October
It is finally fall. I started my morning by eating breakfast while watching the leaves fall from the trees; it's almost so much it looks like rain. After I finished eating, I grabbed my broom and tried to sweep off the front porch but before I could even walk back into the house the pathway was covered with leaves again. The air is so crisp I could have stayed out there all morning, brushing leaves away. I have my recipe for chili sitting in the kitchen and I'm excited to have it with some apple cider this week. It's a beautiful time of year.
I probably don't need to remind you that this is also Physical Therapy Month. I am celebrating by starting to plan attending the APTA Combined Sections Meeting (CSM) in February. I am not an APTA member and I haven't ever attended the CSM before, but since it is being hosted in Chicago this year it is close enough and something I definitely want to experience. Some of the course descriptions sound very interesting; there are too many to choose from! I have to do a little more investigating how the conference works, such as if I can just go to whichever courses interest me or if there is a more structured sign-up to be at the courses.
At the Wisconsin Physical Therapy Association state meeting in April 2012, I will be presenting with three other clinicians regarding acute-care practice in a critical illness setting. We have been meeting monthly to organize the material and prepare for a four-hour course. There is so much information to explain and a lot of thought goes into deciding the most effective way to present it. I'm hoping that by attending the CSM in February, I will be more confident for my own public-speaking opportunity just two months later!
I remember one of my clinical instructors was planning to attend the CSM while I was her student. She was so excited to go. She explained to me how the CSM is her annual time to reconnect with old classmates, focus on new material and learn new research she would implement at work throughout the rest of the year. CSM was also time for her to travel and spend some needed adult time alone without her children. Now, CSM isn't that to me, but it was fun to see what the APTA events mean to other people.