Whisper

I studied like a mofo today. First, I hit Sbux and despite there being free wifi, I was quite productive. School was a little different, though. I have a serious dysfunction when it comes to studying at the school library. A part of it is that I can't stand all the chatting in the "Quiet Zone"...yet the sound of blenders whirling and espresso shots being pulled is totally fine with me. Go figure. The good news is that I found some extremely comfy chairs in the other wing of the library that I've never studied at. Woo-hoo!

Re: my midterm ~ Dr. Chairperson sure knows the power of intermittent reward schedules. I was feeling great, jamming thru the first 3 pages until I got to "Name the 3 cavities of the larynx." I completely racked my brains and couldn't think of them. I could totally hear Dr. Chairperson lecturing us on how that was supposed to be a freebie yet half (or only I) missed that. Fortunately, I ended up getting 2 out of 3 right out of sheer luck. Past that, I was on the intermittent reward schedule; I'd feel great about every few questions and then another bomb would be dropped.

I also love and hate that his extra credit is usually, "Tell me a joke." I'm terrible at writing/telling jokes. Fortunately, I came up with the "whisper" joke, only I told/wrote it so poorly. I found a better and shorter version on the internet. I thought it was quite appropriate since the exam also covered whispering (e.g., muscles, vocal cord configurations, etc. that are involved).

Here it goes:

There was a 5-year-old boy who embarrassed his bridge-playing mother when he
loudly announced, "I want to go to the toilet."

Mom reprimanded:  "Don't say toilet...Whisper!"

That night the youngster tiptoed into his parents' bedroom and tugged on his
dad's arm.  "Whatja want?"  his sleepy father asked.

"I wanna whisper!" the boy said urgently.

"Oh, all right.  Then just whisper in Daddy's ear."

All I wanna do is zoom-a-zoom-zoom-zoom

I forgot to mention that the BF fixed one of Hello Kitty’s broken whiskers! Yay! Unfortunately, he gave her quite a deep puncture (stuffed the rest of the loose whisker in) and filled it w/ Krazy glue. I was hoping he was kidding about the glue, but he wasn’t.

Today, I shared with myself an “inside” joke. Not that I’m a loner at school. Well, I know TK and RR will like this story. I was at the department front desk when a long-time clinic client w/ severe aphasia, saw me and said, “Chanel?” I was like, excuse me? Is he calling me Chanel? Haha!

No, he was asking if my outfit was by Chanel. =P

More like poor-man’s Chanel fashion. I was wearing a funky, er-uh – chic muted lime-greenish mock turtleneck under a black V-neck with black pants and shoes. *shrug* Well shoot, call it what you want, sweetheart.

This guy’s story is crazy sad. He used to be a make-up artist. One day, he fell victim to a really, really severe gay bashing (is there a PC way to say that? Homosexual assault?)…especially in the head. Hence the aphasia.

He’s such a doll and a real crack-up, though. Whenever he sees me, he does the booty-hop (is he trying to tell me something about my unproportionally large heinie?). Whenever I see him do that, I have Wreckx-N-Effect "Rump Shaker" playing like a mental soundtrack.

I was dressed up in faux Chanel (or should I call it, Shanel?) today because I had a diagnostics session. I got to evaluate a potential client who is a 14 y/o with Down Syndrome. Very fascinating and awesome experience.

Now I gotta go think of what I’m gonna do with my 2 kiddos for tomorrow. These 2 kiddos of mine have stressed me out so much this quarter that I've almost lost sight of why I'm in this field. But being around the little DS guy today really put me back in the right frame of mind.

Still, if K1 starts actin' a fewl tmrw, and Mom asks if she wants to go home, I am mos def not putting up a fight this time. Every minute counts when you have to study for a big, fat midterm in Dept Chairperson’s class.

You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here

Closing time - time for you to go out, go out into the world.
Closing time - turn the lights up over every boy and every girl.
Closing time - one last call for alcohol, so finish your whiskey or beer.
Closing time - you don't have to go home but you can't stay here.

.·:*¨¨*:·. .·:*¨¨*:·..·:*¨¨*:·.

Today was a really rough session w/ K1. At least I don't feel guilty with how my sessions went (I just feel like a failure) b/c I didn't give up on K1 and I actually convinced her to stay (against my own wishes). She was crying before I even saw her (sure sign that it'll be a rough session), so when Mom asked if she wanted to go home, I secretly hoped that she would say yes. Nope, she didn't want to go home, so I tricked her into coming in with me to "make a bracelet." Only, she had to earn each bead.

At the end of the session, she started bawling again, saying she didn't want to leave, see Mom, nor go home. Sweetheart, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here. Out in the common area, another kiddo's Dad commented about how I must be doing something great to make her not want to go home.

Um, not quite. I pull out all the stops for this kiddo, but nothing seems to work. The moment she came in, she hid under the table and said she didn't want to do anything, so I had to be a professional brat, use reverse psychology, and say, "alright, well you don't have to make a bracelet, but me and [clinical assistant] are going to make a pretty bracelet." That definitely got her working with me. By the end of the session, she had made 1/2 a bracelet that also spelled REM. Actually, it was first MRE but my clinical assistant dropped the bracelet and ended up spelling REM.

A loacknowledgingdos are quickly acknowleding how K1 doesn't want to go home. Today, my partner in crime said to her kiddo, "Oh, we have to hurry so we will have time to say hi to our friend [K1]." He said, "she doesn't like to go home. Why?" She said, "I don't know. I guess she just has so much fun with [me] that she wants to stay and play."

That's prolly the biggest load of BS that my wonderful Partner-in-Crime has convinced her kiddo of. Hopefully, I don't get him next quarter because then he'll figure out that I'm really not all that fun.

All I can say is, I'm glad I found a new reinforcer for her. So glad I never threw away those candy-raver beads...

Lucky Mei

My Guh totally rules!

1) Last Sunday, my bro got me an iPod Nano. That's right, mofos, I'm finally catching up with technology and society! (Only, I got mine in black when everybody has a white one.) I wanted to clown my classmate about her sis b/c her sis and my bro were colleagues and they're in the same industry. Except, her sis is way chincy w/ her. Heehee. :) Her sis got an iPod from ESPN and already had a Mini from elsewhere, but she refused to give either of them up b/c she "needed" both - one to leave in her gym bag and the other to carry around. Haha! Okay, so she can't be that chincy. How I found out that her sis knows my bro was b/c she always carried around the same MTV mug that half of my family has, compliments of my bro/MTV. My bro sent her sis a package of comps a few years ago, so she happened to give her lil sis ONE mug. I got two. ;-)

On second thought, maybe my bro felt sorry that I was carrying around a sorry-@$$ old skool mp3 player that skips. Yeah, don't ask me how.

2) He just began a new job. In the transition, he basically bypassed the AE level/position and is now a Director. Yeah! He rocks! (Darn, no more cool Food Network stuff!)

I, on the other hand, am heading the opposite direction. Last night, my classmate called me a masochist for picking up a temp job that pays me exactly half of what I used to make (hourly). But, since I type "like the wind," they've decided to give me a promotion (after 3 days of working less than 5 hrs each. That's probably the fastest promotion I'll ever get in my life). Not sure what the pay increase'll be, but I'm sure it won't be 100%. Crap, that means that I'll actually have to think at the job. Doh!

3) We went to Ontario Mills and had a grand time today. I don't know anyone who can shop like him, man, but at least he's considerate. We walked out of a store (finally) and he said, man, when we pass that candy store, we have to stop and get a candied apple. Well, me being the candy junkie stopped him immediately b/c right when he said that, we were standing in front of "that candy store," Rocky Mountain. So he got us a delicious candied apple. What a treat!

3.5) Oh! And I got my Chucks in the right size finally! He waited in line for me while I sprinted down the aisles. (I hate lines...which is why I rarely ever go shopping.)

My bro rules. :)

The Hand that Feeds

Just how deep do you believe?
Will you bite the hand that feeds?
Will you chew until it bleeds?
Can you get up off your knees?
Are you brave enough to see?
Do you want to change it?

So naive
I keep holding on to what I want to believe
I can see
But I keep holding on and on and on and on

Will you bite the hand that feeds you?
Will you stay down on your knees?

I think that song has a new meaning to me, since my turtle nipped me for the first time! Oh, I was so sad! :(

I was rearranging her basking wood, when she snuck up from underneath my hand and nipped my left thumb! I think the psychological trauma impaired my judgment of how physically painful it really was. =P Still, I'm sad. I just thought that no matter what, she'd show me love, just like my clinic kiddo #2.

Not surprisingly, I have 2 kiddos with autism this quarter. Re: their communication, the 2K are very similar, but behaviorally, they're quite different (so far). On Monday, K1 screamed and cried bloody murder for me to get away from her! I think her schedule was disrupted and too abruptly so I couldn't get her back on track. On top of that, she kept getting everyone's names confused so she yelled at me, "GET AWAY FROM ME!" Then in her next breath, shouted, "I want Kr--/Shewyl/Cawol!" sometimes saying my classmate's name, sometimes saying my name (to which I'd tell her, "You're already with me"), and sometimes combining me and my classmate's name and then gliding the final product. On Wednesday, K1 screamed and cried because she didn't want to leave me so she fought her mom, telling her she didn't want to go home and she wanted to stay w/ me! That was a first. Never mind what the kiddo thinks - my classmates believe I make little 6 y/o small potatoes cry. :(

As for K2, she's always so excited to come to the clinic and see me. No matter how boring our session is (there's just no way for me to make standardized testing any fun), she still works hard and loves me just the same at the end of our snooze-fest. She even gave me a little "surprise" the other day - a tiny "bedazzled" doggy toy. My first gift from a kiddo! :D

I had to brag about my *new* bedazzled doggy toy b/c last quarter, my classmate's kiddo gave her "Duke," a dirty, raggedy old parrot. SY asked if BD made it, and BD said, "of course!" even though the tag labeled "McDonald's" was clearly sticking off the dirty parrot's rump. It's the thought that counts, I guess?

As for my turtle, well, I think she still loves me. I think it was just a love bite. I think she was just throwing a tantrum and biting (like some kiddos w/ autism) because I hadn't fed her yet (parental neglect). Oh no! Does my turtle have autism, too?

I think I'm caught in the maelstrom of autism-overdiagnosing that our profs worn us against!

Good Friday

Since I've been with BF, I've had fish on Good Fridays for the past few years. Like last year, we had Filet-o-Fish sandwiches today b/c 1) we're on a very tight budget and 2) It's "Filet-O-Fish Fridays" at McDonald's. :D

I also went in for my new temp job today. At last Friday's Learning Exchange, my bro's friend recruited me for her research and evaluation company. I'm basically entering comments from seniors that evaluate their retirement community. I read the funniest and cutest comments on what they liked most and what they would change. Some were extremely happy because the premises were great and above all, they get to be with their significant other. Similarly, many were extremely grateful that the place really took care of their ill or disabled significant other. Still others loved that they could have their dogs there. But one dude reported that a problem he had was when, "a dog did his business in the hallway and I stept [sic] in it." Poor guy.

I kind of like this because I'm considering working in a Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF) or assisted living type of place so it's helpful for me to know these types of concerns.

On a random note, I think this "job" is a piece of cake b/c I've had soOOOOoOoOo much experience reading very messy handwriting from attorneys' timesheets so reading these old folks' writing is a cake walk! Well, for the most part. Not to mention, reading these seniors' narratives are far more interesting than, "Telephone conference with J. Shmoe regarding blahblahblah; draft and revise memorandum; exchange e-mails with J. Doe regarding yaddyyaddy; discussion regarding etc." You get the picture.

New shoes

My new shoes came in the mail, and BF asked to see them. I ran to the bedroom, put on a pair of jeans, and sported my new Adidas. He said, "wow, those are pretty cool!"

Then I made the wrong move of purposely showing him the side, which I KNEW he wouldn't like. I got the Ozweego style...so the black accents are tight. Lift up my jeans and you see the pink. It's pretty hideous (you'd think I was in high school), but I figured, I never wear shorts and they were such a bargain. How could I resist?

He said, "dude, you need to return those shoes and get your money back!"

That wasn't the disappointing part, though. The disappointing part was when I opened up the black Chucks. They gave me my shoe size...in men's!!! How annoying!!

5K Walk

This morning was the MS Walk @ the Coliseum. All together we raised $2,220! The experience was awesome and very inspiring.

Too bad we missed the Opening Ceremonies, but we were right on time to start the Walk with everyone else. We started at 8:45 AM, but then we ended up backtracking a few yards b/c half of our team was still waiting at the Start line for us. Oops! All together, we leisurely sauntered w/ the masses around and through USC. When we finally reached the Finish line around 10:10 AM, we started taking pictures. After a few, I said, "um, guys, don't you think we should actually finish the Walk by crossing the finish line?" "Oh yeah!" At the finish line (a few feet away), some kiddo volunteers honored everyone w/ medals. :)

Although I was looking forward to Louise's Trattoria there, AL's parents were waiting for us at El Cholo (just as yummy, if not yummier!). Her parents are so cool. They were drinking margaritas at 11AM. I have not seen anyone have a drink before noon except in Vegas.

I guess you either see or learn something new everyday.

Check this out for more details.

Beginning of 3rd Week

I've been procrastinating working on a real language sample analysis mainly b/c my kiddo is incredibly unintelligible. I didn't even know where to start so my cool prof/clinic supervisor asked, "didn't you guys have to buy a LSA book before?" I answered "no" too soon as she pulled a purple-covered textbook off her shelf. "Oh, yeah! That one! I, um...sold it." "What! You sold a COMD textbook?!" She actually said it in a joking tone, but I got the point...Thank God she lent me hers.

That was no drama compared to the other drama I've been dealing with this quarter. I'm not going to delve into the drama with Crazy Prof (just yet). Mind you, it's only the end of 2nd week, too. I have a new Diagnostics (Dx) supervisor, and I accidentally spelled her last name wrong in an e-mail. Boy did I strike a nerve.

In one e-mail, she wrote, "By the way, you need to know how to spell my name!" Sorry, lady!

So in a subsequent e-mail addressed to my Dx team, she purposely spelled my name wrong. I wouldn't've thought it was intentional except that she has correctly referred to me by my first name before. In this e-mail, she referred to my two classmates by their first names, but kept referring to me by my last name. Fine. Not fine is that she kept writing, "Lianne."

Uh, ok.

Nonetheless, I've learned that even when people overstep professional boundaries, it is still best to remain professional, so I apologized for misspelling her last name and politely asked that she refer to me by my (correct) first name. I didn't even mention how she kept getting my name wrong during our first meeting.

Signed,
Andrea Lianne

Spending unearned $$

I went to get gas on Wednesday, and I was in for a real shocker. Costco gas was $2.91 a gallon!
I spent $50.91! I have NEVER spent $50 on a tank of gas! ...Regardless of the fact that I was driving on fumes (5 miles left in the "range"), and I pumped 17 gallons (I didn't know my car held that much gas).

I got home lamenting about how Dad gave me a C-note on Monday when I visited him. BTW, Dad must be a closet Behaviorist; since I visited him on Monday, he gave me a bill. I am not a great statistician. Evidence: just b/c that happened, I positively correlated the 2. Anywho, so BF gave me a dub to "help" me a little with gas after my lamentation.

Today, I went to Semics' Learning Exchange to be a note-taker for $85. That was a really cool experience; I heard what grantees are doing with funds, mainly changing people's lives around. Some help homeless people get back on track, and boy do they have some awesome success stories. I was lucky to sit at a table with a lady from First 5 LA, 2 from YMCA - greater LBC, a child development specialist, and 2 reps from Harbor something. Some of the discussion was right up my alley! If I hadn't needed to get the heck out of there to do schoolwork, I would have contributed to the discussion.

After that, I spent part of what BF gave me to buy coffee creamers and ice-cream. I handed BF the ice-cream and he said, "I hope you didn't spend that money I gave you on this!" Oops. I need it for brain food. ;)

My dilemma is that I spent half a C-note on shoes, but I don't spend on unnecessary shoes. I'm usually buying necessary tennies since I'm supposed to wear them all the live-long day. Normally, I don't like to let BF know I've spent money, especially after I lamented about how I'm a broke mofo.

Unfortunately, I overlooked the fact that the shoes are being sent via UPS so he will have to sign for my package! I totally forgot b/c when I used to work at LW, I'd get ALL my packages sent there and the Mail Room would sign for them. Dang, I should've had them sent to TK and picked them up from her. Haha!

I guess I'll find out how he reacts on Tuesday, when the necessary shoes come...Then again, both pairs aren't actually tennies....I ordered a pair of black chucks. =P Still good for walking across campus, though! Yeah!

Where's the Daylight?

This Daylight Savings thing is really cramping my style, man.

Actually, I wouldn't've remembered to change my clocks if it weren't for BF's parents (darn him! JK :) We visited his parents on Saturday, and I had to stifle some serious guffawing when I saw his pops changing their clocks at...5 PM! That was cute. I swear his parents have more NRG than me. When we were leaving around 11 PM (technically 10 PM), I was doggone tired. His mom was all bummed and asking, "why are you leaving so soon?" Even though we had been there since 2 PM. I think I would have had more NRG and stayed longer if I was still on vacation.

On the other hand, I had 3 Nestle ice-cream bars at their place. How embarassing. Well, BF had 2 so his mom gave me 2. How can I resist? Then BF gave me another one later on. I could eat ice-cream everyday.

Actually, now that school is officially in fast forward action again, my eating habits are horrendous. Lucky for me, Dad packed me a lunch today so I didn't keel over when I got caught up in an hour Dx meeting that ran an hour over. He also sent me home with 2 cans of Pringles...so Pringles were my yummy, carb-fortified dinner. For dessert, I had an ice-cream cone from McDonald's. I felt so guilty about my "dinner" that I wasn't going to tell anyone, but I stopped by Ralphs and brought my ice-cream cone in (I had to finish it before I got home). As I stood there in front of more carbs (Twinkies & Ding-Dongs aisle), I hear my name called. Oh! It's sweetie-pie pregnant classmate and her husband! (Why does she always catch me eating sweets?!?!?)

Oh well. How awesome (and terrible) it is to eat like a true student. I try to convince myself, the stress will burn the fat. Come to think of it, I've been telling myself that since college...

Section 29RS Seat CC2

After living here all my life, I went to my first Dodgers game tonight! Seats weren't fabulous...but actually turned out for the better since it was sprinkling/raining the whole time (we had a roof over our head; yes, we were that far up). I got a famous Dodger dog, Camacho nachos, and a cup of Tecate. The game against the Angels was pretty exciting. I've always heard that baseball games are boring, but I have to say, I thougt it was pretty fun. Nothing beats a basketball game, though. When I told my bro that, he said, "yeah, but the food here is better." True that! If it weren't freezing (I was shivering even though I was wearing literally 5 layers of clothes on top), I woulda even eaten ice-cream. During the 7th inning, it started pouring, so we left right when the Angels scored (6 to 7). Good thing b/c the game got called about 10 minutes after we left.What a fun first Dodgers game!

We stopped by Ph.D. drop-out friend's family house for a little par-tay, too. I haven't done so much in one night since my young, restless, and single days. Heck, I haven't gone to a house-party since who knows when. I can't even remember. I haven't been around so many Asians in one spot in so long, too.

I guess I've met my half event quote for the year (2 events per year; one being New Year's Eve, if that).