Friday, March 31, 2006

Anomia

My East Coast classmate often misuses the word "skank," according to West Coast standards/definitions.

Her definition of "skank" is as follows:
Skank (adjective): a person who is dressed bummy, hair is not fixed, no make-up. Basically just rolled out of bed, but does not have that chic “rolled out of bed” look. Often heard to say, “I hope I don’t see anyone I know today.”
According to us, a skank is, well, an R-Rated word. I told her I'd try to come up w/ a more appropriate word for her to use, but I''m having a word-finding problem (A.K.A. anomia).

What do you call somebody like that?

In my past experience, we've merely described the person just like that; no one word captures it all.

Wait! I got it! "She looks tore up (from the floor up)!"
Ghettofied version: "goo'row, she look to' up from the flo' up!"

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Not raining

I thought it was going to rain today! I even brought my huge golfing umbrella, but it was totally dry. BOOOoooOO!

However, Crazy Prof talked to me during classmate's school baby shower...and she totally spat on me. I was thoroughly grossed out. It must be karma for how many times I've unintentionally spat on others or something. Yuck.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

D-d-d-dysfluency

Today was day one of our fluency disorders class, and we watched a video on stuttering (or "dysfluency," according to the ASHA guidelines paper that I've been trying to read for the past 2 hours). I've always heard of famous people and celebrities (is that redundant?) who stutter. I.e., Marilyn Monroe, Winston Churchill, Lewis Carroll, Bruce Willis, and one of my favorite actors, Samuel L. Jackson!

But Moses? Like the prophet Moses? Now that was a new one...

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Lizard's tail/tale

The other day, BF & I watched an Animal Planet special on how lizards will volitionally "drop" their tail off when fighting, to distract the opponent. I always knew their tails could break off, but I didn't know it was a defense mechanism. Watching the special grossed me out sooOoOOoOO much, just seeing the tail wiggling around detached from the body w/ all the fibers sticking out. It's something short of a miracle, but it's disgusting.

Today, I was helping my brother fix the gazebo at gramma's, when I moved some wood, and there was a lizard's hind legs and tail sticking out from under the wood! GROSS! My bro & I were so disgusted. Gramma must have heard me tripping out big time b/c she came to the kitchen window (theoretically, "upstairs") and asked what I was giggling about.

Giggling was quite the opposite. Laughter out of sheer disturbance is more accurate.

I yelled "upstairs" to gramma, asking her to come down and into the backyard to move the gross corpse. Gramma thought I was crazy:
G-ma: you have to learn to deal w/ these things on your own!
Me: Gramma, please, can't you just come down?
G-ma: Just get a broom and shoo it away!
Me: It's dead, though!
G-ma: Well then, what's the big deal? Just sweep it away!
I was still freaking out and trying to persuade Gramma, when my bro had ran to the garage to get the broom. So sad that I'm such a pansy and need my gramma to rescue me. When bro came back, he looked at me and said ever so sweetly and seriously, "I thought you like reptiles."

Point of clarification: I love turtles, and they just happen to be reptiles. I HATE lizards and snakes!!! Iguanas, I may be able to handle. But nothing more. Iguanas are a lot prettier than lizards.

My brave bro got a broom and shooed it away, just to find that there was actually another dead lizard under the wood -- w/ its tail detached!!!! BARF!!! So he swept both of them off the gazebo floor and as the first one that was 2/3s smooshed (the smooshed part was all purple and dark!) got close to the edge of the floor, it scampered off! That freaked me out even more!

I looked at my bro and said, "gees, it could have ran off like 5 minutes earlier!" rather than put me through all that trauma. Well, I guess I put myself through the trauma b/c I kept looking at it and grossing myself out. =T

Having a big brother is great.

Friday, March 24, 2006

He is a She!

Since I've been on break, I've been reading tons of forum posts re: RES turtles. Lil Focher has finally exceeded 4 inches (the legal, "adult" size) so we can safely determine his sex. As of 2 nights ago, I was convinced Lil F was still a boy since he has a long, fat tail. The only discrepancy was that his nails weren't long.

Today, I went to Petco...and saw a real 4.75 inch male, who had a really long, fat tail and long nails. I asked the Petco dude, is that a male and the other a female? Yup.

Lil F is a she!!! =O

You can't really determine a turtle's sex until they're at least 4 inches. I don't know why we just assumed she was a he. Maybe b/c s/he was such a little rascal (hence his real name, "Lil Fawker") that we just assumed she was a he. Now, why am I disappointed that she is not a he?

I don't know. Maybe b/c he did a sex change on us. Well, technically she didn't.

OMG, that means she can grow as large as 10-12 inches!!! That's a whole lot of turtle! Since she's been steadily growing since her b-day, I got a new dock for her and moved all the other stuff over to the right, and added a couple more gallons of water to her heart's desire. For the first time, I also bought her cuttlebone for calcium. No big deal, just an interesting experience that I have to get used to. Worse is that I had to buy a can of crickets to dust in another store-bought bottle of calcium powder. I HATE bugs. Last time, we bought a can of worms, I could barely bring myself to feed him/her that stuff. I didn't dare touch the stuff so I was literally using a plastic fork and knife to feed her. Barf. I ended up tossing it after a couple months. Guess what I'm using this time around! A pair of chopsticks and a spoon to coat that mofo well, just so my lil green angel can rip it apart.

I can't say crickets are any more appetizing. The worst part is that it smells like the Green Giant Corn Niblets that I eat! Gross!!

She's such a cutie, though. She made me proud, eating all the weird stuff I fed her today. :)

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

I hate shopping

I just hate shopping for clothes and gifts. I know what I want, but I have the typical female-shopper complaints:
  1. I can't find it (or anything else I really need/want)
  2. it's way out of my broke-@$$ student-budget
  3. I don't fit (proportionately) in the mofo
  4. Things out there are just plain fugly (or my sense of style is just really out-dated)
For the first time in who knows when, I went to the mall, thinking I could finally exchange some things I've meant to take care of for a while. I found absolutely nothing at BR Petite and Women. :( I could have picked up a pound of See's candies b/c I have 2 gift certificates, but then I remembered I have the ginormous 52 oz. bag of peanut M&Ms (or Eminems) at home. So I kept wandering around and ended up at Nordstrom's MAC counter.

That was the best part of my shopping experience b/c I got a free tube of MAC lipstick, (Frost) "O," thx to my homie TK. BTW, what an interesting name for the color, huh? Yes. But re: TK, she doesn't use MAC lipstick, but I do! I <3 MAC lipstick! I got a free tube, thx to the "recycling" program that MAC does (bring in 6 empty tubes of mascara, lipstick, lip gloss, etc., and get a free tube of lipstick. TK gave me 6 to trade in!). The girl at the counter w/ a bling-bling watch helped me choose a color. :)

Afterwards, I stopped by the market and then strolled across the street to Marie Callendar's. BF gave me his ATM card and said, go wild! JK He said, "get whatever pie you want. This is my way of saying, 'good job for getting good grades.'" :) Since they didn't have Boston Cream Pie, I got Kahlua Cream Cheese pie. Yummers! Here's to good grades!

(See? Work really was compromising my grades. I finally pulled straight A's (well, one A-, but that was in Dr. M's class!!!), after a year's worth of steadily-declining grades... ;)

Post-Spa Day!

Spa Day w/ BGF was awesome! Well, company-wise. I mean, just my BGF as company. Not the multitude of women w/ Costco-size cottage cheese and hirsute men as company.

BGF & I started the day off w/ brunch at Denny's in Corona. She strategically chose a booth away from the door, in case anybody wanted to shoot-up the Denny's off of the 15 S in BFE. We made it just in time for our 1 P.M. massage appointments ("just in time" b/c I ate slow, not intentionally of course).

I had a dude "massage therapist" for my "Stress Reliever plus 30 Minutes of Back of Body Swedish Massage." Next time, I'm definitely requesting a woman MT. I asked the MT, whatever pressure you think you should apply, can you please up it up half a notch? Either homeboy was weak, or he was just scared like all other MTs that haven't given me a massage w/ the right amount of pressure. The tx was still okay and enjoyable...except that the dude burped (w/ his mouth closed) while he was massaging my head. He also sneezed at one point and stopped to rub his nose 4 times. Gross! Yes, I get easily distracted. And yes, the older I get, the more of a germaphobe I become.

BGF and I had a great time spa-hopping b/t the:
  • Jacuzzis ~ but we didn't do too much of that since "we could do that anywhere." =P
  • Sea salt bath ~ that was cool, except there were weird things floating around, according to BGF. The 2nd time we dipped in, there was a dead fly. Yuck.
  • Mineral bath ~ AKA "stinky water bath" according to my classmate. This was psychologically invigorating. I'm glad BGF and I got our own two-person bath to share. We did not feel like being in the big communal one at all!
  • Floating pool ~ they provided "floaties," those styrofoam bed mattress things for the 1.5 foot deep pool. I just sat there and froze while BGF tried a floatie. She drifted farther and farther away from me and after 2 minutes, she decided she was getting sea-sick and got off. LOL
  • Mud clay bath ~ the most adventurous part of our experience. We had no clue WTH we were s'posed to do, even though there were directions etched into a stone. We waded into lukewarm muddy water (just looked like dirty, cloudy brown water) and then BGF walked up to the mound of brown clay, got a huge wad, and slapped that cold stuff right on my back! I guess it did my skin some good. :) Crazy girl wanted to take a pix of us, but forgot her camera.
  • Roman bath ~ we almost missed this one. It was inside, at the end of the hall of showers. This was called a Roman bath b/c of the architecture inside ~ lotsa pillars and stuff. Other than that, it was a bath w/ lots and lots of steam. And large women.
  • Steam room~ We thought this would be good to open our pores up. In there, BGF said, "omg, see? I told you I've gained so much weight. I have a bigger pooch than you! You have no pooch!" Lemme tell you something. BGF could never look bigger than me. She actually weighs more than me FOR ONCE, but she still looks 5-10 pounds skinnier than me. I said, "goo'row, the only reason why u think I don't have a pooch is b/c I'm sucking it in!" (as BF would be the first to confess for me.)
We left around 5 and headed to the Olive Garden around Ontario Mills. We each had a martini; I had a Cosmopolitan w/ Grey Goose* and BGF had a Washington Red Apple. Oh, yes, we also had a yummy dinner, too. I love Olive Garden! :)

*Why haven't I ever thought about asking the bartender to use Grey Goose? Especially when I hate Stoli's. That was BGF's idea, but that was b/c of an incident from a few weeks ago. One night, her sis-in-law went over and they were taking shot after shot of Grey Goose. The next day, she IM'd me in a pleasant stupor, wondering why she didn't have the usual hangover. I said, "it's prolly b/c u had "good" alcohol. What kind did u have?" "Grey Goose." "Well, there you go....and why in the world would you take shots of Grey Goose??" Actually, I don't think I really asked her the latter part, but I definitely wondered it. But since then, she now swears by "good alcohol." If only we knew that back in college, we coulda avoided many...never mind.

As if the party-throwers would be handing out any single-barrel or top shelf stuff, anyways.

It was a very great day, many, many thx to my Best Girlfriend. She is the best!

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Spa Day!

Today is spa day w/ my BGF! We're Glen Ivy virgins, so it'll be a fun first-time experience, rain or shine. Hopefully more shine, of course. I can't remember which massage I'm getting, but whatever I get, it'll be GREAT. Hopefully, I'll finally stop being a pansy and tell my masseusse/masseur? to apply more pressure b/c every tx I've had, I just haven't been completely satisfied.

I can't believe I'm awake so early, especially since I went to bed around 2:30! I had a few night-caps, so maybe my body's just reacting to it. I haven't had one of these mornings in a while, though, where I woke up early b/c of the ETOH. Heck, I think I'll head to the gym right now.

It's fun living like a celebrity...Stay up having some (2 to be exact) drinks, wake up early to go to the gym, and then meet up w/ BGF for brunch, spa treatment, and dinner.

I could do this all week!

Monday, March 20, 2006

M&Ms

One of BF's clients came over tonight, to have another 2 websites done. He already did one tight website for her here, so I'm excited to see what the finished products will be after tonight.

As they were brainstorming:

BF: haven't you [directed towards DJFei2] seen the M&M commercial w/ the iPOD, where every step he takes, the color scheme changes?"
DJFei2: no, I don't watch TV at all.
BF: haven't you?? [directed to me]
Me: no, you know I don't watch TV at all, too! [as I munch away on Costco size peanut M&Ms]
BF: dang, you 2!

~~~ (moments later) ~~~

I see him playing this video on his monitor.

Me: Oh! I've seen that video!
Me: I didn't know you meant Eminem! I thought you meant M&Ms! [As I continue inhaling Costco size peanut M&Ms]

Sad that I associate everything w/ candy and food.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Parenthood

I went to my second baby shower today, and it was a lot sappier than my first one.

My first one was for baby Cole, who BF is Godfather to, and we played crazy games like shaping a baby out of Bubble Yum. First prize went to Cole's parents' lesbian roomies, who shaped the gum into sperm. I'm still laughing about that. We also had to identify the origin of "dirty" diapers, or diapers that had an assortment of melted chocolates. So we stuck our noses in a variety of chocolates w/ peanuts, corn, krackel, etc.

So, I wasn't quite sure what to expect w/ today, but baby's momma said, they'd have real prizes, "none of that cheesy stuff." Maybe that's the difference b/t a party w/ the afterhours-crowd-in-the-daytime vs. 50 women (more than half w/ children; 95% of whom are Christian). I tried really hard to win a prize (there were only 2 games), but I didn't even come close. How in the world did 2 women know that a baby swam is called a signette? I was all proud that I knew that a baby owl is an owelette, but I forgot that a baby cow is a calf. That was after I bragged to my classmate that she better kickback b/c I've been watching a lotta Animal Planet and I was about to own everyone.

My classmates and I chipped in for a swinger thingamajiggy for baby Colin James. When it was our turn to say something sappy and/or give mommy advice, I wanted to shout out, "Dude, Colin is gonna be a hottie someday!" After all, he'll be Caucasian + Mexican. But instead, I simply said, "just one thing -- world knowledge." Just an ongoing concept-turned-joke w/ us COMD people, ever since COMD 456.

When we were leaving, my classmates asked me if the baby shower made me want to have babies sooner. I kept giving the *wrong* answers. =P I said, as much as I hate shopping (for myself), I can't wait to baby-shop! I totally wanna do a safari theme for my kiddo! And y'know I'm totally going to dress my kiddo up w/ cool gear that have turtles, to subconsciously make him/her love turtles.

Speaking of turtles, I was watching "ID4" for the zillionth time on cable and when Will Smith busted out the dolphin diamond ring for, you bet I turned to BF and asked, "can you give me a diamond ring w/ a turtle? Like have the diamond be the turtle's shell?"

Of course he gave me the obligatory, "you're CRAZY!!"

Friday, March 17, 2006

More Animal Planet

I forgot to mention that I DEFINITELY want to hug a white tiger. Along with bears and riding a black rhino and wild mustangs.

A few months ago, I asked BF if we could raise hatchling RES turtles until they were legal size and sell 'em to Petco. Of course I got a solid "no." I asked BF if we could foster abused animals (after watching "Houston's Animal Cops") until they're better and can be adopted away. Again, the same answer of "no" + the standard "you're crazy!"

At least it's set that in the future that we'll get a cocker spaniel. Actually, my dad called today, asking if I prefer an Old English sheepdog (which we used to have when I was 1 y/o) or a St. Bernard. I have to say that after seeing a picture of BSP's dad w/ a ginormous Old English sheepdog, I kinda really wanted one.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Done!

It's been a loOoOOong day. Today, I dropped my bro off at LAX way early in the AM, and then headed to Costco *since it was on the way.* =P It wasn't open yet, so I stopped by Albertson's next door. I didn't bring my Albertson's card, so I asked the cashier, "can I give you my number?" He cracked some joke but hard-of-hearing me didn't hear so I gave one of those courtesy laughs (reserved only for the moments when I don't hear a stranger's joke, but my intuitive pragmatic skills tell me I'm supposed to laugh) when he said something about how he's gotta get his laughs in during the day. It wasn't until I got to my car that slow, hard-of-hearing me realized how the exchange sounded to him. Haha. =P

Anywho, I went to school for my final conference with my clinic supervisor. Since she wanted to chit-chat, I started littering at the mouth, and said, "I've learned a lot this quarter." I know it sounds like a kiss-@$$ statement, but now that I finally had a moment to seriously reflect (not the lame type of reflection for treatment evaluations), I realize it has been a rough quarter of "trial-and-error," but it's comforting to know that I swam, rather than sunk. It's only going to get harder but better from here on. :)

Seriously, though, I don't know when was the last time I had a Spring Break that I didn't work. This is great! I don't know what to do with myself!Actually, that's not true. I have a list of crap to catch up on. The thing that I'm NOT looking forward to is having to apply for scholarships again. Oh, and deal with my traffic violation! BoOoOOO!!But at least I can veg and watch Discovery Channel and Animal Planet without the guilt of not spending that time doing schoolwork. BF may ban me from watching Animal Planet b/c I keep coming up with crazy requests.
"Hun, can you buy me a bunny?"
"I want to lay next to a sleeping kangaroo."
"I want to climb a tree so that a giraffe can kiss me."
"I want to hug a polar bear."
"Can you please buy me a horsey one day?"
"Can we get a doggy tomorrow?"
He just tells me I'm crazy. Come to think of it, he tells me that at least 20 times a day.

One more to go!

I never thought in a million years that I'd say this, but I really missed the Geisel Library today. Today, I got stuck studying at school, and I had such a difficult time finding a good spot (as usual), aside from climbing all the stairs and going down to the basement where there is zero air circulation. At one point, it wreaked like the gym at noon. Yuck. I've been spoiled w/ Geisel b/c no matter what time and day -- even when the frats had their designated study days and floors (i.e., X on 5 on Tues nights) you'd always find a perfect place to study. Shoot, we even had the schedules down so that we knew which floors to go to...or avoid. Last resort, we could always count on George L studying at the same table in the Basement on the left side...when the Lambdas were studying on the right-side on their designated nights.

I can't believe how many hours I spent in that library, too. Actually, my last quarter there was spent in the Bio-Med Library, researching w/ the o-so-mature-grad/med students ;) and reading up on the DSM-IV. Who knew that the DSM and I would be reunited? I cannot imagine being at this school library until midnight, that's for sure.

Tmrw, I'll be heading back there again, unfortunately, since I have a "break" b/t meeting my clinic supervisor and my last final. I've already planned on throwing back a few tomorrow night. I think I've worked hard for it. Besides, I haven't celebrated quitting work, yet. ;) Although celebrating that now would be pretty anticlimactic.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

First Ever Starbucks Break!


I <3 Starbucks with all my <3!

Especially b/c they're serving a complimentary 12 oz. morning "pick-me-up" (the evening pick-me-up comes after Thursday's final) across the nation. Oh, a cup of joy!

According to Business Wire, Starbucks is serving a 12 oz. cup of freshly brewed "Coffee of the Day" from 10AM to 12PM. I bet if I were still working in downtown, they'd be coming to us, even though there's 2 Sbux w/i half a block.

I can't tell you how many days I miss making myself the perfect iced grande (NF w/ WC) white chocolate mocha. Yummers.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Final Exam Eve

Today (technically yesterday) was the last day of lecture for the Winter quarter. It didn't really hit me until Charity K looked up and said, "omg! We made it!" Of course, that was in reference to making it thru Crazy Prof's class. We had just finished the evaluation for her. A little anticlimactic (as LA would have probably deemed it). After all the complaints from students who have or had her, we couldn't even coherently scribe all the comments we had on the back of the dinky sheet. Dude, some classmates actually typed it up over the weekend and stapled it to the sheet. That's gotta be a first!

I thought it was hilarious that a bunch of us were doing our best to disguise our handwriting, too. She's had us do these stupid case studies all quarter "in handwriting" "in pencil only" "last name first at the top corner" so you best believe I wasn't about to let her sabotage my grade after she reads my comments in
my handwriting in pencil. Actually, I thought I was pretty fair w/ my comments, trying to give constructive criticism. That is, except for my last comment ~ "I felt like I learned only a week's worth of material this whole quarter." Which is no joke. Crying shame, really.

I tried to get a bunch of classmates in on a conspiracy, too; I suggested that we should all mark the circle that said she did NOT instruct this class without racial bias and discrimination. In a sense, we did feel discriminated against, though. She discriminated against us b/c she thought we were retarded (using the term very loosely ;), and that we did not know how to "synthesize." This was my ploy to get her outta here so that we don't have her in the Fall again. The classmates that were "in" on it, thought it was a great idea, but I'm sure they chickened out.


Of course for part of the final, we have 3 more case studies to complete. I think I even commented on that.


Well, I'm not going to think about that class until Wednesday night, when I cram for the final. I've been trying to study for articulation & phonology, but considering I keep surfing the net and am currently blogging, I should just call it a night and get some rest.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

ADD

I am having a really bad bout of ADD.
Usually, it's not too bad, but today, I've had to leave my laptop in another room or just shut it off so that I don't keep surfing the internet...for hours. But then I start staring at my poor turtle. Today is day 1 of his new diet. We found out we've been overfeeding the little (big) green eating machine, and since we are typical LAers, we have to watch his figure. Actually, moreso his shell. I definitely don't want his shell to pyramid b/c it is fugly! More importantly, it's unhealthy for him.

So, my dilemma for the weekend has been whether I should focus all my studying on articulation & phonology b/c I have a good chance of getting an A...or should I study like no tmrw for motor speech disorders b/c I do NOT want to be on the LOW watch list? If I get an A in artic/phon, at least it can compensate for my sub-A grade in MSD. No matter how hard I study for Dr. M's exams, I never do as well as I think, so there's not really an incentive or motivation there.

Except that I need this info for the Praxis exam and for the future!

Move over ANTM

Even though "America's Next Top Model" is my all-time favorite show, I find myself watching a lot of Discovery Channel, ever since we upgraded our cable package on Tuesday. Well, hey, ANTM is only on once a week! That being said, I am soOOoO bummed that my Spring schedule conflicts w/ ANTM!

Actually, us upgrading our cable package was a little monumental. Last month, BF said, "my goal is to make enuf $$ so that by my b-day [in June, but he swears it's "coming up soon"], we'll have the upgraded cable package." I thought that was a good short-term goal (bear w/ me ~ I've been bombarded w/ a lot of behavior therapy -- high 5!). So, imagine my surprise when he said on Tuesday, let's upgrade! Haha. :) I know, it's dorky to be excited about that, but I'm proud of him for his accomplishments. He's been doing really well, keeping us both afloat. Yesterday, he said he's starting to save up for our vacation in August, too. :) That is fabulous news especially since I got a letter today, saying the Perkins loans funds were exhausted and that I won't receive any financial aid Spring Quarter....which is in 3 weeks! You know, they could have told me earlier!! Stupid school. Actually, it's not their fault. Not enough people paid their loans back so the government doesn't have enough to lend to me. Well, I guess those people are in the same boat as me -- the poor boat.

Happy thoughts.

Discovery Channel rules. I am soOoOOo hooked on "Mythbusters," "I Shouldn't Be Alive," and "Deadliest Catch." Ever since I was a small potato, I've always been really into true stories. I'd be sooOOoOOOOoOO excited if my bro gets offered (and accepts) the position at Discovery Channel. Then again, I love "shopping" for all the premiums from Food Network right now. I love Food Network, too. Probably b/c I love food period. I wish I had some ice-cream right now.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Vocab

My best friend IMd me this AM, and she had me cracking up. Sometimes, I think kids are better with sounding out words to guess at spelling than adults:

BGF: what does phsecioius mean?
BGF: ok i know i'm not spelling that right
me: facetious
me: like lying or being fake/not honest. is that the word you're thinking about?
BGF: i dont' know. my coworker was saying it to me cuz i said it was so slow today
BGF: and he said are you being facetious?
me: yah, he's asking, are you kidding? or, r u kidding around?
BGF: so since i didnt' know what the word meant. i just said...mumbling...nah..it's just yesterday it was so busy and today it's so slow
BGF: haha
me: nice cover-up!

~~~~~

BGF: he's filopino
BGF: is that how you spell?
me: goo'row, what's up w/ your spelling? LOL

~~~~

Then again, I best know how to spell Ph/Filipino considering what my BF is. That was funny, though. Especially since my classmate and I were occupying my other classmate's client yesterday, during a parent conference, and the high-functioning 6 y/o w/ mild autism couldn't spell "birthday," "candles," and "presents" but I was so impressed by how he was sounding it out and coming up with the right spelling. Candles was a little tricky, though. He wanted to spell "cando..." -- he got fooled with the l/o.

I know I'm one to talk. There are certain words that I just can't get right. Actually, my weakness is when it comes to homonyms. I think it's an age thing + karma. I used to laugh inside at my dad when he'd mix contractions with pronouns, but now I do it ALL the time! Especially when I'm in a rush, I end up using the "wrong" your/you're or there/their/they're. As I was IMing my BGF, I said something about how there's a shortage of mails in this profession. She said, mails? Oops, I meant, males.

Which there is. For some reason, males/mails constitute only 4.4% of SLPs in the U.S.! Boys, if you wanna get into a field where you'll be a real hot commodity, join the SLP field!

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Biologically determined to be a racist race?

That seems to be the topic for tonight.

First off, I watched my all-time-hands-down-favorite show, America's Next Top Model, and there are some ka-razy girls on this cycle! Actually, they nixed the racist girl who swore up and down that she wasn't racist. Maybe she wasn't racist by virtue of her not liking all non-white, non-heterosexual, secular people equally? Who knows.

Next, my cousin IM'd me:

F16: Do you agree with "There are biological races in the human species, Homo Sapines"? yes or no answers
me: hm, lemme think about this...yes
F16: ok. have you taken an anthropology course ?
me: no
me: so yes, I am guessing at the answers. why, are there no bio races? i don't even know what “biological races” mean…
F16: racism in humans according to my dad. that is the same ? Nat asked my dad
me: what? racism is not the same thing as races. is that what you're talking about?
F16: no
F16: it is just the ? my teacher gave us. I have to do a poll on race
me: wait, what is the question nat asked your dad?
F16: what are biological races
me: o. and your dad said what?
F16: I think he said that racism exist in the human species
me: interesting. that racism is innate/internal/biological?
F16: biological. in all humans I think
me: what do you think?
F16: I think that it is true
me: why do u think that?
F16: because racism does exist but not everyone will be racist
me: b/c they were born to not be racist?
F16: yes. when we are born we are all innocent. racism is not in us it is a choice that we make
me: so you're saying it is NOT biological, then
F16: yes that is what I mean. I can't really think. It has been a long day

Poor cousin. But she sure had me confused and going around in circles. Science has NEVER been my forte. Of course she got me thinking about racism, but I really didn't want to get into that and not w/ her. She also got me thinking about all those language/linguistic theories (i.e., tabula rasa) for a split quarter of a second. My mind can't handle all of that right now b/c it's the calm before the storm. Finals are next week, and for the first time in my life, we have lecture during finals week! In two classes!

I don't mind the first class so much, even though I'll be doing a presentation (which I hate doing). The 2nd class is the one that's a nightmare. The saddest part is that ALL students who had her before, have the same exact complaints. Tonight, I couldn't look at her at all -- b/t the THO and the herpes around her overly-dehydrated lips that she continuously licks...it was a VERY traumatizing combo. I kept slouching farther and farther down into my seat. No, those weren't the "same exact complaints" that students have.

I swear the school password-encrypted the wi-fi to torture me.

Friday, March 03, 2006

Psych

I'm trying to psych myself out into thinking that today is Saturday and that I only have tonight and tmrw to get some serious schoolwork done. I don't think it's worked out so well, though.

After I woke up, I headed to Costco for 2 hours (!!) and still didn't manage to get everything on my list. Dude, what's the point of making a list (of 4 items) when I'm not going to refer to it but end up w/ 5 non-listed items? I got distracted b/c I was so annoyed at how sOOoOoOoOOOoo many people were so rude. I seriously think I spent a total of 30 minutes waiting for people to move their stupid carts out of the way b/c they were so oblivious or just didn't care. Not to mention, nobody ever hears me when I say, "excuse me" (or "bless you"). Somehow, I managed to get outta there alive.


To procrastinate working on my project, I watched "Robots" (which I enjoyed) and avoided watching "Saw 2" by falling into a food coma-induced nap (I HATE horror flicks!). Woke up and watched, "I shouldn't be alive."
It's like I can't get any schoolwork before 9PM. Seriously. So, after 9PM, I sat down to intermittently summarize the research article. Between internet surfing and bullet-pointing, this is how my night's going:
  • Wait, I need to give myself a manicure. Oh, how convenient! "CSI" is on!
  • Oh, look at the cutie-pie turtle. Dang, I can't believe his tank is still so clean. Turtle's Dad sure knows how to clean a mofo inside-out.
  • Should I dig through my closet for the book that I just sold on half.com and for the crappy walkman so I can listen to my classmate's lecture tape? Well, the neighbors downstairs might have a cow if I open my closet. No, I'm not kidding. They actually complained about the rumbling from the closet door.
  • How funny that on "E" last night, Bart Simpson was deemed the #1 cutest kid all grown up. I can't believe they had scary Macauley Culkin. He gives me the heebie-jeebies.
  • I need to get Hello Kitty's whiskers fixed.
  • ANTM is my absolute favorite show. I hope next quarter's schedule doesn't conflict w/ the new cycle that begins next Wednesday.
  • Dang, I need to apply for scholarships again. I wonder if they'd notice if I used the same essay. Probably. I'm still laughing b/c I won 3 scholarships...that totaled a whopping $500. This quarter's textbooks alone cost about $400.
  • I really should be working on my project. Oh, what do you know? About 40% of the article are bar graphs. Woo-hoo!
  • Why are my profs inconsistent re: commas after "i.e." and "e.g."?
  • This article should be interesting since MSD prof told us that the effectiveness of oral motor exercises is controversial, and this article studied.
  • Great, I forgot what the bulbar does. CNS? I'm thinking motor pathways.
  • Great, I forgot what a parametric study is, too. Should I blingo it?? Nah, not important.
  • I think I want a snack. I'll check on the turtle while I'm up.
Okay, I really have to just end this post or else I'm going to keep coming back to describe my ADD bouts.

4 random thoughts

Our neighbor is so sweet! She baked us delicious chocolate chip cookies! Yummers!

Today, my BSP cancelled tx. I finally remembered to bring Lysol disinfectant and antibacterial gel, and he flakes! But it's all to the G. I was so excited that I told my clinic partner to give me a high-5. Then I got to thinking, why the heck have I been going around high-fiving people?

B/c that's what I've been doing to reinforce BSP!!!

Gross story: my classmates told me last week how they were observing our session and were so grossed out b/c BSP had been scratching down there -- not from the outside of his pants. I usually pretend not to notice b/c I don't want to draw any more attention b/c I know there are always students his parents observing me. So, he gave a correct response, and I said, "nice [BSP], HIGH-5!!" and of course the kid high-5d me...w/ the hand that he scratched with!!! Gross!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anywho, tonight I'm just wasting time, enjoying a night off. A friend and I were IMing and he got me thinking about all these random things from the past:

1) I was thinking, hey! Somebody called me a "super star" before! Then it hit me. When bro lived on Hughes, they had a neighbor kid w/ autism or something. One day, I visited while wearing my crazy silver jacket, and he scootered up to me and said, "hi! You're a super star! Hi! You're a super star!" For some reason, I swear up and down that he was making fun of me b/c of my crazy "super star"-ish jacket.

Then my mean friend (jokingly) told me I shoulda pimp-slapped the kid and said, "dam+n right I'm a super star; I'm rich, 6!tch" which got me thinking about the next random thought which was...

2) "@$$ 'n' t!tt!es" by DJ Assault. That has got to be the craziest song I have in my odd musical collection. It's gotta be rated like XXX, but I get such a kick out of it, every time I hear it. My favorite lyrical line is, "I could buy you, h()e, cuz 6!tch, I'm rich." I love it, too, b/c it makes me think about the days that Dr. Cousin and I'd be chillaxing, and we'd crack each other up by rapping this song to each other.

So then I was IMing about how it's an awesome song to bump b/c it's got insane bass. My crazy friend retorted, the best thing to bump is Mexican music....

3) That made me think about my all-time favorite pseudo-Mexican (but not really) song from waaay back in the days. One-hit wonder Delinquent Habit's, "Tres Delinquentes." No clue why I liked that song. Man, I must have been one un-cool HS kid.

4) My very cool NSSLHA cheerleader/newsletter editor loves the e-mail blasts I send out every 2-3 weeks to like 150+ COMD students, and she especially gets a kick out of the postings I do for NSSLHA. I told her, there's no way that I could do even a quarter of an awesome job that she does w/ the newsletter...and it made me think about how I was on the newspaper staff in HS and thought I was totally cool and smart by association, since all the smart kids got chosen to be on Titan Shield! (Which reminds me, I should E-mail Ms. Civil Engineer Ph.D.)

Seriously, I was so uncool in HS. Lord knows what I am now. Old. I guess. I'm still in denial that I'm not part of the 18-25 survey group any more.

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Good News :)

Today, BF had 2 wonderfully good news!
  1. One of the big clients he freelances for offered him a permanent position!
  2. We're vacationing in August! :D
As he adamantly claims, all good things happen on Burger Day.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

aI pi e

Once more, I thought about how much I appreciate BF. When I got home after a super-long day, I saw that he cleaned Lil F's home today! (Took him 3 hours to do it!) I really appreciate it b/c I've been really sick the past week and a half (and he has been taking care of me, too), so I haven't been able to clean nor play with Lil F. Usually, I take 1.5 hours, right? He takes 3 b/c he's, well...he's a lot more thorough and AR about it. I'm all about the quick-and-dirty ways. =P But ever since Lil F's home has been cleaned, he has NOT been misbehaving at all! Classic case of "there's something in the water." ;)

This speech sample project is driving me berserk. I swear that when I close my eyes, I see IPA (aI pi e)! Just now, I confused English and IPA. It took me 4 tries to spell pencil right!!! Unbelievable!!

Late to bed, early to rise

Since I resigned, last night's sleep was the least amount of sleep I've gotten (4 hours). =X Actually, I have to admit that the past 2 nights, I've had trouble sleeping. I'm thinking it's probably b/c I've gotten adequate amounts of sleep lately. Sleep studies say that if you lay down and konk out immediately, that means you're sleep deprived. If you lay in bed for a good 10-15 minutes before you're catching zzzzs, that means you're doing alright in the sleep department. Heck, I may have been awake for like half an hour the past two nights! =O

Gramma Pearl asked me yesterday if I have more free time now, and I said, not really. I'm still sooOoooOOo busy. Then I realized that the "free" time has probably been spent sleeping. If only sleep could reverse the effects of aging.

I fell asleep last night thinking about what a loving BF I have. He's working really hard to support us and help me to stay in school (mainly b/c I really don't want to move out of West LA and drive on the 10E).

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The other day, we were having one of those compromising talks. I was stressed and hence *actin' a fewl* about how "I do everything around here." Of course he thought I was ka-razy b/c he "does everything around here." After our childish play-fight, we both realized that it's pretty equal. Come to think of it (and unbeknownst to him), I think I have the better end of the deal. I have daily and weekly responsibilities like washing the dishes, taking out the trash (since it's "on the way" to my car), and cleaning Lil F's tank (1.5 hours every 2 weeks). He does the laundry and more importantly, cleans our home like no tomorrow. So, he jokes that he cleans up after me while I clean up after our baby.

Our baby, BTW, is a whopping 4.5 inches now!!! Who thought Chinatown turtles couldn't grow any bigger than 1.5 inches??

I love my BF and my turtle. :)