A very NEW NEW NEW year

I won't say "New year, new me" but there are a lot of changes taking place in my life.

Job changes are so ever present in this blog. If you are a student, you should be comforted by the fact that there truly are SO many options for OTs, it's often true that you can work as much as you want. The only downside of this right now is that I am dreading tax time with 4 (I think?) W-2s and a 1099 with small business deductions... it's enough to make you hyperventilate. At any rate- my early intervention work is something that I really enjoy. I have families that I am close to, coordinators that respect my evals and opinions, and a burgeoning caseload. It has taken 6 months (and the willingness to be very flexible) but the business has grown well. I still have my occasional hospital days, where it is nice to switch up and work with adults (particularly neuro cases) but I mostly enjoy visiting with my friends. But now, I will have the option to cut back on both as I want to with the onset of a new job.

I will be starting (very very soon!) at an outpatient pediatric facility 2 days a week. I had seen the job posting on AOTA's OTJoblink (what is this, the third job I've taken from there?) but was still debating about applying when I was contacted directly from site about my interest and asked to interview. I didn't expect them to be able to provide regular hours at a rate that would offset losses without some kind of crazy demand to drive to multiple locations or covering other types of outpatients, but they well exceeded my expectations. I look forward to getting started there and am really pleased to find a pediatric practice even in my small town area.

The reduced schedule will help me maintain some of my other OT activities and provide time to rest. I've also been spoiled pretty much since my first job- if you don't work 5 days every week it's a lot easier to make doctor appointments, get your errands done, and keep from being overrun with laundry. Again, students! You can work as much as you want to- 0-7 days/week. I've said before that after our move, though I miss some features of Baltimore, that life was largely falling into place for my husband and I with the exception of my job. Hopefully this will be the last moving piece for awhile and things will be settled nicely.

I
didrocked my sprint triathlon last year and really enjoyed it! I had wanted to work up to an Olympic distance for the fall or summer of 2013 by the latest, and hoped to work to running a half marathon by this coming August. Now I've had to reset those goals and think about working back up to a 5K by this fall. I had also hoped to get a Girl Scout troop started at my church but the girls' interest was intermittent at best and I truthfully didn't want to be doing a lot of work when people didn't really want to be there. I still have a Sunday morning class but I'm getting ready to step back from that as well- I'm starting to feel a lot more effective with toddlers than teens.

My involvement with OT extracurriculars is changing too. I anticipate this will be my last year as the VP of Advocacy for the state OT association (provided I can induce someone into running for the position). I expect that I will still be involved in the bill review committee or other events, but I won't be the go-to person anymore. There aren't a terrible number of responsibilities and things to do with that job, but when they need done, they need done NOW. I had to step back from my NBCOT work this year, which is sad because it is a great group of intelligent people and work that I really enjoy (not to mention nice trips that are very fun also!). I plan to reapply as a volunteer in the future, but I will be missing my SQDC peeps. Possibly worst of all, though I love my AOTA presentation group like a little OT family, I will not be able to accompany them as their continued tour of awesomeness hits San Diego this spring. I will be very sad to miss seeing these great people who are spread both cross-country and internationally- and some of the #OTalk2US #OTalk and #occhat crew that are visiting from abroad.

(Before you get too teary on my behalf, remember that with all ebb there must be a flow, and that I just am not good at telling news sometimes so I put it all in a crazy order)

This is a lot of life changes all at once, and though they were planned in various degrees, it's all to accommodate the change that you can't really possibly plan enough for. I'm having a baby! He's coming (ready or not) this spring and the one thing I'm sure of is that no amount of preparation is really going to cover it. There's awe and anxiety and excitement and attempts to not get overwhelmed... and a lot of naps. Change is coming to my life in ways I know I cannot even begin to anticipate. But I think it will be worth it.

Lest you worry, faithful reader, I will be keeping the blog. It is fun for me and so while there may not be copious posts (when have there ever been?), there will be posts. There may be baby related posts... it is what it is. This month I am celebrating my 5 year blogiversary, doing my first big giant giveaways (they are AWESOME!) and hope to clean out my drafts list one way or another. I still tweet more than I write fully because it's been hard for me to carve out writing time with some of the other demands of life (5 eval calls in a week, hello) and if you want a (more) prompt response then you should tweet at @OTnotes.

Hope that you are having a wonderful, healthy, happy new year as well! Who can really say what it will bring, but I'm certainly looking through rosey glasses right now.