WHERE DID MY BLOG MOJO GO?!

I still haven't done my three product reviews even though I keep it all next to me in my room so I am constantly staring at it, and I like them all, and I haven't blogged about the OTAC conference, etc etc….and I have over a hundred blog emails or comments to respond to. Wow. Yikes. FORGIVE ME :::flings self to floor::: I am in the midst of ten thousand evaluations with a lot of late night report writing …….is that a good excuse? I have two reports I am going to try to write up tonight so that I am not up so late on the week days….plus I've had several parents request a lot of information about certain interventions so need to gather that up, plus score a DTVP-2, etc etc…….blah blah blah. My cats are not impressed.

I'm going to go shower then come back and start working on reports/paper work…..I THINK I CAN I THINK I CAN….must….stay…positive…. 🙂

love it

My coworkers at this particular school (I am here every Thursday), brought me pastries last Thursday to celebrate my birthday (which was over fall break), but I was sick. So they brought cookies today (M&M chocolate chip cookies, homemade), and they had my kids sing “Happy Birthday, Miss Awesome” to me and then we all got cookies….soo sooo soo sweet! Loved it! Love my job, love my co-workers.

PS: Yesterday was FREAKING INSANE schedule wise! I am so tired. I want to go into more depth later. But just wanted to send a quick YAY for now 😉

augh

tomorrow:

School 1: Self-regulation seminar, 5 kids. Then see another kid, 45 minutes.
Bolt to School 2: Evaluate a kid for an hour
Bolt to school 3: IEP meeting (a big one)
Bolt back to school 1: IEP meeting

busy day tomorrow!! lots of running around!

Got some big reports to work on tonight! Yikes! Feel like I am back in school doing homework! Alas it's the real world, no extensions. :O

weighted blanket….

I just got a THIRTY POUND weighted blanket!!! 🙂 From my friend Paloma for my birthday a few weeks ago!! (I'm 29, ooooh, old). I am VERY excited! It feels good!

Hmm

A little boy told me today, “I get speech, and I go to reading in the resource center, and I see you. That means I do three sports at my school!” After a moment's reflection he asked me, “Is that what these are? Sports?” I said “It depends on who you ask!” He said “Is this my school job?” I said “yes, that's a great way of putting it.” He asked “can I be paid?” I said “nobody gets paid in school!” and that was the end of THAT topic but I thought it was a great perspective.

A few minutes later, he asked me if the people on the bottom of the world (he was looking at a globe) were upside down. I thought that was an awesome question. 🙂

yikes – OT chaos

I had so many good intentions. I have so much to write about the OTAC conference, and the classes I took, and OT4OT, etc etc, and catching up on my 100+ blog comments/emails, but noooo…I continue to suck. 🙂 Here is a screenshot of what my box looks like!!!! But I SHALL CATCH UP EVENTUALLY! I always do. You should see my floor – SO MUCH FILING!!! I accumulate awesome resources. Then they go into piles. Then they add up. Then I never use any of them because I have too many.

I like to think of myself as organized, but once I get overwhelmed that goes out the window for a while. So……still my ultimate goal to get it under control. Especially because I need to work on a few reports etc before back to work on Monday.

Anyway…….more later 😉

Join us NOW

http://ot4ot.com/world-ot-day-2011/

We are in the start of OT4OT's big day!!! Join us!

OT4OT party time :)

It's fitting that a recent OT Practice magazine was all about international work. I've observed OT in Colombia (for several months) and also in Norway. I've been in a lot of touch with the OTs in New Zealand, Canada, and the UK over the years. I get e-mails all the time from blog readers in foreign countries who want to touch base. In some countries OT is more understood – like in Norway, where everyone I knew made comments like “Ooh, this would be good to use in OT”….I was shocked so many people knew what it was and what we do. It was lovely. And it was great to see OTs working in Colombia who had limited resources as part of being in a 3rd world country, but still did a fabulous job of providing high quality care.

One of my long-term goals will be to go do OT in a Spanish-speaking country for a while, to get immersed and learn Spanish better (don't worry, School Steps – not planning for a long time ;)). And I know there are many therapists who do missions in other countries. I feel like OT most definitely has a global identity and it's fascinating to learn about how it works in other countries, from insurance to relationships to resource access. For example, in the USA we learn how to out-source, for example for custom burn garments. Because we can. But in countries like South Africa, the OTs learn to sew custom garments themselves, because they don't have outsourcing possibilities. That's amazing to me!

I don't have any major enlightening thoughts on this subject besides I am so glad that there is an OT4OT helping to further the profession of OT in a very Centennial Vision kind of way. 🙂 Hopefully I can attend some of the sessions being held tomorrow!

http://ot4ot.com/world-ot-day-2011/

ouch!

I got this lovely gem in my box. I stand corrected. I wrote that list during one of my first semesters in OT school and I never noticed my mistake, nor has anyone else ever pointed it out. I'll edit it to correct it, but I've got to say the tone of this correction kind of stung!

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post “Top Ten Ways to Impress your Occupational Therapy …“:

It's Case-Smith, not Case & Smith. Dr. Jane Case-Smith is an OT professor and researcher from the Ohio State University. If you're going to leave feedback for future students, at least leave correct information.

My birthday weekend!

I turned 29 this past Friday the 21st. I'm old, yo. 🙂 Having lots of small celebrations with family/friends this weekend. Tonight we had delicious Thai food in Pacific Beach. 🙂 I got a Sonic Care toothbrush I've been wanting from my mom, and a Wusthof serrated paring knive I've been wanting from my dad. I also got some neat gift baskets/presents/cash plus a beautiful purse and some OT toys! My gift to myself was going to be a 21 pound weighted blanket, but my friend Paloma pre-emptively bought me a THIRTY POUND (??????) one, so I cancelled my order. We'll see how 30 pounds is, I'm a little skeptical as that doesn't fit the typical rule of thumb based on weight. (Weighted blankets can be dangerous – use carefully only with able-bodied and cognitively intact people!) Oh wait, cognitively intact? That takes me out of the running… 😉

Tonight my friend Paloma helped me organize my toys (again). I need to get a better system in place during the week so they don't get so disorganized. I like to have LOTS of options with me.

I have a few pictures to put up from conference, plus SO MANY random topics I want to discuss that I jotted down during the various sessions. Technically I have NO excuse that I haven't been working on it this past week. Just failed. NOT COOL! So gear yourselves up for a blogging blizzard one of these days soon.

By the way, I was talking to an OT who is stressed out with her job and therefore kind of burnt out on OT. She wanted to know how I mantained my passion and enthusiasm for OT and I explained to her that my love for OT is separate from my job – no matter how bad a day or stressed I am from my job as an OT, in THEORY I LOVE LOVE LOVE the field of occupational therapy and what it STANDS for and what it supposed to be like. I realize that no one, least of all me, ever meets OT perfection, but I am passionate about our foundational beliefs. Every day, in every way, I am an OT. It affects how I see the world. Every single neuron of mine has a tiny little OT bubble in it along for the ride. I cannot separate being an OT from being human. I adore it with every ounce of my being. Even at the worst of times.

Ideally, obviously, you have an OT job that rocks so that you don't have trouble keeping up your momentum….but even if you do have that trouble with a difficult job, try and remember the OT values, even if they seem fuzzy at the moment.

That was kind of a random side note. It popped into my head.

Tomorrow two OTs are coming over so we can work on a presentation coming up. They are coming to my house and I can show them some of my toys, I am excited…

My goals for next week include writing up two and a half initial OT evals, preparing for three or four others, continuing to organize toys, clean my car of crazy toys (vision tubes, shoes for lacing, random board game pieces, dry erase board, etc), and dealing with ridiculous amounts of paperwork. 🙂 Procrastination is a bad thing.

The pictures: I need to try to get back to using more pics. I have thousands of OT pics on Facebook from like five years ago if people want to be my FB friend and go look at old albums (just tell me who you are when you request friendship, ie you are a blog reader). One is a LOLcat that I thought was amusing from an OT standpoint, and one is the pumpkin my talented friend Kerri carved a few years ago!

I think it would be very neat if people would take pictures of “OT” more often in various states such as sand, glass, tile, whatever…..do something creative. If you submit it I'll happily post it. My e-mail address is in the sidebar in the About Me section.

Okay I'll stop now. My friend Paloma is here reading Mommie Dearest (NOOO. WIRRREEE. HANGGGAAAARSSSS!) and I am playing online like a bad girl.