Hey, all!  Here we are heading toward Thanksgiving and ''all you can eat Turkey Day!''  I crack up when people say, ''Gosh, I feel so tired after Thanksgiving dinner because of all those tryptophans!''  I can't imagine that it just might be from simply eating too much!  But who am I to judge, especially when I am ...

  One of the questions I get asked often is why I remain a COTA, and not further my degree to an OTR. This is a question I ask myself, and as much as the change would be nice sometimes, there are many reasons why I remain a COTA. Of course the educational factor is first. As much as I enjoy school, the things that come with it such as ...

Being a working student, there is always a constant, but delicate, balance between work and school. Today is the 2-week anniversary of my re-entering the working world and, oh, how I missed it! Being unemployed for 3 months certainly has a way of helping you appreciate certain things. It was nice at first to only think about school and ...

Recent research from the University of Rochester Medical Center has shown that crossing a mouse with poor hearing and a mouse with even worse hearing results in a strain of mice who have ''golden ears''-meaning they retain great hearing, despite the onset of age. This unlikely result fascinates me, mainly because I can't quite wrap my head around ...

  Hello, everyone!  I hope you are having a great day!  It's so wonderful to know that each day the sun will rise and that once again, we will be provided with opportunities to connect with someone.  Just this morning, I connected with my mom to wish her a Happy Birthday!  We had visited her in Central New York this past ...

Your Life is an Occasion – Rise to It! --Dustin Hoffman as Mr. Edward Magorium in Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium If you haven't seen ''Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium,'' you are missing a gem.  I love this movie.  In so many ways, it embodies what this blog is all about:  living life.  To live life well, we have to live it ...

Based in Ann Arbor, MI, The Legacies Project archives self selected memories from the elderly population and categorizes it into videotaped histories.  It began as Jimmy Rhoades recounts a personal experience.  ''My dad was diagnosed with cancer and we were told he had six months to a year to live.  I was in my 20s and still ...

Back in August, I blogged about my mother and her attitudes about death. Recently, we had the opportunity – if you can call it that – to examine the subtleties of her perspective, and how it is reflected in her advanced directive. Mom was taken to the ER around 10 p.m. on Saturday night with severe back pain that turned out to be the symptom of ...

My plans to move to the other side of the country in the next several months have put a little shred of fear in my mind. I've been living on my own for quite some time and, like many, I've accumulated a LOT of stuff over the years. With my externship fast approaching, I've been able come up with some different--and profitable (yes, I said ...

  Hi, again!  I'm afraid you caught me in another ''I wonder how people can BE that way'' mood!  I'll try to keep the frustration from weasling its way into my ''voice'' today; but it will be difficult.  So, let me tell you my story and get it over with. As an occupational therapist, I have had the distinct pleasure of ...