Time flies regardless

Well, it's certainly been a while, hasn't it?

Let me see...

Last published post was on the ninth.  The eleventh was my birthday, which was none too fun.  I wrote a whole post, but decided not to publish it.  Printed word is too open to misinterpretation, and the nature of this post opened a can of worms I simply didn't want to get in to.  Anyway, I spent my birthday in pain, miserable, and frustrated.

I confess that I have fallen behind in school.  I'm on top of my Ling classes, but my Ed classes not so much.  My goal is to have my overdue lesson plan turned in on Monday, and get at least one of the major postings for the other class done this weekend.
Of course, we all know where leads the road paved with good intentions...

Things have been kind of roller-coaster-ish with my honor society.  I'm the secretary, but I really do a lot for the society, and of the officers, I do the most.  I'm rather frustrated because we recently did a Halloween costume drive and we received nothing.  (I'm not counting the 4 costumes my advisor managed to collect and donate after the fact.)  The president and other officers were so lackadaisical and passive that the word did not get spread and hardly anything was done.  The advisor called me a few days ago and said she was going to speak to the president and have me instated in that office in her stead, as I am the one carrying the presidency.  I feel like I'm constantly poking and prodding the officers, and picking up the slack behind them before things fall through the cracks (ah, English metaphor...).

When the advisor met with the president, Pres was very surprised that this would be asked of her.  Apparently she "didn't want to hold me back" or "get in my way" since I seemed "very enthusiastic."  This sounds like BS to me, since her job simply isn't getting done.  I'm not doing her job; I'm not standing in her way.  She either has no idea what she's doing and isn't putting forth the effort to learn, or isn't passionate about it and getting done what she needs to.  In fact, I've been dancing around this semester trying desperately not to overstep my bounds or step on her toes while watching her duties go unfilled.  Which has really been hard for me to do.  But the advisor thinks that there is sincerity behind her remarks.  Anyway, we're meeting tomorrow.  I want to get this solidly figured out before our new member recognition mid-November because right now I feel pulled and stretched and emotionally tossed around.

I'm also contemplating not continuing in my Ed program.  I'm so annoyed with all the bureaucracy and requirements and tests and dancing around that is required to become and be a teacher.  I'm sick of lesson plans and unit plans and accommodations and assessments.  And I honestly don't think I would survive student teaching without going insane.

And there have been some, um, "fun" things going on with my insurance and pharmacy.  Last week I received a package in the mail.  Well, Husband picked up the mail.  He came in shaking the envelope, which rattled like a bottle of meds.  He jokingly asked if I was getting drugs in the mail now.  Um... no...?  Well, I opened the envelope and, sure enough, it contained a bottle of prescription meds.  One of my prescriptions, 90 days worth, all the right info (name, insurance, prescribing doctor, all that), that I had NEVER ORDERED.  (Oh, and a bill for the meds.)

I logged on to my pharmacy's website, and that med is still listed as having three refills left. So I called the company that sent me the meds. (This company is a branch of my pharmacy & has connections with my insurance company.)

Well, apparently it is not some sort of kooky mistake. They received a fax from my insurance co. for this prescription for 3 months and that action supposedly obligates them to fill and send the prescription.

At my last rheumy appt (just over a month ago), he prescribed 3 new meds, and this was one of them. One is for serious pain that doesn't respond to other stuff. The other two I was supposed to try one, and then the other. The problem is that they were both listed on the same prescription. So when I went to fill the one I wanted to try first (not the one I got mailed!), it filled them both. And of course, there was some nonsense with filling the prescription I wanted to try 2nd because it's not in generic and not automatically covered my insurance, blah blah blah. Hence the fax from my insurance co. and the filling of the meds.

I'm frustrated because I haven't even gotten to the point of trying these meds yet with the 2wk sample from the rheumy & the 1st month that got filled "by default." Much less am I ready for this new 3 month supply. I don't know what the side effects will be... heck, I could be allergic to this med, but don't know because I haven't tried it yet. And now they want me to pay the copay for 2 months worth of meds. Boom. Right now. (After paying for tuition and an ER visit and... and... and... this month.)

(Other voice in my head argues back:) But it's only 2 months of copay instead of 3 (apparently I got month free through this mail service). So if I do decide that I do want to be on this medication, this is way better financially than filling it through my local pharmacy.
 

The part that makes me mad is that I had NO SAY in any of this!!!

But I'm starting this med tonight.  It has in it's list of side effects pretty much every possible side effect under the sun, then comments that it is not a complete list of side effects, so who knows how my body will react, but I have a four day weekend, so I figure this is a good time to figure out if I'm allergic to it, at least.   Grrr.

There's just so much going on right now.  Time is racing past and leaving me behind.

What's in a name?

I’ve written many articles and papers with this title, the best of which was a linguistics paper about American English dialects.  But this post will discuss the name of “linguist.”

I brought this up in my previous post, how I would someday like to attain the title “linguist.”  Well…

Sorry, I’m going to have to back up a bit.  Beginning again.  This was the first week of school.  Monday and Wednesday are dedicated to my education major.  I’m in a second grade classroom in the morning doing student teaching type things.  The afternoon is occupied with first my “Diversity and Descrimination in the United States” course and then “Social Studies Education in Elementary Schools” (Monday) or “Elementary Multilingual Education” (Wednesday).  Tuesday and Thursday are my linguistics days.  I start with “English Grammar and Syntax” (requirement for minor.  a prerequisite my counterparts took years ago), then “Languages in Contact.”  Tuesdays I follow these with “Morphology” and then work with my Mayans on the dictionary.

SO! On Tuesday I was in my English Grammar class and my professor asked a question, probably something about “who likes grammar?”  Now, truthfully, readers, how many of you like grammar?  Well, I raised my hand.  My professor, Prof JA (one of my favourite people, not to mention professor in the world) said “Of course, the linguist does.”

Did you catch that!?  I got called a LINGUIST!  By a linguist, no less, which gives it credibility!
That’s not the only reason I’m excited.  Today the same professor approached me before class and began discussing her current research project with me (about knitting communities) and said that they have a teeny tiny bit of money to hire a student and would I be interested?  YES!  OF COURSE!  So now I have TWO (count them, TWO!) linguistics projects!  I get to work with BOTH of my beloved ling professors (Prof JA and Prof JG) and do what I love!  (The upside of Prof JA’s project, I do also get paid.  Lovely!)

Well, I have to get back to paying attention to class.  More later.  I have much more to say.  But I had to share my excitement!

(Originally published on another of my blogs: http://linguist.tumblr.com)

Background!

I’m a student of linguistics, hoping to one day earn the full title LINGUIST.  At present, I’m part of a team documenting a Mayan language; we’re creating a click-and-hear dictionary online.

Tonight was one of our meetings.  That “our” means me and my Mayans (N, C, & D).  Sometimes we’re joined by a fellow ling-nut, Jax.  Tonight, our Prof JG also joined us.  (Next week our semester starts, at which point it will be the above group and possibly two more, KayL & Elsie.)

Last week, we stumbled across /blue/ in the dictionary.  When I pulled up the entry, my Mayans started talking amongst each other in Spanish (I get about every tenth word) and their Mayan language (which I get about every thirtieth word).  They asked if we could cover “blue” next week.  So today we started covering “blue.”  In actuality, we covered green and red and a bit of blue and black.

But what made it really fun was that Prof JG was there and we covered uvular fricatives and uvular trills.  We had a lot of laughs and it was excellent.

Well, that’s where we are up to this point.  This is going to be my journey through this semester while I take morphology and languages in contact.  It’s also going to track my personal project over the semester…me and my Mayans.

(Originally posted on another of my blogs: http://linguist.tumblr.com)