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.]

Anything You Can Do...

I have a needy bladder. Maybe too much information but true, nonetheless. Long car trips are exercises in dehydration and that is within a glorious nation filled with Tim Hortons and gas station washrooms scattered along the way. Traveling where washroom facilities are less accessible can be trying for me and I often have to plan my day/meals/beverages around my washroom needs. Even when they are available the toilet is often out of service or too nasty to actually go near. Going beside a tree can be messy without the right technique (and I can't say that I've perfected it as of yet). Here is a potentially revolutionary device that I am considering test-driving for when I spend 2.5 months in a developing country in 2011. If men can pee standing up without disrobing, why can't women? I present to you: The SheWee.

It even comes in pink! And NATO green! And Brilliant Blue! And Clear! And who could forget, DESERT SAND!?

Are you with me ladies?

Crossing off Something Nerdy

After many months of planning and waiting I was able to cross something off of my life to-do list. Something quite nerdy. I started a book club :) It is a sporadic one since its members are busy grad students but, nonetheless, we have read one book, discussed it and are in the plans for a second. That counts as a book club. I believe I mentioned the selection process on here back in November. Yes, it took until last week to be accomplished and there was a high attrition rate BUT there were 5 members in attendance and we talked about Margaret Atwood's Oryx & Crake.

We discussed themes and how the story paralleled our current society and what we thought Snowman would do at the end and what Crake really was planning and why. We ate lots of candy. Afterward we celebrated with a swim, a soak in the hot tub and a fry in the sauna.

The club hopes to hold another session in May when we all return from our first placements across Ontario. We need some book suggestions so I think i'll go do my research.

Commercially-Sanctioned Love Day

Last weekend was many things:
Long.
Not long enough.
Family Day.
A bridal shower for a friend from high school.
Valentine's Day.
The first time I had seen 'the man' in 6 weeks.
The start of the Vancouver Olympics.
Chinese New Year (although this one [unfortunately] did not come into play).

The bridal shower and bachelorette parties took place in Sudbury so I trekked 5 hours north for the weekend. Valentine's Day was spent at SCIENCE NORTH! While most patrons were families with children I think we may have had the most fun there. Go nerdy-science-love day!

First floor: rocks. Ok, not the best opener.

Next floor: BUGS! The knowledgable 'bluecoats' answered all of my questions and let me hold the following fauna: Madagasgar Hissing Cockroach. Giant Millipede (it felt like a toothbrush!). Atlas beetle. The typical lifespan of an Atlas Beetle is 4 months. Now you know. I'm basically fearless.
The insect/arachnid floor included a butterfly...house (?). Off to a not so great start, we let a butterfly out while we were entering the room! Woops! Good thing some attentive 10-yr-olds corrected our folly. Mark then waited patiently while I stared down a butterfly trying to molt its coccoon. Alas, mr. butterfly waited until I left to make his grand entrance.

Next floor: Animals Native to Ontario! Go turtles! Plus a fat, formerly-frost-bitten beaver, and tree-dwelling porcupine and secret Norwegian rats. The staff takes some of the animals out at select times during the day for teaching and touching purposes. We missed the flying squirrel, but, gosh darn it, I wasn't going to miss the skunk. We may have been the first people at the skunk pen and waited patiently while the attendant roused Rosise the descented skunk with promises of dog treats. She was adorable and extremely sociable. For Valentine's Day I pet a SKUNK! TAKE THAT!

Next floor: various athletic time trial games. I'll let you guess which of us enjoyed that part of the excursion most. Oh, racing up stairs! Jumping as high as you can! Grip strength!

After an eventful time at Science North our minds were full but our tummies were empty. This is where we faltered: driving around an unfamiliar city for quick food we caved and bought at the first fastfood place we could find. For our big Valentine's dinner I had apple juice and cookies as we watched the Olympics between runs to the corner store for Tylenol. We were both sick but it was one of my favourite times :)

Sign of Asperger's: Perseverating on one Topic

A few weeks ago I creeped a friend's blog and learned about a fabulous band from the UK: Mumford & Sons. It took me a while to remember that I live in Toronto where bands actually visit and play shows. So I looked them up and there was a sold out show this past Monday at Lee's Palace. A good friend and I grabbed two tickets on creeplist (read: Craigslist) and dutifully stood in line on Family Day to see them play. Oh yeah, the band. Mumford & Sons. We found ourselves standing about three rows (ie. 5 feet) from the stage and settled in for a good night.

The Opener: Sunparlour Players.
A two man/10 instrument act. Honestly, the lead singer also played guitar, bass and drums. The other member sang, played guitar, bass, drums, bell, xylophone, accordian, and one (both?) of them played banjo. Not-the-lead-singer guy (who looked like he may be an invesment banker by day) often played two instruments at one time. Oh look, no need for another band member, I'll just play bass AND xylophone AT ONE TIME. The music was folky rock and kinda gritty. Not sold enough to buy a CD but worth a listen.

The Main Attraction: Mumford & Sons. 4 young guys from the UK who also rotated instruments like crazy. They sang and played with every ounce of what they had and clearly loved performing together. Plus all 4 are very attractive. The lead singer has a strong and raw sounding voice that is, at first, unexpected but soon very familiar. It was their first show in Canada as the headliner so they were surprised that so many audience members knew all of the words to the songs (even though the album hasn't been released in Canada). All four laughed and joked with the crowd, although the young looking one on the guitar (Winston) was a mumbler and I never had any idea what he was trying to say. The band interspersed a few new songs in the show and all had the same folk style with enigmatic lyrics that characterizes the band. In the encore they surprised us with a sans-technology version of one of their older songs which just further highlighted their musicianship. It was a great show. I could easily go every week.


My current fave by Mumford & Sons. The Cave.

[ETA: somehow I double-posted the same video but I can't seem to edit one out. Woops!]

My Clothes-mate

Until now I had never had a friend that I could share clothing with. I was always taller, shorter, bigger or smaller than friends or had an entirely different style. Hi-C, however, has been showing me how to adorn myself with quality clothes for less expensive prices. Her secret: try it on in the store and then buy it on ebay for half the price.* She has also lent me some quality jeans to feel the difference and, blogosphere, I don't think I can ever go back!

About a month ago we spied a lovely dress on the main floor (read: not on sale) of Anthrologie. She promptly found one on ebay and it arrived last week while we were making apple & cheese scones! It looked gorgeous on her so I gave it a whirl and fell in love. This weekend I made my very first purchase on ebay and will soon be in possession of an "In-A-Moment" dress. I'm so lucky that Hi-C is such a good sport.



*You may already be privvy to this information but it was new to me.

Thanks Internet

For all the great things that the internet makes possible it also keeps a record of failures.

Feeling ambitious today after a great jog outside (so glad to be back outside! See ya later, treadmill!) I have been perusing training programs for running 10km. I'll be back up north soon for placement and no longer be forced by my own cheapness to walk at least an hour every day, therefore, I need a more intense exercise routine. While discussing this lofty plan with my (oh so sensitive ;) librariMan I let slip that I had run a 5km race before.

Oh, and that I came in last. Completely dead last. My time was 33 minutes but it was only the second time I had ever even made it that far without stopping (the first was two days before in an effort to not die). I was in grade 10, had only been running for a month and, let's be honest, had (and still have) never been athletic.

What does an ever-sensitive librariMan do in a situation like this? Offer comfort? Maybe some encouragement? He googles my race! And thank you internet: there is a record of me finishing dead last in a community fundraising race 10 YEARS AGO! That's right, October 9th, 2000 I came in last. Next time I ever attempt anything competitive I'm going to be certain to come in at least second last.

Food of the gods

SLP 2011 was granted a day off school today (from our fairy godmother). My good friend Hi-C hosted a homework group/baking session all afternoon.

First on the menu: Ginger cookies. We got this recipe from the good ol'net and highly recommend it (if you like your ginger cookies tasty and chewy). Another recommendation: double the spices.



Next (interspersed with some articulation assessment scoring), and the namesake for this post:
GOAT CHEESE & PEAR PIZZA. I don't care what time of day you are reading this, just go make this right now! So easy and a beautiful mix of sweet and savoury.

1. Buy some of that premade pizza dough (don't be lazy, the dough not the already baked crust).
2. Flatten onto floured pan (you know, pizza style).
3. Smother with pesto sauce (the tasty green stuff).
4. Carmelize onions and put on top*. Be generous.
5. Thinly slice pear and put on top. Keep up the generosity.
6. Sprinkle (inundate? Depending on your personal tastes) with GOAT CHEESE.
7. Bake (follow baking instructions on dough bag).
8. Savour.
9. Thank me (or actually Hi-C).

*You may actually want to do this as #2 and shift all other steps down one.

DAF: Delayed Auditory Feedback

Some of you may have heard about a 'miracle cure' that came out a few years ago for stuttering. One of the brand names is Speech Easy. Here is a heartwarming video demonstrating just how amazing the device is: a person can go from a severe stutter to fluent speech by simply inserting what looks like a hearing aid into the ear and turning it on. Immediate effects. (skip to about 5min in to see the actual heart-wrenching).



The principle behind the device is Delayed Auditory Feedback. The speaker's voice is echoed back in their ear with a delay of about 50ms (give or take). The hypothesis of why it works is that it creates a situation like choral speech that typically increases fluency (ie. it is like someone is speaking with you). Being an SLP student I get to learn about these amazing things, in fact, I take a whole class (6 hours a week!) in just stuttering. There is, of course, a catch because there always is. The effects of the device tend to wear off after some time as the brain gets used to the echo. It isn't a replacement for treatment and actual control of stuttering but may be a wonderful option for someone who is desperate, who stutters severely and who has tried everything.

The science behind it is interesting. Technology that causes stutterers to become more fluent can cause disfluent speech in nonstutterers. In class I volunteered to read a passage aloud while wearing headphones and the professor would switch on DAF at random intervals. My speech became slow, disfluent, repeating syllables, prolonging sounds. I didn't stutter exactly but I stumbled over my words much more than I normally would. Someone tried it before I did and, not wanting to be shown up, I tried to read even faster. Impossible! Every time I would try to speed up I would just start stringing together almost unintelligible syllables.

You can try it yourself. Do it with a friend because you may not realize just how different you sound. Download this software (it is free as a trial). Crank up the delay to approx 150-200ms (although try a range to see what causes the biggest effect). Wear some headphones and turn up the volume. Now read a passage. Try speeding up. Slow down. What happens?

Science rules. Ps. You'll need to have a microphone /built-in mic in order to do this activity.