The coldest winter I ever spent
The perfect holiday present for me right now:
Gather a list of the five to ten most influential / favorite books and other media from your childhood up thru age eight or so and send it along. I’m looking for what to offer my daughter Abigail. Welcomed are books, music, video, television, movies. What media helped positively shape you?
My school got put on hold due to a problem with my eye. The condition is under control these days (previously). After 3 weeks of nearly normal vision, my vision started to decline. I went in for another scheduled treatment at the end of week 4, yesterday. The treatment went fine and today my vision is back to nearly-normal.
I spoke to my professor and I’ll hopefully get an internship in the spring semester starting mid-January. Fingers crossed!
Life with family is sweet. Abigail is wonderful. Megan and I have been posting lots of pix and short videos on Facebook. Tune in!
Where is a good place to buy a loveseat?
Megan and I went to Ikea and sat on all the couches and loveseats and didn’t love any of them. Then we went to Dimensional Outlet Furniture in Oakland. They had a loveseat that we really liked so we put money down on it. That night I went online and found LOTS of poor reviews for the company and especially for the covering material, Durablend. This “bonded leather” product starts flaking off in 3-24 months (review site, TV news scam buster) and the company generally doesn’t care. I’ve cancelled the order. So what sofa/loveseat brands are recommended?
The OT Students’ Commuting Guide to San Jose State University
with input from the SJSU OT class of 2015 and 2016.
This document was last updated August 2015 and may be somewhat out of date. Have an update? Tell me about it in the comments!
Table of Contents
Public Transit
– BART to Fremont -> 181 bus to SJ -> 5 block walk
– Caltrain -> DASH bus
– Amtrak
Driving
– From the East Bay
– From SF / Peninsula
– From Santa Cruz
– From Monterey/Carmel
Parking
Other Campus Services
Managing Your Documents
Printing Documents on Campus
Food Around Campus
As a student, you can ride all Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) buses and light rails free! The light rail runs from Downtown SJ through Mountain View, Santa Clara, South San Jose, Alum Rock, and Campbell. Some stops allow free parking, but there are some that charge a daily rate. See the light rail map here. SJSU is transitioning to a clipper-card based pass system fall 2015. Find out more here. You can request a new Eco Pass here.
Time: 2.25 hours each way from North Berkeley BART
Continue reading ‘The OT Students’ Commuting Guide to San Jose State University’ »
I believe the world is basically a good place. Matt helps remind me.
I’ve followed Matt’s dancing videos over the years with joy. That’s why my family backed Matt’s Kickstarter to help remind us (and everyone) that the world is basically a good place. As he wrote at the top of the Kickstarter, “I dance with people all over the world. I make videos of it and I put them on YouTube to show that the world is a whole lot safer and friendlier than it looks on TV.”
Matt logged his travels for this latest video on Kickstarter. If you want to be reminded how people all over the world are basically good (something the whole U.S. could really use now), read on:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wheretheheckismatt/where-the-heck-is-matt/updates
With my eye medical problems, the university postponed my internship. That was the right thing to do. I had been missing whole days because of doctor visits, was having trouble seeing, and couldn’t focus on learning because of my worries.
Yesterday I went to an eye doctor, Dr. Michel Jumper in Walnut Creek. They took a really close look at my eye (from my vantage point, all the eye scans looked like awesome 1970’s science fiction movie trailers) and got a treatment for the macular edema associated with my CRVO (central retinal vein occlusion). Dr. Jumper injected Avastin in the vitreous humor of my right eye. It hurt a bit afterward. My eye was scratchy later in the evening. But forget all that. The pain and scratchiness is gone and I can see a little better in my right eye today! The doctor said it might take a few days for the best result. I am so relieved.
I’ve been in contact with my fieldwork adviser and I hope to have a spring semester internship to finish my occupational therapy master’s degree.
Please Don’t Vote For Trump
America doesn’t need a xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, pants on fire liar leader who’s main tactics are fear, uncertainty and doubt , bullying, and bankruptcy courts. The competition, Hillary has her faults but they are the typical foibles of a career politician, not of a dangerous demagogue.
Eye Problems
Two weeks ago I noticed difficulty seeing out of my right eye. I couldn’t read text on the computer or on paper, it was too blurry. After two visits to the UC Berkeley Meredith Morgan Eye Center and a battery of blood tests to rule out underlying issues, I’ve been diagnosed with non-ischemic central retinal vein occlusion with mild macular edema. The doctors have been saying “You’re too young for this disorder”. But, except for some risk factors that I don’t have, this disorder is idiopathic, which means that no one knows why I got it. And there’s no treatment for the main symptoms. Just wait and hope it gets better. My doctor, an expert in the field, told me today that 1/3 get better, 1/3 stay the same, 1/3 get worse.
I’ve occasionally been bumping into things on my right side. I can’t read with my right eye… I’m typing this keeping my right eye shut. Moving around takes more energy because I have to focus more on where I’m going. My depth perception is much worse, and my ability to discriminate objects at a distance is reduced. This sucks.
I’ll be going for an eye treatment soon to address the macular edema. Please wish me good luck.
.
Some details about how it started: on Thursday October 20th I woke up and stumbled around the bedroom more than usual. My right eye was seeing spots and my vision was a lot darker than my left. I assumed that I had rolled onto my right eye with my pillow and went on with my day. Friday the same thing happened. Saturday wasn’t as bad in the morning but at around 9:30pm I was reading on my computer, and thinking something was wrong, I closed my left eye. I noticed several places in my vision that were hazy. It was like I was looking through a glass pane with several water drops drizzled across it. Within a few minutes, I called the 24 hour line at Meredith Morgan Eye Center.
Looking for Book / Magazine Recommendations for 2-5 year old!
What are some good magazines for my almost 2 year old daughter?
Maybe you could comment on these suggestions…
To start off the list…
– Games Magazine Junior Kids’ Big Book of Games
– High Five
– Highlights for Children
– Ranger Rick Jr
If you’re a friend and would like our new address, please write to me!
We now live in a two-bedroom apartment in a four apartment building in North Berkeley, California. The house sits at the end of a long driveway, making it pleasantly secluded in a great neighborhood. We have our own private patio and we open the back fence to a communal 1/4 acre back yard with grass, trees and bocce court!
We live just a few blocks away from a great grocery store (Monterey Market), and a row of stores with a meat market, fish market, cheese market, bakery, Chinese restaurant, pizza place, wine store, coffee shop, and plant nursery! The neighborhood is full of kids under three years old, and just four blocks away is a large playground with everything from tennis courts, swings, and a public pool. We were very cramped in our one bedroom apartment with very few friends or neighbors to talk to.
Right now the place is full of boxes but we are rapidly making headway! We’ll be having a house-warming party soon.
We’re all well. Abigail is growing, drawing, climbing, and telling us about her world all the time. Megan is chilling at home now that her school year has ended. And Lee’s school fieldwork is a refreshing change, with fewer hours and a much more gentle commute.
Lee, Megan, and Abigail