Conclave shout-outs to my fellow OT peeps…I'm so 2000.

Multiple posts about Conclave coming up:

First…some shout-outs to fellow OT students I met at conference, in no particular order…..not that they will probably ever see this, but I can at least pretend to be popular, right? Seeing as how I DID give them an amazing business card with this blog address.

Carolyn from Madison, WI! Enjoyed the Hard Rock Cafe and getting to know you! I forget your classmate’s name since she didn’t write it down but she rocked too!

Shannon from UAB – fun meeting you and your classmate Karen at the shuttle/airport!

Meghan D., Kim D., Erin H.,and all the other powerhouses at Wash U…sorry I am bad with names and can only remember people who wrote down their info! You guys are really impressive and fun! Thanks for having me along for the bizarre downtown experience!

Sarah C. and her classmates from Ohio State – you guys were really nice!

Finally, a shout-out to the cool NWA flight agents, and the coolest passenger ever, Denise….while we spent our 10 hours in the airport due to a delayed flight! Denise had a dead person on her flight one time! (I thought I was going to win best airline horror story but she did!!)

Okay…I’ve sifted through the contact info I got..now I’m going to do a post with some tips I learned from various sessions.

My OT blog goals for the night.

So…it is 11pm and I should go to bed. Or at least be working on my professional development evaluations to prove to the world I am altruistic, show empathy, have pride in OT, etc…instead I’ve decided to do a mini blog blitz.

Here are my blog goals to complete in the next 20 minutes or ELSE:

1) Update conclave FINALLY (and put up a fresh link)
2) Write a quick OT identity post
3) Link rehab consumer vs occupational therapist discussion that went on a while back
4) Talk about Advance OT as a great website!
5) Cry hysterically since I won’t be able to do this in 20 minutes.

Let’s put this in goal format:

Karen will create and type five four posts, each consisting of 1-10 sentences, within 20 minutes, and post it to Blogger, independently.

Brevity is the soul of occupational therapy wit.

I am going cross-eyed! I've been cleaning out my UT school mailbox for like an hour now! My brain wants to keep going but my cranial nerves/eye muscles are raging against the machine.

Tonight I plan to work on my professional development evaluations (PDEs), practice not crying when criticized in preparation for the PDEs (just kidding), review neuro for the neuro final, and finish cleaning out my school email box and finish updating my blog with more accurate and up to date information about Conclave, SI, a few other things.

I'm also working on brevity. See how good I'm doing?

Muffins for OT…Treatment projects….rain….did I mention OT….

The pictures above are completely random ones from StumbleUpon. To match this random post….which does talk about OT, I promise 🙂

It is rainy and dreary outside. OTS Brooke came over in the morning before she went to work to dig through my five boxes of bizarre art-related items, and found a bunch of items she could use for “sensory” stuff. Then I reread a book by David Sedaris (he coulda used some OT as a child!). Then I made carrot-pumpkin muffins and they are the most amazing things ever. I'll even tell you about them. You take a box of carrot cake mix (or devil's food chocolate mix or probably any cake mix really), and mix it with one normal can of plain pumpkin (I guess they are around 16 oz-ish?), and 1/4 cup of water. Add in some more cinnamon/nutmeg as you want. No oil, no eggs…ie disregard the back of the cake mix instructions. Put it in cupcake holder cups in a cupcake pan. Take a knife, wet it with water, and smooth down the peaks of the cupcake batter (or the peaks will burn). I like to call them Heidi muffins because it looks like the Swiss Alps before you pat down the peaks. Get it? I'm so hilarious. Bake at 350 for about 20 mins, but keep an eye on them so they don't dry out. This recipe came off Dotti's Weight Loss Zone site. She is a Weight Watchers devotee.  It's one of my favorite recipes because it is easy and relatively healthy. And you can't taste the pumpkin. You only have to mention it so people who are allergic don't die.

OTS Kerri, her husband Brent, and I, made these last night at her house using a reduced sugar devil's food chocolate cake mix, and we added in chocolate chips. SO GOOD. It gave me inspiration for today. I'm eating my carrot-pumpkin muffin right now with margarine and Splenda (I taunt you, cancer) and it is SO good.

Watch me cleverly tie this back into OT….because all you really need is pumpkin, a few muffin tins, a few utensils, and cake mix (well and access to a kitchen for the oven)….it would be a great mildly healthy cooking activity with a patient….pretty straight forward since you only have a few ingredients, don't really need to measure, and don't need messy oil or perishable items. And you can eat some dough without getting salmonella.  The hardest part, because the batter is very thick, would be getting it into the muffin tins properly.

Last night, Kerri & Brent cooked me dinner (yum turkey fajitas), and then I helped Kerri use contact paper to finish her treatment project. Hers is for a young child with tactile defensiveness and it involved lots of textures and some puzzle pieces. She actually BUILT a table for the project! Pretty impressive! I didn't have my camera but we will video doing it! She made me do it and I'm ashamed to say I'm not smarter than a three year old.

Then she helped me with my treatment project by coming up with a cute design for the little game pieces and then helping me make (ok, she made them and I helped) them out of weird clay you bake and it stays bendy!She and I played my game and it was pretty cool. This afternoon I just need to finish making cards and putting contact paper around them as a cheap laminate, to go with my game board….and a few other touches…. I'll take a picture tonight of the final product.

I also need to do an essay on an adaptive activity of daily life that I forgot about….and work on my professional development evaluations…and stuff like that. I already did my dishes, phew….hate that chore most of all! I plan to have a relaxing day just getting my OT projects done!

I've rested a lot since Wednesday, and I've really needed it with all the craziness of grad school!…I'm starting to feel normal again. But I'm so behind on e-mail that what will probably happen is I'll start answering them while I'm in San Diego, home alone without a car while my parents work, the week before Christmas, with nothing else to do! But still send me e-mail because I love it!

This week we have a bunch of projects due…and present our treatment projects….have assessment labs…leadership where OTS Cheryl & I get to present on the Centennial Vision from Conclave….discussion of case studies…a neuro final…etc. But really overall, not nearly as bad a week as it could be.

I guess I'm technically procrastinating from working on my sensory game cards by writing this long post…but I'm so tired of dealing with contact paper I could scream! I'm going to go start though….sigh!

What is in YOUR OT toolbox?

My S.I. board game and other events…

Pictures soon…

Okay, besides putting up a video and updating my Conclave notes (all in a stack next to me),  I don't plan to touch this for a few days. I've been spending a lot of time sleeping (catching up from months of deprivation), some time with friends, and a lot of time working on my treatment project (I'm making a S.I board game) as well as showing I meet criteria for basic professional development (our professional development evaluations, or PDEs, are coming up soon).

I'm kinda proud of my SI/Praxis board game, but I did get some air bubbles on the board when putting on the contact paper. Y'all shoulda seen me. I was crouching on the table using my feet to hold the board down. And then while gluing stuff to the board, I got the bright idea to use spray adhesive…bad idea…my hands, a day later, after being wiped down with alcohol, grease dishwashing liquid, soap, alcohol again…still are covered with fuzzy adhesive. It made working last night tons of fun. 🙂

I plan to put up a picture of the completed board/cards soon!!!!!! Maybe Sunday if I am just so excited I cannot even help myself and may explode like an overfully full Thanksgivingian otherwise.

Cognitive Performance Test – Assessment for OTs

I felt like throwing y’all a Thanksgiving bone! Here are some tests from the Cognitive Performance Test (CPT) – Marla and Patchez did a presentation on it, and because it involved so many props, they wanted it on video so that our Chattanooga students could better see it. They gave me permission to put it up. So here is yet another occupational therapy assessment that can be used…I think this video shows 3 of the possible tasks.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Keep your eyes open for the Thanks&Giving campaign ads going around for St. Jude this week.  It's a wonderful place to work/volunteer/be (although it is unfortunate places like St. Jude have to even exist). I've been there over three years now as a volunteer in Rehab Services now and I really admire them. When I have the opportunity to get a birthday or Christmas present for someone who really doesn't “need” or want any more material items, I donate in their name to St. Jude. I usually do it via their website. Anyway….I might not post in the next few days, but I plan to have several videos up before the weekend ends and I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving.

AOTA/NBCOT Student Conclave…poorest edited movie EVER

This is the most poorly edited video ever, and I need to learn to pan slower, but I was only willing to give this a few minutes of my time, so well, here you go. My favorite is actually the parts from the airport near the end as we were delayed for ten thousand hours. Our NWA gate agents rocked.

Pictures will come – Google Video is working again, but Blogger is fussing at me now. My computer is totally going through a mid-life crisis and I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

Okay. I need to finish working on an ADL reading assignment in preparation for tomorrow’s ADL lab.

I'm home from OT Student Conclave

So I got home at 11:30pm (thanks Cheryl for driving me) instead of 7pm. But I'm not bitter. Okay I am. But it was fun, we all got punch-drunk and made silly photos and stuff. Several of us told airline horror stories and made the gate agent choose her favorite. So with the exception of being ridiculously tired, it wasn't really that bad the last few hours. I hope to have the videos/pics up by tomorrow night.