Emuzines

Just a quick post as I am itching to start a movie all cuddled in bed…

Had a fun day at work today. Sally and I had a writing session together in her office, for 4 hours. Exciting things happen in Sally’s office. I arrived to the conference call about the new DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). It is THE diagnostic tool for mental health, and Sally is on the commitee writing the new version. That’s pretty huge. She’s deciding on the diagnostic criteria for autism and related disorders. Pretty cool. She let me listen in and said that she thought I might enjoy that. I sure did.

Then casually she said, oh, at 2:00 I have a phone interview with the New York Times. ! Just like that. I was very excited, again. She let me stay for that too. The study I work on with her just published some of its initial data and it’s all over the news since we’re the only ones doing intervention with kids so young (wait until we do the babies…). Anyway, it’s here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/conditions/11/30/autism.study/ and here: http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1943512,00.html and elsewhere. Apparently in the NY Times soon.

As far as Christmas goes, I came home from work and did all my decorating! I figured out that I need a few more decorations…apartment versus house is a pretty big change…but I’m going to go shopping tomorrow to try to fill in some of the gaps. Then when Nik got home he was inspired, so we went to get the tree. We had so much fun. We got a big one! We got it at the Boy Scout lot in town and they were all so eager and helpful and did all the work, and the adults there were very nice. We had a good time, brought it home. JoJo tuck-tail ran about the tree, but seems to be getting used to it. We went out to dinner and the house smelled soooo nice when we came back.

The holiday season has officially begun (in David’s and my opinion, the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday seasons begin on November 1)! The next few weeks hold a lot of excitement–a lot of celebrating.

Nik and I head to Amesbury on Wednesday for Thanksgiving. We are SO excited, and have been so for weeks and weeks. It will be Nik’s second time to New England. Seeing as how he was swayed enough by the area last time to hint at wanting a house out there, I know he’ll have a good time again. He also gets to be reunited with my cousin Billy, who he gets along really well with. Good thing Billy is bringing his girlfriend so I’ll still get some Nik time in! And I always have a great time there. It always feels like home. I get to see everybody, relax in Memere and Pepere’s house, and eat Memere’s wonderful food!

The week after we get back to California will be hectic, but with a lot of fun things. Class wraps up that week as well. On Friday, my friends and I are going out to Bistro 33 for our thrice yearly quarter-end celebration. We have developed a tradition of going out–always to Bistro, it seems–at the end of every quarter to celebrate. It’s even more welcome now since we’ve dispersed a bit in terms of classes. I only have classes this quarter with David, Abby, and Kyle. Not enough time to see Maciel, April, and Natalie. Here we are at one of our old quarter end celebrations. This is actually at the end of our first quarter–the bootcamp of the program. We had shots this night. We earned them.

As you can maybe see, the fall quarter quarter end happens to be our gift exchange too. Last year we did a White Elephant, and exchanged and “stole” the gifts. This year, since we know each other so much better, I organized a Secret Santa, and we’re shopping for a specific person. Nik drew names and passed them around.

The next day is our second monthly First Saturday Dinner and a Movie. This one will be chili in bread bowls, cornbread, and apple turnovers made with Memere’s homemade apple jam. We’ll probably watch a holiday movie, but votes on which one are pretty spread around, so I have to tie-break.

Lots of other things are planned–drinks with our stats professor, the Mind Institute Thank You party, etc. Can’t wait!

I’m in LA!  Yay!  It was a difficult and slightly painful drive down.   I took the 80 to the 680 to the 101, because of the snow problem on the 5.  I had never driven the 101 all the way down, and I actually really enjoyed it.  It was really pretty, a very neat drive.  I thought it was funny that the scenery completely reminded me of Disney’s California Adventure, rather than the other way around.  With the trees hugging the highway, the tin agricultural buildings with “Asparagus” painted on the sides, the fields, the mountains covered in snow.  It was very pretty.  I was amazed at the great time I was making, and most of the time there was very few cars anywhere to be seen.  Then I hit Santa Barbara.  It took me two hours just to get through SB (rush hour), and from then on it was tough.  The valley and the 405 were horrible.  Even the radio DJ was late to his shift because of the 101/405 area traffic.

Anyway, I made it!  My mom had a yummy Greek dinner waiting for me.  Logan cried like a big baby and has been following me around and cuddling any chance he gets.  I went to bed pretty early to prepare myself for yesterday, which was our Christmas!  Mandi and I started the day with some shopping, and I wrapped and wrapped, and cooked (well, I mashed some sweet potatoes) all day until Christmas time!  Then gifts, fun, food, and a nice drive along the beach with Logan.

It’s nice to be home, and nice to know it’s for 2/3 weeks and not for 2/3 days!  I can’t wait to see everybody.  Let’s get together!!!

The household has taken turns being sick.  Despite my very best, very thorough, efforts, I must have caught it from Nik.  Or maybe from work, since people there are sick now, too.  Anyway, I’ve been working from home–still getting a lot done, but in huge pain.  I haven’t been able to enjoy my Christmas break, really, since I fall into a heap of pain after working all day.

On a happier note, Nik ordered me a very, very exciting Christmas present.  Here’s my new friend:

I am heading home next Thursday after a meeting with Sally.  I’ll get in pretty late since I’m driving.  I am so excited!!  I can’t wait to see everybody and do Christmasy things!

Back to resting…

Today is my first official day of winter break!  Ok…maybe yesterday was my first OFFICIAL day, but I worked all day…so today is really it!

We sure celebrated on Thursday after our last day of classes.  Here we are at Bistro 33.

We had a pretty good, but uneventful, last two classes (April and I gave a great puberty-related presentation, and David was a champion wrapping up Piaget in an exact hour)…and then headed out to Bistro 33.  We had some mojito pitchers and sweet potato fries, and had an exciting White Elephant gift exchange.  It went so fast and we were all so polite about (not) stealing gifts that we invented a new, Forced-Trade Gift Game after we were done, to up the competition and laughter.  It was a great time, and we moved inside (thank you, my Southern California, flip-flopped in 39 degrees toes said) for shots…yes, shots…  It was tough to get up for work yesterday, but it was completely worth it.

I made it through yesterday without a zombie-day, which I’ve had 2 or 3 times since starting school, and even just 1 caffeine.  Sally and I worked for a solid few hours on our chapter, which was great.  After work, I lounged around, watched a movie and lots of TV–totally lazy. 

I slept in very, very late today.  So did Nik and JoJo.  None of us had any idea it had already hit the PM.  Nik and I did some Christmas shopping, went out to lunch, and grocery shopping.  It’s so nice not to have to read all weekend, not having enough time to lift my head for a drink of water.  I do have some work on my chapter to do this weekend, or Monday, but I enjoy it and am super-excited about it, so it doesn’t count.

Anyway, yay to winter break!  I’m relaxed already.

I tend to refrain from updating until I have huge stretches of time in which to do a post justice…and that doesn’t happen.  So here is a list of recent happenings.  Time may soon permit me to expand on some of these…

1.  Nik and I had a wonderful, relaxing, food-consuming, amazing, beautiful, great-company time in Amesbury.  Nik is working on a post about it, but Happening #3 got in the way.

2.  It took us 3 days to fly home.  Our plane almost crashed.  It was traumatizing.  We also had broken planes, delayed flights, cancelled flights, bad weather, poorly rated pilots, etc.  We were stranded, after our trauma which made me sick to my stomach (fear, not bounciness), in Phoenix for a night, then we were stranded in Las Vegas for a night.  We thought we deserved a treat, so we stayed in a penthouse suite on the strip.  The shower, to say the least, was incredible.

3.  Nik is sick.  He’s been in bed for 2 days.  He gets to win the “No JoJo on the bed game” (or rather, “Yes JoJo on the bed game”), so they are both quite pleased.  She’s exhausted from Happening #4, so it’s suiting her well.

4.  JoJo had a great time at Wag Hotel.  She has a reputation there, and when we called during the trip, they said, “Oh, JOJO…” and when we picked her up, the workers all emerged from their offices to talk about her.  She’s in the “High Energy Group.”

5.  I am off to my last day of class for the quarter!  After class, my friends and I are going out to have a gift exchange and celebrate our survival!  YAY!