:O jobs

A LOT going on in the world of job hunts! Two great possibilities with lots of pros and cons. Can't really post about it as both are in works and I need to be very careful, but know that things are going on actively behind the scenes and I'll be updating soon once I can say more! 

Thanks all for the awesome job support and blog support and sweet support in general!!! 

job apps, job apps

I don't have a ton to share right now besides that I'm doing job applications! I am having to not be quite as picky!! I don't want to write anything about future interviews, I'm too scared! 

Lester is lazing on his back and he is SO CUTE...it hurts he is so cute.

And I'm finally working on responding to emails....yay! 

Interesting article in Canadian Journal of OT...

This abstract from the Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy is pretty interesting, appears to be very much in line with some of the issues my "gimp" (their word!!!) friends talk about. 

Self-care, productivity, and leisure, or dimensions of occupational experience? Rethinking occupational "categories"
Karen Whalley Hammell
Background. Critics contend that occupational therapy's theories of occupation are culturally specific, class-bound, and ableist, and that the division of all occupations into three simplistic categories of self-care, productivity, and leisure is arbitrary, lacks supportive evidence, and promotes a doctrine of individualism. Purpose. To add to the work of critics who advocate a fundamental rethinking of occupational therapy's conceptualizations of occupation in terms of subjective qualities of experience that address intrinsic needs.  Key issues. This paper suggests that if categories of occupation were informed by the ways in which people experience their occupations, these might be labelled as restorative, as ways to connect and contribute, as engagement in doing, and as ways to connect the past and present to a hopeful future. Implications. If occupational therapists enabled diverse clients' perspectives to inform occupational categories, perhaps relationships between occupations and well-being might more easily be identified in theory and addressed in practice.

san diego

I am in San Diego visiting family, basically a big reunion since almost all members flew in for my aunt Cathy's wedding. Very fun. Have been enjoying the wonderful family, food, weather, and working on statistically enhancing the probability of future skin cancer by getting burnt to a crisp on the beach....it's nice to be just a few minutes away from a beach!! 

Tomorrow is my sister's last day here... :( It's almost 11pm and I'm tired! 

Hey, so I found out several of my cousins are quietly obsessed with Lester. That made me really happy.

One of them, a male cousin, sent in an email on Lester to his work on their silly email day or whatever, and he totally won silliest mail of the day....another one has watched like ALL of his videos....another quietly stalks him on Facebook...

I am happy to know he has many silent admirers! 

I really miss my baby Lester with his big giant eyeballs and snorty inverted nose!! Glad I have dedicated admirers devoted to the social cause of keeping him company while I'm gone!

I keep getting asked about jobs right now, the ubiquitous "so now what..."....well I have an interview next Friday that I'm figuring out logistics for, and then we'll go from there! 

And....I've been responding to emails...Gmail has an offline mail feature so that I can read old mails, respond, and it gets sent when I get online...so...on the 4 hour plane ride I can hopefully whip out a ton!! 

So....yeah. Hope all is well in OT world....it's summer so it's quiet for school and work! I need to think about how to handle the transition of this blog from student to practitioner. Maybe I should stop blogging. Or maybe I should close this one off and start a new one that isn't a student one. Or who knows.

Love,

Karen, recent OTR/L!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mail mail mail

230 emails to go through! A lot of those are blog comments I've received over the last few months and want to deal with! :) (All positive ones...which I appreciate...thank you)

Lots of errands to run!

I hope life gets easier sometime soon!

Yeah right!

Lester says hi. Really he is just snoring, but I'll attribute the greetings sentiment to him anyway. 

I've been up since 3amish....it's almst 6am now. I guess I'll try to sleep again! 

am i still alive?

was a comment. Yep, still alive. Busy. More soon!!

Goals schmoals!

I am a creature of habit and routine. I can thrive in a properly scheduled environment. However, a key element is that the scheduled environment has to be mandatory. Right now, I have a lot to do, but am having trouble with motivation. I'm struggling with the disappointment of discovering a magical job isn't going to land in my lap! I know that was an unrealistic expectation but I sure did have it! 

I've been thinking about my own "emotional intelligence" and how I pick up on social cues. I think I'm a relatively astute observer of body language & cues when watching an interaction, but when I am WITHIN the interaction, I am not always as good. MOSTLY because I ALWAYS have good intentions when I say things and so it would never occur to me that someone would take something I say in a mean or poor way. I guess I need to be more careful about what I say because even if I have good intentions, people don't always take it that way. And we all know the saying that good intentions pave the way to hell! That saying bothers me...  I think the vast majority of people "get" me in real life and so I don't mean to make it sound like I am bad at basic social cues. I think I do better than a lot of people....but still could benefit from some more analysis!! 

Last night I met up with a former fieldwork supervisor, at Cafe Eclectic in Midtown. Great company....Yummy food, yummy ice cream especially...my heart is in ice cream, always. It was nice seeing her and catching up. I really liked all of my fieldwork supervisors. Today I have some small goals, but goals nonetheless...including checking up on job applications and such. And I feel very guilty for how far behind I am on responding to emails and facebook messages. Gotta work on that too huh!