My picky, picky music lover

Colin and his uncle rocking out, Debussy-style



On the way to day care this morning, Colin and I were listening to the radio. Upon arrival, I turned off the car. Colin utter a cry of dismay. I said, "What's wrong?" He started tapping his hands on his thighs. "Oh, you wanted to finish listening to the song?" He smiled and nodded. I turned the radio back on and he got right back to grooving.

The song? "Hand in Pocket" by Alanis Morissette.

Right now I'm listening to: "Plowed" by Sponge
I just: Came back from seeing a client
Now I'm gonna: Eat lunch

"New" Jeff Buckley video

Right now I'm listening to: "Grey in L.A." by Loudon Wainwright III
I just: Read "Les deux pieds sur Terre"
Now I'm gonna: Check my e-mail

Countdown

Baby #2 is on the way!

And in no way do the stories coming out of my moms' group freak me out.

Most women are having their second kids with three pushes, while the nurse screams, "Don't push - the doctor isn't here! He's at Chevy's having taquitos and a margarita!"

We've had one get in the shower when her contractions started, only to deliver the baby in the tub with her husband.

We've had another deliver in her living room with her husband, her mother, her mother-in-law, and two firefighters. One firefighter kept telling her to get into the "proper birthing position, on your back," while she screamed, "That's not the proper birthing position!!!" So when her son shot out into the firefighter's hands, the baby immediately sprayed everyone in attendance with pee... including into the firefighter's mouth. Aw.

And yet, I'm still remaining positive. No pun intended.

Meanwhile, Colin has been practicing his counting and alphabet.

Colin, counting Cheerios: Two, fee, five, sick, seben, eight, nine, ten... eight, nine, X, Y, Z!

Colin, doing his alphabet puzzle: "R, T, double-oo, X, Y, Z!"

It's a start.

So over it

What's up with emo girls doing that weird thing with their lips when they have their pictures taken?

Just wondering.

I was looking at scene hair and started feeling pissed off.

A list: Music videos

Music Videos That Nearly Make Me Hate the Songs I Adore (So I Try To Not Watch Them)

-Secret Smile (Semisonic)
-My Happiness (Powderfinger)
-Crank (Catherine Wheel)

(I'm sure there are more here - I'll just have to add them as I remember them. Perhaps I'm blocking them out in order to protect my psyche....)



Videos That Make Me Love the Songs I Adore Even More

-Closer (Nine Inch Nails)
-Sabotage (Beastie Boys)
-Human Behavior (Bjork)
-Soul Meets Body (Death Cab for Cutie)
-Take On Me (A-Ha)
-Cry Me a River (Justin Timberlake)
-Imagine (John Lennon)
-Natural Blues (Moby)



Videos That Are So Bad, They Make Bad Songs Even More Laughable

-Any song by R. Kelly
-Stars Are Blind (Paris Hilton)
-I'm Too Sexy (Right Said Fred)

Big changes

So much has happened in the last month... no time to blog it all! Here are some highlights:

(1) I quit my job with the Deaf/HOH program. I don't have another job yet. I should say, actually, that I haven't SELECTED another job yet. There are quite a few from which to choose, but I haven't made up my mind. That's what's so great about being an SLP - lots of work!

(2) Lots of parties and get-togethers.... and still more are coming up!

(3) Travelling.

(4) As pertaining to (1), I had to pack up my entire office, the speech closet, etc., as well as finish up end-of-the-year things, such as report cards, IEPs, etc. That was soooooo much work.

More changes to come!

In addition, Colin's speech has just *exploded*. (And he's still using sign, which more and more people are noticing - they're like, "Wow, he signs?" and then they tell me a story about how someone else they know signs and how cool it is.) Today, he shocked me by pointing to the Valentine hearts in the book "Max's Valentine" and saying, "Heart," pointing to his heart, and then, "Two heart." He pointed to the purple one and said, "Mama, mama," and I said, "Purple. Purple heart." He repeated it. Then he pointed to the red one and said, "Red heart." He's doing great!

Turns out he's also a golf prodigy. On our friend Ben's last trip up here about three months ago, we went to the golf store. Colin started trying to putt the ball into the hole, and then once he figured that out, he started handicapping himself by placing the ball further and further away from the hole!

Since then, he's tried to use a landscaping stake and a small ball to practice. So on our recent trip down south, I bought him a plastic kid-sized putting set. He said, "Big putt-putt!" He was really excited.

He's also upped his dance moves. He does some pretty crazy dances, including using pointing fingers, and some yoga-like floor rolling that would make Mia Michaels proud.

What a kid!

Kids are (still) funny

Two of my students, girls aged about nine, were wearing Warriors jerseys to school on Thursday (due to a talent show performance). Names changed to protect the innocent. :)

Me: Oh, you've got Warriors jerseys on!

Rose: Yeah, we wore them for the talent show. Do you know the Warriors?

Me: Of COURSE I know the Warriors!

Anjali: I love Warriors! I love Warriors!

Me: You do?

Anjali: Yes! They win win win. They play basketball and win. Many time. Lose a little bit, but okay.

Rose: But they didn't go to the championships.

Anjali: No championship. No. Little bit lose. But I love Warriors!

At this age, I was like, "I love books! I love music!" Was I even aware of professional basketball?

So... that's... uncomfortable

Wow. So much can happen during one half-hour of speech therapy!

First, as I was walking with a student (a smart, charming boy who is quite talkative and popular) from the cafeteria to the speech room, I see the principal marching purposefully from his office. A staff member said to him, "He's standing over there by the fence." I looked over and saw a man, standing against the short chain-link fence, watching the kids playing on the field.

Yes, it could be that he's lonely. Maybe he has children or grandchildren who live far away. Maybe he lost a child. Maybe he's taking a break while walking around the neighborhood and sought the shade of the trees.

And yes, he has a right to take a walk. However...

Considering that the neighborhood has a very high rate of sex offenders - some who are not allowed to come that close to school grounds - the principal had to check it out.

Ick.

Then, as that student and I are doing speech, we come to the phrase "peach fuzz". (We're working on figurative/idiomatic language.) We talked about how, when his dad shaves, his face is smooth. The next day, a little bit of hair has grown on his face, and that is "peach fuzz", because it feels like the fuzzy skin of a peach (more or less). The conversation then progressed down a path I wasn't quite expecting.

(Scene: Speech room)

Student: Yeah, my dad has peach fuzz.

Me: Well, that's how we got that phrase.

Student: Look, the peach is fuzzy in its butt crack!

Me: That's not a crack. It's more like a... seam.

Student: My dad has fuzz in his butt crack.

Me: I don't think your dad would appreciate me knowing that. It's private.

Student: Well, he's also got a lot down there. (Pointing to crotch, under table.)

Me: Umm...

Student: Yeah, not in the middle, but all around... it. (Moving pointer finger in a circle.)

Me (seriously): Okay, back to the fruit.

Student: My mom does too.

Me (more intently): So--

Student (interrupting): I know because I see it every day. When they take a shower in the morning. It's gross.

Me (louder and firmly): OKAY, NEXT IDIOM. What's "apple of my eye"?

(End scene.)

You know, you just don't want students to think that discussion of that stuff is wrong or bad. However, you also don't want to discuss something that their parents should be discussing with them. (Although we do have students who are really Deaf/HOH and their parents can't discuss anything at all with them because they don't sign, so it's up to us to tell them about puberty, etc.) So it's a fine line.

But that was definitely 511.

I can only imagine what's going to happen if he tries to relate this story to his parents after school. Oh boy.

Dreams

Had a weird dream two nights ago. I was at a supermarket - like Albertson's, or Safeway (ha! funny when you read the rest of this dream....) - and a bunch of us are standing in the parking lot, looking at the cloud of smog hanging over the city skyline in the distance.

"See, that's the gas," someone says. "We can see it over there, but it's hanging over us, too."

So we all go into the store and close all of the doors. And I'm sitting on the sofa (!) in the store, talking to my old classmate Seaton from middle school/high school. And then we all have to go into a smaller room. And we're trying not to breathe because the green gas is coming in the vents... and I see people dropping around me... and I realize that I, too, will breathe in the green gas, and I'll die, and there's no way to get around it.

I think I'm concerned about global warming.

Am I the only one trying to conserve energy and water around here, people? HELP!

Seen today

A headline in the local newspaper:

"Youth Commission Members Are Busy, And Their Plan Is To Get Even Busier."

Oooooooo yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


A message T on one of my students, a friendly kid who is deaf and autistic:

"I'm probably not listening to you."

:)

Ever want to just quit your job?

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a lighter note:

Me (finishing up an explanation, because the student, a little boy, wanted to know): So "boyfriend/girlfriend" is like going to movies and having dinner and stuff... well, I guess you could do that with your friends, too. But it means someone LIKES you likes you, not just likes you as a friend.

Male Student, Aged Six: Ew.

Me: Well, your mom and dad were boyfriend-girlfriend before they got married!

Student: EWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Don't tell me that! (pauses) Okay, tell me that.

Me: You didn't know that?

Student: Well, I kinda did, since yesterday. They didn't tell me, but I read their minds. And then I threw up a little bit. I really did.

Twos

Why is it that bananas and strawberries, on their own, are acceptable, yet if you slice and mix the two together, anarchy ensues?

Doodlepoops

So can you tell that I don't like the Doodlebops? This past weekend, while watching a TiVo'd copy with Colin, I found another reason for my dislike: lack of grammar.

(Scene: Backstage, the Doodlebops and Jazzmin discussed how great it was that Rooney Doodle (a.k.a. "the blue one", "the gay one", "not the breakdancing one, the other one") gave his old ukelele to a fan. Let the agrammaticality begin!)

Deedee: You can always borrow one.
Rooney: From who?
Jazzmin: Myself!

This is supposed to be EDUCATIONAL? That was two errors in two seconds! UGH!

Nah funnee!

On two totally different topics...

Colin decided, two days ago, that he wanted to sit on his toilet for 15 minutes before getting in the tub. Then, yesterday, he decided to sit on the toilet in the afternoon. Of course, he had to strip down to his socks. Then... he actually pooed in the toilet. He was like, "Uh!" and pointed to it like, "Oh, damn, I totally ruined a perfectly good toilet!" I clapped and said, "That's where the poo goes! Give me five!" and he's like, "Noooooo." Eventually, he'll get it.

Hey, anyone scared of BLOOD?!?!? This kid is adorable.

Some things never change

This really takes me back - hearing a classic. In the classroom next door, I hear the teacher working with the students.

Teacher: When Father came home, what was he going to do?

Students: Kill the pig!

Teacher: Yes, that's right. And what did Fern say?

Students: No, stop!

I'll always remember E.B. White's wonderful "Charlotte's Web" and the beautiful Garth Williams drawings that complemented it. And I love hearing how the story still captivates children today.

Nutty Health

Overheard at The Prolific Oven this morning.

(Enter grandparents in their early 60s and their granddaughter, a young teenager.)

Woman, perusing baked goods: Don't they have anything healthy here?

Man: Let's see...

Woman: I don't see anything healthy.

Employee: Can I help you?

Woman: Yes. Two Diet Cokes...

Chuckles in (un)expected places

It's funny when little kids point out the peculiarities of English. It's even better when a child who is delayed in expressive and receptive language due to a hearing loss picks up on those items, such as homophones. An example from last week: I was working with a client, who is a preschooler. Names changed to protect the innocent and funny!

Me (showing a wind-up toy): Look!
Malak: Horse!
Me: That's right - a horse and a knight.
Malak: No - horse in the DAY.

Loved it!

Blague!

Just finished watching tonight's episode of "24". Did anyone else notice the joke played on "The Ricker"? Last week, he was listed in the opening credits as "Rick Schroder", but tonight, he was listed as "Ricky Schroder"! Oh, I bet he loved that! Those jokers over there at Fox. Guess it keeps it light over there, huh?

And now, a vignette:

Me: How old do you think I am?
Student #1: 18!
Student #2: 24!
Student #3: 22!
Me: Nope. I'm actually 32.
Student #2: 32? That's practically DEAD!

Precious!

Cavity fighting while you sleep

Not our first choice, but good try anyway, Colin!

Have you hugged your child today?

I was sitting with two of my students today, girls aged about 11 years old. One, "Ann", told me that she was going to get her hair cut. So she, "Maria" and I talked about haircuts. "Ann" told me that she could only get a blunt cut because that's all her mom and grandma would allow.

After about five minutes of conversation, she told me that she wanted to get her hair cut because, when she was a little girl, her mom would tell her she was beautiful and hug her.

Her mom no longer hugs her.

She said, "I want my mom to hug me and tell me that she loves me."

I asked her if she had tried. She said, "[My teacher] told me to try to hug my mom. I was scared the first day and then I tried. My mom say, 'Go away, I'm busy' and she pushed me. I wish [my teacher] was my mom. She said she would hug me if I need it. When she hug me, it remind me of how my mom used to hug me."

Her mom also tells her she's fat, and won't let her play with her best friend.

This poor girl. It's not easy being a preteen. It's not easy being deaf/hard-of-hearing - especially when your family won't sign to you, and they yell at you in their first language (which they're sure you understand, but you're just lazy).

All this girl wants to to be hugged and told that she matters.

It's a reminder to us all - don't forget to hug your children and tell them that you love them ... every day.