February Updates

I can't even believe that we are just about 2 months into 2016 already.  Yikes!  Time flies!  I still have so many things I want to experience before winter is over, including snowshoeing to Nambe Lake, so I hope Santa Fe sees a few more inches of snow before spring arrives officially, but for now I am really enjoying the sunshine and unseasonably warm afternoons!  


Jaycob and I just returned from the Combined Sections Meeting of the American Physical Therapy Association, which is the largest annual Physical Therapy conference of the year.  This year's conference was held in Anaheim and there were 12,000 PTs in attendance.  I attended 9 two-hour courses, plus a lecture and some section-specific meetings, and also visited the research posters.  Every time I go to a conference I come back inspired and energized about my profession and all the great work that my colleagues are doing!  I have a long list of professional development goals and projects to initiate after the classes I attended, but the overall take-home messages that stood out to me were: 1) to advocate for my profession and practice autonomously, despite the obstacles of this type of practice in the acute care setting, 2) to approach workplace conflict head-on and embrace opportunities to provide education to other disciplines, even when it's easier to practice avoidance, 3) to "be the change I wish to see in the world" (as the saying goes), but also to be patient, as sometimes a change in healthcare culture can take up to 17 years to transpire, and 4) to surround myself with people who uphold the same standards of practice as myself.  I look forward to continuing to lead in my department with the new knowledge I have gained, and I'm already collaborating with a group of therapists in the Midwest to possibly present a course next year in San Antonio!  I love my job :-)  


5K season is upon us and the warm weather is getting me thinking about spring races!  I thoroughly enjoyed my Half Marathon in January (do only crazy people actually say those words??) and I am improving my 10K times, but 5Ks are really my favorite distance.  I can go hard for the entire run, but there is still an element of pacing involved, and I generally feel good afterwards.  I was recently checking out the Spring Shoe Guide from Runner's World and contemplating trying something new for this season, but I'm really liking my Hokas.  They're incredibly light and bouncy.  My next 5K is a trail run in Los Lunas, NM, on March 12th, followed by a handful of road races in April! 


Finally, I am having so much fun with the Book Club that my friend and I started last November.  It's a great group of women with a shared interest in literature (and of course wine).  Here are a few of the books keeping me busy this month (and ones I hope to dive into in March):

Kitchens of the Great Midwest, by J. Ryan Stradal
Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff
The Devil's Butcher Shop: The New Mexico Prison Uprising, by Roger Morris
Mending the Torn Fabric, by Sarah Brabant
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales, by Oliver Sacks
Why Not Me?, by Mindy Kaling
Sum It Up: 1,098 Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective, by Pat Summitt
Early Warning, by Jane Smiley
The Silkworm, by Robert Galbraith
The Nature of the Beast, by Louise Penny
The Husband's Secret, by Liane Moriarty
Brooklyn, by Colm Toibin
Let's Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir, by Jenny Lawson
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, by Simon Singh
My Life on the Road, by Gloria Steinem
A Little Life, by Hanya Yanagihara
Circling the Sun, by Paula McLain


That's all for now!  Happy Almost-Leap-Day!


Comments

  1. I've said it before - but I'm constantly in awe of how many books you are able to read a year! Do you have any tips you can share on how you are able to get through so many (e.g. mostly audio books during commutes, setting a specific amount of time to read each day at lunch or before bed, having super-fast reading skills)? Also, how do you get most of your books? Audio from Audible, ebooks online, library, Half-Priced Books, bookswaps, etc.?

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    1. Thanks, Becky! I don't think I really have any specific tips. I read at lunch sometimes and I like audiobooks when I run. I use Audible, Kindle books, and library books a lot. That's about it! :) Oh and my book club keeps me motivated!

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