I can has paycheck?

Nope...not yet. They're "still working on it." I'm not entirely sure what the problem is. I thought, well, hey, I'll just get a big fat paycheck someday until I realized that given all the hours I have worked, I'll still have made less than $150. And I actually haven't worked all that many hours. But any money is better than no money!

He's playing fetch... with my kids... he's treating my kids like they're dogs.

Today was looooong - pretty much like every other Monday. I got up at 6 after a not-so-great night of sleep, and had class from 8 - 12 pretty much straight. We took our class picture, and for some reason some people put up a big fuss. I guess I get that it's 10 minutes of wasted time, but - meh, whatever. We even got out of class early. Then of course we had a long afternoon class, then a student meeting to discuss some things, and then I worked with Aaron and Priyanka on our Helen Keller treatment plan. So pretty much at school for 12 hours. It really wasn't that bad, though. All things considered. Still housesitting - it was weird having a room full of animals this morning!

Things I hadn't considered

After enjoying a lazy Sunday morning of doing absolutely nothing, I headed back to Dallas. I thought I would be OK, but I was really tired on the way home, so I stopped to get some Starbucks. I ordered a half regular half decaf, but they didn't have decaf so he recommended something else that was similar - b/c they didn't have it, though, the coffee was on the house! Yay!

So now I am stilling my my parents living room, housesitting for them while they're in D.C. Our German Shepherd, Nacho, is getting pretty old. I think he's 10 or 11 (and dang it, I just looked over and the cat is drinking my water! Ugh!). Obviously I knew he was getting older by the way he moved slower and took longer to get up, but I haven't seen him inside the house in awhile, so it was sad to find he couldn't do a lot of the things he used to do - like climb up the stairs. He slid down twice, and then had a lot of trouble getting back up. I also put up a tiny box barrier so he couldn't go into the dining room, and he didn't even attempt to jump over it. This is the dog that used to jump up to open the door, and you really had to outsmart him to catch him. I just hadn't ever really thought about pets aging much.

No!!! We moved there last year!!!

After years of wondering...I finally know! When I used to drive home from work/anything N of where I lived (which is like everything), I used to see a ton of cars parked on the side of Mopac, and wondered what was there. Mark took me for a walk (hike?) on the Greenbelt yesterday, and we were one of those cars! It's just a big area where there is sometimes water, and lots of trails, including one part where you have to hold onto a chain to walk around this cliff. People also rock climb here. Anyway - it was very cool because it felt like you were in a different place, but then you look up and there's the Mopac bridge, and you can hear the cars passing by.

Ben had housewarming party last night, and his house is AWESOME! It was actually featured on Flip That House in 2006 and they did a fantastic job. I'm super-jealous now! It's sort of what I really want - a house with charm (not a carbon copy of the one next door) but with a really nice interior. Plus it's got a great backyard. I got to watch Old School, too - I love that movie, especially the birthday party part. "Wait, what?"

When we got home, we also had a surprise - a raccoon wandering around the parking lot. Mark got a few pictures, and I threw some crackers to him, which he ate very quickly. So cute - luckily this one did not appear to have rabies.

Get into play mode

Some people have a hard time going from Academic to play mode. I have no trouble with this - it's going to other way that might be a bit of a problem. We went to NTTI Friday morning, and I was really excited because I knew we were going to get to play on the equipment. She asked for a volunteer to get on the net swing, and of course my hand shot up. YES! The idea is you lay on your stomach in the net and use these two ropes to pull yourself. It always looks like so much fun, and it is...but it's also hard work! My arms were getting tired after a few minutes, but apparently the kids have to do this for 15 - 30 minutes. Then we got to go in the other gym and jump into the pillow pit. One of the things was a rope swing, and I thought - piece of cake! Hmmm...I swung out, and slid right off! There's a big knot that's supposed to hold you on, but instead it just kind of ripped up my thighs - ouch. There's a giant obstacle course, too, and a scooter-ramp. I also got to see nystagmus, which I knew about but hadn't ever witnessed - crazy! Anyway, it was a lot of fun but I was exhaused afterwards. Then I headed to Austin, and once I got here I didn't do anything - pretty much laid on the couch and watched TV. I can deal with that!

Those 3 words

We got to watch Dirty Jobs in class - woohoo! Mike Rowe! Unfortunately, even he wasn't enough to keep me awake. Speaking of awake, I got the results of my sleep study back, and.... basically I heard the same 3 words I hear from most doctors - "I don't know." It appears that I am, in fact, a medical anomaly. The results indicate that I wake up several times during the night due to breathing problems - and it appears that I have some new form of sleep apnea - not really obstructive, especially b/c I don't snore, and not really central. So...why do I stop breathing??? Also, I had a bunch of PLM which could be a factor, as well. And basically I had horribly fragmented sleep. Dr. said this is almost never seen in "people my age" - and even when it is seen in old people, it's usually secondary to other stuff. Awesome! Thanks Mom and Dad for the awesome sleep genes. Anyway, I went to Fieldwork and then to Lindsey's to watch Twilight again. Even though it's kind of dumb (there are definitely some wtf moments), I still like it! Although I MUST disagree with the box, which claims that it's "the greatest epic romance since Titanic!" - yeah, right!

Which would be a bigger issue- frustration or peer isolation?

That was the big question of the day as we all prepared to take TWMT 2. Luckily, it went pretty well - no major problems, and I ended up with a 97. That's right - probably the highest grade I will ever get on an exam! Anyway - not so bad, but people were still a little miffed about retaking. They announced that the NICU class will be added to next Fall, so everyone of course signed up for it and we'll see who actually gets to take it. Of course to do this, they ended up dropping 3 of our options (2 classes ((sort of 3 as one was a 2-part class)) didn't make and 1 was replaced w/NICU), leaving us with 6 choices. Luckily none of the dropped classes were ones I wanted to take.

So of course, I went to trivia. I normally get pumped up, but for some reason last night I wasn't feeling it. I was getting bad vibes from some of the team, and we did OK, but not great - 3rd. $15 doesn't split well between 11 people. Anyway - maybe next week will be better, or maybe I'll just take a hiatus. Getting there over an hour early sucks! The picture is us reliving the glory days...or me taking a picture of our picture on the wall.

Did my spellcheck really just try to correct internet with Internets?

Tuesday! I was so not happy about this day coming. I really didn't want to take my practicum. But alas, it arrived. I got up at 6:30 after going to bed at midnight the night before - this is very bad for me. Some people need 6-7 hours of sleep - I need like 12. Even then I could probably still take a nap. Anyway, woke up early and studied - I felt better, but I was still pretty nervous. Went to Fieldwork class, where I talked incessantly (likely due to nervousness combined with sleepiness and meds). At least it was on topic and to the teacher. I do end up with a lot of questions, though, and I LOVE my fieldwork placement, so I want to share what I've learned! Anyway, I got some really good info from Civello regarding some other stuff and I hope it will help. Then - dangit! Time for the practicum. Anita went first, and she did well - she nailed the Origins and insertions part, and did most of the tests without too much trouble (although she did forget how to hold the goniometer at one point - luckily she caught it and fixed it!) Then it was my turn, and I tried to be sort of peppy and upbeat - which was OK, except I used one of the proper kinese terms and we're supposed to use layman terms with clients, so I tried to cover it up by saying, "That's just a fancy OT word" - the grader kind of laughed. I mixed up the posterior and anterior deltoids on humeral extension (it's anterior!!! not posterior!!!) so she said, "Are you sure it's posterior delt?" At one point I knew the isolated tests, but I completely forgot which was for which muscle, so I said, "Do this, do this" and demonstrated - that was good covering I think - I don't think she noticed I wasn't sure which was for which muscle. I was still testing! So afterwards she told us we did really well and she was impressed with ou knowledge, and not to worry b/c in real setting you won't really remember all this and you'll be able to use your book. Why couldn't we now? Whew! Glad that's over. I went to work for 4 hours (a new record for this job, I think) and did a whole bunch of filing, and finally figured out why I haven't been able to enter my time and therefore get paid - well, first student services told me to check with payroll, who told me to check with student services... someone was finally able to tell me what was missing, so we resent it today and hopefully I'll get paid soon! The lady on the phone seemed annoyed that all this is coming 6 weeks after I started - yeah, no kidding! How do you think I feel? My boss wasn't aware anything was missing b/c nobody called or told her or anything, and when I contacted them a few weeks ago I heard back at first, and then not again so I didn't even know something was missing. Meh! So after this I was crazy tired - ready to go home and call it a night! But first - grocery store. gross. At the store I got a text from Luke/Anna - they're at Sherlocks ("We won't be there that long!"). After a lot of internal debate, I decided to drop my groceries off and go for a little while. Which turned into almost 2 hours. But you know - always fun to bitch about school with a glass of wine. AND we were kind of productive - discussing the questions from the TWMT coming up tomorrow.

...and then things got ugly

First day back - not so bad, I suppose. Although, I did find out that I have to present next Wednesday at a Region 10 meeting - yikes. The most interesting part of the day was the start of Peds lecture. We're going to have to re-take trainwreck midterm (TWMT). Yep, after ALL THAT, the professor couldn't figure out a way to fairly score it. She was planning on doing it exactly the same way with all the "kinks worked out", but our class would never stand for that. Some people complained that the computers were too slow, might crash, etc. So she suggested we take it on paper, and then we can go back and answer previous questions - you know, like a normal test. Then the debate started - "It's going to take longer for me to fill out a scan tron!" (WHAT?) "It's supposed to be open book and open internet! I won't have the internet then!" (First: I didn't realize anyone actually used the internet during TWMT Second: If you used the internet to look up answers, you probably have already looked most of them up anyway b/c the questions are going to be the exact same Third: IT DOESN'T MATTER!!) And then Aaron points out that, "If we take it on computer and it does mess up again, can we just stop? I really didn't feel like answering that many questions." To which teacher sarcastically replies: "Oh, I'm so sorry that I inconvenienced you. I just didn't know the program well enough beforehand." (quite an understatement). After a lot of debate and discussion, we voted to take the midterm on paper but with a computer in front of us in case we want to use the internet. A few people still grumbled about this, so she asked (in all seriousness) if we wanted to just take it like a regular exam - no books, no internet, no time limit, score is based on # right compared to # of questions. HELL-to-the- NO!!! Then we would actually have to study! So everyone backed down at that point and accepted these new paper terms. THEN someone jumps in, and says, "Can you please explain why we're having to retake this? It wasn't very clear in your email. A lot of us spent a lot of time preparing for this midterm (probably true, but not for me) and it even affected some of our other midterms (I know this to be true on one of mine). Why can't you just use the scores that we had?" And she runs through her explaination of how she can't fairly score it. THIS IS TRUE - I cannot think of any possible way with things the way they ended up that it would be fair to anyone. I'm actually OK with retaking this thing - I think I'll do really well b/c I've had all these questions before, I've gotten to look some of them up, and again - wrong answers don't count against you! However, I did tell her I didn't want to take it in that room again - I didn't think it was a good testing environment at all and I asked if I could forefit my use of computer to take it in another room - "I can only be in one place at one time." Blar - fine. How am I going to cheat, though? It's open book and open note! Ok - it's going ok, but she's definitely starting to get irritated. She reminds us that we have an "advantage" now b/c we've seen the questions before and we can discuss them with our peers. So I ask what I thought was a relatively harmless question (well statement/question) - "Some of the questions I looked up I couldn't find the answer to or it depended on the situation(gave example of a question)." Her response: "You might not be able to find the answer, but you know it." Huh? Why would I have asked if I knew it? So I said, "I don't think I do - I asked around and nobody seemed to know!" Response: "You all know it." Are you listening to me?? Bad move on my part: getting irritated. So I looked around the room and said loudly, "Ok, fine, Does anyone know the answer because I don't???" and simultaneously I hear Luke say from behind me "Stop it!!!" and teacher give a huff and say "we're not going to do this." So I dropped it - but my point was - would it really have been such a big deal for her to explain how we knew the answer? Couldn't she just have even guided us (you know, like teachers are supposed to do) so we could reach a logical answer? Worse case - everyone learns it (GASP) and gets a practically free right answer on the TWMT. Whatever - I shouldn't have done that, but I was pretty miffed at her lack of...being a teacher. Then we dropped all of this and went on to the lecture. That was not so interesting, but it evaporated some of the tension.
I had planned on studying like crazy for kinese, but things went a little askew when my sister dropped by. We chatted for a while (I also practiced ROM on her!) and I'll just say I'm really proud of her.

Proverbs 3:5-6

CRAP - Spring Break is oveR??

I woke up Sunday and realized I hadn't done much in the way of homework over the break...hmmm...so I buckled down and studied for Kinese. My mom is going to D.C. next week to meet with senators, so helped her find some good clothes that would help her feel more confident. We found some good stuff for really cheap (always a plus), but I'm not sure that she really liked it. It was hard to get an opinion out of her! Hopefully it will make her feel good about herself. Then she cooked dinner - like with veggies and everything - for me and Mark! Yay! So I didn't get much done as far as homework, but I did get some good quality time in with my family!

The children are the future - I better get the heck out of here

After some rapid changes in plans - i.e. not staying for the daytime sleep study, Saturday was spent studying (ish) in the morning, then we went to Mark's parents house for dinner. Lindsey and Cindy's college roommate Leslie were there, too, so it was a real party! We pretty much just sat around and told stories all night. A lot of them were about crazy students - both in high school and in elementary. After hearing those, I've determined we might be a little bit screwed in the future.

I'm sure I'll see you around here!

I can't talk about Friday night without mentioning Saturday morning - I know the suspense would be just too much. Friday was spent mostly just working on ROM, which I have no clue what I am doing. Really, measurements are all off. At 4 we headed to Mark's parent's house, where I pigged out on fajitas and queso - not the best idea before a sleep study. Then I headed to my sleep study - when I scheduled it, I was going to do an overnight, and then an MSLT the following day. Dr would really like to confirm a diagnosis before he treats. Cool. So I meet Marty - the tech who is working with me. Marty's about 60 - a nice guy, but doesn't talk too much. I like it. He hooks up my many many wires and electrodes, and eventually I'm in bed. Sleep went OK - not as good as at home (which isn't good anyway), but I guess I slept enough. Since I've done this before, I know what's coming - the morning after you look like you've been hit by a bus. There's tons of stuff taped to your face, your mouth is all crusty from not being opened all night, you have marks all over you, and then there's the hair. Not pretty, folks. But Marty's cool - sure he won't mind. I ended up sleeping until about 8 - well, I woke up at 6 and was in and out until 8, which is weird because in the past they have woken you up around 6 or 6:30. So in comes...Bryan? Bryan is the new tech on duty - he's 26 and attractive. Of course I'm not trying to impress him or anything, but - seriously? Like, it would be hard for me to look WORSE, and in walks a cohort. Anyway, Bryan tells me he's been watching me (in a scientic way of course) for a few hours, and that I'm not going to do the MSLT due to the results of the night test. BLEH. Fine. So he tells me A LOT about how I sleep (oh man...) and I'm just like....ok. So basically we're back to where we started 2 years ago - we don't really know what's wrong with my sleep, but it's bad. Anyway - that's my story! Oh, and as I'm leaving in all my crazy hair stuck-on electrode putty glory, Bryan says, "I'm sure I'll see you around here sometime!" as he just started working for my Dr. YAY.

Have you ever seen anybody eat hair?

Thursday we headed back to the big D. But first! I got more happy noms! We stopped at Rudy's for breakfast tacos - mmmmmmm. In the evening we drove out to Arlington to see Nick and Candy's new apartment (really nice and an awesome kitchen!) and have dinner. I left to wash my hands, and when I got back to the table the waiter was standing there blocking my seat, and he was like, "No, you can't sit down." Oh great. One of THOSE. So I had missed the previous conversation, but evidently Candy said something like, "I'm a fire eater," referring to the fact that she eats habanero peppers like they're nothing. Somehow, waiter took that literally. So he starts asking all these questions about eating fire - like, "What else weird do people eat?" WHAT? Trying to be polite, Candy said, "I dunno. On Fear Factor they made people eat bugs and stuff." but noooo...he wouldn't take the hint, and continued to ask questions like, "How do you PREPARE to eat fire?" "Um..a lot of alcohol?" "Whoa, really?" Then she said, "If I literally ate fire, I've got so much hair that it would catch on fire." Waiter walks off, so we're ok - maybe he got it!! But then he comes back, and says "Have you ever seen anybody eat their hair?" - WHAT?? WHAT??? I was staring at my plate because I was really about to burst out laughing. As soon as we got outside, we all just cracked up - something was not right! Then we went to this yogurt place called Pure Bliss, and it kind of was. They had these giant tubs (no, really - one size only!) and a ton of flavors of froyo. Then there was a toppings bar, and you could put whatever you wanted on it - candy, cereal, fruit - and they weight it all at the end and charge you by the ounce. Pretty darn cool!

You'd better be googling porn!

So, sadly, Natasha Richardson (I know her as the mom from the remake of Parent Trap & the wife of Liam Niesen) died today from injuries from a ski trip. It was a freak accident - she didn't hit anyone else and was laughing afterwards, but it did cause a hemmhorage in her brain, which they didn't catch until it was too late. That's fine, sad - cover it on the news. BUT - Seriously?? SERIOUSLY?? A picture of a brain hand drawn with magic markers? It's not as if this was completely unexpected - she was in critical condition for at least 24 hours previously. You couldn't have come with a computer drawn example? Even I knew what was going on and I've only had 1 neuro class! Another reason why Fox News is... yeah.

Of course, we can't let a little death get us down. In fact, Camden immeditately turned the story around into a team name ("Natasha Richardson avoids Parent Trap, but not death trap") but we didn't actually use it. Things started off slow - we didn't do so hot with movie lines, but as usual we killed in the nerd round. I even taught Duffy the obnoxious "nerd round!" voice so he could annoy everyone when I'm not around. It was fun - not as good as old times (Mary wasn't there!! :( ) but I have high hopes for next time I can make it on a Wednesday! We got 2nd, and we won for team name. I'll be back to dominate Dallas next week ;) This week there was a wing-off for 2nd, and Jenn did it, but she chocked (literally!) so she took 3rd place. She still beat some dude! Here's a bonus picture of that :)

happy St. Patrick's Day!

Did you know that St. Patrick was never cannonized by a pope?

I got my hair cut! YAY! I asked if I was to cut it today, where would my hair be if I cut off 8 inches, and she measured and it's right around shoulder length, so that's pretty good. Getting close! I think I'll either do it in May or July if I can last that long - I hate getting a major hair cut b/c I hate for the first 3 days or so everyone's like, "OMG! You cut your hair!" so I'm hoping to do it when we're not in school to avoid that - but I doubt it can be avoided so I might as well do it earlier to be less hot and gross during the summer. We'll see how much I can handle!

We went to Sherlock's to celebrate St Patty's Day, and surprise - there was a loooong line to get in. Luckily, it really only took 15 minutes to get through. Once inside, it wasn't too crowded and we ended up getting a table after fighting with some people who wanted it, but only had like 4 people. We traded them our small booth for the big one and I guess they were ok with it. Some woman called me "dense" because I wasn't going to fight for the table - but I was quite content with standing and chatting. So then she appologized. Meh. Overall the evening was a lot of fun (of course)! I knew I probably would get a glass of wine instead of beer, but I wanted to fit in....so I brought my own food coloring, and made it green! The first one didn't go as well (I added blue b/c the wine is yellow) - it was more like jungle green, but the second glass was a perfect shade of Emerald! Holla! Yeah, it's kind of weird - but also kind of cool. Unfortunately I dropped the box of colors under the table and forgot to retrieve them when we left. Hopefully the next person will have some fun with them! Great night - tomorrow is my last night in Austin, but it's TRIVIA night! We're bringing that trophy HOME!

What day is it again?

Although this weekend felt really long, I didn't get confused on the day until today. It feels like I've been out of school for a long time already ( :) ), but really today was my first official day of Spring Break. Mere and I had some girl time and went to Kismet (yay! finally!) near campus, and did some shopping at Barton Creek. I got the jacket to the left for $15 at Old Navy, because it's cute and my classrooms are always like 50 degrees for some reason. Then we went to bath and body works where I got some awesome deals - soaps were on sale, plus I got a free body wash, and the room sprays were $3. So I cleaned up! Then I came home, and Mark make me dinner - it was yummy! A good day - unfortunately tomorrow (day) has to be devoted to doing something productive so I can accomplish what I wanted over Spring Break! but evening is fair game. Don't forget to wear green tomorrow!

Puppy Party

Claire and Anthony had a "socialize the puppy" party today - pretty much my dream come true! Ollie (or Olly?) is so cute, and he's really well trained! Anthony has done an awesome job - he can sit, stand, lay down, twirl, spin, and shake. Ollie also LOVES cheese, and will pretty much do anything to get it. They also have some reptiles, including an AWESOME panther Chameleon that was really shy and didn't like to move when people were watching him.Unfortunately for him, I would catch him while he was on the move. So cool - I'm not usually a fan of reptiles (I could take em or leave em) but I've always thought these guys were super cool with their crazy googly eyes and split feet. Anyway - back to Ollie - he's a 15 wk Golden Retriever puppy that's clearly very smart and according to Anthony will (hopefully) one day be a certified therapy dog!

Hoops and YoYo live!

The big event Saturday was Diggnation live! YAY! Mark, Camden and I ventured out to Stubb's to see Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht tape Diggnation right here in ATX. For those of you that don't know, Diggnation is a podcast/video podcast done every week by these two geniuses on the top stories from Digg.com. We were entertained first by Brian Brushwood (whom I hadn't heard of before!) who did some awsome magic/illusions/gross stuff that we were all kind of wondering, "Is that for real?" - including the "human crazy straw" and putting a nail into his left eye and moving it to the right one.

Next, Alex and Kevin took the stage, and it was pretty awesome, although a bit frustrating because they threw a ton of stuff into the audience including shoes, ipod touches, and some other clothing items, but of course they only got to the first 10 rows maybe, so we weren't even close. It hadn't even occured to me that there would be swag, so it was fine. I was getting a bit tired of standing up and it was really cold. The shiw wasn't too long, though, and we got to meet K & A after the show. Pretty awesome! I told Mark Kevin is probably the wealthiest person I've ever met. They were both really cool, but I have to say Alex was really social and cool - and he told me that he, Kevin, Jay and Hippie Glen (maybe?) are all lefties! Shoutout! Anyway - we had a blast.

Fawsome Friday

Friday! It's finally here!!!!!! I had class at 8:00 AM - crazy, I know - after staying out late the night before. Flashback to undergrad. Luckily, class was pretty fun - we did a sensory profile, and it turns out we have confirmation - I'm a freak. Well, ok, so there are 4 categories, and in all 4 I was +, ++, ++, and +. ++ means you're in the top 5% of weird. Anyway, professor said my system is probably just kind of deciding what to do and goes a little haywire - as long as it's not interfering with my life it's not a problem. So now I'm sure I'll obsess for awhile about whether or not it is interfering with my life and eventually forget and move on. Anyway, I'm not even entirely sure what the point of the test was. Bleh. I was going to fly to Austin, but due to a slight mix-up in that my sister never got my gchat request to be taken to the airport, I went home and took a nap, then hit the road. The drive was awful! It took over 2 hours to get to Waco because it had been raining for like a week and was not stopping anytime soon. And when I finally got to Waco, car refused to go over 50 without skidding so I was stuck in the right lane. Luckily the 2nd half wasn't so bad, so I made it in just about 4 hours (gross!).

Master Pancake did Jurassic Park, so we (Claire, Anthony, Camden, Ben, Mark, Me, Dale, Meredith, Eng and Eng's bro) went to the late showing. It was awesome! Beforehand, the guys were walking around and trying to get people to sign up for their email list, and Camden asked a question. We heard, "Have you guys ever thought about doing Passion of the Christ?", to which the guy answered something, "well, that would be really hard to make fun of..." I guess what he actually asked was if people ever request weird movies, such as... Anyway, I haven't seen Jurassic Park in ages, and even though dudes were talking over it, it still scared the crap out of me! Highlights:

- Pointing out the GAPING hole in the electric fence that t-rex could just wander out of

- when Laura Dern is running from dino in the shed dubbing over the scene (and song) from Footloose

- Making fun of pretty much all of Jeff Goldbloom's one-liners

P.S. - this picture is actually from Saturday, but I was bad and didn't take on on Friday and have a ton from Saturday, so...yeah :)

Torturous and Therapeutic Thursday

LAST MIDTERM!!! It was Kinese, so I was pretty sure it was going to be the hardest. It wasn't too bad, although when I left I wasn't sure at all how I had done. There weren't a lot of answers that I knew for sure, but based on what I do know I was able to deduce pretty well, I think. It was really funny watching everyone take the midterm - since it was Kinese, everyone was moving around in their chairs, doing the gestures to try to figure out what the muscles are doing. One of the questions asked which muscles are involved in putting on a bra behind your back - so natually, like 15 people have their hands behind their backs like they're putting on a bra. I ended up coming back to that question, so I did it twice (got it right, though!). As it turns out - I got an 89 - yay! I am very happy with that - I wasn't very confident in my kinese abilities at all. I feel like this semester is so much easier for me academically - I really well on all of the midterms (I *think*). Anyway, after midterm, I went to fieldwork, where I got to see some really interesting kids. It was really sad watching one of them - this child has pretty severe oral aversions, and I could tell it was something the kiddo really wanted to "fix", but trying to bite into a cut apple was clearly very painful and difficult. This child has been in treatment for years, and they've only made some progress, although any progress is still progress! Very sweet kid - I hope it all works out!
To end the evening, I met up with Luke at Sherlock's to celebrate end of midterms. After awhile (of course) other people came, too - Nicole, Sajid, Emmy and Wes, Aaron, and Lindsey. It was fun - we just talked about all kinds of stuff and told stories and chilled - such a nice change! Emmy has the BEST stories ever! Seriously, they are some of the funniest things I have ever heard. She could probably write a book about her adventures (such as being eyeballed by an agressive turkey named Pepsi). Of course I got in later than I had planned (what else is new?) but it was totally worth it!

Wicked Wednesday

Oh Wednesday - there aren't enough W adjectives to describe you. I knew this was coming. I was still not prepared. No class today - instead, 3 midterms pretty much back to back! First we had Qual/Quant - I'm in Quant this semester, so it's more statistics based but we all have to take both eventually. But we were all in one big room but divided up, because Dr Pickens was proctoring both classes. She mentioned beforehand that the Quan one would be quicker, so she said, "I'm going to hand out the quant exam first." For whatever reason, I decided to look over at the Qual people and say, "In your face!" Some people laughed - I think others were just thinking, "yep, she's a weirdo." Anyway - Dr. Neville is a great person - she's really funny, and clearly very smart and likely a great therapist. However, her teaching style confuses most. So does her questioning style. Some of the questions didn't actually have a question. Some just didn't make sense. and on one, the right answer was not a choice! Anyway, I ended up with a B on that one, which is A-Okay with me. As you may or may not know, stat is not my favorite anything. Next we had the big event - the one and only Peds exam. This isn't like any other exam you've seen, folks. In the 20 years I've had tests, I've never had one that looks like this. Before I explain, let us consider what a test is typically designed to be:
1) fair and equal to all students
2) a test of your knowledge based on lectures and readings
3)clear and concise
Keep these in mind as you read below!
Ok, so here was how the peds test was supposed to go:
We had 1 hour, it was on the computer, and we couldn't go back once we answered a question. Questions were not necessarily stuff that has been covered in class or even mentioned in the book, and they were randomly selected from a "bank" the teacher wrote and are varying degrees of difficulty. We could use our book, notes, internets, whatever except other people. But here's where it gets really messed up: We had to answer at least 50 questions correctly to "pass"; Questions answered incorrectly didn't penalize us. We had to answer at least 60 questions total (so in other words...if I answer 120 questions randomly and get 50 of them right, I pass. If I answer 75 and get 50 right, I pass.) More than one answer could be correct, but we had to pick the one that was "more correct" even though OT doesn't have a lot of concrete definitions and there are lots of theories, so different texts have different answers. So, basically, why would I waste my time looking up something when I can just randomly guess and essentially move onto the next question with a chance I'd get it right, anyway? And one of my favorite classmates, Aaron (Mere you know him as Notben), says, (to the teacher) "So, if I just go through and answer C for every question, and I get 50 right, I pass?" - yep. awesome. That was back when she said the bank would have like 300 questions, though.
This is what actually happened:
We were divided into 2 groups - one took the lecture exam on the computer, the other took the lab exam on paper, and we switched. There are 36 of us - and we were all in a room that holds max 30 when it's really full. Some people had to use their own laptops because there weren't quite enough computers. Once she gave us the password to start, we could start whenever - the computer kept track of the hour. I waited for everyone to get settled, then started. 3 minutes in, 3-4 people start complaining that the password wasn't working. So teacher went to try to figure it out. Not at all distracting. After about 15 minutes, people in the center started to finish their lab exams, so they turned them in and wrote their name on the board for the next available computer (despite the fact that we all started within 4 min of each other, so we'll all be done at the same time anyway!). THEN Blackboard starts crashing on everyone around me - the next question won't pop up. Page won't load. It logged me out. etc. So Teacher is frantically talking to them trying to get it to work. Meanwhile, I've literally got my hands over my ears trying to read the questions because everyone around me is TALKING (totally don't blame them, by the way - it's the set up). When there are distractions, my focus is like zero. Anyway, so about 20 min in, I see that I've answered 50 questions, so I figure I've got time to actually look stuff up since there are 133 questions total. And then I realize...I've had this question before. and this one. and THIS one. So I ask, is that supposed to happen? No. Turns out, she didn't program it right - either the questions got loaded multiple times, or they just didn't set on "no repeats". So the 133 question test is now an inifinity test. After 150 questions or so I was actually getting pretty tired - I almost wanted to quit, but what would be the point in that. By then, I had so many repeats I knew what the question was based on the first 3 words - so click click click and an hour goes by and I answered 283 questions. Bravo! But - OOOOOOO - the computer timer does not shut off. Indeed, it just keeps going! Hmmm...what do I do? So someone tells her, and she doesn't know what to do, but we can't just keep going, so she tells us to log out. Who knows if it saved? I still don't know if it did!
So we traded with the other guys, and I was taking the lab test in the center. Wait a second...some of these questions - I know these! Yep, sure enough, they were on the computer part. Therefore, MY group had had the opportunity to look the answers up in the book, so we'd know which ones were right. The other group didn't, and the lab portion was closed book. Another reason they should pissed. Anyway - yay! Trainwreck exam! We won't find out howwe "did" until after Spring Break. I have a feeling this won't be a repeat performance.

Torture Tuesday!

Ok, so it wasn't that bad, but again, I had classes and midterm. First, we had Ms Civello, who gave us back our case study projects. Our group actually did really well, but most people didn't, so, off to a great start. We also had to turn in our SOAP notes, and who knows how that went. Midterm wasn't until 1, so I ate lunch and then hung around the school, not-studying like I "should have been".

The midterm was Ways of Doing, which is a lab class. I pretty much had no idea what to study, as everything we've done in there has been doing rather than talking. Luckily, most of the midterm was common sense (with a few WTF questions thrown in), and I ended up doing really well on that one, too. Woohoo! We had to stay after for class (2 hours for a 4 hour class - at least she cut it in 1/2) but it wasn't terrible. I think everyone was just really exhausted. And knew they had to go home and prepare for the Wednesday from hell.

Monday = March midterm madness

Hello my beloved blog! No, I have not forgotten you - I just had midterms this week and felt like studying might be a good idea, although it turns out it was overrated. Monday's midterm - awesome. It was in OT Models, and I did pull it together long enough to study for an hour or two, and managed to make an A. Sweet! We also had class (um, hello? Midterms???), and that didn't go so well. One: there was more bitching about midterm for that class (to be taken Wednesday - see Wednesday's post for the trainwreck midterm). Two: at 12, we were given (in our mailboxes, which people only sort of check) a list of "electives" for our class. The rules are as follows: you cannot take more than one elective per semester (and they don't really want you taking 1 in maymester and 1 in summer), you have to have at least 2, and only 12 seats are in each elective class. We had to decide by 1:00 what classes we wanted to take. In Maymester there's 1 class with a particular teacher that people just kind of don't want to deal with - so that's pretty much off the table. There's 1 other class. Then in Summer there are 3 classes being offered: but one of them you have to take 2 parts parts, and...well.. knowing this professor, it's going to be a lot of work (she's a great prof, though). So that crosses off that one for most people (myself included). Fall: 4 more courses - one being the 2nd half of the above mentioned, and the other being a hands class - which, to be honest, sounds like torture to me. So basically I had 4 choices. yay. Not one of these classes is a pediatrics class! So, being me, I asked, "Just curious, why did you guys decide not to offer any peds classes?" and professor answers, "Oh, you're right, there aren't any (as if she hadn't noticed.) Well, we give first billing to our faculty who are on salary, since when we hire an adjunct, we have to pay extra." I just nodded dumbly. Ok. So you're telling me that my education that I pay for is being compromised so you can save a couple hundred dollars? REALLY? Ok, just so we're clear. She could have at least come up with a lie!!!!! 2 more people asked, "what happened to the autism and/or NICU class?" Then I guess she realized she had given a CRAPPY answer, so she asked how many of would be interested in either of those classes - big surprise, all but like 3 people raised their hands. So who knows what she's doing about that - if she's looking into it (doubtful) or just checking for future reference. I tried to ask (albeit at a random time) and she told me, "We really need to stay on topic". Meh. So everyone left school in a really bad mood Monday.

Lame Sunday

Sorry - all I did today was sleep, study, eat and watch a little bit of T.V. Super-lame! Hopefully once Spring Break starts I'll have all kinds of crazy stories. ;)

Lame Saturday

Study study study -and that's it.

Crazy Friday

I ended up doing way more than I expected. I went to a review for kinese which made me feel better (I know more than I think I know, I guess). Then I went to work for awhile and started on a new project, which means more consistent work at work - yay! Then I came home, studied for a bit, and went to Lindsey's. We watched part of Into The Wild, and pretty much the entire movie Much Ado About Nothing (starring "Wilson" as Claudio - mmmm!) while her cat awkwardly tried to strangle me with her love. Then Camden came over, and we just kind of hung out for awhile - and we got gelato and the scooper guy was an ass and started rubbing his eyes when I said, "Wow, there are so many flavors!" Ass. Meh. Back to the books!

Happy Thursday

Yay - the week is finally over! Classes weren't too bad today - this morning we were all given a disability, and we made breakfast (breakfast tacos, muffins and fruit) attempting to get around. It was really fun -and funny. I tried to use a 1-handed cheese grater (a food processor would work much better!) and it was a total disaster. Chancy had some goggles on simulate vision problems, and she was in a wheelchair and only had one working arm. So this made things very interesting. We managed to get it all cooked, and had a nice breakfast. Then we had Peds lab and had to come up with some treatment plans based from a bag of random stuff - it was actually kind of fun. Courtney Kennedy was having a birthday, so her mom drove in from Shreveport and brought lunch for everyone - so sweet! It was homemade and REALLY good! And of course...after class we went to Sherlock's for a bit before midterms start, and had fun. Awhile in, I got a text from someone I didn't have in my phone book, and they said, "You guys aren't still there are you?" So I said, "Yeah, we are! Come join!" thinking it was a classmate. THEN I get "Where are you? Are you going to be there long? It'll take me 45 minutes to get there." So Luke, Anna and I were trying to figure out who it was in our class. As it turns out, it was Jenn's friend Lisa, who still had my number for awhile ago. Whoops. But it was entertaining! Good day!

Not your typical Wednesday

...I resisted the urge to go to trivia and did homework instead - ewwwwww.

Focused? Me?

Tuesday was...meh. It happened. After being completely confused in Kinese, I had lunch and had a nice chat with Laurie, and then Aaron came in, so I had a nice chat with him. Then I went to work, but there was nothing to do, so I left after 30 min (made like $3 then?). I went to work on this stat excel thing for Wednesday, and I thought - piece of cake! It'll be done in no time. WRONG - totally took like 2 hours, and by the end I was about ready to find a wine bottle, smash the computer with it, then drink the wine. Luckily that did not happen - although I could have gone for some wine! Also, turns out I did some of it wrong. Awesome.
So I didn't get around to writing yesterday because once I got home from school, I went into homework mode. I worked on this self-care thing for class on Thursday, and then it was like 9 and I was done with the computer. Anyway, I'm pretty proud that I did manage to stay focused long enough to get something done. Yay me!

Max will put arms through arm holes

You know it's almost midterm when you refer to "sleeves" as "arm holes", and then someone agrees with you. My brain is officially fried. And I had to be kind of mean today - we were supposed to be taking our yearbook pictures today and I am the class historian (elected!), so I tried to assemble everyone - I even emailed last week, but I guess people forgot. I get it - you don't want to have your picture taken! Just please cooperate so we can get out of here. Anyway - we ended up getting most everyone together, and it turned out pretty good. It was really sunny outside, which is good for happy but not so good for pictures. Maybe I can round everyone up another day to get a class photo...we'll see! I don't know why people are so opposed to having their picture taken. I've taken some baaaad pics before, but it's like - whatever! Even Jenn lets you take her picture ;).

Lets go fly a kite!

Today was the 81st annual Kitefest in Austin! Mark and I walked up to Zilker (beautiful but cold day!) and got to look at all the crazy kites - there were giant ones shaped like squid, sharks, and a big blue dude (pictured). There were also these teeny tiny ones on sticks that were super-cute and perfect for kids. Bonus, the greyhound rescue group was there, so I talked to them and learned a little more about adopting greyhounds. They're adaptable (happy to sit in the apartment/house all day or run with you as long as you acclimate them) and fairly hypoallergenic. Hopefully someday I'll be able to save one! The ones they brought were really sweet (I suppose they wouldn't bring the bad ones). And whoa - I am in my daily picture!

Another Caturday lost to homework

My Saturday:

-Homework
-Body Flow
- Bank (where I watched weird people argue in a scary sounding language about some money transfer gone wrong)
-homework
-nap
-homework
-???
-bed (where I didn't fall asleep until like 4...bleh)

Awesome.