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I created a monster!

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From January 21, 2015

So, guess it’s time to write one of those entries that I fell behind on from last month in regards to miss Luna Moon my music nut!

From the moment I got luna on September 16 I had her listening to music of all kinds, country, rock, oldies and most importantly Shout Sister Choir because it would be a big part of her life.

Well, let me tell you I believe I created a MONSTER!!!

Wednesday evening of January 21, 2015 Luna and I were on our way home from class at Carleton University and we had to pass through a big open area where Starbucks is and Tim Hortons and of course music. And it was *loud* music at that. Also, not very good music, but hey apparently someone liked it, including my dog!

Luna was determined that we were going over to where the music and was no matter what. The moment we step away from the stairs she made a hard turn to the left and was going to fly right on over to that music and have herself a great time.

Sadly, I wanted know part of whatever it was they were playing and wanted out and to go home. Have a guess on how this battled turned out?

Me, Luna, no we’re going home. Forward.
Luna, *ignores me and proceeds to music*
Me, Luna no, leave it!
Luna, *groans and turns away from the music*
Me, *whew* Luna, find the elevator.

Luna takes 2 steps in the direction of the elevator and . . .

Luna, ha, fooled you mom. *abrupt* 180 turn and pulls back towards the music!

My dog seriously has no taste!

I grumble and once again try and convince Luna that we really don’t want to go dance to the music or whatever it is she wants.

Me, *leash correction* and Luna stares at me like I’ve lost my mind, but I have her attention and tell her to find the elevator.

Luna snorts and huffs her way to the elevator and we are nearly there when . . .

Yep, you guessed it! Luna goes flying around the wall that leads right back around the corner to take us to the music.

I swear I’m trading her in for a Poodle!

Me, fine fine Luna you want to play that way…*attaches leash to gentle leader* take that! Now, find the elevator.
luna, *long sigh and probably sad puppy eyes* and off we go to the elevator. Which I happily praise her and give her hugs and a treat while also blocking her way from trying to be sneaky and take us back to the music, lol.

But wait, the fun’s not over!

We got downstairs in one piece and I remove the leash from the gentle leader…mistake. I forgot that we also have to still get past the bar. Yes, the bar, which of course plays music! *sighs*

Luna, Oo, more music. Mommy you want to go in here, right? Right! *dives* to the right and into the bar we go.
Me, *groans* why me! No Luna, lets go home.

Apparently she didn’t like the music in the bar that much because it wasn’t that big of a fight to get her back out. *whew*

lol, hold on the fun isn’t quite over yet!

Luna gets mad at me
So, finally Luna decides that it’s ok to actually head towards the doors so we can go home. All the music is gone, no dancing for Luna…the poor thing!

Luna takes us to the doors we would normally go out of if I was going to take the bus home, but since it was freezing ass cold outside we were taking Uber home instead and that’s out a different set of doors.

Me, good girl Luna, but not today. Hup-up.
luna, *stares at me, then at the door, then back at me and doesn’t move*
Me, Yes, good girl Luna, but not today and I give her a treat to show her she was right. Normally ha this works well. Um, not tonight.
luna, snorts and I’m sure gives me a dirty look and takes a step towards the doors to go out. Clearly I have no idea what I’m talking about and she must take charge….*follow your dog* Isn’t that what they teach?
Me, a little firmer *no* with a tug on the leash away from those doors.

Luna, Darn human first tells me lets go home and I can’t listen to music. Then when I finally does what she wants and brings us to the right place she says no. *snorts* what’s wrong with her? *groans, grumbles, hmphs* I’m just going to lay here and maybe she’ll figure it out then! Maybe?

And she did exactly that. She plopped on the floor in front of the doors and stared up at me. *chuckles*

Not only did I create a monster when it comes to music, but clearly my dog has OCD or something. I am not allowed to change the door that we go out of. i can go in any door I please, but when going home it absolutely must be the same door. No ifs, ands or buts about it!

After laughing my head off and praising her and telling her what a good girl the nutcase was I did get her to see that I still have all my whits about me.

of course she probably doesn’t believe that one bit, but we finally got to where we need to be and live to tell more stories, lol.

Time for midterms already?

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Wait! Didn’t this term, this year just start? What do you mean it’s time for test? Where did that time go?

I started classes on January 5 and this week it’s time to test what I’ve learned. I have one midterm tomorrow night, one on Thursday morning and one this weekend!

Now if the section that has to do with 4 p’s would stop escaping me, I’m ready for my one tomorrow night.

A bit nervous for Thursday morning thanks to the fact I um missed class last week due to I was doing one of those rare things for me…sleeping! maybe I’ll tell Luna to take that one for me.

The one over the weekend, it’s open book so it’s more of how fast can I find the answer to make sure I’m right before my time runs out. Happy Valentine’s Day, take a test!

One month later

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Oops, time ran away from me again! It really needs to stop that. I didn’t realize that my last update was a little over a month ago. Bad May, bad!

So, lets catch everyone up on how things are going around here.

Moving once again
It use to be I moved every here from one State or Province to another. Ha, now it seems I have to move every 2 years, lol.

Thanks to the rent increase at Accora Village we decided that it would be best to move instead of running the risk of tapping too much into our extra money that allows us to you know eat and drink and buy things. I first debated on waiting until the summer to move because then it wouldn’t be like freaken cold outside and neither of us would be in classes during the summer.

But, then I thought better of that because I have a little person coming to visit me next summer and I figured better I know the new neighbourhood and already set up instead of trying to learn where things are and not really knowing when she got here. So, winter moving it is, *again*

The end of next month we will be going back to apartment living over at Parkwood Hills

School
Well, I haven’t talked much about school this term and that’s mainly because it just didn’t go as good as I would have liked and planned. Since I really didn’t have to *go* on campus for school, the procrastinator that I am chose to stay home and watch the classes later. Classes by video is a great idea, but ha for me it makes it so easy just to forget I have a class.

Next term however I definitely don’t have a choice, I *must* go to classes. Starting January 6th I’ll be going to C.I.A. Hahahah, amusing!

School 1, Carleton and school 2, International Academy

International Academy, I’ll finally get to start working on getting my national license for massage therapy, yay! Might take me a while since I’m paying for it on a course by course basis, but I’ll get there in the end.

Out of my mind
Back in September I wrote like every single day and the posts were very good and amusing to a lot of people and just about everyone was saying I should like write books and stuff. Hahah, would you be surprised that I actually don’t like writing. It’s like my least favourite thing to do, academically that is. when it comes to writing for school stuff, I absolutely suck, lol. but writing for pleasure I seem to do great even though I hate writing. Figure that one.

So anyways, while at Leader Dogs for the Blind I wrote my first poem in like years. That one was specially written for class 15/03. Shortly after I got home in October I wrote another poem that was a bit better than my first and not long ago…like last week I completely lost my mind and decided I wanted to enter my poem into a writing contest. So, on December 8th I checked to see which poem would be the best and it was the second one I wrote and submitted it. Will I win? Ha, I have no idea, but people say it was good enough to enter, so we shall see.

Now on to the best part, Luna!
Luna and I are doing great! I mentioned Leader dogs a moment ago and much to my surprise I found out that Luna and I are still highly remembered at Leader, ha! Hmm, now it’s December and I was there in September, makes me wonder…them remembering me is that a good thing? *smiles*

There’s finally loads of snow, not just fluff on the ground for Luna to play in. I tried doing a video of her playing in it, but erm that didn’t go so well. Every time I got down on her level to make sure she got on camera, she tackled me into the snow, *grumbles* That and I had to tell her not to try and eat the camera, it was not a toy, lol. So videoing Luna in the snow is definitely a 2 person job and will have to wait until we travel next week. Hopefully they’ll still be lots of snow to play in.

Work wise however. *whew* Traveling with Luna may be tricky if the sidewalks aren’t clear so I know that she hasn’t pulled me off into some deep snow pile just to play. I was told to try the gentle leader with her and I will as soon as mother nature decides if it’s going to snow lots or warm up enough where most of it disappears again. Darn woman is not making it easy for me to fix my dog, ha!

Luna gets *loads* of praise on how well behaved she is, especially during choir. During choir practice she just lays on the floor and doesn’t move…well, that is until someone says the word *ok* Really need to change that trigger word. It’s a pain in the ass!

Speaking of choir! We had another show yesterday afternoon. The purpose of this show was to try and beat the 2012 world record for the most people singing Jingle Bells and the choir I’m in Shout Sister Choir kicked off the event.

Sadly, we didn’t break the record. We only had 350 and we needed 489. I think we could have if the event got a lot more advertising, but ah well it was still fun. If you wish to see a small clip of it, then watch and listen I have no idea what part was caught on video if it’s the whole choir or if you can see Luna Moon. It is about 7 minutes into the news. Hopefully i can find other videos since there were loads of people there videoing the shows.

Luna of course got lots of attention after our part was done by little kids and she loved it. For all the parents that respected the fact that Luna is a working dog and let their child know they couldn’t pet Luna while she was working. i thank you! And of course since they were nice and respected that, their children got love from Luna and her from them, *smiles*

Now to get ready for our next adventure. Off to the families for Christmas next week. Poor Luna!

This time I promise it won’t be a month before the next post, lol.

Did we disappear?

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Whew, I know many are wondering where did Luna and I disappear to after getting home? It’s been busy along with sick! Um for me not for luna. That little pocket rocket of mine is doing just great!

settling at home:
Well, my little pocket rocket, Luna moon settled into the house like she’s been with me for years and we were just away on a small vacation. The only minor issue at first was getting her to park in the backyard, but I figured out why that was an issue. It’s mainly dirt/mud back there and she didn’t like stepping in it, lol. So I started alternating between the front yard and the backyard and things seem to be better for now. When it rains however it’s definitely the front yard and hope I don’t miss something.

She hasn’t tried exploring the bathrooms and drinking out of the toilets which is great since we never remember to close the doors. She most certainly has not trying stealing things from trash cans that she shouldn’t. Again another good thing since I forgot the ones in the bathroom aren’t dog proof!

I’ve already switched to off leash time at home since she settled in pretty well. The only time she goes on is if she gets too excited and forgets how to listen, if she hasn’t done anything outside for me yet or the first time we had company over. Just to keep her on the calm side.

playtime with Luna:
OMG, if I thought this girl was nuts at Leader during our playtime…that was nothing compared to how it is here at home. Maybe that’s because she has *loads* more space than we had in the rooms. Man, she runs around the house like her tails on fire. Nope, make that she *gallops* around the house. It’s rather amusing to see and I’ll try and catch it on video one day.

talk talk talk:
Sheesh, Jessica are you sure you gave me a lab? Luna just won’t shut up! *chuckles* this is the first lab I’ve ever met that loves and I do mean *loves* to talk, and she does it just the right times to.

Carleton University:
The first time I took Luna to campus it was just a quick show her where my classes are and make sure I showed her the right paths we had to go down to get to the doors we needed and into the tunnels. I have to say that showing her just once she completely blew my mind by getting it *absolutely* correct the next time we did it. She didn’t hesitate, she didn’t look at me funny when I forgot to give her a treat at one spot because I was too proud of her for not taking us off the wrong direction that it took me a while to realize *whoops* forgot to treat her there.

The first walk she was a bit nervous on going even half our speed because of all the people. Way more than the college we practiced at at Leader, but maybe like that horrible mall we went to near the end. However after she realized that they weren’t going to move for her and just kept jumping in our way, she just runs them over hahaha, but shhhh don’t tell!

Tuesday wwas actually suppose to be our first full day at Carleton, but for whatever reason that day luna just didn’t want to be at school and I really should have taken my cue from her since our morning class that day was a movie and was completely *boring*

So we ditched the second class and came home, lol.

Again, Luna moves around Carleton likes she’s been doing it with me from the beginning. No challenge for her. What a trooper!

Shout Sister Choir:
Luna is now our *new* Shout Sister puppy and everyone absolutely loves her! I took her to practice with me on Thursday October 16th and just like home and school she laid on the floor and didn’t move one bit. Well, until someone dropped their water ball on her head, *whoops*

I was told she gave the person a dirty looked, whimpered and then moved to the other side of me, hahahahahah!

With Shout Sister Choir you don’t have to stay in one section all the time. You can sing high for one song if you like and then some other song maybe sing in the low section. It’s pretty cool…and we don’t sing boring songs either, just saying! So, the reason I brought this up is because we got to a song where there’s lots of section changes, people going here and over there. I pretty much stay in lead except for one song, which we’re not doing right now, but ah well. Luna however decides that she wants to get up and move to another section *snickers* Think she was trying for the high section. Then again maybe she just wanted further away from the person that dropped the bottle on her head. She kept giving her looks. Bad news for her was she couldn’t go far, she was attached to my belt loop.

We decided that since Luna is a black lab and during shows we wear all black, she definitely needs a shirt to stand out. I mean, how can she be the hit of the show if you can’t see she’s there? hmph!

We had our first show this past Thursday and I’ll write about that in another post. It definitely had an amusing moment.

distractions:
Ah, now Luna and distractions. Definitely have to take a step back and work on those, but not as far as working goes. No no, her distraction now is when she’s not working and we’re doing obedience and she knows her toys are around someplace. Lots of *grumbling* on her part, but I don’t listen, ha!

As for squirrels. She’s seen those a few times as well both in and out of harness. She’s not pulling my arm off like I must have those now now now, but for sure holds her attention. What I found works so far is I just stop and stand there and let her look at them. eventually she gets bored and no longer excited. I only do this at home of course because I no the little buggers are there and it’s not all the time. I only do it when she’s overly excited and my guess is there’s more than one or two nearby. Other times she ignores them and up to the house we fly!

Working on squirrels at home as I said is great because I know they are there and I can take the time to stand there and correct her if she pulls for them or stand there and treat her if she stays still and most certainly when I can get her to focus on me and not them and we can go inside.

I believe there’s squirrels around my college campus as well, but since I’m not always near the area where they are it’s hard to test to see if my method is working. *sighs*

What’s next on our list? Luna and I will be heading to Toronto on Wednesday. First greyhound trip. Lets see how this goes.

fall courses at Carleton

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*whew* my fall will be a busy one. I picked a couple of courses that hold interest for me hoping that it wouldn’t be too heavy to do with the fact that I also will be away for the month of September getting my new furry pal. What’s great about Carleton University is the fact you can pick courses that have a video component, meaning I can watch the class later. So for the fall I’m definitely going to have to pull out that self discipline and make sure I don’t blow off my school work. Loads of procrastination opportunities here.

So, on to what I have for courses.

My first course is Mystery of the Mind how we learn and how thinking is rational are some of the topics.

Now, I definitely am looking forward to this course for several reasons and the first one being…8understanding my own mind* There’s too many of me in my own head and rational thought is definitely a chore at times. The second important reason is that one of the topics discusses learning disabilities and how Cognitive Science can help me through school. *definitely* a good thing because school is a challenge for me and I’m finding that the Universituy level is even more so.

One of the challenges already with this course has to do with a reading assignment. I have to find accessible versions of some selected books and the only ones I’m finding that I can look at on the computer are for Ibooks…*sighs* not the most accessible. Headache inducing and I’ll probably have to drink a lot after fighting with it.

My second course is Social Work and Social Welfare and the reason I picked this course is more in line with hopefully it will be of use in the field I’m hoping to one day get to, working with children with disabilities. This one I believe will be my toughest course. It’s a little heavier than I would have liked, but it’s also the only one that caught my interest, can help me in the long run and has the video component.

September will bring on loads of work with juggling training with new dog and school work, but I never sleep anyways so it’s all good. In a couple of weeks the fun begins!

My summer experience at Carleton University

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Well, today ended my first summer at Carleton University

My first class was Childhood in the Global Context and did not go as well. The instructor was not a great teacher in my opinion or from the opinions of many in my class. She may have knowledge of her subject, but teaching and getting students to understand needs work. She definitely lost points with me when she ignored the fact that I was blind and didn’t make any effort to make sure I even remotely understood the corse content. Her and her assistant constantly addressed those that were visual learners.

So, before the class was even halfway over I didn’t wish to be in the class any longer which was too bad since the topics looked interesting if taught better. I was seriously thinking that attending Carleton was a very bad move on my part.

Then came my second class Ottawa, Exploring National Institutions. After the horrible experience of my first class I didn’t go in thinking things would go well either.

The class definitely had lots of visual aspects, but still turned out to be a pretty good class. I’m not one that goes for government and politics and all that, but I love history so I really did come away from this class knowing more than when I went in. The best thing was my instructor for this class also had a disability and taught the class a more like a conversational class. He stated that he wanted to try and teach us in a way that would interest us and not be boring.

He was also more willing to work with me when it came to exam time since our ADD symptoms are pretty close. He didn’t give me a different exam, but gave me an oral one. It was no different from the other students and he didn’t give any more than what he may have done for the rest of the class. Well, except for the fact we had Starbucks first, *smiles*

Now don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like summer classes. They are definitely too intense for me and doesn’t give room for if something goes wrong or if disability services fall behind, go on vacation or anything like that. So now to the fall and what they may bring.

One month to go!

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Time flies when you’re having fun, so it you don’t mind time…go just a bit faster!!!

Yesterday was suppose to be my last day for my summer class at Carleton University but noooo, I had to miss it thanks to some pissed off skunks, yes you heard me, skunks under our porch! I don’t think it would have been cool going to class smelling like a skunk or 3, do you? The smell in the house alone was horrible and has lasted for hours. Seriously, I know I always joked about wanting a pet skunk, but *whew* this is over kill…or more like over stinky!

So, except for the final I have to do on Monday I’m all done with school until September. I’ll have exactly 1 week of classes and then I’m off to the most exciting part of getting my new furry friend from Leader Dogs So if you haven’t subscribe to my blog yet via email, then get to it if you don’t want to miss any and all updates I make regarding my experience with a new school, getting my new puppy and so much more! September will be the month that gets the most post. Unlike when I got my awesome golden Noah, I have a blog this time to put down just about everything. So, subscribe now!

cane under train in one month!

Where did July go?

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Wow, July is already nearing its end. Where the heck did it go?

Well, it’s definitely been a fun and exciting month for me to say the least. Lets give a quick update shall we.

My second class started at Carleton University on July 7th and this time the instructor is pretty good and actually makes sure that he’s meeting my accommodations and listening to me when I make suggestions. The class this time is Ottawa, Exploring national Institutions and my favourite part is the field trips. No sitting in class every class for 3 long hours, *whew* But as I said, July is nearly over which means so is this class. I’m all done with it on August 13th.

Now, the more exciting news of the month!!! I will finally be able to throw my cane under a train! Yes, on September 14, 2014 I will be going to Michigan to get my new Leader Dog I’m soooooo excited! *dances for joy*

I started the application process with them on June 23, 2014 and by July 15, 2014 I got the call I had been waiting for. We have a dog for you!!!

I will be gone from September 14th to October 9th. This means school wise I’ll pick my secondary courses that allows me to have the video on demand part so this time around my time will be sort of split. I have to keep up with school plus give all sorts of attention to my new furry friend. As long as I didn’t have to do cane and snow, I’m perfectly fine with this arrangement, *bounces up and down*

Needless to say I am already counting down the days. As of today I have 50 days to go. Someone make them go quicker please!! So, the guide dog journey has come to an end, but make sure to keep watch to the LD training journals. Those will have all sorts of things in them I’m sure.

cane under train in 50 days

guide dog application update

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Well, it’s been a while since I’ve given a guide dog application update. I’ve been trying to wait on making this post until I heard something from Guide Dogs for the Blind but they seem to be taking their time.

So, when I first started this process I was still trying to get over the illness and death of my super boy Noah so only applied to one school, GDB. However, months have gone by and I’ve opened up the playing field and I also have applications going with a few other schools and each is at various stages.

Sadly, it looks like I won’t get the best time I wanted of August for a dog, but of course that was wishful thinking on my part. I just hope I get one before it starts to snow again. *grumbles* cane travel and snow is a royal pain in the ass!
So, I’m still in the waiting stage and juggling what courses to pick for my fall term at Carleton University that I can also do online whenever that call comes to say, “we have a dog for you.”

Will update more when I know more.

Review of my first class at Carleton University

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Well, as of Wednesday I finished my first University course at Carleton. I wrote a few times that I was looking forward to starting this course and that it looked very interesting and the instructor seemed very nice and helpful.

*whoops*

Wrong! The first week of class was the only good thing about the whole class. After that it all went down hill.

1. Before class started she seemed very helpful and willing to make sure that I had everything I needed to be successful in her class.
Well, that definitely fell flat. She didn’t honour my accommodations, for example, making sure I had the material ahead of time for class ust in case I needed the transcription department to put them in a format the worked for me. Instead she posted the slides up at the least right when she entered the class room. At the most maybe half a hour before class started.

2. She asked the class to give feed back on how class could be better and hold everyone’s attention.
Whoops, she didn’t really pay attention to those either. The class liked having a little lecture then a little group work. you know split up the 3 hour long class of just sitting there listening to her go on and on and on. Nope, instead she took out the group work and kept it straight lecture.
She was also reminded to not speak in all visual terms since she had a “blind” student at the very least in her class and pointing at things on the board saying, “you see this line here connects these two groups” is not very helpful. *sighs* in one ear and out the other. That made it very hard during one of the test where all the questions had to do with material that she only discussed visually. When it was pointed out after the exam I was ignored. Lovely for an instructor to do eh?

3. Speaking of ignoring a situation. My instructor assigned the class to listen to a podcast and answer some questions. Awesome, no big deal I thought at first. Come to find out that CBC is not as easy to manipulate when it comes to speech. There are some things that speech won’t tell you is on the screen. When I pointed out to the instructor that I was having problems with the podcast such as that I couldn’t pause, rewind or fast forward it, this was her response:

“Oh, the rest of the class didn’t have this problem. Maybe it’s cause you have to listen to it?”

Um, someone please explain to me how that statement makes sense.

*duh* of course I have to listen to it just like the rest of the class.

Great, the rest of the class didn’t say they had a problem with the podcast so just ignore what I tell you thanks a lot.

So after being ignored twice in two very important cases my confidence in this instructor and my willingness to want to go to this class seriously fell. How can you want to help a student when you ignore issues they tell you they are having just because the rest of the class didn’t tell you they had a problem? How is it helping a student by penalizing them on an exam when all the questions have to do with material that you discussed visually and then ignored when they asked to speak with you about the issue.

So, my first class, Childhood in the Global Context at Carleton didn’t go as I hoped it would. I most likely will take this class again, but maybe in the winter term. The course itself seems very interesting and I feel I could actually learn a lot from it if the instructor was willing to actually honour disability accommodations and not ignore the students. The instructor will also be different and it’s not so intense like summer classes. Not to mention this program, “Child Studies” is the program that I’ve been looking for like forever. It could finally get me going in the direction I want, working with children with disabilities.

I won’t let this colour my thoughts on my next class which starts on July 7th, but I do hope it goes much better than the one I just finished. He’s been helpful just like my last instructor and see where that got me, *sighs*