Weekend trips

First stop Waco: A bunch of us attempted to go swimming although it was closed after questionable water conditions so we settled for the bathtub (aka outpost pool). We tried out the daiquiri drive thru on our way back.

For those of you wondering what a daiquiri drive thru here it goes: Imagine a hut that you drive up to a door (not window) a rude girl, who probably hates her job and life comes to serve you daiquiris and "margaritas" in a sealed bag. Somehow a sealed bag skirts the open container law. Anyway, while the concept is a novelty to Waco it was not worth the ordeal or taste! There was no menu and clearly we were not on the ready to know the daiquiri flavors available so the girl had to walk 3 steps to the door, retrieve a small blue paper with a menu, throw it in the window, and stair at the ground waiting for us to decipher terms like "berry bomb". Two margaritas, two strawberry daiquiris, and twenty minutes later we left. I'm pretty sure the margs had no alcohol and weren't margs at all but lime flavored daiquiri mix posing as a margarita and the daiquiris were questionable but had at least a hint of alcohol. Overall experience and taste: F. I will not be going back!

Went to Wild West that night to see Casey Donahew Band. It was a good time! Here is a link to there website: http://www.caseydonahewband.com/

On Saturday night my family and I went to see Mamma Mia. It was mediocre. Being able to drink wine during the show made it more enjoyable. Basically got to Austin and turned right around to come back to Dallas. Made a stop at Bed, Bath, & Beyond and got this door mat with an "R" of course:

Not too busy of a week ahead and looking forward to making plans for the 4th!!!

New apartment pictures

So I live at Vue at Live Oak in an efficiency apartment. I LOVE being by myself and having my own space finally. Biggio has not gone insane...yet. I need to get him a friend but puppy training in downtown Dallas would be ridiculous. My goal is to have a dog as my graduation present to myself come December if I can wait :-). Okay so here they are!

Summer update!

SO I guess it has been forever since I updated anything on my blog. So here it goes...

I finished up my internship at Parkland in the May and started working on an independent study with the head of the speech therapy department at Parkland. I'm creating their family education materials for TBI, stroke, dysphagia, etc. I'm also compiling a new student manual for their program. So it definitely takes up a lot of time but the perks: I don't have to make comps study materials this Fall! I will have summaries/study materials already created. SO when I start attempting to study for my comprehensive exams in August I'll be a step a head. Forced to not procrastinate, thankfully!

I'm in two different practicums which I'll explain at a later time. Basically one I love (adult setting) and one I'm counting down to the final day (kid setting). Surprised?? I do love the little boy I'm working with, he is adorable when he isn't screaming :-).

In other EXCITING NEWS....

• I moved to my new apartment
• Betsy came back a month early from Europe (I was totally surprised and so excited)
• Betsy, Christopher, Lara, Nat, and Aaron's birthdays were this past June
• Steph, Meagan, Angelica, and Myself are all having birthdays soon!! (and I always thought I was SO young)
• I'm completely obsessed with "How I met your mother"
• I have 5 months until graduation...and have no idea what I will be doing :-)
• Planning river trips and trips in general during my month long vacation (in 3.5 weeks)
• Texas is in the college world series...hook'em
• Mamma Mia is this weekend and Wicked is in a month!

So, I will post pictures soon of the new apartment....when it isn't a disaster like it is at the moment. Till then here is a view of the outside :-) My apartment is actually on the right 3rd floor next to the balcony.

Sic'em Bears!!!

Baylor is going to the NIT Championship Game!!

Thursday, April 2 at 6:00 p.m.

 

Re-Cap of the Semi-Final Game

Spring!

So despite the fact that Texas weather can't make up its mind I figure my spring break vacation is the welcoming of the spring season!!  I have a little more than a month until this semester ends and summer semester starts. It is going to be more of a load than I was expecting but will be well worth it come Fall.  

Spring Break Highlights:

• Baylor basketball in the Big XII tournament,  we lost but so far so good in the NIT tournament, Sic'em!!
  
• Houston -- Time with Russell's family and friends, St. Patrick's Day was spent with Jessie James for some much overdue catching up! Russell's friends also joined us for the green beer holiday (although there was no green beer)
• Austin -- Shopping, hanging out at Chris's downtown apt, delicious dinner cooked by my sister (mmm), one night on 6th but the SXSW crowd was awful, but in general Austin was relaxing!
• LOOONG 5 hour trip back to Dallas with a pit-stop in Waco for some Baris's with Rachel

Post-spring break week was uneventful. I was glad to get back into a routine and VERY glad Russell got to spend some extra days here in Dallas. The countdown begins...only 9 more months until we live in the same city, hopefully less! The long distance thing is definitely trying on us at times but we are luckier than most to have the time to travel and spend so much time together. On that same note, our year anniversary is coming up next month. It's hard to believe that it has been that long! Things are just flying by! 

Upcoming Adventures:

I will be apartment searching soon for a new place to live in June, visiting Meagan in Colorado Springs in May before she is halfway across the world, Russell continues to look for a job in Houston, Dallas, and Austin that's the right fit, and I will continue my countdown until graduation!!  

Valentine's Day Antics

Russell and I spent the weekend at his lake house off Lake Livingston to "celebrate" Valentine's Day. Most girls would love to have a boyfriend that willingly celebrates v-day and I do love it but I'm also cursed. Despite all of my previous bad luck it turned out to be such a great weekend and we couldn't have asked for better weather! Biggio got to take a road trip up there with me and had a weekend of chasing bugs and rolling around in dirt/dust. Needless to say if he was a dog he would be getting a bath but since he still has back claws I'm not risking it!

Anyway, we basically spent the weekend watching movies, sleeping, cooking, and making numerous trips to wal-mart. A few adventures were inevitable with my bad luck but all turned out for the best. We decided Saturday afternoon to take the boat out on the lake, fish and relax. Relaxing was about the last thing we did. The boat died in the middle of the lake with no other boats around! I mean...who goes out on the lake mid-February besides us right? Oh, did I mention there was a storm heading straight for us at this point! Of course we both became meteorologist and predicted how long it would be before it got to us and at what point we should call the police to come rescue us! Luckily after about 20 minutes of waiting and a panicked phone calls to Russell's parents, I saw boat was in the distance and I said something to the extent of "boat, BIG ARMS, yell" to Russell and we got their attention. They towed us into his dock and about 15 minutes later the storm hit. We were dry and warm thank goodness!! It was a very laughable situation even at the time we both couldn't stop laughing at how stupid we were! I think we even resorted to sweet talking the engine a few times. So that was our big adventure of the weekend. A few minor freak outs about big spiders and roaches throughout the weekend but nothing on or near me so I won't complain.

The biggest excitement of the weekend is that I am now the owner of a Wii. I have been wanting one for quite some time now and finally broke down and bought it. Thank you to the GameStop in Livingston, TX! I'll take any recommendations on games. I think Russell is just excited he never has to think of presents for me again since there will always be fun Wii games for us to play :-).

The Hospital is Nothing Like Grey's Anatomy...it's even better!

I haven't talked too much about my practicum so I will fill everyone in.

I'm at Parkland Hospital on the trauma unit. It's a really cool setup they have for the speech pathologist. Basically every 4 months the therapist rotate between medicine/burns, trauma, outpatient rehab and inpatient rehab. So for this semester my supervisor is on trauma rounds and so am I!! I absolutely love it. It is challenging and crazy every day but I get to see and learn something new with each patient. Parkland has quite a diverse population coming through both in types of injuries and ethnicity. In fact I have been greatly inspired to learn spanish so I converse with many of our patients! It is frustrating to not be able to communicate with them in anyway. Parkland also offers a lot of help to unfunded patients. I think it's great and I won't get started on my views of our healthcare system. All I will say is that it's angering and inefficient and the more I learn and see each day makes me wonder how our healthcare system is so terribly run. Mind you it is run by predominately by insurance companies who never have contact with the patient but decide their future treatment...go figure! I only hope for a change...no it's not socialism!

Some things I've worked with at the hospital:

1. Traumatic Brain Injuries caused by:

• Car/Motorcycle/ATV accidents
  
• Gun shot wounds
  
• Horses in general
• Aggravated assaults
• Drugs (Did you know how many people do drugs? Cause I didn't!)
• Diseases (One in particular was caused from undercooked pork! Mom..don't freak out it happens rarely and "boot leather" :-) meat won't help!)

2. Strokes

3. Swallowing Disorders

Who knew a speech therapist had so many roles!!!

I currently have a patient right now that has a love/hate relationship with me. She hates everything about the hospital and won't let you forget it but secretly I think she loves the attention. She is a sweet woman, has a good heart, just stubborn as hell! I have now gone from being told to "get out of here" at the end of the session to "get out of here honey." haha, I can appreciate it.

Anyway that is a big summary of a just a month of being at Parkland. I'm sure I will have more stories to come!