uh...

edit: i realize this is somewhat contrary to fasting in secret (matthew 6:16-18) but i had to share this.

citadel is doing a corporate fast for lent. it starts tomorrow and goes until april 6. what we are fasting for: 1) the church leadership nominating committee, 2) purity and 3) wisdom as it pertains to church growth. plus personal issues, like direction post-graduation, among other things.

we're doing a modified daniel fast (daniel 1:8-14) where we will refrain from meat products and eat only fruits and vegetables. thankfully, we get to ease into it slowly. during week 1 we can still eat chicken and fish; during week 2 we can eat fish; but from week 3 on, we will only eat the following:

- whole grains
- legumes
- fruits
- vegetables
- natural sweeteners (i.e. honey)
- seeds
- water or 100% natural fruit/vegetable juice

foods we are to avoid: meat, white rice, fried foods, caffeine, carbonated beverages, foods containing any preservatives or additives, sugar, sugar substitutes, white flour and all products using it (including bread and pasta), butter/margarine, shortening, high fat products and dairy products.

this is going to be so hard. the worst part initially will be going without my morning tea. also, no soy sauce. no instant noodles. and i haven't even begun to think about what to do at home during spring break, what with eating out and mom's cooking and such. for now, i get to spend lots of money on natural peanut butter, sea salt, olive oil, honey, brown rice and other organic foods. and kelly and i totally stuffed ourselves with greasy pizza tonight since it is our fat sunday.

jg

i wanted to go back to toronto this weekend for vision night...but i had a prior commitment to josh groban. and now that i know that sermons are online, i will definitely check it out afterwards.

i'm seeing josh in concert tomorrow!!! he's going to be at the palace of auburn hills, where the pistons play. now the question is: should i wear my josh groban shirt or not?

free books, internship

i've been picking up free books here and there over the last few months. i found lance armstrong's autobiography in a pile of reading material in the trash room. a charles baxter award winning novel was up for grabs among other free books at sacred heart. most recently, i found amy tan's the kitchen god's wife in the free section at king's rare and used bookstore, the largest used bookstore in michigan. i tell my mom about the second hand books i'm reading and i can hear the "aiya" look on her face as she tells me to wipe down the covers with a wet towel.

so right now i'm reading the amy tan novel. i've never read amy tan before, but i have seen the joy luck club movie. so far the kitchen god's wife seems to be exploring many of the same themes: mother-daughter relationships, the clash between first and second generation chinese immigrants, etc. but the coolest thing about the book is that one of the main characters, pearl, is a speech-language pathologist. how cool is that? excerpt of a description of pearl by her mother:

But Pearl had a good job, a speech therapist for retarded children, although she told me never to say that. A few years ago, she said, "We don't call them retarded or handicapped children anymore. We say 'children with disabilities.' We put the children first, the disabilities second. And I don't do just speech therapy. I'm really what's called a speech and language clinician. And I work only with children who have moderate to severe communicative disorders. You should never call them retarded."

I asked her to tell me what she did again and she wrote it down: "A speech and language clinician for children with moderate to severe communicative disorders." I practiced saying this many, many times. I still have those words in my purse. I still can't say them. So now maybe Pearl thinks I'm retarded, too. (p. 94)

isn't that cute? by the way, the new buzz word for MR is "cognitive impairment".

i've been thinking about where i will work after i graduate. and i mean that in terms of both setting and geography. it's still pretty up in the air. i thought i knew i wanted to work with adults in a medical setting in toronto, but i'm much less sure of that now. maybe i do like kids. maybe i will go back and work with kids who have autism again. maybe i will work in a school and reap the vacation benefits. maybe i will stay in detroit for at least a clinical fellowship year. but this is not something i am worrying about. i know when the time comes i'll go where i'm supposed to. for now, i'm just applying for my final semester internship (next may-august). the children's hospital at the detroit medical center is looking pretty good to me right now : ) who knows?

edit: besides, it's a sad fact that the demand for speech-language pathologists is so high right now i could get a job almost anywhere. last week i had a meeting with the department chair, alex johnson, during which he took a phone call. he explained to the caller that there are 600 vacant SLP positions right now in michigan. there might be 150 new graduates from the five programs this may. that still leaves 75% of those positions unfilled. crazy.

References

Tan, A. (1991). The kitchen god's wife. New York: Ballantine Books.

Sacred Heart

No, I'm not talking about the hospital, all you Scrubs fans. There's a major Catholic seminary in Detroit by the same name. Wayne State Speech-Language Pathology students volunteer there on Friday afternoons to work with international seminarians. It's not ESL and they're not speech or language disordered. It's purely accent modification, so we work on things like intonation, stress placement, some articulation depending on the client, etc.

Normally I work with a student from Poland, but he wasn't here today so I was paired with a Spanish-speaking guy from Peru. He said he had trouble pronouncing d vs. th so I made him practice sentences like Do they do their dishes? and Those dogs are dozing. It was fun. Anyway, during the course of our conversation, it came up that I'm protestant, and he asked me why. Why not Catholic? And it sparked a whole discussion on the differences between the two and then he said "The Protestant faith has some good things, but it is not complete" which sparked more discussion. In the end he said that I should think about converting to Catholicism and that he would pray for me! He was so sweet, but I told him I'm quite certain about my beliefs =D

In Awe

My family came to visit this weekend. It was wonderful. I really missed them last weekend when I went home with Kelly and I saw her with her family. So I was really glad to see them. They came late Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. They brought a ton of food with them. My roommate Nicole was really happy to see fishballs =D She thought they were weird when I first had them back in September but now she loves them.

Anyhow, my weekend was crazy busy because my family was here and I had all this work piled up. After they left yesterday I sat down and looked at my to do list and I felt really stressed. There was an overwhelming amount of work and I needed to prepare for clinic today and it was just too much. I ended up just putting it aside for a bit and had some quiet time. I've been reading Joshua, and yesterday in chapter 10 I read "And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel" (verse 42). I read that and I thought "God, I need you to fight for me". I knew I needed him on my side, pulling things together for me because I'd completely fall apart on my own. After I prayed I did some more work and went to bed. Then this morning I woke up to an email telling me that clinic was cancelled today because of the weather and I had a day off! I was so relieved and thankful. God has been faithful in so many ways these past weeks. It seems like every time I acknowledge my weakness and inadequacy, God responds and answers prayer. So today I was able to cross stuff off my to do list, and I will continue to trust and rely on His provision daily.