music, therapy, and me

Today is the second day of this week off, and I am only five weeks away from retirement. I am thinking about what I am going to do next, and things are coming into focus - sorta, kinda, well, it changes all the time. I am hoping that this is something that most retirees go through; the lack of a plan which makes it scary and exhilarating at the same time. I will be sending my pension information to the state offices on Tuesday to get my first pension payment at the end of July. I found a way to get some documents that I need to prove that I am who I am, so I will be sending my information in when the post office opens up again. That is the final step in this pension process, and it was my quest to get it finished before this time but the state of Texas screwed up my document request. Oh well. Here's the start of my plan: I enjoy sharing information with other people, especially with other music therapists. I love making things for music therapists to use to enhance their interactio...

You may be thinking "why May 21st as the start of a new year?" Valid question, but it is the start of my new year. Today is my birthday, and I am being recognized for retiring at the school district breakfast before heading back to work for the last three groups of the regular school year. After tomorrow's training, I will have some time to load up my car and bring more things back here before a week off. After that, I have four weeks of summer school before I am cut loose and ready to move out and move on. So, happy birthday to me, and thank goodness that this year is over! This year has been a challenging for me. It included colon cancer, the removal of about 16 inches of my large intestine (and the removal of my cancer), trips for my sister and mom to help me out with all of that rot, the introduction of new specialists into my medical routine and rotation, and more colonoscopy preparations than anyone should have in a 12-month span. I am ready for a new year of life a...

I was scrolling on my Instagram feed, the way that I do, and saw a post from a teacher speaking about using a kite flying analogy to teach a math concept to her high school students. They did not understand, and the teacher finally realized that it was because her students had never flown kites. She bought a bunch of kites and had the students fly them outside to get that experience. This post made me think a bit about experiences. One of the things that all humans do is assume that their lived experiences are similar to the lived experiences of all humans. In fact, there is a developmental process where children start to be aware of similarities and differences between them, their families, and the families of others. It is easy to assume that every person has flown a kite at least once in their lives, and this assumption also applies to us in the music therapy world. As a vintage music therapist, I have been involved in the music therapy world as both a student and professional for 3...

It is Graduation day at my facility, and we will be celebrating the shift from student to young adult transitioning to the work world for four of our clients today.  Graduation used to be a transition out of the facility and into adult programming, but now we have a transition program, so that doesn't happen as much anymore. In fact, I think that one of our clients will be pretty angry when the realization comes across that this day does not mean leaving and doing what is wanted where and when but means about four more years of potentially being part of the program. The other three students are following similar patterns, but they don't really seem to mind. It is always humbling to be part of this ceremony. It is the one time where I get to see family members of my clients. Isn't that strange? Unfortunately, the music therapist is not someone that is seen during conferences or sought out at other times at my facility. So, this ceremony gives me a glimpse into the family sys...

Oh, reader of mine, I have finished my last Talent Show at my job, and it was a doozy! Not for my performers, but for me! At 10am, my slipped discs moved into absolute pain stage. Things just pinged and were accompanied by sharp, deep pain. Of course, the talent show started at 1:15, so I had to hobble to my desk and request assistance from my big kids to take things down to the gym. Then, none of the speakers worked with the adapters and cords that I had available. We ended up starting 15 minutes later than planned as I tried to get my pain-filled body to and from my music room to the gym more than I originally wanted to get some sort of music system happening. I finally rigged a microphone to the bluetooth speaker, but that's a really poor way to run music. No more! (I am going to order a bluetooth speaker system for the next music therapist to use. I am not going to pay for this one, but it is imperative that the next person does not have to struggle through the things I've ...

Today is the day. Today is the last Talent Show that I will run at my current facility. I have no idea if there will be a Talent Show next year, and I am okay with that thought - mostly. I have sixteen acts to coordinate and one of the students is coordinating a "surprise" for me that I will have to play guitar for... we'll see how it goes. I think I have run at least 29 of these shows. We even did virtual talent shows during COVID. It has been an interesting process of finding how I like to run things to provide my clients with opportunities to show off a bit. There is not one right way to run anything, and I've found that my attitude towards the talent show is that flexibility has to be the key. I've had students freak out about being looked at by everyone in the school and run out to pull the fire alarm. After that happened, the student sent someone to tell me that the student wanted another chance. I did not allow that. Sorry, but putting everyone in potential...