Crew

I know that earlier I painted a picture like my spring quarter was hell, which at times it was. But in a previous posting here stated, "it was the best of times" as well. The second week into the new quarter my mind was absolutely spinning. How in the world was I going to get through it all in one piece and come out on top? I already felt my time was spread so thinly, I couldn't imagine putting anything else on my plate.

And then there was crew.

A group of fellow grad students decided that they wanted to take four precious hours out of their evenings and enroll in some rowing instruction. They approached me with their ideas seeing that they needed one more guy on the team. Initially I laughed in their faces, wondering how in the world they were going to be able to rationalize being away from school those four evening hours a week...hours which were prime time to study, plan, analyze, diagnose, write, etc. But after some thought, I realized it would be a great way to spend time with the same people I would be seeing day in and day out, and yet give us some time to decompress as a group and make other sorts of connections to add to our schooling. I'm so glad I did, because not only did I find out that I love rowing (and I think I could get good at it with some serious training), the time we spent out on the water helped me appreciate this GORGEOUS city and land that I live in. Seeing the city from the water provides another unique and interesting perspective into Seattle living. My love affair with this city continues to grow and grow.

As you can see Seattle is the land of many bridges which make beautiful backdrops, and these pics were all taken the same day as we attempted to row long and hard out to Ballard. I was cockswain or "cox" that day, meaning I was giving the rowing orders and controlling the rudder (or "udder" as I accidently called them the first time) of our boat. It was actually my only time during the quarter to be cox, as I usually rowed portside apart of the bow pair (second from the rear of the boat).

Enjoy.







This is a pretty picture of a very large vessel we successfully beat back to our boathouse before the big wakes could come by and toss us around. I made our team row like their lives depended on it, as Jackie my fellow rower would say.

Vancouver and San Francisco

My dearest and darlingest Linda graced me with her presence over Spring Break, and together we went on a 10 day adventure of the West Coast all the way from Vancouver, BC, to San Francisco. She really took the best pictures, and I'm still trying to get her to send some to me, but here are a few highlights from the trip.



Totem Poles at Stanley Park, Vancouver


Derek hugging Founders Tree in the Redwoods


Linda on Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge, Vancouver


San Francisco on a foggy afternoon

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times

Wow. I did it. At times I didn't know if I could pull it off, but I just got my grades back from Spring Quarter and I passed with flying colors. For any of my gentle readers out there whom I haven't permanently lost, this past quarter was no small feat. Never in my academic life have I ever been pushed, pulled, stretched, frustrated, loaded upon and expected to do MORE MORE MORE than this past quarter. I think I expressed sometime ago on this blog that after my first (fall) quarter I truly felt like a bonafide grad student. Well, those feelings were just one-upped to "tried-and-true". If I ever thought that I didn't want to do this for the rest of my life, this quarter would have shown that to me. I feel like I've emerged from these past 12 weeks like a beaten warrior, but victorious none-the-less. The only regret I have, is not keeping this blog up to date.

That's the thing about me, I have yet (and at this point probably never will be able) to master the fine art of paying attention to all defining aspects of my life when more is asked of me than I think I can handle. Instead, during times of trial, I basically abandon anything that doesn't directly benefit my ability to surmount my challenges. Anything on the side becomes temporarily superfluous. So in the case of school, once I really started to feel the weight of the quarter, I had to narrow my focus on what was really going to get me through it all, taking away distractions and anything else that would set me off course.

I realize how damaging this type of attitude and lifestyle can be -- to friendships, family, and to personal relationships. I wish I were different, but at 28, this is pretty much who I am, and always have been. I'm not sure if there's a lot that can be changed at this point. What I do have going for me is the fact that this program won't continue on for the rest of my life, and as my good grad-school friend Jessica has told me numerous times, "Grad school is just a time to be selfish, not in a bad way, but in a way that you get what it is you need in order to turn around and start giving back to others."

So right now I'm on a week-long break. Summer quarter will probably be no different than last, but with the stress lessened by the fact that I have already done this once before, and I don't see it getting any worse. In the mean time, I'm going to get some pics up of what I have been doing since my last post.

Stay tuned, more to come!

In May D-rock:

-had a blast celebrating Cinco de Mayo with the crew team, and watched UW crew cream Berkeley, Purdue, Wazzu, and a whole host of other teams.
-turned 28!
-took second seat to the clinical work in our team (was a great relief after April being lead)
-celebrated what seemed to be a birthday every weekend
-decided that a PhD probably won't happen for me right after grad school
-fell more and more in love with the Emerald City as it came back to life

In April D-Rock:

-took the lead in two diagnostic sessions
-started rowing and learned how painful it can be to lift and carry a boat on your back with eight other people when you have about 6 to 8 inches on all of them
-spent time with Jed and Chris
-consumed more caffeinated beverages than a person probably should
-realized for sure that child-language development was not the path for a career (something I pretty much knew already, but needed to be convinced of it)

2 down, 1 to go

FINALS.

AGAIN.

I know, I was just doing these in December, but that's the glory of the quarter system. By chosing to matriculate in a school that is still on quarters, you've electively chosen to put yourself through one more frenzied week of finals. What's worse, you have no one to blame but yourself.

Luckily I have just one more to crank out before spring break. And helping me get through the dread of finals is knowing that my darling Linda will be flying in from London to spend a week with me in and around the Pacific Northwest.

Linda and I met nearly five years ago while spending our summer breaks studying in jolly ol' England. She was in my same "History of Elizabeth I" class. On the first day I had noticed that although she spoke English quite well, I could tell she wasn't American, nor British. Linda was aruging a point with the professor (one that wasn't taken too well, I should add), but Linda had a really valid point. Her confidence mixed with supported info and her "accent" intrigued me. I had no choice but to approach her immediately after class and get to the bottom of the mystery. That curiosity blossomed into a beautiful friendship, still going strong today. Here's a pic taken August 11, 2002, on Linda's birthday. We've just come down from a very soggy day exploring Neuschwanstein Castle.

What's funny is that more than likely any pics we take this upcoming week may look just as wet and soggy.

Linda these days is working on her master's at Oxford and just got accepted to Christ's College at Cambridge for a PhD. So, yes, I definitely plan on making a trip back to England sometime in the next three years to visit her in the city where it all started.

While here for spring break we'll be heading up to Vancouver, BC to say hello and spend time with our neighbors to the north (first for me!). We're also toying around with the idea of going down to San Francisco and taking even more fog and dampness into our spring break. While other classmates of mine will be working on their tans on Maui, or in Hawaii, Florida, and other sunny locales, I'll be working on my paleness factor and seeing if at all possible I can get whiter.

Besides that, life is fine and fun. No, not dating anyone (SHOCKER!), but that's okay, school keeps me warm at night ;)

Sorry for the infrequent posting lately. But thanks for reading, just the same!

States and Countries I've visited

I'll show you my maps if you show me yours!

I've totally stolen this from another blog, but I thought it looked fun, and hey, this is what the blogsphere is all about, right?

Visited states/countries shown in red.

These maps don't include "airport" visits, with the major exception of Taiwan, and that's only because I've honestly spent more than 48 hours of my life over the years in the Chiang Kai-shek airport in Taipei. And sadly it's probably the lamest of all Asian airports I've spent time in.



create your own personalized map of the USA



create your own visited country map

As you can see, the South American, African and Australian continents are still on my list (as far as my continent check off is concerned).

Okay, your turn.

Axo Axonic--a summary

I must apologize for leaving you all in the dark about the details of the Badminton tournament. Surely you've all been sitting on pins and needles.

First, we declared ourselves the AXO-AXONIC team, named in honor of our Neurology class where we learned all about axo-axonic synapses. Here's a pic, just in case you're scratching your head. I think it looks like two badminton rackets.


Well, we managed to to take 4th place, which isn't that bad considering some of the teams we went up against. In the semi-finals we played a team where collectively the two had close to 12 years of competetive experience playing doubles. As Jessica and I scrambled madly to keep the shuttlecock in the air, I could overhear our competitors going over grocery lists, dinner plans for the weekend, and time schedules for movies. They would honestly keep their eyes on the birdie half the time, and yet with the LEAST amount of effort, hit it in such a perfect way that would send Jessica and I running just to get in place for the return. There were minutes (plural!) where the guy on the other team wouldn't even move his feet, and yet they managed to CREAM us. The game was over before we knew it.

So we went into the consolation round, where we played a team that was much more evenly matched. We lost to them as well, but had a hell of lot more fun trying--in fact, after the match had officially been won, we continued playing with them for another 30 minutes, just because we were having such a good time. They were two grad students for the engineering department, and we had a fun time making jokes about engineers and speech-language pathologists.

My game improved 10 fold, and of course Jessica still rocks with the racket.

NEXT YEAR>>>>>> we'll give that team we lost to in the semifinals a run for their money (and maybe make them move around a bit before they pulverize us all over again ;)

Well February Sucked...

in my blogging, that is. Actually, it was a wonderful month. Guess I had a little writer's block.