Horror!!!!

So Joey and I were driving to school at 7:30 on Thursday morning when I see this brown ball roll on the road in front of my car. Didn't feel any impact, so I thought, well maybe I didn't really hit it. Anyway its too small to be a squirrel or raccoon. When I got to school though, I thought I had better check just to be sure there isn't blood on my car. I walk to the front, and...

THERE'S THIS BIRD STARING RIGHT AT ME!!!! Two beady eyes and beak, right out from the front vents of my car, OMG OMG OMG!!!!! I called Johanna in a panic, walked into school to moan to Karen and Lorraine, then almost had a complete breakdown. SOS-ed Troy who said he'll be here to help me in 10-12 hours. Wow, big help!

Anyway, from my day just went downhill from that moment on. Had the craziest morning with 3 obviously ADHD kids, then all afternoon helping out at kindergarten registrations, which was a nightmare. And then Johanna, brave girl that she is, took a big branch and helped me prod the bird out from the vent. But because it was stuck so far behind, she couldn't really get it out. (Its still a mystery to us how it got stuck so far in, I was only driving at maybe 65mph.) Me, I just looked from 5 feet away. I couldn't even stand the thought of being close to my car. See, thats why I need my American friends who are accustomed to dealing with all kinds of dead animals!!

And she calmly told me that there are feathers on my engine - UGH!!!! We somehow lost the bird on the drive home, and I'm HOPING it fell out on the road, but I don't know if its still in my engine somewhere. Plus, the feathers are still in there because I haven't had the guts to open the hood since then. Anyway, Troy promised to help me check for bird next weekend so I guess I'll just try to survive until then.

However I count myself lucky I didn't hit a deer. Avery's parents though always warn me to watch out for deer when I drive home from their house because apparently its deer country out there. I HATE dumb animals!!!

Good Friday

TGIF!! Its been a long rough week at preschool, recovering from Spring Break. :P I went for mass with friends at St. Mary's today. I think its weird that in Singapore they have Good Friday off but not Easter, and over here its all about Easter Easter Easter and almost nothing about Good Friday. Half the churches don't even have Good Friday service!

Its been freezing cold all week, even though its supposed to be spring. Brrrr!! I've been trying to cut down my heating bill by shivering under 3 blankies instead of cranking up the heat like I used to.

You know you're old when instead of saving for that cute dress or shoes, you save for the wedding, suburban house with a big backyard, 3.5 kids, 1.5 dogs, 401k retirement plan....

And you read books called "Smart Couples Finish Rich". :P

Love my tulips - they are lovely and very spring-ish. Can't wait till they bloom on Easter. :)

Spring break!

Finally filed my taxes. $750 in federal and state refunds - yay!! :) Need to go to Chase to fill out some forms though. Annoying paperwork. I'm glad that I managed to do most of my stuff online this year. Also I realized the number of days spent in this country has steadily increased. I've only been out of the country for 15 days in 2008, and the number may well be zero for 2009. I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that I'll be in Singapore in Dec - people keep leaving me facebook messages saying how much they miss me. ;))

Lady that I'm probably going to live with this summer is in the process of adoption!! OMG, its like we're meant to be roomies. ;) Speaking of which I finally talked to bff Clara today online after not keeping in touch for over a year! We're still best buds though.

Not too many plans for Spring break this week. Will just enjoy some down time, and do all those errands that I've been delaying for wayyy too long. Drug tests and all that fun stuff. :P

ISHA!

Went to the ISHA (Indiana Speech and Hearing Association) convention yesterday and today. It was SO MUCH FUN! I always forget how much fun these speechie conventions are. ;) Can't wait for ASHA in November, which is the bestest!

I asked a question in a roomful of SLPs today, most of them older than me. Am very proud of myself because if you know me, you'll also know that I'm very shy. I'm getting more accustomed to this culture with every passing day!

Oh and I had so much fun carpooling with Gretchen, who is my classmate but I've never really talked to her. Her parents work as a school SLP and counselor in a military base in Spain (how cool is that???!!!) and she's been telling me how awesome it is, and I should do it too because the U.S. has military bases in all the countries in the world! :) At 25 though, I feel like my globe-trotting days are coming to an end, and I'm kinda ready to settle down. But... who knows??

Talked to some of my supervisors who said that contracting companies are not all bad. Gretchen and I also talked to a couple more recruiters at ISHA and collected tons of freebies. ;) Free manicure kits, candy, hand sanitizer, lip balm, flashlight, a lifetime supply of pens.... :))) Bottom line is, I'm undecided yet again!

Never let your kid near a group of SLPs...

Because they will be teaching her English, Spanish, Mandarin, French, Latin and baby sign in a matter of minutes. ;) Kyla let us play with her little 7-month-old sister and we just couldn't resist it! We gave her the autism "name test", observed her fine and gross motor skills, and I bet if we had the Symbolic Play Test there we would have given it to her. We are a bunch of SCARY people. ;))

Speaking of which, I responded to 2 ads on craigslist for housing in San Diego this summer, and they turned out to be a school teacher and a school psychologist!!!! How crazy is that?! I must be giving out SLP vibes even over the internet. Talked to the school psych on the phone yesterday and seems likely that I will lease with her because its closer to the hospital and slightly cheaper too.

Its Monday again. Back to school....

I LOVE SPRING!!!

Spring is here! Gorgeous sun, fair weather, big smiles on everyone's face, playing outside.. what's not to love? The plants are not blooming yet though, which is good for me because that will signal the start of two weeks of allergies. :P

Life's been busy, but good. I'm adapting to the school environment, its pretty amazing how much the school system and teachers are alike compared to Sg! Not sure I like it too much actually. :P And plans have changed A LOT since my last post, because I talked to my supervisor who told me to NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER sell my soul to a contracting company. Okay then. That kinda changes things because contracting agencies are the only people I've been talking to because they are the ones that contact me all the time. However, Karen is adamant that they will suck the life out of me and I need to contract with the school/hospital directly because of better health benefits and accrueing seniority, etc. I think her exact words were "I know you're in your 20s and a retirement plan and pension is the last thing on your mind, but trust me, you'd appreciate the value of it later." And also that since I'm multilingual I will be highly sought after and *I* should be the one holding the position of power.

So, back to square one. It means I need to do my own job search instead of letting some HR recruiter do the work for me. *sigh* However, on the bright side I have at least decided that I am going to look into the Chicago area. Due to multiple factors it seems like Chicago will work best for me right now. Their school district is hiring, which means I could apply there. Or look into Head Start or First Steps, which is also a possibility. I'm assuming they also have a children's hospital there although I don't know if they are hiring or not.

Hope everyone is having a fun weekend! I know I am. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

All the teachers and most of the kids showed up in green today - it's St. Patrick's Day!!! And I'm drinking green beer as I'm typing this. ;) Holidays are so much fun!

The recruiter from Bilingual Therapies emailed yesterday to ask if I was interested in an opening in DC. I said I'd love to talk to them, but really I feel like its all up in the air right now. I am very hopelessly undecided about where I want to work. And my current supervisor handed me two pages of job listings in California because I told her I'm interested in going there. She also said I should think about going private and contract with schools for bilingual services because they get paid $105 an hour. Can't say that doesn't sound attractive!! However, for personal reasons it seems like it would make more sense for me to stick around in the Midwest.

Like I said, I'm quite at a loss!!

Busy bee

If you've not heard from me recently, its because I am so darn exhausted everyday. I wake up at 5:30, make my way down to Brownsburg in the dark, spend 8 hours chasing the little ones and talking in high-pitched kiddy voice, get done at about 4pm, then drive back up to Purdue and attempt to work. I have gotten gas THREE times this week (as opposed to my usual once every three weeks!), and I am thankful that gas is at $1.85 else I'd be SO broke. Broke and tired, thats a fun combination.

I love my little car though and everyone compliments me on how CUTE it is. :)

I'm having fun with the kids and I love them all and seriously want to adopt them and take them home. Especially since 95% of them come from the worst families I have ever heard of in my entire life, e.g. mom lives in homeless shelter and has five kids all with different fathers, dad who was manager at Abercrombie and left the family for a 19-year-old cashier, mom is 18-year-old who is attending special ed herself at the high school........ plus a stalker ex-boyfriend who tried to assault mom and twin boys outside of the preschool - they had to call the cops!

There is this really cool mom though who has the most adorable little girl she adopted from China (with cleft palate and severe hearing loss), and she's going to China again over Spring Break to get a little brother for her! OMG I am soooo insanely jealous and have already told T so he is forewarned. :)

Although I must say that working with kids all day long makes me rather maxed out. My supervisor told me that one of the downsides of this job is that people she knows or church people always try to recruit her to do kid-related stuff like teach Sunday school or organize activities for the disabled kids and she just has to say no. I feel the same way too, so yeah, I need a new hobby that is completely unrelated to what I do. Maybe painting. :) Can't wait for the weather to get warmer so I can go golf again.

Funniest news ever

Woman Says She's 'Embarrassed' By McNugget Meltdown

FORT PIERCE, Fla. - She's been called "McNut" by TMZ.com and "loco 4 pollo" by PerezHilton.com.

Now, after becoming an Internet sensation for calling 911 three times to report an emergency after McDonald's had run out of McNuggets, a Fort Pierce woman said Wednesday she is embarrassed by all the media attention.

"When you feel that you've been mistreated or misused or robbed out of your money, you have the right to call 911," Goodman said. "That's the purpose of 911, so I thought."

But Tiffany Bennett, an emergency coordinator for St. Lucie County, said the incident does not constitute an emergency. (Really???)

Last day at Purdue!

Had my last day of clinic at Purdue today - I can't believe it!! Time has just whizzed by. Had little farewell parties with my kids today, little girl told me "I will missed you!". LOL. Anyway I'm very happy because I got an A+ on one of my clinic assignments! And I was told I have "kid charisma" and a "gift" with kids, and that's because kids always want to approach me and talk to me. (Conversely I am absolutely horrible with elderly folks, so its a good thing I don't plan to work with them, ever!!!!)

Did a phone interview on Tuesday and at the end of the conversation the lady said "Ok, well the next step is to check your references so could you email them to me", and I've been talking to a couple of people since then and they all think its strange to be asking for references at this point since I've only done the first interview. And their headquarters is based in Chicago so you'd think they would ask to see me in person first. Oh well, but I'm taking it as a good sign and anyway I'm sure my references will have nothing but wonderful things to say about me. ;)))))) Why else would they be my reference? But I have yet to call back the other companies that left me phone messages - I am SO bad at this one-leg-step-multiple-boats thing. I have such a one-track mind.

I start at Brownsburg next week! 1-hr commute to work, yay!