It's All Happening!

Wow. Talk about goals coming to fruition... A few weeks ago I mentioned to The Man (who is still not formally employed in case you were wondering) that my ultimate goal - as in a couple of years from now - is to make a grand a day. Working 4 days a week that translates to a figure that's nothing to sneeze at. Granted, it's a little shy of what he was making when we got together, but not by much and I could surpass that if I wanted a 5 day work week - which I don't.

Tuesday morning I called the folks at the state agency where I've been getting referrals to let them know I'm ready to start doing work for them independently. They love my work and have been asking me when I'll be solo for over a year. The worker took my updated information and said she would be in touch in a couple of weeks. Friday she called to tell me that not only do I have a provider number but she scheduled 4 regular evals and 3 neuropsychological evals within a 4-day span. Even at state rates, that translates to astonishingly close to my goal.

It looks like I might actually be able to make a living at this gig. Now, I realize that this level of activity could be anomalous, especially in the beginning, but I didn't think I'd be coming close my goal so soon after hanging my shingle for all to see. Nevertheless, I'm so excited I could just pee.

Prove Yourself Brave, Truthful and Unselfish, and Someday...

After twelve years of concerted effort, slave labor, seemingly endless waiting and more money than I want to think about, my license for the independent practice of psychology, issued by The Great State of Texas arrived in the mail today. So the training wheels are off and now I'm finally a real boy.

More to come.

Don't Tell the Italians

Boy, are the Italians going to be pissed off when they find out they're actually being ruled by the French! Well, not really but apparently a lot of people, particularly young people, think the capital of Italy is France. How do I know this? Aside from teaching psychology, I also do psychological testing - a lot of psychological testing. One of the major IQ tests I use has a section that asks questions regarding general stuff about which people should have at least some vague idea. One of the "easier" questions deals with the capital of Italy. I can't count how many people say, without hesitation, that it's France, then appear to be proud of themselves for their vast knowledge of European systems of government.

I'm not sure what's worse though - the Franco/Italian fuckups or the no less than 75% of African Americans I've tested who have absolutely no clue who Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln were. I just want to smack them and yell at them, "SERIOUSLY!? You've got to be shitting me! You don't who know two of the most influential figures in the modern history of your people were? You know - the one who freed you from slavery and the one who made it possible for you to be integrated into American society? Really? Pull your head out of your ass so you can see the world, dipshit! - And while you're at it, pull up your pants. You look like a dumbass."

Please be proud of me for maintaining my poker face and not smacking them upside the head and telling them what idiots they are. Maybe a more fitting punishment would be for me to call their grandmas for the administration a proper and much-needed ass-whoopin'.

They Still Make Slush Mugs!

We had Slush Mugs when I was a kid, so when I saw they are still being made and are marketed at Vat19.com, I couldn't resist buying some for our lazy poolside summer afternoons. So far it seems that they work great with soft drinks - DrPepper slushie - mmmmm --and beer - beeeeeeer slushie MMMMMMM! I tried to make margaritas in one, and it appears that the non-alcoholic part has to be slushed up before adding the liquor, or the liquid won't freeze. When the liquor is added, it melts much of the slush. That's okay though, because it works really well on beer! Woot!

Changes

Looking back to when I started this blog in late 2006, its original focus was to give me a place to vent my frustrations about the dissertation process in the last leg of graduate school. At the time, this space was called, "Maunderings from Dissertation Hell," and the posts were composed of much wailing and gnashing of teeth, reflective of one under constant torture. Just the act of sitting down to write something - anything - helped grease the wheels of the writer within me, so I often used blogging as a cognitive warm up to the more intensive writing of dissertating.

Once the dissertation was finally complete and I was PHinisheD, I began the most unusual postdoctoral fellowship in the world. Since I was no longer dissertating, but treading water in postdoc, the blog was retitled, "Prattling in Postdoc Purgatory." I didn't blog much during that time because honestly I didn't want to bore my beloved readers with more whining, so there was precious little actual prattling done. I've also been juggling anywhere from 1 to 3 additional jobs during that time, so there's been precious little actual time for prattling to actually happen.


I finally passed the final hurdle in January. It's been a little over two weeks since I sent off the last pile of money and paperwork to the Great State of Texas for the license to practice what I've trained to do for over a decade without training wheels. Once the postman brings that precious piece of paper via certified mail in a couple of weeks, I'll have visible proof that I have been "brave, truthful and unselfish," and can finally be a "real" boy.

Since I'll finally be in private practice as a neuropsychologist, and will no longer have to keep proving myself worthy, the topics I blog about will also change with that very significant change in my life. In addition to my usual stuff - bragging about The Girl, discussing our famous gatherings, sharing recipes, I'm thinking of discussing neuropsychology-specific information & cases and sharing what's working/not working as I grow my practice.

The problem is, I don't know what to rename my little slice of blogdom. Here are a couple of ideas I've been mulling over, but nothing really "snaps" for me:

Nerdwina Brainiac's Practice Effects

Confessions of a NeuroNerd

...and the trees looked like neurons...

From the Backal Lobes

What do you think, dear readers? Do you have any ideas or suggestions? I'm open...