Christmas Eve Eve

Oh the neglect

After spending 2.5 hours trying to convince a toddler that yes, really, she needs a nap, I have a few moments to myself to contemplate my blog neglect. No better remedy...

Jana and I ventured downtown today to take the kids on the carousel at Westlake. They seemed to enjoy it, though Karsten wasn't his usual spunky self. Since the kids weren't really into it, and Karsten seemed to be sick, and everyone was hungry, we skipped the gingerbread houses at the Sheraton and went straight to the
all time best place for pho...Pho Bac on Jackson near 14th. Pho crack, seriously.

In the next 3 days I have a bit of a list to accomplish, but leisurely as I'm on break from school (really!): pick up Santa photos, some last minute shopping at Barnes and Noble, Trader Joe's, and a few other spots which will remain nameless. Also on the list for the next few days: excursions with Nana and Grampy, Christmas Eve lunch at the taco truck, and 5 pm service at St. James.

Back to normal

I think we're seeing light at the end of the craziness tunnel. I've neglected my blog for long enough, and yet, what to write? My brain has been totally saturated by school and moving and toddlerdom that I haven't had any bloggable thoughts lately. Hmmm.

How about the final weeks of 2009: There are six weeks left of the first decade of this millenium. (Ray pointed this out the other day and I nearly fell over.) I think these next few weeks are going to be really great. Here's why:

1. I have a very structured schedule for working on my pre-dissertation project manuscript and related conference proposal. It seems quite doable, and so therefore fun. I think my paper is going to be accepted at this conference, as it's a good study. Just a little nervous that I can present it in a way that lives up to its theoretical origins.

2. If I do well on the next two neuro exams, I can skip the last exam on the 11th, thus ending my quarter a few days early.

3. I'm excited to have all of the week of Dec 14th blocked out to write (really, this is part of #1).

4. We are hosting Thanksgiving for my family at our new house...and since they haven't seen it yet, I can't wait to show it to them.

5. We're planning a end-of-quarter/holiday/housewarming thingy for the weekend of Dec 12-13. I'm thinking pie, cheese, fruit, and hot spiced wine.

6. We're planning on a big Christmas tree this year. Woohoo!

7. Front door is aching for a nice green wreath.

8. I AM taking the last 2 weeks of December off. August and I will be looking for lots of fun activities for those weeks.

9. Diane suggested adding another rockstar to my committee. I love having a great mentor with fantastic connections.

10. The furnace we need to replace is actually working great. Hoping that continues for at least a few more months.

11. Ray picked up my old tv from his dad, so now it's set up in the basement by my exercise bike, just waiting for a cycling/movie watching occasion.

12. Sheila's annual chocolate party -- can't wait. (And another good reason to be happy about #11.)

All set, pretty much

The boxes are 98% packed. Just a little food left to bag up. Art off the walls, nails removed. A few boxes still open waiting for last minute random stuff. Movers arrive at 8:30 am. Should I shower? Did I sticker all the boxes? Ooops ran out of colors. What do I do with this thing? Oh, just throw it in box.

Hate to wait

I've always been terrible at waiting. If something is wrong, just tell me now so I can work out my Plan B. I'm awful at anticipating the unknown. Welcome to life.

Once again we are waiting to hear about our new house. Nothing dire probably, everything appears to be moving forward "as far as we know," but we're waiting to hear back about the filing of some paperwork that should clear title. Title must clear...will it?

The plan is to have the keys by Friday morning (yes, this Friday) and rent the place until we close, possibly on the 16th or at least some time in November. I am not going to be confident (i.e. relaxed) until we a) have the keys in hand and b) sign our names on the dotted line. Of course this is real estate 101...but geez is it ever an emotionally draining process.

If worse comes to worse, we will have the movers pack our stuff into storage containers, stay with Sooz for a few days, find an apartment and unpack the essentials, and find a new house. It will be challenging but it will be temporary.

And that's why I should not be so stressed about all this...it's all ultimately temporary!

Halloween

August dressed as a Thomas (the train) Princess, because trains, tutus and tiaras naturally go together.

We had 75 trick-or-treaters this year. The last two hit paydirt: at 9 pm we set out a shoebox FULL of the remaining loot, blew out the pumpkins, but kept the glowy cauldron going. Not more than 10 minutes later we heard two kids giggling and whispering how much of the shoebox goods they should take. They took about 2/3 of the candy and ran off. They could've had the whole thing...no one else came by.

My sister had a whopping 522 at their house. Impressive!

You study...what?

When people ask what I do/study -- even people I know well -- I'm a little stumped as to what to say. If I give them the short-n-sweet, they respond with a glazed over look. If I give them the long-and-longer, well...it's pretty much the same look. Now that I've had a year or so of practice, here's how I've boiled it down: start with one word, and if they want more, go to a phrase, then a sentence, then a paragraph. For example: "Rebecca, what is it that you study again?"

Neurolinguistics.
...
Neurological disorders impact on language.
...
Aphasia, which is a disorder which often follows a stroke and impacts language processing.
...
Aphasia. You see, after a stroke, some people have one or more lesions in their brain which impair their ability to understand and/or produce language. While their speech musculature might be completely fine, they just can't connect concepts with words to a greater or lesser degree.
...
(And if they really want the whole story -- I've given this answer maybe once -- add to the above:) More recently, some people believe that aphasia co-occurs with impairments in attention and working memory. My research looks at how attention and working memory might play a larger role in word finding difficulties, the primary characteristic of aphasia, than we think.

Are you still with me? No? Oh well.