Summer Trips
8:04 PM - Posted by Sam - 0 comments
I am very happy to report that I have been able to keep my usual summertime tradition of going on a few trips. Granted my entire summer could potentially be classified as a trip, it is still nice to have a vacation from the everyday no matter where you are located.

Being in Omaha for nearly 8 weeks before I traveled outside the city, I was getting a small bout of cabin fever.  Thankfully, I was able to make it back to AZ in early July so I could attend the family trip to Rocky Point, Mexico.  Next month is my Grandpa Jim's 75th birthday, and as a surprise, we were able to get nearly the whole family down for a stay on the beach. 
The trip ended up being one of the most eventful Mexico trips I have had, but despite the traveling delays, flooded house, power outage, and jellyfish sting, we had a wonderful time.  He was so surprised to see all of us standing there when he finally arrived and it was really great to spend some quality time with my family.


Less than 40 hours after I arrived back in Omaha from Mexico, I left for Virginia. I spent that next weekend in Reston for an extremely busy weekend of meetings at the American Academy of Audiology Headquarters.  As a member of the 2010-2011 Student Academy of Audiology (SAA) Board of Directors, this meeting was basically the kick-off to our year of office.  The other Board members are so motivating and it was very exciting to collaborate with each other to set a game-plan for the progress we'll be making in the next year.  SAA is a very new organization, and our board has a lot of work ahead of us - but judging by the productivity of the weekend, it's safe to say we're all perfectly fit for the job!



As my time here in middle-America is rapidly coming to a close, these last few weekends are being stuffed with activities that we have been pushing aside.  This past weekend, two of my roommates and I drove to Kansas City, MO.  The 3-hour drive wasn't too bad, but we hit a HUGE storm and were slowed to about 30mph and 50ft visibility for 45 minutes. 
That evening we went to the OAR concert and, as we were attempting to duck out early to beat the crowd, we happened upon some backstage passes for the after-party with the band! The thrill of actually getting the passes exceeded the event by quite a bit, but it was really awesome to meet the band and take pics with them! Lindsay Tippett drove up from Lawrence to meet us at Oceans of Fun on Saturday.  This water park was so cool, and it turned out to be a really great day to be in the water because it was so hot out! Later that night, a friend of mine who I haven't seen in about 7 years was able to come meet up with us. It was so great to catch up!  The rest of the trip was basically filled with dead car batteries and waiting on AAA - discovering first hand the slow-pace of middle America! 

I have a few more weeks here in Omaha before I make my way back to the Southwest and I'm hoping that I will be able to break away from wrapping up my project long enough to check a few more things off my Omaha To-Do List!


Mid-American Summer
9:13 PM - Posted by Sam - 0 comments

I've been in Omaha for nearly one month now and cannot believe how quickly time is flying by.  Work is wonderful.  I am making progress slowly but surely on my project.  And although I feel as if it is moving at the speed of molasses, my mentors assure me that I am ahead of the game. As of today, details of development are just about completely set and tomorrow, I begin recording my stimuli.  Hopefully data collection will begin within the next two weeks so that I have enough time to write at least the first draft of my manuscript before I head out in early-August. I've posted some pictures of my lab and the clinic so you can get a feel for how fun Boys Town is for children.  It really is turning out to be an incredible place to work.

The city of Omaha has proven to be exciting in ways for which I wasn't quite prepared.  No one told me how much it stormed here. No one!! We have severe (and I'm talking severe weather & flash flood warning) thunderstorms about every other day.  For those of you who know me, you understand how unsettling this might be for me.  For those of you who surprisingly don't know this about me yet - I am terrified of thunder and lightning.  Yes, I know.  I realize that I am no longer 7 years old and that nothing bad is going to happen, but it still scares the be-jesus out of me. With that, I'd like to share with you my favorite thunderstorm story so far.

Last Monday evening, my roommates and I went to dinner at Michael Gorga & Pat Stelmachowicz's home. I realize that this in itself deserves an entirely different story, but that will be for another day.  Having stayed for post-dinner conversation, we didn't get home until after 10pm - missing any calls from hospital security hoping to pass on the warnings of severe weather to come. You see, at the California House (that's what our duplex is called) we don't have cable TV.  In fact, thanks to the digital turn-over, an old set of bunny ears with an inordinate amount of tin foil no longer even give us the 2.5 channels of television that previous residents had the luxury of experiencing. Any time there is an event worth broadcasting (say, a tornado watch), hospital security calls us to pass along the message.

So after dinner, we all go to bed - re-living the surreal evening at the Gorga's, only to be woken up around 4am to thunder shaking our windows.  One loud crash after another and about 30 minutes into the earth-shattering storm, the sky lights up at the same time as a huge clap of thunder and an alarm goes off in the living room of our house.  Naturally all four of us begin to panic and rush down to the entrance to the basement.
[Side note: our basement has a room that we can only imagine is for "bad children".  Picture a wooden room, with two wooden benches pushed together to serve as a bed - and a blanket haphazardly thrown across it as if someone had just woken up and rushed out the door.  Needless to say, we do not go into the basement unless we need to - not even when the world is ending outside our windows.] So we're huddled in our mud room - awaiting the rescue of hospital security.  When they finally arrive, we're pleased to learn that the Boys Town fire department did in fact respond to our call.  However, they did so simply by calling hospital security to ask if security would go check it out to see if the fire department's assistance was really needed.  Only in Omaha. :)

              


Welcome to Omaha
6:24 PM - Posted by Sam - 3 comments
I made it to Omaha!!  After a crazy three months, I am finally finding time to sit down and update you all with my life. School this semester was wonderful.  Classes weren't too difficult, but I was more busy than I have ever been with Super Sisters, traveling for conferences, working as a newborn hearing screener, and Student Academy of Audiology.

My internship at Phoenix Children's hospital was an invaluable experience and I am so grateful that I was able to spend two days a week there this semester. I was also recently elected to serve on the Board of Directors for Student Academy of Audiology and am extremely excited to be heading up the collaboration between our organization and Special Olympics beginning in July.    
While I was very busy with school and activities this past semester, I did find time to have some fun as well.  I traveled to Tucson for a wedding and Heber for a much-needed family weekend.  Spring break was filled with Spring Training Baseball and quality time with friends and family.  I was also able to celebrate the marriage of a couple of my good friends, AJ and Alicia Aljuwani. In May, I travel to Kansas for Ms. Lindsay Tippett's Senior Art & Design Show with a handful of close friends.  It was just a little taster of my summer in Middle America and was such a great time.  I came back directly from that trip to take finals and continue graduation celebrations, as most of my girl-friends are Speech-Language Pathology Master's students. 
Shortly after the celebrations were over, Sara and I set out to move me to Omaha.  We stopped in Santa Fe, NM for some much-needed sleep and then made our way towards Denver, CO to meet up with my mom - who was already in Colorado after driving up with my brother.  We stopped in Colorado Springs in hopes of seeing my brother (who moved there two days prior for his internship) but didn't have a chance to meet up with him on his first day of work. So we forged on and spent that next evening in Arvada at my aunt and uncle's house catching up with my family and meeting new-baby KinLeigh Johnson.  

From there, my mom  and I dropped Sara off at DIA.  Sara will be moving to Seattle next month, so this goodbye was a very emotional one between us.  She has been such an influential person in my life for the past two years and saying goodbye to her was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do.  Once the tears were gone, my mom and I headed out on the 8.5 hour drive across Nebraska.  It was so great to spend the day catching up and we made it into Omaha around 5pm.  That evening we had dinner at Pat Stelmachowicz & Michael Gorga's home.  Pat is my mentor here and has been one of my idols since I discovered Audiology.  Michael is equally as famous in the ear-world and it was so surreal to spend the evening with them and their family. I started my job for the summer bright and early the next day with the usual paperwork and a tour of Boys Town National Research Hospital.  It is such a wonderful facility and so exciting to be working in place where so much progress in my field has been and is continuing to be made.
 
The project I will be in charge of for the summer is turning out to be a perfect fit for me.  During our first meeting, I was able to contribute with my past research experiences.  They are giving me so much freedom and responsibility with decisions and I think I am really going to love it. As of right now, less than three months seems like not enough time to develop, recruit and run subjects, analyze, and write up results - but I am sure everything will start to fall into place as I continue to work full-time.  I have an office space that I share with someone who works in the clinic and my house is only a 2 minute walk from the Hospital. I can see the front of the hospital from my bedroom.  The house is a duplex that is owned by the hospital and all four of us research interns will be staying here this summer.  Everything in the house has its own personality, and most of the furniture looks like it might belong in your grandmother's home.  My room is red and the carpet is the strangest pattern of red paisley, but it is charming and I already feel at home.  The first of my three roommates arrived a couple days after me and she is wonderful.  We've been getting to know each other and the city and have gotten along so well together thus far.  The other two girls arrive on the 28th and we're very excited for them to join us.    
Much to my surprise, there is so much to do here in Omaha.  Everyone that we have met so far has been extremely welcoming and tells us about so many different things that are going on.  I have no doubt that this summer will not only be filled with research, but also with summer concerts, festivals, touristy trips to the Zoo (#2 in the world), the hands-on children's museum, Saturday farmers markets, and possibly even a trip to Mount Rushmore! 

I have uploaded more pictures to my facebook account, but if you don't have facebook, email me (samantha.gustafson@asu.edu) and I can send you a link to additional pictures.  I promise I will try and blog more often while I'm here and I'd love to hear from you all as well.  I hope everyone has a wonderful summer planned.


Dream come true.
9:23 PM - Posted by Sam - 2 comments
It's official. This summer, I will be spending my time at Boys Town National Research Hospital in Omaha, NE as a short-term AuD research trainee! For the past 4 years, it has been my dream to someday work at Boys Town.  Thanks to the National Institute of Health, I am going to be able to live my dream a lot sooner than I had ever imagined!  I'll be spending three full months working in Dr. Pat Stelmachowicz's research lab running a study on vocal reaction time in normal hearing and hearing impaired children.  This is the same lab that my mentor, Dr. Pittman, worked in when she was completing her Post-Doc. 

I am so excited to have the chance to be a part of the Boys Town team for a few months.  And while I still have plenty of time to decide where I will be spending my 4th year, this summer will be a great opportunity to see if I could see myself as a more permanent member of BTNRH.  I'll be leaving the weekend of May 15th and will return to the valley around August 10th...just in time to miss most of the dreadful summer heat!  So if you're passing through the Midwest this summer, let me know!   


I'm a runner?!
5:06 PM - Posted by Sam - 0 comments

A few days ago, I did something that I NEVER thought possible... I finished the PF Chang's Rock & Roll 1/2 Marathon!  That's right, 13.1 miles, and I ran it!  My official time was 2:35:50, which is well under my goal of 2:45. My roommate ran as well, and we both had so much fun!  Of course, it was tough, painful, and there's nothing quite like the post-marathon walk for the next couple days (picture an 80 year old man with two fake hips)...but, it is completely worth it.
  
My mom and Coleen came to cheer us on at mile 10 and then met us after to celebrate.  Thirty-six thousand people total ran the half and full marathons on Sunday, starting in Phoenix and ending in Tempe.  To be involved in something this large, with so many people who believe in themselves (and in each other), was truly incredible.  This is something I definitely would love to do again next year.  If you're up for it, why not join me?! Come on, surprise yourself...I dare you.