A New Chapter

I just got into the Master's of Occupational Therapy program at Virginia Commonwealth University, which starts in May. Congratulate me!



I am following in my parents' footsteps, who also have careers as occupational therapists. My mother does neurorehabilitation in a hospital outpatient setting, whereas my dad did home health in the community for a number of years. It seems to be a rewarding career that pays reasonably well, and has good hours and benefits. Most importantly, it should allow me the freedom to pursue some of the things I dream about - writing, for one.

What exactly is occupational therapy? You might well ask that - everyone does, sooner or later. Wikipedia, that venerated source of information, defines the career this way:

Occupational therapy is a discipline that aims to promote health by enabling people to perform meaningful and purposeful activities. Occupational therapists work with individuals who suffer from a mentally, physically, developmentally, and/or emotionally disabling condition by utilizing treatments that develop, recover, or maintain clients' activities of daily living. The therapist helps clients not only to improve their basic motor functions and reasoning abilities, but also to compensate for permanent loss of function. The goal of occupational therapy is to help clients have independent, productive, and satisfying lives.

I personally usually explain it this way: It's a lot like physical therapy, but it's more cognitive. If you have an accident, the physical therapist is going to help you with strength building, getting, out of bed, walking across the room. The occupational therapist will help you with turning the doorknob, cooking dinner, playing the piano again - basically, with getting those fine motor skills back.




Occupational therapy used to have a huge role in psychiatric hospitals, but ever since the deinstitutionalization (link: excellent PBS report) that took place during the 1950s and 1960s, the profession has become much more medical in nature. More recently, occupational therapists have been doing a lot of work with returning veterans.


Lynn Boulanger, an occupational therapy assistant and certified hand therapist, uses mirror therapy to help address phantom pain for Marine Cpl. Anthony McDaniel.

I'll finish the master's program in 2014 - who knows where I will end up after that, or where my interests will take me? Wish me luck!

Note: As ever, I am eternally grateful to Wikimedia Commons for providing free access to photos I can use on my blog.

People Watching: A Story Idea

Here's an opportunity to give me your input. If I turn this into a story, in which direction would you have it go? Read through to the end, and let me know how you see things progressing.



You are sitting in a bar on a busy Saturday night. You see a girl, about 25, with a beautiful, heavy brow ridge standing at a lacquered wooden bar table. Next to her is a handsome 40-year-old man in a tan corduroy sport coat. The sexual chemistry between them is clear; she is twirling her hair and fingering her collarbone, but you wonder about the age difference between the pair. On the other side of the table is another woman and a man, but you can only see the woman's face; the man's back faces you. The woman is around 35, and she's somewhat pretty, but her manner is more forceful than her looks. She presents herself to the world as a beleaguered mom, someone who is too busy being practical to even consider the notion of happiness. The man is outfitted in dark jeans and a sweater layered over an Oxford shirt. By his clothes, it's clear he's rich.

Minutes pass, and the alliances shift. The two men know each other well - maybe they're brothers. But there's a huge age gap between them as well, because once you see the hidden man's face, you can see that he's 27 at most, no older. The two women make small talk, obliged to chat with each other until their men cover all the bases. The sport-coated man and beleaguered mom leave together.

The younger couple stays. The beautiful young man returns from the bathroom and leans in close to his date. As he does so, she leans almost imperceptibly backwards, not wanting him to realize that he is turning her off. He is too pretty for her tastes, not manly or virile enough. A friend their age arrives. He is not as good-looking as the pretty boy, but he has a full beard, and it is well trimmed. He's more casual, not so refined in his manner or reined in as he moves. The girl turns her body towards this new arrival. When her date speaks, she merely turns her head his direction. She lays a flirtatious hand on the bearded man's chest. Another moment passes, and she's stepped in front of her date, her back to him, standing between the two men. The three of them leave the bar together.

There's your scene. Considering the cast of five, where do each of them end up by the time the night is over? Where are they all in a year's time? Feedback is appreciated!

Does Melanie Laurent Ever Comb Her Hair?

No, she does not.





I have seen quite a few films lately starring this hot French starlet. If you've seen her at all, it was probably in her role as Shoshanna in Tarantino's Movie Inglourious Basterds.





The films I saw and loved are Et Soudain, Tout le Monde Me Manque, which I thought was a sweet story with a great deal of heart. But maybe I was just excited because, for the very first time, I understood the French! The next one was the Mike Mills film Beginners, with Mlle Laurent and Ewan MacGregor.





In one of her quotes in the film Beginners, Laurent says, "My mother told me that Jewish girls cannot be beautiful. They can be cute or interesting, but not beautiful." Clearly, this is quite ridiculous. Beauty is a relative concept, and any person of a given ethnicity can receive a particular genetic package that their inherited society deems beautiful.





I like Laurent for the complex characters that she plays. There is always an internal struggle, and a facade which she uses to hide the inner turmoil. She pulls off this interplay with grace and charm.





As an additional fun fact, her father is Pierre Laurent, the voiceover actor who dubs the character Ned Flanders in the French version of The Simpsons!

Lily & Charlie Form a Union of Hearts

Click to play, and you'll see a slideshow of the Union of Hearts ceremony, the main celebration at Lily & Charlie's 3-day wedding extravaganza!

Free slideshow personalized with Smilebox

Enjoy!

What's Behind Dress #1?

One of my best friends is getting married in T-minus two weeks, and I'm in the wedding. And I don't have my dress plans finalized yet. Here is what happened:




In a preliminary email, she said: "I have decided that we are going to be wearing NAVY/DARK BLUE!!" We got to pick our own dresses. Awesome, right? Well, I went with royal blue. Everyone else bought navy. CoOoOol.




I got a call from my friend where she said, in essence, "I'm so sorry, but everyone bought navy. Do you think there's any way they'd let you exchange yours for navy?" Nope, not a chance. They give you 10 days to make changes, and I bought it about a month ago. So she offered, "Could we buy you a new one?"




Turns out, it's not necessary. Because my mother, my amazingly thrifty female parental unit, just bought a navy silk dress from the secondhand store for $1. It needs a little work - we'll need to take it in at the bust, take out the shoulder pads (which my mom charmingly refers to as hotpads - that's right, 'cause they make you look hott), and raise the hem a little tiny bit. But, as you can see, it's a dress with potential! Two dresses for the price of one - that right there's a good deal, if I say so myself!

Time Capsules

Just a short while back, my mother and I decided to crack open a bottle of cherry kriek to share. The beverage had been rolling around in the fridge awhile, and I thought it was time to give its poor little soul the satisfaction of being drunk. The only problem is, these things are bottled pretty absurdly.

As you can see, they have a specific method of sealing the bottles. Our brand, Lindemans, presented us with an even greater challenge. First, there was a foil wrapping. That was easy enough to remove. Next was a screw-off cap. Also, not too much of a challenge. Then came the cork. I have trouble with corks; see my earlier post. We searched the house high and low for a corkscrew, which was not to be found. You know how sometimes you bring your corkscrew with you to a party and forget to bring it back home? Yeah, that's probably what happened. Good for the hosts, bad for the corkscrew-bearing guests!




Then I remembered I had a Swiss Army knife in my French package. The package is a great big orange box I shipped to myself right at the end of my stay in France - I had way too many things to take back in my suitcase, so I went to the post office and bought a couple of 5-kilo boxes to keep the things things I wouldn't need while traveling. I didn't open the boxes up when I got home because A) I obviously didn't need to use its contents on a daily basis and B) it's already packed neatly in a box, perfect for moving!




I didn't truly want to open my Pandora's box, but we had come this far, and I wasn't about to try to dig that cork out with a knife. So I dove in. It's like a time capsule, seeing all the things that were a part of your life a few short months ago. A book I haven't finished (almost there!), letters I received, hiking boots I wore to school on rainy days, gloves, and more. Of course, the stuff won't fit neatly back into the box - I had a heck of a time getting it all in there in the first place - but if I had to open the thing, it sure is interesting to see what I don't really need, but just had to keep!

A Chihuahua?! - A Service Dog Joke

At Bristol's Rhythm and Roots Reunion on Sept. 17-19, there was a lot of complaint about the new no-dog policy. "They let dogs in last year!" was the common refrain.

In our family, we often joke about affixing a service-dog vest to our ill-behaved Chihuahua. When my dad suggested it, my mom let loose with this joke:

Two dudes are out walking their dogs one afternoon. One has a Labrador Retriever, the other a Chihuahua. They decide that they'd like some drinks and want to stop at a bar.

"Well, Jim, we can't stop for drinks because we have our dogs," says Frank.

"Follow my lead," Jim says. Jim puts on his Oakley sunglasses and walks into a restaurant with his Lab.

"Sorry, sir, but that dog can't be in here!" the bartender says.

"But I'm blind! This is my service dog and you have to let him in."




"Oh, I see. No problem, then," replies the bartender.

The second dude, Frank, puts on his sunglasses and walks in with his Chihuahua.

"Sir," says the bartender, "Dogs are not allowed in here!"

"But sir," says Frank, "This is my service dog and I am blind!"




The bartender looks Frank up and down, doubtful. "A Chihuahua?" he says.

In disbelief, Frank says, "They gave me a Chihuahua?!"