Whew!

Well, as of this evening, I'm officially finished with internship interviews. What a relief to have that part of this process behind me!

Yesterday afternoon, I interviewed with Cal State Long Beach Counseling Center. It went well, but I thought it was weird that they asked me some questions that were a lot more personal than most are. On Monday, I was supposed to have my second interview with USC, but I got stood up! There was some confusion and chaos initially, but I ultimately learned that my interviewer went home sick and just forgot about the interview. So it was rescheduled for this afternoon. It went well too. I feel like I finally got the hang of the phone interviews, although they certainly weren't my preferred format.

So now, I just have to make my ranking decisions. This is proving to be a much more difficult process than I had imagined it would be, simply because there are so many competing factors. I know my top 6 sites, but the order of those is pretty much up in the air. The nice thing about that, I suppose, is that I know that if I match to any of those, I'll be thrilled. I also know my bottom two sites. The ones in between are completely undetermined. I think Ramy and I are going to drive to USC and CSULB and UCI this weekend so that I have a good idea of exactly the commute I'm looking at with each of those sites so that I can take that into consideration. In the Los Angeles area, length of commute is definitely a factor that shouldn't be given too little weight! And distance in miles has almost no correlation with the length of commute.

My rankings have to be submitted and certified by February 4, so I have exactly a week to finalize my decisions. Then, it's just a waiting game until Friday, February 20, when I find out that I either matched or I didn't. If I matched, then on Monday, February 23, I will find out where I am going (a giant computer in the sky makes the matches, based on my rank order and the rankings of the internship sites - you only get matched to one site and are contractually bound to that site before you know which one it is). If I didn't match, then on Monday, February 23, I'll start a chaotic process called Clearinghouse, which is essentially a free-for-all of sites and unmatched intern applicants. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Rebecca continues to make us laugh, as she learns new words and phrases. Yesterday, she and Nanny Rebecca went for a walk. Rebecca loves to pick up pebbles as she walks and carries them with her (much like my old Rottweiler Princess did, oddly). Apparently, Rebecca had accumulated two handfuls of pebbles and was intent on picking up still more. As she would pick a new one up, she would drop a couple of the old ones. Nanny Rebecca asked Rebecca if she could help her by carrying some of her rocks for her. Rebecca stooped halfway before turning to look at Nanny Rebecca, shook her head and said, "No, I fine!" and succeeded in getting all her pebbles into her hands.

On Monday, Rebecca awoke from her nap and was disappointed that Ramy was not yet home from work. (He's in trial this week and has worked a little later than usual). Soon thereafter, Ramy came in the door. Rebecca ran to greet him and exclaimed, "Da-ee, I home!"

In the bathroom the other day, she noticed a couple of tiny ants crawling on the tile floor (no doubt they were doing a recon mission). Rebecca pointed to them and said, disapproving, "Oh gosh, what's 'at?" When I told her they were ants, she wrinkled her nose at them and said, "Oh, ca-ca! (translation: yucky)"

Lately, she has been going to sleep more on her own in her little bed in our room, rather than falling asleep in between us (judge all you want - our baby sleeps with us, and we're fine with it!). However, she also enjoys being sure that we're still right there and in delaying the actual falling asleep as long as possible, for fear she may miss something. Last night, Ramy had already fallen asleep, and Rebecca was certain that there was still more action to be had. She looked at Ramy, then back at me and said, "Dada?" I told her that he was sleeping. She heaved a big sigh, patted him on the shoulder, then lay down next to him and faked snoring as though mocking him.

She is learning the alphabet and her numbers. She gets A thourgh E right on her own but then mouths along and repeats after us with most of the letters. When counting on her own, she orders the numbers, "One...two...three...six...nine!" If I count with her, when we get to the number "five," she puts her hand up so that we'll give her five (the hand motion). She also has started saying prayers along with me. Although the words she says don't necessarily sound the same as the words I'm saying, we all know that God knows she's saying the Our Father (and adding in her own little prayers as well). She's also become interested in the idea of putting her finger to her lips and shhhh'ing us. She doesn't quite understand the concept though, because she really wanted Ramy to read a book to her. When he would read, however, she would shush him, but then she'd be upset if he stopped reading. Clearly, there's something missing in that concept!

So that's all our latest news and goings on. Ramy is doing a robbery trial and negotiating a plea for a murder case this week. He's been out of the house before 6 a.m. this week Hopefully his case will close tomorrow and maybe he'll get a verdict before the weekend. We're still hoping that he will get a DIC position in the coming weeks or months.