Facebook

It's official -- I'm an addict for now. I know I go through phases relatively quickly, but since I have all August off, I'll prolly be addicted through next month.

I do have two comments:

1. FB rules! Since I've practically fallen off the face of the Earth (in KIT w/ HS friends), it's helped me reconnect. Next month, I'm planning on getting together with 3 of my HS GFs!! Totally stoked about that.
2. FB kinda sucks! I updated my profile to say I'm engaged so it sent that update out to everyone in my network. So I got a few "congrats!" In less than 24 hours, I deleted the engagement part (BF has this thing about privacy and confidentiality; it's like he's in the CIA or something plus we haven't started planning) so of course it sent out a post to everyone saying "Cheryl Liang is not engaged any more." Next thing I know, I'm getting "Are you okay? What happened?" How mortifying to be engaged and unengaged (but not really) in 24 hours.
   

In other news, I'm mailing my application for certification and membership to ASHA! Yahoo!


*Update:

3. Great...I just installed the Facebook application on my iPhone. It's over. I need FB Addicts Anonymous...

Fire Hazard

Never mind the earthquake yesterday...I almost burned our place down!

Yesterday, before I left around 10:15 AM, I ironed my jeans (I hate ironing, but sometimes, I put that extra effort into looking fresh). The way we usually turn the busted iron off is by unplugging it. Last night, I got home around 9 PM after class and the bedroom lamp wouldn't turn out.

Turns out I had unplugged the lamp instead of the iron! The iron has been on for almost 36 hours! It was less than a foot away from the wall, too (which was all warm).

Dude, I could have burned the building -- turtle and all -- down...

5.8...or uh 5.4

"OMG, is it an earthquake?"

Nowadays, we're never sure if it's an earthquake or not. But this time, I was certain! My day was packed with stuff, but in dropping by Bro's office, I got suckered into having lunch with him and FBIL across the street at Dinah's for their anniversary roll-back pricing. I was excited b/c 1) I haven't had Dinah's before and 2) I've never jumped on roll-back pricing deals!

The line was ridonkulously long but Bro and I waited while I oohed and aahed at his new 3G. While I was being typically nerdy and telling him how to use the features, the earthquake hit while we were standing outside. We all kind of stood there not sure where to go (certainly didn't want to lose our place in line either). Bro and I were mesmerized as we looked at the swaying chandelier inside the diner. I noticed that Bro kind of gently pulled me closer to him (away from the building fixtures) twice. I guess I'm not one to take accidents/disasters as cautiously as I should.

Sidestory: when we went white-water rafting, I flew OUT of the raft and laughed hysterically while my bro completely freaked out! I've never seen such a look of fear (and love) on his face while his adrenaline rush yanked me out of the roaring rapids in a matter of seconds.

After the quake was over, we tried to call our loved ones. FBIL was driving so he missed it but caught up with us about 5-10 minutes later. BF had called me but I had missed his call. I was finally able to get through by calling the land line, and we quickly exchanged status checks. He was fine and nothing was broken at home, but the turtle was big-time freaking out like he's never seen before. Water from her tank actually splashed out on opposite ends. Our building swayed for some time (we live on the top floor, which is just the 3rd floor). He quickly ran over to our neighbor, as she has MANY valuables hanging around. Fortunately, nothing broke on her new (gorgeous and authentic) wood floors; just a few pots and pans fell.

Typical life resumed and we got our seats in Dinah's about 15 minutes later. Dude, we had the lunch/dinner chicken plate for $1.60 and fries and drinks for $.15! How crazy! We couldn't even finish our meals. Anniversary roll-back prices rules!

Surprisingly, I still ended up completing everything on my schedule. I went to my BCBA Supervision meeting and unexpectedly got individual feedback on my first video recording of J320 and I. It was only 6 minutes long, but my supervisor and I talked about it for 1.5 hours. Long but incredibly helpful. I really didn't want to show it to this supervisor (he's so good but almost too brutally honest), but he wasn't too brutal with me. Although I'm on his accepted list, I have my own contentions with him as he often insinuates that a lot of speech-language therapy is not based on applied behavior analysis principles. So I felt like a champ when he said after the first view, "Well, that was pretty good." And then we broke it apart minute by minute...

The funny but sad thing is that my supervisor knows J320. He has worked w/ him and his family ever since the kiddo was 5. Every few years, he gets this kid (or supervises someone working with this kid) again. So it was funny. However, when I commented, "It must be kind of neat to see how he's grown..." (thinking physically, but subconsciously cognitively and behaviorally). He said, "Actually, it's kind of sad. I knew him when he was 5 and he's 13 now and I still see a lot of the same behaviors like throwing a tantrum when he was 5...Even though he has learned over the 7-8 years, it's not like he's grown and developed 7 years worth." True. Unfortunately, that's the nature of severe autism. :(

Anywho, I rushed to the gym for a quick work-off-the-fried-chicken-and-fries run and then rushed back for BCBA class. After tonight's class, we get a two week break before we have 2 more classes for this session. After that, I just have one more session and then I'm done! (Although, I still have the national board exam to study and take.)

Class was good in that we all got a lot of help on our individual final projects of doing a functional behavioral analysis. I needed the assistance b/c my project is challenging; I'll be assessing and experimenting with my chosen client's smoking habits (function of behavior: internal stimulation -- harder to modify). I think modifying my turtle's behavior (i.e., splashing at 6 AM every morning to tell me it's time to feed her) is probably easier than that!

Summer Vacation!

I'm on summer vacation, y'all!! WoO-hOoOO!!!

Working summer school was interesting, tiring, intense, and fun. I covered 9.5 out of 11 sites that were originally allocated to me, and I participated in two emergency IEPs (although I figure legally IEPs can be held at any time, I had never heard of IEPs being held in the summer. That's the nature of the high-profile kiddos, I suppose.).

I have to admit that at the beginning, I was nervous since all of my experience thus far focused on the middle school population (RSPED and SDC/autism). However, once I jumped right in, I was okay. It was interesting and fun in that I got to work with kids with a broad spectrum of abilities and ages -- from kindergarten to graduated seniors with diagnoses ranging from only articulation to severe communication disorders (severe autism) to even one HS kid with Emotional Disturbance (ED) (but we worked on fluency).

In mini-celebration, I had a delicious rotisserie chicken sandwich from Houston's for the first time. After work, I went to a bazillion stores to find a dress for my classmate's wedding that is tomorrow. I ended up purchasing the "back-up" dress I found last week since I was out of time. Did I mention again that I really don't like shopping?

I also got my eyebrows threaded for the first time! I am so impressed and pleased with how my brows came out. I've been meaning to go to this place for the past 5 years or so, ever since my co-worker from my past life (i.e., legal secretary days) told me about this place on Venice Ave. TK has been going there regularly for years, and she once told me that some of the ladies get really into the threading -- as in they thread to the beat of the Indian music. When I finally went today, a lovely lady immediately whisked me away to a chair and did her magic...to the beat of the music. It was awesome. :) (Note: I'm so glad I saw a YouTube video on threading last night; otherwise, I would have felt silly not knowing what was going on and what I was supposed to do.).

Holy snikeys, I'm on summer vacation!!!!!!

Viva Las Vegas and Back!

This past weekend, BF and I squeezed in a mini-vacation...Vegas was sOoOOoo much fun! It was packed with quality time with his parents, our friends, and with each other. :)

We had been really anxiously awaiting for departure all week. Ironically, we almost missed our flight! Bro dropped us off at LAX, and as he got out to help us get our luggage from the trunk, we all realized that we had locked ourselves out of the car with the engine still running! We think my locks glitched. :( I know I pressed unlock, but it must have glitched b/c we couldn't get back in! We ended up calling the on-site tow truck company to help us for an expensive but worthwhile $40.

We caught our afternoon flight and even got the emergency exit seat (extra leg room). BF's best homegirl picked us up from the airport. We had dinner with her and his mom (while his dad was really sick at home) at the Grand Cafe in Red Rock Casino. Afterwards, I stayed with her while he and his mom gambled. Around 10:30, we headed back to his parents to spend the night.

On Saturday, we woke up and had a delicious breakfast at Mimi's Cafe, and then BF's parents brought us to the Mirage to check into our Penthouse Suite! =O BF gambled a little bit more with his mom and then the 2 of us just lounged in the suite. We were going to have dinner but then his bestest homie was like, "Yo, I need you to go to Fry's to get some speakers." I was silently not thrilled b/c that meant he would be gone for a minimum of 2-3 hours for a crazy request, and we would not have dinner together b/c he'd have to arrange taxi rides from Mirage to Fry's to Paris back to Mirage!! On the other hand, it was for his best friend who is a very loyal, awesome, and funny friend...and we were also celebrating his birthday over the weekend.

After BF left, I checked out the casino but got too scared to go anywhere else (i.e., across the street or to another casino) by myself. =P I went back up and took a bath in the whirlpool tub. :) BF got back shortly after my bath, and then we lounged in the suite before we got all dolled and dressed up to go to JET w/ friends. We actually didn't stay too long at the club b/c nobody was feeling the music; we went back to our place and hung out with D & Dar, and then stayed back when the girls left for Paris Paris, where BF's homie and wife were staying.

On Sunday, BF sent me to the spa at Mirage! I was going to bypass it so I was surprised when he was so determined that he even called the place up and set my appointment! He has never done that! (Case in point -- he always makes me order food over the phone even though I hate doing it!) I got a fabulous customized facial (BF still can't get over how "nice and smooth" my nose is) and a Thai Reflexology foot massage (I've never gotten a professional foot massage; BF always massages my feet -- the poor, sweet guy). All in all, it was wonderful but rushed as we had a dinner date with friends immediately after. BTW, the spa also served the most delicious juice -- no clue what was in it (no alcohol for sure) but it was soOOoOo good.

We met our friends back at Paris Paris at Ah Sin, a Chinese-Japanese Cuisine restaurant...which ended up being soOOooOOo expensive and very disappointing. I.e., all the girls had all-you-can-eat sushi but the sushi was sooo lame. E.g., the crab roll just had a chunk of imitation crab and nothing else. The California roll was a crab roll with a sliver of cucumber. Oh, and b/c it was a fancy place, it's not like a buffet where you go to the counters and self-serve. You order two rolls at a time...but they only had a measly selection of 6 or 7 (not fancy at all) rolls. All of that for $20/person! The guys were smart enough to order real dishes, but both of their dishes looked exactly the same, just with different meats. It was such a bummer that when we went our separate ways later that night, a couple of us ordered room service when we got back to our respective hotels.

After dinner, I went with BF's homie's wife to the Caesar's Palace Forum shops. She really wanted a Louis Vuitton purse, and she deserved it as she recently got a job promotion. Before we separated from the group, BF gave me his credit card and said, "Get whatever you want." So when we got back, BF's homie met us first and was like, "Why don't you hold onto the bag and see what [BF] says?" Poor BF -- his eyes got soOOoo big when he saw me. BF's homie pulled out the receipt and was like, "wow, you bought a $730 purse?" (real price). BF was speechless! When the joke was over, BF was so relieved! LOL

I later told BF that he doesn't have to worry; I can't see myself spending that much for any one thing...unless it's a nice piece of jewelry (I have not spent even half that amount on an item to date) or a necessity (or something like lasik surgery!).

When we got back to the hotel, I really wanted to go downstairs and play a few slots with BF, but I was so sleepy! He ordered room service and I fell asleep, but he woke me up to help him eat. :) Of course I didn't decline the tasty chicken strips and potato boats. I ate and then fell back asleep so he went down by myself for about an hour.

The next morning, I took yet another whirlpool bath before we had breakfast with his parents downstairs at the buffet (I love buffets!) and headed to the airport. It was such a niiiiiiiice vacation (albeit scorching hot) and definitely hard to get back into the groove of things!

P.S. Can I just say again -- we stayed in a Penthouse Suite!

Panther Updates

One week down and three more to go!

Not much has been cracking these days, except the usual work-associated stress briefly followed by several sets of deep-breathing exercises. Working summer school has its ups and downs. The ups are working with the adorable and highlarious kiddos. The downs are scheduling conflicts and unhelpful administration. Fortunately, all the staffmembers that I've met have been polite, flexible, and helpful. Unfortunately, I realize how unhelpful and unfriendly my regular co-staff is.

I've also realized how sensitive my autism radar has become; I am confident that I can spot a kid on the spectrum with 97% accuracy. Today, I worked at the other middle school in the District for the first time. One kid (with autism) was so excited and hyperverbal (honestly, I think it was b/c both of us are Asian); he asked me 50 questions a minute and spun everything I said back to his interest. This is a sample snippet of what you would have heard if you were eavesdropping:

"So, are you from China?...Do you fly Eva Air? Because I love Eva Air. When are you going to go back to Taiwan?...Are you going to fly Eva Air? Do you take China Airlines or Eva Air?...[After I told him I was born here, he asked] Where? Monterey Park?...Where do you live? Do you live in Hawthorne? [No, in West Los Angeles.] Oh, you live in West L.A.

Excuse me for assuming he wouldn't know what "West L.A." meant! LOL Imagine this kid talking a mile a minute, though. But then some other kids joined, and he instantly got all aggressive (towards the other students). I was internally freaking out until the teacher came in, looked him dead in the eye, stuck her pointer finger for the international "no" gesture, and said "No!" twice (like he was a dog). Shortly after, I excused him from therapy.

I also encountered two more kiddos with autism after him. When one of them walked in, I just about ROFL. My current assignment still consists of the high school of kids with severe autism that is two cities/districts away. One of the classes has a kiddo that is new to the classroom since he just graduated from 8th grade. A new aide that was transferred to that class said she had worked with him for a few months and knew that this kid had a twin brother also with severe autism.

Well, ditzy me didn't put two-and-two together when I was scheduling my District's kids. So when this kid walked in today, I thought I was in the twilight zone. Then I realized that I was seeing my two-districts-away kiddo's twin brother! (Thankfully, this twin doesn't play with his spit and constantly hawk fake loogies.)

I made another stop at an elementary school where I also encountered a girl on the spectrum. I know I am getting her in the Fall, since she just graduated from elementary school. Unfortunately, I already know that she will be a challenging case both because of her characteristics as well as her being uber-high-profile. This girl instantly recognized me from a few months ago when I gratuitously attended her transitional IEP. The creepy thing is that when she saw me last time and today, she shrieked and then kept saying something about panthers. Her previous SLP had "warned" me about how this girl will get obsessed with ideas (like she was obsessed with Vietnamese people so all she wanted to do was become Vietnamese). So today, she kept calling me the Panther Warrior or something (at one point, I told her that that is not my name) and then at the end of the session, she asked me, "Are you going back to your panther den?" I said matter-of-factly, "No, because I am not a panther. I am a speech teacher who goes back to her office." End of discussion. If I've learned anything, it's not to keep engaging them in the nonsensical stuff; by doing so, we are not helping them with their social skills. If we think it's weird, imagine what their peers must think...and how their peers react to it!

Now, I will retreat to my panther den...