Memorial Day

So, 33 hours of driving one one hubcap later (I have no idea when or how it fell off), I am here in gorgeous San Diego!!!!! It is AMAZING over here. Seriously the weather is sooooo perfect every single day, its unreal. And I love the tall palm trees, and the diversity. :) I keep seeing all kinds of mixed white/asian, white/black, white/hispanic kids in the hospital and its awesome. They're probably freaked out that I keep staring at them cos they are sooo darn cute.

Anyway, I like the hospital a lot, except that I see autism kids 90% of the time and its heartbreaking. Oh, and the house I live in is super cute, and Suki my roommate is really nice. And I'm sitting out in the backyard now, typing away on my little computer, while my laundry is being done so I can pack for tomorrow. Will be off to Minneapolis for the long weekend!! :)))))))) Have a great weekend people!

Hello from Albuquerque!

In case you haven't heard from Facebook.. I've made it driving 21 hours by myself. Indiana to Illinois, to Missouri, to Oklahoma, to Texas, and am now in New Mexico, which is really really isolated and boring (miles and miles of desert!). I think I drove 100 mile stretches without seeing any cities or houses and barely any cars! Geez.

Anyway, 11 more hours of driving today and then will be in San Diego tonight. Thank goodness for that!!!! And then I'll have the weekend to settle in and then start at the hospital on Monday. :P Busy busy busy. Ok gonna set off soon. Later!

Sneeze, wheeze

Check out the pollen count for today. Kinda explains why I'm feeling like @$*%^ huh? Have been having allergies all week.. good news is I'll be off in San Diego pretty soon. Am almost all packed up. Almost.

Sick at home

Called in sick today. The fever's been with me a couple of days, but then last night my throat started feeling really itchy and was giving me a bothersome cough. No, not the swine flu. I'm convinced that its my body's way of protesting against weather changes because I fall sick once every Spring and Fall. :P Thought about going to the Purdue Health Center, but then was too lazy since it'll probably be an hour's wait. Plus, they'll probably send me to get tested for strep like they did the last time, which I know I don't have. AND have to wait a couple more hours for drugs at the pharmacy. Its just not worth it.

Anyway, can't believe how people are overreacting to the swine flu. Mom called me twice about it and said they were doing health screens and the airport and everyone was wearing masks. And then I saw on facebook someone canceled vacation plans to the US, and another friend said she hopes the "travel restriction" to the US is lifted soon. Whaaa....tt???

Its May!

Finally, nice clear skies today after a whole week of annoying April showers. I'm glad May is here!! :)) Although I suppose in a week or two I will be complaining about spring allergies. Or, maybe I won't have them in San Diego?? ;))

So, next week will be my last week at Brown preschool. Time flies, but can't say I'm sad to leave. Time to move on to my next new exciting experience! I have a lot of packing and moving to do, then will drive out to San Diego the week of May 11. Its a 30-hour drive so the plan is to make 2 overnight stops in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Johanna's parents house) and Alberquerque, New Mexico (don't even know how to say this word, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it featured in the X-Files, LOL) before I finally arrive in California!!!! :))) I start at the hospital on May 18.

Anyhow, last couple of weeks have been awesome fun!! The weekend before we had Comps party for our graduating class, and last weekend Troy visited and got the darn bird and feathers out of my car!! (Can you believe it was still in there after a whole week?? grosss...). Oh and I got pulled over by a cop for driving at 64mph in a 55 zone! Didn't get a ticket though, phew. Don't really think I have $250 to spare right now. :P Helps to be a cute Asian girl sometimes, eh? (That's what I like to think anyway :))

My month in photos:

Eric's birthday

SLP, Class of 2009!

At Purdue, after church on Sunday

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....