Pumas and Pinafores

This evening Jules and Alex settled down in their cozy apartment for an evening of Christmas movies.  All week we have watched our favorite Christmas movies and tonight's selection was Little Women.  We had the normal Little Women arguments about why Laurie and Jo are supposed to end up together and how boring Prof. Bhaer is since he is into philosophy (and since Jo is marry Prof. Bhaer people will be forever spelling her last name wrong).  Jules and Alex tend to argue a lot while watching movies in an attempt to rile one another up. 
However, midway through the movie our interests were diverted to another topic altogether.  Jules turned to Alex and simply stated: Last weekend I watched YouTube clips of mountain lions in Nebraska.  Jules is forever surprising Alex with her comments out of the blue such as this one.  Alex's first question was what in the world possessed you to research the mountain lion population in Nebraska?  As it turns out mountain lions have been the subject conversations with co-workers, books we have been reading, and discussions at the family Thanksgiving gathering.  We proceeded to stop Little Women (after all mountain lions are more exciting than fine society) and watch a few videos about mountain lions including how to find mountain lion scat and analyze it. 
We also read about the confirmed sightings of mountain lions in Missouri over the past 20 years and what to do if you see a mountain lion.  Just FYI if you see a mountain lion: Back away slowly (don't run) and remain calm (yeah right). Make yourself look bigger and grab any small children so they don't get eaten as a quick appetizer.  If it is aggressive then throw rocks or sticks at it (without crouching down or turning your back so you still look big-- how does this work?  In my experience rocks and sticks are usually on the ground and I'm not sure how to get something off the ground without crouching unless I carry a supply of rocks and sticks in my pockets.) Fight back if it attacks-- it may back away once it has seen that you are armed with sticks, garden tools, or your bare hands.  If these tips fail you, don't worry.  Mountain lions are known to kill their prey quickly and efficiently so it won't be that bad...for long.  If you do happen to survive you are to contact the Mountain Lion Response Team.  (This sounds like something that would be cool to put on a resume... Essential member of mountain lion response team dealing with "reported" sightings or tracks that turn out to be Felis catus- aka the house cat). 
Now while this information may seem completely irrelevant to two city dwellers such as ourselves, mountain lions have actually made the newspaper recently in Alex's hometown--actually it has been some of the only news.  A few months ago video footage of a mountain lion was captured on a wildlife camera about three miles out of town.  There have been rumors about mountain lions in the area for years but this was some of the first video evidence that the Kansas Department of Wildlife has confirmed.  As Alex goes home for Christmas break it might actually come in handy knowing how to deal with mountain lion encounters.  
Needless to say, we will probably never watch Little Women again without thinking about mountain lions.

Mountain Lion Scat

Preschool meets Grad School

As I envisioned my final semester of grad school in the past, I always thought I would spend my time doing in-depth study, writing and presenting a capstone research paper, and searching for a job after graduation.  This is how most of my semester looked with an interesting twist-- I spent a lot of time at preschool.  One of my classes this semester was Pediatric physical therapy (I am actually sitting in a lecture for this class as I write this-- I have hit my peak as a multi-tasker in grad school).  For our lab in class we spent 2 hours a week helping at an early headstart program in KC's inner city.  I worked in a classroom for kids between the ages of 1 and 2.  From a physical therapy standpoint I worked with kids learning to walk and climb stairs, jumping, throwing, and kicking.  I also spent time wiping kids' noses, making sure they didn't eat woodchips on the playground, and comforting crying kids.  I almost needed to do PT on myself from kids running into my knees to hug me causing some knee hyper-extension and a sore back from lifting kids up so they could put a basketball in the hoop.  There was also the day we went after they had to evacuate the building the day before because of a bomb threat--that was interesting.  During the semester I acted like an elephant, tried to explain to 2 year olds during a water sensory play activity that if a cup has holes in it water will pour out the bottom (this explanation didn't go well), ate goldfish crackers, and blew bubbles.  Our kids were really cute and fun to play with and definitely a little different from working in a training room with college football athletes-- oh the places my career has taken me.
So after my classwork this semester has included making two collages from magazine pictures and using colored pipe cleaners and googly eyes on a project called "Harry the Hungry Monster", I think it is about time for me to be finished with grad school. So after my last class this week (hopefully forever after 7 years of school), I will be off to finish clinical internships and hopefully find a job.