koolchick73’s blog

What did you learn in kindergarten that you wish you did a better job of applying to the way you live your life today?

Nap time... I absolutely loved nap time when I was in kindergarten and I wish I was better able to apply it to be everyday life. Life would be so much more enjoyable if the adult world allowed everyone a 40min nap during the day... think about how rested you would be and better able to tackle those problems? It would be awesome. Haha

So again it's been awhile since my last post. I have been really busy again with my fieldwork and actually working that by the time I get home I don't feel like doing a whole lot. My weekends are relaxing though and always jam packed with activities. Last weekend I went out to the bar with George, my cousin Daniel and his friend Hannah because George's saturday job won free beer and pizza. That was very entertaining to say the least. We ended up hanging out back at my house afterwards. I ended up working for 10ish hours on saturday so I called into my afternoon family in Saquoit on Sunday so that I could have some time to myself for relaxing. It ended up being a good choice because George and I ended up hanging out with Kevin and Miss Julianne at his parent's house in their pool all afternoon which was really nice... awesome workout too. We ended up making a trip out to Walmart to buy a floating basketball hoop so that we could play water basketball which was a riot and quite a contact sport too haha. We stopped at Burger King on our way back where we all got crowns... wore them out of the store and then all the way home with the windows rolled down. We also decided to blare rock music so that we would get attention... we got some strange looks at a few stop lights in rome and then in Floyd a car full of old ladies started cracking up and waving too us... quite amusing I thought haha.

Then I had another busy week full of fieldwork and work. My first patient went home this week which was exciting... now I have 5 patients though so it's getting better. I hate not having patients because I get so bored. I also recieved an exciting call from my friend Sam M from school who might have a new job for me. She asked UCP about a job that would use our Health Studies degrees and they have a full time job as a Behavioral Specialist which requires a 4 year degree in psycology or a related field... she was willing to put it into a part time job if Sam could find a friend (me). So I won't say too much about that now because I don't have all the details... I'm waiting to hear back from Sam... but I may be getting a WAY better job. Not sure what exactly I would be doing or much about anything but if it requires a 4 year degree it has to pay better then my current position and it is still within UCP and with kids so it's perfect!! Other then that I recieved exciting news that Jules got a job out in Syracuse so she is def staying in NY for awhile so that is awesome!

I worked alot again this weekend but it was ok. Saturday I went to the racetrack with George and my cousin Daniel to cheer him on since he races. That was alot more fun then I thought it would be so I will probably be going back there more often. He came in 4th which is really good. Today I worked all day... I went to Remsen's graduation because one of the girls I work with graduated and I had to keep her sister under control during the ceramony so that her parents could enjoy it. It was really nice and quite a difference to how things would have been if the girl went to HP. Everyone in her class was really nice to her and willing to push her down the aisle in her wheelchair so that she wouldn't have to be different a have an aide there with her. She also got the largest cheer when they called her name and half the audience stood up for her. It was a really nice ceramony with alot of respect for the girl and her family. Quite touching actually haha.

George and I also adopted a new cat... well this one is pretty much a Kitten still... her name is Hera so that we can stick with the Greek god theme. She was a stray up at my in-laws so we kept her. She is rather hyper and very lovely.... Zeus is still unsure about her but the hissing has stopped at each other so thats a good sign. It's cute when they play together though because Zeus, who is rather lazy and not used to much physical activity, gets very winded and needs to lay down when they chase each other. Hera will sit there and look at him until he stands back up and the play resumes. Haha. However, Hera did not enjoy her first vet visit though... it took the vet and three assistants to pin down this tiny 5 lb kitten to give her a rabies shot. She was not happy!

As for this upcoming week... I'm sure it is going to drag. My 1 year anniversary with George is next monday so we are going away for the weekend to celebrate (since I have to work on monday... GRRR). We are heading up to The Edge hotel again on Friday night for a relaxing stay in one of their hot tub rooms... then we are spending Saturday up around Lowville and going to the races with Daniel that evening. No plans for Sunday yet but we hope to lay low and just relax. So needless to say the week is going to go by so slow. Hopefully I will have more time to write though...

So it's been awhile since my last post... things are going better I suppose. I've gotten used to things at Heritage and it's begining to feel more comfortable... I just basically told myself to stop seconded guessing the things that I do and I'll be fine and it's worked alittle. I'm up to 4 patients now but one of them is going home next week... my first patient ever is actually making it back home. Go me! It's exciting at least haha. This week has gone by fast... there have been alot of inservices to go too which change things up a bit and I went on a home evaluation again to get out of the facility for awhile. That was fun... on the home eval my supervisor and the PT Jack were talking about this guy and how he volunteered to go to Vietnam and remove live landmines... and my supervisor wanted to know how you removed a live landmine and then my Gouger sense of humor kicked in and I replied "carefully" Luckily they had a sense of humor too. The inservices have been interesting too... today we had one on fire safety because they changed around all of their fire procedures. So they had this guy from an outside company come in a teach it and at one section he was showing us how to put out someone who was on fire in a wheelchair (because apparently elderly people catch on fire alot when they can't walk...) so he had fire protected clothing and a lap board which he kept lighting on fire for people to put out. He wanted four volunteers and he got three easily and then he was waiting for the fourth so he goes "Alright I'm just going to light myself on fire and someone save me..." And he did! The only problem was was that no one tryed to put him out. Some health professionals we had... he eventually put himself out but it was funny.

I even got a phone call last week from Cora my fieldwork cordinator back at school and I got my last placement at a UCP preschool!!! I'm so excited. I had a choice between preschool or the promise program but I choose the preschool because I figured it was close to Early Intervention where I really want to go and I will get to see more then just autism... all I could picture with the promis program was 10 little childern like the kid I work with in Cold Brook and I couldn't do it haha. I'm wicked excited though. UCP generally hires their interns and I already work for them so hopefully I may be getting a job through this! Fingers crossed! Need to make it through heritage first I supoose.

Other then that it's been quiet... I've been working alot and doing my internship. Yesterday was George's birthday so we went out to dinner and today I got to hang out with Miss Julianne for awhile! I missed her! I'm meeting a new family for UCP Tuesday... they live in Remsen and hopefully I can replace my Sauquoit family with them. I love the little girl I work with out there but it's way too much of a drive and for 4 hours it's not worth it. This kid in Remsen is 16 and severely autistic... he is nonverbal and behavioral so it should be a challange but good experiance for when I'm an OT. We will see how it goes I guess. I've also stopped drinking soda this last week and began watching what I eat... Since I've moved out of my parents house I've gained about 30pounds and I don't see it and my husband claims he didn't notice but I don't like the number on the scale so I'm on a "diet". Mainly I stopped drinking soda and instead of munching on chips all day I'll have a salad or an apple... working so far because I lost 4 pounds in the first week. Go me! Thats it for now though... I'm hungry haha.

If you had to participate in any reality show, which one would it be?

I would participate in The Mole which is hands down my favorite Reality show ever and I am very excited to see it come back starting Monday!!! It had to be on like 6 or 7 years ago and I loved it... I'm hoping that this new season is just as good.

What are the goofy nicknames you have for your pet? Bonus points for sharing a picture of him/her.
Submitted by Papi Chulo.

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Well my Cat's name is Zeus... orginally Scooter but that was a stupid name and he didn't answer to it anyways... above is a picture of my kitty being lazy which is what he likes to do. Well he now answer's to Zeus but all of George's friends and a few of mine have their own names for him and he actually answer's to that name if that person is calling him.

Kalky... the best man in our wedding, named him Leuy and then are other friend Jonathan said he looked like a Melvin... so then they combined it to make Leuy T. Melvin which us a cool name I suppose.

Miss Julianne named him Malcom and then upgraded it to Stinkyman Malcom because of how bad he can stink up the house after using the litter box.

Meghan named him Satan which was then changed to Hades or however you spell the greek god of the underworld. That name has since faded but it was still one of them so it was mentioned.

Other then those George and I just refer to him as Buddy alot but those are his many names.

Onward to my fish now haha... I have a bunch of strange named fish... We have Sir Sucks Alot (A sucker fish), Albino (an albino shark), Frank (A Bala shark which George named... his brother Harry died), Mayo DaWayne (A Catfish of the DaWayne family), Dyslexic DaWayne One and Two (An upside down catfish although I think Sir Sucks Alot ate one of the two) and lastly we had Fairy (A rainbow shark who died a few days ago.) Those are my fishy's names but I can't get pictures of them... only Frank, Mayo and Sir Sucks Alot swim around... the rest hide.

So after the first week of my 12week fieldwork placement I have to say that it isn't terriable. I'm at the Heritage Healthcare center for the summer in the post acute rehab unit. Basically thats where you go if you aren't able to return home after you are discharged from the hospital. Overall I have realized that I don't think I like the setting... although alot of that could be the facility. In a nursing home rehab setting basically you get patients after the hospital, you work with them alittle bit and they end up going back to the hospital and then coming back. The pattern contiunes until they are either admitted into Long Term Care or they die. I think that I prefer to see more progress in the patients then that which is why I loved Faxton so much. I also liked the new patients everyday and the faster paced... it kept things from getting boring.

My first day at Heritage was alittle rough and I was very concerned about the next 12 weeks. My supervisor basically handed me a stack of 12 patient files and told me to get familiar with them so that I knew what was going on with them when they came in. She didn't give me any explanation of the paperwork or nothing she just disappeared... but not before telling me that they don't have any schedule for the patients they just come when they feel like it. So basically you can get all 12 patients at once or none at all.. as a student that is nuts! So the first day was really rough but on day two I had a conversation with my supervisor and asked to be shown the paperwork and everything so it started to go up hill. My main complaint though is that the OT's and PT's practically do the exact same thing which isn't right. I think I have spent more time and learned the most from a Physical Therapy Assistant then any OT. Heritage is also very behind times in technology and ways of treating patients. I think I got spoiled at Faxton... it was so awesome there and now I'm across the street looking at Faxton through the window wishing I was there.

Things also improved when I got my first patient. My supervisor asked me on the second day if I wanted a patient so I figured why not... I was totally bored out of my mind just watching people and they do the same thing with all of their patients regardless of their diagnosis so how hard could it be? I hate the cookbook therapy as it is called but I'm not assertive enough to say anything about it as a student. I just want to pass and move on the the pediatric stuff. My patient is doing good... she should be going home soon haha. She was basically independent in everything when she came in I just think she is here because her husband is here as well. She was a good one to start with because I couldn't hurt her. It's kind of cool having a patient but I really haven't had to do much with it this past week. However, tomorrow I have to start doing alot of paperwork to go along with her.... but it has to be more interesting then sitting there and watching the paperwork being done.

The people there are pretty cool as well. After the first day I've gotten along with my supervisor, Laura, much better. She actually treated one of my kids through UCP so we have common things to talk about and she lives in Floyd so thats cool. There is another OT, Ned, who is alittle wierd but still nice... I'm happy he isn't my supervisor though because he keeps disappearing and saying he doesn't have time to teach. Then there is an OT assistant, Val, which can do anything an OT can do except evaluate patients but that isn't a big deal at heritage. She is alright... she is really good at explaining things too me though especially on my first overwhelming day. The PT's are awesome though... there are two actually PT's Jessica and Garliee, and then two PT assistants Jack who is hilarious and an awesome teacher, and then Alisa who is very nice. If it wasn't for the people this would probably be a nightmare...

Well that is a summary of week one... eleven more to go. :/

So this last week of my summer vacation has gone way too fast for my liking. Tomorrow starts my first day of my 12week internship at Heritage Health Care center and I am so scared. Everyone keeps telling me I will be fine but I don't feel like I know enough to actually treat real patients. By the end of the summer (and hopefully not before) I'm expected to have a full case load of patients and these people are going to be counting on me to get them back to living independently... I'm going to have control over people's futures and that is scary. I was all fine and happy after my first fieldwork because it wasn't that bad at all and then Cora the fieldwork cordinator at the school had to tell me that I had an unusually wierd and nice relationship with my supervisor... great. Now I'm scared again :/ We will see how tomorrow goes.

I do know that I am so not ready to be done with summer and starting work... welcome to the real world I suppose. this last week was alright but it did go by alittle too fast. I had a fun weekend at least. Sunday I had my neice's 2nd birthday party and that was alot of fun. I love kids! She was so cute opening her presents and she had an awesome face when she opened ours... her mouth dropped open in a shocked expression. Awesome haha. Got to visit with the in-laws and my niece and nephew without having to worry about rushing home for homework. Then George and I went over to Fluffy's to visit. Like an hour after they got there they got a firecall though... it was really funny to watch all three of the guys that were there pile into Fluffy's truck all ready to take off to a structure fire and then to have him turn the key and find out the battery was dead. All of a sudden I hear a loud "Damn!" and George going "Mary's Van?" and then all of them pile back out to climb into Mary's Van. Priceless... however the structure fire was apparently on my road and came in as a trailor explosion... Apparently there was a loud explosion and my sister-in-law and any one else who was home ran outside to see flames reflecting off of a trailor two down from mine which is a friend of ours who works at Stewarts, So everyone called it into 911 and it turned out that my stupid drunk loud annoying neighbors were burning things on their grill such as plastic bottles filled with gas and apparently that blows up. Luckily they were doing this on the other side of their house not next to ours though. However it didn't catch their trailor on fire (although I would really like an excuse to have them move) and it resulted in a drunken fight which required the cops to come and break it up. According to my sister-in-law no one was arrested and before the cops left they were lighting up the grill again... although the landlords got involved so hopefully things would be better. I was expecting to return home to a loud annoying party/bon fire like they normally have going on over there but they weren't home... shocking. Normally though they have music blarring until 4am and a huge bonfire 10feet from their trailor with flames shooting out above it... I don't feel that safe here right now.

Today was alright as well... I hung out with George in the afternoon for a bit and then we went to a BBQ at Ryan and Julia's.... well it was going to be a nice BBQ with bon fire only it had to rain when we got there but it was still fun. We sat around and talked which hasn't happened in forever... we also had a good laugh about our friend Joe who's girlfriend... well now fiance is pregnent. They got engaged a few weeks ago on a friday night and then on the following tuesday they found out she is pregnent....surprise! She is a nut though and is a fitness and skinny freak so me and Julia can't wait until she starts getting fat haha. It'll be fun to watch. However, the good thing about that is that now they have gone from having a fancy wedding sometime in the next few years to a wedding in the New Hartford town park this summer with a justice of the peace guy which doesn't involve boring church services or George needing to rent a tux and go to rehearsals and all that jazz. Woohoo! But my saturdays are filling up in August awful fast with weddings... sigh. Oh well.

But I think I've wasted enough time... off to bed.... gulp. Wish me luck. I will post about tomorrow if I'm up to it when I get home. 

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So I finally made it... I graduated with my first degree yesterday and it was very exciting. I just never thought that I would finally get here and now I'm only one year away from being in the real world and I am thrilled about that. I'm so sick of school and homework and being stressed all the time.... Only a semester and a half left of my Master's Program and 3 fieldworks one of which starts on Monday but I will get into that a little later. I graduated Summa Cum Latae if I spelled it right with a 3.85 GPA... one of only 35 students in a class of 400ish graduates. Go me! I actually think I had the highest GPA in my division because they pick that individuals to be a Marshall based on their GPA last semester and my friend Addison was our division's Marshall and as of this semester I have a higher GPA then her. But I didn't want to carry the flag haha. It was a fun day... kind of a blur now because I was sooo hungry through the whole thing and our commencement speaker was horriable!!!! But it's over now... I have a Bacholars Degree in Health Studeies and now on to the Masters. Hoepfully I get to do this thing again next year to celebrate finally being done with school but it depends on how long the half semester is and how many weeks I have left for Fieldwork at the time of graduation... I might not get to walk next May... hopefully though I can. On another semester note... I got the highest grade in my Occupational Performance class... the only real class I take. The only A!!! I'm thrilled for that because that class is hard!

Now on to my fieldwork... I start my first 12-week fieldwork next week and I am so nervous. It's at Hertitage Health Care Center and they seem nice when I call but sometimes a bit spacey... my supervisor did call me on Friday to make sure everything was all set since she is on vacation this week. That was nice of her so hopefully it won't be too bad. I'm just hoping they don't throw me into things on the first day because I'm not ready for that... but by the end of the fieldwork I'm supposed to have a full case load and act like an entry-level therapist... thats making me nervous. We shall see....

Sorry... I realize it's been like a month since I last posted. These last few weeks of school have been horriable!! I never thought I would ever get that stressed but it's all over and my senior year is finally behind me... Only one more to go and I am done with school. Nothing overly exciting happened in between posts.. just alot of homework, writing papers, and crying over my research project but I don't want to think about any of that right now so I won't bore you with the details. Haha. Graduation is in less then a week which is exciting. 4 years ago I was graduating high school and now here I am soon to be a college graduate (with one more year left). It's sort of sad at the same time because with it comes alot of goodbyes... I did win the battle though. Jules is remaining in the area at least for the time being until her and Kevin finally decide to more South but I'm still hoping to convince George of that myself but we will see what happens. I do have to say goodbye to Sam though... she is transfering to the University of Buffalo for her last semester so she can be with her boyfriend. I'm going to miss her!! :( I mean it's only Buffalo so we can still visit but that will only last for so long and then everyone will go there seperate ways... it's part of life and it's sad. She has made these last few years so much fun and she is def a very good friend and I don't have many of those... We are going out to lunch tomorrow with Jules and Kevin and I'm not ready for it. It was tough last summer but they were coming back for my wedding and then school... but when I leave her tomorrow I'm not sure when or if we will ever hang out again... :'( Thanks for everything Sam... you'll be missed....

So not alot has happened with me these past few days... just ALOT of homework. So I definetly did it again... procrastinated a ridiculusly ahrd 40page paper until the week before it was do. I mean I didn't mean too do that... I started it back in March and then I def forgot about it until last weekend when I realized it was due... three days after another 10page paper and the day before my huge presentation for one of my classes. So I've spent the greater portion of the last 5 days doing homework nonstop! If any of you remember last year at this time I had procrastinated my clinical research paper which was also 40 pages? You think that would have taught me something... apparently not. I spent 9 straight hours on saturday doing the stupid paper. My teacher told me on Thrusday when I met with her that I could have an extension if I wanted for 2 days because she had given out a few... but let's face it... the extension would have just caused me to procrastinate more so I didn't take it... but after the 9hour cram session it's done and it's a damn good paper!

Then onward to my presentation... now this was on the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 and basically I had to design two presentations... one for a room full of health care professionals full of information and technical terms and all that good stuff and then one for a room full of clients and family who need to know how it affects them. Now I worked on this sunday night and monday afternoon as it was due today actually.... and let me tell you... don't read a government document at 10:30pm at night... it just doesn't make much sense. So sunday night I read the entire proposed act to congress (which is a law now) and designed both my presentations and went to bed. On monday I decided to make a brouchure for the client centered presentation so that I could hand out to my "clients" or my classmates instead of copies of the powerpoint. So I spent probably an additional 2hours designing this stupid brouchure... which again is quite awesome if I can say so... and in this process decided to rework my powerpoint to make it better and much improved. I saved both presentations on my flash drive (or so i thought) and then headed off to work 45mins late (which was fine, I warned the family of this possiablity on friday). This morning I woke up and gave a practice run for my presentation so I could further work out what I wanted to say and everything was good so off to class I went... now when I got to class I started with the health care professional presentation and I started off quite shaky... I was mixing up dates and VERY nervous but then I just tole myself that I was in my room giving it to the wall and I was almost done. After that I was much better... I made eye contact and I was able to remember everything I wanted to say which never happens and I would have to say I did a very good job (for myself at least). Then I brought up the client centered slide... passed out my brouchure and moved on from the title screen.... and then it hit me... this wasn't the new powerpoint I did... it was the orginal, not the way I practiced it or the way I wanted to do it. After freexing for probably 30secs I proceeded on alittle shocken up and VERY confused because I saved it on my flash drive I know I did. Afterwards I revealed to my teacher what happened and she laughed at me but said that I had covered VERY well.... so hopefully I did good. It's too bad that I was late to work redoing something that I didn't even use. Grrrr.... my computer hates me.

But now my large assignments are done except for one which I hopefully plan to start tomorrow and the semester is winding down. It's exciting!! I'm almost a college graduate!! Not that I will actually be done with school but I'm still wicked excited. My fieldwork is scaring me though... majorly. And now I'm faced with the decision on trying to move my fieldwork up a week so that I'm done a week early and able to go to New Hampshire with my Remsen family for a week... I really want to go because the money is amazing (and very much needed), it's a paid vacation in a cabin on a lake! And they really need the help... my problem is I really don't want my fieldwork to start any earlier then it is and I will miss George too much... I also think that he doesn't want me to go but he hasn't told me that in those words yet... he just refuses to talk about it. Boys... grrrr.... gotta decide in like the next day though so I can call Heritage and ask...

Anyways... off to bed. Thanks for reading my rant!