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.

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)