For lack of a witty title

So, I was going to blog about my week later, but I just had an experience and I had to blog about it right now.  So, here I go.

I'm at Waterstreet (who's surprised? No one? Good.) Anyway, I was sitting outside enjoying the sunshine while studying for the praxis (that really awful test I have to take in 8 days), and this woman leans over and asks me what the current colloquial term for 'cool' was.  (she didn't use those terms, but that's what she meant).  She and I brainstormed and didn't come up with anything more appropriate than 'cool'.  So cool could still be cool - who knows.  Anyway, not the point.  The point is, that we had a wonderful conversation following that. I asked her if she was an author - she said yes, she's currently writing a book about her life after she found and adopted a chicken - that's right the mostly flightless bird that most people eat for dinner on Sunday - she has one as a pet.  Her (the chicken) name is Liberty, her name (the lady) is Lisa.  So, Lisa and I got on this euphorically tangential conversation.  Tangent after tangent.  Eventually we found ourselves talking about my life and what I'm doing with it - speech pathology, moving away yadda yadda yadda. 

Anyway, she also has had some experience with speech therapy as well (incidentally at the Unified Clinics).  (she speaks with a harsh, breathy tone and I was going to ask her - but she beat me to the punch).  She was recounting the time after her vocal folds were burnt in a fire.  From what she said it was very traumatic, she almost died, thought her face was going to be riddled with scars etc.  Anyway, once again not the point.  She then recounted the time when walking into the clinic and overhearing a gentleman saying some nonsense phrase over and over again (recurrent utterance).  

So here I am with this ethical dilemma - it is quite possible that I know / have interacted with this individual during my experiences in the aphasia group, and she brought him up and I can't say - "Oh yeah, that's Harry Potter (or whomever)"  So instead I talked about what I "thought" he had (knowing full well, based on her repetition of the recurrent utterance, who she was referring to).  This was, obviously, aphasia.  She had thought he was presenting with symptoms characteristic of a right sided stroke (again she didn't say that but she did say inappropriate social skills, difficulty regulating appropriate emotions etc). 

So, I got to explain to her that this gentleman is not displaying a difficulty with social aspects of communication or emotions, he is experiencing difficulty with language in and of itself.  So, he is still there, but now he is trapped inside his head without a reliable way to express himself.   

The tangents continued and we began talking about stuttering, and my experiences and what I hope to do with my professional life.  And that was great fun.  We had this deep philosophical discussion about the way we view the world and our perceptions of society and society's perceptions of people who are different.  

Anyway, I'm not sure this blog turned out the way I was imagining it would.  I can't already tell it's not mind blowing.  I think I used a lot of speech path jargon - sorry.  If you don't know what a word / phrase / whole paragraph means just leave a comment and I'll explain it in real-person language.  In fact after looking back on it - I think the post it a lot like our conversation - sporadic.  

Anyway the conversation ended when she looked at her watch and realized that we had been talking for an hour and she had to go help her aunt out.    Fun times in the life of Bryan.

In other news, my housing for Seattle just fell through, so I have to find a new place to stay or else stay in a hostel.  The hostel would be fun - I'm looking at one that is right across the street from Pike's Market - SO EXCITED about that.  I wonder if the hostel has a kitchen - I'd love to get some fresh crab legs and fresh vegetables and gorge myself on deliciousness, we'll see.  Other than that - there is not much exciting happening in my life.  Two guys in scrubs just walked in - kind of odd - there's not a hospital near here, I don't think anyway.  hmmm.  I guess that's about as exciting as it gets around here - displaced medical personnel.  Simply astounding.  Ok - i'm going to stop typing now.  I think the "Iced Coffee With a Bang" I just had (four or five shots of espresso in 6oz of coffee  ... mmmm caffeine) has just caught up with me.   I'm feeling ... jittery.  Do I drink too much coffee?  Blasphemy.  No such thing as too much coffee.  Ok, I'm really done now.