Getting back in the grad school groove

Well now that the blizzard has come and gone, we are back in the groove of classes again. The Capstone groups are working their project's by setting deadlines, meeting with their mentors, and balancing their capstone work with the other classes. Today we had our first Med Con II test, and the full time students have had their Kinesiology test with their movement lab checkouts coming up soon. Each week in my planner has been slammed full thus far- which is good and bad, but I am sure the whole class's planners are similarly slammed full.

The picture (left) is on Rockhurst's campus right outside of Van Ackeren (where PT/OT faculty's offices are). Since the snowman doesn't have legs- how do you think he got up on the bench? discuss.



Since we had a day off classes- during the snowmageddon- I decided to enjoy the lovely weather by reading, what else...but my Willard & Spackman book (on the back deck). (it's kind of a big deal in the RU OT curriculum)




OTS thoughts: Since I am not a qualified and registered Occupational Therapist or licensed (OTR/L), I thought I would change this section to OTS (OT student) thoughts. This is to both give credit where credit is due and also to show that my expertise is only to the extent of education that I have completed thus far.

My occupational balance has thus far in the semester has been doing pretty well. I have been exercising more, studying more, eating well, and getting more hours of sleep per night. My next post will hopefully include how I believe that 'shoveling snow' is an occupation- to show some of my facebook friends that live in warmer climates that we don't exactly get a 'day off' when a blizzard hits the midwest.

Christmas Break 2010 ending

Winter Park, CO-

To finish off Christmas Break, my fiance's family and myself went into the mountains for a few days (Denver, CO- Winter Park). The picture (left) is my last run for the day before we started heading back to Kansas. I only went up for a day because I got some kind of 24 hr flu or altitude sickness, but it was fun nonetheless. I took this opportunity to enjoy Mother Nature's beauty, think about my plans for the new semester and enjoy the snow since KC has been lacking all winter in this department.


Personal Review: Winter Park is a nice ski town- we went on priceline to get a hotel which saved some money (not to mention paid for breakfast as it was included). The girls did some shopping and we tried an Indian restaurant at the strip mall right off the main drag.


OT Thoughts: There were some people talking on the lifts about 'people with disabilities that were skiing'. Several skiers were talking about how a'guide' would tell blind skiers when to turn and others were talking about some of the adaptive skis the skiers used (there was a part of the mountain designated the week before, I believe, for adaptive skiing). (Here is an article on what the one experience is from a blind skiier- not from this particular ski resort.) Even though I have not experienced much adaptive skiing (except via youtube) I find these individuals pretty amazing to continue practicing this hobby. As a future OT, I think its pretty awesome that technology has advanced and that people are still living life to the fullest while participating in such hobbies like skiing. I know that Rockhurst has been in contact with Snow Creek (Weston, MO) for opportunities to volunteer to help in some camps similar to the ones offered in Colorado. For this opportunity or other opportunities you can contact the NSCD.org.