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This Month. Ugh.

There are two days left of the month of April. May is fast approaching, and I am not ready for all of this stuff! I have only two months left of my working life at my current job. That is wild! Meanwhile, my house is looking more and more cluttered as I bring home instruments, visuals, manipulatives, gross motor implements, and toys back to sit in my living room until I can find them another place to reside. I have accumulated lots of things in my work life, so I am faced with lots of inquiries about whether I will use specific things again. I made progress on my organization on Sunday. I spent some time moving my music books and my music therapy textbooks into the library closet where they will reside from now on. I have a loose system happening there - nothing really formal yet, but sheet music arranged by type and textbooks arranged by subject area - sorta. I went through four large totes and convinced my brain that it is a good thing to throw things away. It really is. Once I can e...
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Therapy Technique Tuesday: Taking Time to Navigate My Emotions

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This has been a rough couple of weeks at my place. We have had more assists in music therapy than in months and months of time. I have had to initiate an assist in the past seven days which ALWAYS makes me hesitant to return in a therapeutic relationship with clients. I really hate putting hands on clients who are in crisis and hurting self, others, and are creating significant property damage, but it is part of my job as music therapist at my facility. As a result, my own emotions have been out of control. We are all in a place of exhaustion and emotional lability, so it becomes more important for me to utilize my rational brain rather than my emotional brain when I am in the role of therapist. When there are emotional outbursts that lead to aggression and assists in my area, I tend to go into my own crisis cycle - my thinking becomes limited, my body braces for flight/fight/freeze responses, and I get into a tizzy. This has become more difficult to navigate lately - so many reasons w...
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Stormy Weather

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I woke up very early this morning. This is not unusual for a Monday morning, and I think there is a bit of time anxiety at work on these early mornings, but I still don't like it. Thunder is rumbling in the distance, and it looks like it might rain most of the day. The stormy weather might just be the reason behind my angst and wakefulness.  Ooh, that was a close lightning strike - loud thunder almost immediately after the flash.  I still have an hour before I need to leave for work, but I have a long list of things that I need to accomplish in that hour. Blogging is one of those things, but it is not the only thing that I have on my morning list. Once I am finished with the things that I have to finish up before I leave for work, I have to navigate 50 miles to my place of business in the storm. Once I get to work, it will be time to set up my April musician list for our sessions this week. It is time for leisure/choice time as well as for learning a bit about musicians who we...
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And I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For...

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It has been and interesting couple of days around here - I have been trying to find a copy of my birth certificate so I can send in my pension paperwork. I know I have three of them somewhere, but I cannot locate them anywhere. I have since purchased a fire-safe lock box to put these types of things in, but it doesn't arrive until Tuesday. After that, I will put the paperwork I have into that box so they are all contained in the same place. I am frustrated with myself at this point due to this, but I can always order more, if I need to. The thing is that I know I had them when I renewed my passport, and I have the new passport and the old one, so I know that my certificate was returned at some point, but I just cannot find the copy anywhere I thought it would be. Blech. I have, however, found lots of other things in my searches through my boxes of stuff. I need so much more space for all the junk that I have around me, but that isn't going to happen. I need to be downsizing. Th...
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Preparation and Planning Day

It is FINALLY Friday, and today will be a quiet one in the music therapy room. I have two groups and my individual session is cancelled due to an almost school-wide field trip. Storms went through my area last night and should be over for today - they will return tomorrow and Sunday - so my students can go frolic in the outside at a local farmstead. I am hoping for an upfront parking spot so I can fill my car with stuff from my storage area. I also have to head to the district office to get some paperwork notarized. I tried to do that yesterday - it was dismissal and a HUGE mistake! I did not get there and could not take my time to explore the area because of the countless cars, walkers, and buses that were in the way. I will head over there this morning to be notarized so I can send off paperwork that needs to be done soon. I've now wasted much of my early morning time searching for a copy of my birth certificate. I know I have one, but I don't know where it is. Where I though...
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Gosh Almighty

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I am feeling crabby and cranky this morning - there are storms coming in quickly, and I have not been sleeping well lately. Both of those things are contributing to my mood and my attitude as I am getting ready for my morning commute. It is Thursday which means that I have four groups today and then two groups tomorrow. My individual session will be cancelled due to a field trip tomorrow, so I will have a little bit more time to clean and organize things. I have been trying to bring things home slowly, but it is time to ramp up the purge. Nine weeks left after tomorrow to get my stuff back here. Emotions are running high at work right now. The aforementioned field trip has become a matter of contention for so many, including the principal who sent out an email about making sure that state testing was finished or no trip! So, there must be some folks who have not finished their state testing yet. As an educational enrichment specialist, I do not have to worry about state testing (whew -...
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What I Will NOT Miss About My Current Job

So, I will be leaving my current job in nine and a half weeks. I am retiring and am struggling a bit with the lack of direction in my near future. At the same time, though, I am a bit energized by this opportunity to go do something else. As part of this, I am going to list some of the things that I will not miss about my current job... I will not miss the following: Prohibition of balloons - it will be nice to have a bit of flexibility when it comes to using balloons in music therapy sessions. I have so many balloon therapeutic music experiences (TMEs) that I have not been able to use because we don't have balloons around due to choking risks. Lack of communication - At least when I am working for myself, I will know all the things happening. "Happy children making happy sounds." - Ugh. I had an ineffective principal who liked to use platitudes rather than engage in complete sentences. She once told me that she didn't care what I did in music therapy as long as the f...
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