in the swallows

Crew

2007-06-12T16:45:00.000-06:00

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

2007-06-12T16:34:00.000-06:00

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

2007-06-11T16:07:00.000-06:00

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!

2007-05-31T17:32:00.000-06:00

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

2007-04-30T17:27:00.000-06:00

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

2007-03-13T18:43:00.000-06:00

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

2007-03-05T16:27:00.000-07:00

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

2007-03-02T19:13:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-03-02T19:12:00.000-07:00

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

Taxes

2007-02-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Is there any better way to spend a few hours on the weekend?

(barf)

Then and Now

2007-02-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

then...

October 1984

Rob (the pirate), Derek (the cowboy), Lauren (the clown)

...now

December 2006

Rob, Derek, Lauren

We won tonight's game!

2007-02-05T21:47:00.000-07:00

And by WE I mean Jessica.

(I just tried to stay low enough so she could do her thing with her bad-self)

Badminton

2007-02-05T17:02:00.000-07:00

Last week I took a long awaited step out from behind the front that I have been falsely living behind for the last decade and a half. And after much contemplation over a $15 registration fee, I decided that it would be selfish for me to continue shiedling from the world my god-given talents. Let it be known that D-Rock is back to rule the roost on the Badminton court. My fellow MedSLP-er in crime, Jessica, and I signed up as a team for the UW Intermural Mixed-group Badminton Tournament 2007. Yep...after a 14 year hiatus from Freshman PE at dear old East High, Derek is once again showing the world how well he can handle a shuttlecock. And Jessica, a former badminton champion and birdie exterminator, felt the need to get down and dirty after hours and hours of professionally/polite clinic behavior. Behind the dark hair, cute smile and pearl necklace is a force of nature only a few brave souls would dare go up against.

Today we spent the better part of 37 minutes prepping ourselves at the IMA, working on our service, backhand, smashes and basic doubles strategery. We're pretty much going to wipe the court clean with those undergrads.

Basically it's going to suck for anybody else to go up against us.

Attempting Pool

2007-02-03T11:34:00.000-07:00

Trying way too hard to look cool

How long does it take to fall in love, and then out?

2007-01-31T01:06:00.000-07:00

I'm just wondering.

A strange occurrence of related events happened two nights ago that took my mind back to a situation I was in almost two years ago--with this guy I was starting to see and like for about two weeks. For one reason or another, I discovered, just this Sunday night, that he has tried on more than one occasion tried contacting me by phone, and these attempts went completely unnoticed by me. Without going into all the complicated details, let me just say that there's an uncomfortably large amount of information on the internet about each and every one of us...stuff that we can all access if we try hard enough. I was able to put two and two together with some information that I came across, and like I said earlier, came to the shocking realization that he had tried, more than once, to contact me.

So...I started thinking...if I realized XX had been calling, would I have answered? what would I have said? what would I have felt? what do I feel now? what would he have said? how would I have reacted?

Is it ridiculous that I really don't know the answers to any of these questions. I hate to say this, you don't know how much I do, but I think in this case, I'm not totally over him. There are some people that you meet, date, stop dating, and move on with no residual feelings.

And then there are others...

This is what happens when ABC airs re-runs...

2007-01-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

I get mad, stomp my feet, call friend Jackie-ASU, and bitch and moan about working hard all day and not getting the reward of enjoying new episodes of my favorite shows. Waaa!

But instead of deciding to watch something else, I figured I haven't said much on the blog about school this quarter. So lucky for you (or not, depending on how you actually feel about my blogging) I'm going to get a bit more into the school aspect of D-rock. If that stuff bores you, then this entry is just not for you.

This quarter so far is going SOOOOO well. The classes I have this quarter are much more up the alley of what I want and see myself doing professionally. Not that last quarter was informative and significant, it was. Really, it's as if last quarter laid down the framework so that I could really ENJOY what I am learning now.

My two favorite classes are Neuroanatomy/Neurophysiology and Voice Disorders. I'm toying around the idea of asking my Voice Disorders professor if she'll be my mentor for a master's thesis. Even when the studying is really challenging, or there are concepts that are just not sinking in as fast as I'd like, I kind of sit back and laugh, "even though this is kicking my ass, I'm loving every minute of it". The professor for Neuroanatomy has had the career that I would DIE for. He got his master's, worked for a little while and then went back for his PhD, and instead of following the academic route at a University, he worked as a researcher in hospitals, until he got to the point where he wanted to come back to school and teach. Not that I'm not interested in research, but his was more hands on and in the actual field, whereas sometimes in a university you get wrapped up in the "Ivory Tower", and even in your research.

Anyway...it's been a great quarter, and whereas last quarter I was eagerly looking forward for it to end, this quarter is going way too fast, and I'd really wish it would slow down so I can take more of it in.

I've also been working with kids in various developmentally delayed preschool classrooms up in a town called Mukilteo. I spend about four hours every Monday working with little kiddos with Austism, Cerebral Palsy, Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, and others, who need speech and language treatment. They are really adorable 3-5 year olds, most of them functioning at much lower levels than their typically developing peers. Some of them have great speech but inappropriate use (they are lacking knowledge of how to use language appropriately in social situations), whereas some of the others are completely non-verbal and we are just working on either some articulation (like making sounds), or working with picture cards/boards/computers that help them communicate their ideas and needs. I didn't think I would enjoy working with this population as much as I have so far.

Anyway...that's just a little wrap up of my school life. As you may or may not have noticed from my blog entry from last week, I went out for drinks with a guy last weekend which went HORRIBLY. We were SOOO wrong for each other. Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Pic from Christmas in Salt Lake

2007-01-28T23:26:00.000-07:00

Hess, Jed and Derek....I love me my Cortez Street roomies!

You know you need to do laundry when...

2007-01-27T23:57:00.000-07:00

The only thing you can find in your closet that resembles underwear is a speedo...and you wear it.

Jedathon

2007-01-25T01:04:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Hed~

Pancakes

2007-01-24T13:25:00.000-07:00

In an effort to really use all of the food in my cupboards before I make my way up to Safeway to get sprayed once again by the produce section, I have been eating EVERYTHING that is preparable. Yep...even those boxes of Krusteaz Buttermilk pancake mix that I've had for way too long (don't worry, no spoiling or foreign bodies growing there). I forgot how easy and quick a few pancakes with jam in the morning can be! Yum yum.

What not to talk about on a date

2007-01-21T11:13:00.000-07:00

If you insist on talking about how much money you make a year, how expensive your cars are, that you have the best taste in the world for clothing, how much you spent on your trip to St. Tropez, and how much you love tossing money around because you have so much of it....sorry, it's just not going to happen.

A bit more about me

2007-01-20T15:45:00.000-07:00

True story...happens at least once a month for me.

As many other twenty-somethings out there, I have had my fair share of apartments and dwelling spaces I have called home. In fact, since the time I turned 20 I have managed to live in 13 different homes/apartments. Again, this isn't an abnormal for most people my age...talking to most of my friends here in Seattle, my numbers are pretty on par with the norm. About 99.9% of the time I have no problem remembering where in the world I am living, where I live, and what I'm doing living there. But during the other .1% of the time, usually in the morning when my body and mind wake up but I haven't opened my eyes yet, I kind of laugh and realize that I'm not exactly sure where I am. Don't get me wrong, I don't feel lost or out of place, it's just that I honestly can't remember if I'm still serving in Albania, or waking up in my tatami room in Japan. It's sort of a weird game I play with myself...will I wake-up upstairs with my other 11 other roommates at the Fort Douglas, or will I be licked to death by Bogart at the Swallows. Am I still on study abroad living on Thompson Lane, or am I home in the basement on Princeton Ave? Will I open my eyes only to see Jed's and my very long bodies sharing a small double bed on Cortez Street, or is it 2002 and I'm living in the pool house on 2nd Ave? Just yesterday, I had to remind myself that I moved to Seattle, was in grad school... and if I waited any longer, would probably be late for ProSem that morning. ;)

Sign for future degeneration? Maybe. But, if things go that way for me later on in life, at least I'll have the comfort of knowing that I'll just be lost in a lifetime of wonderful memories.

Why?

2007-01-18T21:01:00.000-07:00

Not sure.

When Hessica comes to play...

2007-01-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

My darling Hess came up to keep me company in Seattle over the MLK Jr. long weekend. I was just getting over my cold, and was getting a little stir crazy only spending time at school or in my bed, so the timing couldn't have been more perfect. We had a fun dinner with some of my school friends, and ventured over to Kate's Pub in Wallingford. The next day, Seattle showed its cold ugly face, so we kept on the down low, and ended up seeing Notes on a Scandal, for which I would like to say..."SCANDALOUS--go see it now!"

Sunday Hess and I met up with Brie and another Jessica (from my program) and headed to the Experience Music Project in the Seattle Center. Although the museum is really nice inside and I learned a lot, it was a bit more expensive than I would regularly go for, and I'm not sure if I'd actually recommend it to anyone. I don't imagine I'd go again, unless there was a really cool traveling exhibit showcased there. After the museum, the four of us walked over to a cute coffee house for a cup of joe and to chat all things boys and men. Yes, I know, I can never really get away from being "Derek and the girls"...what's a gay man to do. In my defense, when I was living up on Cortez Street, I was definitely in the majority as most of my friends were (gay) men.

That night, Hess took me out to Ray's Boathouse on the Puget Sound where we wined and dined. Delicious. The next day, we took the Washington State Ferry out to Bainbridge Island, had breakfast, and then got to know the area a bit. Before I knew it, the entire weekend had rushed by, and I was taking Hess back to SeaTac.

THANKS FOR COMING, HESS! I HAD SUCH A GREAT WEEKEND!

Dinner with peeps from school at the Indo Cafe
Derek, Jessica, Liz, Chad (some of my fellow Med-SLP students)
Derek and Hess

Hess and Derek freezing our asses off getting this pic with Mt. Ranier as our lovely backdrop
You know it's a good song when you both are closing your eyes

Derek on ferry to Bainbridge Island

My nose, my nose, in the dark it glows!

2007-01-11T10:41:00.000-07:00

I had really great intentions to get back to Seattle and start up with the blogging again, but my plans were thwarted by a pretty cruel cold that has been going around UW. Suffice it to say, I'm taking everything as far as medicine is concerned to get me through this one. I've blown my nose raw about a million times this morning, and it's definitely become lower-respiratory because I have the cough from hell.

Truly a joy to be around, I'm sure.