School's Out FOR-EVER
As of today, I am officially done with the school portion of grad school. Last week I had my very last class, and then yesterday was the annual symposium where we presented our master's projects to faculty, the first year OT students, and practitioners in the community. The symposium went really smoothly, my partner Alison and I presented our project first, so after that I was free to relax and enjoy my classmates' presentations. I felt so proud of everyone :) There were probably about 100 people at the symposium, and I realized that I'm starting to know a lot of Seattle-area OTs, which is really cool- it's a small community. Tonight we are having a super fancy graduation party at the Shilshole Bay Beach Club. I get to give a little speech at the party (which I should probably be memorizing at this very moment). The traditional graduation commencement ceremony is being held Husky Stadium on Saturday, but only about half of my classmates are going (I'm not one of them). I decided not to participate in the ceremony for several reasons- I haven't really graduated yet, I already did a graduation ceremony a mere four years ago, I don't want to spend 50 bucks on the cap and gown (even if you do get a cool Master's Hood), the speaker is the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates (booo), and the entire thing is 5 hours long. So I'm viewing tonight's party as my "graduation". In regards to my comment about how I'm not really graduating, it's true- for the next 6 months I'll be out on fieldwork doing my clinical affiliations, but I'm still technically a student and will be paying tuition etc. I'm so excited for fieldwork- my first one starts June 29th at a skilled nursing facility called Foss Home & Village, and my second one starts in September at a hospital called Virginia Mason. Both fieldworks are 12 weeks long.
Oh also, I had an article about my OT Advocacy blog, and blogging as a vehicle for advocacy in general, accepted for publication in the July issue of the American Occupational Therapy Association's magazine, OT Practice. I'm actually super psyched about that.
In non-school news, here's what I've been up to:
John and I saw Flight of the Conchords at the Paramount Theater. Comedian Arj Barker (who plays Dave on the show), started with about 20 minutes of stand up, then FOTCs played for about an hour and a half. It was hilarious.
Andrew and Jessica came to visit for Memorial Day weekend. We hung out in Seattle for two days, then drove out east to the Columbia River Valley and went to the Sasquatch Music Festival. We camped in a parking lot and sweated our butts off in the hottest weather I've encountered on the West Coast. We saw some great acts, including TV on the Radio, The Murder City Devils, Ra Ra Riot, of Montreal, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Calexico, and some others that I can't think of at the moment. The venue was in the middle of nowhere and amazingly beautiful. Click here to see pictures
Hmm, what else....I've hung out friends, started watching Season One of The Wire, read some good books, tutored my ESL student, and quit that great job working with the man with a spinal cord injury. It feels weird not to have a job, even though the jobs I've had during school have been really small ones. Speaking of jobs, John will be starting a new job in about 3 weeks. He's worked at Design Clinicals for two years now, and while he's really loved it, he's just ready for a new challenge. He's going to be a PHP developer at a company called Thought Convergence. I'm not going to lie and say that I understand exactly what the company does (something with web-based applications and services- specifically with website domains), but hopefully I'll come up with a good "elevator speech" to bust out when people ask me what John does for a living. (I pretty much JUST mastered my Design Clinicals elevator speech). I actually think it's really amazing that John decided to change jobs, it takes a lot of guts to leave a job that you are comfortable with and good at- he's definitely one of the most ambitious people I know. John will be starting his new job at the same time I start my fieldwork, so I anticipate some exhausted, zonked out evenings in our near future.
In conclusion, here's the plan for the rest of June:
June 13: John and I are flying to New Mexico and staying for 3 nights. We're going to check out Santa Fe, visit Native pueblos, and go hiking.
June 16: John and I fly from NM to MD.
June 17: My parents and I are going to Shenandoah, VA. We're going to hike and.....mmm....hike.
June 19: Rehearsal dinner for Erin's wedding, then spending the night with Erin and the other bridesmaids.
June 20: Erin and Mike's wedding!!! John will come down from Baltimore to attend, then he and I will stay at my parents' house that night.
June 21: Father's Day with my family and the Kings. John flies back to Seattle but I stay in MD and spend time with my mommm and daaaad and brotherrrrr.
June 27: I fly back to Seattle
June 29: My first day of fieldwork at Foss Home & Village.
It's going to be a good month.
Oh also, I had an article about my OT Advocacy blog, and blogging as a vehicle for advocacy in general, accepted for publication in the July issue of the American Occupational Therapy Association's magazine, OT Practice. I'm actually super psyched about that.
In non-school news, here's what I've been up to:
John and I saw Flight of the Conchords at the Paramount Theater. Comedian Arj Barker (who plays Dave on the show), started with about 20 minutes of stand up, then FOTCs played for about an hour and a half. It was hilarious.
Andrew and Jessica came to visit for Memorial Day weekend. We hung out in Seattle for two days, then drove out east to the Columbia River Valley and went to the Sasquatch Music Festival. We camped in a parking lot and sweated our butts off in the hottest weather I've encountered on the West Coast. We saw some great acts, including TV on the Radio, The Murder City Devils, Ra Ra Riot, of Montreal, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Calexico, and some others that I can't think of at the moment. The venue was in the middle of nowhere and amazingly beautiful. Click here to see pictures
Hmm, what else....I've hung out friends, started watching Season One of The Wire, read some good books, tutored my ESL student, and quit that great job working with the man with a spinal cord injury. It feels weird not to have a job, even though the jobs I've had during school have been really small ones. Speaking of jobs, John will be starting a new job in about 3 weeks. He's worked at Design Clinicals for two years now, and while he's really loved it, he's just ready for a new challenge. He's going to be a PHP developer at a company called Thought Convergence. I'm not going to lie and say that I understand exactly what the company does (something with web-based applications and services- specifically with website domains), but hopefully I'll come up with a good "elevator speech" to bust out when people ask me what John does for a living. (I pretty much JUST mastered my Design Clinicals elevator speech). I actually think it's really amazing that John decided to change jobs, it takes a lot of guts to leave a job that you are comfortable with and good at- he's definitely one of the most ambitious people I know. John will be starting his new job at the same time I start my fieldwork, so I anticipate some exhausted, zonked out evenings in our near future.
In conclusion, here's the plan for the rest of June:
June 13: John and I are flying to New Mexico and staying for 3 nights. We're going to check out Santa Fe, visit Native pueblos, and go hiking.
June 16: John and I fly from NM to MD.
June 17: My parents and I are going to Shenandoah, VA. We're going to hike and.....mmm....hike.
June 19: Rehearsal dinner for Erin's wedding, then spending the night with Erin and the other bridesmaids.
June 20: Erin and Mike's wedding!!! John will come down from Baltimore to attend, then he and I will stay at my parents' house that night.
June 21: Father's Day with my family and the Kings. John flies back to Seattle but I stay in MD and spend time with my mommm and daaaad and brotherrrrr.
June 27: I fly back to Seattle
June 29: My first day of fieldwork at Foss Home & Village.
It's going to be a good month.