Katie’s Blog
Katie is the appreciative frequent user of emuzines. She grew up in the South Bay, which she continues to visit frequently since her move to Northern California in 2008. Academics are a big part of her life, and she is currently working toward her second graduate degree. She is passionate about autism, and is currently working at the MIND Institute in Sacramento, conducting autism research. Katie loves the little things in life, such as the smells of parking garages, water on concrete, and the fog on Pirates of the Carribean. Her friends and family are very important to her, and she loves hosting parties and entertaining visitors. She loves dogs, travelling, exploring, eating out, scrapbooking, chocolate, and rain.
The Past Two Weeks
I’ve written a lot of posts in my head, both during my week home and since we’ve been back here in Davis. When I was home, I was too busy with fun to want to sit down and post, and in Davis, I don’t have internet except for the time I want to spend in the apartment Club House using their slow and oft-breaking wireless (in which case, I’m frustrated trying to send out work- and school-related e-mails, looking into LCSW licensure, trying to save web pages I need to print onto my desktop so I can come home and print them later…). In other words, life without internet is sort of a pain. Now, I’ve organized a free afternoon, and am using the time before our dining table gets delivered to write a post in Word, and I’ll somehow post it later.
As I usually say, things here are good. They really are. I haven’t started school yet, but I’ve been to some orientation activities (optional, how great is that?…hence my free afternoon…), had some TB testing, physical stuff at the UC Davis Medical Center (Employee Health Services, which makes me feel special), and yesterday I went to meet with my mentor at the MIND. She introduced me around to everybody, showed me my office (!), and told me a bit about what I’ll be doing, or what my options are. I talked to her about gaining hours to get my LCSW (clinical license as a social worker), and she’s really excited about making it happen for me. She has no doubt it’ll work there. So basically, I’m an employee at the MIND, getting paid to work there, getting my LCSW hours, getting course credit, earning my Ph.D., working on projects and papers and chapters (I can’t wait until I’m published) with some incredible people, and looooooooving it there. I am so honored and so excited. They do such great work and have really positive far-reaching impact on the autism field. I love, love, love it.
School is there in my mind, too, but almost as a backdrop. I’ll only be taking two courses this quarter and getting the rest of my credits through research at the MIND. I begin classes next Thursday, late-night classes. Like I mentioned earlier, I’ve been going to some orientation activities, the ones that I think would be helpful for me. They really have been, for the most part. And on the first day, I found myself lost in a building on campus, trying to navigate its twists and turns to find the correct lecture hall. I saw another lost person out of the corner of my eye, turned around, and realized it was one of the two girls I already know. Since this week of orientation is for all graduate students, masters and Ph.D., in all fields, to find her right away was pretty lucky. She’s been my buddy all this week and that feels nice.
Last night Nik and I headed to downtown Sacramento to go to dinner at the Melting Pot. We had tons of food in the fridge at home, because we haven’t quite figured out yet how to shop and cook for just the two of us. Anyway, we still went, and it was delicious as always. We missed our Melting Pot double date partners, though!
Something else that is still on my mind is my week of fun back in LA. My aunt Sharon came to visit and we took her to Santa Monica and Pasadena…where we got stuck, literally, in the middle of a fight between an Apple Store security guard/police officer and a thief. It was a long struggle and eventually a failed arrest (unless they caught his getaway car later), but we were really stuck in the middle of it. We actually had to flee down the sidewalk, being at most 5 feet from the struggle, and run into another store to avoid getting held as hostage or shot or stabbed. We decided to watch the fight play out from the store windows, risking the gun thing, when the police officer threw the assailant against the window right into our faces! It was quite entertaining but pretty scary. This all came right after Sharon was talking about how, despite its reputation, she didn’t really think LA was too crime-ridden.
[singlepic=36,320,240,,left]Also last week, Mandi had a lot of really fun birthday celebrations. I had sooo much fun at them and I hope she did, too. Happy birthday!
Time to wrap it up. Just a side note to praise JoJo, who is being quite exceptional in good behavior in her new home. I don’t know what to make of it. She’s being so good. She’s learned all the new rules (stay OFF the bed, stay OUT of the kitchen when Mommy and Daddy are in it, potty on the leash, be QUIET when Mommy and/or Daddy leave, NO trash, etc.). She’s calm and she listens and she hangs out or plays quietly. Maybe she’s growing up, or maybe all the walks every day are good for her. In any case, I’m so proud of her. Such a good girl.
Welcome
So…Nik and I spent the past few days moving in. The drive up wasn’t bad…actually, it was sort of fun. I played games with myself such as, “How many miles can I go without having to alter my cruise control?” and “Can Nik and I match our cruise controls EXACTLY, leaving neither of us having to brake?” I found some good radio stations, I watched tomatoes fall off of tomato trucks, I saw some baby cows, and I talked to Mark and my mom with my Jawbone. We made a few stops, which helped the body aches immensely, and we arrived happily. We stayed in my favorite Davis hotel the first night, and got up early the next day to get our keys.
[singlepic=35,320,240,,left]The apartment is really cute. Certain rooms are a lot bigger than I remembered. The bathroom has a double sink and is huge, and the living room is going to allow us to get a gigantic 3-piece sectional. The bedrooms aren’t quite so huge, and we are splitting up the Pottery Barn furniture throughout the apartment in order to get it all. We’re hoping to move into a bigger place (a house?) after this year, so we’ve been buying with that mindset. Make it work this year, so we have it for the future. Speaking of buying, we’re nearly done with purchasing all of the furniture. We just have to get the nightstands and find some bookshelves. Like Nik said, our couch won’t be delivered for awhile, but we really love it! We have done a ton of work on the place (especially Nik), and it’s looking good. He has been very busy putting furniture together and his hands are covered in blisters. He got a bit of reprieve when Sarah and Foti came up to help (our first visitors and huge helpers, thank you!!). I tried to help a bit but I’m better at…washing the dishes…and…coordinating colors in the bathroom towels…than using a screwdriver. Oh! And then he bought an electric one, which made his day.
We spent the evenings going out to eat and watching Sex and the City. It’s been quite fun. We are now back in L.A. for the week. My fun Aunt Sharon is coming into town tomorrow, and we have a lot of plans. I have been cuddling with Logan a lot and he’s such a LoveBug. And today is my sister’s birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MANDI!), so we’re doing a few fun celebrations. I’m so excited for my plans. We leave again on Saturday with JoJo. Hopefully we JoJo-proofed the place (i.e. picked up spare screws and nails from building desks) enough so that her initial exploration of the place goes well.
Oh, please send me letters at my new place! They would make me so happy :)
Embarking
Melissa wrote me a letter (thank you!). In it, she noted that I handle stress and change serenely, and that if she was doing what I am doing right now, she’d have written lots of “oh my gosh I’m so stressed out” blogs. I thought, huh, maybe I’m not honest enough in my blogs. I do, as explained earlier, try to actively ignore the negativities of my move. But I have had moments of sheer terror (ok, fear…intense fear), I walked into Nik’s room last week, burst into tears, stamped my foot like a 4-year-old denied chocolate (or me as a 25-year-old denied chocolate), and cried, “I don’t wanna move!,” and I have had a pretty consistent stomach ache. Whew. There it is.
However, I DO feel pretty serene right now and I’m ready to begin my studies. And I am happy that my perfect school ended up being in California. I remember considering such places as Baton Rouge and Albany and other northern New York cities I can’t even remember now, and THAT was pretty scary. Then I walked into the MIND Institute and met with my future mentor. It just clicked into place. She is an icon in the autism field, brilliant, friendly, available, and wonderful. She is enthusiastic about autism and research and even about ME. She had all these great ideas for me and planned out my involvement and, heck, she brings her dog into work on the weekends. As I was leaving she said that she hoped to meet my mom one day, and offered me a job. I left, stunned, and said to my mom in the car, “I think I have a grad school, a mentor, and a job. At THIS PLACE!” (it’s gorgeous and, risking further bragging, reputable). It was just perfect.
I’ve mostly given up on my obsessive fear of forgetting something I’ll desperately need the moment I arrive. I am armed with toilet paper, Clorox wipes, detergent, and soap. I am less stressed and finally get Nik’s point that…Katie, we can buy it when we’re there. I *am* a little nervous about the drive, not breaking down or anything, but about the sheer boredom of it. I have not done that drive without being a sleeping passenger. I don’t even GET how I can drive so far as to use up my whole tank of gas and more. That’s a lot of minutes sitting in the car, awake. So everyone, please feel free to call me tomorrow afternoon. I would desperately appreciate the distraction. And Mom, I’ll call you when I get there. You can call me after your classes, too, or at lunch.
I took a great picture of JoJo frolicking through our packed stuff tonight (she used Nik’s pile of clothes and brand new suit as a springboard to jump onto the couch). But, alas, I have packed my camera cord, and I can’t post it. Lots of pictures to come of moving and settling in.
This Week…
…is a big one! We’re moving on Thursday. I have been slowly getting ready (physically and emotionally, I guess) for awhile, so I’m pretty prepared. Although…I have to admit I’m still half in denial, and half excited. I think I listed random things that I’m excited about in another post…it’s the little things that get me happy. I am also pretty hopeful about fall being a pretty season up there, and Nik said that he’d instruct JoJo to bring Mommy some pretty fall leaves home from her walks. I want to do lots of fall-y things, not only because the fall scrapbook supplies are so cute (…), but because I loooove all things fall. I already picked my pumpkin soup recipe. So…I’m excited about a lot of things. I’m actively ignoring the things I am scared about…and focusing on happy things and on planning things to look forward to. We’ve arranged the move so that I get to come and see my Aunt Sharon next week, before out second trip up to Davis. She’s always a ton of fun (i.e. human pyramids, rolling on pool tables, Scooby Snacks, and Twister) and will be in LA for just a little while for her friend’s wedding. Hopefully, I’ll also be able to fit in some more birthday celebrations for Mandi (Disneyland!) and as much more fun as possible.
[singlepic=34,320,240,,left]So here’s our adorable new front door. I don’t know what it is that I like so much about it. Maybe the turquoise frame (which sounds terribly tacky until you see it). The apartment complex is beautiful and in a great area, and…it has a washer and dryer in unit–my greatest selling point which Nik was pretty neutral about. I like to wash one shirt at a time…they’re delicate… We’re within walking distance of downtown Davis and lots of restaurants, but far enough away that it’s very quiet and secluded. We’re also a short jump on the freeway away from downtown Sacramento, where I’ll be working and which I fell in love with on my first trip up there. It’s a really cool downtown.
Speaking of which, with all of the preoccupation regarding the move, I’ve barely thought about or prepared for what this is all about…getting my Ph.D. When I think about that I am extremely excited, especially about where I’ll be researching, at the MIND Institute (Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders–http://www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/MINDInstitute/). This place is the reason that I chose UC Davis. It is the top-notch research institute for autism in the world, and I can’t believe how lucky I am to be able to work there from day one! My Memere says that they’re lucky to have ME…but seriously, this place is incredible. I can’t wait to start there and to find a cure for autism. That is what this is all about…
My Turn
I’ve got to admit, I’m surprised that Nik’s got me beat 3:1 in amount of posts, as I usually grab onto new fun things a tad obsessively. I am really excited about this new space, and will love it even moreso after we move and are updating everyone about our new home, how JoJo does without a backyard, working through a Ph.D. program, living near cows, etc., etc. Hopefully we’ll also be able to post a lot of pictures of our new place and the area, which is really a very cute, quiant little town very close to the pretty darn cool downtown Sacramento. I want to thank Nik for all of the great work he’s done on this site and, especially, for surprising me with a Scrapbook section (check it out, it’s fun)!
We leave in 6 days and I have been pretty productive in getting ready. I’ve packed a lot and have arranged PG&E, furniture delivery, etc. Nik and I are very different in that I want it all done BEFORE we get there, while he wants to do it WHEN we get there. I’m not sure if we compromised or if he gave in, but I feel very satisfied in how we arranged it all. Many things are done…but once we get up there, there will still be just enough to do to keep us busy but not overly stressed out. I’m excited to get our new place set up, so that we can cuddle with supersoft blankets on the (not yet found) couch and watch (found) Sex and the City, make fondue in our new fondue pot (thanks to Melissa and Jason), take Jo to the dog park, sleep on fancy and soft sheets, and…oh yeah…start working on that Ph.D…
Beginning…
Nik taught me tonight that “blog” is short for “web log.” I’m excited because this “web logging” seems like a fun way to keep track of what is going on in this point of our lives, to share it with our friends and family, and to look back upon these times later. We’re in a transition period right now, getting ready to move up to Davis in about a week. We’ll have a lot to report in the next few months! Glad to share it with you.