Student Blog
Dog Park! ⟩
February 21, 2012, by Kimberly
I dog-sat for my friend’s terrier mix this past weekend. On Sunday I decided to take him to the dog park so he could get some energy out and hopefully enjoy playing around. I had never been to a dog park, or taken a small dog in my car anywhere before. The first challenge of the outing was where to put the little guy. I grew up with large dogs who always were very content and could only fit in the backseat or the bed of my family’s truck. So I at first put him on the front seat floor where he stayed for all of about 2 seconds before jumping up to the seat. Before I knew it, as we drove, he was climbing farther and farther into my lap. I tried to continue focusing on the road, but by my second turn he was sitting contently in my lap in front of the steering wheel. Since he’s so small I decided to let him stay and just continue driving (I still want to ask my friend if this is his normal riding routine or if I spoiled him a bit) . . . it was kinda cute, I’ll admit.
We arrrived at the dog park and walked up to the entrance gate. There was an area for large dogs and one for small dogs each with nicely manicured running space and benches for the owners. I followed other dog-owners in and let my new friend off his leash into the open space. I watched in humor as the dogs found each other, started chasing games, elicited pets from other owners, and ran incessently in the gated area. I was surprised by the stark personality differences between the dogs and what some enjoyed doing over others. My friend’s dog was very content on his own but would seek out other dogs occasionally. He wouldn’t initiate play, but seemed to like meeting all the other dogs and just being in the open space. Though the dogs were very at home, I found it a challenge to figure out what to do myself. The other dog-owners were either standing or sitting around the dog-park. Should I talk to them? Simply focus on my dog’s play? Walk around? Sit down? Run with the dogs? I had been so focused on getting the dog to the park that it didn’t occur to me to think of my own role during our time there. In the end conversation was struck up with some of the other owners over dogs as they came up and elicited pets from us. I can see how this could easliy become a community of people and of dogs if is was a place that you frequented. Definitely a new occupational environment, but a very fun one to experience.
About 20 mintues later, my little guy was tired out and we headed home. This time he climbed right onto my lap from the beginning and I had to work keeping him from jumping up onto my fore-arms to look out the window. I love dogs, I really do . . . but I have to say it was nice to pass him off to his owners at the end of the weekend. Maybe after grad school a pet will become more feasible. But for now, I am completely happy with the occasional chance to dog-sit!
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Napa Napa Napa ⟩
February 15, 2012, by Alix
I’m excited to be heading north for the long weekend! I’ll be spending time with some college friends in the Bay Area, including a couple of nights in Napa. This will be my second time in wine country, and my first opportunity to spend time in Napa. I’m looking forward to hiking around the area, relaxing with my friends, and possibly taking a guided tour of some wineries. Either way, I will definitely be returning with some bottles of wine. I decided to drive there, so it will be a bit of a long haul all by myself, but I’m hoping to find some good books on tape to entertain myself along the way. If anybody knows of any riveting books on tape, leave them in the comments! 😀
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Self Love ⟩
February 14, 2012, by Kimberly
This semester I have taken on running groups for the Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Society. Once or twice a month I go to Rancho Los Amigos Hospital and work with community members who are diagnosed with MS. Each group is different and has their own goals and needs. This month’s theme for the group is — bet you can guess it — love! It is a common theme for the month, but is somewhat hard to match to all the goals we are working on with the particular groups. So for this week I have decided to take the route of focusing on self-love. This is something we all need to get better at doing: taking time to thank ourselves for the work we do, planning some pampering every once in a while, making sure we take the time we need to ourselves away from tiring responsibilities, and overall acknowledging the fact that we need love ourselves to be able to love and attend to those around us. Self-love also helps us to feel in control of our own emotions, capabilities, and life. I’m excited to bring this to the group and see what personal goals they come up with.
I want to challenge you to do the same! Here are some ideas to get you started:
Watch your favorite film
Make a valentine to yourself
Write down the things you love about you, then work on remembering them when times are lower
After a work-out, thank your body
Make a fabulous meal, just for you
Meet up with a friend who brings you joy
Think of a way to make life easier and take steps to make it so
Try something new
How will you love yourself more?
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Renewing an Occupation ⟩
February 14, 2012, by Chris
Community Living in LA School/Life Balance
Before beginning the Occupational Therapy program at USC I started playing beach flag football. Well, once I moved to the west coast I didn’t have a league to play in anymore. I’ve played football for almost as long as I can remember and not having a league to play in was bothering me. Last week I began searching for leagues throughout Los Angeles and I found one that meets in Santa Monica. I quickly informed a few classmates of this league and built a solid group to start going weekly. The first weekend only three of us went, but more people have expressed interest in playing. Once we got there the games were great. The teams were pretty much even and the organizers try to keep groups of friends together. Finally after playing for about 3 hours we finally called it quits, with me leaving with a pretty sweet sunburn. Next week should be even better as more people should make it out.
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Biking in Hollywood ⟩
February 6, 2012, by Chris
Living in LA School/Life Balance
The weather in Southern California lends itself very well to the practice of outdoor occupations. This past Saturday me and a couple of my friends decided that a biking blitz through Hollywood was a great idea. We started off at the Occupational Therapy House (Centennial Apartments) and headed north. We took the scenic route through neighborhoods I didn’t know existed. We finally made it to Hollywood Blvd where traffic was almost at a standstill (perfect for the cyclist), we split the traffic down to the Kodak Theater where we decided to walk around for a bit. After getting our fill of all the characters out in Hollywood we decided to head west toward enemy territory, UCLA. The hills throughout Westwood provided us with excellent cycling routes, with very little traffic. After we made our way through UCLA, we decided to ride through Beverly Hills. The streets throughout Beverly Hills are incredibly smooth (cyclist’s dream). Finally, about 2 hours later we decided to head back to USC. We made it home around 11:30 pm and rode approximately 30 miles.
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