Roger Turns 25

We kicked it up a notch at the VA this week and I did approximately 1 million evals, but I felt good about them this round. The thing I love about this profession is that I will always get to keep learning and find new mysteries to help people solve. The thing I love about my internship at the VA is that I actually get paid. Not much, but more than $0, which is nice for all the free labor I provide. 

Other news of the week: I bought a car. It's a 2011 Prius. And it's a hatchback, which is what I was looking for a little more. Here's hoping it's a durable ride. The guys I bought from were super cool, nice people and even offered to pay for the dealership to do a pre-purchase check on it, which turned out really good. Pictures to come. 

Just a funny meme. 

Also of note, we found (and tested) 2 new taco joints in the process of picking up this car that were fire. And even tried cow tongue tacos, which were delicious, but probably not a repeat. 

Roger turned 25 this week and he wanted to celebrate via a weekend hunting trip with the boys. But he did come visit me on his way down, so that was nice. We played with the kids and Becky used every dish in the house to make 4-6 meals for dinner. And all of them were amazing. 

This was my first chill weekend. I got some stuff done for my own life AND helped do some landscaping around the house. I was grateful for the borrowed tractor as we moved 10 tons of sand and at least that much rock around the outside of the house. And I showered. You're welcome. 

The Amigos

The VA is going well. It's much less stressful by far since they're only allowing "50%" of a normal caseload. But since there's 2 of us, we get to see a lot more patients. Unless they all cancel, like on Friday. We did get to see a patient in the hospital and play with the Bioness and  BITS systems. 

Myra's taking the little chickies tomorrow. 

I might be buying a car. It's a 2011 Prius 4 hatchback that's been really well maintained. Pending a pre-purchase check by the Toyota dealership on Tuesday, Rog and I might have 2 working vehicles again. Hopefully reliable and functional for many years. 

Reunion. 

It's Lauren's fall break, so she drove down to AZ for a bit to relive the good old days with Ho'o and I. We played so many games with Ho'o's family (which we won, #undefeated) and met her husband Marcos who we like. We got an oil change and pedicures and went to the mall for a bit and ate at Cafe Rio. We went "swimming" and ate cheesecake and I fell asleep long before midnight every night. (Sorry).  Lauren *almost* made it out with a full set of cheetah print nails and a mind to reestablish in AZ. 

A summary. 

A Fun Surprise

Week 2 at the Prescott VA - and the weirdness continues. We did get in 2 good patient days and an amputee clinic before my CI left on a longer weekend. I spent Thursday working inpatient, but since they split the job into Covid/non-Covid (essentially splitting a 1-person job between 2 people), we only had 2 patients. But Ted and I had a great time and I shadowed a few other therapists in our spare time. 

At the Curtis residence.

Friday I was only in for a few hours, so I was working with Char, a niche OT who specializes in behavior and mental health. Rather than helping with ADLs, she aids in group craft projects designed to improve patient positivity in addition to physical health benefits. For example, I took a personality test that said my strongest traits were: humor, spirituality, love of learning, curiosity, and leadership. (My lowest was love, but no need to get into that.) I then spent my time making a collage cup with pictures representing these traits, 3 things I like about myself, and 3 goals I have. 

After the cup was finished, I headed down to Phoenix, picked Maddy up, and drove to day 4 of our PNF course. Val was down for a bit and between her, Kay, Gatewood, and Gillian, we had the best time. Exhausted, learning so much, and avoiding the people we didn't love. Her parents were nice enough to provide dinner (twice), where I ran into Becca/Keaton (once). 

He needs a friend to live with. 

We also got to hang out with Jeff and Brandee, who supervised me in replacing my MAF sensor. We stayed with Brady and Kelly, who are both delightful and reasonable humans (with an unreasonable interest in Dr. Gatewood's hands). And I did some preliminary research on basketball shoes. 

Monday was Columbus Day (or Indigenous People's Day), which the government considers a holiday. So I did not have work. Instead, I drove straight from Phoenix to Flagstaff, ate fajitas, and had a temple interview (part dos). I also discovered that Roger's jests about buying me two little friends was real. Awesome. 

Name suggestions?

New Week, New Me

My rotation at the Prescott VA began this week. I spent the majority of day one doing onboarding stuff with various members of staff and eventually found my CI, Amanda. Day two, we had a full day training (with snacks) on the body weight support system known as a Bioness Vector. It's pretty cool. Day three was spent in the prosthetics lab with a doctor - helping adjust and make recommendations for amputees and their devices. Also cool. 

My new plant I "adopted" from the VA greenhouse. 

I eventually found out where a small basketball court is AND I tested negative for covid-19. Thursday we had a normal (ish) day of patients and Friday the power was out for 90% of the day (planned). So it was a weird week, but super chill so far which is kind of what I needed. 

We got our pics back from Cole Clark. 

After work Friday, I drove up to Flag to pick Roger up. And then drove him back to Prescott. He was sad he couldn't go hunting. But he did get a new suit that he "fell in love with as soon as he put it on" and it was on sale for $100. You're welcome, sir. 

He hates his hair in this picture. Don't look at it. 

And we watched so much conference. I love conference. It was kind of a weird one this time, just because we're kind of at the mercy of the family I'm living with. So it wasn't as focused as I would have like it. But Marshall definitely knows how to say Roger's name now, so that's a plus. 

He also hated doing this picture, so 10/10 all around.

We got Roger stocked up on frozen foods again (so he won't have to eat out so much). And chased the children. And we painted. Here's mine:

Water color without gesso.