You know that you're a neuropsychology student when your concern for your boyfriend's wellbeing is momentarily distracted because of the pretty, shiny machines which are being used to run an angiogram on his brain. Um... Yes, this is true.
I have spent far more time in hospitals in the last 2 weeks than I have ever wanted to. My boyfriend (a.k.a. He of Many Sports Injuries) was feeling a little weird at work on a Monday morning 2 weeks ago. So, he walked to the shops and still felt weird. So, he bought and ate a chocolate and walked back to the office and then decided to call his brother to take him to the GP. The GP sent to him to another doctor to have some blood tests done, but his brother decided to take him to the hospital. It was only when he couldn't walk properly that they decided to have him examined by a neurologist. A lot of x-rays and blood tests, an fMRI, a lumbar puncture and an angiogram later, they discovered that he'd had 4 minor strokes in the space of 2 months. This is spectacularly strange, considering that he is 35, doesn't drink or smoke (and never has), plays loads of sport, has low cholesterol and eats more salad than I do (and I'm vegetarian!)! The general consensus seems to be that the blood clots in the artery in his neck are the result of trauma, which could be the result of anything from too much volleyball, golf, squash or even just the way he drives down the dirt road to his house. He's now on medication to thin his blood to dissolve the clots, because surgery isn't really an option because of their location.
In the midst of all of this, I have spent a stupendous amount of money on petrol and have become rather adept at driving across Johannesburg to places that I could barely find on a map! I've also gotten to know his family rather well! His mom even flew up from Cape Town, and so I finally got to meet her. Granted, our meeting took place in fairly unusual circumstances - she came with me to his house to help clean up and sort things out for when he moved back home. Vacuuming your boyfriend's house while meeting your potential mother-in-law is a slightly nerve-wracking process!
He is at least out of hospital now, and stayed with his brother and his sister-in-law for a couple of nights before going home. He's in good spirits and has gone back to work - although he's only allowed to be there part-time at the moment (doctor's orders). He even came with me to Richard and Kath's wedding over the weekend! The only downside is that I now have the 'flu, thanks to his 2 and a half year old nephew, who absolutely adores me (the feeling isn't completely mutual). Alas, my immune system is no match for Kael's bugs, and I have thus spent the entire day in bed, reading Dan Brown and getting up only to find chocolate or watch yet another South African soap opera. Pathetic, I know! It's also the last way that I want to be spending my last week of holiday!
And in case you're wondering about the title of this post, "3 lbs." is a mini-series about a group of neurosurgeons - sadly it was cancelled because it was deemed to be too similar to "House". That said, it's a really good show - all 3 episodes! It's also how much the human brain weighs.
LIFE, CAMERA, ACTION: Life's like a movie - write your own ending
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
A Christmas Carol
I really had good intentions of relaxing this December. Relaxing and being vaguely productive, if that combination makes any sense! With my first year of Masters looming, I was hoping to get the chance to recharge my batteries, preferably on a remote beach somewhere, reading Marian Keyes novels and taking amazing photos, and be suitably enthusiastic about starting my Masters. Somehow, none of this has really happened, although I am at least enthusiastic about studying this year!
December has been one long month of Christmas shopping, baking, late nights, lots of DVD's and a fair amount of socialising. And kittens - lots of kittens! Christmas shopping wasn't too bad, although He of Many Sports Injuries proved to be both a help and a hindrance to the process. It is very useful to have someone to carry loads of heavy things across shopping malls for you. It is also very annoying when said person decides that every single homeware shop must be examined before a gift can be bought (even though the ideal salad bowl was found at the first shop)! Nonetheless, Christmas shopping was mostly painless (although my bank account doesn't quite agree). On the receiving front, I got loads and loads of chocolate, a CD voucher, some cute t-shirts and DVD's. The best gift, however, has got to be the Chocolate Kittens that I got. Yes, Chocolate Kittens.
December has been one long month of Christmas shopping, baking, late nights, lots of DVD's and a fair amount of socialising. And kittens - lots of kittens! Christmas shopping wasn't too bad, although He of Many Sports Injuries proved to be both a help and a hindrance to the process. It is very useful to have someone to carry loads of heavy things across shopping malls for you. It is also very annoying when said person decides that every single homeware shop must be examined before a gift can be bought (even though the ideal salad bowl was found at the first shop)! Nonetheless, Christmas shopping was mostly painless (although my bank account doesn't quite agree). On the receiving front, I got loads and loads of chocolate, a CD voucher, some cute t-shirts and DVD's. The best gift, however, has got to be the Chocolate Kittens that I got. Yes, Chocolate Kittens.
Despite being Jewish, I got into the Christmas spirit, mostly by forcing He of Many Sports Injuries to watch "Love, Actually", which is the most lovely movie. He got to inflict a fair amount of revenge though, because I was roped into the festivities and had Christmas lunch with his sister and her husband and kids and an assortment of other relatives. I also met his father and step-mother - an experience of such mind-numbing pain that it deserves its own post (which I will write, just as soon as some of the pain has passed). My Christmas highlight was undoubtedly He of Many Sports Injuries receiving a smoothie maker from his brother and sister-in-law. I think he is terrified of it and has locked it away until further notice.
New Year's Eve was rather fun. We actually closed the veterinary practice at 17:30, which is pretty miraculous, and He of Many Sports Injuries and I spent the evening at Paul the Frog's amazing house, which overlooks Johannesburg. His sister and her boyfriend and a whole bunch of other friends were also there (most were of the barefoot hippie variety - these are obviously the people Paul feels most comfortable with) and we spent the evening playing "Cranium" and throwing vegetables at one another (okay, mostly at me). We saw the New Year in by standing on Paul's balcony, watching the moon and the fireworks display and playing with glowsticks.
So far, 2010 has been off to a fairly slow start. It's been difficult to do anything because I've been working most afternoons and Saturdays, endeavouring to see He of Many Sports Injuries (boyfriends are strangely time-consuming) and I've been out of action for about a week because of a bizarre neck spasm which was so painful that it reduced me to tears (and not even torn ligaments make me cry). I'm slowly getting back into running, and I'm going to university tomorrow for my Masters orientation day. It seems a bit weird to be doing Masters, and I haven't quite got used to the idea yet. I was chatting to a client at the vet and he asked what I did aside from being a receptionist and I told him that I was doing my Masters in Research Psychology. He was utterly amazed and gave me the same look of awe that I know that I've given to people doing their MA's or MSc's or PhD's. It was kind of cool - and very surreal! I'm getting a little panicky though, because I have no idea what I want to do my research on this year. Updates will follow though...
Finally, I have to mention my resolution for the year, which is to blog more consistently! I've been really bad at it, but I'm hoping to get better and have a little bit more to say in 2010!
New Year's Eve was rather fun. We actually closed the veterinary practice at 17:30, which is pretty miraculous, and He of Many Sports Injuries and I spent the evening at Paul the Frog's amazing house, which overlooks Johannesburg. His sister and her boyfriend and a whole bunch of other friends were also there (most were of the barefoot hippie variety - these are obviously the people Paul feels most comfortable with) and we spent the evening playing "Cranium" and throwing vegetables at one another (okay, mostly at me). We saw the New Year in by standing on Paul's balcony, watching the moon and the fireworks display and playing with glowsticks.
So far, 2010 has been off to a fairly slow start. It's been difficult to do anything because I've been working most afternoons and Saturdays, endeavouring to see He of Many Sports Injuries (boyfriends are strangely time-consuming) and I've been out of action for about a week because of a bizarre neck spasm which was so painful that it reduced me to tears (and not even torn ligaments make me cry). I'm slowly getting back into running, and I'm going to university tomorrow for my Masters orientation day. It seems a bit weird to be doing Masters, and I haven't quite got used to the idea yet. I was chatting to a client at the vet and he asked what I did aside from being a receptionist and I told him that I was doing my Masters in Research Psychology. He was utterly amazed and gave me the same look of awe that I know that I've given to people doing their MA's or MSc's or PhD's. It was kind of cool - and very surreal! I'm getting a little panicky though, because I have no idea what I want to do my research on this year. Updates will follow though...
Finally, I have to mention my resolution for the year, which is to blog more consistently! I've been really bad at it, but I'm hoping to get better and have a little bit more to say in 2010!
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
What's Up, Doc?
The past few weeks have been a little bit crazy. Between The Killers concert (which deserves an entire post all of its own) and Christmas shopping madness, as well as an attempted road trip, it's been rather busy. In the midst of all of this, I also ended up with the most amazing (and awful) hay fever last week.
It all started in the middle of the night on about Monday, when I woke up with a sinus headache and couldn't get back to sleep. It got steadily worse from there, and going to work with a streaming nose didn't really help (it's hard to answer the phone without sniffing and I feel really awkward about coughing over people's credit cards). Not even the doggy antihistamines helped (they're exactly the same as the human ones, and the vet and I both take them whenever our allergies kick in). I eventually gave in on Thursday and decided to go to my GP. Without a second thought, I called his office, expecting to get an appointment that morning, and so you can imagine my disappointment when the phone rang and when through to an answering machine message telling me that he was away until January and that I should go to another doctor, who is just down the road. A little irked, I called my old GP, only to be told by his receptionist that he was also away until January. Still feeling like hell, I decided that the best option was to go to the office of the doctor that the first GP had recommended - the argument for this approach was mainly based on the fact that there was no answer when I called the practice to make an appointment. I should probably also point out that my old and new GP's offices are on the same road, and about a block from one another, and that the GP who was recommended by the original one also had his offices on the same road! It's Glenhazel - we have a surplus of Jewish doctors! Anyway, I pulled myself together and drove down the road to the offices, which, lo and behold, were closed! At this point, I drove back up the hill to the original GP's office, because I knew that there was another GP there (see what I meant about the surplus?). Amazingly, they were open, but could only schedule me an appointment for the next day, so I took a business card in case I needed to call them, and drove to the Bagleyston Clinic, cursing the fact that all the GP's in Jo'burg appeared to be sitting next to each other on a beach in Umghlanga!
I got to the clinic (and I swear that the guy who parked next to me was the same guy who I had seen in the waiting room of the GP who was actually open!) and located the offices of one of the GP's. Naturally, it was packed with people - I vaguely suspect that this doctor was the last remaining one in Jo'burg. I tentatively approached the reception desk and asked if I could make an appointment. The receptionist responded by telling me that the doctor was very, very busy, but that, if I didn't mind, I could see "the lady doctor". Happy to see anyone with a medical degree at this point (I was seriously debating just driving to work and seeing if the vet had any ideas about what I had!), I agreed! I feel a lot more comfortable with female doctors and the only reason why my GP is male is because he's the closest one to where I live (expect when he's tanning on the beach, obviously). I filled in their form and saw the doctor 15 minutes later. I was a little mystified as to why the receptionist had given me such a meaningful look when she had mentioned the "lady doctor" - and it got me a little worried, because in my mind, a lady doctor is a gynae. It turns out that she wasn't just a lady, but also a very nice Chinese lady, who was only about 4 years older than me! This got me wondering why I hadn't been asked in I wanted to see the "ethnic minority lady doctor"...
In any case, Holly (the GP), was very nice, and checked me over and concluded that I merely had severe hay fever, and that the exhaustion which had caused me to suspect that it was 'flu was merely incidental and a result of the heat. She gave me a script for some more exciting antihistamines and sent me on my way. I am feeling quite a lot better - aside from the coughing, which kind of causes people to look at me with concern. I'm mostly okay though, and might actually be able to enjoy my holiday, now that I'm no longer feeling sorry for myself.
It all started in the middle of the night on about Monday, when I woke up with a sinus headache and couldn't get back to sleep. It got steadily worse from there, and going to work with a streaming nose didn't really help (it's hard to answer the phone without sniffing and I feel really awkward about coughing over people's credit cards). Not even the doggy antihistamines helped (they're exactly the same as the human ones, and the vet and I both take them whenever our allergies kick in). I eventually gave in on Thursday and decided to go to my GP. Without a second thought, I called his office, expecting to get an appointment that morning, and so you can imagine my disappointment when the phone rang and when through to an answering machine message telling me that he was away until January and that I should go to another doctor, who is just down the road. A little irked, I called my old GP, only to be told by his receptionist that he was also away until January. Still feeling like hell, I decided that the best option was to go to the office of the doctor that the first GP had recommended - the argument for this approach was mainly based on the fact that there was no answer when I called the practice to make an appointment. I should probably also point out that my old and new GP's offices are on the same road, and about a block from one another, and that the GP who was recommended by the original one also had his offices on the same road! It's Glenhazel - we have a surplus of Jewish doctors! Anyway, I pulled myself together and drove down the road to the offices, which, lo and behold, were closed! At this point, I drove back up the hill to the original GP's office, because I knew that there was another GP there (see what I meant about the surplus?). Amazingly, they were open, but could only schedule me an appointment for the next day, so I took a business card in case I needed to call them, and drove to the Bagleyston Clinic, cursing the fact that all the GP's in Jo'burg appeared to be sitting next to each other on a beach in Umghlanga!
I got to the clinic (and I swear that the guy who parked next to me was the same guy who I had seen in the waiting room of the GP who was actually open!) and located the offices of one of the GP's. Naturally, it was packed with people - I vaguely suspect that this doctor was the last remaining one in Jo'burg. I tentatively approached the reception desk and asked if I could make an appointment. The receptionist responded by telling me that the doctor was very, very busy, but that, if I didn't mind, I could see "the lady doctor". Happy to see anyone with a medical degree at this point (I was seriously debating just driving to work and seeing if the vet had any ideas about what I had!), I agreed! I feel a lot more comfortable with female doctors and the only reason why my GP is male is because he's the closest one to where I live (expect when he's tanning on the beach, obviously). I filled in their form and saw the doctor 15 minutes later. I was a little mystified as to why the receptionist had given me such a meaningful look when she had mentioned the "lady doctor" - and it got me a little worried, because in my mind, a lady doctor is a gynae. It turns out that she wasn't just a lady, but also a very nice Chinese lady, who was only about 4 years older than me! This got me wondering why I hadn't been asked in I wanted to see the "ethnic minority lady doctor"...
In any case, Holly (the GP), was very nice, and checked me over and concluded that I merely had severe hay fever, and that the exhaustion which had caused me to suspect that it was 'flu was merely incidental and a result of the heat. She gave me a script for some more exciting antihistamines and sent me on my way. I am feeling quite a lot better - aside from the coughing, which kind of causes people to look at me with concern. I'm mostly okay though, and might actually be able to enjoy my holiday, now that I'm no longer feeling sorry for myself.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Sleepless in Seattle
The past few weeks have been rather crazy, hence my lack of blog activity. While varsity term is finally over, it's taken a while to recouperate from the stress of Honours. I really hadn't realised how exhausted I was. Through most of October, while I was writing up my research and studying for exams, I was functioning on about 5 hours of sleep a night - a bit of a problem for someone who usually gets 8 hours in order to be somewhat sane! I caught up on most of my sleep after my psychopathology exam, and had a lovely 2 weeks off in order to study for neuropsychology, but I ended up going from exhaustion to holiday mode in 1 easy step, so I still ended up studying furiously the night before the exam, woke up and revised at 6am and was far more stressed than I needed to be!
Even with exams over, I still haven't been getting terribly much sleep. Actually being able to relax at last has sent us Honours students into a socialising flurry. The week after exams was pretty crazy, with our post-Honours party and Pam's wedding. The Honours party was held at Mailie's house in Westcliff. Despite the utterly miserable weather (it poured the entire week!), we all had fun exploring her enormous house (it's worth a couple of million rand and has the most amazing view), discussing our holiday plans (holiday - what a beautiful word!) and eating far too much!
Pam's wedding was rather interesting - and a lot of fun! It was raining, so the photos that she'd arranged to have taken with all her friends ebfore were moved from a park near the shul to Melrose Arch Shopping Centre. I wore black - *shudder* - and it was utter chaos, with us running around the shopping mall, dodging Christmas trees and being shouted at by the photographer! Anyway... I got changed into my red dress at Melrose Arch, and drove to the shul. The first part of the wedding involved all the women standing in a room, and then the men coming in with Daniel (the groom), so that he could lift Pam's veil to check that it was her, and they could say some blessings. Pam's dad led the procession, and he was in tears from the instant he saw her, and so was her brother - and then so was I! Lame, I know, but I usually cry at weddings. Anyway... The rest of the service was downstairs in the shul, and it was very lovely. The reception was in Sandton Shul's hall, and it was amazing! I knew a couple of people (as aquantainces), but the girls were very sweet. There was tons of food, and the dancing was so much fun! Girls and boys danced separately (there was a screen across the dance floor), but it was so much fun! And the dessert was incredible - every dessert known to man was spread out on a giant buffet table! I'm seriously considering doing the photography for Jewish weddings as a possible career option - if only for the dessert! I did manage to have a fashion faux pas though. I was chatting to 2 other girls outside the bathroom (turned out they'd never been to a Jewish wedding either, and so they were also lost), and after I came out of the bathroom, I got my dress hooked in my petticoat. We were just standing in the passage, and someone told me, but I might have flashed 1 or 2 Jewish boys, who aren't allowed to hold hands with girls, let alone be flashed some knickers! Oops...
Aside from the party and the wedding, I've also had a surprise 30th birthday party, a couple of DVD evenings, a visit to the theatre to see "Cats" and an awful lot of time with He of Many Sports Injuries. My efforts to reestablish my sleep patterns keep being thwarted, because I'll catch up on my sleep, feel better and then have a late night and be back to being a zombie. It seems to be getting a little bit better though - and I'm really enjoying seeing all my friends again!
Even with exams over, I still haven't been getting terribly much sleep. Actually being able to relax at last has sent us Honours students into a socialising flurry. The week after exams was pretty crazy, with our post-Honours party and Pam's wedding. The Honours party was held at Mailie's house in Westcliff. Despite the utterly miserable weather (it poured the entire week!), we all had fun exploring her enormous house (it's worth a couple of million rand and has the most amazing view), discussing our holiday plans (holiday - what a beautiful word!) and eating far too much!
Pam's wedding was rather interesting - and a lot of fun! It was raining, so the photos that she'd arranged to have taken with all her friends ebfore were moved from a park near the shul to Melrose Arch Shopping Centre. I wore black - *shudder* - and it was utter chaos, with us running around the shopping mall, dodging Christmas trees and being shouted at by the photographer! Anyway... I got changed into my red dress at Melrose Arch, and drove to the shul. The first part of the wedding involved all the women standing in a room, and then the men coming in with Daniel (the groom), so that he could lift Pam's veil to check that it was her, and they could say some blessings. Pam's dad led the procession, and he was in tears from the instant he saw her, and so was her brother - and then so was I! Lame, I know, but I usually cry at weddings. Anyway... The rest of the service was downstairs in the shul, and it was very lovely. The reception was in Sandton Shul's hall, and it was amazing! I knew a couple of people (as aquantainces), but the girls were very sweet. There was tons of food, and the dancing was so much fun! Girls and boys danced separately (there was a screen across the dance floor), but it was so much fun! And the dessert was incredible - every dessert known to man was spread out on a giant buffet table! I'm seriously considering doing the photography for Jewish weddings as a possible career option - if only for the dessert! I did manage to have a fashion faux pas though. I was chatting to 2 other girls outside the bathroom (turned out they'd never been to a Jewish wedding either, and so they were also lost), and after I came out of the bathroom, I got my dress hooked in my petticoat. We were just standing in the passage, and someone told me, but I might have flashed 1 or 2 Jewish boys, who aren't allowed to hold hands with girls, let alone be flashed some knickers! Oops...
Aside from the party and the wedding, I've also had a surprise 30th birthday party, a couple of DVD evenings, a visit to the theatre to see "Cats" and an awful lot of time with He of Many Sports Injuries. My efforts to reestablish my sleep patterns keep being thwarted, because I'll catch up on my sleep, feel better and then have a late night and be back to being a zombie. It seems to be getting a little bit better though - and I'm really enjoying seeing all my friends again!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Earth
Apologies for having abandoned my blog for the last month or so - things have been rather chaotic! In between the end of term, essays, finishing data collection, doing data entry and battling my stats program in the hope of one day being able to finish my research project, there hasn't been too much time for blogging!
There has been rather a lot to blog about though! Firstly, the World Wildlife Fund (http://blogs.panda.org/climate/) hosted an initiative a couple of weeks ago, in which they asked people to blog about climate change. Now, I could write a really heart-wrenching post about the melting ice-caps, but instead I'm going to write about recycling - with a difference. I'm not talking about recycling glass or paper or making compost (all of which are really good ways to recycle). Instead, I'm talking about recycling intellectual property. I don't mean plagiarism though - 4 years of lectures on referencing will put the fear of God into you should you ever decide to neglect good ol' APA format referencing. Basically, I discovered that my Honours neuropsychology essay topic this year was almost identical to last year's 3rd year essay topic. Since I was rather stressed and short on time, I decided to "recycle" last year's essay into a new, slightly updated essay - not a bad idea, considering that I got 86% for it the first time round. It didn't go particularly well - I wasn't too motivated about it, and the electricity went off twice while I was typing it, which meant that my computer switched itself off and I had a small nervous breakdown. I got my mark back though - 90%! If I keep handing in this essay, I should eventually get 100%! Hurray for recycling!
Finishing my research proved to be a bit of a disaster too! I eventually finished data collection (54 proved to be close enough to 60 to be an acceptable size sample), did my data entry (the joy of reducing 8 months of work to a bunch of 1’s and 0’s on an Excel spreadsheet) and started data analysis. Analysis lasted all of 10 minutes, because the stats program remained grumpy, and I eventually ended up at the house Granville was house-sitting, from 18:30 to 00:30 on a Tuesday night, running my stats on his laptop! And after a week of very little sleep, multiple drafts, sending my supervisor 40 page drafts via fax and discovering that in 8 months, I actually found nothing, it was handed in on the 30th of October, all bound and shiny. I’ve set up another blog for my research findings (or lack thereof), so got to http://risktakingbehaviourresearch.blogspot.com/2009/11/results-and-discussion.html, if you’re interested (or bored).
Having handed in on the 30th at 13:00, I then invigilated a 3 hour exam with Granville and Bronwyn. Granville had also just handed in, and had pretty much pulled an all-weeker (rather than an all-nighter), and so we were all rather exhausted. I had bought everyone a packet to sweets from Woolies (the gelatine-free ones) to get us through the afternoon, and by the end of it, we were all hyper, and were all head-banging to whatever music we were listening to on our iPods. Between all this, we escorted students to the bathroom, read a little bit, chatted to the psych lecturers (who all think we’re nuts) and watched Granville twirl his moustache (surprisingly fascinating). It was actually a rather fun afternoon!
As exciting as all of the above has been, there are 2 rather huge pieces of news. Number one is that I’ve been accepted for Research Masters for 2010, which means that I get to do another degree, get an office and don’t have to join the real world for at least another 2 years! I also get to figure out what I want to do with my life, etc. The second piece of very exciting news is that I have a boyfriend. And it’s not the Crush or the Potential Potential. It is, in fact, someone who has been mentioned a couple of times on this blog (see my posts entitled "The Beach", "Casino Royale" and "Brokeback Mountain"), and who Helen has named He Of Many Sports Injuries (which I quite like, and which I will now adopt). We've been together for about a month or so, and he's very lovely. I won't bore (or nauseate) you with the details though. Fair to say though, I think my inner romantic cynic is slowly dying... ;)
There has been rather a lot to blog about though! Firstly, the World Wildlife Fund (http://blogs.panda.org/climate/) hosted an initiative a couple of weeks ago, in which they asked people to blog about climate change. Now, I could write a really heart-wrenching post about the melting ice-caps, but instead I'm going to write about recycling - with a difference. I'm not talking about recycling glass or paper or making compost (all of which are really good ways to recycle). Instead, I'm talking about recycling intellectual property. I don't mean plagiarism though - 4 years of lectures on referencing will put the fear of God into you should you ever decide to neglect good ol' APA format referencing. Basically, I discovered that my Honours neuropsychology essay topic this year was almost identical to last year's 3rd year essay topic. Since I was rather stressed and short on time, I decided to "recycle" last year's essay into a new, slightly updated essay - not a bad idea, considering that I got 86% for it the first time round. It didn't go particularly well - I wasn't too motivated about it, and the electricity went off twice while I was typing it, which meant that my computer switched itself off and I had a small nervous breakdown. I got my mark back though - 90%! If I keep handing in this essay, I should eventually get 100%! Hurray for recycling!
Finishing my research proved to be a bit of a disaster too! I eventually finished data collection (54 proved to be close enough to 60 to be an acceptable size sample), did my data entry (the joy of reducing 8 months of work to a bunch of 1’s and 0’s on an Excel spreadsheet) and started data analysis. Analysis lasted all of 10 minutes, because the stats program remained grumpy, and I eventually ended up at the house Granville was house-sitting, from 18:30 to 00:30 on a Tuesday night, running my stats on his laptop! And after a week of very little sleep, multiple drafts, sending my supervisor 40 page drafts via fax and discovering that in 8 months, I actually found nothing, it was handed in on the 30th of October, all bound and shiny. I’ve set up another blog for my research findings (or lack thereof), so got to http://risktakingbehaviourresearch.blogspot.com/2009/11/results-and-discussion.html, if you’re interested (or bored).
Having handed in on the 30th at 13:00, I then invigilated a 3 hour exam with Granville and Bronwyn. Granville had also just handed in, and had pretty much pulled an all-weeker (rather than an all-nighter), and so we were all rather exhausted. I had bought everyone a packet to sweets from Woolies (the gelatine-free ones) to get us through the afternoon, and by the end of it, we were all hyper, and were all head-banging to whatever music we were listening to on our iPods. Between all this, we escorted students to the bathroom, read a little bit, chatted to the psych lecturers (who all think we’re nuts) and watched Granville twirl his moustache (surprisingly fascinating). It was actually a rather fun afternoon!
As exciting as all of the above has been, there are 2 rather huge pieces of news. Number one is that I’ve been accepted for Research Masters for 2010, which means that I get to do another degree, get an office and don’t have to join the real world for at least another 2 years! I also get to figure out what I want to do with my life, etc. The second piece of very exciting news is that I have a boyfriend. And it’s not the Crush or the Potential Potential. It is, in fact, someone who has been mentioned a couple of times on this blog (see my posts entitled "The Beach", "Casino Royale" and "Brokeback Mountain"), and who Helen has named He Of Many Sports Injuries (which I quite like, and which I will now adopt). We've been together for about a month or so, and he's very lovely. I won't bore (or nauseate) you with the details though. Fair to say though, I think my inner romantic cynic is slowly dying... ;)
Friday, October 9, 2009
Drop Dead Gorgeous
I've been debating this blog post all week, and regret to inform my readers (or anyone else who has randomly stumbled across this part of the interweb) that I have very little going on in my life at the moment. In summary (yes, I can actually summarize the absence of action/excitement in my life at the moment):
- I am finished data collection and the grand total of people tested is 54. 6 people have been excluded because they either met my exclusionary criteria, because they were outliers or because they matched people who were outliers or who met said exclusionary criteria. I have just realised that I could've cut myself some slack and tested 40 or 50 people and my supervisor would never have known, because she doesn't remember how many people I intended to test in the first place. Why have I only realised this in the last 5 minutes, after 2 months of insanity??? Why? Anyway, I am now moving onto data analysis...
- I write 2 exams - one on the 2nd of November and one on the 16th of November. The less said about those, the better!
- I still have no idea what I'm doing next year. MACC haven't let me know if I'm in their programme yet, I'm still waiting to find out if I got into Research Psychology Masters and I'm running out of backup plans.
- Things with the 2 potential potentials are still complicated. I'm seeing both of them this weekend - separately (obviously). I'm still not sure what I want, but I don't want to lead either of them on while I figure things out.
- My dog is currently at the vet, on a drip for kidney failure. This makes me feel really sad.
Anyway... A couple of weeks ago, Helen tagged me to do one of those "10 Random Things About Me" lists. It's taken me a while to get around to it, but here goes, I guess!
- The movie character who I most identify with is Natalie Portman's character in "Garden State". No idea why, but it just kind of feels like watching myself on screen. Maybe it's the hair. Or the house filled with the hamster mazes.
- I'm at least slightly OCD about cleanliness. The less asked about this, the better.
- I have a list of movies that I refuse to watch with other people, because I simply adore the movie too much to let anyone else potentially ruin it for me. The list currently consists of "City of Angels", "Romeo + Juliet" and "The Matrix" trilogy. Weird, I know!
- Whenever I hear a song on the radio at the moment, I find myself mentally picturing how I would dance to it. It's called "spontaneous musical imagery" according to my friend Bronwyn, who is studying this for her Masters. It's really weird and has just increased exponentially in the last 3 weeks. I have a theory that it happens more when I'm happy.
- I'm currently organising a party at a friend's house (or rather, at the house which he's house-sitting). It belongs to some crazy Germans who appear to be into some fairly kinky stuff. I don't know how I ended up being the chief organiser. Oh wait... I do. I volunteered. Oops.
- I am very bad at flirting. Or rather, I am very good at flirting with boys who should not be flirted with, and very bad at holding a normal conversation with a boy I like. The Crush is definitely proof of this.
- I am seriously debating whether I should be a psychologist, or whether I should be doing medicine instead. Or joining a Buddhist monastery.
- I don't think that I'll ever be able to bring myself to eat meat ever again.
- I spend far too many Saturday nights in front of my PC, either doing assignments, blogging or messing around on Facebook.
- I love public speaking, but having to approach small groups of strangers (like at varsity or at a party) terrifies me. I'd rather speak to a room of 400 people.
Thanks Helen! In return, I'm tagging Luke, Leia and Helen.
And in case you were wondering about the title of this post... It was inspired by an interview I saw on TV yesterday while I was channel-hopping. Some TV show was interviewing a group of the girls who were contestants in the Miss Teen South African pageant, and the girl they were speaking to described meeting the other contestants as "the most utterly traumatic experience of my life, because they were all so pretty". Um... Yeah. It just reminded me of the movie "Drop Dead Gorgeous" - it's in incredibly poor taste, but unbelievably funny. Watch it, but don't say that I didn't warn you that you'd probably feel at least slightly uncomfortable afterwards.
Friday, October 2, 2009
The Uninvited
This post isn't really about anything more than the song that I've had in my head for the last 4 days. I'm hoping that by blogging about it, it might just disappear (and be replaced by "I am the Walrus" by The Beatles or something that makes equally little sense). Fair to say, the song is pretty apt, considering my current romantic situation (which has been made a little bit less complicated, because I had "the talk" with one of the parties last night).
Uninvited
Like anyone would be, I am flattered by your fascination with me
Like any hot-blooded woman, I have simply wanted an object to crave
But you're not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight
Must be strangely exciting watching the stoic squirm
Must be somewhat heartening to watch shepherd meet shepherd
But you're not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight
Like any uncharted territory, I must seem greatly intriguing
You speak of my love like you have experienced like mine before
But this is not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight
I don't think you unworthy
I need a moment to deliberate
Okay. Enough. Please let this song go away now. Please. Thanks. Bye. :)
Uninvited
Like anyone would be, I am flattered by your fascination with me
Like any hot-blooded woman, I have simply wanted an object to crave
But you're not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight
Must be strangely exciting watching the stoic squirm
Must be somewhat heartening to watch shepherd meet shepherd
But you're not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight
Like any uncharted territory, I must seem greatly intriguing
You speak of my love like you have experienced like mine before
But this is not allowed
You're uninvited
An unfortunate slight
I don't think you unworthy
I need a moment to deliberate
Okay. Enough. Please let this song go away now. Please. Thanks. Bye. :)
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