Emuzines

Hi All!

I have been trying to write a Mandi’s Visit post for quite awhile, but for some reason the picture uploading on the site is messed up, and we haven’t been able to fix it yet.  So, instead of posting pictures directly with a story for them all, like I wanted, I’ll post a link to my Facebook album, where you can see the pictures from Mandi’s visit: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008978&l=2ec38&id=1262058331  We had a great time.  On Friday, which was Halloween, we baked pumpkin nut cups and dressed JoJo up in her spider costume (using lots of bribes), then went to eat in downtown Sacramento when Nik came home from work.  On Saturday, we explored San Francisco in the rain.  It was a fun and adventurous day, ending in a dark, rainy, and deserted forest, locked out of the car.  On Sunday, we went to Napa…went to an incredible lunch, a couple of wineries, the state park, and ended the day shopping at the outlets.  It was great having her here–we all had fun!  We’re already planning our next adventures which will include Alcatraz and the Redwood Forest!

So everything is going really well.  Schoolwork, while still busy, is getting easier to get through more quickly.  I think most of us feel that, as we’ve commented that we can finally stick our heads up for air.  In fact, our cohort had some fun at the world’s largest corn maze this weekend: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009269&l=8c83c&id=1262058331  Out in about 45 minutes, muddy and laughing!

I am getting extremely excited for Thanksgiving.  It’ll be Nik’s first time in Amesbury.  Today we went November-in-Amesbury shopping, and were pretty successful…except for shirts, since wool makes us both itch…and all warm clothes are at least part wool!  Nevertheless, we both came away with too much to carry, which is a good sign.

Speaking of Nik, he’s got a job…has been working for maybe a month or so now.  I wish he would post more (!), but I think he’s pretty tired from working and spends his free time relaxing in other ways.  But…just to let anyone curious know, he has found a job.

Ok, time for me to get to relaxing…

Hi Everyone!

It is Fall now and things are getting really busy!  My mom came to visit me last weekend.  We had a great time, and packed as much fall fun is as we could.  We did some shopping, cooked some scallop chowder, baked some pumpkin pies, and visited a flower farm/pumpkin patch!  I enjoyed showing my mom around my new home and most of all just enjoyed being with her, hanging out at home at night, etc.  I hope she had as much fun as I did!  Here are some pictures…

School has gotten incredibly busy.  There is an extraordinary amount of reading.  At USC, I often got away with not reading…but here, I have a prelim exam at the end of next summer, covering all of the first year’s readings…so I have to know them all.  And the class structure is much different than anything I had in undergrad (predictably) or even at USC.  I feel as though maybe the professors tried to get this sort of feel at USC, a true seminar/interactive type of conference…but it never really happened.  We basically run the entire class, and have to be all smart-sounding and bounce ideas against each other…the professors rarely talk.  I think this type of class is pretty new to all of us, and so we meet 2 hours before each class to warm up!  I feel now that we’ve settled into a good groove and classes are feeling less awkward, with less silences…  Today David found some cricket chirps on his phone to play in case we hit an awkward silence, which would have been great (we should have been quiet!), but we didn’t hit any of those today.

My cohort is so wonderful!  Tomorrow we’re going out to a place called Little Prague, for happy hour and some appetizers and things.  It’ll be the day that Nik meets them all.  April and I have a plan to “set up” our boyfriends, since both are new here and a little lonely.

So school has been busy and good, but work has been busy and wonderful! I have gotten deeper into understanding the ins and outs of the MIND, and learning what I’m doing and what my choices are. Right now I’m working on an intervention study with little ones (12 months old!) with autism, and I’ve also started work on a chapter which will be published in a book by 2 researchers I really admire…and then which will be published in a journal, hopefully. I know that the chapter is due after Christmas, but I’m not sure when the book plans to be published…but in any case, I’ve gotten started! I’m really excited and love going to work. Every day there…I can’t come up with the right words…it’s like Christmas morning for me!
Anyway, all is well. Things are settling into a nice groove, and although some days are really long, they’re good. I have become addicted to TWO cups of caffeine everyday, though. Now, I’ve been to grad school before and I’ve had long work days…but never have I needed caffeine like I need it now! I am an absolute zombie without both servings. But, mm, at least coffee tastes great!!

We finally have internet!!  What a PAIN it was to have to trek to the apartment’s office everyday to use their slow and always-breaking wireless.  Although there were some problems with getting the internet up and running (which I’m sure Nik will post about after he’s down from his initial high of Spore-playing), it’s working now and it’s great!  So convenient…

Today was a pretty busy day.  There were those internet issues and then we went to check out Wag Hotel (waghotels.com), which is where we’re going to leave poor Jo a couple of times in November.  It’s a very, very fancy…hotel…with a great big swimming pool, a chef, blueberry facials, paw pad massages, web cams, etc.  It’s a little over-the-top but the poor little girl deserves it.  My only regret will be that I won’t be there to see her swim, something I’ve always wanted to do with her.  And you know me…I didn’t order her a blueberry facial…the restraint…

Anyway, I have to mention how awesome my “cohort” at school is.  We’ve all quickly bonded into a great group, and actually choose to spend time together in boring rooms, for example, than go home separately.  Here they are!  Here, we were faced with 2 or 3 free hours since our first class lasted 15 minutes (5 minutes of which were joke-telling about horse poop).  We took a picture and then hung around and chatted.  More about them as time progresses…

I’m off to read some more.  It never stops, although I’m pretty far ahead and proud of myself for that.  My mom comes up to visit this weekend (yay!), so I want to be even farther ahead so that I don’t have to read while she’s here.  Dinnertime soon, too.  We’re becoming good cooks!

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.

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.