This is my blog after all

And I have to talk about the food this weekend. I borrowed my dad's camera to capture an image of our family dinner on Saturday night. It was truly grand.

Shall we have a little run down of the menu?
1. King crab's legs
2. grilled shrimp
3. grilled scallops
4. Spinach salad with feta, sauteed red onions, cranberries, and sweet pecans.

And for dessert? Napoleans, of course. My friends, it was fantastic. Also behold my awesome table setting job. It was a patchwork paradise.

I want to be "Mr. Pink."


The service for my grandfather was on Sunday, and this family portrait was taken afterward, hence the dark (very dark) garb. My cousins, uncle, and brother took off on Sunday and Monday. It was great to see everyone, but it sucks that it was for such a sad occasion.

Back in the Hood
It's been exactly a week now since I've been DONE. The Lake of the Ozarks was great. The weather was gorgeous, the lake was beautiful, and I read and read and read for pleasure. Todd's parents rolled out the red carpet and we went for many awesome boat rides and ate a lot of great food. Todd also took me for my first jet ski ride. A truly successful vacation all around.

Now I'm back in DC. My timing is good in a terrible way since my grandfather passed away a couple of days ago. I'm really glad to be back for everything and the rest of the family comes in late tonight. So it'll be good to see everyone again, but it sucks that it's for a sad reason.

A Free Woman!
I am officially a liberated girl. All the paperwork got wrapped up, the last patient seen, and I was out of there by 1:30. I cannot describe how light my feet felt when I walked down the sidewalk. Now, two and a half weeks off! Tomorrow morning Todd and I leave to go to the Lake of the Ozarks for a few day, so I'll be off the radar till the middle of next week.

Yahoo!

Hooray!
I had my final meeting with my supervisor today, and it looks like I'm passing and am going to be able to be done within a day and a half. I am *thrilled*. There are still a couple of things left to do, but no more evaluations, no more huge reports, no more craziness (I don't think). I seriously cannot describe the ebullience I felt tonight when I came home and realized that I didn't have to do work straight through the night.

It's been an extremely tough road for me at this placement (and it's renowned as one of the hardest placements out there), but I am proud to have gotten through it, and am grateful for how much I've learned, which has been a lot. I can work with extremely involved infants and I can work with emotionally labile and agitated traumatic brain injury patients and all sorts of people in between.

But now it's time for bed. I'm going to sleep on time and waking up so I can get into work when I'm scheduled to, rather than an hour and a half earlier. People, life is good.

Charles sent me this tonight. He scanned it from a postcard I had given him many years back, which is actually one that I got from an art showing in Beijing. I still like it very much, so was inspired to post it.

Also, Happy Belated 30th, Bill!
Anne was the good one to remind me because I've had my head up my ass so thoroughly. Hope that you celebrated like a crazy man, Bill!

I'm still here!
I spent all weekend plowing away on my student project for the hospital. I have lost perspective on how good it is, but I've put in the work now. Saturday morning I settled in at the Bucktown branch of the Chicago Public Library. It's brand new and VERY nice. Plus, free wireless. Go Chicago Public Library! I then headed back to Todd's and worked till like 11pm. Which made it about 12 hours of work. Awesome. Today, more work. Nothing new there.

But, five more days. I can hardly believe it. I know it'll stretch, but I console myself with the fact that a week from now I'll be hanging out at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Eight more days! (that's not including the weekend, but still...)
Dudes, it's still non-stop. I think it will be this way till the very end. I'm starting to get to the point where I'm divorcing myself from my life and making peace with the idea of one hour of downtime an evening. I've realized that the deal with this placement is like a crash course in all of the grad school courses, since with every new patient (and there are lots), I need to learn exactly what's going on, how to evaluate them, and then how to treat them. And then write new goals every week. The paperwork alone is tough, but I think that the hard part about that is that everything that I write needs to go through my supervisor, so when I'm certified and working on my own, that will no longer be the case.

I can't wait to have my life back! I was walking home from the bus and passed people out in the cool evening, enjoying margaritas and I felt very cranky towards their good luck.

Gorgeous
The weather is turning gorgeous again! It's cool outside and feels like September nights in Chicago, which makes sense since September is about 10 days away. Woowoo!

I worked on Saturday. That was pretty brutal since I woke up at 5a.m. that morning to get in at 6. Friday night I turned in early, but had dinner with Todd at T's in Andersonville. The home and asleep before 10:30. It was very surreal walking to the building downtown and passing people who were still up from being out. Yes indeedy.

Saturday afternoon we went to Katja and Tom's wedding which was held at Chief O'Neill's Pub. They have this vast beer garden that is verdant and has this enormous pear tree in the center. Katja wore this amazing mandarin colored silk gown with green trim. A first that I've ever seen at a wedding, and she pulled it off beautifully. The ceremony was lovely, the food was spectacular, and the wine flowed freely. We left at 6pm and then conked out on Todd's couch. I think that I slept about 12 hours last night.

Today we went to Wilmington to a bbq at Todd's parents place since they were celebrating their 35th wedding anniversary. Steaks: yum. Now I'm home and getting ready to tackle yet another week. Two weeks left now. Ten days. I may just need to do a daily countdown on the blog. But, two weeks from today I will be at the Lake of the Ozarks with Todd and his family. Three weeks from today I'll be back in DC.

Studyin'
I have to study for tomorrow at the hospital. See, I have to prove that I learned all of this information to help me pass. I've been studying all night, and it's a very surreal experience. I can't explain why. I have to work on Saturday too, although only till 12 since my friend, Katja is getting married that afternoon and my supervisor took pity on me and gave me the afternoon off. But it means that it extends my hospital countdown by a day still (11.5 days and counting now!)

But this week I managed to find some time for fun, which was nice. Tuesday night, I went and saw All Limbs Intact (one of Todd's bands) play at the Double Door. They were very awesome. I even got to use one of their VIP stickers (ooh la la) and go and see what their dressing rooms were like. Dank and closed in, but cool nonetheless. Plus, it was cool to see them play at such a renowned place. Actually, Todd's other band, Wind or Ghost, is playing tonight at Subterranean, which is another cool Wicker Park club. But because of the aforementioned studying, yours truly needs to miss out.

Last night, I joined Jenny, Amie, Pam, and Joe for a picnic at Millennium Park. They had the symphony playing for free. What an awesome thing. Besides the great company and the amazing spread, I am wowed by this other thing that Chicago offers for free. You sit under the Gehry dome, listen to music on the vast lawn, and the Chicago skyline is your background. There were even fireworks that went off later that evening. It was a lovely, cool evening and it was just what the doctor ordered for me to decompress.

Okay, back to the grind.

Happy Sunday Night
Another nice weekend, with amazing weather. I'm gearing up for another week at the hospital. THREE MORE WEEKS! 15 more days. I can do it, but it's a lot of work. It's funny, because every week that passes, the end still seems very far away. It is a one-day-at-a-time type thing. I talked tonight to my parents who gave me a big pep talk (eat bitter before tasting the sweet!). Bear with me here.

It was a nice weekend. Friday night Todd and I made dinner and watched "Shopgirl" (I liked it). Saturday evening we went to Cathy's house where she had a "Salad-Off." Todd and I joined forces and made this chicken and pasta salad and we won second place (wooo!). Kiley was the winner with this amazing strawberry pretzel jello salad: sweet and salty is where it's at.

Today was about getting lunch at Calvin's and then coming home and doing work.

Okay, I need to hit the hay soon. I'm going to read up a little on spinal cord injury and swallowing disorders associated with it first, but then bedtime, because girlfriend needs her sleep.

The goings-on
Ah, the bittersweet Sunday night experience. This weekend was nice. Friday night I went with Todd and Rich to their friend Jen's post-wedding celebration with her new husband Frank. They have a lovely garden condo in Logan Square, two large dogs, two tabbies, and it was quite cozy and nice. They also whipped up some burgers, gazpacho, and some mean guacamole. They even had a pinata (a lion-mule hybrid) which yours truly cast the final blow to (it was on its last legs). An excellent activity for a Friday night.

Saturday I declared No Work day, and Todd and I headed to Skokie to go looking for some jeans for him. Beforehand we had lunch at Wholly Frijoles, which is definitely some of the best Mexican food out there. Last time we tried to go it was Saturday at 5pm and we were told that the wait was 2 hours. On Saturday at 11 a.m. for lunch, we had the tables of our own choosing. That night we took it easy, made a nice dinner, and went to bed early. I think I slept for like 10 hours or something.

Today I headed back here and did some work and studying in preparation for next week. I hate doing it because it always feels like it's never enough, but some is better than nothing I suppose. It's Market Days in my neighborhood this weekend, which means that Halsted is closed off for a very packed street festival. I went last year and it was quite an experience trying to maneuver from block to block. I decided to avoid it this year, but I can still hear the bands playing through the windows and I pass the merry-makers as they walk the streets.

So....four more weeks left at the hospital! This means that I have 20 days left. I think I will begin the number count down in the meantime. A month from today I'll be coming back from the Lake of the Ozarks with Todd, getting ready to fly back to DC the next day. Hooray!

People! How the Hell Are You?
I figured that I would drop a hello line to the blog tonight since I didn't have a whole lot of work to do (for once!). Tomorrow will be rough, but that's tomorrow, so I'm going to hit the hay early tonight and buck up in preparation. The hospital continues to kick the ass. I had an up-and-down beginning of the week, but the last couple of days have sort of shifted into some kind of routine, which I like. My favorite patient has been extended (her discharge date was originally Friday) due to being sick and she would have to go on a long airplane flight home. I feel for her father, who looks more defeated every day. I'll tell you this much: even though I complain and feel sorry for my trials and tribulations sometimes, nothing adds perspective like seeing these families at the hospital every day. You begin to develop relationships with them as well, which is what I appreciate about the job.

So, there's the dad who lost his wife and mother in law, whose daughter is now on a ventilator and has quadriplegia. There's the mom whose son received a gun shot wound to the head, and listens to her son wailing day in and day out. There's the family whose 16 year old was in a car crash and now have to understand and deal with his traumatic brain injury, help the change his diapers, and to make sure that he doesn't claw at his tracheotomy stoma. There's the mom whose son was in the hospital after suffering an acute motor disorder who has two other sons at home: one with severe autism and one with a brain tumor.

But despite it all, people maintain their senses of humors. I see them joking happily with their family members and participating with enthusiasm in therapy. I totally admire and respect that level of groundedness and strength, and hope that if I were in a similar situation that I could react the same way. Although, I'm sure that there's relief in that their family members are *alive* and in rehab. I'm beginning to adore many of the patients and really look forward to being with them during therapy, which I see as a good sign.

My difficulties in this placement come with the high-stress pace of the hospital. I get there around 7 and don't stop till after 5 most days. I work through lunch and barely find time to go to the bathroom. This is not such an awesome thing.

But four more weeks and one day!

By the way
It's crazy hot in Chicago right now. Today the heat index was 105. God bless my little window unit of AC!

Weekend rundown
Wow, what an awesome weekend. Anne swung into town on Friday, which was perfect since I ended up getting to take a half day that day. I promptly met Anne and we had an awesome celebratory lunch complete with strawberry margaritas at Las Mananitas. From there we went downtown to have another celebratory drink at the Signature Lounge on top of the John Hancock Center. The stars were aligned and we got a table right by the window. From there we went back to Boystown where we met Todd for dinner at Joy's, and then finally headed to Bucktown for some beers at the Map Room. Eating and drinking in Chicago!

The rest of the weekend was spent mostly at the Pitchfork Festival, which is still like the most organized, polite festival there is. It was super hot both days as well, so everyone lolled a little more. The bands were good. My favorites was seeing The National and discovering The Mountain Goats. Sunday we were at Pitchfork from 1 to 7:30. I was so wiped out that I urged us to leave during Yo La Tengo, which was actually the band that I had originally been most excited to see. But being in the sun, lying around, and fighting the humidity takes it out of a girl. Still: Pitchfork is one of the best deals there is around (two days for $30!), with good crowds and cheap food and drink.

Also, I should note that Anne and I talked to Christie on Sunday where she shared some very awesome news with us. Congratulations to Christie and Stefan!

Thanks to Anne for coming and making the trip too. I miss her already.

I'm starting week six at the hospital, so now I officially have four weeks and four days left! Today was the first day in a while that didn't kill me, so maybe (maybe?) things are on the upswing? I pray that it is so.

Happy Belated Birthday, Annie!
Annie celebrated her birthday yesterday in the midst of much upheaval before her big move. Hope that bowling was as awesome as it sounded like it would be!

Happy Birthday, Dad!

He's in Arizona as we speak. Woowoo!

Six more weeks...
...left to this quarter. I'm totally doing the count down right now. Is that bad? If it is, eff it.

Also, Anne arrives in five days, which is awesome. She'll be here for the Pitchfork Festival, and it will be great.

This weekend went by too quickly, as usual, but that's the way it is. Friday night, Hillary had people over in her expansive and green backyard for a grill-out. I was completely wiped out by the week, and it was just what the doctor ordered. Yesterday, I took the day off from doing any work, and Todd and I puttered and walked over to the Wicker Park street festival. I love street festivals. It was nice weather, fun bands were playing, and there was much people watching to be done. We stuck around for a couple of hours and then wandered back to his place to cook up a big dinner and fall asleep before 11. Clazy!

Tonight Todd's band, Wind or Ghost, is playing at the Fireside Bowl. I had to ditch out since I have to wake up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to go to the hospital early to read files. I'm sending good vibes.

There's something to say...
...for being really, really busy. Time sure does move quickly. I spend an average of 9-10 hours at the hospital every day and then come home and do work in preparation for the next day. There are some grinding moments, but overall it's fulfilling. I completed my first evaluation of a patient (or "pt" as they refer to it in med speak, and what I caught myself typing just now) which was something I felt some nervousness about. Glad to be over that hurtle.

One of my primary patients was dismissed today, but I still get to see the 6 month old baby who's still there. I love my therapy time with the baby where I do feeding and language stimulation. It's so calming and relaxing; my favorite time of the day.

I stayed later tonight to attend a presentation on pediatric traumatic brain injury which was informative and good. It occurred to me that that is definitely one of the perks to being placed at this very excellent hospital. The doctor who was speaking knows his stuff and was giving practical information on how to answer families' questions.

So, yes, the hospital continues to be grueling but it's definitely a learning experience. I won't lie and say that I'm not looking forward to the weekend though.

Weekend roundup
Man, how do these weekends pass so quickly? It's unbelievable.

On Friday I went with Megan, Laura and Hillary to go and see the Indigo Girls play at Ravinia. Despite the godawful weather forecast, it was clear and cool that night and a perfect night to sit around and drink wine and eat brie to the sweet soulful sounds of folk music. It was great.

The next night was the antithesis of that experience since Todd's band All Limbs Intact played at the Note in Wicker Park. They were the last band to play and followed four (!) other bands, a few of which were very loud metal-ish sorts of bands. A good show still though.

The sad news is that I think that the ringworm has shown up on Todd. It's on his back which in a way is good since he won't be able to scratch it as well, but it's sad since we thought that he was out of the woods for sure. Sorry, Todd. :( My own ringworm is actually fading away and is now a dullish red spot on my chin.

Happy Birthday, Erik!

He's 17 today. Living it up in Spain at the moment. Life is tough.

Back in the ring...still with the worm
Well, the ringworm circle is still there, but not as raised and disgusting as before. I know that some asked for photographic evidence, but be glad that you weren't exposed. I will describe it instead: it was this red, puffy plateau on my chin that was white in the center. Grody stuff. But that medication that I took did the trick so now it's just a red circle on my face. I can deal with that. I need to cover it up while I'm at the hospital so I wear a huge band-aid on my chin during the day. Like Nelly, except with the ringworm (although maybe Nelly has ringworm, who knows).

The hospital is still busy and a roller coaster. Yesterday I had a wholly sapping day. I'm learning lots about the recovery process of kids with traumatic brain injury--basically, it's fast. The kid who I was treating I hadn't seen in a couple of weeks. When I left he was totally non-verbal and not very responsive. When I returned, he was walking and speaking again (not a lot of intelligible stuff, but still). Anyway, my session plan was totally outdated and the session went pretty woefully. I came home last night and worked from 5pm to 11:30pm. It sucked a lot, but it paid off since my session with the same kid today went a lot more smoothly since I was well-prepared. Evidence that I'm learning (which is the point) but, damn, learning can be a pain in the ass! Is it bad that I'm counting down the days till it's over? I know that I'll be happy for the experience then, but right now it's tough as hell! And you guys know how I like things easy.

Anyway, in other news, it was a good weekend. On Saturday my parents rolled through town on their way to the west coast and then Alaska. They got here around 7pm and we promptly went over to Southport to have a drink and then a lavish dinner at Tango Sur for Argentinian steaks. My parents then hit the hay since they were wiped from the drive (which they did in one day), and then Todd and I went over to the Hideout to see Gil Mantera's Party Dream perform. Awesome stuff. Two dudes on stage, one dressed in a red mask and some kind of loin cloth thing and they were playing some dancey, energetic stuff. It sounds like it was some kind of gross strip show, but I assure you that it was far more joyous.

The next morning before my parents took off, we all met at the Bongo Room in Wicker Park since my parents had heard me rave about it. We got there at 9a.m. and I despaired when I saw a long line outside (already?!), but it was actually just people waiting for it to open. We ended up getting a big booth. sweeeeet!

That's all that I've got.

Quarantined
Well, I went to the hospital employee health doctor this morning to find out whether I can work or not, and the answer was a resounding 'no' for the remainder of this week. Since there's a ringworm epidemic in my floor now, three patients have it and five staff members have come down with it. So I need to stay away while I'm getting it cured (with my "aggressive" meds) for infection precaution purposes. I think I'll be back in business on Monday when I get it checked out again. It messes with my schedule, but my hands are tied.

So I took advantage of the awesome weather and went for a jog down by the lake and then lay there and read for awhile. I feel like I'm playing hooky, for real. The weather continues to be damned awesome in Chicago.

I have RINGWORM!!!!
Yes, it's true. I developed what I thought was a giant zit on my chin last Friday. When I got back to the hospital today the nurses took one look at me and told me to get it checked out stat (look me at: using the hospital lingo already). See, I did therapy with a kid who has it from head to toe now, but all of those days ago when I worked with him, noone was any the wiser. Gross, right?

Anyway, after many hours of visiting various hospital nursing and doctors offices (at least I work in hospital central) I got diagnosed and a prescription for meds that should take care of it in the next couple of weeks. I also am armed with ointment to stop any itching and to prevent me from spreading it to other parts of my body. Several other therapists I talked to have contracted it over their time at the hospital and kept on working, so I don't think it'll screw with my time at the hospital.

What I did learn from my research this afternoon is that ringworm is not actually a worm, but more of a fungus. Better. Not much better, but better.

Independence!
Happy 4th of July, peoples of the world. How was everyone's? The weather in Chicago was flawless today, and we joined Steve and Kiley and others on an impromptu bbq that they organized in Wicker Park. The park wasn't crowded, the grass was a verdant green, the sun shined, and the breeze kept up. We grilled up some hot dogs, drank some cold sodas, and played some Taboo. It was quite an excellent celebration.

Todd and I returned from our trip to Milwaukee yesterday. We were there for two nights, which was a good amount of time to go. Again, we were treated to some amazing weather. The downtown area, where we stayed, sits right against the lake as well so we got lake breeze going the entire time. What did we do, you ask? Well, let me tell you!

Day one:
We walked down to Summerfest, which touts itself as "the world's largest music festival." It's this huge county fair like area that's right on the lake and has about six or seven stages with different kinds of music playing. $15 gets you in for as long as you want, to listen to all of the bands except for the headliner, which is usually a big name. The day we went, Paul Simon was playing which sounded awesome, but then the ticket prices of $41.50 for the farthest seat didn't sound quite as awesome, so we opted out. We stayed for a few hours, long enough to run across a band play in which Todd knew the guitarist, to eat a Wisconsin sausage, to drink a Wisconsin beer, and to ride the sky cab. There was some prime people watching available as well, so that is always a good thing.

As we walked back to the hotel we decided to walk along the River Walk area, along the Milwaukee River. There's a pedestrian walkway and it's dotted with restaurants with riverside views. We waited way too long for a table at one restuarant, but since we didn't really have anywhere to be we decided that it was worth it.

Day two:
We got up late and then walked down to the lake again, this time to go to the Milwaukee Art Museum. It's an interesting structure that looks like some kind of ship created in a drug haze. It was quite lovely inside though since it was walled with windows and you look straight out upon the lake. We went to the "Masters of American Comics" exhibit which was very cool. Incidentally it had a section dedicated to Chris Ware, so that makes two Chris Ware exhibits in four days.

We explored a couple of other neighborhoods too, driving up to the UW-Milwaukee neighborhood which was charming as one would expect from a college campus, and then to the
"historic" Brady Street area which was filled with shops and cafes. Since we wanted to have our nice dinner that night we couldn't find much that matched what we were looking for and decided to head back to the downtown area for dinner.

In the end, we ended up walking to Third Street where we had dinner at a nice restuarant right on the water again. We realized afterward that we hadn't celebrated my half birthday this year, so that was a very awesome half-birthday dinner. We ambled over to some German brew place a couple of storefronts away and had huge German beers while drunken dudes at the bar sang, did "shot skis" (shots lined up on a snow ski) and chanted "USA! USA!" to anyone who walked in. A good night in Milwaukee.

Day three:
Time to check out. So we did and then went to lunch in the Marquette neighborhood to a restaurant with a salty waitress and a dank and dark inside that smelled like stale smoke. A total college bar. But prices to match, so that's always a good thing.

So bottom line? Milwaukee is a super charming city. And less than two hours from Chicago, so that's kind of impressive.

Tomorrow I head back to the hospital and the idea of going back to work couldn't be less appealing. At least this is only a three day week, so that's a good thing, right?

Days off
I'm in the midst of another kind of vacation right now. My supervisor at the hospital was scheduled to have this week and half of next week off, so I get it too. I actually have my time at the hospital extended at the end by that many days, but it's pretty cool to have this mini-vacation right now.

Yesterday, Todd took the day off too so we went and caught the Chris Ware exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Oh man, so cool. He had all of his drawings in their various states on exhibit from Jimmy Corrigan Smartest Kid on Earth. Also on display were all of the Building Stories strips that are in the NY Times and the Chicago Reader. One could spend several hours in that exhibit reading all of the panels and then looking through all of the bound books that are available for perusal. The weater was spectacular yesterday (it has been all week) so after the MCA we wandered down to Millenium Park and then sat at Buckingham Fountain for awhile. We walked by all of the booths set up for the Taste of Chicago, which is set to begin today. It was cool to actually see what's for available and how much everything was selling for without dealing with the Taste of Chicago crowds.

Tonight Todd's band Wind or Ghost is having their first show and then tomorrow we're taking a tiny vacation to Milwaukee. Yes, Milwaukee (it's supposed to be a fun town! I'm telling you!). I'm psyched!

Cool Runnings
I have an air conditioner now! Courtesy of my parents, Todd and I went to get a window unit today for my wee room. Good news: sale on air conditioners at Home Depot today--everything was 10% off! Very lucky.

What was not so lucky was our discovery that after lugging the unit up to my second floor walk up that my window is actually five inches wider than the maximum that the unit allows. I have a mutant window apparently. For a moment, we both felt despair at the prospect of loading the air conditioner back into the box, lugging it back to Home Depot, and then finding another entire machine. Guh.

But...BUT (!) I have the smartest bf in the world. He suggested that we find a piece of wood to fill in the extra space and then work around that. Thus began our wood finding adventure. We walked to two different hardware stores and then found one that would cut some wood for us. Confusion ensued, loud and embarassing chastising of an employee occurred (it was all very odd), but we finally left with a 5x13 inch piece of wood in hand. Then back to my place where we (and by "we," I mean "Todd") managed to install the air conditioner and screw in the piece of wood to fill that extra space. So this entire air conditioner adventure took from about 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. It works pretty awesomely well now, I am happy to report. Thanks to Todd and thanks to my parents.

Catch up
Hooray, I have a moment to breath tonight. Time to do a much needed catch up on ye olde blog.

First things first: Ting and Brad's wedding
It was Friday night, so Suz and Brad got here on Thursday evening and we headed over to the Chicago Cultural Center for the wedding ceremony. The building was fricking gorgeous. I included a photo of the ceiling below. It's hard to describe, but the mosaics were everywhere and lovely, the room was huge and airy and the east wall was made of glass and faced Millenium Park. The ceremony itself was simple and sweet and went off seamlessly, although Brad told us later that there was a huge snafu as his tux pants hadn't shown up at the last minute so he borrowed the pants off one of his friends who then trotted back to his hotel in Brad's shorts in order change into another pair.

Later we all loaded into trolleys which took us to Chinatown where the wedding feast was held in the banquet room of Lao Sze Chuan which is hands down awesome Chinese food. I cannot describe the line of dishes that came out. There were 17 courses (yes, 17) and then the wedding cake (which was delectable). The entire meal took about 3 hours. It was great.

Second things second: Suz and Tom's visit
It was great having them here for a couple of nights. We walked and ate and walked and ate some more. They were good sports and took public transportation everywhere with me which ended up being nightmarish. On Friday we waited for the Halsted bus for half an hour and then waited at the North Ave bus stop for 20 minutes before giving in and catching a cab when we encountered very slow moving traffic. This was all to get to Wicker Park to meet Todd for lunch (at the Bongo room!) and the trip took about an hour and a half. Almost as long as a drive to Richmond from DC. Then later that evening we took the el to the cultural center where we happened to load on when the cubs game got out. It was awesomely packed.

Third things third:
The hospital placement is intense but good. I was definitely overwhelmed the first couple of days since they were long days and I ended up with lots of work to do at the end of the day. No rest for the weary. But today went well since I had my first solo therapy session and it went smoothly. As the learning curve becomes ever slightly less steep, it's nice. It's a pretty amazing experience since my supervisor knows her stuff and gives me good, detailed and helpful feedback. The hospital is great and the patients are incredible. Lots of traumatic brain injury, one gun shot wound to the head, one shaken baby. The ages range from 5 months to 18 years old. It's definitely going to be an amazing experience...tough, but amazing.

Fourth things fourth:
I'm going to bed early tonight, but first I'm watching a very sad documentary on Independent Lens called "Lions in the House."

Suz, Ting and me at the tail end of the feast. 

Suz and me during the feast. Suz was knee deep in strep throat at this point, bless her. 

Todd and me during the enormous feast. 

The lovely wedded couple. 

The ceiling of the Chicago Cultural Center which was over us during Ting and Brad's wedding. Stunning stuff! 

Eventful
Well, it's been an eventful few days. I've spent the evening cramming information into my head about function assessment scales, the Glasgow Coma Scale, the Los Ranchos Levels of Cognitive Functioning. The hospital placement is good (my first day was today) but going to be very challenging and I'm foreseeing learning tons and tons. It's definitely hit-the-ground-running over there.

But I have other stuff to report about the weekend as well so hopefully tomorrow I'll have some time to catch my breath and write a nice, lengthy blog.

In the meantime, just wanted to let everyone know that I'm alive!

Happy Birthday, Gracie!

Vroom-vroom is 30 today!!!!!

Vacation!
Ahhh, I love vacation. I have three solid more days left before I start up at the hospital so I'm sucking the marrow out of these days, people.

I went back to DC for a few days and it was quite awesome. I got to see most everyone that I wanted to, got to putter around my parents' house, and got to read and watch as much bad tv as my heart desired. I also played a lot of sudoku. (a note: I also received a voicemail from Kevin during my time at home where he relayed the events of a particularly dramatic "Cheaters" episode that he happened to be watching. I love it)

I got back yesterday and this morning hoofed it to Rogers Park to get CPR-certified at this certification factory that costs seriously $20 less than any other place that I've heard about. I am now officially CPR-certified, so watch out! As I was walking along Peterson Ave I passed this enormous red billboard that only said this:

"Pick your boogers."

I swear. Nothing else. And it looked professional too. Anyone know anything about this? Maybe it's viral advertising that I missed out on.

In other news, Suzi and Tom arrive in Chicago tonight so we can all go to Ting and Brad's wedding tomorrow. Yay!

T minus 24 hours
One more day! My two final exams are tomorrow: hurrah! (well, to be honest, I'll still have a report to edit, but that's peanuts in the scheme of things).

Even though it's study week, it's been a pretty eventful past few days. Besides studying much, I managed to finish that dreaded diagnostic report draft and do a take-home exam. I'm feeling so-so in terms of my preparation for tomorrow, but what can you do? Besides study, that is.

Anyway, the weekend continued to have some fun. Saturday I spent the entire day doing work, but then I went over to see All Limbs Intact play at Gunther Murphys. They were the headliner after three other bands so didn't go on till after 1 and didn't finish till around 2. It was pretty hard core. They were awesome, as usual, and the addition of a lead singer definitely added to the sound of awesome. The three other bands were another story: the standout was the second band where the dudes looked all of 17. One of them wore sunglasses throughout the entire set. Their manager made his rounds of the place, glad-handing everyone. He was like a character from a Carl Hiassen novel: mullet, brimming with enthusiasm and pride, gleaming white tennis shoes, and donning a Hawaiian (sp?) shirt with a ribbon pinned on it that read "It's my Birthday!" (the veracity if this claim is unconfirmed as of yet).

Sunday I went with Todd to Wilmington to his second cousin's (I believe?) baptism party. I love Todd's family because they have a party of some kind every weekend and there's *always* some bbq-ing going on. It was a stunning day outside, so it was cool to put away the books and enjoy the drive with the windows down and the sunroof open. That night we went to see Dave's show at I.O., which was pretty awesome. What a deal, too: two hours of improv for $5!

Yesterday: studying.

Today: more studying, but I also took the train-bus to Skokie to go and see the school where I'll be student teaching in the fall and to meet the teacher. It was a pretty sweet 1.5 hour commute each way, since I don't have my car yet. I'm pretty psyched for the placement. I'll be going between two schools: one is pre-k and the other is K-5. Exactly what I wanted. Plus, my supervisor seems cool and the school where I visited was hands-down adorable. I am extremely, extremely psyched for the fall quarter which promises to be much more relaxed. I'll have one class on campus, but it's not a demanding one.

gu·lag (gl�g)
n.

1. A network of forced labor camps in the former Soviet Union.
2. A forced labor camp or prison, especially for political dissidents.
3. A place or situation of great suffering and hardship, likened to the atmosphere in a prison system or a forced labor camp.

Exams end on Wednesday. I can't believe it. I have two, though, which kind of blows. Unfortunately, this weekend I got royally screwed in terms of workload since I got assigned a diagnostic evaluation this past week (meaning 10-page evaluation report to write...well, now), and also a take-home exam. I woke up this morning seriously pissed off. I am...I'm completely over this crap and am pissed off about sitting inside on this gorgeous weekend working. And pissed that this past week was non-stop with little sleep. And pissed off that I got so frazzled and stressed out on Friday when I found out that I would have to find my way to a suburb of Chicago for another school-related reason on Tuesday afternoon through no choice of my own that I started tearing up. And pissed that I'm boring everyone I know with my complaints. And pissed that this quarter does not seem to end.

So, yeah, I'm in the middle of writing that report now and I'm in a scarily bad mood about it.

Everyone, everyone: please stop fighting to hang out with me. There's enough of my grousing and crankiness to go around.

But, let's talk about things happy, shall we? Last night I couldn't gather the energy to do any work, so Todd and I went over to Intuit Gallery to see the Found Magazine/PostSecret show. It was very much fun since Davy Rothbart cracks my shit up. They had two shows, and we went to the later one. I got there just at the right time so we could get in when the other show was letting out so we managed to snag seats right front and center. Everyone was packed into the place: a sign on the little auditorium space read that the maximum capacity was "65" but there must have been at least 150-200 people there.

Okay, I just managed to while away 15 minutes throwing my pity party. Back to the gulag.

Memorial
Happy Memorial Day weekend, everyone. I hope that everyone had a good, relaxing one.

My weekend was very nice, despite the work that is ever-haunting. On Friday night, we went out and met Steve, Kiley and others at the Skylark in Pilsen. This bar is definitely going down as one of my favorites: it's not crowded, there is room for large groups, drinks are cheap, and the food is good. One interesting point of the night is when we gathered outside afterward and were chatting and then noted what was seriously the hugest pile of throw-up I've ever seen. It looked like marshmallow fluff, and my eyes couldn't tear away from the monstrosity. It was so note-worthy that I need to share it with you all.

Saturday night, we went to Schuba's to see Russian Circles play, and then the Hungry Brain afterward. Thank you to Todd for my awesome Russian Circles shirt that he got me. We stayed up till like 3am which is unheard of these days. I love long weekends.

Sunday was full of work (as was Saturday day).

Today was so nice to have off. Todd and I went over to Lincoln Square, had lunch at Smokin' Woody's, and then wandered up and down Lincoln. What an awesome neighborhood. We also discovered this great theater where showings before 6pm are $5. We promptly decided to go and see "Thank you for smoking," which was good (I love Aaron Eckhardt). It was one of those amazing afternoons when time didn't seem to fly. We goofed around till around 4, when he dropped me off and I dove back into the workload.

Now I'm facing the last official week of the quarter (the week after is exam week). Part of me is like: woohoo!, but part of me realizes that I'm going to feel every second of this last week.

First things first. Todd found this online and sent it to me as a study break. I love it. 

Hey!
Happy belated birthday to Jackie, btw, who turned 27 (I believe) this past Saturday.

I'll have you all know that there are seven school days left to this quarter! It drags on still since there a papers to write, meetings to have, sessions to plan still, and finals to study for. But, it's slowly dissipating, and about this, I am happy.

This past weekend I spent my days writing a big diagnostic report and four final client reports. That was awesome. But the evenings were still fun. Dave planned a surprise party for Kevin so a bunch of us broke into his apartment on Friday night to wait for him to get back from work, party ready-made. Poor Kevin was sick and word had it that he was actually on his way home to get soup, take some decongestant and go to bed. But we were still there waiting for him, so he stayed up despite the illness. Dave whipped up a birthday cake and a huge pitcher of sangria, and it was a good night.

Jessica mentioned at the party that she had seen Oprah that night since she works at the Field Museum and was there for an event, and she stood right next to the great Oprah since O was the keynote speaker. So that was Friday night. The Katie informed me that she was watching a swallow study at Northwestern Memorial Hospital (one of our class requirements) and Oprah was in the hallway. So that was Friday during the day. So between two of my friends, I can piece together Oprah's whereabouts on Friday, 5/19.

In other news, I got my hospital placement for the summer and it's a good one. I think it'll be tough, but I'm bound to learn lots and lots. And no classes!

Happy Birthday, Des!
30's going to be awesome. YGG!

Happy Birthday, Kevin!
I hope that 28 treats you well. :)

Brilliance
By the way, Sarah posted some hilarious haikus about our dysphagia class. Maybe not as hilarious to people who haven't been in the class, but it struck home to me.

My favorites:

Swallowing problem
I think I've got a bad one
I can't pass the class

and:

Barium pudding
Vallecula residue
Base of tongue problem!

Whoa.
I had two out of three client sessions cancel or canceled today, so now all of the sudden I'm sitting here on campus with nothing on my schedule till 4pm! Six hours away! I should be using this time wisely (namely, studying for dysphagia), but I'd kinda rather just sit here right now and play online. For a few minutes I want to, anyway. I might also lie on the lopsided green couch in our MA room and get a little shut eye.

Anyway, not much going on here except Chicago's cooler again. I had a relatively lazy weekend in terms of not leaving the house much, but I did manage to pretend to do some studying (which consisted of organizing and retyping notes while watching tv). On Sunday I went with Todd to the mother's day feast at his parents' place. His dad and brother cooked ribs and they were to die for. (Happy belated mother's day, mom). We sat on the couch after lunch and I fell asleep sitting up, it was that good and food coma inducing.

Not much going on here except for studying and the like. I reached that point last night where I envied everyone on the street who I saw walk by because they didn't have to do this work. It's so hilariously self-centered and pathetic, but I even caught myself envying the homeless dude who walked by. There are 13 school days left which sounds short but feels long. Okay, it looks like now the class is five and a half hours away. I better get kicking with studying.

Secondly:
I'm still alive. I've just been wrangling with a particularly dreadful quarter, but I am happy to report that there are like three weeks left. That is huge. Things can still be good, though. A few good things:

1. The weather lately (besides today) has been sunny and in the 70s and positively gorgeous.

2. Megan invited people over to her and Laura's apartment today to grill out turkey brats. That was delicious, and fun to chill out without talking about school. I was also pleased because I discovered a new salad dressing (poppy seed!) that Megan put on spinach with sliced strawberries and onions. I think I have met my new love.

3. Sitting on Todd's balcony in awesome weather while I study. So even though I suffer with dysphagia, at least I can soak up some sunshine.

4. Kenny sent a cd chock filled with mp3s called the "Chicago party mix." It's like Christmas.

5. The April 24th edition of The New Yorker, which is seriously like the best issue ever. The issue has articles detailing Werner Herzog (awesome article, what a character), the archeology of the Donner Party, Chinese snakeheads, and an article about this chess master who is the ruler of Kalmykia (one of Russia's republics).

That last one is totally the best. A segment:

Ilyumzhinov called his biography, published in 1998 "The President's Crown of Thorns." (Chapter titles include "Without Me the People are Incomplete," "I Become and Millionaire" and "It Only Takes Two Weeks to Have a Man Killed.")

Firstly:
I need to tout the blog of Annie! She is recording her impending adventures to Gainesville and I will be reading it eagerly. Check the links it!

Happy Birthday to Bryan!
Drink a margarita today in celebration.

Tag
Okay, I've been tagged by Intrepid News to list six weird things about myself. She actually tagged me last week, but now I'm finally getting around to it.

1. I have a really flat head. Seriously, the back of my pate is all flat like someone lopped off a rounded chunk. I don't know if it got all misshapen when I was a baby and I rested my weight on my malleable skull. But I know at least my older brother has it too, so either it's in the genes or mom rested us on your heads. I know that some kids get helmets for it, but I missed the boat on that one.

2. I didn't start driving till I was 21. You know, boarding school, college, mooching rides off of generous friends...that whole deal. I still don't love driving in unfamiliar areas, which is going to be a wake up call when I bring my car to Chicago.

3. There are a few non-profit childrens' books floating around in Zambia that I illustrated when I was in high school and college. Two of them are religious which is funny since I am like a heathen and the other one was for the Leukemia Society of Zambia. Now you know that such a society exists!

4. I hold my pencil incorrectly. I learned about this in more detail in writing disorders class this quarter when we were given a handout showing the common incorrect pencil holds. One of them is mine.

5. If I scroll past MTV Jamz (is it even spelled that way? is it even still on? that shows how unhip I am) on tv, I end up watching it for hours. I don't know why.

6. I have finger toes. They're really long and my socks are constantly getting holes in them. This is why I prefer summer when I don't have to wear socks all the time...I save money!

And now I tag THREE sites: BlogSport, Your Logo Here, and Ineffectual.net

UNCLE, already.
Oh my god, this quarter is definitely kicking my ASS. It's kicking it hard. And dysphagia is first in line for the ass-kicking. We had a monster test today which I spent many hours studying for and I still left with a queasy feeling in my stomach. There's a certain amount of (cold) comfort in the knowledge that no amount of studying could have prepared me for it since there were no moments where I was like "Hmm, wish that I studied that more." I don't really know what else to do except line up for more ass kicking and be prepared for the possibility that I might not pass (which means anything below a B-). Which means remediation which means I don't know what but PURE PAIN.

But the good news is that tonight is the first night in a long time (two weeks?) where I don't have a lot of work to do. I can relax a little and go to sleep early, which I totally intend to do.

This past weekend, I spent all day at the lovely McCormick Center taking both the Basic Skills test and the SLP-teaching test in order to be able to do student teaching in the schools in the fall. That meant waking up at 5:30 in the a.m. on Saturday morning. Awesome! That night Todd gathered people for his (belated) birthday, so that was a good chance to relax. We went to my new favorite bar in the city, The Hungry Brain. It was very chill, and chock full of couches and had a jukebox that let you play 18 songs for $5. I think that Todd had a good time which is the most important thing about the evening.

Happy Birthday to Laura!
We're halfway through the quarter which is like a half-birthday present.

Happy Birthday Suzi!
Hope that the day is as excellent as it should be. You are the best!

Crack me up
Todd sent me this article to brighten my day, and I totally loved the first two lines:

Hey, James McNew! What's the title of the new Yo La Tengo album?

"I Am Not Afraid of You, and I Will Beat Your Ass."

Happy Birthday to Todd!
Best boyfriend ever. Happy 28th.

there and back
I went back to DC this past weekend for Anne and Suzi's big 30th bash. It was great to be back, although honestly a bit weird since it was so abrupt, my arrival and my departure. Like, when I get home I'm ready to decompress, but there was no time for that since I was there for 1.5 days and had to get work done in the free bits. It was totally worth it, though.

Anne and Suzi rented the basement bar at Porter's, where drinks where cheap and served in pint glasses and the music was bumping (courtesy of the sweet dj-ing skillz of Suzi's fiance). It was great to be out and to see everyone and to be there for the big event. I found that during the party I could relax for once since it's was this little donut of freedom where I was totally allowed not to think about school or other responsibilities. I ended up leaving at 11 since I was leaving for the airport at the butt crack of dawn the next morning. So, definitely a good time and I think that the birthday girls had fun too, which is what was important.

I spent all of yesterday morning in the airport doing work and then got back yesterday afternoon when I hung out with Todd and then came home and did some more work. I am in serious, serious need of an attitude adjustment about school at the moment, because the bottom line is that I'm sick and tired of it being the boss of me. As I explained this weekend, it seems like the only times these days when I can relax is when I'm doing work, because then I don't feel guilt or dread. That is so, so sick and wrong. I mean, I can't even believe that I just fessed up to that. Anyway, so yeah, I require some perspective here. But still, this week is going to blow so hard. I have like eight hours of clients, three hours of diagnostics, and then two mid terms.

And it's not just me (although I am fully aware that I'm a stress case). One of the women who works with our department posted an informational flyer about the Center for Stress Management on campus and the sessions they're holding in our MA room. I love that it even needs to exist.

Anyway, I'm signing off before this pity party goes on for too long. Mondays always seem more dire anyway. Five weeks and five days left to the quarter!

Happy Birthday to ANNE!

The big 3-0! WOOOO!

So now this would make it almost 11 years that we've known eachother, since I think that I met you when I was a junior...so 19?

But it's been 11 great years (our friendship is like a sixth-grader...an overachieving, honor student sixth grader at that), and I hope that 30 is like the best year ever. You're the best friend a girl could have, and yay to that. I hope that the day is excellent in every way.

My weekend
...is over now. It was a mixture of fun and not-so-fun.

First the fun part: my cousin and his girlfriend were in town and they were about the easiest, most gracious guests ever. I have to hand it to my cousin, Kenny: the man takes his food seriously. He came to Chicago with the plan to eat, and he got the job done. We went out to Cuban food on Friday night (to Cafe LaGuardia, which they had actually seen on a Rachel Ray show) where Kenny and I both got this Cuban pulled pork, which was effing awesome. (Sidenote: thank you to mom who sponsored that meal.)

Saturday morning, we got up early to beat the rush to Hot Doug's. We got there before 11, and there was still kind of a line, go figure. Anyway, Kenny got both a regular Chicago hot dog, as well as their specialty lamb dog (with lots of feta and red pepper mayo) and then a serving of duck fat fries. He shared those with Jen, but I was impressed by the dual hot dogs. (As another side note, Todd got the BLT dog where the hot dog was seriously made of out bacon. It was really weird, but it was good.)

After that Kenny and Jen went off and went sight seeing, but I found out that the rest of the day they stopped by Weiner Circle for an afternoon "snack" of hot dogs and then got Philly's Best subs for dinner that night. Amazing. They've totally turned me onto to Philly's Best, though: their love for it was so consuming.

Sunday, I had brunch at Ann Sather with Kenny and Jen. I was so full I could only eat some wheat toast and eggs, but Kenny got the eggs benedict along with the cinnamon rolls. Impressive. Later that day they stopped by for more hot dogs for another afternoon snack and then they took us out for some Chicago pizza that night for dinner.

Hands down, I am impressed with Kenny's capacity. It doesn't quite match with Robin, though who after having both a hot dog and a corn dog at Hot Doug's, ate an entire sundae by himself at Margie's ice cream.

Oh my god, that entire entry above was about food. And food someone else ate. Oh well, it is my blog. I should also note that on Saturday night I joined Todd and his family for his mom's birthday dinner at Ron of Japan's downtown. It was super fun, and really nice, and actually great to be downtown in the evening, which never happens. It was cool to walk around and see all of the lights and the buildings.

And onto the not-so-fun part of the weekend:
I totally wrote a super long paper and spent lots of hours preparing for my client today (who went relatively well and needed that prep). I spent all of Saturday and Sunday daytime hours at work. Sucks! Hillary has been counting down the days left to the quarter and I find myself doing the same thing. As of now, we have six weeks and four days left to it. I'm sure that you'll all be apprised of the countdown as it goes on.

This is awesome.
The a.v. club's list of film vehicles for the "utterly unworthy." I love the part about "Cool as Ice."

19. Cool As Ice (1991): Vanilla Ice
It's hard to remember a time when Vanilla Ice wasn't a walking punchline, but that was apparently true back when someone at Universal greenlit this Rebel Without A Cause wannabe. It arrived in the fall of '91, after Ice's popularity nose-dived, and consequently grossed a paltry $1.2 million domestically, according to allmovie.com. As might be expected, Cool As Ice is unintentionally laugh-out-loud funny for its dialogue (such as the famous "Drop that zero and get with the hero!"), Ice's awful wardrobe, the brainless plot, the music-video-like direction, etc. The nonsensical tagline says it all: "When a girl has a heart of stone, there's only one way to melt it. Just add Ice."

This movie is indeed one of the best/worst things going. As many of you can attest.

Awhirl
It's week three of the quarter and the insanity has set in. God, I sound like a broken record, but seriously. This week sucks a lot since in Dysphagia we have both a test (today) and a quiz (Thursday), the quiz being on the three chapters of reading assigned between today and day after tomorrow. It makes me tired. This is the class taught by the woman who basically leads the field, so it's infamously the toughest class of the program. Yes, I'm glad that I'll know the laryngeal anatomy and the pharyngeal swallow inside and out, but I feel like it's all I think about these days.

A friend in the program told an interesting story about being at a hospital placement along with a student from another school with a medical focus. This woman was in her third hospital placement and had been working in swallowing during all of that time. She asked a question to my friend about swallowing that we could have answered after our second day of class, so I guess we're learning a lot. And well. But again, there's a lot of pain involved. I think that there may be like two or three classes when we don't have a quiz or a test.

In other news, lots of new client experience this quarter. I met my first fluency client today so I'm all practicing my Easy Relaxed Approach-Smooth Movement technique. I'll show it to you sometime. Tomorrow I do my first adult diagnostic on a non-fluent aphasic which is going to be interesting but has been really time consuming in terms of learning the materials. I'm also going to work with Laura on a client who has Asperger's Syndrome, which is very cool. So, yeah, I'm glad to be able to have exposure to all of this cool stuff. That's the upside. The downside is that it's a constant learning curve and constant evaluation and I feel right now like I could use a good nap.

What else? Oh, Todd and I went to see Centromatic play this weekend at Subterranean which was very cool and fun. The opening band was this little band from Ohio that reminded me of a louder John Cougar Mellancamp (Two Cow Garage was their name, and thanks to Todd who bought me their cd). The entire crowd was actually older than me, judging by the looks of them, which is a rarity when it comes to seeing these rock shows.

Okay, time to read some stuff and then hit the hay. I'm going to bed early tonight, it's decided.

We have our first big test in Dsyphagia on Tuesday. I'm trying to study. Unfortunately, I stumbled upon the best, most distracting website in the world. Here are the archives, they mean trouble.

Happy Birthday, Christie!
To one of my oldest friends on her 30th birthday. Christie is such a smart, savvy, sparky person and also my friend now for 18 (erk) years. I remember when I met her in 7th grade I knew right away that she was someone who I needed to meet.

Love you, girl!

Every quarter is the same....
I end up loathing my Sunday nights because that is when the piper-paying really sets in in terms of weekend homework. I just finished reading one article for tomorrow, am about to dive into more reading, and am contemplating tackling the planning for my fluency client on Tuesday (which I've been procrastinating on). It occurred to me tonight though that next quarter I won't be taking any classes--will only have my hospital placement--so I don't foresee having this Sunday night cramming. Joy!

Anyway, sadly another weekend is wrapped up here. How did these two days go by so quickly I ask? It's the eternal question. On Saturday Steve and Kiley came over for dinner since Todd was grilling some steaks. That morning we went on a butcher adventure, trying to find Chicago butchers since Todd decided that fresh meat was the way to go.

The Butcher Adventure
We started off at a swank Lincoln Park place where the steaks were $20/lb. We promptly turned around and left once we got a load of the prices. Next we went to a wholesale butcher place downtown where as soon as we walked in the dudes behind the counter eyeballed us (correctly) as not knowing what the hell was going on. They did not have any steaks, but they *did* have enormous pig haunches to buy. Finally, we went to a place on Randolph nestled in a bunch of meat and produce places where we got steaks for relatively cheap (as far as I know), where the dude cut the steaks fresh for us. I liked the place and liked the resident little old lady in the store, but I totally wanted to throw up for two reasons:
1. It smelled like a butcher shop, as it should, but the heat was cranked like really, really high. So it was constant heat emanating meat fumes. Blech.
2. In the counter case, they had several huge logs of head cheese. Even the thought of it makes me want to york.
But despite all of that the steaks ended up being super delicious that night. It should be noted that next door to the butchery was a produce market where the red peppers were like half the price as they are in my grocery store. I was in heaven.

Okay butcher adventure story officially over. No more images of encased head cheese for any of us.

Today, we went to Wilmington again for Todd's niece's christening as he was the godfather. It was a whole day affair beginning with mass, then the christening, then a huge party at his parents' place. There were many, many, many babies present besides Ava, Todd's niece. Many babies under the age of one. Yes, I got into creepy mode, and immediately moved into hover stage.

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The Who Can Get Fucked Blog

Very cranky, but after my own heart.

Crazy Cat Terrorizes Conneticut Town

Awesome.

"He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons."

The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car.

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.