Wonderful news!!

So, just received news that the contract for Rady's has gone through!!!!! My clinic director sent me an email titled "California here I come!" LOL. So, yay yay yay yay yay!!!!!!!! At least I know now that I will definitely have a spot there. But I'm also set to phone interview with Cincinnati and Orange County.

I seriously can't decide!!!!! Orange County would be a really cool place to be too because of its proximity to Los Angeles so I can chill out with my friends there. But anyway, I plotted all the places I could possibly be next summer (where I am right now is marked in purple):

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I am soooooo excited. Can you tell? I'm especially excited because I realized after yesterday at Clarian Arnett that I do quite like hospital settings after all. I'm sure it will be even cooler at a children's hospital.

Anyway, yesterday we saw a patient who drinks a pot of coffee and NO WATER every day. Like, errrrrrm, is it any wonder you have a voice problem? I'm actually surprised she isn't having more medical issues, considering how dehydrated she must be. Anyway she was a really interesting case because she had a psychogenic dysphonia - loss of voice due to stress!!!

OH OH OH and my classmate told me that the latest polls showed Obama is up by 11% in Indiana OMG!!!!!! It would be CRAZY AWESOME if he won Indiana. Unthinkable. Groundbreaking. Mindblowing!!!

Gas was $2.64 today. :) Yes the economy sucks, but I'm not really affected by it so far. Not sure if it'd affect my jobhunting when I graduate next August though.

Light at the end of the tunnel

So, my life is taking a turn for the better! About time. Clinic director told me today that it seems likely the contract with Rady's will go through, which means I can go to San Diego next summer as planned!! Except of course now I'm torn between DC and San Diego. East coast or west coast??? How will I ever decide????????? I so wish I could have the magical power of being in two places at the same time because they both sound freaking awesome. I'd really like to go visit the hospital in DC, except of course I have no time at all this year. Maybe in January. Ugh! I'm just a grad student.. how is it that my schedule is this packed??

Also, my midterm on Friday got changed to a take-home exam, which is due next Wed instead. LOL!! Which is why I'm just taking the night off studying right now and updating my blog and watching random TV shows. Yay!

I'm starting at Clarian Arnett clinic tomorrow. Hopefully it'd turn out well.

Bleah McCain/Palin

I'm feeling VERY left out that I don't get to vote. All my friends have been early voting these two days at Purdue. Everyone I know (with the exception of two people) are Obama supporters, so I think that's a good sign. I'm getting increasingly annoyed with McCain/Palin and their supporters. I met the most annoying Republican the other day who claimed she was an "independent" but clearly as conservative as can be (*rolls eyes*). Can't believe that some people vote just based on abortion alone. Nothing else matters. Don't even know why I wasted my time trying to educate her on other issues.

Which is why they say don't ever talk to people about religion or politics. It can really hurt the relationship.

Anyway, I'm going to study for my dysphagia exam tomorrow. SIGH. This week is the pits!!

New news

So, today I got my school placement for Spring '09, and I'm going to be at Brown Elementary and Preschool in Brownsburg, Indiana!! Well, I'm excited to be at preschool again, BUT... Brownsburg is an hour's drive from West Lafayette, which means I'm going to have to drive an hour to and fro five days a week for 8 weeks!!! That's A LOT of gas money. ;P Hopefully I'd be able to carpool with some people who are also placed at Brownsburg.

I'm feeling a little under the weather this week. I've been sneezing a little bit, and my throat feels a little hoarse.. like I'm going to lose my voice. NOOOO!!!!! I've been drinking a lot of water though, and I have 3 bottles of juice in the refrigerator - V8 pomegranate blueberry, Sunkist orange and Juicy Juice orange mango - in an attempt to infuse my poor stressed body with tons of vitamins. Hope it works!

Fall/Winter '08

I've had a bit more time this week to do a bit of cooking. Bought a new pie pan (since I massacred my old one), rolled my own pie crust and made a chicken pot pie!! Pretty good, if I may say so myself. ;)

Babysat Av on Wednesday night while his parents were hosting a fancy dinner party for 18 people. Quite an eyeopener for me to see what a upper-middle class American lifestyle is like. Very enviable indeed. Anyway I love that kid and he says the funniest things, LOL. I feel bad not correcting him when he doesn't say things right but its so darn cute. Like how he calls spaghetti "sketties". ;)

In spite of that, I'm really not having the best week. I'm wayyyyyy stressed out with work and I'm having the worst headache. And I was also VERY VERY annoyed this week because of run-in with apartment office wrt a bounced check for last month's rent (???!!!!) and they were charging me $65 in late fees (WTF??!). Then I had to run to Chase to get it sorted out and ended up being late for two meetings. URGH URGH URGH!!!!!! Good news is Chase is paying for the late fees which is very nice of them. So I guess I'm glad I bank with them even though they are always giving me a hell lotta unneccessary annoyance.

Plus I'm afraid of losing my voice so I'm trying to cut down on caffeine/alcohol. But erm.. easier said than done, especially with my stress level these days. And not that it even concerns me but I'm sad that it seems the Duchovnys are getting a divorce (bleah) because they were the picture perfect family with two lovely children!!!! I'm also bummed I missed 林志颖 (whom I have loved for... 15 years?)'s concert in Shanghai on Friday!!! Too bad I'm not in Sg else I'd definitely have gone. He needs to come to the US on his world tour next year ok?!

Ola!

I got gas for $2.99 yesterday OMG!!!! Gas prices haven't been so low since a year ago when I first started driving! It feels nice to be able to fill up my tank for $30 again. Time for another road trip perhaps?? :))) Who knows how long this will last though... *rolls eyes*

Babysat Av yesterday. I haven't seen him in 3 weeks or so and he has shown so much improvement! He has learned SO MUCH compared to when I first had him in January this year. Which makes me sad too because I think soon he won't need me to do that for him, soon he won't want to play those games with me, hug me, kiss me, hold his hand etc. etc. Boo.

Leaves are changing color. They are a mix of green and copper/red/yellow now. I think one of the best things about having 4 seasons is that things are never the same. There's always fun seasonal stuff to do.. and of course seasonal foods!!!! I've been having pumpkin everything lately. LOVE PUMPKIN PIE. :) (Although thats one of the things that I've never successfully made... I think maybe I'd attempt it again this year)

Thursday already

The weeks just zoom by!

October weather has been very erratic - alternating between ****ing freezing, annoyingly rainy and glorious sunshine. I've been practically living in my Purdue sweatshirt all week. I'm hoping to go play another round of golf this weekend though, while the weather permits.

This week has been pretty good. One of the kids from my Asperger's group gave me a hug goodbye on Tuesday. That totally made my week!! Its the happiest feeling in the world to get a hug from a kid. Plus it makes me feel like all the social skills training over the last couple of weeks hasn't gone to waste. ;)

Halloween is coming up. My dear classmates are doing a Disney princess theme, and they decided I should be Mulan. (I wonder why... :))) But haha I'm excited although I have no idea how I'm going to get the costume aside from ordering it from Amazon for $50. Plus a wig. Johanna's going to be Ariel of course with her bright red hair, Dianamari will be Belle, Kristel will be Cinderella, Gretchen will be Pocahontas and Allison wants to be... John Smith. HAHA. Or not.

Oh we also bought tickets for the musical Wicked in Chicago for ASHA weekend since we'll all be there. And we also want to go to a football game next week. And I'm signing up for a CPR course in November. This month is SOOOOOO expensive!!!! Good thing I'm going to be babysitting 3 days next week. ;P

Some pictures from last week

Best girlfriends - Shopping at Edinburg outlets
At the Purdue golf courseSword swallower at the Feast of the Hunters Moon!

Monday again

Just booked my ticket to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving - WOOOHOOO!!!!!

I've been pretty busy writing midsemester reports this week. I think I really don't like Fall semester too much - getting stuck with icky classes and clinic placements, plus the worsening weather every week!

I just received my copy of the ASHA Leader.. Julie Andrews is going to be at the ASHA convention! She's receiving an award for her contributions to voice disorders awareness and research. Apparently she lost her singing voice after she had vocal fold surgery a couple of years ago.

My new goal is to learn Cantonese. I've been watching a couple of Cantonese MTVs on Youtube and trying to follow the pronunciations. My dear friend Dianamari is also trying to teach me some Spanish so I don't die in Puerto Rico. Today I learned Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuato, Cinco! Which is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5! I only found out a couple of weeks ago that the word UNO means 'One'!!!! I always thought it was just a name for the game. ;)

Some updates

Weather has been very chilly lately, especially in the morning. I'm still refusing to put my winter coats on though.. And I've been very busy, as you can tell from the lack of updates. Today I spent no less than 6 hours(!) pulling my CV together.

Anyway, its hard to believe but... its almost the middle of the semester! And its OCTOBER already. How crazy is that.

I'm seriously seriously considering going to Los Angeles for Thanksgiving. Gerald said I could crash at his place for a couple of days and Ian and Amanda are going to be in LA too, so it should be lots of fun! Beaches and shopping and Hollywood and good asian food!!!! And God knows I could do with some Californian sunshine. ASHA is coming up too, and if I go to LA, then NOVEMBER will surely zoooooom by as well. Then soon it'd be DECEMBER and I'd be off to Oklahoma to celebrate Christmas with dear ex-roomie's family. And then in JANUARY we'd be off to Puerto Rico!!!!

I wish time would pass slower. Or rather, I wish I could be in my twenties forever.