WAIS Party

My classmate, Mariel, hosted a WAIS (intelligence test) party at her cute apartment in Chelsea. The purpose of the party was to learn and practice administering the WAIS while we enjoy each other's company. First of all, her apartment was super cute!!!! If I could afford for it, I would love to live there. :)
Mariel provided us with some veg dip, pizza, and cupcakes. Everything was yummy! Also, Joseph made this really, really good Mojito!!! It was so delicious! I can drink mojito anytime. I was drinking it a lot, and Joseph was like, "you should be my drinking buddy!" hahaha, yeah, I love drinking. :-p
In terms of WAIS practice, we didn't do that much of it. But that's how the WAIS party usually is. I remember having one with Liz and Erin (from OU), but we ended up drinking wine and not practicing the WAIS at all.

Expensive Happy Hour

Happy hour is supposed to be happy because we can enjoy alcohol for discounted price, right? Well, that wasn't the case tonight. After 6 hours of babysitting in NJ, I met up with Travis and Yodee for happy hour at a nice bar in Union Sq area. I was hoping to get 50% off on drinks...then I ended up paying $10 for my drink!!!! Turns out, they offer half price for only certain kind of drinks. Since I wasn't used to the whole happy hour scene, I didn't know that's how it works. sigh... One Key Lime Martini = one hour of babysitting.

From the next time on, I will be more careful.

Please try this at home

Had to attend "aggressive patient management workshop" today (8am-4pm!!!!). First half of the workshop was kinda boring but the latter half was fun! We learned what to do if patient attacked us. It was pretty much like a self-defense class. Some of the techniques seemed complicated to me, especially because I have no martial art background. If I don't practice them, I'd probably forget all the techniques I learned today...so I need someone to practice with. Any brave men out there??? In fact, our instructors told us to practice on loved ones at home...hehehe

After the workshop, I went to class from 4pm to 6pm. By the time the class was over, I was exhausted... but I was dedicated enough to spend 45 minutes in the lab after class to do some work. I'm very impressed with myself.

By the way, I'm sooooooo dissatisfied with my Diagnostic Testing TA. She claimed herself as "intelligence testing queen" or something along this line, but she doesn't know a s*** about how to administer the test. I know much more than she does and I haven't administered the test for about 1.5 year by now while she's been administering the test for 10 times more than I have. This is very disturbing.

Monday madness

After a relaxing weekend in Hampton, it was very hard to get back to my crazy grad student life. Mondays are exceptionally bad in terms of schedule.
9am-1pm: Externship
1pm-2:30pm: working in the lab, while eating lunch
2:30pm-3:30pm: meeting with a lab member
3:30pm-6pm: work in the lab
6pm-10pm: class

It was really, really crazy! I had no time to sit down and relax throughout the day! Sad thing is, tomorrow will not be that much better, either. I'm already craving for another relaxing weekend. Can someone in countryside adopt me for a weekend? I really need another weekend getaway.

and I need some good food...good Japanese food to cheer myself up.

Weekend Getaway in Hampton

I was supposed to go to this conference in NJ on Saturday. Got up early, ironed a dress shirt, put make-up on, and went to Penn Station to catch NJ transit. Then, it turned out that NJ Transit wasn't running at all due to some electric problem. They told me that I can take a bus from Port Authority go get to Rutgers...but I figured that I would miss half of the conference by the time I get there and that it doesn't worth a trouble just to attend half of the conference.

So, I ended up joining Travis et al. for a weekend trip to E Hampton. James (travis' friend) was house/pet-sitting for his co-worker who has a weekend house in E Hampton. That's why we went up there. The weather was beautiful throughout the weekend, and I enjoyed a nice weekend there.

Ok, the house was soooo big and nicely decorated...and it was just a weekend house! Isn't this crazy? It was way nicer than most of the houses I've been to before. I hope I can afford a weekend house like that when I finally become a psychologist! Being in Hampton made me really want to live by the water...and own a boat! I always thought I'm a city girl but I also crave for a calm and peaceful lifestyle as well. Maybe I need something just like that--work in the city during the week and retreat to a nice, spacious house by the water on weekends. Mmmmmm...nice!

After hanging out at a beach, we had a huge BBQ in the backyard. We ate SOOOOO much meat and consumed quite a bit of alcohol! Everything was delicious, and I thought that nothing could make me this happy! I wish we could do this every weekend!

This afternoon, before we left Hampton, I hung out in the backyard to do some reading. Even though I was doing work, it was very nice and refreshing. I was very much relaxed and enjoyed the nice weather. This is exactly what I need every weekend. Get away from some craziness and charge up some energy.

I'm so glad that I went to Hampton! Now I want to buy a house there (I wish I could!). hehehe

sleepy Friday

Let's see how many times I went out for dinner this week...well, three times. And I'm really, really tired. I had to come home right after having dinner with Travis, Yodee, and Angela (Travis' friend) tonight. They told me that they are going out later tonight and Patrcik was supposed to hook me up with his single friend at that time...but I guess going to bed is more attractive than meeting an eligible single :-) I'm such a dork.

Well, the reason why I want to go to bed early, other than being tired, is that I'm going to a conference at Rutgers (NJ) tomorrow morning. I hope I can get up at 7am tomorrow morning.

Travis et al. are going to Hampton tomorrow and asked me if I wanted to go...I guess I could go after I come back from NJ tomorrow evening...I dunno. I think I will be too tired by that time.

Gosh, why am I so tired?

Oh, yeah, I had an orientation for intake interview this morning. We'll start conducting intake interview with real patients from this Monday. Kinda scary!

aarrrrgghhh...2 more days to go

This must be a joke...I have two more days to go before weekend? I'm so super tired. This can't be right! I have to go to extern site and have a class 6-8pm tomorrow.

Well, I guess I need to start going to bed early and to stop going out on weeknights. Last night, Travis, Yodee, Patrick (another guy from OU!!!), and I went out for dinner, followed by drinks at an Irish bar. It was fun hanging out with them. I was gonna go home by 10pm, so I can go to sleep at decent time...but I ended up leaving around 11pm. Seriously, I need more self-discipline! But going out on weeknights is fun, and I feel that I need it because work and school have been so crazy and I need to take a break during the week!!! But, BUT, But I definitely need to be more self-disciplined...maybe I can go out once a week during the week but I need to get home by, say 10pm. Oh, well, I'm gonna have to work on that.

Present from my sister, Maiko, got here yesterday. I got this cute Japanese style pillow and takoyaki (octopus balls) candy. Well, I want to say one thing about takoyaki candy...if someone ever offer you one, don't take it. It tastes pretty bad. I mean, I was so happy with the gifts my sis sent me...but this takoyaki stuff was ....argh. Even though my sis sent me bad tasting candy, I still love her so much :)

I'm gonna try to go to sleep early tonight.

Everybody, Smile!!!

Everybody, Smile!!!, originally uploaded by shihoko_h.

I look like the happiest person in this pic. Yes, it was a great party!

cake

cake, originally uploaded by shihoko_h.

Just in case you are wondering...I'm not trying to eat the cake nor trying to throw up on the cake.

what's going on here...

what's going on here..., originally uploaded by shihoko_h.

I don't know what this pic is all about...but hey, it's one of the moments from the party. Dave has this "Oh, my god, Shihoko is crazy" kind of face.

Group pic

Group pic, originally uploaded by shihoko_h.

everyone who came to the party (except for Billy and my roomie, Hazuki...)

Confessing my love...

...to my sister. Even though I don't talk to her often, I still feel that I'm close to her. I received a b-day card from her today, and it reminded me about how much she cares about me. It was so sweet of her to send me a card, and it almost made me cry! I love my sister a lot! :-) She said something like, "I know things can be difficult at times but I will aslways be on your side." (translation by Shihoko) awwwww...how sweet. It's truly wonderful to have a caring sister like her.

I finally recovered from this past weekend filled with alcohol and fun. I went to bed early last night (like, 8:30pm) and I feel rested. Today was the first group therapy supervision, and we were assigned to two group therapies. I'm bit nervous about co-leading groups but I think it will be fun, too.

What I hate about Mondays is that I have 6-10pm class. It's so tiring!!! My body pretty much stops working right around 5pm. Plus, this class goes over administration of WAIS-III, which I already learned at OU two years ago. So, I'm super bored sitting in the class, going over something I already know. On top of that, WAIS-III instructions we received at OU was more rigorous! Anyway, I'm completely hating this class so far because I haven't learned anything new so far.

Mystery solved!

So, the dozen roses were from Ira! Thank you!!! Now the mystery of the roses from secret admirer was solved. Well, it wasn't from a secret admirer but I was happy to know that the roses were from Ira. I know he sent me the flowers as a gesture of good friendship...but it kinda reminded me of the Valentine's Day, 6 years ago...

Anyhow, I need to find out how to make dried flowers...

B-day Party

Last night was filled with fun and excitements! I threw my own birthday party, and I think it was a huge success. It wasn't crazy or out of control but it wasn't boring, either. It had adequate amount of drunkenness and fun-ness. :-p

People started to gather around from 8pm or so, and the party went on until about 3am. Let's see who showed up...Chiung-Yi, Eitoku, Maiko, Saori, Haruko, Travis, Yodee, Alex, Billy, Hazuki, Dave, Dave's roommates, and ME. We all had lots of alcohol and had a great time hanging out with each other. Everyone seemed to like our balcony...but seeing more than 2 people on the balcony at the same time made me feel a bit nervous because it doesn't look too stirdy. Anyway, nobody fell from the balcony, so that was good. I had two types of b-day cakes--cheesecake from Maiko and chocolate cake from Hazuki! Both of them were sooooo yummy. Oh, I got some gifts as well. Chiung-Yi gave me an oil lamp and soap, Eitoku gave me Godiva chocolate (my favorite!), and Travis and Yodee gave me this cute hedgehog toy. I was soooooooo happy :-) Also, I was happy to see everyone got along with each other and having a great time. All of my friends come from very different backgrounds, so I was worried that they may not get along with each other at all. But that wasn't the case last night, and it's great to see my favorite people having a good time together.

Oh, I got a dozen roses from someone who did not disclose his/her name. The roses are sooooooo beautiful and smell really good. btw, rose is one of my favorite flowers :-) The roses came with a card, but it didn't say who it was from. I suspect that it was from Ira since he told me to expect a package from him on my b-day. Or...it could be from a secret admirer! Ooooo, that would be very romantic!

I definitely got a bit drunk last night, so I'm taking it easy today to recover and to get ready for another work/school week.

well, i thought i was gonna relax last night...

because I was soooooo tired yesterday. I slept on subway home--that's how tired I was. When I got home, I watched "Jersey Girl" and relaxed a bit in my room. Then...temptation from Yodee/Travis came in through IM. Well, they said that they are going out and asked me if I wanted to go, too. I just couldn't resist it...so, I ended up going out last night.

We went to this club in Chelsea but it turned out that we have to pay $25 cover charge. So we ended up wondering around in Chelsea and Greenwich Village, trying to find somewhere to hang out.
The first place went into was quite interesting...I think it was a gay bar...we saw male strippers on the bar, dancing like crazy. We left there in 10 sec because that wasn't the kind of place we were looking for. Then, went to a bar in Chelsea. We stayed there for two drinks (I had cosmo.) and it was kinda nice. Then, we had another drink at Heartland Brewery. I finally tried their famous pumpkin ale, but I didn't taste pumpkin at all...or maybe it was because I was slightly intoxicated by that time. To conclude the night, we went to Central Bar in E. Village. This place was like a bar/club, and I had lots of fun drinking and dancing. Yes, I finally got to dance--I've been talking about going out for dancing for months! That was so much fun. I should go out more often for dancing!!!
I finally got home around 5:15am this morning (after eating ramen at Travis/Yodee's place--thanks, guys!)...and I passed out on my bed with lights on, TV on, clothes on, make-up on, and contacts on...until about 9am. I didn't even realize I passed out. Anyway, I had a great time last night! It was funnnnnn!!! The funny thing was, I was gonna have only up to two drinks and come home by 2am...but I ended up having 4 drinks and got home at 5am. I need to be more self discipline!

Baaaaaad headache

Throughout the day, I had this really, really bad headache. Unfortunatelly, I was out of painkiller, so I had to endure the pain all day long. I often get headache, especially when I'm tired. This week has been hectic so far, and I wasn't too surprised to get a really bad headache. Luckily, my roommate had some painkillers! Thanks to her, I'm feeling much better now.

Tomorrow's intake orientation at the externship site has been canceled. This means that I don't have to get up at 6:30am tomorrow morning. Yay! But this is kinda scary at the same time because we'll start intake interviews from next Monday without going through the orientation. Yikes!

Oh, my b-day party is coming up in two days. It looks like not too many people will be able to make it. It's kinda disappointing but it's alright. I don't have to through a huge party...maybe I should have some quality time with a few close friends :).

I'm so glad that weekend is right around the corner.

thoughts on my career

This week has been quite intense so far. I wonder how my life will be like once the externship starts. But this doesn't mean I'm dreading it. Like I said the other day, I'm enjoying being busy and productive.

I spent most of my daytime hours babysitting today. Had 3-hour babysitting in NJ this morning and 3.5 hour in Manhattan this afternoon. Babysitting was pretty uneventful. Just normal stuff, like changing diapers. Babies' feces still gross me out, but I'm getting used to it gradually ;-).

I finally had some time to catch up with Larry this evening. We met at this French cafe/restaurant in Chelsea. The cafe/restaurant was kinda cute, and the food was reasonably priced and delicious. I would definitely go back there!
Even though Larry technically lives in NYC, it's been almost impossible to hang out with him for a long time. Now I think about it, we've been trying to get together for coffee since last October or so.
Anyway, it was great to hang out with him. He's my friend but he's also a mentor to me because he's a successful clinical psychologist. We were talking a lot about excitements AND struggles we go through as an academician (in training, in my case). And, it's great to talk to someone who really understands what I'm going through! He got this awesome grant last winter and he's been traveling all over the world (10 countries) for the last 6 months or so for his training. And he was telling me how exciting it had been but the only drawback was that it had been almost impossible to develop or to get into a relationship (romantic) with anyone for the last 6 months...or even throughout his career. ugh. I was like, "tell me about it." I often feel that as much as it's been great pursuing my dream, I'm also afraid that I'm putting a lot of things in my life on hold and not experiencing what other "normal" people are enjoying. I'm not talking only about relationships but all sorts of stuff, like having a stable life, work-free weekends, etc. I guess what I need is to figure out what I definitely want to have in my life and what I can go without.

I'm getting a bit tired now...but I will definitely write more on this topic later.

crazy Tuesday

Today was the orientation at my externship site. We got a huge packet of manuals and forms. It was kinda exciting to be at the orientation because I'm finally starting my externship! I mean, I'm bit scared about starting intake interviews from next Monday but I'm definitely excited about being able to do some clinical training at last. We were assigned to one of the three inpatient units. I really wanted General/adolescent unit because my primary clinical interest is in child/adolescent. But instead, I was assigned to Geropsychiatric, which is the complete opposite of child/adolescent (age-wise). Oh, well.

After class, I met up with Travis and Yodee at B&N and had dinner at Republic. I ordered this vegetable soup noodle, and it didn't taste good. :-( what a disappointment. I've heard people talking good things about Republic but I think it's overrated. It's kinda trendy and cool inside of the restaurant but the food wasn't that great.

Then, I met up with Dave, Yayoi's friend, who recently moved to NYC. We've been trying to set up a time to meet for the last few weeks and we finally got to meet. Anyway, his friend was playing at this bar in E. Village, so we decided to meet there tonight. Well, he was super, super funny. I don't know...maybe the way he talks? Travis and Yodee came along with me to meet Dave, and we all were laughing so hard because he was sooooooo funny. He's the kind of person you want to have when you are having a get-together with friends. He probably would never bore people because he has soooo many funny stories to tell.

Anyway, the funny thing was, Dave said that he was in town when Yayoi was visiting NYC this past spring. How come I didn't meet him? Ahhh...maybe because I was sick in bed when Yayoi's sister had a party! hm. interesting.

Ok, gotta go to bed now. busy day ahead of me!

b-day party

I'm throwing a party for the first time in my life. It'll be on this Sat to celebrate my b-day. I invited a few people--I hope they can make it. Ira already told me that he won't be able to, and that was kinda disappointing. But other than that, I know a few other people will be here. I'm sooooooooooo excited!!!

Weekend in far away land

I got back from Rochester on late Sunday night. The trip was fun, but tiring at the same time. We left Manhattan around 6:30pm and we got stuck in traffic--big time! When we finally got to Rochester, it was already 1:30am. Long drive!

Rochester seemed to be a typical mid-sized town in the Northeast--lots of green, lots of space, etc. At first, I thought I would never want to live in places like this. It seemed boring. But by the end, I started to feel that I actually want to live in a town like Rochester, where it's very relaxing and spacious. Cost of living is much lower compared to NYC, you get more space for what you pay (rent in NYC is rediculous), and there are lots of green. Maybe there are very little entertainment in a mid-sized town, but you definitely get more comfortable living environment. I guess I'm getting old... :-p

Anyhow, let's talk about the wedding that I attended on Sat. It was a very casual wedding that took place at groom's parents' backyard. It was almost like a family BBQ, and the wedding ceremony was like a addendum to the BBQ. The wedding ceremony itself was very, very touching. Two people saying to each other that they will love him/her as long as they live...awwwww....Now, I want to get married (!!!). Anyway, I was happy to see two people who found each other! Since the wedding was very small and casual, I didn't find any cute, eligible singles but I still had fun. I ate a lot and drank a lot. Just hung out in the backyard with friends. The weather was very nice, and it was very relaxing!

Other than wedding, we didn't do much in Rochester. I was still sick during the trip, and we all were very tired from driving and the wedding. To conclude the trip, Travis, Yodee, and I went to this Greek cafe(?) in Astoria to have some wine. We had this very sweet desert wine, and it was good. :-) I hope I will get to explore more in Queens...there seems to be some nice places to hang out in Queens.

where are they???

Travis and Yodee were supposed to pick me up from school to go to Rochester tonight...but they are not here yet. Hmmm...traffic??? Anyway, I'm going to a wedding in Rochester this weekend. I don't know anybody there except for Travis and Yodee but maybe I will get to meet some people there. Alex told me that weddings are good place to meet eligible singles, and my prof told me weddings are so much fun ("it's a big party--food and drinks!"). I'm looking forward to my first wedding attendance in the U.S. :) I've been to my cousins' weddings in Japan before, but I've never been to weddings in the U.S. I wonder if they are anything similar to Japanese weddings...

Busy day again. I was going crazy for the last few hours trying to get things done. Now I'm just waiting for my friends to come pick me up...alright, I'm gonna give them a call now.

almost weekend--yay!

It was a short week because of Labory Day, but I still feel like I had a full, solid week. That's how busy I've been for the past couple of days. I've been having 10+ hour work days. Classes started, our research project is picking up some speed, still in the process of setting up our lab, tons of babysitting, and helping my prof with her classes. When my externship starts on the 19th, my schedule will be absolutely crazy. Will I ever get some time to eat and sleep? Who knows! It's kinda scary thinking about how crazy this semester will be but it's also exciting. I like this feeling of being productive! It's much better than sitting in my room, doing absolutely nothing other than breathing.

Anyhow, I got a bookkeeping job at this small photo studio in Midtown. It's an easy job that takes up only a few hours per month. Someone I know has this job, but she will be back in Japan for a few months. So, she wants me to take over her position while she's gone. Also, there's some possibility that she'll be going back to Japan permanently in the near future. If that happens, I will taking over the job completely. It pays better than babysitting job and it's exciting to learn something new. I'm learning how to use QuickBook.

Also, my prof asked me to give a guest lecture in the undergraduate course that she's teaching. The class is about culture and mental health (i think), and I will be giving a lecture about Asian American mental health for 1 hour and 40min. This is my area of speciality, and I'm excited about this opportunity. I've never gave a lecture before...but I will see how that goes. It will be in the mid-November, and I will definitely write about it on my blog :-)

Oh, yeah, I have to post this--I was talking to my prof today, and she asked me how i'm feeling (b/c i've been sick since last weekend). Because I get sick a lot, she suspects that I have neurasthenia--it is basically a somatization of stress, or expression of stress/anxiety through physical discomfort. Do I have neurasthenia??? i dunno. It's kinda funny because neurasthenia was her dissertation topic. So, I told her that she can use me as her subject if she wants. :-p

Anyway, I do get sick a lot. When I told my prof that I'm sick, she said, "You need to take very good care of yourself!" Starting from last Friday, I've been having fever, sore throat, nausea, no appetite, headache, fatigue, etc. I was in bed for 3 days, unable to eat at all. Now I feel fine but I still have stuffy nose and sore throat...and no appetite. I'm finding out that I can function OK with one meal per day--that's all I can eat for the past few days.

Official end of the summer

Labor day marks the end of the summer...and it sounds really sad. I hate, HATE winter; therefore, end of summer means the beginning of my misery. sigh. My body is also sad to see the summer ending--I've been sick in bed for the past couple of days.

Classes start from tomorrow, and I don't even want to think about it. So, let's not think about it!

My friend in Ohio, Kana, was visiting me from last Tuesday and left Saturday evening. It was so much fun having her over. I had to do some babysitting while she was here, but we spent quite bit of a time together.

Tues: Kana got here late at night. she got a ride with her friend who is moving to NYC.

Wed: we walked around in midtown and had a quick lunch at a deli. i dropped her off at MoMA (i can get free tickets to MoMA with my student ID) and went off to babysitting. after babysitting, we met up in E. Village and went to a Japanese bar. we had super cheap beer ($1.50!). afterwards, we went to Thirsty Scholar to have some more drinks. Kana's friends joined us there...but my memory is kinda blur from this point on. i know we got on to Kana's friend's car and went to another bar...but i was super drunk. got home late.

Thurs: bad hangover. bad, bad hangover. couldn't get out of bed, so i decided to sleep in until my afternoon babysitting. Kana went out to Manhattan on her own. felt kinda bad :-( at 3pm, i went to Shea stadium to babysit while the mom enjoyed U.S. Open. I got to see some of the games, and it was kinda fun. it was like a big festival there! met up with Kana and her friends in K-town to have some Korean food. we all hung out at Starbucks. very relaxing.

Fri: showed Kana around my school, went to farmer's market in Union Square, went shopping at Century 21 (i didn't buy anything), then went to gallery hopping in Chelsea. i started to feel really crappy in the afternoon. :-( when we got home in the evening, we just chilled in my apartment. we had vietnamese food for dinner. after dinner, i felt super crappy and i decided to stay home and sleep. Kana went out with her friends while i slept...i'm glad she had a great time.

Sat: went out to have some dim sum in Flushing with Kana's friends. i was still feeling very sick and couldn't eat much. after that, we went to Port Authority to see her off. it was sad to see her go. :-( right after that, i came home and slept. i was feeling really, really bad.

Sun: slept all day. multiple calls from multiple people. good to hear Kana made back to Ohio safely. :-) Travis (Kana's friend) called to see if i wanted to go out for dinner and movie with them...but i was too sick to go out. ended up watching tv and sleeping all day long. ugh.

Mon: here i am, feeling slightly better. but i'm gonna take it easy today. still have sorethroat and headache.