been to a mall in a long time, so kind of enjoyed the experience of wandering the corridors there, amidst the crowds and the music. There were a lot of people at the mall on a Monday afternoon (even with the impending holiday).

Oh my god.
So as some of you might know, Tai Shan, the new baby panda to the National Zoo who is unerringly, breathtakingly adorable is called Butterstick by some followers (as when he was born, he was described the size of a stick of butter). The National Zoo cast off that name when people were voting in. Bastards. Anyway, someone has made products celebrating The Stick (as Wonkette calls him) and I need a t-shirt stat.

I have officially found my world's most favorite website ever: Cute Overload, where they scour the Internet for cute and they deliver.

A really good, absorbing article in remembrance of Richard Pryor here.

Back from Des and Bryan's which was a lot of fun. I got to see James, Cindy, Dave and Dee along with Des, Bryan and Anne, so that was a good time. I need to report that Des and Bryan's pets are *extremely* lovable. Last time I saw their golden retriever pup he was all leggy and growing into his huge paws and now he is officially a Big Boy. And a total lovebug. Their kitty is a major snuggler as well. I need a pet to snuggle with stat...as soon as I have some time and money. Sometime before I die, I hope.

DC is for eating well.
It's been great being back. Last night I hung out with Ms. Anne, cooking up some chicken and whole wheat pasta and enjoying the gorgeous flowers that she brought as well as the sinfully delectable dessert and champagne. Oh my gah. Lots of fun.

This morning, major thanks to Suzi who hosted the most amazing brunch at her lovely new place. Suzi packs a culinary punch every single time, and I always look forward to meals that she whips up. Today was no disappointment: she made french toast out of some sort of european bread, chicken and apple sausage patties and frittata alongside coffee and mulled wine as libations. So Suzi's place was lovely as was the company when I got to catch up with Matt and Grace, and Anne again as well. So thank you, Suz, you always outdo yourself!

Tonight is a party celebrating "Kicking and Screaming" (not the Will Ferrell one) at Des and Bry's. Saturday's like the most fun day ever.

Home means lots of diet coke (with lime!) in the pantry...
...which means trouble since I drink it into the night and then can't fall asleep with ease. But who cares, because I don't gotta do anything tomorrow morning! It's good to be back in DC: we had an awesome feast of roast beef from the rotisserie (juicy), fresh salad with green onions and avocado, and brocolli. Mmmm. And I got to watch lots of bad tv this afternoon when I got home. DC is rainy and wet and my parents' street is probably 99% black ice right now, but tomorrow should be sunny and 44 degrees, which is practically summer.

So, I've been a crap blogger for the past few days. I'm trying to sit and remember what I've been up to. On Tuesday I had my VERY LAST client of the quarter. It was only 50 minutes so it was quick, but since clinic officially closed two weeks before and exams ended last week, it felt like a ghost town. I was in and out, though, and then freeeeedoooom. That night I had an awesome dinner with Pam and went home and crashed like I've never crashed before. Wednesday I had brunch with Ting at the much ballyhooed Orange, a brunch place closeby that is packed on the weekends but nice and empty on Wednesdays at 11:30. Orange is yummy definitely, and I love their water garnished with thin slivers of cucumber, but I have to say that Nookie's Tree gives it a real run for its money in terms of brunch fare, AND it's never a long wait for a table there.

After brunch, I burned off my eggs by trekking to Roscoe Village in the cold wet sleet and gross dirty snow to get my hair chopped at Big Hair. Todd had recommended this funky little no-appointment kinda place and I knew that their prices rivaled Hair Cuttery but their quality was like three bazillion times better. I was totally pleased: Big Hair was super fun and cheap as all hell. I got my hair cut for $15 and was out of there within half an hour. I think I will switch from my other, more expensive dude. And no line since Wednesday afternoon!

So I managed to get my bidness all done in Chicago before leaving and now I'm back in DC where I very much need to do some major Christmas shopping because I have nothing right now. Nothing. Tomorrow I'm going to be burning up the Internet.

Happy Birthday to Madeline!
Hope that you have the night off from work to celebrate as you should.

Gray slush
It snowed a lot on Thursday night, I neglected to mention before. See, if you might remember, I was all psyched because I was set to go with Todd to his company's holiday fancy dinner, but the snow put a kibosh on our plans since we would have been sitting in a standstill on the highway for no less than five hours to get there. Bastard snow.

Probably three to five (correction: 8-10) inches fell, and while that might stop DC in its tracks for a few days, Chicago didn't blink an eye. Everything carried on as usual. The snow when it first fell was quite pretty, but now it's a few days later and with the slight warming of the weather and the many cars that go through the streets, there is a lot of gray slush. Last night I stepped in an entire cold puddle of it because it looked like it was all solid and pavement and crap. Someone pointed out that you can tell the good landlords from the bad landlords by whether or not the steps are shoveled. I'm happy to report that everything is shoveled at my apartment building and all of the pathways are clear.

I agree.
Slate has an essay about how that stupid Black Eyed Peas song "My Humps" is "a song so awful it hurts the mind." I heard it a few times when I was scanning radio stations while working out, and was like "wtf."

"My Humps" is a moment that reminds us that categories such as "good" and "bad" still matter. Relativism be damned! There are bad songs that offend our sensibilities but can still be enjoyed, and then there are the songs that are just really bad—transcendentally bad, objectively bad.

Amen.

Speaking of horrifically bad songs, I heard a song on the country station yesterday with the chorus surrounding a "Honky tonk Budunkadonk." Yep, I wish that i were lying about that one.

Project Runway
...is back! Yahoo! I watched the two hour premiere tonight with Hillary and it was the best two hours of my week by far. I think that I'll be looking forward to every Wednesday night as it comes up. Oh man.

In other news, the cold here is getting kind of ridiculous. I'm wearing my long underwear now for sure, and still my legs get all cold after walking the 12 minutes to the Belmont el stop. And because these past few days have been full of other little trips and errands, much more walking has been involved, and it's been brutally hilarious with the cold. Apparently it hasn't been this low in temperature for this time of year for a few decades here. So we've got that going for us...

In terms of work: two hours of observation complete today as well as one client session (who brought us cookies from Kim's bakery, which was very thoughtful). Tomorrow: last two hours of observation and then whipping up a report. Let's hope that it's a relatively quick dealie. Tomorrow night is Todd's company's holiday party: I see steak in my future. Am I correct in that estimation, Todd?

The second years of the program celebrating the end of this gosh-darned quarter.  

The birthday girl, Hillary, and me. 

Bonnie and the shirt that she snagged: "I heart the DSS" 

Hoorah!
Finished the last exam today! I'm not quite out of the woods yet, since there's one more assignment left and a couple more therapy sessions, but I'm so almost there. The diagnostics exam today was all right: as we expected we needed to basically write a diagnostics report based on the tests that we scored over the weekend which meant that the entire two hours of exam time was spent scribbling on paper all of our ideas. We all agreed afterward that it would have been much better if we were using computers since that's basically the way that we write now, but whatever. The end of my exam was a bit questionable, but I think that I got all of my ideas out there. I was totally wiped out toward the end.

But tonight was totally fun. Hillary had her annual birthday party, Hilladay. It was at a Mexican place on Belmont so a short hop, skip and a jump away. Over 20 of us showed and there was an awesome gift exchange. I snagged a complete kit of Burt's Bees stuff which I had been eyeing especially the good lip balm. I got it now, kids, I got it now. I brought another t-shirt that I got made at Strange Cargo, especially for the people who had taken Diagnostics in our group. There's one particular test of sentence structure analysis that drubbed some serious asses on the last exam. I got a 2/10 in scoring it correctly. Yes, 2 out of 10. I was even happy to have gotten two points, frankly. So the shirt theme that I chose celebrated said test called The DSS. I'm happy to report that the shirt got stolen three times in the gift exchange (stealing being one of the rules) and ended up with Bonnie who I know *really* loves the DSS. I took pictures, which you can admire above.

But I so love the end of the quarter. I love coming home and not having to slave over work. Hell, I love *being able* to come home rather than having to have stayed at home to do work. I love having time to work out during the day and having time to make good, healthy meals. I love time.

Dude, it's like 11 degrees outside right now
I don't think that I can fully express the level of the cold that has come down upon Chicago. I've developed a strategy that works to nestle my melon head from the freeze by wearing the hood of my sweatshirt and then adding the wind proof hood of my winter jacket. I totally love my winter jacket: it does the JOB. Sexy it's not, but it's functional as hell.

Not much else to report here except that exam week is here! I turned in my fluency final this morning that was a takehome that was approximately 20 pages long with the references. I felt utter despair when our professor handed it to us on Wednesday, but I was intent on plowing through that bad boy this past weekend and it got done. I can't believe it. Tomorrow we have our diagnostics midterm which I feel questionable about if only because there's no real way to prepare. I scored my tests, I'm going to bring them in, I have a general idea what to say about them, but that's all I can really do.

This week isn't really going to end till Friday (things kept on popping up), but then this weekend will be like the funnest one ever (before I head back to DC that is, which is in 9 days now!).

And that's all, folks. Until tomorrow or a few days later.

happy birthday to Robin!
(who's in St Kitts right now, so party it up, Robin)

Break
Last week of class, people! Last week: woowoowoo! Next week is the last of my exams, and I should be completely finished with all commitments by next Wednesday afternoon (I *should* be at least). Of course this week is pretty insane, what with finishing up lots of my clients, turning in final drafts of reports, final conferences, last neuro homework, neuro comprehensive exam (d'oh) and fluency "skills test," which is more like a monster homework assignment. Today was what was supposed to be my last day o' nothing, but it was pretty busy with observations, meetings, and a rescheduled client. I've taken to making excel documents that list all of my to-do items, which is helpful, but also not a little depressing.

But Thanksgiving break was good. I found time to relax as well to work away at the upcoming stuff of this week. Thanksgiving evening Todd and I went to Megan and Laura's for dinner, which was a good alternative to going home. Although the talk of the honey ham that my family was having made me salivate, Laura and Megan and their roommate kicked some major ass with their spread. There were about 15 people there, many of whom were experiencing their first Thanksgiving: it was pretty awesome. So awesome that we left at 9 and I went back and promptly went to bed. I should also mention that Laura and Megan's roommates family came from NY to join in the festivities and brought their hilarious Boston terrier with the meanest wall eye that you've ever encountered. He was the best.

Besides that and studying we also found time to see a show at the Empty Bottle (Rogue Wave?) and making some homemade spaghetti and meatballs, catch up on a few phone calls, and other assorted things. Right now I'm living for the small pleasures (sleep and lots of it, damn it all), home brewed coffee, and hot piping mugs of herbal tea. This quarter has been quite good in terms of experience, but it's lots and lots of work and I look forward to long winter break when I don't have to feel guilty when I'm not doing work.

"Cheaters" come alive!
Kevin has an awesome blog post about a real-life Cheaters type incidence at his workplace. It's awesome, people.

"easy week"
These two and a half day weeks are so misleading! I was all relaxed on Sunday thinking about how on Wednesday afternoon the week would be over and Thanksgiving holiday would be upon us. Ah, I am a naive young lass. This week is goddamned jam-packed. what is that about?? I've got another neuro test tomorrow and four clients crammed into two days and it's sucking, dudes. I can taste the end of the quarter (in three weeks!) but then it's...three weeks away. Yes, i'm officially in complainer mood now. I did get my Taste Number One of Thanksgiving when I went with Todd to partake in his family's big pre-Thanksgiving dinner get-together. Yummy. I was proud of myself to leave without feeling like I was going to bust a gut. It's the little things.

Oh, and other news. So remember how I was hollering about how Laura and I got onto Food Network tv on the show "eat this"? Well, apparently it's an online show only. A "web only exclusive" in fact! This episode is on chocolate, but I think that Laura and I will be on the one about specialty meats which is one of the upcoming weeks. You can recognize the Chicago parts because Dave Lieberman is wearing a green shirt.

Okay, time to get back to lesson planning and neuro.

Fyi
All Limbs Intact is playing tonight at the Elbo Room! I cannot attend (sadly) since I have an evening client, but you Chicago people looking for something to do should go and see Todd whale (wail?) on the guitar.

One week later...
I've been lax with the blogging lately. During the weeks I'm running around like a crazy woman trying to get all of my planning and homework done and during the weekends it's all that I can do to recuperate from the preceding week. This week I get 13 clinical hours which is my most yet (usually, you're lucky if you get over five). I ain't complaining, but the work...it's a lot. We have three more weeks left to the quarter which seems so short, but also seems so very long. I'll get through it, but I'll have to go on autopilot and not think about the looming work too much.

Rather than bore everyone to tears in discussing school much more, I need to report that this past weekend was a good one. I tagged along with Todd on Saturday to appear in the background of a video his friend's band was filming at The Mutiny, Chicago's best dive bar. We got there at 1pm, and there was quite a collection of people sitting in the dark, immersed in smoke, enjoying the karaoke that starts at 9 a.m. on some mornings. They were filming the video at the back bar, though. It was a play on that awesome show, "Elimidate," and the storyline featured Emily (Todd's friend/bandmate from another band) going on a lousy date with an aviator-glasses wearing dude. Todd got to make his video debut by being the drunken leerer who stumbles over to Emily, makes a grab for her goods, by being left at the bar puzzled and sad. Oscar quality, I tell you.

That night we had a dinner party with Pam and Dave and Pam's beau which was a lot of fun. And then the next day we were off to Wilmington where I attended Todd's sister in law's baby shower.

Okay, it's time to hit the hay. The wind is howling outside right now and tomorrow there's talk of wet snow. Gah!

Bits and pieces
First of all, as I saw on the news today, the Kansas school board okayed new public school science standards that promotes "intelligent design." Whoa, what year is this? It was a 6-4 win. 6-4, people.

Second of all, Honda Civic tops the list of most stolen cars again. The thieves have good taste; I love my Honda Civic. Number two is apparently the 1994 Dodge Caravan. I can't really speak to that one.

Thirdly, Tuesday is over. Tomorrow's Hump Day. Hooray! We have another day-long school screening tomorrow, but the week is less stressful since it's mid-term free. We do have another neuro homework assigment though which can be akin to what I imagine birth feels like (hours and hours long, some pain involved and moral support is appreciated). BUT, we muddled through the tough part of that one yesterday so hopefully that one will be a downhill slide from here.

The weekend was nice but fleeting. We joined a big group to go bowling at the Diversey Rock and Bowl on Saturday night. After a quiet day of the sounds of the washer/dryer going in the background the pumping hitz and black lights of the bowling alley was a bit jarring at first, but I quickly adjusted and then geared up for a sweet bowling game where I didn't suck quite as much as usual. I still came in dead last, but I did break 60, which is A-1 in my book. The Rock and Bowl (bon mot!) wasn't quite the hands-down deal of the Fort Myers bowling alley is, but we can't have it all, can we? We all went out for a single drink at the Blue Line in Wicker Park afterward which is another place I always see but never enter. It was actually very chill and quiet for a late Saturday night so I give it a thumb's up.

Sunday was what I was looking forward to all week since Todd and I celebrated one year of dating by having a extremely lovely dinner at Cafe Matou, a French place on Milwaukee Ave. I suggested it since it was close to his place and the menu looked awesome as were the reviews that I saw. I had the duck and Todd had the steak with butter as a garnish. It was a rich meal, but not entirely gut-busting, and totally worth it.

Congratulations...
...to Robin for winning 10 grand in a poker tournament today! And a free entry and travel/lodging to a big doozy of a tournament in the Caribbean. But despite the heady effects of victory, he's still Robin as shown by the following exchange:

R: The first prize at the Caribbean tournament is something like $600,000.
Me: That's awesome! If you win, then will you help me to pay off my student loans?
R: No.
Me: Come on!
R: If I win, I'm going to do everything in my power to make your life suck, because I'll finally have all the money I need to do so.

I love my older brother.

New link!
So a most awesome school mate of mine has a blog called Intrepid News. It's full of interesting news and links to articles for the liberal set. I'm adding the link to my regular list, but you can check out the blog now if you like.

I would also like to thank this same classmate for introducing me to orange flavored Trident. Oh, citrus Trident, where have you been all of my life?

Through!
I managed to complete what may have been one of the busiest weeks of my grad school career thus far. I am proud to say that I got through, and that I didn't suffer too much stress or too little sleep. A little recap:

Monday: meeting on campus and then studying for tests on Thursday
Tuesday: class all morning and then two clients in the afternoon.
Wednesday: all day school screenings and then back to campus for my late evening client
Thursday: 8-9:30 a.m. meeting for audiology info (another lecture about cochlear implants; I expect that I may be an expert by this point). Two back to back midterms. Then home visits with a supervisor till 7.
Friday: lab, meeting, and then last client of the week. Also news of a brand new client.

It was a reasonably good week, though. And now the weekend. I'm planted in front of the tv watching Todd's HBO OnDemand while I use his washer and dryer. I'm not going to do any homework today either, which is going to be awesome.

Halloween and Weddings
Happy Halloween! It's a rainy night in Chicago. I decided to venture out to the Halsted Halloween Parade, which is super easy since it's like half a block away. I'm glad I brought my umbrella since it is wet and wild out there. I met up with Ting, Kevin, Jessica, and Dop to view the fruits of the very celebrated holiday in Boystown. The costumes were pretty great. A few that I spotted:

• The Wheel from Wheel of Fortune
• Very elaborate Willy Wonkas (two of them, one right after the other)
• M&Ms
• A sperm and an egg
• A variety of dressed up dogs

I was excited to see what Kevin had done. He had helped assemble the costumes of Jessica and Dop as well and they were nothing less than awesome. Kevin was Powder (for those who remember the movie from the early 90s) and went as far to do a body shave for it, including his pate. Jessica was an amazing Veruca Salt and Dop as an Oompah Loompah was nothing less than inspired. I keep on telling Kevin that he should open a costume shop (do it, Kevin!). The parade didn't last an hour so I'm home ready to pound the books again, but there is much revelry going on a block away from me.

But, there's more to report on than Halloween. This past weekend in Bloomington for Steve and Kiley's wedding was lovely. They couldn't have asked for better weather for it (sunny and almost 70 on Saturday, the day of the wedding) either. While Bloomington struck me as a kind of strip-mally, they had their ceremony at a pretty little church outside in a place called Funks Grove. The church was complete with oil paintings of the dour Funks, it definitely added to the atmosphere.

Todd was in the wedding so I got to tag along on all of those things that are for the wedding party (rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, wedding pictures, etc) so I feel like I got the complete experience. The reception was the best part, though, since Kiley's drum teacher's wedding band played and live music is always the best. Todd even danced for a whole lot of it, which is close to a miracle. The highlight was when Kiley took over the drums in her wedding dress, Todd played bass, and Steve handled vocals and the guitar for a Superchunk song (I almost typed "Superchink" there, which would be an awesome blog name). I failed to take any pictures, but let me assure you that everyone look smart and dapper in their wedding gear.

Now it's time for the week to start. It's going to be a bear of a one: watch out. At least I had a good weekend, though.

Jessica as Veruca Salt. 

Dop as the Oompah Loompah 

He shaved his head...for his costume! That is what I call dedication. 

Kevin as Powder.  

Man!
These busy middle weeks are killing me. It's non, non, non-stop. Today I was on campus from 8:30 to 8pm and doing stuff the entire time. Tomorrow I've got class all morning and then have to run to meet my supervisor in another part of Evanston to set off on three different home visits. I also need to haul along with me all of the junk necessary for the home visits. I foresee being very cranky come tomorrow evening. Relieved, but cranky.

This weekend should be fun since I'm heading to Bloomington (I think?) with Todd to go to Steve and Kiley's wedding. He's in the wedding party so we need to zoom out of Chicago as soon as we can on Friday to get there in time for fittings and rehearsal dinners and all of that good stuff. Next week is going to be another doozy (another day of two tests on one day, one being neuro--what the eff is up with that?). Gaaaaahhhhhh.

But the big news in Chicago is that the White Sox won! I can't even imagine what it's like in the Southside right now, but I can hear lots of honking and firecrackers and general festivity-making outside in the neighborhood here.

It's going to be a weird day

One Red Eye from newspaper dude: free

Cost of one standard el ride into Evanston: $1.75

Discovering that your professor is sitting in the train seat in front of you when you're blabbing about his class with some people from your program: priceless.

(Note: I did a quick rewind when we realized it was him and I think, amazingly, everything that I said was good. Still, though, it left me shaken, not stirred.)

So the quarter has reached the point when the days are passing with a quickness. It's hard to believe that it's already late October. Halloween time and all. This time last year was so vivid to me still that it's hard to believe that a year has passed since then.

Anyway, this past weekend was nice and relaxed. On Friday night we went to Bolingbrook to get together with Jackie and Rob for an early Halloween get together at a bar by where they all used to live. Let me just say this: Jackie and Rob's costumes were A-1. They had on those costumes that you see people in and say to yourself "daaamnn, I can't believe that they made that!" Jackie was Smurfette and Rob was a monkey complete with red bow tie and big floppy Dumbo ears. Jackie and her mom *made* both of them. My costume? Recycled from last year: Identity crisis. I even wore the same clothes, that's how poor of a dresser-upper I am. The name tags that I purchased where wanting, though, so my costume lasted for about negative three seconds before I scrapped the whole concept. It was beyond poor. Todd also recycled from last year, wearing a Babe the Pig costume for a 2-4 year old, but he proudly wore his costume the entire night. Picture that if you can.

Anyway, Saturday night was filled more music when we went to see Holy Roman Empire play at the Metro for an early show and then off to the Empty Bottle to go see Mile Marker play (I always want to call them Maker's Mark for some reason).

Now I'm preparing for the week ahead by watching "Making the Band 27" on Mtv. As you do.

FRIIIIIDAAAAAY
Hooray for that! I got through the week. I've got a measly lab and core meeting left, but that's it until freedom.

So last night we met up with Jackie and Rob, Todd's old roommates, who are in town visiting after moving to Colorado. It was excellent to see them, as always. Our original plan was to go to Schuba's for dinner and then go to the American Analog Set show there. That was not to be, though, since the show sold out beforehand (drats). Instead we went to Las Mananitas in my neighborhood, home of my favorite margaritas on the planet. Hands down favorite, people. Todd, Jackie, and I split a pitcher, which was just what the end to a busy week called for. Afterward we moved west and had a cheap PBR at the Green Eye lounge. I like that place, even moreso after once talking to the bartender and discovering that he had gone to William and Mary (even living in Monroe Hall).

Speaking of William and Mary, it's Homecoming there this weekend. In lieu of going to Williamsburg for the festivities, Dave has organized a pretty amazing itinerary of Homecoming activities in Chicago for the William and Mary contingent here. It's like a two day thing. I hope to attend at least one of the events, and will try to report back with photos.

It's downhill from here
The difficult part of my week is over, hurrah! Double hurrah, in fact! I have an easy end of week and weekend and then next week will be hopping again with client stuff, but that's like a good five days away. Practically eternity, according to me.

So, two exams on Tuesday. They were all right and I'm happy to report that I won't have to be retaking the neuro exam. I was pretty bone tired after them, and then after a short break, headed into a client session with my five year old. She was off the wall that day. I seriously spent about 40% of the session coaxing her out from under the table (which led my supervisor to suggest that we take all of the furniture out of the room next time...all of it, including the little kid table and chairs). At one point she broke out of the room and my supervisor and I had to sprint down the hall to head her off. Needless to say, we didn't get a whole lot accomplished. I didn't feel disheartened by the whole deal, since that comes with the territory with some of the clients and my supervisor gave me big kudos for keeping my cool. What *was* funny is that this was my first session being observed by a whole gaggle of people for one of their classes. They found me afterward and were google eyed and slack jawed after such a hilariously bad session.

After that session, though, I was *exhausted*. I had to run to a meeting, but as I was gathering my stuff, my legs were shaking from fatigue. I'd always just assumed that I would definitely want to work with kids in the future, but now I'm considering more options now. I love kids, and they crack me up, but my adult client is so much fun and so motivated that it's really refreshing. It's less about keeping her engaged than about getting our stuff done. I have made peace with the concept that sometimes kids just won't work. You give your all to get them to work with you and you keep on trying till something sticks, but kids are stubborn creatures.

I also got assigned TWO assistants this quarter. I'm a lead clinician, y'all. Watch out, I'm drunk with power.

What's getting me through the week
Are the Season 2 dvds of "Arrested Development." They slay me.

Yes, I should be studying...
But, there's an excellent article in Slate about the greatness of Noah Baumbach's early movies. "Kicking and Screaming" is still one of my favorite movies ever (and only on VHS!).

Day of Firsts
Yesterday was a day of firsts for me.
1. I sat down and completed two reports back to back without complaint. EVEN THOUGH it took me about three times as long since very long, detailed transcription of speech samples were involved. I was rather impressed with myself, thank you very much. It's actually very good for me to have those out of the way so I can get down to business with these two exams on Tuesday. YAY!

2. Todd and I walked over to Irazu for lunch. It's this little Costa Rican place close to where Todd lives on Milwaukee and we always pass it on our way to the heart o' Wicker Park and Bucktown. It is small and unassuming but there are always people milling around so it was time to give it a try. Yum. I had the vegetarian burrito with sauteed mushrooms and it was to die for. Todd had a sandwich which involved breaded steak on french bread (needless to say he napped promptly afterward). Todd felt guilted into buying me lunch because apparently yesterday was Sweetest Day. We had passed some local flower shops in his neighborhood that were busting a gut to put out flower displays and make more sells. Reading Hallmark's press release (!) about it, apparently it started as a day celebrated in the Great Lakes region and it now spreading throughout the country.

So, actually, I guess that should be number 3 of new things experienced...

3. Sweetest Day.

4. For dinner, Todd's friend Kip was in town so we went to dinner at this new BBQ place that opened on Western called Honey 1. It's no frills but pleasant. You go walk through the door, go up to the window and make your order and then sit down at one of the no frills tables in the flourescent lighting to wait for your food. A sweet kid who works there brings it out to you. Todd and I shared a full slab of ribs. I thought that they were pretty awesome: succulent and the meat fell off the bone, but then again I'm not too picky when it comes to my bbq. Kip ordered this x-large serving of the rib tips combo which involved a serious mountain of rib tips and cut up hot links. I wished that I had my camera so I could take a picture of the enormity of it all.

5. After dinner we went to Roscoe Village to watch the White Sox win against the Angels. I'm adding this as five since I don't think I've ever gone to watch a sports event at a bar before. Seriously. I wasn't crazy into it, but I was mildly interested and working hard not to look completely disinterested. I think that I was successful.

6. Finally, I went to Exit for the first time. It's this cavernous punk/rock dance club on North Avenue. Todd took us there so Kip could experience the sights, but when we went it was at about 10:30 before the crowds descended. So there were few people bellied up the bar under the huge wrought iron chandeliers festooned with bras and there was nary a soul dancing in the caged floor upstairs. My favorite were the enormo metal cut outs of skulls hung up by the ceiling. One had an axe sunk into the front of him and one was keeling over from the bottle of poison positioned beside him.

And that ended my day of excitement. We came back and turned on "Black Samurai" which was awesome but I couldn't stay awake for the end of it. Too much excitement in one day for me!

I'm still here
I know that all has been silent from the blog, but it's hit that time of the quarter when things get really heated up. I've reached the point where I'm familiar enough with the ebb and flow (and flow, flow, flow) of the work and the tests that I'm kind of bemused by it. It's like impossible for one to NOT have two mid-terms on one day even though there are like two cycles of mid-terms per quarter. I've only had one quarter when that hasn't happened and that was summer quarter when there *were* no midterms. I'm not all stressed out, but I'm just resigned that life is going to be a little sucky for the next few days. See, on top of the two midterms on Tuesday (one being neuro--gah!), I have mid-quarter reports due and news of a brand new client starting next week.

So that's been my life this week and will likely be my life for the next week or so.

Don't be too jealous.