How Skiing Went

A comic to illustrate my emotional battle while skiing.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.5

End of the Quarter and Christmas

Well the end of the quarter has come and gone, and I must say it was a resounding success. And at this point I am quite excited about the upcoming semester where I will be learning how to preform neuropsychological assessments.

After finals ended, I stayed a week in Spokane to work at SPAN and catch up on some tasks I had to neglect because of school and my recent illness. This ended with the office Christmas party at Luigi's, which was hilarious. It's been my experience that most therapists/psychologists are incredibly funny, so having 13 in one room we were quite the loud bunch.

Somehow this week was exhausting, and Friday in my mess of planning for my two week ski/Christmas trip and writing/mailing 23 Christmas Cards; I lost my mind. So when I got up Saturday morning at the crack of dawn to beat the snowstorm I left everything... to include some of the Christmas presents... ugg.

At this point I thought everything was golden. I was going to get to Eagle,ID early in time for the Christmas party that evening. I quickly got through the blowing snow in Colfax and sped through Lewiston; only to be stopped right past Culdesac due to an accident.

Come to find out that the accident had included a couple fatalities and a three hour cleanup. This being a quite sobering thought, I stopped griping about the forgotten Christmas presents and being late to the party. Thanks to a ridiculous detour though on an old logging highway I made it home in time for the Christmas party with Chad. Where it turned out that we were the youngest there, but we got free sushi, so Win! haha

This next week was filled with ridiculous family time, to include my 7 person family and Chad's immediate 5 person family and 30+ extended family that lives in the Boise area. Here is a fun sister photo from our Christmas photo shoot, and a pick of the little Bros.



Addison, Emma, and Myself



Vanson and Lincoln(who is making a face... he is incorrigible but adorable)

Christmas was begun at a splendid 7am! So much more fun to have Christmas with children around. We were planning on going tubing at Bogus Basin, but with 30 mph winds that option got thrown out. We went on a walk instead where we had a snowball fight.



Blame the snowball on the teenager. Nice!

I am now currently up in McCall, ID at the Chad's parents' cabin, and went skiing yesterday. Today it is snowing buckets and another foot is expected tonight! Here is a photo from the back deck of the cabin.



I'll be here till New Years, more updates to follow!

New Developments

Well the first quarter of graduate school education is growing to a close and I must say it has been far better than anything I had expected. When people would tell me about grad school it was always in an ominous or impressed tone. As if to say, "Well look at you, don't worry grad school will knock you down a peg or two." This resolved me early on to prove them wrong.

But what I really wasn't expecting was the camaraderie. No time was this more evident than in the last week.

The week began fantastic, last Monday I got the final ok on a thesis chair! WOOOOOOOO! Lets just say the rest of the week kind of went downhill from there. Since the quarter system is so short there are only two weeks post Thanksgiving, 1 week of class then finals. The combination of jet lag, a take home final, and 2 presentations didn't bode well for my week. What actually happened was so much worse...

Tuesday started like any other day, up early and planning to stay at school till 5 due to classes and meetings. I was feeling a little under the weather but I had a lot do work on. As the day went on though it became a bargaining game.

10 am- "If you get through today you can just relax all night"
2pm- "If you make it through today you can sleep all night"
4pm- "If you make it through this meeting without throwing up that would be a miracle"

In trying to keep that bargain to myself, I left my last meeting at 5 and promptly threw up in the hallway trying to get to the bathroom. Fantastic.

Did I also mention, it happened to be Snowpocalypse in Spokane? At this point my cohort found me practically dying in the hallway. But no fear! As Matt called it, Operation Hayden Evacuation had begun. While digging everyone out of the snow my beloved cohortlings also parked my car in a lot and then Andrew drove me home in the blizzard.

The rest of the night consisted of me running a 103 fever and throwing up. Unfortunately I couldn't just sleep off the sickness. I had to get up and present in a final group presentation in the morning. Luckily Adrienne also came and picked me up, even though I looked like death warmed up. I also had a test on Thursday, which I completed practically in a coma.

The weekend I spent sleeping made up for it though, and I am now currently in the thick of finals. My last one is tomorrow, and consists of my professor pretending to be a patient which we have to diagnose. Sounds fun but it's a lot of points so ehh? It's just another example though of my cohort coming together, when as a group we did practice rounds of this, including Matt presenting with Beiber Fever. Gotta enjoy the method acting on that one.

This quarter is all coming together though on Friday when I'm having a Christmas party at my new apartment with old and new friends! I'll be sure to put up some pics of my bedecked apartment, but for now here is my Christmas tree.

With Our Powers Combined

I think at this point it is quite safe to say that my cohort has really taken to each other. The evidence for this is clear:

1.) Study Sessions are now looked forward to
2.) Every Birthday is celebrated by the group
3.) We go see movies and eat out together all the time

I have to say I was worried about making friends in grad school which seems silly now. Today for instance we all played laser tag as a group for a friends birthday. And as the quarter draws to a close we will band together to defeat our finals and then celebrate at the Christmas party I'll be throwing.


More after Thanksgiving!

A Long Awaited Update

First, wow I've been slacking off in my blogging. But seeing as this was because of school you can't really fault me.

On the topic of school its really going well. I'm loving the experience even when it is really challenging I know that I'm headed to where I want to go. Plus I am such a psych nerd there really is no hiding it now. This can be evidenced by the fact that I've already completed my final neuropsychology project two weeks early because it was so interesting. It's a little embarrassing how geeky I am... but who cares? I'm happy about it! HA!

In other news I'm supposed to be finding a thesis chair. This is a little more of a struggle. The topics I'd really like to study are not so directly in line with what is currently being studied by some of the proffs at Eastern. But I'm working on it. Planning to have it more nailed done before Thanksgiving. I'll keep you posted.

More happy, wonderful, amazing, splendiforous news was that Chad visited me for my birthday weekend! And I know were disgusting and all in love, but common! The weekend was one of the best I can recall. I was so happy to show Chad my school and have him meet my new cohort of friends (who I grow closer to everyday!). Chad and I happily spent the rainy weekend in the love bubble traveling to favorite spots in Spokane, eating some terrific food, and reveling in one another's company. The rest is a treasured jewel for my heart to keep. I can hardly wait to see him again at Thanksgiving.

Until then though I have two tests and a presentation to go before the break. Hopefully I'll have a better picture of my thesis chair by then too.

So I shall continue marching on, and I advise you do as well! love.

Furture Neorosis in the Making... Scarywood

Well after three busy weeks, we successfully transversed five tests and completed a hurried three week course in cultural diversity. Thus to reward ourselves those of us without jobs on Friday night (sorry guys) or had a fun concert to go too... we made our way to SCARYWOOD!!!



Every Fall a small theme park in the top of the Idaho panhandle called Silverwood converts to Scarywood. As we drove up to it in the evening dusk the dark skeletons of the roller coasters stood out against the moon, while tendrils of fog rose to shroud them. Needless to say the mood of horror was set from the start. Before entering the park we could hear shrieks of fright, and inside the gate we were surrounded by ghouls and the undead.

While waiting in line to ride a train where we would battle against the zombie hoard, and watching children be chased in terror, someone remarked that this is how we knew we would have job security. A silly joke but it might be true, how many children will have future problems due to the insensitivity of their parents? But I digress, and as we froze on the train thanks to the steam engine some of the fantasy was lost in the freezing of our fingertips.

After a refueling cup of adult hot chocolate we decided to take on a more adult horror, The Blood Bayou. This elaborate haunted house left us all screaming to included a few man yells from the gentlemen in our group. We followed this with pizza and then some roller coasters in the dark. That my friends is an wild new experience that will make any coaster 10 times more thrilling.

At this point the 36 degree weather had gotten to most of the crew and they departed to the safety and warmth of their awaiting beds. The sillier of us stayed. We needed one more good scare and we found it being chased by chainsaws and mutant pig people in The Terror Canyon Trail, which was a drained log flume ride. But the night would not be complete without one last coaster ride which was not only in the dark but with the cars flipped the opposite direction so we rode without seeing anything. Very Fun.

We left with only five other cars in the parking lot, happy to say survived the terrifying wilds of Idaho. Awaking the next day with colds, sore thoughts, whiplash, and lost voices. A success I would say.

A Therapists Education is Odd

Another week completed and another two tests vanquished! But alas I have yet another two tests this week. I can do it, it's just quite exhausting.

These first three weeks have let me in on a funny uniqueness about the education of Therapists, Psychologists, Counselors. In other graduate programs you wouldn't be asked to delve deeply into your feelings and past experiences to work them out as a class assignment. I am often assigned books and excerpts to read that are purposefully challenging and then asked to report my reactions and misgivings.

I can't imagine this occurring in many other graduate programs. I'm not saying that other graduate programs aren't emotionally challenging or gripping. But I don't think it's often the intention of the program to put you through some sort of group therapy. Imagining a Fluid Mechanics professor asking his students to read about a new technology and report their feelings and emotional limitations seems pretty silly. But that is essentially the best analogy I can make.

So as I read from my psychotherapy book and I am asked to control my defense mechanisms, separate my past from my reactions, and confront resistance with controlled honesty; I can't help but think how personality altering this education could be. Although I don't think people who didn't fit these norms would be inclined to seek this degree.

I have also begun to formulate something I would like to call the psychologist personality. It is not a rigid personality but one that does have some strong similarities. Tending to be slightly neurotic over achievers trapped in the bodies of people loving big personalities we are constantly slug back and forth between our love and compassion for others and the need to preserve our own well being. (Mind you this is of course entirely my opinion)

I was interested to read though in my psychotherapy book that it has been found that often therapists have been "Parentized". To be "parentized" means that at an early age you took on roles of being a parent. This isn't indicative of a problem household though, it could be indicative of culture, birth order, socioeconomic status, or personality. This theory though is definitely relative to myself and I will be interested to see through my "group therapy" education with my cohort what develops.

My Treehouse in the Woods

Early this Spring I moved into my current apartment in the Browne's Addition in Spokane. I love this part of Spokane. Browne's was the first established neighborhood in Spokane, still sporting Victorian and Tudor homes including the first Mayor's home and many other historic buildings. Now intermixed with funky businesses and edgy condos in between the giant centennial oak trees, its a great place to live.



What I wasn't expecting was the Wildlife.

My apartment looks out into a small wooded alcove of my apartment building, which abuts the Spokane River. At this point I expected some lovely birds and small mammals to make there home nearby.

This was an underestimation.

First surprise. The tree outside of my window ended up being a giant mulberry bush. Needless to say there was A LOT of wildlife near my window very early in the morning...

This was very soon followed by a 5am woodpecker. Yes a woodpecker. Waking up to that little wood drill was very confusing and took me a couple mornings to figure out what it was.

There were many other furry encounters as well. Raccoons, Skunks, Porcupine.

But the biggest surprise came this morning as I was waiting for the bus outside of my apartment. Suddenly a young buck walked out into street behind me. Shocked, I watched it cross the street and walk calmly down the sidewalk. As I got on the bus I mentioned it to the driver, who replied "Only in Spokane." The quiet buck stared as the giant metal goliath drove by waiting for us to leave so he could be on his way.

Week Two: Learning the Ropes

I've made it through my second week and my first graduate school test with flying colors. Which I am very happy about, considering that my first test covered 100+ pages of reading in a book I couldn't get until Monday (Speed Reading Powers AWAY!).

But I really can't take the credit since my amazing cohort banded together to complete the study guide and have a picnic study circle the afternoon before our test.

One of the undersold qualities of graduate school is the shared dedication of the people in the program. It's nice to know that for once all of your classmates care about their performance and aren't just trying to squeeze by. Also being in a clinical program we tend to be comfortable with group mentality easily forming connections with others.

Well I hope so anyways.... would be a little weird to have a therapist who didn't like people. Although the out of touch psychologist does seem to be a common media joke.



Although I can't say I'm immune to that. I've begun riding the bus twice a week to cut down on fuel cost, and it also gives me great reading time. Public transportation is an interesting thing, probably the only time I'll see a business man sitting next to a large woman wearing a orange floral dress and no bra.

Yeah... not loving the photographic memory so much right now.

It's hard to relate to everyone.

For this upcoming week though I have another two tests (good thing I like to read) and more excitingly tonight I'm going to a drag show with my cohort for extra credit in our diversity course. Can't wait to write the response to that!

Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

In my neuropsych class I will need to present a unique neuropsychological disorder not covered in class at the end the semester.

Unlike many people I love giving presentations... this might be due to the fact that I love to talk and be the center of attention, but I digress. I think it's really centered around that fact that I love to share new and revealing knowledge with others.

For example Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. I had never heard of this before and my proff offered it as an example for a creative presentation project. So I over course being the "investigative bulldog" I am (Thanks Mary, haha) I looked into it.

Alice and Wonderland Syndrome is a perception disorder often onset by severe migraines, drugs, and sometimes high fever. It's not a hallucinogenic problem, it deals with perception of size. Those suffering will experience themselves being significantly larger or smaller then there surrounding. For example looking at a skyscraper and feeling as though you are larger then it, or small enough to fit in a pocket.

The name is then an amusing classification of a serious perception disorder akin to Alice's shifting size in the eating of "Wonderland Food".

I am hoping to find a neuropsych topic just as unique and interesting this semester, so I imagine I will be traveling down some rabbit holes of my own. haha sorry for the pun, I couldn't help it.

Week One: I will survive... hey hey!

It's official! I am a grad student. -sigh- Thank goodness!

After the completion of my first week I have to say I am so thankful the pall of the unknown is broken. Of course none of my fears came true but the truth was beyond my happiest expectations.

This week began with orientation on Monday, where I met my "Cohort". If you aren't in on the social science lingo a cohort is simply a group of people who share a specific time period and experiences. My cohort totals twelve grad students and since we take 90% of the same courses I'm sure we're going to grow quite close. This week alone I have already begun to befriend many of them.

This semester I will be taking 5 classes: Adult Neuropsychology, Advanced Psychopathology, Foundations of Psychotherapy, Diversity and Therapy, and Research Topics. This including a TA job, and my preexisting job at Spokane Psych and Neuro, is quite a handful. But I am confident that I can make time for all those things as long as I keep on top of everything.

I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone in my program better and will try and provide updates here on my blog once a week if possible. I'll make sure to include interesting things that I learn in my classes and updates about life in general.

Pre-Graduate School Thoughts

I begin graduate school on Monday.

I, Hayden Sanders, begin the 17th year of my education at Eastern Washington University as a 1st year graduate student in clinical psychology on Monday. I have thus spent if one includes preschool years around 80% of my life in school. This seems sort of a strange thing, as I know upon the end of my life it will only count for around 20% of it.

So as I enter what might be the terminus of my formal education I try and keep perspective.

When I was seven years old, being told I could not attend a birthday party because of saucily back talking to my parents, no surprise, it was the end of the world. Of course because at that time that was my entire world.

I try then, to remind myself that while now my world is school, concerns over finances, working two jobs, and current personal problems whatever they may be are fleeting.

This task of eliminating irrational stress is of course far more easily said than done. And I try to remind myself by saying such things "I really am very young". Many people my own age might say such things as "Carpe Diem!" But I must say I am an old soul, and to "Seize the Day!" is a young thought. When I will most likely live at least into my eighties and possibly nineties it seems silly not to see things in the scheme of my whole life and not just the now.

We shall see how this serves me in the two years to come. For I, like most, am nervous about the unknown. It is so easy to be captivated by excitement and stress of the now.