Friday, July 6, 2012
Yet another Illinois adventure
It's only been an evening, but already Illinois is yet again proving to be adventurous for Fragile X lab GRAs! Our flights were nice and smooth this time (well, except for the massively hard landing at O'hare!), but getting to our hotel was somewhat less smooth. While driving on a four-lane highway, 3 teenage boys decided to jaywalk across the street. But they didn't simply cross the street. They walked out into my lane, and stayed there. As I approached, they walked toward us and very slowly sidled out of the way (into the other lane). Even after honking and glaring at them, they didn't seem to think it a bit strange to be meandering among the highway lanes. A few miles later, things got more frightening. The highway had filled up since we were approaching the business district, and this meant that cars were frequently making turns into and out of lanes and driveways. The driver of one particularly large pick-up truck decided that she should be able to turn into our lane even if we were right there. So she did. And I swerved into the other lane. Thankfully there was no one there. I am beginning to wonder if this rental car is invisible!
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Friday, May 11, 2012
Change
Today marks my last day as a student in the Child Language program.
I'll start the Early Childhood Unified Education program in the Special Education department at the University of Kansas this summer. I'm thankful for what I've learned as a student in Child Language, but I'm really excited about being a teacher for itty bitty kiddos. It means two more years of school, but in the end I'll be able to do what I love! I'll keep my job as a GRA in the Fragile X lab, so I'll continue to travel on home visits and such. I'll just be part of a different academic program. While the change is a bit scary, I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my life.
I'll start the Early Childhood Unified Education program in the Special Education department at the University of Kansas this summer. I'm thankful for what I've learned as a student in Child Language, but I'm really excited about being a teacher for itty bitty kiddos. It means two more years of school, but in the end I'll be able to do what I love! I'll keep my job as a GRA in the Fragile X lab, so I'll continue to travel on home visits and such. I'll just be part of a different academic program. While the change is a bit scary, I'm looking forward to this new chapter in my life.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Gatlinburg Conference 2012
Wow. I guess I've been busier than I expected this semester!
I've spent this week at the 45th Annual Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Annapolis, MD. I presented a poster last night on my master's thesis, and that went very well.
I've spent this week at the 45th Annual Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Annapolis, MD. I presented a poster last night on my master's thesis, and that went very well.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Something about the Midwest
What is it about Indiana and Illinois that mean we often have crazy trips??
This time, we managed to remember that the family lives very near the Central/Eastern timezone border. However, this time we nearly had a repeat of the disastrous Illinois trip from summer 2010. The problem began when, for some reason, our layover in Atlanta became short. The flight from KC was on time - despite leaving late - so we thought we had enough time to get from our arrival gate to our departure gate and even have time for a pit stop and a brief break. We thought wrong. After making said pit stop, we walk to our gate, only to find that they are no longer 'boarding' - they've 'boarded'. We were the last two on the plane, and there was still 20 minutes until our scheduled departure time! Moments after we took our seats, the plane pushed back from the gate. We then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for about 30 minutes while we waited for clearance to take off. We arrived in Evansville on time, but quite jostled from flying over the tornado storm system. I went to get our rental car (which ended up being a brand new 300 with 103 miles!!), while my colleague waited for the suitcase. And waited. And waited. Yep, you guessed it. Delta had made our layover so short that they couldn't get the suitcase from one plane to the other before we left. Uh oh. My colleague and I made the necessary arrangements to have the bag brought to our hotel after it arrived on the next available flight. Well, that flight got delayed 2 hours because of the tornado storm system. Rather than stay up past midnight, we asked the front desk to call us once the bag made it. When the call finally came at 1:30am, we didn't care what time it was, we were just glad the flight hadn't been canceled! The next morning, we retrieved the suitcase and the rest of the trip went off without a hitch.
This time, we managed to remember that the family lives very near the Central/Eastern timezone border. However, this time we nearly had a repeat of the disastrous Illinois trip from summer 2010. The problem began when, for some reason, our layover in Atlanta became short. The flight from KC was on time - despite leaving late - so we thought we had enough time to get from our arrival gate to our departure gate and even have time for a pit stop and a brief break. We thought wrong. After making said pit stop, we walk to our gate, only to find that they are no longer 'boarding' - they've 'boarded'. We were the last two on the plane, and there was still 20 minutes until our scheduled departure time! Moments after we took our seats, the plane pushed back from the gate. We then proceeded to sit on the tarmac for about 30 minutes while we waited for clearance to take off. We arrived in Evansville on time, but quite jostled from flying over the tornado storm system. I went to get our rental car (which ended up being a brand new 300 with 103 miles!!), while my colleague waited for the suitcase. And waited. And waited. Yep, you guessed it. Delta had made our layover so short that they couldn't get the suitcase from one plane to the other before we left. Uh oh. My colleague and I made the necessary arrangements to have the bag brought to our hotel after it arrived on the next available flight. Well, that flight got delayed 2 hours because of the tornado storm system. Rather than stay up past midnight, we asked the front desk to call us once the bag made it. When the call finally came at 1:30am, we didn't care what time it was, we were just glad the flight hadn't been canceled! The next morning, we retrieved the suitcase and the rest of the trip went off without a hitch.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
