What a crazy few days! Thursday I drove through snow on my way to school. It was absolutely spectacular with all the green from the rain topped by bright white snow and steam rising up all around. At one point the snow was down on the road. I didn't realize how much I missed it until then... I got all choked up. Having grown up in Wyoming and gone to college in Colorado, years in California have deprived me of real weather cycles. I love snow, even with all the inconvenience, pain and danger it can bring.
Then on the way home Friday afternoon I opted not to take that road, as it was smothered in black clouds, and ended up stuck in stopped traffic for an hour and a half instead. Ouch! Tried to call home only to find the power was out and AR couldn't find the regular phone so I couldn't get through to him. The power was out in our canyon for just about 24 hours, so no water (We're on a well and the pump is electric), no heat and so on. Thankfully it wasn't too cold. When the power finally went back on, late on Saturday, I discovered my cell phone beeping. It doesn't get enough reception out here to use, but it does sometimes tell me I missed a call. Odd.
So the call turned out to be from much earlier in the day, asking where the hell I was because I was supposed to WORK on Saturday! Oh fuck... I thought it was Sunday and I didn't check on Friday as I usually do because my calender is on my 'puter, and no power. No phone to get the message... sigh. Well I got lots of homework done and now I have the whole weekend for studying. Silver lining I guess. I'm hoping it wasn't too huge a disaster. Gah.
The winds here are unreal. Both my heavy aviaries on the back porch blew onto the lawn, which is a first. But one of them was blown against a heavy wooden table first, and both table and cage were shoved 8 feet or so before the cage spun off on its own. Wow... even the strongest Santa Anas have never so much as budged those cages, let alone the table! (never fear, the birds are all safely inside the house) I hear it may get worse today. We have rivers of horizontal rain at the moment. Feels like a damned hurricane!
Seems AR is going to be subjected to both the Rorschach and the WMS (Wechsler Memory Scales) this afternoon because I have no intention of driving through this storm to the houses of my friends who agreed to be my subjects this weekend. I'll be lucky to get to practicum tomorrow... this wind, combined with all the mud, is bound to drag a whole battalion of trees down off the steep side of the canyon and make the road impassable. I'm amazed we haven't had more down thus far.
If I have to listen to this little green bird of mine tell me, "It's raining outside" one more time, I'll SCREAM! I can see that, Gus; thank you.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
An Intersting Interview!
Brain Fitness
I am particularly interested in neurological restructuring, so it was fun to read this interview when my sister sent it. As I've mentioned before, I got my mother a program that seems to be working well for her, taking into account the limitations her living situation imposes. I want to either do some research on this myself when I get out of school (not enough time to do it right as a dissertation at this point) or perhaps utilize what others are doing and put together a cognitive rehab/fitness component to my practice. Look at me, talking about a practice already... ha!
Mostly though it's just nice to look at something besides neuropsych test data, Rorschach data and reports, reports, REPORTS!!! I was on the verge of tears this morning because I am so overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do and I am once again stuck in a joint project (nay, projectS, truly) with my fellow practicum mate who is utterly and hopelessly unreliable. Finally I just threw everything down (literally) and went for a walk in the rain. It might have helped more if I hadn't stopped to get the mail on the way back and found a lump of melted paper in my box instead, composed of both my neighbor's mail and my own. Apparently we were too bothered by the rain today to sort out unit A from unit B, and out of plastic bags to boot. Sigh.
Both my parents were in the hospital over the weekend... and different hospitals just to make it more interesting. They had a nasty intestinal virus and had to be on fluids and antibiotics for secondaries. This led to a crisis of ridiculous proportions thanks to them being so isolated(their kids are all in different states, as are all their friends) and because my father refuses to have any in-home care. Thus he came home and managed to pass out (as in faint) while trying to clean up the mess they had both made before going to the ERs. He will NOT hire professionals to do this, but instead pressured my sister mightily and laid on as much guilt as he could muster to get her to cancel all her business meetings, flights and so forth to come and wait on them (he knows better than to ask me, and his only other child cut off communication with him 10 years ago and is barely doing more than e-mailing greeting cards at this point). Thankfully she stood strong and now we are hoping he might possibly reconsider the wisdom of his choices. Probably not though, so doubtless we'll have another crisis in short order when someone contracts a nasty e-coli related problem. Double sigh.
And then there is the rain. 4 inches when I dumped the frog this morning and I haven't looked again. Been alternately pouring and sprinkling all day though, so probably there will be that much again by morning. I actually love the rain and I love that the hills are getting that SHOCKING green they do this time of year, but it's cold and dark and messy and combined with my pissy mood that's overriding the pleasure.
On the up side Entree has been at my feet and on my lap most of the day since it's too ikky to go out. Hot feet all four every day. Hooray! And I have a wonderful mate who checks on me every so often and makes sure to pet me and cuddle me and bring me nice hot drinks. =)
I am particularly interested in neurological restructuring, so it was fun to read this interview when my sister sent it. As I've mentioned before, I got my mother a program that seems to be working well for her, taking into account the limitations her living situation imposes. I want to either do some research on this myself when I get out of school (not enough time to do it right as a dissertation at this point) or perhaps utilize what others are doing and put together a cognitive rehab/fitness component to my practice. Look at me, talking about a practice already... ha!
Mostly though it's just nice to look at something besides neuropsych test data, Rorschach data and reports, reports, REPORTS!!! I was on the verge of tears this morning because I am so overwhelmed with the amount of work I have to do and I am once again stuck in a joint project (nay, projectS, truly) with my fellow practicum mate who is utterly and hopelessly unreliable. Finally I just threw everything down (literally) and went for a walk in the rain. It might have helped more if I hadn't stopped to get the mail on the way back and found a lump of melted paper in my box instead, composed of both my neighbor's mail and my own. Apparently we were too bothered by the rain today to sort out unit A from unit B, and out of plastic bags to boot. Sigh.
Both my parents were in the hospital over the weekend... and different hospitals just to make it more interesting. They had a nasty intestinal virus and had to be on fluids and antibiotics for secondaries. This led to a crisis of ridiculous proportions thanks to them being so isolated(their kids are all in different states, as are all their friends) and because my father refuses to have any in-home care. Thus he came home and managed to pass out (as in faint) while trying to clean up the mess they had both made before going to the ERs. He will NOT hire professionals to do this, but instead pressured my sister mightily and laid on as much guilt as he could muster to get her to cancel all her business meetings, flights and so forth to come and wait on them (he knows better than to ask me, and his only other child cut off communication with him 10 years ago and is barely doing more than e-mailing greeting cards at this point). Thankfully she stood strong and now we are hoping he might possibly reconsider the wisdom of his choices. Probably not though, so doubtless we'll have another crisis in short order when someone contracts a nasty e-coli related problem. Double sigh.
And then there is the rain. 4 inches when I dumped the frog this morning and I haven't looked again. Been alternately pouring and sprinkling all day though, so probably there will be that much again by morning. I actually love the rain and I love that the hills are getting that SHOCKING green they do this time of year, but it's cold and dark and messy and combined with my pissy mood that's overriding the pleasure.
On the up side Entree has been at my feet and on my lap most of the day since it's too ikky to go out. Hot feet all four every day. Hooray! And I have a wonderful mate who checks on me every so often and makes sure to pet me and cuddle me and bring me nice hot drinks. =)
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Off and Gasping!
Well the first week of the first term is over and I'm still reeling. Had to work today, but was hoping it would be slow and I could pre myself for doing my first Rorschach admin tomorrow. No soap, I was swamped all day with all sorts of interesting but DEMANDING work, so I didn't even limp in my front door until 9pm. Ouch. On the bright side, Entree was on the hood of my car peering at me through the windshield before I could get the engine shut off. Delightful welcome home gift!
My first admin of the ink blot will actually be to myself, which is what I wanted to do today. This is my last chance to take it before I will be 'corrupted' by knowing all the various answers and interpretations in the manual, so I'll write down what I see, circle where I see it, and then score it later when I have a clue how to do that. Then tomorrow I have a friend lined up to administer to in the afternoon. Me in the Am, her in the Pm, then another friend later in the week and two more next week. Whew! That's three more than required for the class, and we'll be doing an admin on someone we don't know (another student) for our midterm. I always try to get as many practice sessions in as I can, but in this case I want to test one of my clients at Juvenile Hall and the person is going to be leaving early next month, so I need to be proficient enough that my administration is solid by then. I want to do my project on using projective testing with forensic populations; specifically violent offenders.
Then there is the WMS admin that needs doing too. That will start after next week's classes and I'll try to do at least three or four of those outside the course requirements too. The results from those tests will determine what others we add to the battery. My supervisor has been wanting to start me doing neuropsych tests anyway, so hopefully I'll be able to work with real clients fairly soon if I can get myself up to speed quickly with friends and classmates.
Couples therapy rocks. One book is Gottman, of whom I am already a huge fan and have studied in depth, and the other is by our program director, who has done some great work on multicultural couples, among other topics in couples counseling. I think I'll do the project in this class on homosexual couples.
Practicum doesn't seem to have a specific theme this term, as it has in past terms, but I like the instructor thus far. Our cohort dysfunction showed its ugly head in that one, but you know, I just don't give a shit anymore. I was irritated right off the bat in my first class by two people, but made a resolution (seemed like the right time of year to do it) to be more positive this term, so I refused to let myself think about it and didn't discuss it with anyone and found my day was much brighter for it. Score 1 for not triangulating this week! Went out after class on Thursday (we don't finish until 9pm) and hug with the first years, one third year and a few of my own cohort. It was great fun, but even with only one drink the late hours and the smoke kicked my butt. Not sure I'll attend next week, but it's good to do from time to time. Good networking, too.
Readings are insane and probably impossible, but the material is so interesting I don't see how I can make myself skim it. Sigh... might as well just buy stock in my favorite coffee houses. Here's a sad factoid about me; my birthday gift card (Dec 9th) to one coffee place was used up when I tried to run it yesterday, and my Starbuck's card only has $14 left on it. The latter was a Christmas gift. Sob! gonna have to cut back somewhere else though, because I can't see surviving this term without chemical support.
Got my first paycheck from work and immediately decided I shouldn't have taken any deductions. Shoot, will have to go back and set that to 0 instead of 2. What WAS I thinking? I can always rob someone to pay my taxes...
My first admin of the ink blot will actually be to myself, which is what I wanted to do today. This is my last chance to take it before I will be 'corrupted' by knowing all the various answers and interpretations in the manual, so I'll write down what I see, circle where I see it, and then score it later when I have a clue how to do that. Then tomorrow I have a friend lined up to administer to in the afternoon. Me in the Am, her in the Pm, then another friend later in the week and two more next week. Whew! That's three more than required for the class, and we'll be doing an admin on someone we don't know (another student) for our midterm. I always try to get as many practice sessions in as I can, but in this case I want to test one of my clients at Juvenile Hall and the person is going to be leaving early next month, so I need to be proficient enough that my administration is solid by then. I want to do my project on using projective testing with forensic populations; specifically violent offenders.
Then there is the WMS admin that needs doing too. That will start after next week's classes and I'll try to do at least three or four of those outside the course requirements too. The results from those tests will determine what others we add to the battery. My supervisor has been wanting to start me doing neuropsych tests anyway, so hopefully I'll be able to work with real clients fairly soon if I can get myself up to speed quickly with friends and classmates.
Couples therapy rocks. One book is Gottman, of whom I am already a huge fan and have studied in depth, and the other is by our program director, who has done some great work on multicultural couples, among other topics in couples counseling. I think I'll do the project in this class on homosexual couples.
Practicum doesn't seem to have a specific theme this term, as it has in past terms, but I like the instructor thus far. Our cohort dysfunction showed its ugly head in that one, but you know, I just don't give a shit anymore. I was irritated right off the bat in my first class by two people, but made a resolution (seemed like the right time of year to do it) to be more positive this term, so I refused to let myself think about it and didn't discuss it with anyone and found my day was much brighter for it. Score 1 for not triangulating this week! Went out after class on Thursday (we don't finish until 9pm) and hug with the first years, one third year and a few of my own cohort. It was great fun, but even with only one drink the late hours and the smoke kicked my butt. Not sure I'll attend next week, but it's good to do from time to time. Good networking, too.
Readings are insane and probably impossible, but the material is so interesting I don't see how I can make myself skim it. Sigh... might as well just buy stock in my favorite coffee houses. Here's a sad factoid about me; my birthday gift card (Dec 9th) to one coffee place was used up when I tried to run it yesterday, and my Starbuck's card only has $14 left on it. The latter was a Christmas gift. Sob! gonna have to cut back somewhere else though, because I can't see surviving this term without chemical support.
Got my first paycheck from work and immediately decided I shouldn't have taken any deductions. Shoot, will have to go back and set that to 0 instead of 2. What WAS I thinking? I can always rob someone to pay my taxes...
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Something Good
I ate Chinese food for supper and ended with the obligatory fortune cookie. It said, "a financial investment will yield returns beyond your hopes" Kewl! My investments have definitely NOT being doing that of late. As a matter of fact, the inheritance of mineral rights from my grandmother that we have been using to pay more than half our living expenses took a major dive mid summer and never came back up. AR has been having to work more and more hours to compensate so he's doing less and less of his own work (he's trying to design his own videogame). I would be delighted to have an upswing in the income department!
Cold foot morning this morning so I gave Entree a pain killer before I left and felt vaguely nauseated all day. Is there a feeling worse than dread? Anyway, tonight I was delighted to find him sleeping on a stack of blankets in my office with 4 equally hot tooties. He still doesn't look well though, and I have to work the next two days. Gah.
Yesterday though... yesterday was wonderful! He was happy and feeling well all day and we played games, went for walks and had tons of loving. I finally managed to get a heart rate through all the purring and found it much slower than at the vet, which was another boon. 168 rather than 180, but 120 is normal, so we're still in the Twilight Zone. But even with his discomfort today, AR said he went out and sat on his favorite stump in the middle of the lawn. I'm glad he was out smelling and hearing his world even if he felt ikky.
Got LOTS of stuff done at work today, since there was virtually no Hall business to do. The Saturday person saw all the referrals and there were only a couple of kids who needed or wanted seeing today. FINALLY caught up on putting all my practicum hours into the forms the school wants our supervisors to sign, as opposed to the spreadsheet I made for myself, which is much more sane, IMOP. I know, I know, APPIC is God, even if their forms suck big purple meat twinkies. Yes, we're all really impressed down here!
I have no less that FOUR County events I am required to attend now, one of them a monthly event. Meetings on this, trainings on that... when the hell does anyone have time to get any work done??? I've decided to be bold and push to be paid for these things. I don't really need to do them for my practicum and the other doctoral student isn't going to any of them, so I'm going to take the proverbial bull by the horns.
Cold foot morning this morning so I gave Entree a pain killer before I left and felt vaguely nauseated all day. Is there a feeling worse than dread? Anyway, tonight I was delighted to find him sleeping on a stack of blankets in my office with 4 equally hot tooties. He still doesn't look well though, and I have to work the next two days. Gah.
Yesterday though... yesterday was wonderful! He was happy and feeling well all day and we played games, went for walks and had tons of loving. I finally managed to get a heart rate through all the purring and found it much slower than at the vet, which was another boon. 168 rather than 180, but 120 is normal, so we're still in the Twilight Zone. But even with his discomfort today, AR said he went out and sat on his favorite stump in the middle of the lawn. I'm glad he was out smelling and hearing his world even if he felt ikky.
Got LOTS of stuff done at work today, since there was virtually no Hall business to do. The Saturday person saw all the referrals and there were only a couple of kids who needed or wanted seeing today. FINALLY caught up on putting all my practicum hours into the forms the school wants our supervisors to sign, as opposed to the spreadsheet I made for myself, which is much more sane, IMOP. I know, I know, APPIC is God, even if their forms suck big purple meat twinkies. Yes, we're all really impressed down here!
I have no less that FOUR County events I am required to attend now, one of them a monthly event. Meetings on this, trainings on that... when the hell does anyone have time to get any work done??? I've decided to be bold and push to be paid for these things. I don't really need to do them for my practicum and the other doctoral student isn't going to any of them, so I'm going to take the proverbial bull by the horns.
Friday, January 04, 2008
Hit me, Dealer!
I want another hand; I don't like the cards I have.
2007 sucked in so many ways, for me and for many of my friends and relatives. I was hoping things would improve this year, but I'm off to a dismal start. Entrée had his echocardiogram yesterday and it was just what the vet said it would be, but worse than he expected. They can see clots in his very enlarged atrial chamber. The end is very near and likely to be very painful. The worst is that he can go from a happy, active camper to miserable and paralyzed in the hind end in seconds and we have no idea when or where it might happen.
I start back to school next Thursday and I'm terrified he will have the final attack when I'm away. It's a dark, rainy day and my mood matches the weather. Somehow my Rorschach and Neuropsych reading isn't very interesting today and life seems rather empty and bleak. Entrée is restless and irritable, but he wants lots of attention, so we've been giving him all he asks.
His first attack didn't seem to be painful. Please send all your prayers and good energy his way in hopes that the final episode will be fast, painless and AR and I will both be there to help him the rest of the way.
2007 sucked in so many ways, for me and for many of my friends and relatives. I was hoping things would improve this year, but I'm off to a dismal start. Entrée had his echocardiogram yesterday and it was just what the vet said it would be, but worse than he expected. They can see clots in his very enlarged atrial chamber. The end is very near and likely to be very painful. The worst is that he can go from a happy, active camper to miserable and paralyzed in the hind end in seconds and we have no idea when or where it might happen.
I start back to school next Thursday and I'm terrified he will have the final attack when I'm away. It's a dark, rainy day and my mood matches the weather. Somehow my Rorschach and Neuropsych reading isn't very interesting today and life seems rather empty and bleak. Entrée is restless and irritable, but he wants lots of attention, so we've been giving him all he asks.
His first attack didn't seem to be painful. Please send all your prayers and good energy his way in hopes that the final episode will be fast, painless and AR and I will both be there to help him the rest of the way.
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