Friday!

It's been a good week for us. We got back into the groove after being in Tennessee with no problems. Rebecca was happy to see Nanny Rebecca again, and they've gone on several long walks this week. Tuesday and Thursday, I devoted to my dissertation stuff. I'm close to being ready to submit my IRB applications to both LLU and UofR. The next big hurdle is to get my comp paper done. I have kind of a mental block about it, because it is a completely useless document that has no purpose whatsoever other than that it fulfills a requirement for our department that is totally assinine. Wednesday, I had class and I got all of my neuropsychological assessments scored. Next week will be my last week of that class, and it is also our final exam, about which no one in my class knows anything about what to expect. Our instructor is an amazingly smart man (just ask him, he'll tell you). I think he is a fabulous neuropsychologist and a masterful therapist, but he can't teach for shit. I took Gestalt Psychotherapy with him, and it was amazing to see him do therapy, but after the class was over, I realized I had learned absolutely nothing from it. In this class, we are subjected to learning a archaic neuropsychological battery that is extremely complex, time-consuming, and is never used anymore - the test kits are actually out of print now, as are the manuals, and you have to give it along with the WAIS-R, an IQ test that has been updated twice since then. Also, it is never given anymore, because insurance companies won't pay for a fixed battery like that. So why are we forced to be trained on it? Because he thinks that "real neuropsychologists" should know it and can then do any of the newer, simpler tests or just design their own assessments. So basically we waste a lot of time, even more money, and effort on something that we'll never ever use again. So that's my rant...

This morning, Rebecca and I went to Gymboree. She was in a cranky mood, because she is cutting an eye tooth and a molar. That molar is the devil. She refused to participate in the teamwork activities or to do anything where she had to sit on the parachute. She was quite happy to do the slides, tunnels, songs, and the things where she could clutch on to me, but she was not going to roll the log with the other kids, no matter what. Then she threw a litle mini-tantrum when I took two things away from her. We met Ramy for lunch at the Second Street Bistro in Pomona, and I had some amazingly good spinach fettucine alfredo with chicken. (Rebecca enjoyed it too). Ramy came home early, and I met my friend Julie at IKEA in Covina to check out the stuff she was getting for her baby's nursery. We also sat around and gossiped about our department and colleagues, and we dished on internship stuff. We're gearing up to start working on those applications. But I gotta get my comp done before I get too involved in that.