Friday Night

Hi-C and I spent Friday Night with the older couple who bestowed our international placement scholarships on us. We check in every once in a while and this time we made dinner (the ol' fall back pesto-onion-pear-goat cheese pizza). For a couple around 70 they are about as fiesty and active as you can get. We caught them between teaching English in Panama and a camping/canoeing weekend. After a filling meal we headed out for a 20km bike ride....on one of these babies:You got it: a tandem. Two people. Hi-C bravely took shotgun since she had briefly ridden one before. Let's just say it takes some teamwork, coordination and persistence to stay upright. By the end, though, we were turning corners and racing up hills like pros. It drew some attention: stares, people yelling from their cars "Hey, that's really cool!", comments from other bikers. PS. The Toronto skyline from the shore paths near High Park is exquisite.

Good Times, not Bad

I've found my favourite place to spend a night out in TO: Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. The name is sneaky because it is also a club and that's what it is on Saturday nights. The dance for is packed and the stage is covered in people. Since the majority of patrons are gay men there is no pressure! They were all so friendly, everyone wanted to just dance like crazy and have a good time. There is even a mini drag show thrown in for good measure just after 1am. She was fabulous!

We're All Still Friends

Left to Right: Sharon, JPD, Hi-C & Me. Our images etched temporarily in the sands on the eastern shoreline of Massachusets. My likeness clearly has the largest hair, as it should be. The four of us packed up and hauled rental car through New York, Vermont and New Hampshire to finally settle for a few days in Boston. Good thing we are good at entertaining ourselves because we were locked together in a tiny car for many hours. Our favourite game involved speculating about the likelihood that anyone actually inhabited some of the ramshackle structures in small town America.

In terms of beauty I would have to say that few places can offer as lovely countryside as backwoods Vermont. JPD found us a barn-turned-hostel in nowhere Vermont. That was the life. We had wooden swings , a pingpong table, a full kitchen and an adorable country store just down the road. The man (John) who ran the hostel had the life: hostel operator, teacher of handmaking canoes, raiser of chickens, harvester of maple syrup, roaster of nuts....er, cashews. If you're ever passing through Vermont by the back roads I recommend paying him and his dog Sunny a visit.

Once in Boston we crashed at the YMCA hostel and explored during the day. Everyone humoured me and visited the New England Aquarium to see jelly fish, squid, crazy-looking fish, adorable penguins and everything great under the ocean. We were determined that each of us would have a 'moment' at least once during the trip. Mine was Vibram's Fivefingers (I mentioned them here). In an adorable shopping district in the cool evening we stumbled on a small workout boutique carrying the odd-looking foot covers. They were surprisingly comfortable and I was soon sold (or the shoes were)....so yes, if you were wondering: I bought them, I'll post more later about wearing them.

Sharon's Moment: she bought a va-va-va-voom dress at a stylish shop near Harvard campus.
JPD's Moment: acting as a keen navigatress in the horrendously designed city of Boston. We bow down to her sense of direction.
Hi-C's Moment: finding her coveted shower curtain in a NY Target.

Hi-C's traveling friend met us on Saturday evening after a full day of shopping, aquarium, local food, and a carousel ride. She took us on a tour of Cambridge (passing through Hahvahd Yahd...or Square) which sits just across a short bridge from Boston. While eating at a local pub she taught us how to eat our food British-style with all kinds of manners. I now have the ability to be a dainty eater.

Sunday was ocean and witch day. We cruised out of the city on scenic country roads to be tourists in Salem, MA. You know, the place where they hung witches for fun times. We saw a reenactment of a witch trial with two live actresses and 5 creepy wax figures (not full figures: the judge was a wax head on a podium). By the time we hit the beach it was a bit foggy but it was great to feel the breeze and smell the ocean air (even if it was a little eau-de-rotting-fish). We combed the tide pools for friendly little hermit crabs and snails. If I'm being totally honest: it was the piece of coastline I've seen so far. But I still enjoyed it and was so glad to be at the sea.

While we had fun there is a caveat: having 4 opinionated women with somewhat different ideas of what should be seen/done is not as easy as it sounds (does it sound easy?). We worked on compromise: sometimes we performed spectacularly and sometimes slightly less so.

Tea Time!

Remember when I was trying to decide between DC, Boston or Chicago? I'm unsure if I ever updated but the decision was Boston. Reasons: it is smaller and better for driving (we're chicken s**ts when it comes to city driving). It is right on the coast and next to cape Cod (we can listen to Vampire Weekend as we leave the cape). It is supposed to be pretty.

We have the car booked (9am tomorrow morning baby!) and our accomodations set (go cheap and skeezy hostels) and...that is about it. From there we plan to mostly wing it. At some point we will see the ocean.

Right now most of the anticipation is around the road trip itself. 4 awesome ladies in a compact car for many, many hours. Each of us has a playlist for the ride. I anticipate some overlap but also some tolerance of differing tastes. I'm using much of my time controlling the music to introduce the glory of emo-punk (try: Mariana's Trench, Ludo, The Spill Canvas, etc.). We plan to harmonize. Possibly make horrible translations of English songs into Spanish (and possibly back again). Trivia cards. 20 Questions (I'm the master of selecting random objects that no one can guess....'accordian' took the last group almost an hour).

I don't anticipate much sleep tonight....

Every Party has Pooper

And that's me right now. So, I've been have a pretty successful pity-party for myself (so I guess I'm not a party-pooper in this respect but the LIFE of the party) over the last few weeks. It basically looks like me watching too much TV, not getting much school work done, eating too much junk food (luckily I have a running buddy so I'm not getting sad and fat) and general lethargy. The internet didn't really need to know about my shame but I thought I'd use it at a motivating factor. I theorize that some of my general discontent has been with my own self and not....other reasons. There are so many things I want to do and learn but I don't pursue them to the fullest and find myself wasting time.

These are the things that I would like to invest my time in:
1. Improving my Spanish (check! Hi-C and I have signed up for lessons starting next week....now to pay the credit card bill)
2. Volunteer. I still haven't figured out where to do this. The excuse I've been using since I got to the city was that I'm always moving (alternating semesters of placement an class) and most places are looking for more of a commitment.
3. Learn a musical instrument. I've wished my whole life that I could play something, ANYTHING! But wishing doesn't get you very far with musical instruments so I have to commit. Right now I'm leaning towards the flute (they have those handy finger-holes that show you where the notes are which is key...haha). Problem: I live in an apartment building and my neighbours might hate me.
4. SCUBA dive. Open water scares the poop outta me but give me a coral reef and I'm in heaven. The certification is fairly expensive but everyone needs a hobby, right? Plus, if I do it now I'll be all set for next summer when I'm in Kenya/India/Who knows.

There, those are my goals. Now maybe I'll feel a hint of motivation to actually work towards them instead of thinking/talking about them.

The Story of my Blog

I've been wanting to blog more often but have also been reluctant; I don't want my blog to become sad and pathetic sounding. Because, let's be honest, that's kind of how I spend most of my time feeling. And that is ok right now. While I try to be light-hearted, there is a season for every emotion and right now some of my emotions really suck. I'm starting to take advice from others: set aside time to think about the person/grieve (15 minutes a day). I can't say I stick to it but I'm working on it. School should be my focus now but it isn't motivating me.

In fact: I started this post planning to talk about my classes with a focus on our very interesting voice disorders class. But I've distracted myself. I'll be back!

Elevated

For the first time in my life I'm really living the city-life: an apartment building! I'm on the 8th floor which I've justified as high enough up that I can take the elevator on a regular basis without feeling guilty. It could, of course, be an opportunity for exercise but I've chosen it as an opportunity for awkwardness. People truly are at their most awkward in elevators. I look forward to the next few months.

In addition to having my very first elevator, my housemate is a real grown-up with a job. She has real furniture, a lovely flat screen TV, a wii (!) and even digital cable. THERE ARE OVER 500 CHANNELS! I have never had cable at school before; this could be bad. Oh, and blue-ray. Planet Earth really is more amazing this way (as opposed to my burned copy on a 3-yr old laptop, who would have guessed?).

Sola

One of the greatest duos in the past decade has split and are exploring solo careers. The future SLP (fSLP) is without her LibrariMan and vice versa. I'm not going to get into the reasons because is between us. But I will say that I've created my own little slice of hell (yes, I'm taking dramatic liberties because, in my mind, it's true). This weekend was the big move: back to Toronto for yet another semester. If there were anyone out there still reading this then these are the things I would tell you if I could:

--We made it in safely last night. I decided to crash with my mom and sis last night instead of stay in the unfamiliar apartment.
--The apartment is swanky and my temporary housemate seems very sweet (she even has the board games that I didn't bring).
--Traffic through downtown was nothing to write home about until we reached Queens Park. Every square foot of turf was covered in young people sporting dreads &/or tie-dye &/or .... marijuana leis. Yep, we drove right into weedfest.
--The Harry Potter Exhibit was basically a fancy way to get people into the gift shop. But it was fun to go with my mom and sister.
--I think we have our own ugly-naked-guy.
--I guess it doesn't sound that interesting after all....

9 Hours Radius

Hi-C and I have been travel-restless lately. To scratch the itch (or at least apply a mild salve to raging poison ivy) we had decided on flying to Halifax for a long weekend. Some brainstorming and sticker-shock later and we've narrowed it down to a road trip to a major American city within an 8-10 hour radius of Toronto. Our options are (from West to East): Chicago, Washington DC, Boston. What would you do?

One major criterion I was using has become obsolete: all three cities have world-class aquariums (although the one in DC is only $9 compared to over $20 in the other destinations). LibrariMan tried to help by breaking down the city by baseball team and their respective parks. Needless to say: we're still stumped. Plus we're hoping to couch surf for money-saving reasons but groups of 4 are hard to place for a long weekend. Did you know that many of the Smithsonian museums in DC are free? Did you know that Boston was founded in 1630? Did you know that the first ever American blood bank was started in Chicago in 1937?

ETA: The Chicago Public Library is the world's largest public library!

Treasure Therapy

Last week I picked myself up the game Cariboo Island. It is for 4 yr olds and it rocks at targeting so many different speech goals. Basically, you put plastic coins into the game and then you look for them by opening these little doors with a 'key'. (Sorry, that makes no sense, but trust me). The grand finale is, once all of the coins have been found, they go in the 'sand' and the treasure POPs open! Except...woi woi.....mine didn't open. So I returned it. Woohoo....oh, wait, this one doesn't open either.

But I have to give props to Hasbro (yep, Cariboo Island is made by Cranium which is owned by Hasbro...). I used their online chat customer service and within 5 minutes they were shipping me a new game to my door, no questions asked. This next treasure had better OPEN! So now I'll have two cariboo games but I still need Pop Up Pirate!

You are built to run for 4 Hours at a time

I've read more of my fascinating book (See below) and this should have been the title of my last post. Why can't I make it more than 25 without quitting?

A Whole New Way to Look at Feet

I've been on a bit of a blog-hiatus. It isn't for lack of excitement in my life but for the abundance of it and the inability to talk about any of it! Basically placement is a time-suck, but mostly in a good way. I am learning so much and have had so many cool experiences (and some bad ones too, of course!) but they are all confidential. Everything in this biz is confidential. I feel like I'm working for CSIS. If I wanted to transport anything with client info (even client initials) then protocol is to place the pages in a locked briefcase and place the locked briefcase in the locked trunk of the car. Even yesterday, I had the coolest session: the end. That's all I can really disclose.

This post isn't really about how much I can't tell you, though. It is about a book I'm reading and how it has changed the way I look at my feet. Actually, it made me stop and take the time to consider my feet. You see, I've been running 3-4 days a week since September. Dedicated I'm not and I'm not really improving but I just want to be a person who loves to run. In comes this book: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

The author, an injury-prone runner, sets out to find a cure for his aching back and plantar fasciitis and ends up in one of the most dangerous regions of Mexico (both for terrain and narco-wars) to race with the Tarahumara, a secluded tribe that lives peacefully, parties hard and run super-human distances. McDougall begins to research the culture of ultra-running (races of 50, 100, 250+ miles!) and gains a whole new perspective on what humans were made to do. There is a growing movement to shed fancy running shoes that weaken arches and cause us to strike the ground with our heels: something human feet were never meant to do. Out of this has come the barefoot philosophy; that feet are a marvel of bio-engineering that can handle what we have to dish out all on their own without fancy cushions or springing heels. In fact, the book cites studies that have shown two things: sports injuries do not decrease with 'better' (more techonological, padded) shoes; since the advent of cushioned, engineered running shoes in the 70s the incidence of running injuries has actually increased!

This is where the barefoot movement comes in. Let feet do what they do naturally: support us, flex around surfaces, feel the ground beneath them. Of course, shoes also provide protection from sharp rocks, street filth and other foot hazards. The new rage is Vibram Five Fingers, basically a foot-glove that protect your feet while letting them grip, bend and support. Apparently they generate quite a few stares when worn out and about, though.

Tonight, I walked the 5km home from placement (I stopped trying to jog it because I have to lug my 15lb backpack too). All I could think was my ever-weakening arch until I flipped off my Nikes for the last km and gently trotted home in socks. It felt wonderful (except for the stones....).

No Two Birthday Cards are Not on Fire

While away on placement I celebrated a birthday and received a magnificent card from Hi-C.

First watch this StrongBadEmail.
Warning: many of the following jokes are speech-language pathology related. I will translate.

*Males are much more susceptible to almost all communication disorders. Autism averages 4:1 for males. Stuttering: the ratio of boys to girls is about 1:1 early in life but males are much more likely to persist in stuttering (vs. spontaneously recovering with development). Just for a few examples.

Focused Stimulation is a therapy technique that facilitates language acquisition by choosing a specific target and modeling it repeatedly while interacting with a child.
There is no Wawa Way. But I did live on Maple St. And there IS a general store. That's where the moose is.
Birthday Katie nor regular Katie can handle such intense heat as in hot yoga.

Veinte-cinco

For my quarter-century marker tomorrow:

I will be assessing the language development of 3 children (some of them might cry, run away, scream....the possibilities are endless)
I will be leading the group time for a social skills group.
I will be eating dinner and a nice restaurant with librariMan.
There also seems to be something else happening after dinner but I haven't been able to figure it out.
I will be trying to find a toy snail and a toy squirrel. Anyone?

An early birthday gift: Stuart McLean LIVE. CBC Radio's storytime funny man. He was accompanied by the Good Lovelies. It was unnerving to hear his voice coming from a person instead of car speakers. It was a whole 2.5 hour smorgasboard of music, story and audience participation.

F-Bag (CrapBag's second cousin)

LibrariMan and I headed over to the Dollar-twenty-five-arama* to make an f-bag. That is, a bag filled with 10 trinkets that all start with the /f/ sound. Yes, /f/ with a PH counts. Sounds easy but there are some criteria:
1. Must start with F (unfortunately there are no fcows, fplaydough or fspatulas)
2. A preschool child must be able to identify the object without help (that means fedora is out)
3. It must fit in a little bag (approx. 8x8).
4. The word should (preferably) NOT start with a consonant cluster (thought you were clever with frog, right?).

It was a challenge to say the least (although a fun one). So far the bag contains (with rule #4 being broken a few times):
Feather
Frog
Phone
Flower
Fish

Still on the lookout for: fairy, firetruck, (a toy) fence, foot (hopefully one that doesn't scar the children), finger (ditto previous), fan, flag

I can't wait for garage-sale time to really get making my sound bags!

*Yes, dollar stores too must cater to inflation. But don't feel too bad for them! Inflation rates in Canada are traditionally 1-2% per year (thanks to iron-fisted control from the Bank of Canada). In 10 years we're talking 10-15%. When Dollarama adds a quarter to their prices that's an automatic 25% compensation. Sneaky.

Happy List

The lovely miss Nadine Bells (talented blogger and other-types-of-writing extraordinaire) tagged me as a blogger who brightens her day. At my recent rate of blogging I am more likely to brighten her week or possibly fortnight.

So I do this:

1. Copy the image and display it on your blog.
2. List 10 Things that make you HAPPY!
3. Try to do at least one of them today.
4. Pass on the award to 10 bloggers who brighten your day.

A list:
1. talking on webcam with good friends who are too far away
2. going to bed early enough to read
3. an evening with my librariMan
4. getting snail mail
5. the smell of spring/wearing a spring coat
6. friendly kitties
7. a new haircut
8. completing a project
9. watching things grow (especially things that I have planted)
10. children's books

Most people who brighten my day via their blogs have already been tagged by other friends.....so I'm sticking to my strict anti-tag, anti-forwarding emails stance.

Nuts

There are big-lettered BOLD signs on all the doors into the children's centre where I am doing my first placement stating that NO NUTS are to be brought into the building.\

The lunch I brought on the first day included a peaNUTbutter & jam sandwich. That is my reserve lunch. My back-up in case of laziness. No one noticed but I won't be able to make that faux pas again. What to eat for lunch?????

Another First

Tomorrow is the first day of my first placement. I am terrified. This week off went by so quickly. I had better find some confidence my the 'morn. Apparently they want us to have some experience when we are sent out as real speech-language pathologists. This first placement is developing language (ie. children). This is going to be my life for the next 8 weeks but I likely won't be able to reveal much as per confidentiality.

Selective Reading

As mentioned a few posts ago, book club is up for its second round. The selections being voted on now are (in alphabetical order; I won't reveal which I am supporting ;)

Bean Trees, The (Barbara Kingsolver)

Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao, The (Junot Diaz)

Good to a Fault (Marina Endicott)

I didn't really agonize over the choices this time but I'm much more satisfied with them. I'd be happy to read all three. With Oryx & Crake (Atwood) the themes were fairly transparent and somewhat cliche (I liked the book but she isn't known for concealing her opinion). The hope with the next novel is that it provides richer themes, stronger feelings and a wider range of emotion. We'll never know until we try one though :)

Cleaning House

Moving back from TO for two months (to do my first SLP placement in child language) I ended my lease and brought all my things home. There is barely enough room to walk around. I'm 24 and still moving back home between stints away at school. There is need to purge in anticipation of actually moving out of this place some day.

I'm doing an intensive "no regrets, no looking back" clear out of everything I own. If I don't use it I don't keep it.

The pink and yellow hair straightener is going. I've held onto it this long because where else can you get a hair straightener with exchangeable metal plates that let you emboss HEARTS! and STARS! on your hair???? All of my instincts say: what if you decide you want STARS in your hair next year and YOU JUST CAN"T DO IT???

The VHS movies are also going. The films themselves are a good representation of my favourite-flicks-of-all-time; unfortunately I don't have a VCR to actually view said movies. Maybe it is time to go digital.

Bye bye movie collection [its a short list]:
The Secret Garden "I've got a lump in my back, I've got a lump in my back!"
Ever After. Drew Barrymore at her best (exept for The Wedding Singer).
The Joy Luck Club. Who doesn't love a good generation-spanner?
Miss Congeniality. "Eyebrows: there should be two!"
About A Boy. I heart Hugh Grant even if he is dreadful in real life.
Beaches. Mini-Mayim Bialik, watch it!
What's Eating Gilbert Grape.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Rushmore. This one is somewhat out of place because, well, I have never watched it. I went through a buying-vhs-at-garage-sales phase a few years ago.

[ETA: More proof that I was a weird kid. In my sorting I found an old photo album with those sticky-sheets. Apparently I was trying to make some sort of time capsule because I cut out old newspaper articles and images of toys and clothes from old Sears catalogues. I had a pretty interesting idea of what was relevant at the time in terms of news: "Fishers incensed as Canada makes sockeye deal with Washington State". Armageddon was playing in theatres at the time. So was "Out of Sight" with George Clooney. I guess it wasn't very memorable.
That should also give you a timeline for when I was making this. Go being a little too old to be making something like that. This album also reminded me of one of my odd obsessions as a young child: cutting out pictures from Sears catalogues. I would do it for hours and had a bag that I kept them all in. My parents should have had me playing more sports, or an instrument.]