tygerlove9

As I was sitting on the red line, a small Asian lady sat just about in front of me with a large drawing pad. From the corner of my eye, I saw her looking up and down at me constantly...so I peered at what she was drawing and it was me!!! It my my face shape with my hair down. I pretended not to notice because she clearly enjoying this but...it was pretty weird...

This has been one of the most intense weeks of my time in school. First off Elden's g-ma had a heart attack and he is now in NYC. Second, we got our midterm's back for Neuro and I am not too happy...going to set a meeting to speak to the professor. Third, I have been waking up every morning at 6 and spending all my time at the school, not good. Fourth, I told my boss I needed to work less hours.That in itself was super scary but she was cool about it. Yay!

I guess I am still transitioning and trying to get used to grad school. The tests are so much different from what I am used to. My professor today told me that in graduate school, they want you to have a deeper understanding of a concept, to the point that you can teach it to someone with no background in SLP. The reason for this is that once we are practicing clinicians, we need to be ready to explain why their son is doing XYZ as clearly as possible.

This may sound dumb, but I never really looked at it at that perspective. My study methods were clearly not cut for grad school. I guess I was still in my undergrad mode where you just needed to "recognize" the answer and that was it. Now I need to be the expert, especially since there may be a chance I will be the only SLP in an area.

Another cool chat was with my ASHA mentor. She gave me a lot of encouragement and even offered to let me observe her at her hospital. On top of that she lives up the street from me. Speaking of which, I know that someone in my apt is an SLP because I often pick up her ASHA leader thinking it is mine. Been meaning to find out who though.

Anyway I am done for the day. I am going to just relax by surfing the web.

Today was such a nice day. I took a personal day from work and just rolled around in bed till 10, went for lunch with my friend at a Middle Eastern restaurant,and...went on a shopping spree at the Salvation Army!! I got some cool stuff: a brown puffy vest from the Gap, a cool green top, and lastly a wool light gray peacoat that was from Delias. All came to a total about 24 bux. I brought the coat to Zoots to dry clean,which actually costs more than what I actually paid for the damn thing. I am so wearing my green top tomorrow, I'm washing it now.

But honestly the best part of the day was when I went to Mr. Crepes and just had a butter and sugar crepe with a nice cup of tea. I realized I never took a moment since school started to take a good look at how beautiful the leaves were now. They are such a bright color of yellow and red and it was bittersweet watching them fall to the ground knowing it was the sign a long cold winter will soon fall upon us. Yeah I felt at peace and am still feeling the results of those few moments. I guess I am starting to finally understand the saying "enjoy the little things".

My immune system is shot. These past few weeks I have had a sinus infection, fever, and now I am breaking out in hives for no good reason. I had to go to buy Aveeno because I am thinking its from dry air. The hives would just flare up in the middle of the night and it wakes me up then its so hard to fall asleep again. GRR

I have a real hater in my life. Its sad because this person could have been so cool if not for this. I'll call the hater E. Well last night I was talking to E on gmail and the topic came up about my career plan.

Me: "I got a couple of postcards from companies asking me to consider them after grad school."
E: "How do you get offers from companies in this economy?"
Me: "Well there is a big shortage of SLP's in the country. Even if the economy is down, people still have strokes and kids are born with disorders."
E: "So you take advantage of a child's disorder?"
Me: ...?...

I don't know what is E problem since she clearly has a great paying cushy job. But I just don't even know where that comment came from. Well, like they say, the best revenge is to live well.

But what I am really bummed out about is I swore I would have gotten a 100 on my neuro cuz I studied ever so hard but just to get an 85. THAT DOES NOT REFLECT HOW HARD I STUDIED!

No wonder they told us in the beginning of the school year not to take grades so seriously.

So can I handle grad school level school work? For about 10 minutes today I thought that I was totally unfit for grad school and that it would be a matter of time before I was going to be kicked out.

We got an email stating that our grades for our first neuro quiz was on our WebCT site. On it I saw some numbers and a glaring "F" on it. WTF!!!! I knew I didn't get all the answers right, but I knew I didn't deserve an F! Doom and gloom. That was until I saw that WebCT calculated in the average grades on tests I didn't take yet, which obviously it read as a 0. To make a long story short I got an 83. Whew! This whole weekend I was kinda down about it, thinking that it was an awfully hard test. It was comforting knowing others felt that way too, so its not like I am the class dunce or something

I also had ambassador training today! Everyone seems really cool and I am excited to start on Monday. There will be a lot of me communicating to prospective students.

Well so far so good. I can't believe that it is almost October! I had to decrease the hours I worked at my part time ABA job because....I was selected to be ambassador of the CSD PROGRAM!!! WHOO HOOO!! I feel so special. Orientation starts on Monday and I think I will start officially on Wednesday. I also didn't like dreaded Thursdays for being my "long" days. I also volunteered to be in the Aphasia Convention, will hear back next week.

Classes are fine and tomorrow is my first quiz in Neuro. You know your always studying extra hard for the first tests, never knowing what to expect, but speaking to someone who took the quiz Monday, I feel pretty confident that I know what I need to know (no she didn't give me the exact questions..hehe) This one will be easy also because there isn't that many terms I need to know, but I got the outline for this week...damn...I need to bring my laptop for that class tomorrow because it is a lot of note taking.

The key to this semester is to start my papers/projects early so they wont amass at the end.

Oh my God what a week! It's been so crazy but I loved it. My classmates are all pretty cool and I was able to do a lot of socializing. My classes seem OK, except for the Preschool Disorders class where I have a lot of reading and papers to do. It's Friday so I am going to have my Neurology and Foundations of Language class, but I think they should be fine.

I applied for a job as a graduate ambassador for the CSD program and I am waiting to hear back from them. Its only 4 hrs a week so let's see if I get it.

Yesterday was the longest day for me, I had to work 8-5 at my part time job. I told Arianne that it was just too much for me and if I could shorten my day, which she totally understood.

So far so good, but I trying to get a head start on classes!!

I am heading out to the Emerson Orientation. Pretty pumped! I am going to meet everyone I am going to suffer with for the next two years. To me this is the official beginning of fall. Well off I go, I even curled my hair today...gonna take ID picture hehe.

Yeah...I'm so cool. I figured out how to put my emails in under special "labels" or folders in Gmail. That's not all, I can color code them too. I am the Gmail masta!!!!

Sooo, we are going to Vermont for a few days and staying in a bed and breakfast. I am too sluggish to pack though... I hate packing. It's going to be a 3 hour drive-I hope its very scenic. Oh reminds me to charge the batteries for the camera.

So I took my last final yesterday and I feel like I did pretty well on both finals. After we all gathered to Rock Bottom for some drinks. So yeah summer semester is over and now I have loads of free time.Next week I am going Vermont and NYC! So excited.

Now I am waiting for some forms to come into the mail that Emerson should be sending me regarding graduate school. Arianne got back to me about my work schedule as well, Tuesday- 8:30-11:30 and Thursdays all day 8:30-5:30. Fall semester I have so much more free time. I am also going to look to do my work study for a few hours. Busy Busy Busy.

Over consumption is a bitch. I really can't handle drinking as I used too anymore =(. Anyway yesterday was a blast. I spent a 200 on clothes for the fall because I looooove fall clothes and its really the only time of the year I do serious clothes shopping. Got away with two coats, two blouses, a belt, and a new blush for NARS fall collection. Yes I feel a little guilty knowing I should have saved it for those goddamn books I need for neuroanatamy and preschool language development next month but...at least I will look good. hehe

Then I caught up with my old childhood friends Vicky and Alex!! So happy to see them again. We went for drinks in Allston to which I can thank my mini hangover I am having. Seriously, I didnt drink anything strong- just a pina colada but I guess they were very generous with the coconut rum.

Great weekend!! Now onto finals week!

Whew, so I next weeks are finals..then next month I am finally a grad student. EEK!

I got the email last night of my schedule and it looks ok.

Wednesdays and Thursdays I have off. Fridays I have neurology class but most of my friends seem to be in that class too so we can suffer together. I have to admit I am pumped, but its probably because I don't really understand what I am getting myself into hehe

I finally got my test results for that exam I was freaking out about a couple posts ago via email because the professor forgot to give it to us on Thursday. I got a whopping 70 =( Ok well not much I can do now but I am concerned about the final in two weeks. This class feels so disorganized and the syllabus is a mess and there is still soo much to cover.

I've started recording my lectures now so I could refer to it in the future.I am doing well in Audiology but not so hot in my intro to comm dis. so I better use it there.

I am also trying to learn to ride a bike. SO far little success but I haven't fallen to the ground yet!

I am going to be 27 in two hours!!! How will I spend my bday? Well taking an audiology test of course!

If this hasn't been the wettest summer I have ever experienced! Last month was basically a wash out with 22 days of rain. Here it is again raining all week. I heard that New England will not be having a summer this year. Now I am not the biggest fan of high heat and humidity, but this is just not right. All this weather brought to my attention my lack of wet weather gear in my wardrobe. I have no raincoats or boots because...well...I never had to really walk a lot just mostly drive around. But now I live in the city, walking is a must. North Face makes cute outdoor wear...is it ok to use student loan money on that?

We got our test back in Intro to Audiology and I got a 91 (insert cheesy smile) but I am not too happy on the couple of dumb mistakes I made. I knew the answer but I was so concerned about the questions I did not know, that I guess I rushed them to have more time. STUPID. The real one I am worried about is the Intro to Comm Dis which I will get either tomorrow or next week.

Anywho, its 10:25 and I am salivating smelling the frozen pizza I am heating up in the oven. So I will just snuggle in my bed with a slice of hot pizza (Yes I eat on my bed. Yes I know that is nasty. No I do not care)listen to the rain fall with some good reading such as Developmental Apraxia of Speech:Descriptive and Theoretical Perspectives. YESSS!

So summer session has started and I am taking Intro to Comm Dis and Intro to Audiology. I had my first test in Audiology last week which I feel I did well, and I had my first test in Comm Dis which I feel like I bombed.

I am so bummed out! I spent hours studying but there were still stuff I missed. I feel like I suck at life. I am going to just vegetate on this couch....then go back and study harder for the next one coming up.

Today was my first day of class at Massasoit for the childhood development class. Its ok...blah blah blah but one of my classmates just saved me 80 bucks! She gave me an old edition of our book. Sooo nice! Oh yeah I also got my offical license today! whoo!

Yeah bitches I got it! Whooo hoo!!!!

Ok I need to get some things off my chest. I am really not liking my three classes and working full time. There is no time for me to relax and I am not showing signs of stress.Everyday I feel guilty if I an not studying. This semester isnt even done yet and I am so burned out. I just want to sit and relax and watch tv, but I have a speech quiz and an anatomy exam to tackle...Ok i feel better now.