Browse Category: work

Ak! Babyboom!

OK.  This is getting a little ridiculous.  As most of you know, I work in a Special Ed preschool and kids come in to get tested just months before they turn three years of age.  Well, just in the last two months, I’ve tested three kids who have very familiar addresses.  They all live in my neighborhood!  In fact, they live just down the street from me.  I’m surprised I hadn’t met them yet in passing. 

I guess it all makes sense if you do the math.  I moved into my house that was built in a brand-new community almost 4 years ago and it looks like a bunch of my neighbors were nesting at the time.  If they moved into their house the same time I did, conceived within the first couple months of moving in, and had a baby 9 months later, then these babies are ALL turning three years old this year.  I guess I was just destined to meet some of them within the context of Special Education.  It’s sad, but true.  It seems that more and more children are growing up with some kind of problem.  Luckily for them we live in a good school district but unfortunately for me, it’s bombarding me with more and more work. 

Anyway, my point is that I’m getting a first-hand experience at how there’s a new generation of human beings sprouting out of these little condos down the street.  There’s gotta be a way to make money off of this!  Just the other day, Brother was looking into the future and I think he’s got something going with his predictions.  Perhaps it’s time for me to unveil my long-awaited business plan soon…muhahaha…

Open House

dsc_6117.jpg

I’m in my 3rd year at my current job but never attended our annual Open House…until this year. I always avoided events like this for fear of bumping into parents that made my job way too hard. This year is different and I felt comfortable enough to make an appearance. I guess it’s a sign that I’ve managed my cases rather well so far.

It really took me back to the days when I was a 7-year-old taking my parents through my classroom and showing off my work. I remember a great sense of excitement from meeting your friends’ parents and running around your school at night. This Open House was no different. There were kids and parents everywhere with all the classrooms decorated to the nines. I loved walking through the classrooms taking photos of all their artwork.

The Parent Booster Club also coordinated a silent auction that raised $6200 for our school. It’s too bad that $40 of the money raised is mine. I bid on a couple items and won a private golf lesson including video analysis of my swing. It also came with 6 dozens of golf balls. I guess I will be golfing this summer. Anyone want to join me?! I’ll bring the golf balls!

More publicity for me…

Back in January, OTs were ranked as one of the 25 Best Careers of 2007.  This morning I was on the My Yahoo! page and saw that they’ve ranked OTs as one of the 5 Bright New Careers for ’07 and Beyond.  Nice.  I guess we’ve been getting a lot of attention from the Department of Labor because of its rapid rise in demand and growth.  Now if only they’d pay us more…

mini-victory

There was no post this morning because I was little distracted. It all started on Thursday afternoon – right before I left for Vail.  It involved a high profile case that involved a family that hired an attorney who totally ripped our psychologist to shreds and then went after me until I had to leave the meeting early.  So, I assumed that I was going to get squashed today for the remainder of my report.  But he ended up having no questions for me. Boo…I studied for nothing. I was even ready to draw diagrams on the dry erase board and everything!

Anyway, this attorney basically said that our assessement was crap and so were the goals that we proposed for his client (a 3.5-year-old student). Out of the 17 goals that we proposed, he accepted only one and it was mine! Woo hoo!! Too bad my other two were not. Anyway, I came out of the meeting simply pissed because he had wasted 3 hours of my life that I’ll never get back. When I got back to my school, the staff couldn’t stop raving about my performance and how I stood up to Mr. Obnoxious Man. I felt like a hero that defeated the evil villain that was attacking our school. It didn’t even phase me but I guess if I made that much of an impact I should celebrate my victory. Now that I made it out alive, I’m making it a learning experience in my book of professional growth. I had always heard about this man who is notorious around the county. Now that I know how he plays the game, I’ll be ready for the next one. So, I enjoyed a glass of wine with dinner to celebrate the mini-victory that I had after a week’s worth of stress and anxiety leading up to today’s meeting. I’m just sad that out of all of this, the poor little girl who needs help is delayed another week from her therapy because her parents are too retarded to make their own decisions.

Top 25, Baby!

US News & World Report rated Occupational Therapist as one of the Best 25 Careers of 2007.  Unfortunately, the median salary listed is one of the lowest of the 25 and “Prestige” was given the rating of “C”.  It’s true…so true.  Oh well…I suppose you’ll never hear me complain about not being able to find a job or that I’m being replaced by someone in India.

Anyone need a PM?

I started my day as I usually do. Got up, walked the dog, and went to work. At 1:30, I got a phone call from Jes and thought, “Oh no. What did the dog do now?” That wasn’t the issue at all. It was much worse. Jes went into work this morning and got laid off. It’s not a huge surprise but it was much earlier than he expected. Their company was expecting a big layoff in June but he got the boot much earlier. When he told me, I wasn’t mad, surprised, or anxious. I was just speechless. So, I asked to be excused from this afternoon’s staff meeting and went home to console the husband even though he was probably more relieved than anything else. Fortunately for us, this was a lay off and not a firing, which means a nice severance package will be coming our way. We also found out this afternoon that shortly after Jes left the building, they had a big meeting to announce that no one would be getting raises or bonuses this year. It sucks that we’re a single-income household for a while but it sorta looks like Jes won in the end.

In other news, the WoW Expansion Pack came out today and we went to Target to go get it. He also applied for a job at Blizzard today. It was a funny coincidence that he was going to apply for the job opening even before getting laid off today. It’s pretty ironic that the game that took over our house these past 7 months may potentially support the house after wall. Stupid WoW.