Je l'ai tout fini!

After all of the hold-ups in the process, I finally had the meeting yesterday with the thesis coordinator.  It went swimmingly - I was in and out in about 5 minutes.

The day involved lots of walking around and errands, but the moral is that I got everything done and my thesis was officially submitted.  I'm not sure about the process, but I think that officially makes me a master, but maybe I have to wait until I get the diploma - who knows?!?

I'm back at my summer job from last year - lots of people are back, so it's good times!

I'm not very happy with Canada Post right now.

I had revisions to make on my thesis before my adviser could sign my Certificate of Examination.  Because he had to head back to Toronto right away, I was to send a PDF of the revisions and then he'd Xpresspost it to the school.  That was all done on Friday, so it should have arrived on Monday.  I called this morning to check that it had arrived, and it hadn't.

I had an appointment for 1pm today, in 20 minutes for my meeting to submit, but I can't have that meeting without the form.

I cancelled and rebooked for tomorrow.  There were only 3 fifteen-minute slots left.  Thursday is the absolute deadline, so if things don't go smoothly tomorrow, I will be very unhappy and very stressed.

I start training for the new telemarketing campaign today at 2pm.  I would have been late with the other meeting, but now I'll be on time - at least there's one thing on the up-side...

I passed my thesis examination/defense.  As usually is the case, there are some minor revisions that I've needed to make.  I'm almost finished them and I will be submitting it at the beginning of next week.

Just as I knew it would, this month has just flown away.  It really does seem like just yesterday that I was writing about how it would seem like a blink of the eye before the performance and the accompaniment work would be over.

I will also be starting back at my telemarketing job next week.  I don't really have any plans for the summer.  I want to move to Vancouver earlier than September, but I don't know exactly when.  It's expensive, so I sure can't pay rent in both London and Vancouver, but we'll see what happens.  I already have a roommate lined up, so I'll have to talk to her about when she wants to look for a place.

http://www.myspace.com/mikeyjpark

I just uploaded my thesis onto my myspace website so it's available for listening!

CLICK HERE to listen, it will load and start playing automatically.

While you're there, you can listen to the other pieces that have been there for a while already.

Lots to blog about!

There is a lot going on these days, so I'll address different points of interest as we go.

Today I will blog about diabetes related things.

I've been working 9-5 ish days with a lunch break, early to bed and early to rise lately.  I hate it, but my diabetes doesn't mind.  The thing I've realized about diabetes and life in general is that regularity is key!  I never practice this, but I realize the benefits when they fleetingly touch my life.

The other reason my sugars have been good recently is that I have switched to steel needles rathe than canulas.  My body has a love/hate relationship with this new phenomenon:

-They work! And right away, too!  This has effectively solved the problem I was having with the canulas not working for hours after they were inserted.  I'm thinking that all along this has been a problem with the end of the previous one's life rather than the new infusion set, but I'm not sure.  Eitherway, I can't afford to change the canulas more often than every three days, so that option is out as long as I'm in Ontario.  Here's the math:

-the Assistive Devices Program pays about 200 dollars a month.

-Canula insertion sets cost just under 200$ for 10 of them.  I can afford this only if I use them for the max of 3 days each

-The current one (Polyfin Quick Release) is much cheaper; you can get about 20 of them for less than the other type.  This means I can afford to change them as often as every 1.5 days, though I can wear them for 2 days.

The downside to the steel needles is:

-not as comfy

-they don't come with adhesives (I've been creative with bandaids)  This is actually a positive as well because the adhesive removal doesn't hurt as much, but it's not as stable, so again with the comfort...

- disconnecting the pump is trickier, which means it is not at all easy to do with only one hand.  I'm resourceful and made it work ish(see below) for a few days, but I'm not hopping on the bandwagon to use my arm sight again...

-changing sites more often causes more skin area to be used, meaning more likeliness of scar tissue.

So far, the needles have caused some situations to arise...

Story 1) New underwear is a wonderful thing; if I have my way, I would only wear brand-new underwear and socks forever and just throw the old stuff out.  Unfortunately I can't afford that yet.  Anyway, I got new underwear the other week - 3 pairs and I was working them into my wardrobe slowly.  They are wonderful.  The third and final pair was a beautiful pair of white underwear - so pristine and clean and crisp... I felt like a king just putting them on!

Note to self - do not wear brand new white underwear on a day when you have a steel infusion set in your left outer thigh which proceeds to gush blood at some point that day, unbeknownst to me until I check to see why my thigh is somewhat sore.

SO MUCH BLOOD

SO MUCH RED

SO little white

So Sad

Story B) As mentioned above, the new disconnect feature is a two-handed job.   I learned this moments AFTER I had inserted the needle and needed to connect the pump...  I was a little pressed for time, so my roommate who is extremely squeamish had to help me.  I covered any needle-ish parts up and made sure only the tubing bits were visible... STILL he could barely look.  I just don't get how people can be so bothered by medical things.  It's not like I was bleeding or anything.

Anyway, the next morning, I found a way of disconnecting myself by wedging my arm against my dresser so it held the one end stable enough-ish(see below) to disconnect and reconnect it.

Fast forward an hour.  I was on the 401, driving to Waterloo for my first day of Exams.  All was well, I bought my Timmy's Ice Cap and I was enjoying it as I drove.  I had boulsed a few minutes earlier and all was well in the world.

"Bzzz Bzzz" (vibrating), says the pump

"No delivery", says the pump

"Disregard, resume", Michael presses the buttons

"Bzzz Bzzz" (vibrating), says the pump

"No delivery", says the pump

"Fuck you!", says Michael

Driving 120 Kph on the 401 and realizing that I had multiple layers of clothing between myself and the infusion site.  This was not good.

Conveniently, the 401 has emergency stopping areas, right when I needed them. I drove by the first set, hoping that things would magically be fixed, they weren't.

I stopped, I took off my jacket, my shirt, and my undershirt.

I looked and saw that I had not fully connected the tubing... Silly Michael.

Where was my dresser?!?

The steering wheel helped me out in my hour of need, but it was tough and it took a lot of fandangling.

Moral - these sets are not a 1-handed set!

Other moral; I'm tired!

I'm going to bed right away.

It feels so early, but I have to wake up tomorrow morning so SUPER early.  I need to drive to Waterloo and start working for 9am.  I need to be there half an hour early and it takes an hour and a half to get there, that means I need to leave at 7am.  That means that I need to wake up at ...yuck!

I practiced a lot over the last few days, so I should be ready to play the exams.  I still feel a nervous and unprepared, but I know that things will be fine!

I'm staying at my uncle's tomorrow night in Cambridge- it is considerably closer to Waterloo, so I will save at least an hour of driving time by staying there.

I'm worried about my ability to navigate using the google map while driving.  I've only been through Waterloo on the bus, so this will be new and I'm limited to whatever google tells me to do.  I hope I don't miss an exit or make a wrong turn...

Well, my family has headed back to Manitoba.  It was great to have them all here to visit, but it is nice to have my own space back.

It's now just a few days before I start playing for dance exams in Waterloo.  The day after those finish is my thesis defense.  The rest of this month is going to just fly by!

I'm excited to have a rented car for the next week.

I am not excited that I will be having to wake up so early for the next week, but it is work and I think it will be at least mildly enjoyable!

So much to tell!

This has been such a busy week, and it's only been a few days since I last posted.

Family is still here and it's wonderful!  We've been eating out way too often for our own good, but oh well.  My dad had made an agenda, but we've barely done any of the stuff on there.  It has nevertheless, been a very family-heavy week.  I've discovered that my couch is much more comfortable than an old camping air mattress.

Thesis Performance - come and gone.  I was stressed to have been part of the performance process, other than attending rehearsals as the composer.  Things were not quite coming together as I hoped they would leading up to the fateful day.  The day of the performance, we had our last dress rehearsal and it was just plain not good enough.  I wasn't sure what to do.  I took some time to myself and convinced myself that I needed to do my best and be positive no matter what.  I did an interview with Rogers TV and I felt great.  Somehow, the performance came together and it felt great and went spectacularly.

 I watched the DVD today.  I didn't want to, but the family did and there were people that weren't there for the performance.  I should have left the room.  I was so self conscious.  My voice sounded so super-gay, and I hate it when people sound super-gay!  The video was also focused in on me the entire time, and I hate watching myself.  Watching the DVD so soon after was possible one of the most horrendous experiences of my life.

When I got home from celebrating the thesis being performed, I had an email from UBC in my inbox.  Long story short - it was an offer I couldn't refuse; I have, since then, accepted it.

Next year, I will be living in Vancouver, working on my Doctorate.  Without going into details, let's just say that I will not have to worry about finances anywhere near as much as I have in the past.

I still haven't heard from the DAAD people, but I have already made my decision.  It feels good to know what my future holds.

Ok, family is here for a few days more so I will make the most of it!

Goodnight.

Excitement

My parents and sister are in town and things are good.

I went with my parents this morning to the tourism centre.  As they were learning the excitement of London, I was excited to read the London Free Press and discover that my program cohort was featured in an article, and that I was also mentioned in it!

If you want to see the article go here.

They also contacted my pianist, mentioned in the article, so hopefully they got some more information from her today so that they can print another article tomorrow.

Most importantly, I'm hoping that the concert will be reviewed and that we will have good press!

Nevertheless, I'm very excited to see that we're getting advertising for the concert, and it's always nice to see one's name in print!

I'll admit, I'm nervous because I'm now part of the performance, as narrator!  The rehearsal today was a bit stressful, but it will be phenomenal tomorrow!

YAY!

I don't quite understand...

Now that I've finished the thesis, it feels like I'm the busiest I've been all year.

I've been cleaning all weekend.  My roommate was showing the place for next year, we had a birthday party for a friend, and my parents are arriving for the week on Monday.

I've been learning dance music all week.  I have literally hundreds of pages of music that I will need to play rather well for the Royal Academy of Dance exams starting on the 15th.

I've been sending lots of emails back and forth for many reasons, outlined below:

The performance of my thesis is now going to involve me.  In order to  get the strongest performance, we've split the solo part into separate pianist and narrators.  Because it's so close to the performance, I'm pretty much the only one who knows the text well enough to pull off a performance.

I'm trying to decide on what to do next year.  I'm still waiting to hear back from one institution; I cannot make a decision before I hear from them.

I need to decide what to do this summer.  I've been offered a job as a summer camp counsellor specializing in Musical Theatre.  I'm not sure if I want to take it or not:

-the decision will be influenced by what I'm doing next year

-pros = upstate New York in the Adirondack mountains would be gorgeous, I would be able to make a difference in the lives of children

-cons = the schedule leaves little to no time to myself, so I would get NO writing done, the pay is not as good as I had hoped

At the moment, I'm leaning against doing it.  I'm thinking of spending the last month or two in Winnipeg.  I need to decide quickly so I can start looking for summer work in Winnipeg if that is what I decide.

I'm leaning more and more strongly the more I think about it.

I'll likely be moving semi-permanently so I want some time this summer to spend with friends and family.

I just realized how hectic this month is going to be.  

Family is in town from April 6-13th.

By April 15th, I have to have decided where I will be going next year.

April 16-21st I'm playing dance exams in Waterloo - that means I'm driving there daily for 8:30 or 9am.

During that time, I still have to play regular dance classes in London.

I defend my thesis on April 22'nd.

Another set of dance exams on April 23'rd in London.

I'm supposed to know by now if I've been accepted to some programs, but I'm still waiting for the word.  I need the full picture so I can make my decision.  Here's hoping that I won't have to wait much longer.