Complaints about stores and their schedule of displaying/selling holiday items are pretty much a cliche at this point. So I never really thought I would add to the chorus...but I will, since I feel mildly inconvenienced by it right now.
I've been seeing cute little pumpkins for sale for weeks. Every week, I've been tempted to buy one, but I haven't because there is no shortage of clutter in my apartment, and I didn't have a good enough reason to justify buying one. But then I decided that one of those pumpkins would be a cool addition to a fall-themed activity I was planning for one of my clients. I decided to buy one today.
Except that there were none to be found in my supermarket. In fact, all traces of Halloween had vanished, replaced with a mix of Thanksgiving and Christmas stuff. It never occurred to me that all the pumpkins would be gone, since (a) Halloween was less than a week ago, and (b)I thought people who liked table centerpieces would want cute little pumpkins for their Thanksgiving decorating.
Well, lesson learned. My client will have to see a line drawing of a pumpkin, and in the future, I'll recognize little pumpkins as the precious, fleeting commodity that they are.
Sunday, November 4, 2018
Sunday, October 14, 2018
The Limits To Feline Companionship
I love having a cat, and Laila adds a lot to my life. But I realized recently that she is utterly lacking in empathy when it comes to human sickness.
I've been sick with a cold for about the past week and a half now. I initially thought I'd be able to kick it pretty fast since, after all, it's just a cold. But of course colds come in gradations, from the "just a cold" variety to the "monster viruses that bring on secondary infections and leave your abdomen sore from all the coughing" variety. My cold belongs to the latter category. Throughout this ordeal, it has been clear that Laila doesn't like my coughing, particularly when I have a coughing fit while she's in my lap. But she hasn't seemed to connect the annoying sound to any discomfort on my part.
Her lack of empathy became very apparent Friday night, when I had hoped for a good night of sleep that would put me on a fast track to feeling better. I got up for the second time at around 4 AM when it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to sleep because of all my coughing. When I came out to the living room, Laila concluded it was cat breakfast time and started meowing loudly. I told her it wasn't time for breakfast yet, and started making myself a cup of hot herbal tea to try to calm my cough.
The worst moment was when I sat on the couch with my hot tea in hand, started coughing before I could set the cup down, spilled scalding hot water on my thigh, and yelped. Laila's response? Industriously scratching the couch. She didn't even look up at the sound of my yelp.
I still highly recommend cat ownership to anyone. After all, cats are fun most of the time. But don't buy expensive furniture if you're going to have a cat. And don't expect any concern from them at all when you're sick.
I've been sick with a cold for about the past week and a half now. I initially thought I'd be able to kick it pretty fast since, after all, it's just a cold. But of course colds come in gradations, from the "just a cold" variety to the "monster viruses that bring on secondary infections and leave your abdomen sore from all the coughing" variety. My cold belongs to the latter category. Throughout this ordeal, it has been clear that Laila doesn't like my coughing, particularly when I have a coughing fit while she's in my lap. But she hasn't seemed to connect the annoying sound to any discomfort on my part.
Her lack of empathy became very apparent Friday night, when I had hoped for a good night of sleep that would put me on a fast track to feeling better. I got up for the second time at around 4 AM when it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to sleep because of all my coughing. When I came out to the living room, Laila concluded it was cat breakfast time and started meowing loudly. I told her it wasn't time for breakfast yet, and started making myself a cup of hot herbal tea to try to calm my cough.
The worst moment was when I sat on the couch with my hot tea in hand, started coughing before I could set the cup down, spilled scalding hot water on my thigh, and yelped. Laila's response? Industriously scratching the couch. She didn't even look up at the sound of my yelp.
I still highly recommend cat ownership to anyone. After all, cats are fun most of the time. But don't buy expensive furniture if you're going to have a cat. And don't expect any concern from them at all when you're sick.
Thursday, September 27, 2018
I Stand With Dr. Christine Blasey Ford
I am still adjusting to my new level of busyness, but when I have spare moments, I find myself turning to coverage of Brett Kavanaugh and the women who have accused him of sexual assault and misconduct. At this point, three such women have come forward. I believe all of them, but I chose to focus the title of this blog post on Dr. Christine Blasey Ford because she spent the day testifying before the Senate and we know the most about her experience.
Why do I so firmly believe her? After all, I wasn't a witness to what happened.
Two reasons:
1. Sexual assault is so extremely prevalent in our society that it does not surprise me when I hear that someone was assaulted.
2. She had absolutely no incentive to fabricate this. From all outward appearances, she has had an extremely successful adult life. Since coming forward with her allegations against Kavanaugh, she has experienced harassment and threats. Why would she throw her own life into utter disarray, aside from a sense of civic duty?
Why am I so interested in this case?
1. Because while I don't share Ford's exact experience, I've had other bad experiences with harassment and aggression from men. The MeToo movement has shown me just how common such experiences are, and it makes me angry. How much more mental energy would women have if we weren't trying to avoid harassment and aggression or trying to mentally recover from experiencing it? What could we collectively accomplish with that additional mental energy? What would life be like if women's bodies were not so routinely treated like public property?
2. Because I resent the implications some have made that the fact that Kavanaugh was a teenager at the time somehow makes it okay to assault someone. Sure, he can move on from that...but what about Ford? She has had to live with this experience her whole life. The fact that she was a teenager at the time does not make it any better for her.
3. Because we are talking about making a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. It's a foregone conclusion that I'm not going to be thrilled with anyone Trump nominates. But the risk of a Supreme Court justice who attempted to rape someone--yes, even decades ago--is unacceptable. Surely there are other people he could choose from, and surely not all of them have a history of violence.
4. Because I'm appalled at how little we have progressed as a society. I was in sixth grade when Anita Hill testified that Clarence Thomas had repeatedly sexually harassed her on the job. Though I was still young at the time, I remember the skepticism she encountered. Actually, one of my most vivid memories of that time is my (female) social studies teacher that year speculating that Hill had had a crush on Thomas and was acting out of unrequited love. I would have hoped than in the intervening 26 years, our society would have become more enlightened. I'm not asking for anyone to automatically believe anyone who brings forward allegations of sexual misconduct or assault, but I do wish that everyone would seriously consider them. At a bare minimum, people who bring forward such allegations should not have to fear for their own safety.
The United States deserves better than this. I deeply admire all the women who have come forward to try to ensure that we get better than this in the end.
Why do I so firmly believe her? After all, I wasn't a witness to what happened.
Two reasons:
1. Sexual assault is so extremely prevalent in our society that it does not surprise me when I hear that someone was assaulted.
2. She had absolutely no incentive to fabricate this. From all outward appearances, she has had an extremely successful adult life. Since coming forward with her allegations against Kavanaugh, she has experienced harassment and threats. Why would she throw her own life into utter disarray, aside from a sense of civic duty?
Why am I so interested in this case?
1. Because while I don't share Ford's exact experience, I've had other bad experiences with harassment and aggression from men. The MeToo movement has shown me just how common such experiences are, and it makes me angry. How much more mental energy would women have if we weren't trying to avoid harassment and aggression or trying to mentally recover from experiencing it? What could we collectively accomplish with that additional mental energy? What would life be like if women's bodies were not so routinely treated like public property?
2. Because I resent the implications some have made that the fact that Kavanaugh was a teenager at the time somehow makes it okay to assault someone. Sure, he can move on from that...but what about Ford? She has had to live with this experience her whole life. The fact that she was a teenager at the time does not make it any better for her.
3. Because we are talking about making a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. It's a foregone conclusion that I'm not going to be thrilled with anyone Trump nominates. But the risk of a Supreme Court justice who attempted to rape someone--yes, even decades ago--is unacceptable. Surely there are other people he could choose from, and surely not all of them have a history of violence.
4. Because I'm appalled at how little we have progressed as a society. I was in sixth grade when Anita Hill testified that Clarence Thomas had repeatedly sexually harassed her on the job. Though I was still young at the time, I remember the skepticism she encountered. Actually, one of my most vivid memories of that time is my (female) social studies teacher that year speculating that Hill had had a crush on Thomas and was acting out of unrequited love. I would have hoped than in the intervening 26 years, our society would have become more enlightened. I'm not asking for anyone to automatically believe anyone who brings forward allegations of sexual misconduct or assault, but I do wish that everyone would seriously consider them. At a bare minimum, people who bring forward such allegations should not have to fear for their own safety.
The United States deserves better than this. I deeply admire all the women who have come forward to try to ensure that we get better than this in the end.
Saturday, September 15, 2018
A Few Grad School Observations
The past few weeks have gone really fast! It still feels a little scary to be back in school, rather that working at a job and earning money, but I also think it's entirely possible that my whole five-semester program will go by in a flash. Here are some thoughts on the experience so far:
- I'm really busy. I thought I knew what I was getting into time-wise. I thought I might be busier in this master's program than I was in my last one, so that isn't a surprise. But what is a surprise is that I'm also busier now than I was in the past couple of years working full time and taking classes on top of that. Gulp.
- Learning ASL has given me another way to be uncoordinated. Usually language classes aren't too difficult for me. At this point, ASL is proving to be the exception because it involves a level of coordination that I don't seem to have. It reminds me of trying to learn the moves to the Macarena when I was in high school...by the time I learned, the dance had become unspeakably uncool. I hope it will come in time. I do think it's a fascinating language.
- I have a distinguishing feature of some sort. When I was teaching, it was very important to me to learn all of my students' names. However, it was not an instantaneous process. The way it worked for me was that the first names I'd learn would be those of students who had some distinguishing feature. For instance, if there was, say, one student with red hair in the class, his or her name would be easier for me to remember. All of my professors seemed to learn my name quickly...which leads me to believe that I perhaps have a distinguishing feature of my own. I'm willing to bet that that distinguishing feature is my age, as I have at least ten years on all of my classmates (more in many cases!). It's also very possible that I'm older than one of my profs.
The good thing is that people routinely get through these programs, so it should all be okay in the end. This will, however, almost certainly be my last degree-seeking program.
Monday, September 3, 2018
Things That Will Make Next Week Easier
One week of graduate school is down! Yay! I'm not going to count how many weeks are left in a five-semester program.
Just like every new experience, the first week seemed pretty rough. There are a lot of new skills I'll need to acquire. There is a lot of class work to do. And because of the nature of this program, I'll have responsibilities in the onsite clinic.
It has also been somewhat rough emotionally. I'm thrilled to have such a good opportunity to break into another field, but I'm also in my late thirties and have been working for years. Leaving the workforce for two years to do something new is scary. I've thought a few times that it would have been nice if I had thought I could have the sort of life I wanted without retraining, if I had felt like I had a secure future at the job I just left.
But! I have at least two reasons why this week will almost have to be easier than last week, and that is something to celebrate.
1. I broke down and bought a tablet. When I was working full-time and taking night classes, I carried an ancient--but fairly lightweight--laptop with me. Its battery didn't stay charged for long, but hey, I didn't need it to because I had one class per day. With much longer class days, I spent last week toting my newer--but extremely heavy--laptop with me. I could tell after about the first day that two years of lugging that thing along with my lunch and even one of my textbooks every day was going to do serious damage to my back and shoulders. I had been curious about tablets for years but had never purchased one because I wasn't sure I would use one enough to justify the cost. After a few days of agonizing over how much money I had already spent on textbooks, I decided to bite the bullet and order a tablet. It arrived today, and so far, I'm very pleased with it. I think there will be occasions when I have to drag the laptop to campus with me, but those will be few and far between, and will likely remind me to appreciate my tablet.
2. Metro will be restored to its usual level of functionality tomorrow. Two metro stations that lie between me and my campus have been closed since late July(!). I've been fortunate that this particular phase in Metro's improvement plan didn't inconvenience me much until last week, but I will say that I found it quite inconvenient over a short span of time. I'm lucky in that I have a commuter train option where I live. However, the trains don't run frequently on the line closest to me. Twice last week I found myself running for the train because I knew I would have a long wait for the next one (or in one case, it was the last train of the evening). I am not a graceful runner, and I had that abovementioned laptop on my back. I won't miss the joint pain that resulted.
Wishing everyone a great week, even better than last week!
Just like every new experience, the first week seemed pretty rough. There are a lot of new skills I'll need to acquire. There is a lot of class work to do. And because of the nature of this program, I'll have responsibilities in the onsite clinic.
It has also been somewhat rough emotionally. I'm thrilled to have such a good opportunity to break into another field, but I'm also in my late thirties and have been working for years. Leaving the workforce for two years to do something new is scary. I've thought a few times that it would have been nice if I had thought I could have the sort of life I wanted without retraining, if I had felt like I had a secure future at the job I just left.
But! I have at least two reasons why this week will almost have to be easier than last week, and that is something to celebrate.
1. I broke down and bought a tablet. When I was working full-time and taking night classes, I carried an ancient--but fairly lightweight--laptop with me. Its battery didn't stay charged for long, but hey, I didn't need it to because I had one class per day. With much longer class days, I spent last week toting my newer--but extremely heavy--laptop with me. I could tell after about the first day that two years of lugging that thing along with my lunch and even one of my textbooks every day was going to do serious damage to my back and shoulders. I had been curious about tablets for years but had never purchased one because I wasn't sure I would use one enough to justify the cost. After a few days of agonizing over how much money I had already spent on textbooks, I decided to bite the bullet and order a tablet. It arrived today, and so far, I'm very pleased with it. I think there will be occasions when I have to drag the laptop to campus with me, but those will be few and far between, and will likely remind me to appreciate my tablet.
2. Metro will be restored to its usual level of functionality tomorrow. Two metro stations that lie between me and my campus have been closed since late July(!). I've been fortunate that this particular phase in Metro's improvement plan didn't inconvenience me much until last week, but I will say that I found it quite inconvenient over a short span of time. I'm lucky in that I have a commuter train option where I live. However, the trains don't run frequently on the line closest to me. Twice last week I found myself running for the train because I knew I would have a long wait for the next one (or in one case, it was the last train of the evening). I am not a graceful runner, and I had that abovementioned laptop on my back. I won't miss the joint pain that resulted.
Wishing everyone a great week, even better than last week!
Monday, August 20, 2018
Deciding To Change Careers
People who have been reading my blog for a while know part of this story already. I have a master's degree in Arabic and have been using that skill professionally for years. A couple years ago, when I started a job that offered tuition remission, I started taking undergraduate-level courses in speech-language pathology with the idea of one day--if I chose to--pursing a master's degree and changing careers. I then decided to apply to graduate programs last winter, and I'll start classes a week from today. With a five-semester program plus a clinical fellowship year ahead of me, it almost seems premature to write about changing careers now. But I'll do it anyway because (a) it's the biggest thing going on in my life right now, and (b) I haven't told the whole story of why I chose to do this and how I chose speech-language pathology in particular.
I love Arabic, and I'll always be glad I studied it. It was one of my majors as an undergraduate, and I went on for the master's because I wanted to improve my skills and I had some very good funding and travel opportunities. One thing that I didn't really understand when I was younger, though, was the overall job distribution in the field. At least in the US, Arabic jobs skew very heavily toward security. I don't believe that there is anything wrong with working in security if that's what you want, but I'm also very aware of why people might not want that sort of job for their entire career (or at all, in some cases). There are jobs in education, but particularly for people without a Ph.D., they are often adjunct positions, which pay very little and offer no security. Then there are the miscellaneous jobs in research, human rights, etc. You might get one of those, but competition might be stiff, and you probably shouldn't plan your career trajectory around getting one. Plus, funding for those positions is likely to be unstable, which can also make your job unstable. Some people also work as freelance translators. This is something I've never tried, but I wonder about the long-term stability of that sort of work, too, especially with the advances in machine translation.
Fast-forwarding a good number of years after actually receiving my degree, I was teaching Arabic in Kazakhstan. I loved teaching, but found many aspects of the specific job (and its location) to be problematic. I applied to dozens of jobs back in the US while I was out there. Most of the time, I heard nothing back, even a formal rejection. I started to think that I might need to retrain if I wanted to move back to the US, and started researching which job fields were expected to grow. For some reason, speech-language pathology had never occurred to me, but when I came upon it in my research, it occurred to me that it would combine my interests in language and health. I decided that if I ever retrained, it would be for that.
I was wondering how soon to give up on my job search and start retraining once we returned to the US, but at the point when I started seriously thinking about that, one of those jobs I applied to while I was in Kazakhstan panned out! It was a job I valued greatly, but there was a distinct air of instability the entire time I was there. In fact, I was laid off from it and later rehired. This job provided me with tuition remission, and I had been taking classes with the idea of having the option to pursue a master's in speech-language pathology at some point. The layoff convinced me that I needed to pursue the master's sooner rather than later. Even when I was rehired, funding for my position was only (somewhat) guaranteed until April. It ultimately lasted longer (I left on my own accord on Friday), but the uncertainty helped propel me through the process of grad school applications last winter.
It's difficult not to have mixed feelings about all of this. It was hard work to take classes while working full time, and I'm now looking at a couple of years out of the workforce. Plus, career is part of my identity, and Arabic has been the backbone of my career for a long time. I wish I could have found a stable job that was a good fit for me with my Arabic skills. On the other hand, even though starting over in my late thirties feels daunting, I am very excited about speech-language pathology. I also realized as I left my office for the last time on Friday what a source of anxiety my job's instability had become for me. I was sad to leave the job, but happy to leave behind the worries that came with it. There is never a guaranteed "happily ever after" in anything in life, including career changes, but I'm optimistic that I've chosen the right decision for myself and that it will bring the stability I crave at this point in my life.
I love Arabic, and I'll always be glad I studied it. It was one of my majors as an undergraduate, and I went on for the master's because I wanted to improve my skills and I had some very good funding and travel opportunities. One thing that I didn't really understand when I was younger, though, was the overall job distribution in the field. At least in the US, Arabic jobs skew very heavily toward security. I don't believe that there is anything wrong with working in security if that's what you want, but I'm also very aware of why people might not want that sort of job for their entire career (or at all, in some cases). There are jobs in education, but particularly for people without a Ph.D., they are often adjunct positions, which pay very little and offer no security. Then there are the miscellaneous jobs in research, human rights, etc. You might get one of those, but competition might be stiff, and you probably shouldn't plan your career trajectory around getting one. Plus, funding for those positions is likely to be unstable, which can also make your job unstable. Some people also work as freelance translators. This is something I've never tried, but I wonder about the long-term stability of that sort of work, too, especially with the advances in machine translation.
Fast-forwarding a good number of years after actually receiving my degree, I was teaching Arabic in Kazakhstan. I loved teaching, but found many aspects of the specific job (and its location) to be problematic. I applied to dozens of jobs back in the US while I was out there. Most of the time, I heard nothing back, even a formal rejection. I started to think that I might need to retrain if I wanted to move back to the US, and started researching which job fields were expected to grow. For some reason, speech-language pathology had never occurred to me, but when I came upon it in my research, it occurred to me that it would combine my interests in language and health. I decided that if I ever retrained, it would be for that.
I was wondering how soon to give up on my job search and start retraining once we returned to the US, but at the point when I started seriously thinking about that, one of those jobs I applied to while I was in Kazakhstan panned out! It was a job I valued greatly, but there was a distinct air of instability the entire time I was there. In fact, I was laid off from it and later rehired. This job provided me with tuition remission, and I had been taking classes with the idea of having the option to pursue a master's in speech-language pathology at some point. The layoff convinced me that I needed to pursue the master's sooner rather than later. Even when I was rehired, funding for my position was only (somewhat) guaranteed until April. It ultimately lasted longer (I left on my own accord on Friday), but the uncertainty helped propel me through the process of grad school applications last winter.
It's difficult not to have mixed feelings about all of this. It was hard work to take classes while working full time, and I'm now looking at a couple of years out of the workforce. Plus, career is part of my identity, and Arabic has been the backbone of my career for a long time. I wish I could have found a stable job that was a good fit for me with my Arabic skills. On the other hand, even though starting over in my late thirties feels daunting, I am very excited about speech-language pathology. I also realized as I left my office for the last time on Friday what a source of anxiety my job's instability had become for me. I was sad to leave the job, but happy to leave behind the worries that came with it. There is never a guaranteed "happily ever after" in anything in life, including career changes, but I'm optimistic that I've chosen the right decision for myself and that it will bring the stability I crave at this point in my life.
Monday, August 6, 2018
Vacation!
I'm happy to report that I finished my summer science classes and was rewarded with a vacation to Washington and Oregon! In addition to sightseeing and getting a break from an icky mid-Atlantic summer heatwave, I also saw a lot of my family, and we had a picnic in honor of my grandma. It was wonderful to see relatives and generally get a break from daily life--I think it will give me the energy to finish the last couple weeks at my job and start my life as a full-time student. Anyway, here are some pictures!
 |
| A perfect dungeness crab shell. |
 |
| Bridge into Astoria, OR |
 |
| Haystack Rock in Oregon |
 |
| One of many jellyfish I saw washed ashore in Oregon. I felt sorry for them and kind of wanted to help, but...you know... |
 |
| A slightly frightening number of wild turkeys |
 |
| Sahalie Falls, Oregon |
 |
| Clear Lake, Oregon |
 |
| The largest morels I've ever seen in Pike Place Market in Seattle |
 |
| Amazon Spheres! |
 |
| Chihuly exhibit |
 |
| More Chihuly sculptures outdoors in the garden |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)