The Judith Schulman Blog

Interesting Commercials

2007-03-19T20:37:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since i've updated. School is going well and I am just about to finish up midterms and begin working on research papers for both classes. The semester ends in a month and a half. I just applied for my field work for next year so hopefully I get a decent placement. Work is just there but I only have 4 1/2 months left and I'm taking some vacation time in July. This past weekend I ventured up to UConn. It was great hanging out with the now AEPhis. I'm so proud of where PEA has gone and that it is actually a sorority now.

I love those commercials for not smoking that are on tv. I think they are so creative. My new favorite is the one where the moms are made out of ice and they are pregnant. You can see the baby dolls in their stomachs. It is a really hot day and the moms begin to melt leaving the babies on the ground. Then there is a sign with a statistic of how many kids are left without moms because of smoking. Now the only question about these commercials is how effective are they. Obviously they have gotten my attention but I don't even smoke!

a pretty crazy story

2007-02-20T20:43:00.000-05:00

so today my boss came in to tell us a story of a friend of an employee who just left because she was moving. Her friend was walking up to her house over the weekend and fell on ice and hit her head and was knocked out. No one was around and no one knew she was hurt so she froze to death.

This story is pretty crazy and it definitely makes me think a lot about my own life and how I just need to live every day to the fullest because you never know when something crazy will happen. In respects to that, I also feel like i'm wasting my days right now and am more eager than ever before to finish my degree and start working.

An interesting decision!

2007-01-29T19:54:00.000-05:00

So for the past few years I have been back and forth on my stance when it comes to abortion. Two weeks ago I had a discussion with my friend Marissa about how it can be such a confusing decision and there are so many different aspects to think about. On Saturday we discussed abortion in my human behavior class and I think I have finally made up my mind as to where I stand.

I think one of the main reasons I struggled with this decision is because of my new interest in the field of social work. Originally I was against abortion because I saw it as killing a life and how could someone do that, etc. As I become more educated in the field I had to realize all of the other possibilities for getting rid of an unborn fetus. So personally I am against abortion for myself but people should be allowed to make that decision for themselves.

I do agree with no abortions being performed afer a certain point where the fetus could survive outside of the body. However I now do not see how someone can decide for someone else that they have to have a child. When looking at all of the children involved in the welfare system in the country, why would we want to set up more children to be involved in a system that has enough problems already. Also no one is perfect and people do make mistakes. If someone doesnt have enough money to support a baby, they should still have to have it. Its pretty ridiculous now that I think about all of the different situations. There are also certain situations of rape or incest where a child might result and if abortion was illegal then these mothers would have to keep their children as a permanent reminder of their abuse.

So after a long time of going back and forth I think that abortion should be allowed as long as the abortion is legal and the mother is not past the date that the fetus could survive on its own outside of the womb.

In other news school is going well. Kindercare is tolerable for the time being. I am looking forward to August more than ever because im tired of making this trip to NY on the weekends and then being in Monroe all week. So 6 months to go......

Funny story

2007-01-08T17:57:00.000-05:00

So nothing new has happened since my last post except for a funny story at the doctor today. My junior year of highschool I had surgery on my right foot and the doctor put a screw in there to help the bone heal. Today I went for a re-check of my tendonitis and the doctor was going to take the screw out. So he put the shots in to numb the area and the shots hurt a lot. Then the nurse took me to get x-rays and I passed out on the x-ray machine. So after the craziness I had juice and then got the x-rays taken again. Then the doctor took the screw out, stitched up my foot and now I have my screw as a rememberance of this crazy day!

2007 already!!

2007-01-03T18:44:00.000-05:00

So I finished my first semester at Fordham and finally my grades were posted today. I got a 4.0 which was so exciting because I've never had a semester with a 4.0. I've gotten pretty close but now I finally did it. So school is going well and I'm ready for next semester to start next weekend. I'm taking the same two classes with the same two profs but its the next section of the classes so hopefully everything will go smoothly next semester as well.

There have been big changes at work. I now have an assistant teacher in my room with me and more kids but they are new kids. I'm now a multi-age room with older 3's and younger 4's. So far things have been going well minus the chaos of our absent manager. The kids seem to be adjusting well and once things get organized everything will be good. There are a lot of girls in this class so the behavior is so much better than my old class.

Other than that i've just been hanging out and enjoying a few weekends off from going to New York. Spencer was here for a week and we hung out a lot so that was nice. I also did a little shopping and that was nice too. Somehow I managed to get tendonitis in my right foot so that isn't fun and i've been wearing a night splint. My foot is feeling a little bit better but I have to go back on Monday for a check up and I might be getting my screw out of my foot then too so we shall see what Monday brings. Other than that I'm looking forward to a good 2007!

November already!

2006-11-06T20:04:00.000-05:00

I really can't believe its November already and that I'm halfway through my first semester of graduate school. Things are going pretty well. I got my first midterm back for human behavior and I got a 105 so I'm pretty happy with an A+ on my first graduate school exam. My other midterm is next week and hopefully that will go well too. Other than that I'm just doing a lot of reading and working on my paper.

I've been doing a lot of thinking about next year because come March I have to decide if I want my field work to be in NY or CT and then I'll have to start looking for apartments and all that fun stuff. I still havn't made up my mind but I have started looking for potential areas to live in NY.

Work has been going ok too. The kids dressed in pjs for halloween and it was really cute. I'm working on evaluating the kids right now for parent/teacher conferences in december so that's takign a lot of time but other than that the days go by pretty fast. I still wish i could make some more progress with some of them though because I still have one who doesn't know the first letter of his name. Sometimes I have to remind myself that I can only try my best and after that he'll just have to learn it when he learns it.

Spencer and I saw flushed away. It was really cute and I liked it a lot. We went to a cute restaurant afterward and sat and talked for a while. It was really nice! My mom also got us tickets to see blue man group in December. We have third row poncho seats and i'm really excited!

Midterms

2006-10-17T21:21:00.000-04:00

So things seem to be going pretty well overall. Work hasn't been too bad lately and I really love my kids most of the time. I've started to see improvement in their writing and learning and its a really good feeling to know that I'm teaching them all of this.

School is going well too. I have one midterm due on Saturday and my other midterm in a few weeks. I'm also ready to get the paper for research methods going so this weekend will definitely include library time.

I was able to spend a long weekend in NY finally after having a bunch of weekends cut short. Its nice that for now i'm able to spend more time than I thought with Spencer. We went to starbucks on friday night and then to a pool place. Then Saturday I had class then starbucks again and then we went to the movies to see man of the year. It was funny but not as funny as I thought it was going to be. On Sunday we met David at starbucks and I did about 4 hours of work. It was really good. Then Monday we hung out at the mall and I came back to Monroe. I'm still having problems switching back and forth between my weekend life and weekday life so its still hard to have to leave.

Other than that I'm having issues with my decision for next year. It seems to be heavily weighing on my mind no matter what other things I need to get done. Hopefully the solution will become clearer as decision time gets closer. Unfortunately there are problems with all of my solutions and benefits to all of my solutions so we'll see.

Almost time for midterms!

2006-10-09T20:54:00.000-04:00

School is going really well. Class was really interesting this week and I am still really enjoying the program. I also had a chat with my research professor and she was trying to convince me to change to a research concentration. When I said I wasn't sure about concentrating in research she said their is a double concentration in clinical and research. She said for your placement you would be in an agency where you would do research and see clients. I didn't know this was possible but now I'm seriously thinking about this option. I'm going to try and meet with a dean this weekend to see what is involved in double concentrating but its definitely something knew for me to think about.

Saturday afternoon after class Spencer and I went to see the science of sleep. That was the weirdest movie I have seen in a long time. I really enjoyed it though because it was funny and really different from a lot of the movies I have seen recently. After the movie we met a bunch of people for korean bbq. That was the first time I had ever had that before and the grills were on the tables and the food cooked right at the table. It was definitely different and the food was really good. Then we went with David to a bar and some people from his program were there. It was funny because everyone was a few years or so older than me and some were married and it just made me realize that I'm getting older and all.

On Sunday I attended my first Canadian thanksgiving. There were about 15 or so people at spencer's apartment and there was all of the food you would have at thanksgiving and tons of it. The food was really good and I had a good time. Unfortunately I had to leave early to catch a train and the train ended up having mechanical problems and we rode home to CT with no lights and no air. Blah!

Today I had professional development day for work. It was pretty boring and self explanatory but I was able to walk around the 4's room at the shelton center and get some more ideas for my own classroom. Hopefully work will go fast this week because I have Friday off.

October

2006-10-02T18:38:00.000-04:00

I can't believe its October already. So last week at work one of the kids put a block down the toilet. One of the other teachers had to reach her hand down there and take it out, gross! Other than that last week was pretty good. I am starting to feel like i'm making progress with these kids in their writing and whatnot so that makes me feel good. I am also starting to feel like the kids in my class really like me and I've gotten some positive parent feedback.

School is going really well but I can't believe the semester is pretty much 1/3 of the way over already. We picked our paper topics for research methods on saturday and formed our groups. I'm ready to start getting that paper going. Other than that I am starting to get ready for midterms.

Saturday night Spencer and I went to a concert at the nokia theatre in times square. I really am not a huge fan of times square because it is just way to crowded for me. The theatre was really nice though. I came home on sunday for yom kippor and so today we went to services and hung out. Hopefully this will be an uneventful week.

Happy New Year!

2006-09-25T19:55:00.000-04:00

So another week has gone by and I've been trying to update my blog regularly. Work was tolerable this week but i'm still finding it hard to get back into the swing of things after the weekend. Hopefully this week won't be so bad since I was home all weekend anyway.

I went in to NY on Saturday for class and then came right home. This was the first time I've done this and it's tiring and I hope I don't have to do it very often. Classes were good though. I found out one of my classmates is jewish and we were talking about missing rosh hashanah on saturday. She invited me to lunch with her other friend in between our classes and that was a lot of fun. I really do like Fordham more each week and am definitely happy about that.

Saturday night Spencer's parents and grandfather dropped him off at my house. It was interesting to have my parents meet his grandfather. Sunday we all went to services and came home and hung out around the house until dinner. Other than that nothing else is really going on to update about and I have reading to do.

Half way through september!

2006-09-18T20:03:00.000-04:00

Well kindercare is what it is for now and that is, it's paying my bills. Atleast I like the people I work with and hopefully i'm teaching the kids something.

I had week number two of class this week. I went down to NY on friday night and had dinner at spencer's with him, david and david's friend lauren. It was a nice low key night. Class on Saturday was good and I made a new friend named Pam. Saturday I met spencer after class in Flushing and we went to this cute little park and we just talked. It was really nice and then we went for chinese. Sunday we walked around rego park and then did a good deal of reading at starbucks so that was good because I'm almost caught up on my reading.

The more time I spend in NY, the more I realize that I'll be fine living there and might actually enjoy it. I really had a hard time coming home today. Its hard to always be leaving. I was talking to my parents today about how I feel like i'm living two different lives right now. I have my weekday life and my weekend life. Oh well only 11 more months of this hopefully, ugh!

i'm officially a graduate student

2006-09-13T21:54:00.000-04:00

So on Friday I went to NY for the weekend and it was fantastic. Seeing spencer after three weeks was amazing and we got to celebrate our two year anniversary a day late. I rode the train down with steph and we went out to an Irish pub on friday night. Saturday i started school.

School was certainly interesting! I was the youngest person there so it should be interesting to make friends. The professors seem great though and hopefully these intro classes won't be too boring. So far I really like Fordham and I'm glad I picked the school.

After class spencer met me for movies and dinner. We saw little miss sunshine and it was really cute and then we had really good pizza.

Sunday was fantastic because I finally got my picnic. We packed up our new picnic backpack and took a trip to a park next to battery park. There was a music festival going on and we had our picnic and listened to the music.

Monday morning I had my orientation at Fordham and it was kind of boring but I got a lot of questions about my field placement answered. I really would like to get involved in some organizations at school so hopefully once I move to NY I can do that! Spencer met me afterward and we walked around until it was time for me to come back to monroe. I definitely didn't want to come back though and I'm looking forward to making a move to NY down the road.

Now its back to the daily 7-6 grind but now with 7 chapters of reading on top of it before saturday! This should be interesting...

Labor Day Already

2006-09-03T18:14:00.000-04:00

I can't believe it's labor day weekend already. Things finally seem to be settling down from all the craziness of the summer. This week I start my new school year with my new kids. So far they are great and I can actually tolerate going to work. The kindergarten teachers have all of my kids from the summer and they ask me how i dealt with these kids for the summer. I'm just excited for a fresh start where I set the rules and the tone of the classroom.

Next week I start Fordham and I'm super excited and nervous and all of that jazz. I'm sure everything will go well but I'm excited to start my future career or atleast get on the road towards my future career.

This week is spencer and my two year anniversary. I can't believe we've been together for two years. I get to see him on Friday and I'm super excited for that too. This whole not seeing each other thing isn't cool and I'm excited to be going into NY on the weekends for class so we can actually see each other.

In other news I can't believe what happened in Fairfield. Just incase I'll give a summary. A two year old was suppposedly molested by a neighbor and the kids dad shot the neighbor and killed him. It was crazy when i heard that and it looks like the dad might plead insanity and get off. The only thing i want to know is why was the two year old with the neighbor or how did the neighbor have access to the kid.

What a crazy summer this has been!!

2006-08-23T20:30:00.000-04:00

There are no words to describe this summer so I'll just skip over that part and talk about now. I'm still teaching pre-k at kindercare and I will be the head and only teacher in my room as of right now. The job is super tiring and the days are somewhat repetitive but overall it could be a lot worse. I really don't understand the kids or the parents for that matter because they just seem really ridiculous but its a job. I am learning a lot about how I want to be with my own children after watching these parents with their children so I guess that's good.

As far as school goes, I bought my books and paid my first semester's tuition. My first day of class is september 9th. I still dont' know how the whole commuting thing is going to be every weekend but I guess i'll find out soon enough. MSW here I come(ahhh). Atleast I'm figuring out the subway system or starting anyway.

Spencer moved to Queens and I went down to surprise him for his birthday. We had a good day and talked a lot about the future and whatnot. So I guess for the next year or so this is my life. We shall see...

summer

2006-06-15T13:14:00.000-04:00

Last week I went to cape cod with Meghan and we had such a great time. The weather wasn't very cooperative but we still managed to have fun. We did get one good beach day and we went on an amazing whale watch. We saw a mom whale and her baby which was fantastic. The cottage we stayed in was really cute and we decided we're going to have to go back again next summer.

Other than that I went to Fordham to pick my classes which was interesting. I drove and managed not to get lost so that was good. When I was picking my classes I was definitely the youngest person in the room. I think I can use them to my advantage because most of the people in the program already work so I can network and hopefully get a job or a place to do my internship at next year. The plan is to also get friendly with a research proff. so I can do research hopefully next year when I'm living in NY. It was exciting being in NY and at Fordham but I'm still very apprehensive about my whole situation for next year. We shall see!

Speaking of next year, I got a job at kindercare in town so I guess i'll be working there full time for the next year and then the plan will be to look for an apartment next summer and then move to NY before school starts. I guess for a year I can deal with playing with four year olds. As of right now it looks like it will be four ten hour days but I havn't gotten my official schedule yet. So again we shall see!!

I have a degree

2006-05-14T20:46:00.000-04:00

I graduated from UConn last Sunday. I can't believe I won't be going back in the fall. I just moved home on Thursday and I'm trying to get organized and settle back into living at home again. I'm still working at the health center one day a week for now but hopefully I can start making some contacts and getting some job interviews.

Wow Graduation on Sunday

2006-05-02T14:32:00.000-04:00

Ok so last week this whole graduating from UConn and starting the next phase of my life finally sunk in. For PEA we had a whole bunch of senior events last week where they spoiled us a lot. I love those girls so much and they really are all sisters to me but then its so surreal to think that next year the four of us seniors will not be returning to the group.

I still don't have a job but I'm working on it. After finals are over I'm going to start talking to people in the field and work from there. Networking seems like my best chances right now. Other than that I'm looking forward to finals being over with so I can fully focus on the fall. In the meantime I also need to start looking for a summer job so next week the job search begins.

Last week of Undergrad...

2006-04-25T18:45:00.001-04:00

Well I'm getting ready to graduate next Sunday and I can't believe it's here already. This is our last week of classes and then finals next week. It looks like I will be attending Fordham University in September so that's pretty exciting. I went with my parents and spencer to visit the school and I liked it a lot. It's really only one building and the school of social service is on one floor but it was cute and right in manhattan so that's exciting as well. Now I have to decide if I'm going to move to NY or commute. The deciding factor right now is really a job because I can't afford to live in NY without one. I think i'm ready for a change though so i'm really hoping I can find a job.

While we were in the city we saw the wedding singer on broadway and it was really cute. It's brand new and hasn't even officially opened yet. Other than that I was at spencer's house for the first night of passover and we were home the second night so that was nice.

I'm getting my haircut for locks for love on monday and i'm really nervous but its for a good cause and its kind of exciting at the same time. Then the week after that I got asked by my job to work at a juvenile justice seminar run by DCF but it will be at UConn. That should be really interesting and different from my usual data entry and graph making stuff. Then its back home to Monroe until I figure out what to do with my life.

Syracuse?

2006-03-18T13:36:00.000-05:00

I'm back at school after break and things are crazy. I have tons of work and about six papers to write. Montreal was fantastic!! We got in around 10:00 on Thursday night and went to visit spencer's friend lauren. We all went out for dinner and then we went over to spencer's friend Jess' apartment where we were staying for the weekend. Friday we woke up and spencer got a haircut and then we went for brunch. I had a crepe with chocolate hazelnut and fruit on the inside and it was so good. Then we took a really long walk to the old port but it was raining so we ended up going to the science musuem at the old port. The musuem was all about robots and we had a lot of fun. Then we got all dressed up and went out for a nice dinner followed by a bar and jazz club with jess and her boyfriend. On saturday we met up with spencer's friend dany and hung out with him for the afternoon. Saturday night we went to the habs game and they beat the rangers. Then we met up with dany and another one of spencers friends and went to a bar. Sunday we went for brunch with lauren, dany and rachel and then went shopping for the afternoon before driving back to CT.
Other than that the only other new news is my acceptance call from the dean of syracuse MSW program yesterday. That was really exciting!! It's ironic because i was only planning on applying to southern and now i've gotten into syracuse and fordham which are both really good schools. I still have three more schools to hear from but these acceptances are really makng me realize that I have a lot of potential and I should put myself out there more often. I have a lot to give in this field and now I'm going to have multiple options to follow through and actually be able to give.
Now i'm off to work on a legal brief in support of the foster care mentoring act so that should be interesting.

Spring Break Post

2006-03-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

Ok wow I havn't posted in a long time. So basically I just finished half of my last semester of college and am on spring break now. Midterms went pretty well and so far the ones I've gotten back were decent grades. I also received an acceptance letter this week from Fordham for the masters of social work program so that was extremely exciting!! Other than that I have plans with Steph F. later today and then back to school for a few days and then Spencer and I are off to Montreal for the weekend. I'm really excited for us to be able to go on a little vacation and be without all of the day to day crap for a while.
On another note, I've really been struggling with where I stand on the abortion isse. The more I read on the issue the more inhumane I think the whole thing is especially depending on the age of the unborn fetus. The reason I am conflicted though is because after working at DCF I saw all of these kids who had parents that could not take care of their children's basic needs. So its kind of like well either they kill the fetus inhumanely or there are all these kids that we need to take away from their parents cause they can't be cared for properly. So yeah I'm stuck.

My last semester of undergrad!!

2006-01-29T23:07:00.000-05:00

Two weeks of the semester have gone by already. That means 13 left until graduation. Classes are going well and seem pretty interesting. My child welfare: laws and policy class is particularly interesting and completely relates to what I learned this summer at DCF. We are writing legal briefs and I picked a bill that is in the House and I'm going to try and defend the bill to be passed into a law by doing research so I'm kind of excited. Other than that I started back at the health center last week and I'll be there on Mondays this semester. I also started a new project on an adoption study for my autism reseach so that's pretty interesting too. My grad school applications are all done and I should start to hear toward the end of the Febuary. In the meantime I'm starting to look for some jobs so we'll see how that goes. I was offered a job as a prevention specialist at the health center but I would have to take the job now and I havn't heard from schools yet so it didn't make sense to take the job. It's nice to know that there are some options though just incase school doesn't work out.

Back To School Tomorrow

2006-01-08T22:46:00.000-05:00

We still have one week until the semester starts but I'm going back to the apartment tomorrow to get myself organized before classes start. Break went by fast and I had a good time. Now as I'm about to begin my last semester of undergrad I find myself a little nervous about the unknown future. It's pretty funny because almost everyone else around me who is graduating is in the same boat. It's stressful because after high school everyone knew they were going to college. We didn't know at the time which college but we would be in school again. Now some of us have no idea if we're even going to get into grad school and then we have to find jobs. All I know is the more I worry about the unknown future the more nervous I get so I'm just going to give myself as many options as possible so I hopefully will have to make a choice in the end. So here goes the final stretch!!!

Happy New Year!!

2006-01-01T22:10:00.000-05:00

So I've been home for a while for winter break and so far I've been very busy. I made the dean's list this semester with a 3.931. One A- away from a 4.0 but I'll take it. So I was very excited about that. I'm still working on those last two grad applications but I'm feeling a little positive about my chances on getting in.
Spencer came down for Christmas weekend and we went to NY on Monday and Tuesday to visit his friends. Then Thursday I went to South Windsor to spend the weekend and New Years with Spencer. It's really nice that we're getting to spend so much time together lately since when I'm at school we only really get to spend the weekends together. What can I say I can't get enough of that boy.
I got a special visit from tofu on Friday so that was exciting. Then Spencer and I went to see RANE for their last show before their four month vacation. I was also really inspired by my weight watchers meeting on Saturday. I'm ready for the new year to begin and for me to get back on track and reach my goal. Today I came back to Monroe and Spencer and his family came down for a visit. The day went really well and I'm happy that our parents are getting along so well. Other than that I'm just getting ready to go back to school and start my last semester as an undergrad.

oops I forgot

2005-12-11T17:17:00.000-05:00

I forgot, on Friday we had our band banquet. It was fun but a little sad because band is over forever now :(

My Birthday

2005-12-11T17:13:00.000-05:00

I had a fantastic 22nd birthday!! I went to dinner with Spencer at Agave Grill in Hartford, one of our favourite restaurants. Then we went to see U2 at the civic center. The concert was amazing!! Other than that we had our last pea event of the semester today with some goodbyes for our girls going abroad next semester. Now its time to study for finals.