Ramblings of Ashley

It's been a busy week around here, busy for not having classes, that's for sure! I've been up by 6:30 EVERY day this week (even today when my alarm was set for 7am! does that mean my body is adjusting to waking up at 6:30am... because I sure hope it isn't! hehe!) and that is earlier than I get on average throughout the week when I do have class. BITES!

But, I had clinic Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and so I went in early in order to get everything set up and working properly before clinic started. I do have to say that everything went well for clinic. I was able to get my reports written and revised and was able to leave campus around 3-3:30pm everyday, if not a little earlier each day! That's always good, right? I thought so, because I wanted to pick Ayden up from the Y around or before he would usually get off the bus, not that he was spending the entire day there and we didn't get any time together at night.

And then top it off, I haven’t really even been that good at using my ‘free’ time wisely and getting the things done that need to get done. Like now for example, since I covering hearing aid duty this afternoon for my classmate, I need to be available to campus for the afternoon incase any repairs come in. So, I came to the clinic to get my prereports done for next week and to print off the reports that can be put into the file. I have about 45 minutes where I still need to stay (since the Y is really close and driving back home and then back to the Y would be dumb) and instead of working my projects, here I am blogging. But I haven’t blogged all week and probably won’t all weekend since we will be going home, I wanted to sit down and write for a little bit.

I’ve had a pretty decent day so far. My labs were cancelled and two of my aunts, my brother, and two cousins were in town for a bit so they invited me to go out to lunch with them. I got mostly caught up on my laundry, including washing our bedding and hanging it out on the line to dry and relaxed for a half hour because I decided to get up off the couch and come into the clinic because nothing good was on TV anyways. I still need to pack for the weekend, but since we are only staying one night it shouldn’t be too bad (I’m hoping). I hate how I am the one who always get stuck with the packing part though. Maybe its a mom job, lol!

However, to sort of ruin my good day, I got an email from my professor reminding us first years about the clinic exam and practical exam we will have coming up soon. We knew about it already, but I had sort of forgotten about it. Now I need to really get cracking on making some flash cards and studying so I can do good on this exam. We NEED to pass it and by that, I mean if we don’t pass with a certain grade, we continue to retake it until we do. No rewrites for more points, but retaking the test over and over. And this is all info from a class we had last semester, a class in which I think I remember most of the important stuff, but I will still need to go back and study quite a bit for it! As if we didn’t have enough on our plates. UGH!

I am not worried about the practical part of the test though. We are doing a hearing evaluation on a patient, however that patient is each other. Well, the first person needs to use someone different and then the second person can use the first person and the third person can use the second person. So, I am not nervous about giving a hearing test to my classmates because we’ve done it all before. Easy peasy! What I am nervous about is the fact that we will have all three supervisors in the eval room with us while we are giving the practical exam and that means my nerves will not just be on edge, but WAY over the edge! I did a hearing evaluation this past Thursday and I thought it went really well. My supervisor did not have really any comments about it for me at all. She thought that I did really well.

Because I am such an introvert, this really wasn’t one of my top career choices in high school, heck what am I saying, I didn’t even know audiology existed when I was in high school. But really no people careers were in mind. So, for me to be going into a career that deals with people pretty much all of the time is weird for me. But when I was doing that evaluation on Thursday, I felt completely at ease, even with my supervisor in the room watching me for most of it. At the beginning of the semester I would get really nervous being watching and couldn’t breathe steadily until about halfway through the eval, but now it is becoming second nature to me which is good! I love it!

Anyways, having all three supervisors in the room with me is going to be kind of intimidating. Two of them I have had this semester and they seem to think that I am doing okay, but the third one is the one who’s opinion will probably mean the most to me because he is considered the hardest grader. Hmmm… I guess we will have to wait and see. If only I could get out of it, lol! That’d be the day!

I just checked my calendar and we only have four more weeks of clinic! I can’t believe it! OMG! Where did the semester go?! Only 11 days until I go to San Diego, I can’t believe it. I didn’t think that the day would ever get here!

I don’t think that I mentioned this because I haven’t written all week, but I won the award/scholarship for most outstanding graduate audiology student, you know out of the 12 or so of us in the program (not for sure on how many 4th years there are), but it was just myself and classmate, Katie, that were nominated by some professor. She won the two other awards that she was up for so that was good too. I don’t know how much it is, but anything is better than nothing. I was excited to learn that!

I haven’t been motivated to do anything Easter this week/weekend. Actually, if I had it my way, I would just stay home and not go to any of the family functions that we have to make an appearance at. I just have too much other stuff on my mind right now to be thinking about ‘wasting’ a weekend at ‘home’. Maybe I should have been more productive this week while we didn’t have class. Actually I think my 9am class is cancelled on Monday as well, yippee! We are going home tomorrow morning to spend the majority of the day at my mom’s house. She wants Ayden to color eggs with her which is good because we aren’t coloring any at our house. I don’t eat hardboiled eggs. The weather is supposed to be crappy as well. Just what I like, travelling in crappy weather. I don’t know if we have to go anywhere else on Saturday, but on Sunday we need to go to Jay’s grandparent’s house for a bit, then my grandparent’s and then to Jay’s other grandparents. And I told him that I would like to be home at a decent time as well Sunday night, we’ll see how that works out.

And then there is getting out our Easter baskets at our house. HA! I don’t know if I am even going to do that. Jay hasn’t said anything about getting Ayden’s basket out. Why should it be me that has to remember and then do all of this stuff? Jay’s a good man, but honestly, I get stuck being the adult and having to remember everything and execute everything all of the time. Why should I always have to be the responsible one? Half the time Jay only cares about Jay. Oh, he’s perfectly capable of taking care of Ayden by myself, but let me tell you, I bet our house will be a disaster zone when I get back after four days in California. Jay doesn’t care about messes everywhere, clothes all over the place, etc. He’s a great daddy alright, but he doesn’t go out of his way to do the stuff that I do. Yes, I can admit that I do harbor hard feelings against him for that sort of stuff and he knows it. We have petty little arguments about little stuff all of the time. And it doesn’t bother me all of the time, just when I am getting overwhelmed and feel like he is overlooking everything.

IE: today he didn’t have class until noon… he could have used the extra time he had after dropping Ayden off at the Y around 9 to clean the kitchen, put the soda and water in the fridge, pick up the cardboard boxes in the kitchen, clean the litter box, feed and water the cat, pick up his dirty clothes, etc… but instead he lays in bed until almost 11:30, showers, and leaves for class. Seriously! If left up to him, the house would never get dusted (oh, who am I kidding, I don’t dust either), but it would never get vacuumed, swept, toilets cleaned, bathroom scrubbed down, toys picked up consistently. He’d do the laundry when he ran out of clean clothes. He’s pretty good at dishes because that’s his ‘job’ in our house, but other than that, I’m the one asking him to do stuff. Oh well, I suppose that is just the way he is. I’ve dealt with it so far, I’m sure I can for the rest of my life. I manage the house, he follows ‘orders’ and works to bring in the money.

I found out that Lady Antebellum is going to be playing at the Wisconsin Valley Fair in August and I really want to go! I’m thinking that Jay and I will go. It is in Wausau, which is close to us and tickets won’t be overly expensive either. I would also like to go see Gloriana this summer too and they are playing in Wausau as well for some fair, a different one though. I love both of those bands. I literally love just about EVERY song on Lady A’s new cd! They are all SO good! I can’t say the same for Gloriana, but they do have quite a few good songs as well!

And because this is getting so long I’m going to get going!

CIAO! LOVE ME