So much has happened since my last post here, which was apparently about three weeks ago. Wow - how time flies! I'm so busy that I barely noticed we were getting into August here. This is good because I'm soon done completely with summer classes and with Clinic, and then I get a break till about September 5! The break thing thrills me to no end, but I'm like - what the cwap am I going to do with myself?! I am a huge fan of, and used to, filling my days up with this and that and going here and there and being very active because I have things to do, places to go, people to see, and all that. But the end of classes and Clinic means that my 'things to do' list is going to grow a lot shorter, and I'm not sure I'll know what the heck I'm supposed to be doing with my time! My hope is to be able to get together with a lot of people and to have a lot of different places I'm going and random fun things I've decided to do, so that I don't go absolutely nutty with boredom, haha.
I look at my life in the past few weeks and I think - shouldn't I be ready to do nothing, since I've been doing so much this past while?! But that's not the way I work and it never has been - I thrive on being active. Some of the stories of what I'm doing when I'm active are interesting and some are not - but here's a sampling for those of you who are curious:
Finishing up Clinic 1! My goodness, how the semester has flown....I had my last session with my little client on Monday and the family conference on Wednesday. Both went excellently, and the family said this is the first semester of therapy during which they saw instant and noticeable results and he's speaking more clearly automatically. That was SO COOL!!!! I'm like - I LOVE MY JOB. :) My final conference with my supervisor is Monday the 6th - I'm pretty darn sure I'm getting an A and am super-excited. My little client has made SO MUCH PROGRESS and I am SO PROUD OF HIM!!!! :-DDDDDD
The SPARC award! I knew I wouldn't get this - I just knew it. But I got an email night before last - and I got the award!!!! This was followed by a letter from ASHA and a call from the ASHA head of this award - I totally just got $1500 to go to two conferences (Moebius Syndrome Conference in July 2008 and National Autism Training and Technical Asssistance Program Conference Sept 26-28, 2007 in Columbus) and to go to Iowa again! Am super-excited and so are my parents :) The award was the Students Preparing for Academic and Research Careers award for outstanding research - I applied on the basis of my Moebius research - and it gave you $1500 to do stuff that supported your research. I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!
The grad assistantship thing. Applied for three grad assistantships, didn't hear back from any, gave up sort of on that. Then yesterday - within like 12-24 hours of hearing about the SPARC award - I got an email from one of the assistantships, and they want to interview me! My interview is next Friday at 11am, and I am SUPER EXCITED. What this is, is full tuition paid, plus a $10,000 stipend. I MUST get this job!!!!!!! I am so determined. I'm reading interview tips and everything.
Also am finally going to be going gung-ho on the process to get my driver's license. I know - finally, right?! I have had so little luck getting that going in the past while. Even this time was tough - but it'll finally start happening on August 7. That day I'm actually going to be taking the written test to get my learner's permit for driving. Tried a bit ago, but what's going on is that I failed the idiot vision test (you have to be 20/20 to pass it and I'm not) so I had to go over and get my eye doctor to sign a form telling them that my acuity is not 20/20 but still okay to drive....and then it turns out that in order to have her sign that form I have to have had an eye appointment in the last six months, and I was about due for a year, so I made an eye appointment that day and am gonna, in one day, finish up summer classes, have an eye appointment, get my form signed that my vision is okay, take the written driver's test, and get my learner's permit.
Also, as I said in my earlier post, July 12-14 I went to the University of Iowa to check their PhD program out - loved it! PhD looking somewhat likely depending on, 1) if I get a job doing clinic work plus research for my CFY (year after I graduate) like I want to and 2) if I like said job and definitely decide I want research as a part of my career. I so want to find a CFY position in Chicago because I LOVE IT THERE!!!!
Oh, and I twisted my ankle on July 4! It was probably a stress fracture, but whatever it was, it made it impossible to go to the gym for four whole weeks! That made me sad - but there was just a little too much random pain and tenderness for me to feel comfortable doing that, and I didn't want to hurt my foot further!!!!!! I went back on Sunday though for the first time, and it was a little tougher than usual but not surprisingly so, considering that my muscles had four weeks to forget what I had been forcing them to do.
Also walked around the Art Fair a few weekends ago with Allison and then Michael - bought a really cool wooden painted cat figurine with wings and a blackjack "bug" from the Bug-Ems booth. I LOVE THE ART FAIR!!! :)
Also went to CHICAGO!!!!! I love that city. I was there from Thurs of this past week to Sunday afternoon, and just had the BEST time. Cassandra didn't get off work till 7 when I got in at 12:30, so I took the El (Red and Orange Lines) to Michigan Ave and went shopping...so much shopping there, so much to do, so exciting!!!!!! Then I took the Blue Line back to Cassandra's in Oak Park. We went out for margaritas that night, then Fri Cassandra worked and I hung out with Sunali at a really cool coffee shop called Lavazza. We hung out with Cassandra's PT friends - and then went to salsa dancing lessons! I am certainly no dancer...lol...but it was fun :) Saturday we went out for the birthday of Sonja, one of Cassandra's PT friends - we went out for Chinese, saw some really cool fireworks, and then hung out at the apartment of one of the girls' church group leaders. (We were on the rooftop deck briefly, but that closed at 10:30 so they kicked us out!) SO MUCH FUN. I so want to live there after I graduate. :))))
Times ahead are busy again - Michael's coming tonight, we're going back to Port Clinton tomorrow, then we're hanging out with Chris and Rachel, doing a bunch of stuff at Michael's office, possibly going to my cousin's 10th birthday party on Sunday, and all such things. Hope everyone has a great day!!!!
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