August 27, 2004

Globe trotting friends

The last day I spent in my dorm was filled with happy thoughts and with tears. That day I felt like Leonardo Dicapprio's character in Titanic when he perched himself at the bow of the ship and declared he was the king of the world. Classes were OVER. Finals were FINISHED. My research methods manuscript was DONE. I had earned my degree, and there were no more term papers, class presentations, or hall meetings I had to attend to fulfill my undergraduate requirements. It was a pretty sweet day.

There were also some tears shed as we all gathered our things to leave (most of them were not shed by me, but by a loyal reader of this blog I shall refer to as "MOR"). Both MOR and I were feeling a bit bummed that day because we were leaving our home and our friends. But unlike MOR, I tried to keep faith that I would still see my friends, and that leaving college behind wouldn't really change much --our lives would just be moving to a new environment.

But time changes things, and it has changed our group's dynamic. My friends... are globe trotting. How could they leave?

Tini beanie has been in North Carolina now for over a month. One day she just took off into the sunset, looking for a teaching job where teaching jobs are bountiful. She found one in Raleigh. I sent her a card a couple of weeks ago but I have yet to hear from her. Theresa (T-bird, Big T) is talking about Chicago. I haven't even seen Jenn since graduation. Alicia's on her way to Rotchester. Lisa doesn't really talk to me anymore. Where the heck is Mike anyway? I don't know. And Drina is praying to God that she lands a position at Columbia U. (That would be me).

I don't anticipate that I'm going to get the job. There will probably be 50 other people applying for that thing, and 40 of them will have more education, experience, and chutzpah than I do. But even if I don't end up in NYC, I'm going to be hiking my rear end out of Ohio one of these days. And the few friends that still bother to keep in touch with me (MOR included) will be a long ways away.

Don't get me wrong, I still have hope in e-mail and my cellie, but being so far away from my good friends is going to suck. Not to mention, how will my brother and sister-in-law possibly manage to raise their firstborn without me? I mean, what if they name their child Lemongello because I wasn't there to stop them? (Read below entries). And what about MOR? On whose shoulder is she going to cry on next time her BOM (boy-of-the-month) instigates some kind of drama? Where will my sister turn to when she's pissed at my dad and needs someone to parody his broken English? How could any of these people possibly live without me?

Answer: probably pretty damn easily. I think my problem is that I believe myself to be irreplaceable (did I spell that right?) when in reality I'm not. It's that whole ego thing I learned about in Dr. Dwyer's psychology class back in the day. But even with my self-centeredness (where's my dictionary?) I know that I'll still miss my friends here, just like I miss the chumps that already got up and left. The price of starting a new life is high. Do I have enough to cover it?

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August 25, 2004

The cost of a career

Over the summer I've gotten into working with autistic children, doing applied behavior analysis with them (ABA). Every day, I go to a family's house, sit down with their autistic child, and try to teach them to do things using ABA techniques. It's pretty interesting work. Yesterday I was working with a severely autistic boy named David, who I've also been toilet training. He can't speak or do most things other kids his age can do, but he's pretty cool. Sometimes, though, he gets angry. I suppose that should be expected --wouldn't you be pissed off if you couldn't communicate to anyone and were forced to do all of these things you didn't want to do? I would. Anyway, David got angry yesterday for whatever reason, and started grabbing my hair. I took his hands and held his arms down only to have him slam his forhead into my chest, then.. bite me. Really hard. I felt this stinging pain on my right chesticle, and all I could think of was, he did NOT just do that! I have teeth marks today, with a nice bluish purple color to them. The things I go through for my austistic kids...

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August 22, 2004

The name game

In approximately 7 months or so, yours truly will become an aunt for the first time. This is a big responsibility. Sure, I'm not the one whose waistline is expanding (at least not from a pregnancy) and I won't actually be raising the darn thing, but these are still important days for aunts-to-be. Among my responsibilities is pressuring my brother and sister-in-law into picking a cool name for their firstborn. I mean, without me, they may come up with a Baxter or something stupid like that. Now that's just plain unacceptable.

My old roomie and I have spent the last few days thinking of what we could possibly name my future nephew (should it be a nephew) but so far all of our offerings have been completely rejected by the father-to-be (my stubborn older brother). Nathan is out, as is Eric, Cameron, Elliot, Joshua, Lucas, and pretty much every other boy's name in that big book of baby names thingy. I'm starting to get a little frustrated. Does my brother not realizing I'm providing him with an invaluable service?

As we were discussing names, my old roomie mentioned that she once worked with two kids whose sadistic mother named them Orangello and Lemongello. I had to burst out laughing as she told the story; all I could think of was little bowls or orange and lemon Jello jiggling along in her day care class. Poor kids. As juveniles, they have no legal recourse... school bullies will be taunting them with packets of Jello for their entire adolescence. This is the kind of hell I'm working to save my poor future nephew from (if it's a nephew). Lemongello Vurbic just doesn't sound as nice as, say, Joshua Lee. Oh, brother.

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August 17, 2004

Political peculiarities

I've heard it said more than once that politics makes for strange bedfellows. Although I never failed to understand what that meant, I found it hard to find many examples of such. A politicians fan base had always seemed so clear cut to me --conservatives here and progressives there. Oh, the days of my youth...

A few days ago a friend of mine forwarded me an e-mail that contained a link to a political website. The content of the site was forcefully anti-Kerry, and I'm assuming (pardon my boldness) that it is sponsored by a group of Bush backers. Since I'm all for dialogue, I gave the site a spin and carefully analyzed its contents. I wrote back to my friend that I wasn't terribly impressed by it. Being a psychology nerd has come in handy, helping me spot propaganda like a palm tree in the desert.

My friend and I have had conversations before about the coming election, so it didn't surprise me so much to see that e-mail in my inbox. But her support for George Bush has always been puzzling --she's the kind of person that uber-conservatives love to hate: a pro-choice atheist with a strong contempt for the anti-gay agenda. I had to ask myself, is she aware that her candidate of choice considers her a domestic terrorist?

Then, after a long period of consideration, I finally made the connection... these are the kind of strange bedfellows so many people speak of.

In reality, I probably shouldn't be perplexed about her decision to vote for Bush this year. She's not the only one confusing the heck out of everyone --I've gotten my share of why are you voting for those people??? Few in my circle quite understand why a Bible-reading champion of sobriety would paste a Kerry/Edwards sticker on her rear windshield (one that she proudly made myself, no less).

The explanation for all of this, I've decided, is that I made a big mistake. No, not in deciding who to support this year... Kerry still has my vote. The mistake I made is the way that I looked at political groups. Where there is diversity, I only saw homogenaity. All those darn stereotypes I cling to... conservatives are all pro-war, liberals are all pro-gun-control, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Oh, the error of my ways. With all that psych training, I probably should have seen that all along. After all, even outside of the political arena, so much of our opinions are just the products of our own wishful thinking. And I wanted everything to be clear cut, so im my mind, it was. I suspect I'm not alone. If I were, pundits everywhere would expound on the "typical" bedfellows made by modern politics, no?

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August 16, 2004

Boycotting DVDs

Last night, while watching a library-rented DVD of About a Boy, the movie abruptly stopped half way through and refused to budge. On my screen was a shot of Hugh Grant frozen in mid-sentence as he was having a heart-to-heart with the little boy in the story. After 10 minutes of rewinding, fast-forwarding, and disk cleaning, I gave up and returned the darn thing to its case. This is the 34,567,298th time in the last year that this has happened to me. So, in an effort to eliminate the frustration of DVD-freeze frustration, I've decided to boycott DVDs completely. Yes, I know... they're so darn convenient. They come in sleek little cases and they never come un-rewound. But the inevitable freeze of rented disks has pissed me off one too many times. From this day forward, it's all VHS. Yep, tapes. And the day that the library stops renting out tapes is the day I stop watching movies at home. Commense boycott!

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August 11, 2004

The joy of Matt Damon

Lately I haven't been able to spend much time with Steph, known to regular commentors on sonafide as your old roomie. She's my old roomie. Anyway, we got together today so that she could tell me all about her trip to Alaska --the pristine wilderness, the fabulous cruise liner, the fabulous Romanian waiter working on the cruise liner... she told me everything over some hot tea and egg rolls at Chin's Pagoda.

Afterward we hit the theater to see The Bourne Supremacy. Both of us being fans of the first installment of the Jason Bourne action flick were eager to see the sequel, meaning we actually cared about the story line. But the fact that Matt Damon played the lead made for more than an entertaining plot... he's our favorite eye candy. And there he was as Jason Bourne running on the beach, leaping across buildings, and even shedding a tear on screen. Whoa. I pray to God they make a third... I can't get enough of Matt Damon. Can I get an amen?

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August 10, 2004

Holy cow... an update? Wha huh?

So I'm a slacker. Sue me. I have a life... things I'm involved in that require my attention. And there are a lot of those things. I'll spare you the details for now, but they're the same things that I've been complaining about for the last few years. Work things. School things. Family things. All kinds of things. Seriously, I think a vacation is in order, not just so I have time to write, but so that I have something to write about. There's no cute cabana boy in my life; no pictures from a European adventure. Just work.

However, I did have time to put together a new look for sonafide. For weeks I've been contemplating the new frock. I had this flowery layout in the works, but I figure why do another one like the one I already have up? That's really stupid. So I needed something else... and what I came up with was Fat Bastard. Yep, my geriatric rodent with a sleep-face cute as hell. This layout took me about 3 1/2 seconds to create (I bet it looks like it, too). Ffor now it's the best I can do, considering the life that keeps getting in the way of my web designing endeavors. So, enjoy Fatty. I know he enjoys being in the sonafide spotlight.

By the way, be not afraid of the scary-looking rat tail. I'm anticipating some obnoxious comments (which I always get when I share pictures of Fatty). Unfortunately for him, he does not have access to St. Ives Apricot scrub the way we do. The lack of exfoliating may leave a few unsightly marks, but contrary to popular belief, it's not dirty. Unless he sits in his own pee. I'm sure you're happy you now know that.

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August 07, 2004

My favorite Bushism

Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. � George Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

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August 01, 2004

Am I still here?

I've recently received an e-mail from a loyal reader asking (sarcastically, I'm assuming) if I've kicked the bucket and bought the farm. The answer is no, I'm still alive, though I can definitely see why some may believe otherwise.

My excuse? Life.

What, may you ask, has been keeping me from updating this online journal of mine? Well, a few things. First, I'm desperately in search of a job. I've got three weeks left at the one I have now, and unless I find a new one, I'll probably be stuck living at home until age 35.

Second, my beloved Fat Bastard has come down with a horrible infection (one he caught, no doubt, from the two babies I brought home a few weeks ago). At one point, he was weezing so much and breathing so hard I thougt for sure he was on his way out. But 3 vet visits, two anti-biotic prescriptions, and one x-ray later, I've managed to bring him back to his normal, albeit medicated, self.

Third, I've just found out that I'm an official aunti-in-waiting. But nobody is supposed to know about that yet, so... pssssshhhht, don't tell anyone, k? Yeehee hee hee hee :)

I'll be back.

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