How do Behavior Analysts Dance?

Well,I'm back safe and sound from the conference! We had an excellent time. So many highlights, but they will come later. For now I'll leave you with this:



This was at the wild and crazy "ABA Social." We couldn't resist taping this crazy dancing blue-shirt man. My hero. If only I could dance with such abandon. LOL!

So soon!

I leave for the ABA conference in San Diego TOMORROW! I'm not at all ready to go, and I'm working most of the day today.

Yesterday afternoon/evening I spent snuggled with D. on the couch absorbed in the Friends' marathon that was on (so Bad!) I did get up long enough to go for a run, and to go buy small conditioner and other such small travel items (I love the little travel item isle). Looked at the beautiful shoes at Winners again, and again decided they were not functional (3 inch heals an I was looking for flats!), despite how cute and beautiful they were.

Unfortunately, I did have pizza from Ali Baba (best pizza ever) last night - thin crust, but I ate too much! The salt content will NOT help my "fit into my clothes from last year" crusade. Sigh.

So, today, I need to fit in around work:
1) Choose wardrobe, pack it.
2) Last ditch attempt at finding cheap-o flats at Payless
3) Re-paint toe nails.
4) Get new dayplanner (why I have to do this before I go I don't know - but my dayplanner ends a week into August, and I just realized this, and it's causing my significant anxiety).
5) Phone tomorrow morning to book my testing times for my summer classes. The first of which technically starts today, and the syllabus was JUST emailed out yesterday. I emailed asking for it about mmmm....a week and a half ago. No response. So now, I find out that while at ABA, I have to ready 4 chapters of the text and three articles, and write the test on these right after I get back!! Would have been nice to have this info - oh - a WEEK and a HALF ago! Lame.
6) Review my work checklist and make sure there is nothing that needs immediate attention before I go.
7) Figure out what ferry I'm taking and more importantly how I'm getting to it....D. is working during the day and I need to head out mid-day, so I need to either take the bus or find someone to drive me.
8) Get out some US money, and locate my passport.

I'm having a serious quandry over whether I should bring my laptop or not. I don't NEED it, since I'm not doing a presentation requiring it...but I'm very anxious about not having it. It would be NICE to have it to keep up with work and school while gone...but whether I should travel with it if I don't need to (and risk it's injury ;-) is the question. We'll see.

M- we'll be about to cross th boarder, and I'll yell "Turn around I need the laptop." Then you'll say "OK OK ! Good! I need the silver ballet flats!!"

lol then we'll roll into Seattle at 2am, be too giddy to sleep and arrive in SD zonked. Good times.

Can I keep it up?

I'm back at the running, mostly because a) I need some outlet, b) My spring/summer work clothes from last year don't fit, and I have a conference in 4 days, and no money to purchase new clothes.

At the start of my run today I was thinking about blogging a question about how it could be possible that the running was twice as hard on the forth consecutive day as on the first! When I hit the 25-30 minute mark though I realized I was in a "zone" though, and thought "I think I want to keep running" and decided to run the other way on the trail. I did another 20 minutes and it felt really good!! I'm sure I'll feel it tomorrow, but it was excellent. I'll see if I can keep up the extended duration.

Manic Monday

Really, not at all a manic Monday. I stayed at home, wrote programs, and had my only out-of -the-house-work for the day cancelled. No complaints. A manic weekend more like it!

Friday:
1) Plan to take bus to ferries to avoid parking cost
2) Drag suitcase and giant ikea bag full of wedding gifts and mothers day gifts to bus stop
3) Do NOT bring the red nail polish to touch up my toes. Do NOT bring my laptop. Lack of laptop causes extreme anxiety.
4) Stand at bus stop, and contemplate knocking on near by door and asking strangers to watch my stuff while I make mad sprint back to house to get red nail polish and laptop.
5) Realize I was supposed to drop prosphora with someone to bring to Church....and I can't leave till I do.
6) Run home, msn Daryl at work, call everyone from Church to find someone to drop prosphora with. No one answers, Daryl says bring prosphora and meet him downtown.
7) Forget nail polish and laptop, even though no longer taking bus.
8) get D., drop prosphora, drive to ferries and park car.
9) Contemplate risking missing ferry to go back to get laptop
10) get to mainland and collapse :-)

Saturday
1) Coffee and window shopping at Starbucks with Frewings
2) Mad dash to buy all the goods for mother's day BBQ on Sunday.
3) back to D's parents, change for wedding (nail polish has chipped, still no red touch up nail polish!)
4) Unbelievably intense but wonderful wedding. My uncle died about 2 months ago. My cousin (his daughter) got married this weekend. It was the first time I've seen my cousins and aunt since my uncle died, since I was in MA at that time. It was extremely hard...it was in a way like a funeral to me as well, since I wasn't there for his funeral. This was the first time his death really became real for me. I left a couple times and my wonderful brother followed, and hugged me and comforted me. He had already gone through this.
5) But then - wonderfully therapeutic, rejuvinating, and joyful wedding. My cousin was beautiful. I danced with husband, danced with my dad, and danced with my brother. Mom showed off her sweet dance moves (she's where J. and I get ours), and J. (bro) danced for about 4 hours straight (me in heals!). We had SO much fun. There was some sweet MJ dancing and I missed Magnificent M so much!!!
6) Overall, there were all the things that make family family - hugging, crying, mourning, wine, dancing, joy, celebration. All in one evening. Wonderful and exhausting. But I think good for all of us.

Sunday:
1) Prepare food for BBQ (grilled veggie salad!!)
2) Shower and dress
3) ALL the family- D.'s and mine arrived.
4) Wonderful time with both families.
5) Realize how blessed we are to have two wonderful families, parents that love us and are healthy, and that actually get along and really enjoy their time together!
6) Fall asleep on couch while socializing (oops!)
7) Ferry home, carrying clothes, good coffee, wine, and wonderful dark chocolate. All of which (except for the clothes) we'd accumulated while on the mainland.
8) Thank God for our car, and the fact that we didn't have to bus home, and drive home.
9) Also thank God for a wonderful bed.
10) Both the bed and the car are only ours due to the generosity of others....think about what wonderful people we know, and how we wouldn't be where we are without them.

In general be thankful.

But be sad we missed Mira and Matthew's wedding, and reconnecting with friends who were here this weekend for that wedding.

Exhausting and wonderful. So many things that are good, and beautiful and right are also so hard and exhausting. God is amazing.

Pictures of this weekend here and here

Hiking!

We went for a hike today!! It's a bit of a belated new years resolution....so really just a resolution. We want to try to get out and enjoy the beautiful outdoors life available in BC, and try to go hiking or camping every weekend or two. This was a nice short, but VERY steep hike. The veiws were beautiful!!

As we reached the first summit, signs saying "Stay on trail, fragile environment" were posted, and all the trail areas were roped off. So, we go stand on the highest point and look around and see something, just down the way. It looked like a person, under a blanket. Wait, a male torso, unclothed, under a blanket. And...oh...moving...and...oh..there was another person too. Ehhemmm "Hey, let's go back a bit further down to sit and have some water" "ya, ya, let's go."

It was hilarious!! On the top of the misty mountin!! Anyhoo, here's a link to more pics if you're interested.

Eureka!!

We FINALLY got a new vaccum! It was relatively cheap, but it is I think the best one we've had yet!! A generous relative lent us their old-school Kirby when we moved in here, but it just doesn't deal with cat hair and the nitty gritty vacuming jobs. After almost two months we finally got a new one - it's is so great. I am in vaccum heaven. Can't stop vaccuming. Seriously. D. was looking at me like I was a little crazed. I think I might be. I'm stoked though :-) . There's evidence of my over-excitement right there- I said "stoked."

To the dentist..or spa?

I (ME) had a filling (well, a reconstruction of a filling) done with NO novacaine. NONE. I am petrified of the dentist. Here's how it went:

I went for a consultation with Dr. Deanna Geddo. I walked into her office, which smelled of aromatherapy. There was classical music playing. I sat in the cushy chair in the "waiting room" and had my jacket taken by the receptionist, and was poured a cup of cranberry tea.

When I went into the dental room, she greeted me at the door, with a big smile, taking both my hands in hers and saying "Hello sweetie." (In a motherly way, not a creepy way). She had me tell her about my previous dental experiences that had made me petrified of the dentist, told me that no, I would not need oral surgery to correct my bite (as 2 other dentists had told me), and expressed great concern over the amount of mercury in my mouth. She ASKED if she could look in my mouth. ASKED. She looked at my teeth with only a mirror - NO pointy things :-).

Before I left, we did (don't laugh) mouth yoga and relaxation for about 20 minutes. It was this whole thing!! Crazy!

So, the other day I went back to have a full exam, and to have the filling filled. Again, music, tea, aromatherapy. When I got into the dental chair this time, prior to doing the filling she said "I don't think this tooth will require anesthetic." I almost got up and left RIGHT there. No drugs?? I'm OUT of here!! I restrained myself though. She put on the music, sprayed lavendar aromatherapy, and pulled out the materials. She had me a)Hold a mirror to watch, b)Hold bells so that I could shake it if anything hurt at all and c) Control the suctiony thing when I wanted it.

She would not drill unless I was exhaling and loudly saying "Haaaaaahhhh." And she would only touch my teeth one second at a time. This is the first time in my life that a drill has touched my teeth and not hurt every second it was there. Crazy. She counted out loud for when she would touch with the drill. When I experienced pain with the drill at one point (rang my bells!), she immediately stopped and changed drills. They have other drills that don't hurt as much!! I didn't know this! It was a slower, larger drill that was less likely to cause sensitivity because it was so slow.

So, in total, I used the bells 3 times. She drilled and filled the broken filling, and filed down the tooth above it (with a drill).

THEN when we were done, she left the room and came back with a steaming, lavendar-scented towel and told me to take off my glassses. She wrapped my face in the towel, turned up the music and told me to stay as long as I liked, then left the room.

Was I at a spa or the dentist?? And I have to say, it was really nice to leave the dentist with a fully functional mouth that wasn't frozen and groggy. Not that i'm loving the idea of no novocaine, but...Apparently if you are really pannicy and high-anxiety, novocaine won't "take" because the nerves are contracted and won't let it in. This explains why I still had pain after three needles of freezing the last time I was at the dentist (and petrified).

Just had to share my spa/dental experience.