Antarctica

It has been 5+ months since my last post, but I thought I would try to ease back into this.

I have been going to Refreshers with my friend Dan for 8 years. He is currently in meteorology grad school at Ohio State. He left last Sunday on a trip to Antarctica to do something meteorology type stuff. He has set-up a blog for the trip.

Refresher time

I am leaving Saturday morning for my annual Refresher at the PFSP at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. I will be meeting my friend Dan in Baltimore (who is driving down from Ohio) and we will then drive down to Norfolk.

I obsessively look forward to this every year. I love fine-tuning my speech, and even though I am unable to maintain the near perfect fluency I have on the Friday I come home, every year my speech shows a consistent improvement from where it was at that time the previous year.

What I don't enjoy is leaving Novelchick and the little one for the entire week. The first 2 years we were together, Novelchick would come with me, but for the last few years that has not really been viable for a variety of reasons. I am very grateful that my wife is so tremendously supportive of me in this. There are many reasons why I love her, but this is certainly on the list.

Curious George

I have always been a big Curious George fan. My home office is filled with items either relating to baseball or Curious George. After plenty of encouragement the last 2 years, the little one has finally given in to the allure of "Monkey George" as she calls him. She now asks to be read a Monkey George story every night at bedtime.

Reading to her every night is excellent practice for me to transfer my targets. I could easily read the stories fluently (except for some class IV's) without targets, however I have been trying my best to make sure that I am monitoring targets while I read. She is off to visit the Grandparents for a few days, so I guess if I really want to practice, I could read Curious George stories to the cats.

If I am not available, sometimes Novelchick will read to her. It is quite funny to listen to my wife make some of the Curious George stories more politically correct. Most of the stories of written by the Rey's in the 40's as they were fleeing from the Nazi's. George being sent to prison, smoking a pipe after a meal and his kidnapping from the African jungle are examples of some of the stories details which are changed in Novelchick's interpretations.

Movie Night

Since our "unofficial" Northpoint Community Group wrapped up Beth Moore last week and disbanded, Novelchick (who currently has a great post on her blog about our attempts to de-clutter our house) and I took the opportunity of having a night of arranged babysitting to go to the movies and see The DaVinci Code. As we had the book, we both enjoyed the movie a great deal. Irregardless of what you think of the fiction aspect of the book, (and I do generally love conspiracy theories), the book and the movie seemed to have generated some healthy debate regarding Christianity and the Bible, which certainly cannot be a bad thing.

Going to the movies, made me think that is another transfer opportunity that might be eliminated if you are not careful. Most big theatres have the ticket kiosk now where you can either order online and pick it up at the machine, or just purchase your tickets there. Usually the ticket kiosk line is shorter than the line to buy from a real person, but last night there was no wait in the regular line, so I had the opportunity to pick-up a transfer there. Talking to the person behind the glass who is using a microphone to respond always make a transfer challenging for me, so it is generally a good opportunity whenever the situation presents itself.

Seattle

I did not post anything last week as Novelchick, the little one and myself were in Seattle on vacation. Everyone had a great time going to Pike Place Market, the Zoo, the Children's Museum, the Tiny Tot Symphony, the Salish Lodge for breakfast, Alki Beach, a folklife festival and a Mariners game (where the little one and I wore our new Ichiro jerseys). We flew there using our Air Tran credits from last year's Wendy's/AirTran promotion and we got some great deals on Priceline to stay at the Westin and Hotel Monaco (where they sent Henry to Goldfish up to our room to stay with us during our visit).

Overall, my speech was not as sharp the whole week as I would have wanted as I became so focused on all of the details of getting ready for the trip itself, I neglected to incorporate any formal practice into my schedule. Thankfully, I leave for my next Refresher in less than 3 weeks.

Eye Exam

Today, I have to go for my annual eye exam. That reminds me how much I used to hate to do things like eye exams before I went through my PFSP therapy. I would go there and stutter through the whole thing, and if that was not bad enough, I would feel like whomever I was talking too was feeling sorry for me. I can't tell you how much I hated feeling like that. Thankfully, those days are long gone.

Speaking of eye exams, a few weeks ago Novelchick got new glasses, giving up her sexy Lisa Loeb-style glasses. Though, Novelchick is still plenty hot, with or without glasses.

Pagoclone and The One-Armed Guy

This morning, Indevus Pharmaceuticals issued a press release and hosted a conference call to discuss the phase II results of their Pagoclone testing. Tom Weidig has been discussing this drug for quite some time (including the possible sexual side effects) on his Stuttering Brain blog.

Whenever I hear the words pharmaceutical and testing, why is it that I think the one-armed guy from The Fugitive (1993) movie will somehow be involved?

Though I am very happy with the improvements in my speech due to the Precision Fluency Shaping Program, and am not looking for a miracle cure, this is an interesting story to watch.

I Love Baseball

I Love Baseball. Not like I love Novelchick or the little one, but I have always loved sports - specifically baseball. One of the reasons I have always loved sports is that they are fair. When you are playing a sport, it generally does not matter if you stutter, where you live, how much money you have, who your parents are, or even if you have any. As a stuttering white kid growing up in a black neighborhood with not the most pleasant homelife in the world, sports gave me a chance to feel equal to everyone else and gave me a chance to find commonalities with others, instead of just seeing the differences.



At times, I am reminded that people obviously must like sports for a variety of reasons. Last Friday, the little one and I were at the TED (as we are for every Friday night home game) for the Braves game against the Washington Nationals. The little one was sporting her new Jeff Franceour jersey and showing everyone her mastery of the tomahawk chop. During the game, we are sitting in our seats (left field, 2 rows up), when this young man staggers down the aisle and sits in the seats right in front of us. He looked like Willie Aames from Eight is Enough and Charles in Charge fame and is wearing a red golf shirt 2 sizes too small, jeans and dress shoes. He is also carrying 4 Budweiser bottles - though 3 are apparently empty. He starts shouting at the Nationals leftfielder Alfonso Soriano, specifically concerning Soriano's defensive lapses in the outfield. It was a rather strange scene and after a few minutes of this, this rather bizarre gentleman was escorted away by the ushers. I wonder what it is about sports and baseball that attracts this guy, and made him want to spend his Friday night getting drunk and shouting at a Dominican baseball player about his defensive liabilities in the outfield?

I wonder why Alfonso Soriano-hater-guy-in a tight red shirt likes baseball.

Stuttering, Insurance and Marilyn Monroe

As most anyone who stutters (or has a spouse or child who stutters knows), many health insurance policies exclude therapy for stuttering. The National Stuttering association has an interesting brochure on their site which may be of use, if you find yourself trying to get your insurance company to pay for your therapy.

When I first went through the 3 weeks of therapy at the Precision Fluency Shaping Program in Norfolk, VA in 1995, I was told by my health insurance company that stuttering was not covered. However, after I attended the program, I kept submitting claim forms for the therapy. I would get a letter declining the claim, and would immediately send another out. After about 9 months of this, I went to the mail one day and found a check from my insurance provider for 80% of the therapy fee. So, I guess the lesson from that is that it is always worth a try.



On a different topic, the other night Novelchick and I were watching The Seven Year Itch on AMC. It is interesting that possibly the most beautiful woman to ever appear in a motion picture stuttered, was bipolar and spent a good part of her career with her weight around 140 pounds and wearing a size 12 dress.

Goodbye Community Group!

I had a Cinco de Mayo lunch with Dorky Dad this afternoon. Actually, neither one of us realized it was Cinco de Mayo until we got to the restaurant at 11:45 and saw a big tent and crowd in the parking lot.

Dorky Dad and his wife lead our Northpoint Community Group. To make a very long story short, he told me over lunch that the rest of the group had made the decision last Monday to end our group 7 months early - after we finish the current study we are on. The timing of it was a little surprising, but it had been painfully obvious for some time that this was a group that just did not click on a Community Group level.

So, that is one less external transfer opportunity for me for a while. I classify transfer into 2 categories - internal and external. Internal transfer consists of any transfer I have with Novelchick, our daughter or my manager at work. Conversations with these 3 people probably account for 75% of my total time spent talking. External transfer is, of course, time spent talking to everyone else in the world.

Of course it will be great to spend some additional time with Novelchick and the little one on Monday nights.