An excuse to procrastinate studying...

Another quiz from cousin Katy to fill out. I just got home from Indy tonight, and I'm supposed to be studying for a test I have tomorrow morning. I feel like this will be my warm-up or my break time. Then I'll get back to that.

A - Attached or single? Attached to a great great guy, Eric!
B- Best friend? From college - Emily and Sam, from childhood - Ashlee
C - Cake or pie? Cake
D - Day of choice? Friday afternoons
E - Essential item? Chapstick and Cherry Coke Zero
F - Favorite color? Lately, maroon.
G - Gummy bears or worms? Worms. There's more to 'em.
H - Hometown? Woodbury, MN
I - Favorite indulgence? Cheez-its and Coke Zero or Oreo Cookie ice cream
J - January or July? July. I could not pick January because at this point in the season, I am sooooooo ready for warm weather.
K - Kids? Someday maybe. However, the little children at the airport today were really good birth control. Screaming kids whose parents let them turn the airport terminals into jungle gyms make me not want my own kids ever.
L - Life isn't complete without? Family, love, close friends, lots of laughter, feeling like you're making a difference.
M - Marriage date? TBD
N - Number of brothers and sisters? 3 sisters, 1 brother, 1 brother-in-law and 1 soon-to-be brother-in-law.
O - Oranges or apples? Oranges. I'm allergic to the peels on apples. I know, it's sad.
P - Phobia and fears? Spiders. The dark, especially in basements -- it all goes back to those darm scary movies I watched as a kid. I always thought Freddie Krueger or someone was going to jump out and get me if I was alone in the basement in the dark.
Q - Quote? "Be the change you wish to see in the world."
R - Reason to smile? I am really happy with my life right now and love living in Minnesota, even if the weather is still kinda cold. And I just got to spend the weekend with some great college friends and see two of them get married. (Congrats again, Laura and Brian!)
S - Season of choice? Spring because it leads to summer, which I love and want to last as long as possible.
T - Tag three people: Laura, Stacy, Eric
U - Unknown fact about me? I learned to ice skate when I was 4 at a little ice rink across the street from my house.
W - Worst habit? Going to sleep without washing my face or brushing my teeth sometimes.
X - X-ray or ultrasound? Should I care about this? I guess ultrasounds seem like they might be cooler.
Y - Your favorite food? Anything new. I love Greek food and have been craving it lately.
Z - Zodiac sign? Scorpio, but I'm on the cusp of being a Libra, so I apparently have Libra tendencies that make me less mysterious and Scorpio-like.

Voice clinic

I forgot to mention that I got to observe in a voice clinic yesterday. It was very interesting. Speech-language pathology continues to amaze me with how freakin' diverse the opportunities are within the field. It is wide open. I can end up working with kids, babies, seniors, middle-agers, whoever. And it could involve disorders in swallowing, articulation, language, voice, accent modification. And I could work in any of the following settings: schools, hospitals, clinics, private practice (!), who knows!

Anyway, I went to Park Nicollet's St. Louis Park voice clinic yesterday and got to sit in on appointments with two different patients. HIPAA rules prevent me from writing about specifics here, but it was just pretty cool. I watched two different types of scopes being done. One is a long rod that they stick in your mouth (you have your tongue sticking out, and you're saying "eeeee" as much as you can). On the end of the rod is a camera that is shooting video of your vocal folds (cord) to see if there is any damage to them. Another scope consists of a little tube that fits up your nose with a camera on the end of it. It goes up your nasal passage, down your throat and again gives you a great view of your vocal folds. By making the patients make sounds or sing verses of a song while the scope is in place, we were able to see if there was any swelling, nodes, etc. on them. Pretty sweet. What I liked about it was how it seems that every day would be different. You are able to talk to different people, help them out (hopefully) and your day goes by so fast. I think I'm going to try to observe at the same clinic again sometime and hopefully sit in on some treatment/voice therapy to see another side of it. Just fyi, the people who would usually come to a voice clinic are teachers, singers, etc. -- people who use their voices a lot and develop problems like hoarseness, nodes, etc.

This makes me excited to check out some other clinics and other settings, like schools too. I'll find out soon (within the next month, hopefully) if I'll have a clinical practicum placement this summer. I'm guessing I will have some kind of placement with children since I'm currently taking a class called Language and Cognitive Disorders in Children, and I haven't taken the adult language class yet. So yeah, I'm getting pumped and excited about hopefully being able to work with some people this summer and start getting my feet wet!

On the road again...

Happy Wednesday to all! (It's really my Friday this week.)

I'm at work and feeling a little sleepy from editing a lot of web content and forgetting to bring my glasses to work. Ah, what can you do?

Today's schedule looks like this: work, home, choir, then pack for my weekend trip to Grand Marais with Eric. We're staying at his parents' place up there and keeping his mom company over Easter weekend. Should be fun. Some might say it's odd that I'm going somewhere 10 degrees (or more) colder during spring break, but I say it's going to be fun. I've never been, but I've heard good things. It's right on Lake Superior, there's plenty of outdoorsy activities to do, Indy gets to meet Rocky (Eric's dad's black lab), and there will probably be some good food involved. And who doesn't love a little road trip just to get away from the same ol' routine? Anyway, we leave tomorrow morning after I take Indy for a little jog to tire her out a little bit. Otherwise, she will whine for the first hour or so of the trip, and that is not cool.

Well, have a good rest of the week and fabulous weekend. Check back for some pics from Grand Marais next week!

Spring break

That's right, I am on spring break for the first time in 5 years. It's lovely so far. This weekend, I slept in, didn't study at all, hung out with Ang & Pat, Ashlee, Eric, the cousins, Mom, Aunt Katie. I even went for a little jog/walk with Katie yesterday around Lake Nokomis. She and Rae got a dog -- a 2 year old poodle/cocker(?) mix named Kramer. He made Indy look ginormous.

I'm doing better now that it's been a week since the car incident. I don't like driving under that same bridge, but it's the quickest way to St. Paul from my house, so I've done it now about 10 times since last week.

My midterms last week went well, I think. They were in Stats and Hearing Measurement & Disorders. I really never knew it, but the ear can look mighty gross when there are different disorders going on. Top thing no one in my class wants to ever get: cholesteatoma. Look it up. It's nasty, and it can recur, and there's no good treatment.

I've been spending a lot of time lately joining Eric on his search for a house. Let me just tell you that although everyone says it's a perfect time to buy and it's a buyer's market, it is really hard to find a good house! He had a major heartbreak last Friday when he put an offer on an awesome house with all the cute built-ins (buffet, bookshelves), hardwood floors, etc., and then later that night he found out that someone else's offer got approved just hours earlier. It's crazy. Apparently there are people looking for exactly what he's looking for and they're on the prowl just steps ahead of him! Bah! So think good thoughts, say a prayer, send some positive energy his way. It'd be so awesome if more houses were put on the market soon.

Well, happy St. Patrick's Day to you all. I'll be celebrating my non-Irish heritage by working, taking Indy to the vet and then going to watch Eric kick some butt at his soccer game and then join his team for a beer after the game. I am wearing my green Notre Dame t-shirt with the little leprechaun on it. I'm festive.

New Mexico Pics

Remember how I went to New Mexico for Christmas and I was there for 10 days? Well, I finally got all my pics online and sent them out to the immediate family. If anyone else is interested, click here to see them.

P.S. There are about 140, so feel free to click through quickly. Or feel free to use this as an excuse to take a break from work or studying.

To Whom It May Concern

To the inconsiderate, immature jerks who are obviously unable to consider any possible consequences of their actions,

Here is what my car now looks like. This is from when you threw a large rock of some sort down from the bridge that goes over Hennepin Ave. in NE Minneapolis. I was driving home from my mom's house with my dog in the back seat and couldn't figure out if I had been shot at or if something had hit my car. When I heard the initial blast of the shattering glass, I ducked by instinct (or maybe because I just watched the movie "Shooter"). So if your goal was just to scare some people, job well done. You not only scared the crap out of me, but also woke up my poor dog in the back seat, who was covered in glass shards and very confused. I immediately looked at the car next to me and the car behind me to see if there was any way that they were possibly shooting at my car. At the same time, I got my phone out and called 9-1-1. Once I was home and ruled out the whole shooting option, the dispatcher sent a policeman out to help me. Last I heard, someone else had called in after me to report a similar incident, and the cops were apparently trying to chase you down. I'm really hoping they caught you. I'm not sure if you will learn your lesson and never do this again, but I really hope you do. For now, I would consider yourself lucky that you didn't seriously injure or kill someone. If your timing had been a couple seconds different, that rock could have gone through my front windshield. And thank your lucky stars that the rock just hit and bounced off my car instead of falling through the glass and hitting my dog. And....thankfully, there were no other passengers in my car besides my dog, especially in the back seat. At this point, I'm pretty angry that someone could be so stupid and just totally ignorant of what could have seriously happened. I'm also thankful that at least my car insurance will cover the cost of this window replacement and that my dog and I are both uninjured.

Here's hoping you get caught and never do this sort of thing again. And here's to hoping that more people actually consider the consequences of their actions.

Sincerely,
An angry driver who hopes your punishment consists of community service helping people who have been disfigured or incapacitated due to stupid actions like yours

Cute shoes

I am pretty excited to wear these cute little things at my friend Laura's wedding in one month (exactly one month from today!). I just got them the other day to go with my bridesmaid dress -- JCrew halter beach dress in espresso. All the bridesmaids are wearing different styles of the same dress and we will all have different shoes. I think it will be a fun look -- and of course I'll post pictures after the wedding....you just have to wait another month until I can do that.

These shoes make me feel like I am way more sophisticated and trendy than I really am.

Spice girl: Ginger

Yep, another quiz-type thing lifted from Katy's blog. What can I say? I like these things. Guilty pleasure, folks. So, I took this "What Spice Are You?" Quiz and apparently, I am a chameleon in a spice. I am Ginger. That just makes me want to go eat sushi. Sushi, anyone???

You Are Ginger

Like ginger, you are a total shape shifter. You can be sweet, spicy, mellow, or overpowering. You are both soothing and unique. You are popular... yet you are often overlooked.

What Spice Are You?

Fav email forward that will probably make you say "Really?"

I know, forwards are a waste of time and usually stupid. That's why I'm just putting this one up here so I don't annoy you with an email forward. I saw this one several years ago and thought it was so funny that I saved the picture as my desktop background. And now, here it is again, making me laugh all over again. Here you go....

Subject: Stress

I am not sure exactly how this works, but this is amazingly accurate.

The picture below has 2 identical dolphins in it. It was used in a case study on stress levels at the Mayo Clinic and later at Fletcher Medical Center in Burlington.

Look at both dolphins jumping out of the water. The dolphins are identical. A closely monitored, scientific study revealed that, in spite of the fact that the dolphins are identical, a person under stress will find many differences between the two dolphins.

The more differences a person finds, the more stress that person is experiencing.

Look at the photograph and if you find more than one or two differences you may need to take a vacation.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

For Valentine's Day, Eric and I made chicken kabobs (very fun meal to make together!). We made 11 and ate......all 11. And then ate this lovely gigantic cookie (made by yours truly). Don't worry, we didn't eat the entire cookie in one sitting. It took all weekend to eat it. Aren't you impressed with my decorating skills?