music, therapy, and me

Currently, there are a BUNCH of new students who are having difficulties getting into the idea of school. The sheer number of tantrums over being asked to sit in a chair rather than running around the room is ridiculous, and all I can think is the song, "That Don't Impress Me Much" by Shania Twain. Over my career, I have seen so many things that were surreal. It takes quite a bit of novelty to make me take notice. A screaming temper tantrum is not something novel, but for some reason, our current crop of students think that they will get what they want when they engage in this course of action. The best boss I ever had said something once that I often think about. She told us that our job was the equivalent of doing the box step in dancing. This analogy continued with the reinforcement of the thought that we exist in the lives of our clients to provide structure and clear expectations. We move in a predictable manner, always box stepping - nothing too exciting, but someth...

My sister read my blog post yesterday and noted that music is missing from my self-care routine. It is true, music does not feature in my self-care routine. I do not listen to much music outside of my music therapy clinic, and I no longer make music in a community of musicians. So, music is not a big part of my life outside of what I share with my clients. I'm not sure how I feel about this. This is not something new (even the lack of musicking in a community of musicians has lasted over a year and a half now), but it is interesting to me. After a day of handling the emotions of others and navigating the world of music therapy with my population, I need something different to fill up my background. My noise creator of choice is television shows and movies. I have a bunch of things downloaded to my Kindle, so I have company through stories during my commutes. I do not stream music outside of my therapy space, so music is not something that I really use when on the move. Here at home...

I don't want to go to work today. I just want to sleep in my comfortable bed, but I have used up all of my allotted days for time off, so I will get myself to work to do music therapy stuff with my clients.  I know that my feelings have more to do with the current state of the world and my facility than me, but that is little comfort when the dread of having to go to work takes over. Of course, this is also affected by the fact that we have had very few five day work weeks in the past seven weeks since our Winter Break. It is also affected by the fact that we still have three weeks until our Spring Break. Also, many of my therapy cohort were gone yesterday. They have time off still. Lucky ducks - mine was taken up by my colon cancer surgery at the very start of the school year. Oh well. I knew this was going to happen. Since I cannot take time away from work without financial repercussions, I have to find my self-care in other ways. Right now, self-care is coming through eating bet...

This is the time of year when school work seems to be never-ending. For some reason, the spring semester is SO much LONGER than the fall semester. I don't know why that is, but it is. Today is the start of the three weeks we have before Spring Break. After break, we have a stretch of time that just goes on and on and on before the end of the regular school year. For some reason, most of our days off happen before Winter Break and the spring has very little to look forward to in terms of self-care and designated time off. We also haven't had many snow days this year - just one so far, and very little indication that others will happen. Of course, the weather is still very unpredictable, but I'm not holding my breath for more inclement weather days this school year. This also makes the spring semester seem very long. In my behavior management training, we are often told to consider the difference between actual and psychological time, especially when in conflict with a studen...

Today is the start of the #The100DayProject , a creative challenge that lasts for 100 days starting today. This is the third time that I am attempting this challenge, and I have decided to make things using the stuff that I already have rather than purchasing new materials for the next 100 days. I started yesterday because I had a creative itch that I needed to scratch. I made a summer-themed journal with some paper that I bought about a year ago. It is not finished, but I made a good start on it. The cover is done, except for the strings to keep the signatures secured. It is a frothy type of journal - lots of pastel colors. I will post pictures when it gets a bit more finished. I will not be creating every day of the next 100 days, but I do strive to use what I have in my creative exploits. I have lots of materials to use and to use up. I have stamps and dies and paper and cardboard and all the stuff. I am allowed to buy double sided tape if I need it, but everything else is off the p...

I had a couple of rage moments yesterday at work. They were not pretty, and one of my suitemates came over and shoved some chocolate under my nose to placate me. It helped a bit, but I was still very angry at the situations and people involved. This has been a long week. It started with a day off where I got many things done. For some reason, Monday days off make the rest of the work week go poorly. In addition, we had to work 11 hours on Wednesday to make up time in our contracted hours. So, we ended up working a 36 hour week rather than a 40 hour week. The extended hours meant that I had to take my pain medication later than usual so I ended up being very tired yesterday morning which did not help my disposition. All sorts of things just culminated in a temper tantrum yesterday afternoon. I am a bit ashamed about this, but I am also reaching the end of my patience. People are shouting out comments about my retirement in the hallway when I am not ready to share that with the general p...