New Discovery...

My new favourite website is bettycrocker.com. There are sooooo many great recipes of all kinds. First I began looking at the cake recipes. I felt encouraged right away, as I found 2 different almond-flavoured cake recipes AND 2 different peppemint cake recipes. I WILL be tring those out as soon as I'm not fat anymore. Then I started looking at the dinner recipes, and I was just totally blown away. It's so well organized (which I think ALL websites SHOULD be, but often are not), and there are so many recipes I can't wait to try. I went bookmark-craaaazzzyyyyy...

This week has been ok. I was sick on Tuesday though (sort of), and I stayed home from everything. The downstairs neighbour began his music at 10:30 a.m. and wouldn't stop all day. When I woke up (I forced myself to sleep through the majority of the day; after all, I was sick), I began banging on the floor. I don't think that I should have to leave my apt and go downstairs and face confrontation when, first of all I am sick, and second of all they are the ones being inconsiderate. This is what I explained to the downstairs (short, punky, drain-on-society) neighbour when he appeared at my door. He was all pissed that I was pounding on the floor, and I was so flustered that I didn't express myself as well as I should have. I did get my basic point across that any volume that I can hear in my apt is too loud. He was like, "It's the middle of the day though. This shouldn't be a problem." WTF do people think? It's an apt. complex, A-Hole. I'll bet he's from Cali. Inconsiderate A-Holes. He didn't think there was any reason I should have been pounding on the floor. I wish I had thought to be like, "What? You like playing your music loud; I like pounding on the floor...It's the middle of the day, come on." I just don't think he realizes that it's the same principle. Whatever one is doing that bothers the neighbours, be it music or pounding, is inconsiderate. I don't care if it IS a student community. That is a weak argument. Yeah, it is a student community. Why aren't you at school? I realize that I also wasn't at school that day. But normally I am a contributing member of society. Turns out he's been playing his music every time I've gotten home from school/work this week. So...I feel pretty confident that he is the dregs of society. Whatever...I called the office on him twice on Tuesday, and I will continue to call them as many times as it takes to evict his worthless ass.

Wednesay I took my car in for an oil change, and I found out the my left rear tire was so f-ed up that I had to replace it. My alignment was so off that they told me to go back to the dealer and tell them they shouldn't have sold me a car with the alignment so f-ed. I told them that I don't have time to drive all the way down there to fight a losing battle. I really think the dealership's gonna be like, "We sell them as is..." If I bitch a lot, I can probably get something out of it, but I don't think they'll pay the bill or anything, so I feel like it's gonna be a waste of time, time that I don't have.

Thursday I had class and then the VA. I was a little perturbed at the VA because they had been just having me observe all these activities that I've been doing on my own for 2 years now. It's been really kind of insulting, but then again I didn't have to do anything and still got paid. Then Thursday my supervisor was like, "I'll have you observe the Hearing Aid Tech today as she does hearing aid repairs." What?? Hearing aid repairs? Now that I've definitely had plenty of experience with over the past two years. What could I possibly learn from a tech who just started doing it 3 or 4 months ago? By her own admission, she hadn't even ever SEEN a hearing aid prior to that time. But she's a nice person and she has pet snakes so we talked a lot all day, as hearing aid repair isn't really a strenuous job..."Hm...this hearing aid is broken...guess I'll send it to the manufacturer..."

Today I worked with Diana, who's really nice. We also usually talk all day long, but today was busier. AND they actually let me do everything! Woo hoo! The day went by a lot faster than it has been. Everybody there, like office staff included, don't seem to realize that the only difference between me and the audiologists there is the fact that they have many many more years of experience than I do. I'm not trying to downplay that at all. It is a HUGE difference. But I wish they would stop treating me like I'm new at this. We all (myself included) have the same degree. As I said though, today was better, and I think this is the beginning of the autonomy. Everyone says the VA fosters autonomy really well, so I'm optimistic.

Tomorrow I have the Festival of Hope. It's that thing in Tucson for homeless people where they can get clothes and health screenings, etc... I worked at it last year, and it was fun. Last year I got up early, and Emily and I went to help out at the clothes part of it. This time I'm gonna do just hearing screening stuff (actually, just results explaining since 1st years and speechies are gonna do the screenings because they need the practice). I wanted to do more, but I couldn't find a phone number for the Festival. It was really poorly "advertised" this year. Also, it's not at the convention center this year; it's at Tucson Electric baseball field. Outside? That should be perfect hearing screening conditions. Hope they have a building there for us...hope it doesn't rain, too...

Night.