Oh wow... my back is in a bad way. Working with the difficult client I mentioned in my last post I managed to hurt my back somehow. No clue how, I just discovered when I tried to stand up from sitting there all morning that my lower back twinged and I could barely stand up straight. It was better yesterday morning but bad again by afternoon. Now this morning I was just washing and cutting up fruit for a salad when WHAM, the muscles on both sides of my lower spine, just above my butt, spasmed and I nearly dropped to the floor. Again, no warning and no clue why. It's happened twice more so that now I'm scared to move; scared to breathe. The residual ache is climbing up the right side of my back to my shoulder. WTF? Is this more of that 'getting old' shit or did I actually injure myself somehow? The living room is a mess (where my desk lives) but I'm scared to even reach down and pick up the wastebasket for fear I'll never walk again. Just what I need to add to my litany of grad school woes. Hmph!
Then what is it with this weather, anyway? Looking at my Twitter I see I was whining about being cold, then melting and now it's windy and cold yet again. Weird stuff, that!
Ok, so that's it for the pissing and moaning (as long as my back doesn't spasm again). I'm off to scare up a set of assignments and homework for my syllabus, which will be complete after today... yea! The next big assignment is to create a teaching portfolio. Seeing as I have never really taught that will really just be a CV. I have a small project to do, too, but then the class will be over after the 7th week and we'll have three weeks free. Kewl!
We're going on a field trip in my social psych class in a few weeks. We'll be joining in a fire ceremony with the Chumach tribe on their reservation. Can't wait for that one; it should be fascinating!
Been having fun playing with the D-KEFS and will give my first official administration this Friday (I hope, my prof forgot to schedule the client last week) so I'm nervous about that. Will have to miss the faculty meeting where I usually serve on the student steering committee, but oh well. I'm learning how to let stuff go.
Tidbit of the week: the Guinness Book of World Records for the bird with the largest vocabulary goes to Puck, a little blue Budgie (parakeet) at 1,728 words!
http://birdwithmostwords.com/
For a good read go to the link at the bottom for more info and read what his keeper wrote about his anecdotes and his development. She chose his name well...
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Sunday, April 27, 2008
What am I DOING???
It's so hot here I just have no energy at all. Did manage to get 2 hours of weed whacking in this morning, then a shower and passed out for another 2 hours recovering from the allergy attack it inspired. Then I wandered up to the neighbors' to look at thier little red piglets. Fair time is coming in the end of July and my friend and neighbor is the pig leader for 4-H in our part of the county. She has three housed with her; one for her son, one for a city friend and the 'freezer pig' who won't go to the fair with the others.
I sat over there way longer than I meant to, having iced tea and then wine coolers. Finally wandered home, stopping to play with a new little palamino colt for awhile. So now I'm home again and I'm STILL worthless as tits on a boar. I know I'm SO going to regret this come Wed PM when I am over my head in homework, but fuck it, sometimes you just have to take some time off.
I sat over there way longer than I meant to, having iced tea and then wine coolers. Finally wandered home, stopping to play with a new little palamino colt for awhile. So now I'm home again and I'm STILL worthless as tits on a boar. I know I'm SO going to regret this come Wed PM when I am over my head in homework, but fuck it, sometimes you just have to take some time off.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Somthing New!
Just when I think I have done everything I can possibly expect to do in this practicum, yet another new experience has come along! Today we worked on a competency evaluation; competency to stand trial, that is. Not much turnaround time, so when it looked like the answer was probably no, and since there was not time for a full eval before the court date, we were then asked to do competency coaching. I had a fascinating session with the client today and will follow up with another session tomorrow. Didn't know that this happened; the coaching part. I assumed that if the person was not competent to stand trial then there was no trial; end of story! Anyway, I certainly never dreamed I'd be doing this sort of work at my practicum location, and didn't even know the coaching work existed. Very cool experience!
Friday I will be doing some neuropsych testing for my professor. I'm delighted to be able to add these to my CV and it will kick start my work in the practicum too, since I'll be able to do neuros there without so much hand holding. It is just so cool how the profs at my school go out of their way to make sure we get the experiences we need. I'll likely end up with more integrated reports than most people get during the course of testing internships, let alone during the practicum phase!
And now for something completely different. I'm looking at my Twitter history so far and thinking that I do nothing but WHINE about not feeling well. Wow... must change that for sure; both the whining AND the not feeling well. :p
Friday I will be doing some neuropsych testing for my professor. I'm delighted to be able to add these to my CV and it will kick start my work in the practicum too, since I'll be able to do neuros there without so much hand holding. It is just so cool how the profs at my school go out of their way to make sure we get the experiences we need. I'll likely end up with more integrated reports than most people get during the course of testing internships, let alone during the practicum phase!
And now for something completely different. I'm looking at my Twitter history so far and thinking that I do nothing but WHINE about not feeling well. Wow... must change that for sure; both the whining AND the not feeling well. :p
Friday, April 18, 2008
A Day of Discovery
Today I discovered:
1) If you put a 1-800 in front of the fax number for faxing a Suspected Child Abuse Report in my county the fax will go to Gill T. and his son Mike, two delightful gentlemen who own a mercantile store in Tennessee. Guess who did that? They called and told me that this has happened many times, but nobody has ever called them back about it. They tear up the reports and throw them away.
2) Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's birthday (discovered an hour ago - it's 10:30 PM now)
3) The above means that TODAY was the 24th anniversary of AR' and my first date, AND our 5th wedding anniversary ANNND my parent's 55th anniversary!!!
4) Homeless people bathe in the sink of the bathroom at the gas station where I fill up (and empty out) before I make my long drive home every Friday... and they take FOREVER in there!!
5) I have a WONDERFUL supervisor! As exemplified by this e-mail response to #1:
OMG!!!! Sent to TENNESSEE????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Oh, that is a good one!
I think you will be okay on the submission. You called, that was most important.
Tennessee?????????
You'll be okay. Take it easy down there, see you on Tuesday.
1) If you put a 1-800 in front of the fax number for faxing a Suspected Child Abuse Report in my county the fax will go to Gill T. and his son Mike, two delightful gentlemen who own a mercantile store in Tennessee. Guess who did that? They called and told me that this has happened many times, but nobody has ever called them back about it. They tear up the reports and throw them away.
2) Tomorrow is my mother-in-law's birthday (discovered an hour ago - it's 10:30 PM now)
3) The above means that TODAY was the 24th anniversary of AR' and my first date, AND our 5th wedding anniversary ANNND my parent's 55th anniversary!!!
4) Homeless people bathe in the sink of the bathroom at the gas station where I fill up (and empty out) before I make my long drive home every Friday... and they take FOREVER in there!!
5) I have a WONDERFUL supervisor! As exemplified by this e-mail response to #1:
OMG!!!! Sent to TENNESSEE????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Oh, that is a good one!
I think you will be okay on the submission. You called, that was most important.
Tennessee?????????
You'll be okay. Take it easy down there, see you on Tuesday.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
First Week Back
Egads, week one down and I feel as if I had just a weekend off. Sigh.
Classes seem good and maybe not too much work this time around. At least the topics seem fun and interesting anyway! My coursework seems to be overshadowed so much by my clinical work it's almost as if it gets in the way. I remember Didi complaining about taking classes on top of all her other work, and I'm now really 'getting it.'
Social Systems is fascinating and it looks as if it will cross into a fair amount of poly sci as well as anthropology, which is a refreshing detour from the norm. Then out Teaching Psych class is being taught by a five star prof from Harvard who, besides having a rather overwhelming CV, is an absolute hoot! She's taught lots of online courses as well, so is well rounded and will give us a really broad sweep of exposure and practice.
The supervision/consulting practicum taught by the teacher I didn't like before is also excellent. This, and not the other, is definitely his forte. Must make a case presentation already next week, but the format is pretty much exactly what I write in my reports for my practicum, so all I really have to do is pull three already completed reports at random and present them. Is that a Godsend or what?
Lastly is the cross cohort dissertation class where we 2nd years are mixing with the 3rd years. The prof was away this first time so two of the 3rd years ran the show and it went fantastically. THIS is how I envisioned my graduate experience; groups of students passionate about their specialties, discussing their work, dreams and futures! Our cohort's interpersonal bickering has made that pretty much impossible, so a bigger pool of people helped a bunch. Of course there are sure to be new relationship problems that will take the edge of the fun, but at least this first class, and likely a few after this, was really interesting and a powerful learning tool for us all. Anyway, it got me charged up about my topic again and I'm itching to get down to work!
First day at the south county juvenile hall (I'll be working there every Friday until the term is out) was rather ho hum. Its an old facility, but in a very beautiful place, and it's much more open and airy than the new, very institutional one up here where I work on Sundays. I was told it would be more 'laid back' but my take on that is that it is not so much laid back as utterly disorganized and badly out of compliance. I live like a pig, but I am a stickler for organization at work, and it just irritates the hell out of me to work in a place where there is no rhyme or reason to the system. Or rather, there IS no system! The facility is slowly being shut down, presumably due to budget problems, but I have to wonder if there's more to the story...
And lastly, my neuropsych prof has asked me if I want to do a full battery of tests along with the writeups on a couple of her clients, since she just broke her ankle and is going to have to have surgery soon. Oh lordie... damned if I do and damned if I don't. Pass up one or two complete batteries? NEURO batteries??? No way! But when???? GROANnnnn...
Classes seem good and maybe not too much work this time around. At least the topics seem fun and interesting anyway! My coursework seems to be overshadowed so much by my clinical work it's almost as if it gets in the way. I remember Didi complaining about taking classes on top of all her other work, and I'm now really 'getting it.'
Social Systems is fascinating and it looks as if it will cross into a fair amount of poly sci as well as anthropology, which is a refreshing detour from the norm. Then out Teaching Psych class is being taught by a five star prof from Harvard who, besides having a rather overwhelming CV, is an absolute hoot! She's taught lots of online courses as well, so is well rounded and will give us a really broad sweep of exposure and practice.
The supervision/consulting practicum taught by the teacher I didn't like before is also excellent. This, and not the other, is definitely his forte. Must make a case presentation already next week, but the format is pretty much exactly what I write in my reports for my practicum, so all I really have to do is pull three already completed reports at random and present them. Is that a Godsend or what?
Lastly is the cross cohort dissertation class where we 2nd years are mixing with the 3rd years. The prof was away this first time so two of the 3rd years ran the show and it went fantastically. THIS is how I envisioned my graduate experience; groups of students passionate about their specialties, discussing their work, dreams and futures! Our cohort's interpersonal bickering has made that pretty much impossible, so a bigger pool of people helped a bunch. Of course there are sure to be new relationship problems that will take the edge of the fun, but at least this first class, and likely a few after this, was really interesting and a powerful learning tool for us all. Anyway, it got me charged up about my topic again and I'm itching to get down to work!
First day at the south county juvenile hall (I'll be working there every Friday until the term is out) was rather ho hum. Its an old facility, but in a very beautiful place, and it's much more open and airy than the new, very institutional one up here where I work on Sundays. I was told it would be more 'laid back' but my take on that is that it is not so much laid back as utterly disorganized and badly out of compliance. I live like a pig, but I am a stickler for organization at work, and it just irritates the hell out of me to work in a place where there is no rhyme or reason to the system. Or rather, there IS no system! The facility is slowly being shut down, presumably due to budget problems, but I have to wonder if there's more to the story...
And lastly, my neuropsych prof has asked me if I want to do a full battery of tests along with the writeups on a couple of her clients, since she just broke her ankle and is going to have to have surgery soon. Oh lordie... damned if I do and damned if I don't. Pass up one or two complete batteries? NEURO batteries??? No way! But when???? GROANnnnn...
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Where does the money come from?
I am at a neuropsych conference and still sick as a dog, but after spending $1200 on combined room and air fare (the conference itself was cheap... learned a hard lesson about checking accommodations and travel BEFORE committing to register) was disgusted last night to find my beautiful, $179 room was so full of smoke I could barely breathe. It's nonsmoking, so I assumed the one next door was not. I had a throat so sore I couldn't swallow and my chest hurt when I coughed, which was/is constantly. Being nauseated is JUST what I needed on top of all the rest.
This morning I dragged my miserable self down to the front desk to complain and learned that they don't HAVE any smoking rooms, so it was someone out on the patio and there's not a thing to be done about it except hope they don't stay again tonight. I'm feeling a little better about the room rate after talking to a woman who missed the convention rates and is staying at a hotel down the road to save money. A relative concept since she's paying $230 for her not so nice room! She said the convention centere was almost $300/night. Wow... where to people get the money I wonder? This is even a relatively cheap conference as these things go. There are so many that I know I should attend to be as cutting edge as I can and to network for my internship process, but I'd need another year's tuition to do it all! It's so painful to have to pick and choose which ones to attend and which to let go by. My school wants me to go to every APA convention, but even in San Francisco, which is driving distance for me, it put a hole in my budget, so I can't see how I can possibly make Boston this year.
Mostly this conference has been good, but not as good as I'd hoped. I was particularly disappointed in the VA presentation on Traumatic Brain Injury in soldiers returning from Iraq. One of my classmates made a kick ass presentation on this topic last term and I was shocked to find that the one I paid to see here wasn't half as good as hers! This is a neuropsych conference and they didn't even touch on what happens in the brain due to blast injuries. What the hell? I was also disappointed that there were presentations on treatments for both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's but not one word about the status of stem cell research.
Still and all I have learned a bunch and look forward to tomorrow's sessions. I'd be more excited if I didn't feel like curling up and dying though. =(
This morning I dragged my miserable self down to the front desk to complain and learned that they don't HAVE any smoking rooms, so it was someone out on the patio and there's not a thing to be done about it except hope they don't stay again tonight. I'm feeling a little better about the room rate after talking to a woman who missed the convention rates and is staying at a hotel down the road to save money. A relative concept since she's paying $230 for her not so nice room! She said the convention centere was almost $300/night. Wow... where to people get the money I wonder? This is even a relatively cheap conference as these things go. There are so many that I know I should attend to be as cutting edge as I can and to network for my internship process, but I'd need another year's tuition to do it all! It's so painful to have to pick and choose which ones to attend and which to let go by. My school wants me to go to every APA convention, but even in San Francisco, which is driving distance for me, it put a hole in my budget, so I can't see how I can possibly make Boston this year.
Mostly this conference has been good, but not as good as I'd hoped. I was particularly disappointed in the VA presentation on Traumatic Brain Injury in soldiers returning from Iraq. One of my classmates made a kick ass presentation on this topic last term and I was shocked to find that the one I paid to see here wasn't half as good as hers! This is a neuropsych conference and they didn't even touch on what happens in the brain due to blast injuries. What the hell? I was also disappointed that there were presentations on treatments for both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's but not one word about the status of stem cell research.
Still and all I have learned a bunch and look forward to tomorrow's sessions. I'd be more excited if I didn't feel like curling up and dying though. =(
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Sick
Feh. Finally I have a couple of days to myself (and to share with AR) and I have to go and get sick. What a drag! Nasty sore throat of the variety that comes from the tonsils, not just a raw surface, and I feel as if I've been beaten with bats.
Happily this comes just in time for a big neuropsych conference. I fly out to tonight and arrive in the wee hours tomorrow morning. I think I'll have about 4 hours of sleep between arrival and the conference. Sigh...
My folks got home ok and are now thinking about what to do for assisted living. My dad got so thoroughly reamed by every friend and relative we visited he finally agreed that this was a good plan, but now that he's home he's backsliding. It's not helping that his financial adviser, a curmudgeonly old coot, has told him that all these places want is to get you to turn over all your assets to them because they are owned by insurance companies. Thus he warned my dad away from the idea. AKK! This is true of a few of them, but there are gazillions of others where you simply pay as you go like any sane set of services. Naturally my dad was quick to jump on any excuse that maintained the status quo, so we're still struggling.
I have three days before school starts, once I get back from the conference. It's hard to believe that the better part of a month has flown by this fast! Working on taxes today and trying to add a little to the APPIC list of possible internship sites every day. It's hard to make people understand that graduate school is not just classes, like undergrad, it's a full time job all year around. Come to think of it, I'm having a hard time with the concept myself...
On an up note, Entree and his sister turned eight on the first! I didn't think he'd live to see this birthday, so I'm delighted. He seems ok; a little lethargic, but hot feet every day, so we're just keeping on keeping on. =)
Happily this comes just in time for a big neuropsych conference. I fly out to tonight and arrive in the wee hours tomorrow morning. I think I'll have about 4 hours of sleep between arrival and the conference. Sigh...
My folks got home ok and are now thinking about what to do for assisted living. My dad got so thoroughly reamed by every friend and relative we visited he finally agreed that this was a good plan, but now that he's home he's backsliding. It's not helping that his financial adviser, a curmudgeonly old coot, has told him that all these places want is to get you to turn over all your assets to them because they are owned by insurance companies. Thus he warned my dad away from the idea. AKK! This is true of a few of them, but there are gazillions of others where you simply pay as you go like any sane set of services. Naturally my dad was quick to jump on any excuse that maintained the status quo, so we're still struggling.
I have three days before school starts, once I get back from the conference. It's hard to believe that the better part of a month has flown by this fast! Working on taxes today and trying to add a little to the APPIC list of possible internship sites every day. It's hard to make people understand that graduate school is not just classes, like undergrad, it's a full time job all year around. Come to think of it, I'm having a hard time with the concept myself...
On an up note, Entree and his sister turned eight on the first! I didn't think he'd live to see this birthday, so I'm delighted. He seems ok; a little lethargic, but hot feet every day, so we're just keeping on keeping on. =)
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