Next reading venture

The book that I am about to start is Paul Harding's Tinkers. It won the Pulitzer Prize in 2010 and was given to me by my aunt and uncle for Christmas (both are professors...I always get a book from them for Christmas). It is also Harding's first book and is the story of a man from New England who is on his deathbed and recollects his life and his father's struggle with epilepsy. Hopefully it will be good...should be since it won the Pulitzer Prize!

Loving Frank

Finished Loving Frank by Nancy Horan the other day. It's the story of Frank Lloyd Wright and Mamah Borthwick Cheney. They met when Wright was hired by Cheney's husband to redo their home in Chicago (the home is now a B&B) and the two commenced to have a several year affair that resulted in both Wright and Cheney to leave their families. It was an incredibly intense book, especially since both of them appeared to have absolutely zero remorse for what they were doing and didn't think of what they were doing to their families. It appears thought that Wright had few scruples because he married, in very short succession, two more women after divorcing his first wife.

It was a fascinating read, especially since it was a true story. Mamah Cheney is credited with being one of the first feminists and is responsible for translating Ellen Kaye's work (a Swedish feminist) into English. I'm not 100% if this is true or not, but even Ellen Kaye berated Cheney for leaving her family the way that she did, which obviously was a HUGE deal back then.

I'm not sure if I would actively recommend this to someone else (I received the book as a gift last Christmas), it certainly was an interesting read.

Research

Oh my goodness, I HATE research. I cannot wait until this class is over for the semester. The good news is, everyone else in my class is having anxiety over our final exam as well.

Latest reads

I've been reading My Life in France by Julia Child for a while and finished it last Thursday. On Friday, I started Julie and Julia and finished it in the same day (I was flying to Cincinnati for my JVC community member Carin's wedding and was stuck in an airport for a couple of hours, plus two almost two hour plane rides). I did enjoy My Life in France. You could really sense Julia Child's exuberance about what was going on and her excitement and frustration over writing Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The movie Julie and Julia pretty much accurately described her experiences and lifted them right from the book. Of course, there are certain elements that they didn't describe in the movie, including what happened after the cookbooks were published, but I liked it. A lot.

As for Julie and Julia, I didn't enjoy that as much. I actually couldn't help but think of Amy Adams whining the entire time I was reading it. It certainly was good, and it was good to read as a companion piece to My Life in France, but I certainly wouldn't pick it up on my own to read without having read the other book first.

I also read Eat, Pray, Love. I started that on Friday and finished it today. When I read a book, if I am into it, and I have nothing else to do, I will devour it. I LOVED that book. It basically was poetry and I loved how Elizabeth Gilbert broke up her experiences into different stories, but still made them flow together in a way that made sense. I, of course, enjoyed it far more than from the movie, and didn't picture Julia Roberts the entire time, which was good. I like Julia Roberts as an actress, but I think that since the book wasn't a narrative like Julie and Julia was, it was easier just to take it for face value.

Another school year starts...

I start school again tomorrow. It's kind of weird to be going into my third year of grad school. Even though I have two years left, I can sort of see the light at the end of the tunnel (which is a really good feeling). I only have class one day a week this year. I am taking Advanced Biopsychosocial, which means that once I am finished I can a) be licensed - which I intend to do when I graduate - and b) can diagnose people once I am licensed, and said diagnosis can be accepted. Ah the power. However, I think that people are often misdiagnosed and are even given diagnoses as a "label", or as a way to be able to receive services. I am not totally throwing out the idea that diagnoses such as ADHD, autism, or bipolar disorder exist - I have certainly seen them in my line of work (given the fact that I have been working with physically, mentally and developmentally disabled people for almost 10 years...scary!). However, I think that parents often use it as a convenience or use it as a way to "explain" their kids behavior when it may just come down to what is going on in the child's life at that moment. I'm getting off my soap box now though. I am also taking Social Work Research and have to do a big project. I am thinking about comparing two methods of teaching kids with autism - an individualistic method and a group method - and coming to a conclusion about which may be more effective for the child. I will later expand that and do a thesis next semester (I may need to have my head examined).

Having school only one day a week will be helpful. It will give me more time to be able to see clients, even though I will have to work until 8 at night a couple of days a week. However, I like this job because it is giving me the flexibility to do what I need to do, and it pays me what I am worth so to say - they see that I have my bachelor's degree, that I have a lot of experience, and that I am getting my Masters. I don't think I would have been able to find anything else that could have given me that flexibility that I need and recognized me for my skills. I may have to work one weekend day, but I am leaving that for Saturdays. Hopefully I will be able to be done early enough so that if something is going on up in Bangor, I can go up with Chris. I will just have to make sure that I get my work done before I go up.

In Memory

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/democratandchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=kenneth-jackman-van&pid=144906589

The above link is for my orthopaedic surgeon in Rochester when I was younger. He basically oversaw all of my care when I was younger. Dr. Jackman was a really great man and basically was a huge part of my family's life (considering I was there almost every week for a check up or follow up from an operation). When I was four-years-old, Dr. Jackman could tell that the operations that he was performing were not making me better, but had done some research into a revolutionary surgery that had been used, and continues to be used, for lengthening the limbs of dwarfs. It could also be used to treat my condition because the pins that were inserted in my leg would, when turned, put new layers of bone on the existing, weak bone. He actually went down for my first surgery in Baltimore with me and my family and was present in the operating room during the surgery. After my medical care was turned over to my ortho in Baltimore, I didn't see Dr. Jackman on a regular basis anymore (except for when I injured my right knee and I needed to get a follow up from that). I had not seen him in years.

I did write an essay about him my senior year of high school for a contest for HSBC where I had to write about someone who had changed New York State in the past 150 years (for their 150th anniversary). I wrote about how he changed New York because he made the best possible decision for me and my health and how hard it probably was for him because he realized what he was doing was not helping me get better. I ended up being one of the finalists and sent him a copy of the essay. I wish that I still had a copy of the essay for his wife but unfortunately, the computer that it was on is long since gone and I don't think my parents saved it.

Updating the focus of this

It really isn't going to be so much of a change, but I figure that I could add a couple of more things to the mix.

I start school again on Thursday. The good news is, I'm only in school one day a week (Thursdays). However, I need to do a large scale research project during the fall semester and during the spring semester, I need to finish that off and maybe present it (I'm not 100% sure). However, I am planning on doing a thesis in place of the final research project. It gets me out of taking the class and I just need to periodically meet with a professor about what I am doing for guidance. Last semester, I wrote a research project on different educational programs for children with autism, so I am going to continue with that, except probably focus on a couple of specific programs and weigh the benefits, as well as the minuses, of both. It will be an undertaking, but it will also free up my time so that I can work more. I need a new car in the next couple of years, so I need to start saving up for that. In addition, I don't always want to be living in my apartment, and I do want to get married and start a family at some point, so I need to start saving up for a house (I've already got some money put away for that).

That being said, I'm probably going to lose my mind at some point this year with reading nothing but journal articles and books about educational programs. I do intend to try to read for enjoyment as often as possible so while I am going to continue to use this as my platform to vent and just talk about what is on my mind, I am also going to blog about the books I read. It will help keep me sane and it will also help me keep track of what I read.