I like the idea of planning, but with classes, clinicals, a brother who asks to go to the store almost every night, and a Mom who always wants to know what I am doing, it is difficult to focus.
I had finals Monday and Tuesday and have a final for my Wednesday class, but we actually have until Friday, although the annual Speech and Hearing Association convention is in Seattle from Thursday to Saturday and since only 3.6% of SLPs are male and I have a research project surveying SLPs trying to establish current attitudes and experiences, particularly involving male SLPs, I figured the best place to collect data would be the largest gathering of SLPs.
Do you have any idea how much work I am giving myself?!
So, yes, ADHD of course continues to be a problem, my laptop and desktop died within a few days of each other, and I started having a sore throat November 23rd.
I bought a new Dell and realized that an Inspiron is a poor-man's XPS, which was infuriating because the Dell seemed like a reasonable price for a decent computer, which it doesn't seem to be.
I don't seem to have updated my old computer thread, so this is a story for there.
I had been posting about school in my car thread, which I guess makes about as much sense as anything else I do, but I will update there when the opportunity presents itself.
No dying of suspense!
My wife and I are taking a Waymo to the airport in a little over 4 hours, I still haven't packed, and I have barely looked at my last final.
I have until Friday, but I kept saying that I needed to finish it before leaving town, although I guess that I will be finishing it in the hotel (instead of finding survey participants and seeing Seattle), and I will try to fix my laptop tonight or I will borrow Mom's, which beats a chromebook!
I had never used one of those before the other day and I was not impressed!
Mom's laptop was $300 six years ago!
My remaining final is 2 parts and none of our professors have told us if the exams were cumulative or open-book.
Last night's final was with the vice dean, who only teaches one class, so we didn't know what to expect.
One of our first-year students was asking me questions about tests today and our professors changed a great deal from the first year to the second.
One of the students from the first cohort said "It kind of gets easier. It does, but it doesn't."
Well, I earned a 96.5 in a class with the professor with whom I had earned 90.5s, so that seems easier.
I have been especially tired for weeks, sleeping 10-11 hours if possible, but life, uh, finds a way.
I slept 7 hours, drove my brother to his program, drove Mom to the store, tried to nap in the car, drove home, napped for 3.5 hours, tried to prepare for the final, finally took it feeling especially tired and distracted, and apparently lost track of time during a final!
I earned a B on the exam and the class, but it was 2 hours before I saw my score, so that was stressful.
We finally booked flights a couple of weeks ago, but I realized that while school is absolutely my highest priority, I needed to find a car and hotel while there were still both, so I spent about an hour after midnight, and pretty much just relaxed because it seemed like everything would be okay.
The American Speech and Hearing Association has housing deals when you buy tickets which doesn't seem relevant for grad students with finals Monday through Wednesday and the convention Thursday though Saturday--and I just saw that closed November 20th.
Costco Travel doesn't allow me to sort by distance, which was about the only variable that meant anything to me.
We are accustomed to one hotel. My wife and I recently saved $25 by staying at another in Payson, where Mom, my brother, and I had stayed, but we slept poorly, so the next time we stayed there we paid at least $180 at our usual chain. The price did not spark joy, but at least I hope that we know what to expect booking with them.
I tried seeing if Costco Travel had better options, but just felt frustrated that I couldn't sort by distance, and when I kept zooming into the map to see what was close, it kept zooming out again.
When I first checked rentals, Costco showed vehicles this weekend for $30, when I actually went to reserve, it was something like $109 for the cheapest option at the nearest location to the airport and $218 for the same option at the airport.
My wife started asking questions while I was trying to figure out school, so we made hotel and car reservations, but the airport sold out.
I still don't have convention tickets, which seems to involve paying $60 to join the student organization, signing up for ASHA, and paying hundreds of dollars, but I have 4 hours, and I need to leave something to do later!