I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...

I feel like this year is already a whirlwind, and it's not even halfway through February yet. The holidays came and went in a flash. We had a beautiful snow the night before what was supposed to be the first day of comps so comps were delayed a day. I believe I owe that one day for my passing SIX of my 7 comps. This is a huge feat I think, especially considering how no one passed them all and only one other girl passed 6. Now I have to re-write that one comp this coming Friday. The question is a little different but hopefully I can do it this time. It's on orofacial anomalies...I find out my results from the Praxis (the national exam) tomorrow...Hope I have happy news there. I am no longer dating anyone (as of two days ago), which is a good thing considering I have no plans to stay in this city after I graduate. I still need to figure out what town I want to live in though. Then I need to find a job there. Or maybe it should be the other way around--find a job to determine what town I live in. Either way I will soon need to start putting myself out there. First, I have to pass the comp this Friday, and I also need to finish my special project research paper. I'm meeting with my supervisor for that tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I'm just about finished with that. Once this week is over I feel like I'll have a lot of stress taken off my back.

My clinic placements this semester are going well but are all on-site (sad face). They had to all be on-site because I hadn't had any fluency or voice hours so the only way to guarantee I would get those type of hours would be to be on-site with supervisors that specialize in these areas. Last semester I got to be off-site for both my placements so I guess this just makes up for that. I cannot wait to be able to focus only on my clients and therapy and not on classes and projects! Only 89 days until graduation!!! Wahoo!!!

I'll keep you updated (that is if anyone even reads this) on my semester and work choices! For now I'll get back to micrognathia, atresia, and hypoplasia...

Four down, one to go

More than two months have flown by since I wrote last. It's hard to believe I have now compled FOUR semesters of grad school and am only lacking ONE semester until I have a M.A. Woah! Can I really be that grown up? Haha. However, I MUST pass comps to graduate. I will take on this endeavor January 10th & 11th. My brain literally starts hurting when I think of how little time I have to prepare for writing 7 essays in 7 subjects in 7 hours. Sounds pretty terrifying, right?! Especially considering how I have not even had classes in two of the areas. Weird but true. I have started to study for two of my comps. One of the two, Speech Science, I think I could spend all my time over break studying for. This is not a good thing because I have to take SEVEN. Sad face. I know it will all work out somehow...

In the past two months, I've been to Little Rock and back, Fayetteville and back, Fayetteville and back, Little Rock and back, and Little Rock and back. Crazy I know! I've had Razorback football games, a first birthday party, Thanksgiving, Christmas parties, and my mom's dance performance to attend. Whew! Well next semester I don't think I'll be making nearly as many trips. I've put WAY TOO many miles on my car, which means I've spent way too much money on gas plus having to get oil changes. Not to mention I already have to drive plenty is this city.

I suppose I should make bullet points of the last two months of my life (in no certain order of importance):

*The Razorbacks beat Ole Miss, which translates to beat Houston Nutt (I was there)
*The Razorbacks got the boot back from LSU (I was there)
*And most importantly in Hog Country...the Razorbacks are going to the SUGAR BOWL
*I'm dating a boy I met in cycling class
*I carved pumpkins (two to be exact) for the first time in my life
*I believe I am only 20ish hours away from the required 400 clinic hours
*I am going to the Dominican Republic for spring break to test people's hearing (and I got a scholarship that covers most of the trip)
*I along with at least 10 other girls in my class no longer have graduate assistantships (a Debbie downer I know)
*My favorite baby girl turned one year old
*All my living grandparents have had two visits each in the hospital and one is still in a skilled nursing home
*I have made some of my best cakes (7 I believe)
*My mom bought me the coolest leggings (black, red, and blue)
*I ran my first 5k (in 27 minutes)
*I've gotten to dress up (one of my favorite things) in 80s, as a princess, and twice for ugly Christmas sweaters
*I am not very good at speaking like I have ataxic dysarthria
*I now have a comps binder...
*I had some great experiences in clinic at the rehab hospital and the elementary school
*Two girls in my class found out they're pregnant
*One of my best friends found out she's pregnant as well
*I got to go ice skating at the zoo and see Zoo Lights (we were all a little disappointed in the lights)

I guess that is my life in the past two months in a nutshell. I know I'll have some more fabulous experiences to come over break even if a majority of it will be spent studying (hopefully studying).

Playoffs aren't just for sports

I finally worked on one of my papers and just finished it but not until after I let trying to figure out where I want to live consume me. Yes, I know I have until May before I gradute, but that's ONLY seven months!!! Actually it's now a little less than seven months, which it seems like a long time when I think about what all that has to happen between now and then---pass comps (ahhhhhhh!!!), pass the praxis, of course pass all my classes, finish my special project, and complete 400 clinic hours (ahhhhh again)! Seven months seems like not too long when I think about having to choose where I want to apply for a job. By where I'm just talking about choosing a state right now.

So earlier today I decided to look at different speech therapy clinics for children in different states. I have narrowed--and when I say narrowed take that term loosely--my decision down to six states. Yes, I realize that's a lot, but it's much fewer than 50 plus the District of Columbia. The six lucky states that have made it to the playoffs are... Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. These are listed in alphabetical order so none can be seen as having a higher preference than another. I do have cities picked out in each of these states for the most part.

I have always researched the idea of being a traveling SLP. That throws in a whole game in my playoffs. Stay tuned to find out where gets knocked out...

Now I must get back to the regular programming of my life...schoolwork

Where has the weekend gone?

The weekend always seems to vanish in thin air. Yes, I realize it is still Sunday and not even quite the afternoon yet. The weekend is pretty much gone now though because I should spend the next 10 hours working on my papers for autism. What I should do and what I actually do are not always the same...I deserve to give myself I small pat on the back for working on my special project this morning.

My special project involves spelling and 3rd graders. Sounds exciting, right? It actually really does interest me, which is good considering I already have spent hours and will spend more hours working on it. We (my supervisor and I) are trying to determine a pattern in spellings of 3rd graders. By this I mean, do their mistakes happen more due to orthographic change, phonological change, both change, or no change. I realize that probably doesn't make too much sense to you, but I'll explain more when we have figured out the pattern(s).

Yesterday I spent my day watching SEC football (and let me tell you it was quite a day in the SEC) instead of working on those papers...Don't worry I took my laptop and books over to my friend Sarah's house to work on while I watched the game. Too bad my light pink Sony Vaio stayed in my Vera Bradley petal pink messenger bag. Good intentions count for something, right?

Those good intentions have been around all morning too, but somehow the news and sports seem to find themselves on my computer screen. Gee, I don't know how that's happening...

4 Weddings in 4 Weeks in 4 States...Whew!

I am so glad to be able to have done absolutely nothing tonight! Well I should have been working on my papers for my autism class...(instead I've been catching up on all the episodes for this season of America's Next Top Model and chatting on facebook.) I'm just enjoying not having to travel anywhere. I've been all over the place--Texas last weekend, California the weekend before, central Arkansas the two weekends before, and northwest Arkansas the weekend before. Three of these weekends were for weddings (the fourth was in Memphis, which I came back early Labor Day weekend) and two of these were for Razorback games. Don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed all of these weekends, but it's nice staying put for a change. All the weddings were beautiful! I was even a groomslady at the wedding in Cali. That was definitely a trip of a lifetime, and I loved every minute!

"Staying put" is not a literal saying so someone on the autism spectrum would probably have a hard time understanding that. I think about autism pretty often. I try to think about how a person with autism (even high functioning)may feel in a situation...when I had a majorly delayed flight back from California, in the cafeteria with only kindergardners and first graders at the school I'm at for clinic, at football games when people are cheering, the list goes on and on. Last week when I was at the wedding in Texas, where I didn't know the guests, I at first felt like I was the opposite of somone with autism because I really wanted someone to talk to me. Then I start to think about all my quirky little characteristics that really are rather odd if you think about it...having to set an alarm or a microwave on a time ending with a 3 or 7, having an obssession with checking weather forecasts for lots of different places. Ok, I'll stop there. I mean we all really have some characteristics of autism...

So almost 3 months later...

Wow! Time sure does fly when you're in grad school. So much has happened since my last post back in June. I won't bore you with all those details. A new semester has begun. I am now really a second year. Crazy. I'll sum up what I learned over my summer semester for you:
1) I really do prefer to work with children over adults
2) Accent reduction instruction is not really what I'm interested in
3) More than I ever knew about word stress, idioms, American culture/holidays/icons
4) I have an awesome time in Little Rock
5) I really really do enjoy making cakes
6) Rope swinging from a cliff can be dangerous
7) Five to jive is the best game
8) Charleston is amazing
9) Partying like it's 1985 is rad
10)West Memphis doesn't even have a coffee shop

This semester I know I'll learn lots more, especially clinic related. I'll have my first hospital placement and my first school placement. I'm excited and nervous. Hopefully, I'll be starting those next week...

I also am excited about my dysphasia (swallowing disorders) class and my autism spectrum disorders class! I'm also taking a public schools clinic class and a neuromotor speech disorders class. I have so much to learn!

I had to sit up front in class...WEIRD

My third semester as a grad student is underway. This evening in class I had to sit in the very front row...GASP! I typically sit in the back of the classroom. It may not be conducive to my learning, but I like it. I walked in class two minutes before it started (I would have been there earlier, but I was finishing icing the butterfly cake for Maggie's birthday) to find my "typical" seat taken and the only seats still available in the FRONT row. I made my way up front and sat down in a chair that was on the left side of the room. I usually sit on the right side so this seat was completely opposite from my normal. It felt awkward!

My first two days have gone well. I actually have binders for the semester (with cupcakes on them). Score! My binders now have two syllabi and some clinic stuff in them. My goal is to continue actually putting things in the ring part of the binder. Think I can keep this up?

My aural rehab class seems like it'll be interesting but very LONG (4 hours and 10 minutes every Monday). We went through 90 slides yesterday (that's right ninety). I actually typed up an outline for these slides and even read 25 pages of a book we have to write a paper on. This paper isn't even due until August 2nd so I'm proud of myself for this early start. Eager beaver.

My langugage disorders in adults clas seems like it'll be interesting. It's only 2 hours because it's split up into two evenings a week (T TH).

Clinic this morning was interesting. I'll definitely have quite a challenge, but it should be fun! I'll get to learn about assistive technology at my assistantship tomorrow. I'm excited! I'll typically have it MWF, but my supervisor is out of town.

June is here, which means my return to grad school

I had to leave my little dream world June 1st. May FLEW by! It didn't listen to me when I told it to slow down. Upon my arrival back, I felt like I had only been gone for 4 days instead of 4 weeks.

My May break was FABULOUS! This would not have been so if it wasn't for my amazing boyfriend and friends. I just LOVE NWA!!!

Yesterday was orientation. We have to go to orienation at the beginning of every semester because we have to get our clinic placements and meet with our supervisors. I am excited about my placements even if one of them is going to give me more than 3 times the number of hours in child language therapy required (I already have more than double what I need). I'll get adult clients for the first time, which kind of makes me nervous. ..

May Never Needs To End...

I haven't written since I started by May break. I figured I don't really have much to write about grad schoolwise. I did get a graduate assistantship though! This is very exciting!!! It cuts my tuition from out-of-state to just half of in-state, which is about $9000 off! Wahoo!!!

I am thoroughly enjoying May. I would be just fine if it never ends! I've gotten to spend lots of time with most of my favorites (minus Danielle and Katherine of course) and know more amazing times are to come in the next two weeks. Some of the things we've done are eaten at some of my favorite places, played rockband, gone to a baseball game, gone to a casino, and had a bachelorette party. The bachelorette party was this past Saturday, and it was fabulous! We hadn't had a girls' night in FOREVER!!!

Zach and I are getting to cross stuff off our to-do list. So far we've been able to cross off grasshopper crepes, flying a kite, baseball game, golf, and casino. Last night we tried to beat the blue team on the computerized shuffleboard game at one of the bars. This shuffleboard game is actually where we met each other a little over 5 weeks ago. More things on our to-do list include Devil's Den, a waterfall, an elementary school lunch, the castle, putt-putt, bowling, and I think a couple more things.

A few things I've learned so far on break:
1) I truly am blessed
2) Don't go to a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo unless you want to have a 3 hour meal
3) Group meals will probably last around 2 and a half hours no matter what
4) Slot machines don't always cost the amount they say (i.e., they require more than 1 credit to play)
5) I really miss clinic but not class

Something I already knew:
1) I have the most AWESOME friends!!!

I WILL SURVIVE...and we DID survive

I am officially 2/5ths of the way finished with graduate school. This time next year I'll be finished with school FOREVER...FOR--EVER (insert "Sandlot" voice here). We (as in first year speechies) survived speech science, neuro, language disorders,and another clinic class. A few of us even survived a particular clinic placement!

The neuro exam had a few surprise questions on it, but all that matters now is that it is over! And you have no idea how amazing it felt to put all my clients' working folders into my supervisor's box to show her I was completely finished with them! I had a supervisor meeting, which went fine. Then my group met to do this final project for language disorders class. She gave us this assignment last week! Not cool considering finals and all the final clinic paperwork.

When I got to go home, the first thing I did was scratch off all my to-do list items on my bathroom mirror. Yes, I write in phonetics on my mirror...

I don't think I've ever mentioned by obsession with baking cakes on here. Well I do have one. In the past month, I've made 7 cakes and a set of mini-cakes. Yesterday I made an ice skate cake to honor my roomie's birthday. I just winged it, and I must say I think it turned out quite well.

Then last night a group of us speechies were going to go bowling. Unfortunately, the bowling alley is closed on Mondays! What's up with that?! So we instead just chilled on the roof of a bar on Beale street. It was fun! It's so weird to think I'm not going to see those girls and boy for a month!

Today I will begin my adventure of a May spent in the natural state with a majority of the time being in Fayetteville. I suppose I need to get to some more laundry and packing...

May Day May Day May Day...

Wow! It's really May now, and let me tell you it came in with a BANG literally! From around 3 am to a little before 9 am Saturday (May 1st) Memphis got about 10 inches of rain. It was storming like crazy!!! I was awake from 4 to 5:30 due to thunder and ligtening that literally kept the sky illuminated the whole time. Then it woke me again at 7. I thought I would try to be very productive and go to the clinic to get work on my clients finished because I couldn't from Wednesday to Friday due to the server being down. (Yes, it was down at the absolute worst time of year.) The roads were completely flooded so I could not get to the clinic. Instead I had to settle with starting to study neuro.

The bang of Saturday continued through out the day. The morning continued with storms and tornado warnings that caused the sirens to go off twice. Then mid-afternoon the sun tried to peak its head out from the clouds. Luckily, the road floodings subsided, and I was able to spend 3 hours at the clinic. Wahoo! Then it was back to attempting to study neuro. I was all settled in on my bed with my lovely notes and then the sirens went off again! This time it was for an hour, and this time they were thinking it was coming across the river. Considering how I live on Mud Island I figured I would take cover this time. So I spent an hour of my life Saturday night in my roommate's bathtub. (Her bathroom is the only room without windows in our apartmen.) I chose a few items to accompany me. They were my photobooks (I've spent too much money and time to let those be ruined!), pearls, chocolate, my laptop, my phone, and my granddaddy's Navy wings. Oh and I took one neuor powerpoint in there with me.

Sunday began with a few hours at the clinic. I have pretty much finished all my client stuff (i.e., summary reports, SOAP notes, treatment plan, language sample). You have no idea how good this felt! All I have to do today is add who is to get copies of the sumamry report (the cc) and fill out these summary test forms. Sunday continued with neuro. Of course knowing me I took about a million breaks.

I have two hours left until I'll be leaving to take my last final of the semester! I should be studying right now, especially considering how my body decided to wake me up at 5. I truly am terrible at getting sleep! All this talk about spinal tracts, sodium potassium pumps, neurons, ahhhhhhhh!!! I guess I really better look over my notes again...

Oh and what stinks is that I won't be finished after my final. I'll have my supervisor evaluation meeting. Then I'll have to work on my final group project assignment for language disorders, which she only assigned in our Tuesday night class last week! Not cool

Figaro, figaro, figaro...tomorrow

The speech science final is the only thing I was able to cross off of my list on my mirror. Yes, I write my to do list on my bathroom mirror. Oh and it's written in phonetics. I am that cool! The reason why I could cross any of my clinic work (i.e.,SOAP notes, summary reports, treatment plan) off was because the server for the clinic was down until 7:30 pm. I had planned on staying to work on it all day, which obviously couldn't happen without the server working. It went down Wednesday morning. For 3 days, we could do absolutely nothing with our client information. No bueno! Now I'll have to go in the morning, which wouldn't be so bad except for the little fact that I have a neuro final Monday that I haven't even begun to study for. Ooops!

So the speech science final was ehhhh, I don't really want to talk about it. I will say we had to read spectrograms on the test, which let me tell you is no easy task. The second word I had t (blank) (blank) a r o (long o). I couldn't tell for the life of me what the two blanks were. I knew the second was a vowel, and I thought the third could be a nasal but then decided against that because I didn't see the antiresonance and because it was narrow. So after much thought I just decided to make the word "figaro" so I changed the "t" to an "f" and just plugged in the next two phonemes, even though I didn't really think there was a stop ("g") in the third position. For some odd reason, the only word I could think of that ends in "aro" was "figaro". Who even thinks of that word? Needless to say, it wasn't "figaro" but instead was "tomorrow". Yes, a normal word.

Just so you know spoonfuls of chocolate chips and peanut butter chips make a good snack for "not even pretending to study" time.

Where'd marker go?!

The last week of therapy and class has commenced. Now the real stress of the semester begins in the form of summary reports, final SOAPS, treatment plans, discharge forms, apparently testing summary forms, and finals. Oh and I should mention nothing could be done of the first three things the past two days due to the clinic's server being down. Yes, during the worst possible time for it be down. I REALLY REALLY hope everything is back up and working by tomorrow. All this needs to be finished by Monday, So in 4 days. Ahhhhhhh!!!

The second to last day of therapy something AMAZING happened. A client made a funny by doing what I had modeled all semester as an early developing question--show marker, put in lap, ask "Where'd marker go?" and gesture where with arms, pull from lap and say "in my lap" in response to the question. It was absolutely adorable and awesome to see!

Tomorrow morning will be the speech science final exam. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Who ever thought I would actually be able to read single word spectrograms?! Now I just hope I can do it on the exam... I'm oddly not really too worried about the test even though I should be! I think I'm just ready to get it over with. I've studied and just don't know what else to do. Only time will tell if I'm prepared...

What's that in the road a head?

I finished my last homework assignment EVER in speech science today! It consisted of noticing the duration, amplitude, and fundamental frequency changes during stressed and unstressed words/syllables. Two of the sentences we had to notice these changes was between "What's in the road ahead?" and "What's in the road a head?" Crazy how much prosody changes the meaning of a sentence. Or even a word for that matter like "record" the noun and "record" the verb. If the stress is on the first syllable, it is a noun. If the stress is on the second syllable, it is a verb.

Time keeps on truckin by. Yet, I would like for it to go a little faster. Just until I finish the semester. Then I want time to go very, very slowly in May! I have a lot of things to do...go to a Razorback baseball game, fly a kite, rollerblade on the bike trail, eat grasshopper crepes, go to Devil's Den, babysit an AWESOME almost one year old, hang with an AWESOME five month old, play golf, have an "elementary school food" picnic, help throw a bachelorette party, go to a first birthday party, go to a wedding, and of course hang with my besties and Zach.

What Nasal Sound Am I Making

Another week down! My final diagnostic report for the semester and my sign language final can be checked off my list. Only 10 more days...3 class days, 1 speech science homework, 3 finals, 2 therapy days, 4 finalized summary reports, 4 SOAPs...the end is near :)

It really can be hard to tell whether someone is making a "m" sound or a "n" sound if you can't see the lips. We practiced this in speech science class the other day. Oh and I've got a good joke for you. Why did the neuron go to the gym? To pump more ions. Haha!

This week is almost a blur already. I do know I baked 2 cakes for 2 birthdays of girls in my class. Oh and I went from Monday night at 10 pm until noon today (Friday) without sweets as a challenge from Zach. I win! Today I more than made up for it with the insane amount of sugar I consumed.

Tonight I got to dress up like the early '90s for the end of the semester party at a professor's house. There was a theme to wear what you wore the first day of school in elementary school. The outfit I put together included a Tinkerbell t-shirt with the side pulled together in a hair thing, hot pink capris, a side ponytail, and shoes that had ice cream pops on them. This is definitely not something my mom would have let me wear the first day of school, but it is something I would have probably put together back then.

Bilabial Blue, Velar Green

It's been another whirlwind of a week! Only 18 more days until May break!!!

You know you're in grad school for SLP when...

• in class multiple people say bibabial blue and velar green when the professor asks what color he should use to draw loci and transitions of consonants
• you love to write in phonetics
• you find it cool to see movement of the soft palate and faucial pillars
• you feel like a bag lady because you have to carry around so much stuff
• you tell people what you're getting your degree in and people have no clue what it is
• you say, "Sorry I have pragmatic issues" when you interrupt someone
• you go to concerts and think about what singers are doin to their vocal folds (you cringe just thinking about it)
• you wonder how anyone is "typical"

Don't Stop Believing

Fayetteville was a fabulous time as always. Should I expect anything less? Of course not! Dickson St, Wilson Park, cake baking, Mimi's Cafe, and Michelle's bridal shower...nothing could go wrong with a schedule like this!

My little weekend trip meant little was accomplished in the way of school...Of course I finished my SOAPs and teacher surveys before I left Friday. Saturday I read like 5 pages of Speech Science...Tonight I've been practicing "Don't Stop Believing" in sign language.

I tried to explain what all a SLP did to someone today. It's rather difficult to explain all the types of jobs covered under speech-language pathology. It made me realize I have SOOOO much to learn about that I really have no clue about.

The Cerebellum Is The First To Go...

It's very exciting to think about how it is the end of the semester. However, it is pretty terrifying to think about how much I have to do. Next week especially will be no fun! I have to do ending status probes and get language samples on 4 clients Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I'll have summary reports on them due Friday. Plus Thursday I'll have a diagnostic so I'll spend all Thursday afternoon writing the diagnostic report. Then in my Thursday evening class I'll present a song in sign langauge. Oh and I'll have speech science homework due Friday as well. What makes all this even more fun is I absolutely cannot do anything for any of this until I get all my data Wednesday. (I have clinic and then class until 5:30 Wednesday.) Well I can practice my lyrics for sign language after I finish writing my SOAPs for this week and making teacher surveys for my client's teachers. Oh and I'm driving to Fayetteville tomorrow for a bridal shower this weekend.

I'm sooo excited about going to Fayetteville. It's too bad the baseball team is out of town for the weekend. At least I'll get to catch them for their last home series in May.

Oh good news in Neuro. My professor thinks my class has done so well on our two tests that he is moving our third test to the final date and eliminating the comprehensive final. Hooray!!! Just so you know when you drink alcohol your cerebellum is the first to go. That's why sobriety tests are the same type of tests given to people with damage of the cerebellum.

"I just broke FERPA..."

Another week and a half has flown by, and here we are already in April.

That everdreaded speech test I was talking about took me on a hot air balloon ride. My professor handed back our grades on the test on little slips of paper with the points you made on the test and the total points you have in the class. The grade next to my name on the test was 10 percentage points higher than I had expected for the test, which is only like 3 more points considering the test is only out of 30 points. This is when I stepped unexpectedly onto a hot air balloon. I was elated! I thought Sweet. I had left the 3 answers that I kept changing the answers with the correct ones. Later that night I was talking on Facebook chat to a girl in my class with the same last name as me. She told me the grade she got on the test was 10 percentage points less than what she had thought she had made. I didn't think anything of this at first because I was too busy looking at the lineup for Memphis in May. The next morning I was driving to therapy and for whatever reason was thinking about the test and our grades. That's when I reached the halfway point of my hot air balloon ride. I thought He must have mixed up our grades because we have the same last name. When I got home from lunch after therapy, I sent him an email explaining this and that he may need to check our grades. He responded immediately saying he hoped he hadn't made such a mistake but wouldn't be in his clinic until the following day to check. Wednesday rolls around, and he has my classmate and me come into his office before class. That's when the hot air balloon for sure landed. He started off by telling us he broke FERPA. Some act about not showing other people students' grades. We told him we really didn't care that we obviously shared our grades with each other. Otherwise, we would never have known about this. Then, he turned to me and said Typically, I only have students tell me they thought they did better on a test and not worse. I tell him I couldn't take a grade that wasn't mine.

My overall grade for the class is now 5 percentage points less than what I had thought that Monday afternoon, but that's ok I know it's the grade I earned, and I can still pull it up with the final!

Time to get back to speech sciencing...
Yay for homework about spectrograms...

Funiculus and Ipsilateral...Just a few of my favorite words

Another week has flown by, and there are just 5 weeks left of the semester. No complaints here for how fast it's going by. I'm ready for summer break and by summer break I mean the month of May. This will be my last somewhat of a summer off before I grow up and get a big girl job. Haha. That is unless I work in schools, which I'm not thinking I will.

The peak of the week (aka hump day aka Wednesday) included a Speech Science test, which equals no buono. And what did I do on it that I always have a tendency to do--changed 3 answers I had correct to wrong ones. This is why I should not go over my test after I finish! At least it's over with, but this means I need to do well on the final. I probably should start studying now! Or well really after my neuro test on Monday. My two hardest classes always have the tests less than a week from each other.

The night before the everdreaded Speech Science. I woke up a little after 4 am, and my brain was just thinking stop plosive--1) stop gap: oropharynx closed + velopharyngeal port closed + glottis open; high tracheal and oropharyngeal pressures; no flow 2) plosive: oropharynx open; pressures=0; transient turbulent flow 3) aspiration: glottis partially abducted; low tracheal pressure; sustained turbulent flow. The same was happening for frication, vowels, and nasals. [side note:Just so you know if you were trying to say Mom but didn't open your velopharyngeal port you would actually say Bob.] I just kept telling my brain to stop, and eventually it did and let me fall back to sleep for a little bit before 6:07 am rolled around.

Last night I began looking over neuro. The first step was getting out my stack of powerpoints and checking with my roommate that I wasn't missing any. This is a step because I do not have binders. Haha. I, however, was not missing anything he handed out in class. There were a few powerpoints he put on the computers that I had to print this morning. The next step was to start typing out information on the powerpoints.

That step isn't very exciting. Well I suppose none of the steps to studying are exciting... At least I came across the word ipsilateral--one of my favorite words. Try saying it 10 times fast. Haha. Same with funiculus. Oh and I prefer semilunar ganglion over calling it trigeminal ganglion. I've gotta find some amusement in the words for neuro, or I don't know how I'd make it through.

Speaking of which...I better get started on neuro for the day...

Oh I forgot to mention my favorite activities I planned for therapy this week. My older ones (kindergardners) made video cameras using posterboard, cheezit/vanilla wafer/sandwich bag boxes, and construction paper. Then they "filmed" each other making the "news" holding microphones. They LOVED it! I just love coming up with creative activities for them.

Ok, protopathic and epicritic somasthesia pathways here I come...