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Wednesday, 15 July 2009

  • Mid-Summer....already??!

    It's been a long hiatus...

         Once again, it's was another significant day today, a turning point if you will.  It was my last day working at ASYP (Annandale Safe Youth Project), an after-school and summer program for low-income, minority 4th, 5th, and 6th graders.  Already it sounds like I'm giving a job description, like I'm at an interview or something.... so that's all I'll say about what we do (provide homework help, field trips, recreation, group sessions, a safe place for them to come after-school away from bad influences.... =p).      I (sometimes) can't believe that it's been a year already!  It was a good last day, they surprised me with a card that they all signed, a cake (complete with a goodbye song that they made up on the spot to the tune of happy birthday), and they each decorated/wrote on white pillowcases for me.  I brought in stuff (fire) to make smores with them....mmmm.... I had been wanting to try that for awhile, and thankfully the pyro didn't get to them a.k.a. they didn't lite the church on fire. 

         It was my first job after undergrad, for the organization that I interviewed for the day that I found out that I had mono (I've been working two part-time jobs with them, the other is as a relief counselor at their teen crisis shelter).  Bittersweet ending -- as sad as it is going to be not being with those kids everyday, I don't want to forget how nuts they drove me sometimes and just remember the good parts.  Especially on the days when it was raining and/or snowing and the kids whined about not being able to go outside (they thrived on this!).  It was definitely a growing experience -- I've never worked as or wanted to be a teacher, and I learned how to be in charge, funny as that sounds.  There is truly a fine line between being a friend and being an adult, that I figured out quickly as the year went on (I don't feel like an adult or "old"... but compared to them, I guess I am, eww).  Working with them has helped me to see the reality of the world that they are growing up in (I can't believe what kids are exposed to these days.... okay now I sound old), as they try to figure life out, and their place among their peers.  I remember 4th-6th grade as not too long ago, but working with them, there is a sudden disconnect (but also some memories of that time at good ol' St. Mikes), as I guess I am more mature now and have that insight to know what happens in certain situations and decisions.  Oh, tweens.  What an interesting stage, that wanes back and forth between child and wanna-be adult.  I will miss looking out for those kids, playing with them when they just want to giggle and be kids, and talking to them when they were in a more mature state of mind. 

         I hope to go back and see them sometime.... hopefully in September, to help out with the annual field trip to Six Flags.  But for now, it's a 9-5 research job at Georgetown..... such a change of pace.  If I didn't like to read so much, I don't know how I would survive the workday.  It's interesting stuff.  I just started on July 1st, and so I'm doing a lot of background stuff, ethics training, trying to figure things out and complete a long task list.  The lab (Georgetown University Early Learning Project)... made up of a postdoc, grad students, and some undergrad RAs, studies how infants learn and remember information, focusing on how they obtain information from various media sources.  I can't wait to start the field work!!  =)  (but first, I have to work on recruitment presentations in English and in Spanish...eesh.)

         Other than that, (of course) a lot has happened since I wrote last.  I applied to grad school for a doctorate in clinical psych....whew that took up as much time as a full-time job.  Of the nine schools, four called me in for interview weekend [a.k.a. I visited states/cities that I've never been to before, notably, Boston, Memphis, Oxford (Mississippi)], three gave me waitlists, and I got one offer of admission.  Whew that 10% admission rate is a killer.  Unfortunately, it was not my first choice school because they don't offer tuition reimbursement or stipends or any sort of financial help and I really don't want to be a couple hundred thousand dollars in debt after 5-6 years.  So, it's officially GRE season again, and here we go for another ride through the application process... need to get waaay above average now. 

         Hmmm....what else?  A year is a long time to summarize!  A couple of housemates have gotten married (awesome house reunions at both weddings), been on road trips to visit friends and my sister in Philly, been to upstate NY a couple of times to visit Josh (for his white coat ceremony... only less than a year to go!).... wow, I have to go look through my pictures to remember the highlights since graduation.  OMGOSH!  I went to Europe for a few weeks after graduation!!  My parents surprised me with an awesome time with them, my sis & hubs, and my grandfather.  First, we stayed in Barcelona (I WILL live there someday, I was SERIOUSLY considering it when I got back, but life got in the way) for a week in an apartment that my mom rented out (such a cool way to get to know the area/neighborhood without the touristy hotel).... Gaudi has some awesome architecture there & there is an awesome aquarium and waterfront area (port town).  Then we went on a week cruise from Barcelona to France (Cannes -- we were there during the DAY of the night that the international film festival began, I was SO on the lookout for celebrity sightings!; Gras -- perfume & soap factory; St. Paul de Viennes -- gorgeous mountain town, with narrow cobblestone streets) and then to Italy (Liborno, Pisa, Florence, Rome). 

         The cruise looped back around to Barcelona, where my sis & hubs unfortunately had to fly back to Philly, but the rest of us hopped on a flight to Rome to stay with our family (my grandfather's cousin's family = his father's brother's kid.... they live an hour north of Rome in Viterbo).  Sooo cool... I haven't been there since I was 3, but they all remembered me (& asked about my dad lol).  There were some cool cousins my age.... and one who spoke a little bit of English.  It was total Italian immersion -- I could understand a lot of it using my Spanish, but they couldn't understand my Spanish.  Insert Mom, the language god who is fluent. =p  We went to Civitavecia & the Vatican City, where my (great) uncle has connections (I swear, everyone knows everyone there, and all of their family) and got us up to stage seating for the pope's outside service.

         Was THAT a tangent or WHAT??  I have to catch up on making facebook picture albums....wow.  Oh but lastly (it's getting late, now that I have to get up early for the commute into D.C.), here is a current (actually from JULY 13TH) facebook status:

    ...on this fateful day 5 years ago (dundundun) "I" became "WE" & my high school relationship track-record (fun as it was) ended. 4 years of college + 1 year post-bacc, here we are. Looking forward to the weekend, Josh! =) on Monday 

    He has something planned for this weekend that he won't spill!! He even told my mom (who doesn't have the greatest track-record for keeping secrets) and as excited as she is, I can't get a HINT out of her.  Well, I have some other tactics that I could try, but part of the fun IS being surprised (I suppose =p).  I am happy in this relationship... life-altering decision coming up by 2010??! =p  ...waiting for marriage is one of the best decisions I've ever personally made, I feel mentally and spiritually healthy.  It's not just God stuff either, I like having biology backup, but that's a whole other spiel.  HAHA well that was a random thing to put, but I'm tired of people assuming stuff just cause I've been with someone for 5 years.  We've grown through a lot.

       Wow, it's later than I thought (big, tearful wave to the night-owl days of my "youth").........so goodnight!

Tuesday, 22 April 2008

  • Finishing up undergrad...

    I almost feel like I have to write something up every week to keep up with the pace that life is flying by right now....
    First of all.... GRADUATION is coming up next Saturday!! Can you believe it??  This is my last week of classes (I have a couple of final papers due), then next week is finals week (I have a couple of finals I have to catch up on massive amounts of reading for...more about that later), and then MAY 3RD!!  It didn't hit me that it was coming up so fast until I picked up my yearbook today and saw my pic in the senior section.... and the year 2008. *whew* flashbacks.
    On Friday, after having a sore throat for about a week (& feeling fatigued, which I attributed to the time of year & FINISHING/defending my thesis =D), I went to the University Health Center.  Usually I don't really go to doctors, partly because colds will go away themselves and they just give you some robutussin you can get off the shelf at the store, and also because I don't get sick much, and when I do, my mom can get on me to go to the doctor's even when I know it's just some little thing that I don't want to waste my time on getting checked out.  On Thursday morning, I woke up with my throat almost completely swollen shut and my mouth completely dry.  It hurt to swallow anything...even saliva.  I guess I wanted to wait it out a bit and was used to my throat feeling gross when I got sick.  However, after waking up the same on Friday and not being able to sleep or turn my neck much, I called that morning and made an appointment for after class.  That was before I took a flashlight and looked in the mirror and freaked myself out.  Why I didn't check earlier, I don't know.  I ran up to Amy's room and asked her if I could see what her throat looked like to see what a normal one looked like.  She saw mine, after a lot of asking of course, cause I didn't wanna show.  She said I was talking like I had cotton balls in my mouth and that I definitely had mono (she's had it before).  I ended up skipping class and showing up early to my appointment, where the nurse even flinched when she was looking at it, it was so bad.  I mean for a nurse to do that.... who's seen probably everything.... yeah.... haha the two nursing students that I live with told me that she shouldn't have done that.  I said that I had been feeling like that for four days, and they didn't want to give me the mono test because they said that I need to have symptoms for 5-7 days in order for the test to come back accurate (the antibodies need to be up to a measurable amount in your blood).... they tested my blood anyways, after warning me that I would probably have to pay to take it again, and also ran a strep-throat test as a precaution.  The mono blood test came back fully positive.... it was so weird when the doctor came back to tell me that.  I felt like I got AIDS or herpes/STD or something; she gave me a pamphlet "so, you have mono" which struck me as so funny, cause they have them for every kind of serious disease on a rack by the door-- ppl would probably be too shy to grab them from such a public place.  I've never known anyone with mono (besides a girl back in 6th grade who had to take the months off and get tutored at home) and the stories that I've heard about it are just horrible.... about having to take semesters off and being weak, stuck in bed, unable to do anything.... and here I am, my last week of classes, then finals, then graduation of all things..... it would be different if I could just stay home and sleep and finish up the semester when I get my strength back over the summer, but I don't have that kind of time.
    So in summary, the timing couldn't be "better"..... the doctor wants me on bedrest for at least 3 week.... which I say is impossible, especially during this time/circumstances.  I got some meds.... steroids cause my tonsils/lymph nodes/glands are so large, and a z-pack/antibiotics.  I've already lost 6 pounds, which looks like 20 on me.... cause of loss of appetite and I can't eat/swallow much.  All my housemates tell me that I should be in bed...but I didn't have much time before, and I sure as heck don't now cause I'm behind from feeling fatigued.  They've also been teasing me about it being the "kissing disease" but funny thing is that I haven't seen Josh since Jan/Feb (mono has a 4 week incubation period until symptoms start showing) and I haven't had time to even go out much in the past month (only twice that I can think of) because of finishing the thesis.  I told Josh it was from my JMU boyfriend.... at least I was amused haha.

    And the world keeps turning.

    Google-image that jank.  I look like a medical textbook.  It's also kinda fascinating (the biologist in me) and I took pics hahaha (cause when are ya ever gonna look like this again) but I sure as heck am not putting them up anywhere.
    http://www.healthofchildren.com/I-K/Infectious-Mononucleosis.html

    Next catch up topics:
    -kitten
    -thesis defense
    -job interview
    -Josh

Thursday, 27 March 2008

  • DSCN4423 

    I figured I would write, since I’m not getting any work done tonight anyways.  With a little over a month left of school (*ahem* GRADUATION!!!)… it’s been a bit difficult, but I’ve been doing well... God willing.

     

    My hamster, Izzy a.k.a. Pantufla, just passed away.  I know he’s been getting old, starting when I brought him down to be with me this semester.  I dropped him off at home so my parents could take care of him over spring break while I went with some of my housemates (Julie, Whitney, & Alison) to Disney World (…now that’s another story!!! Whooo spring break!! =D) and was scared to ask about him when I got back, even though I had previously arranged to pick him up Easter weekend.

     

    I remember when we got him a few summers ago.  My sister and I were at Petco by Tysons for some reason (getting crickets for her gecko maybe?) and they had a couple of cages out for adoptions… pets that had been returned.  My sister and I convinced my mom to let us bring home not one, but two hamsters… which I thought would never happen (I thought we were lucky enough to convince her about one, but we went back the next day and he was still there…so that was that).  The hamster came with the name “Isabella”…but pretty soon he obviously turned into a boy, so “Izzy” it was.  My mom nicknamed him “Pantufla” which means (fuzzy) slipper in Spanish & that just stuck… I’ve never had a long-haired hamster before.

     

    So after wasting 15 mins. turned into two hours in front of the t.v. watching “Wife-Swap” & then “Supernanny” with Whit… I really needed to get work done.  I came upstairs to talk to Josh & see how Pantuf was doing.  I took him out & leaned back on my body pillow against the wall, just letting him crawl around my stomach.  When I was talking on the phone, I noted that he would sit and rest to catch his breathe for a bit before continuing and how it was cute cause he was sitting still, but sad cause I knew he was getting old.  After hanging up, I noticed that he had nestled down into the crook of my arm, but I moved him up to my chest so I could see him better.  He then crawled up to my left shoulder and lay on his side.  I started freaking out and called Josh on the phone, panicked.  I didn’t know if he was dying and didn’t know what to do cause I saw his mouth gaping, gasping (I had to look away, which is hard b/c when it’s on your shoulder, its still in your peripheral).  I was about to yell for Amy but I must have already been freaking out really loudly cause she came in before I could.  She said she heard me teary saying something like “is he dying” and came in cause she didn’t know if I was talking about my grandfather or what and then saw the hamster and my face.  Amy came and sat with me, and I basically forgot I still had Josh on the phone.  She asked me if I wanted her to pick him up, but I didn’t want him to get spastic, so we just waited and then felt if he was still breathing.  I was shaking, like what the heck just happened?  I had just been feeding him treats and holding him, and then all of a sudden he froze up.  I’ve never seen a hamster die in all my years of having them (just come home to find them deceased)… and especially not ON me.  I am glad that it happened that way though, because it would’ve been worse to come home from class and find him like that (Also, I really didn’t want to leave him home/ didn’t know who to ask to take care of him when my fam goes on our “celebratory” European cruise next month after graduation.).  He was comfy enough to share his last breath.

     

    Amy held him in her hands as I looked for what I could bury him in.  Our eyes came across a pop-tart box (new blueberry/strawberry splitz!!!) which I emptied out & filled with his woodchip nest and food.  After failing at digging a hole with a spackle/paint spreader tool and screwdriver, I went next door to the boys’ house to see if they had a shovel (hahah of course they did, how handy).  We enlisted Colt’s help to do it faster.  I made a stick cross with one of my hairties & one of Whit’s & Amy put one of Cal’s ribbons on there since they were best buds (he’d stalk the cage and sit on the edge of my bed, watching him all day).  Amy planted one of her tulips there too.  It’s a pretty site, next to the tire-swing tree in the front of 625.

    R.I.P. Pantuf, you will be missed.  ~10:56pm (my phonecall logged to Josh) on 3/26/08

     

    P.S. Today literally started and ended on “exciting” notes.  I finally got the results back from the “credit by examination” that I took last Friday (…Good Friday… Easter was great at home with the family!).  It was for Spanish 300 (6 pages of grammar that took like over 1 ½ hours ughhh)… I put it off for 3 years & should’ve def. taken it as a freshman/soph but finished the whole minor instead haha… it was literally down to the wire, if I didn’t pass this on the first try, then I would have to take the class – I waited so long that it would’ve had to have been a summer semester class AFTER graduation… BUT YAY I passed – praise God!!!  =D   *whew* it was tough & I am EXCITED... I dropped the summer course that I signed up for just in case.

Tuesday, 18 December 2007

  • Finals

    YAY, the fall 2007 semester is now officially over.  Final grades were posted this morning at 9am.  *clammy hands*  I got 4 A's and 2 B's.... haha I took 4 psyc classes and 2 soci classes, which match up with that perfectly.  I am in the right major...it's just sooo good.  =)  Hard work definitely pays off.  It was a tough semester, with *wow*...more stuff happening/changing than can be mentioned on here.  Personal stuff and public stuff.  !Gracias Señor por ayudarme este semestre!  I was trying to get all A's for my Yaya, but there's always next time...it'll be a nice way to finish off.
    I can now look ahead to Spring 2008 semester.... my laaaaaast semester of college.  Time flies!  Exciting, no?  So much to do before then, though.
    It's nice being home, just relaxxxxing.... I averaged 4 hours of sleep during finals week (last week) so I'm catching up on being able to veg.  And taking full advantage of it.  Just cleaning up at home....when stuff it cluttered around me, I just feel cluttered and want to throw everything out!
    Jisoo flew back home to South Korea.  =(  We were pretty much inseparable for the year that she was here.  I met up with her at Tysons where she couldn't decide which purse to get in the Coach store haha (she would put one on her arm and look in the mirror, then the other, then repeat over and over *whew*).....then she came over to sleep over.... we took over the basement and stayed up til like 4am running around to salsa aerobics on the big screen, "Happy Feet"....just random stuff that comes about from minimal sleep haha.  It blows my mind... on the surface, she is so different from me, but within her are the similarities that made us compatible....what a party girl she was, but still smart and kind.  Hopefully I can visit her and Sungmey in a couple of years!!  I'm definitely planning on it!!
    ONE WEEK until Christmas!! (*seven days*.....)  Well, technically less than a week cause of Christmas Eve celebrations.  That's how we rolllllllll.....   And I have presents for 3 people!!  That's pretty bad, I better get on that.  Yay shopping???!?

    *Edit* So I just read over the last post.... and the traffic was unbelievable!!  They re-routed everyone to Route 11... so all of the interstate traffic was moved to a two-lane country road.  My friends who left at 1:30pm didn't get to the Tyson's area until 9:30pm!!! We're talking about a normally two-hour drive here!!! They said they were basically not budging for 3 hours and didn't make it back on I-81 until after dark.   Abe told me to take Rt. 33 to 230 to 29 ....  going home that way took an extra hour, but it was GORGEOUS and worth it.... it put me all the way at the top of the mountains, and then down the other side.... very curvy roads which were fun for me but probably wouldn't have been if I had had passengers other than a full backseat of stuff and Kaa up front (my housemates named Josh's lil snake I was taking care of.... get it? From the Jungle Book?) -- who almost escaped, I had to pull over.  *eeek*

Friday, 14 December 2007

  • So, I get this email this morning from the university's office of public safety:
    I-81 Northbound between exits 296 and 298 is currently closed. Anyone
    traveling north is recommended to get off at the 291 exit, and follow route
    11 north through Strasburg then re-enter I-81 north after Strasburg.

    CRAP!  It's not like that's the ONLY way to get home...lol... besides rt. 11 which is a two-lane country road that runs parallel to 81.  Maybe I shouldn't leave?  My last final was on Wednesday, and I had sooooo much fun doing nothing/ hanging out with so many ppl these past two days! It's so nice to be able to go out and do whatever without assignments/papers/exams hanging over your head!!!!!  YAY Fall 2007 semester is over.... I have ONE semester of college left! *gulp* Unbelievable!! This semester FLEW, it was soooo busy!  Well, happy break everyone / Merry Christmas / Happy New Year / Happy Birthday almost to me (I don't want to get older!!) / and HAPPY GRADUATION to all of the December graduates!!! 

    I HOPE THIS HELPS SOMEONE:
    Dec. 14, 2007, 12:30 p.m. update

    I-81 Northbound between exits 296 and 298 is closed due to a tanker truck accident and likely will be closed into the evening. Travelers should avoid using I-81 in northern Shenandoah County if possible. Traffic is being directed off I-81 at Exit 291 and onto Route 11 north through Strasburg.

    For further information on incidents and road conditions throughout the state, call 511. In areas where 511 is unavailable, dial 1-800-578-4111. Traffic alerts and traveler information also are available at www.511Virginia.org. Road condition information can also be obtained by calling the Highway Helpline at (800) 367-ROAD. (TTY users, call 711).

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