Weekend

Today I had the most painful manicure in the world. I am SO not going back there again, even if its cheaper because its run by Asians (Vietnamese?) of questionable immigration status.

I am reading the book Nickels and Dimed, which my teacher recommended in my counseling class. From my own experience, most times class barriers are even harder to transcend than racial ones. But I'm working on it, so that I can be a better counselor/therapist. The little idealist in me is still hoping to make a difference in the lives of underprivileged kids, and to do that I really have to empathize and be nonjudgmental and "join" with their parents.

I am thinking about joining a health club and getting some damn exercise! Quite a lot of people I know joined for $35-ish/month, which I guess is not that expensive. The problem though is that I'm the kinda person that frequently 半途而废s, and so I am hesitant to sign myself up for a year's membership and end up quitting in two weeks. ;P

Korean guy I tutor tells me that all the Koreans play golf every weekend since golf is pretty cheap here (<$20 for students at the Purdue courses). So maybe I should take up golf!!!! HAHA. Although first I have to invest in a set of golf clubs. And golf lessons. ;)

Summery summer

I decided it was time to change my userpic to a more summery one. I'm several shades tanner now, which is great. I was really sick of my pasty-colored winter skin.

Not much to update. I've had the busiest, most tiring week ever. Good news is that as of today, my coca-cola savings tin has a grand total of $280. Which means... NEW YORK CITY, HERE I COME!! (Although not quite yet, the plan is to go in October). Yeah, it took me almost 2 months to save up that much from babysitting and tutoring, but I did it!

The new plan is to save up for Puerto Rico. Me and Johanna would like to go home with Dianamari during Thanksgiving but air tickets are soooooooooooo expensive that week. Pah.

Birthday blast!

I am 25. Eeks!

My first birthday in the US. Things are going well. Weather could not be more perfect these two days. I've had a very good therapy week. Therapy with 4-year-old went perfectly (he is the world's cutest, most delightful kid), therapy with 9-year-old went great, therapy with 65-year-old went not too bad. No disasters, hooray.

Johanna got me a 500 cupcakes recipe book for my birthday, LOL. After looking through the whole book, we finally decided on: Black Forest birthday cupcakes!!! We couldn't find cherry liquor so we just substituted lots of Baileys instead. It was goooooooooood.Friends giving me quarters for my quarter birthday at Kristel's apartment. Dianamari says its a Puerto Rican tradition. ;)Then we headed downtown to Taste of Tippecanoe! Lotsa people, lotsa food.. fun times. :) This is the Lafayette courthouse on 3rd and Main Street.Me and my fellow SLP-slash-baker:Finally... Me and Purdue Pete!!! (Isn't he cute?)
Haha. So thats my fun birthday. Coincidentally, my birthday is also the first day of summer. The sun set at 9:45pm! It was great. Then we caught some fireworks before we decided to come back home and watch Anastasia, which is the best cartoon EVER MADE. :)

Double, double, toil and trouble

Major thunderstorm again today. I think its the third time this week! Electricity went out, and we saw a tree fly by! Thats when we decided we'd better stop playing board games and go hide in the bathroom. Stayed in the dark for a half hour before the storm passed and it was safe to come out again.

Everyone seems to be all geared up for disaster. My coworkers talk about sandbagging, boarding up windows and stockpiling food... and freaking me out!! I live on higher ground and not too close to the river so I should be fine. I think. And I probably have enough food in the house to last me a week.

Anyway, I was playing Apples to Apples with some of the girls from Vision of Hope (a shelter for teenage girls and young women) and someone had the card 'Abraham Lincoln'. Then one of the girls said her great-great-great uncle was the one who assassinated Lincoln!!! OMG! Lol.

My adventure

Drove 3 hours to and fro to Montgomery, IN to attend dear friend Charlotte's wedding!!
The reason why I always call her dear friend Charlotte is because she's my very first and very best friend in the US. :)

But anyway, I did a really dumb thing today. When I was getting gas, I put my card holder (with my credit card, driver's license, Purdue ID...) on top of my car, then forgot about it and drove off. Needless to say, the card holder fell off and must have landed on the ground of the gas station. And I didn't even realize I was missing it until hours later after the wedding and I was ready to head home. Then I'm like, dang it where're my cards???!!! *panic* Drove back to the gas station, but the nobody had turned it in. *panic some more. convinced that cards are stolen and gone for good*

In the meantime, I received a missed call from Chase and I was soooo afraid it was because they had noticed some criminal activity on my card. So I called Chase back, and guess what? Person who found my cards had contacted Chase to tell them he found my stuff. So then Chase gave me his number and then I called him, then we met up and got my cards back! HOORAY!!!!! :)

Yep, so there's a happy ending to this story. There ARE nice kind honest people in this world. I thought it was pretty smart of him to call Chase knowing that they would have my contact info and also, they'd be the first people I'd call to cancel my card. Ah, I have faith in the world again. ;)

Floods and thunderstorms

So, I survived my first week of school. Went to T.G.I.Fridays for dinner to celebrate. We went to Olive Garden first but there was *such* a long line, I couldn't even find a parking spot! So yeah, had to settle for my 2nd favorite pasta. But still good. And their mojitos are sooo awesome. :)

We've been plagued by severe weather alerts all week. But we're still doing okay here in West Lafayette so far. The howling winds get pretty scary sometimes though, and boy am I glad I don't live by the river.

Nothing much else to update! Everything is going fine, if a tad boring. ;P

My client hates me

Yep I'm fairly convinced that my client at the Vets Home hates me because he is giving me *such* a hard time. On the bright side, my supervisors tell me its not my fault and not to take it personally. And also, I'm taking a counseling course now, which should hopefully make me a better clinician and more helpful to others.

MAN I hate working with adults. They are soooo complicated, touchy, moody, depressed, wanting to die.. :P And I just feel sooo helpless because I know that they are really not going to get much better, no matter what I do. At least with kids there's hope that they improve as they get older.

Aside from that, life's pretty good. Yesterday I made a semi-authentic Chinese dinner for my friends: Oriental pork chops, veggies with oyster/garlic sauce and frozen dumplings. My friends put soy sauce on their rice!!! I was like, what???!!!! And they said, you mean you don't do that? LOL. Americans. *rolls eyes*

Adrienne brought over these crazy-good cake batter chocolate chip cookies. I've been eating them nonstop since. I really should stop eating when I'm stressed. Bad baaaaad habit.

Soon to be Monday

Weekend was fun. Met up with a couple of classmates at the Lafayette Brewing Company last night, then came back to my place for some board game fun. Heheh. We played Loaded Questions and I surprised myself by answering "History or Industrial Engineering" to the question: "What would you do if you were not in Speech-Pathology?"

Well well, whatdya know. Maybe in my next life. ;)

Classes start tomorrow! And does Phonology Group - my other clinic placement! I have three 6-7 year olds, and can I say that I am NERVOUS. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they will be nice well-behaved kids because I don't know that I can handle 3 crazy ones all by myself. I can maybe handle one crazy kid, but not three. (Yes I have heard all kinds of horror stories about kids who climb onto tables, hide under the table and refuse to come out, punch their clinician, curl up in the fetal position on the floor and cry for an hour... you name it.)

Johanna and I talked about whether we should set up a "reward system", i.e. bribe the kids to behave by giving them stickers, candy, etc. Our supervisors suggested it, and I think she's going to go ahead with it, but then.. I still have my reservations about it. I don't believe in bribing kids to do things and I seriously think it will set up a very faulty style of learning and thinking: that everything has to be done for an external reward. So, I'm going to try all the tricks I have at my disposal first and resort to that only if all else fails. ;P

I finished watching the 1st season of Californication. Its actually pretty good. The characters are pretty cool, especially Becca who is so funny. And of course I still love David Duchovny, even tho its hard for me to come to terms with the fact that he is nearing 50! (What would Fox Mulder be like at age 50??!!! It baffles the mind.)

Tornado watch

Storms are brewing again. The howling winds kinda scared me and I'm a little worried for my poor little plants on the balcony. They seem to be doing well though, I love watching them bloom. :)

Anyway, my rash is almost all gone so I guess it was just an allergy. Or the meds working. You know what, its the first time I've been to the doctor since coming to the US (almost 2 years)! I guess I was a little afraid of going because people always complain about how expensive healthcare is in the US. But then I only paid $35 in total ($25 for meds, $10 for lab test), so I think its quite affordable! Of course I am really lucky that I get good grad student insurance from Purdue.

Yesterday I had the best day!! I drove up to Chicago to meet Dan, who is back home in the Chicago suburbs for the summer. We had tim sum at Chinatown, then headed downtown to Millenium Park (very pretty) and Michigan Ave. Browsed around at the Apple store (HAVE YOU SEEN THE MACBOOK AIR??!!!!), Lego (kids at heart. hehe) and Garmin. Dan had his Garmin GPS with him and we walked around with it instead of a map, and we weren't the only people doing so! GPS is DA BEST! Also popped into the cultural center and Art Institute for a bit, and then for DEEP DISH PIZZA which is the best pizza I have ever had in my entire life!!!

So yeah, Chicago was awesomer than I thought it would be. The weather was quite nice too, although a little too humid, but its a walk in the park compared to Sg. But then I also realized that I don't really miss city life too much. Small town life does have its pleasures (and also much nicer people). Still, I can see myself going to Chicago a couple more times this summer just to chill out. Just as soon as they get the darn I-90 fixed!! I almost got lost driving home at 2am last night.

I need a GPS!!! If the kind people reading this blog would like to donate one to the Prevention-of-Lost-and-Frustrated-Drivers Fund, it'd be greatly appreciated. Family members should also be reminded that my birthday is in 2 weeks. :)

Busy Tuesday

Went to the doctor at PUSH to check out the mysterious red rash that has been spreading all over my arms and legs since Sunday. The doctor thinks it may be a precursor to a virus/infection since I can't think of anything that could cause an allergy. She thinks I *may* have strep throat (dear God I hope not) since I also have a slight fever, so she sent in a sample for a lab test. ;P

Therapy with my client today did not go well. He was in a foul mood for some reason. Working with brain-damaged clients is very hard because they are so unpredictable and temperamental!! But the SLP there Penny says she enjoys the challenge. Anyway, Penny is really cool and well-traveled and has so much life/travel experience and I love talking to her! Her first job was working at a migrant camp close to the border because she is English-Spanish bilingual. How cool is that.

The 79-year-old guy I screened today was really sweet though. He asked if I was Chinese (LOL) and I said, yes I am, good guess since people usually mistake me for Jap/Korean. But he was really friendly and chatty and cooperative, and that totally made my day. :)