Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Ahhh FINALS!

Yeah, that explains most of my absence I think.  I had a final Monday, 3 quizzes Monday and today, and I have an oral final Thursday, and a comprehensive final on next Monday.  Eeeeek!!  I'll be parking my butt in the library all weekend to cram and get my stuff done.   Hopefully there will be a few breaks in there to hit the gym and keep up this health kick I've been on recently.

Not to mention on top of all my coursework, I also have to have all my clinical clock hours tallied up by TH, and get all that stuff done.  My to-do list is currently at the overwhelming level.  Day by day, that's all I can do. 

At least after all the stress that is coming up, I have a MUCH needed break in the form of a hearing aid conference to attend to.  It's sad when a school conference is your vacation, but no complaints it's all expense paid and I get to relax in downtown Chicago.  Just one more week!  Oh, and just a wedding and some BFFs to visit as well.  I'm looking forward to a much needed two week break from classes and clinicals. 

BUT, once I get back from my conference I will have homecoming news and the great poll of "what in the heck do I wear that will look cute in ungodly hot temps in the south"so stay tuned and please play along :) Check out all this green.... it's getting closer!  I have to force myself to only check on Sundays to make sure I'm not staring down the minutes every day.  He'll be here soon.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

There must be something in the water!

Seriously, there is some bug going around in my life.  It's causing guys to get down on one knee and bust out some monster rings.  (It has not struck boyfriend, thank goodness) Yep, engagement season is popping up again.  This week I was asked to be in two weddings.... TWO in one week. 

I guess, I am at that age where the post-grad nuptials have begun.  One of the girls is a close friend who we've actually known each other since high school when we ran track for rival small towns, but didn't spend a lot of time together until we worked at summer camp for 3 years.  We did the double date thing a few times, and she even called me the day after their engagement.  They also just bought a house- livin' the dream :)  I had a feeling she might ask me, but I'm excited- it'll be my first wedding I was asked to be in!  I'll be wearing a short plum dress (used at future balls, I think so!) and I get to pick my shoes- goody!! I was so nervous about heels because this 5'10" gal does not need much in the heel department to stand out in a bridal party.

The second is an old friend who was an RA with me back in my undergrad days.  We initially did not get along at ALL.  I was just some young kid with a know it all attitude, and she was the been-there-done-that veteran of the RA world.  We hung out a few times, but we really bonded over a late night wardrobe malfunction.  She needed a dress and us being about the same size, she figured she'd ask for some advice.  It's been all sorts of girly shopping together since then :)  They haven't officially set a date yet, but they are a dual service couple with d-word rumors flying, so that may hustle things up a bit.

I am SO SO SO excited for all this, poor boyfriend isn't going to know what to do with himself with all these weddings coming up.  I have 5 I've been invited to in the next 12 months (standing in 2)... yikes!  When I'm broke come this time next year, you know where all my student loan money has gone, ha.  Or maybe I'll just take up being a participant in research studies on campus like a second job.  I think "professional lab rat" has a nice ring to it.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Well, so much for that!

Tonight I attempted a cute apartment improvement.  I was finally going to buy a mirror for my apartment that would hang over the door and then decorate it a bit to make it more personalized.  I even finally busted out my camera and charged it, ready to show off my cute new home project. 

I got the cute white mirror, paint and filigree stencils made from hand out of cardstock.  I got it home, painted it, attached the cute ribbon to hang it with, and let it dry while I went to night class.  I bounded home from class to check it out and inspect my new project.  I hung it up while I put away laundry and cleaned up my apartment.  I heard a loud thump, and ran over to see what happened...

... as you may have guessed, the mirror fell down and now has a nice crack running along the top of it.  *sigh* I guess I'm going to enjoy my mirror with a crack until I can get the money socked away on my next paycheck to get a new one. 

Mirror project take 2 in a few weeks I guess!

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Back into the single digits!


Still wishing, hoping and begging for some updated homecoming news.  Donut is creeping lower and lower yet again, here it to hoping it goes faster with little to no change.  Still a few more weeks out, and I’m just trying to stay focused on school and clinicals.  At least I have my BFFs and a Harry Potter weekend to give me a quick boost through the weekend.  Two weeks left and then I’ll be off to hearing aid summer camp- woot! 

Just got my fall class/clinicals schedule and it is a DOOZY.  I am registered for 19 credit hours.  I should also mention that full time in grad school is considered 9 hours…. Yeah I have double time basically.  My clinicals also only give me 3 credit hours when actually I have about 15 hours of them a week, plus the paperwork that comes with seeing patients.  When am I going to have time to sleep again!?!

The big contributor to this mess is a professor who is going out on sabbatical due to a huge grant she has (she is actually researching TBI and tinnitus, so I’m anxious to see her results) and so she is shifting all her classes to the fall so I have an extra course that I normally would not.  This is just going to suck big time, I’m already dreading fall semester.  I’m thinking about sneaking away on Labor Day weekend because I’ll have a 5 day weekend, that’ll be a nice start to block leave, now the question is where to go!  Probably something drive-able so we don’t have to worry about flights with shifting schedules. 

Any suggestions for a quick road-trip weekend that would be loads of fun in the Midwest, or at least a shorter drive? Here is to hoping boyfriend gets to call soon so we can discuss some options. 

Well hello single digits!  Lets stick around awhile this time, please and thank you!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Taking a little me time.


Yeah, I know, I dropped off the face of the planet this last week.  After all the craziness of the clinicals situation, driving 3 hours round trip for clinicals on Fridays, and then also throwing 10-15 hours of work a week on top of it all- I was getting run ragged.   

 I decided to take a few days and the weekend and just enjoy some relaxing time to myself.  I got in lots of pool time and I actually got to read something that was not a textbook this week!  I read Mary Roach's book, Bonk about sex research, and it was quite interesting!  I love her other book, Stiff about bodies that are donated to science, and thought I'd give her other books a try.  I also got my hands on The Help, and I freaking loved it! I sped through that thing in 3 days.

Notes about the 5k I ran on the 4th- wow was it hot!! I think next year I am going to wait to register until the day of the race to take into account the weather.  I started running really strong the first 2 miles or so, staying at a 9:00 mile pace- I was trucking!  After mile 2, I hit my wall and the heat really started getting to me and I was feeling kind of sick.  I ended up having to walk about a half mile, then got to running again at a much slower pace.  I still finished with a PR of 30:38.  If I had stayed with my running partners I would have finished around 28 minutes, so all things considered I am very happy with the race. Here are some photos I can share.  I love my hot pink leggings!

At the finish.  Hating life a little right here.
My mom and sister were also in town, here sis gave me a post-race ride to the car.
Dinner the night before the race, we enjoyed being downtown, yay $1 sushi night!
I was also researching my little booty off this week, two of the researchers that are working with my professor were in town and going over our numbers thus far to determine if we had a significant different between the Deaf children we tested and the hearing children.  So far, there is a difference, and we still have 40 children left to test so that is good!  With them in town we were busy entertaining and yikes is my ASL poor.  I felt bad, there were a lot of miscommunications, but they seemed to be pretty understanding and patient with my lack of ASL fluency.  But, they were nice guys and it was nice to meet the guys that I research for. 

I’m counting the weeks until clinicals and classes are done- just 3 weeks including this week! Before I know it, “boots on the ground” day will be here! That pesky donut is finally back down to the 10% range- eeeee!!! Hurry home soldier :)

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Stranded at the Drive- In

Just thought I'd share my funny Friday evening.  My co-RA and some of her friends heard about a double feature playing at a drive-in theater about 30 minutes outside of town, and decided why not check it out!

So we piled 5 girls into a tiny little car, loaded up on snacks, beverage and blankets then trucked on up to the show.  Gates opened at 7 and oh my goodness, was there a line! The show didn't even start until 9, so we were glad we got there when we did.  When we pulled in the radio station for the movies was playing the Grease theme song.... awesome-sauce.

How awesome is this view? 
Sorry for the crappy phone pic, I cannot seem to find my camera.

The double showing was Transformers and Super 8 on screen 1 and Cars 2 and Mr. Popper's Penguins on screen 2.  We decided we didn't want to see Transformers so we went for Cars and then we were going to switch sides to see Super 8.  Or at least that was the plan haha.

We parked in the front row to have prime blanket/chair seating, grabbed funnel cakes and reminisced about childhood, playing card games while we stuffed our faces.  Then we added in some never-have-I-ever for good measure.  There was also a children's birthday party going on, so we watched some adorable kiddos running amuck.

Once intermission rolled around, they showed old-timey 50's advertisements for food and other cool things at the show.  About this time the kids around us were passing out except for a few that kept toughing it out to see the 2nd movie.  When Cars 2 finished up (super cute BTW) us tired grad students decided we needed to go home because we were too tired.  Those kiddos out lasted most of us!

All in all it was a really good fun evening.  The show was only $6, and for two movies that is an absolute steal! Even the concessions were pretty fairly priced- they had burgers and all the goodies along with the usual movie theater food.  Needless to say, I'm going back again soon!