The Scholastic Book Fair Warehouse!!!

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to enter nirvana.

Confession time - I am a bibliophile.

If I had to choose between food or books, the decision would be VERY difficult. I would certainly decrease the quality of my food choices so I could also get books. The best thing EVER is a library card - I can use books and then get new ones. I love history, mystery, scientific texts,  music books, poetry books, atlases, journals, science fiction, romance novels, anything with Grover from Sesame Street in it, and more! I am afraid to start to count my books - there are a mind-numbing number of books in my home.

I enjoy everything about a book. I love holding them, I love listening to them as I use them, I like the way they smell. Books have been such a huge part of my life that I do not feel complete without a book at my fingertips.

So, an invitation to the Scholastic Book Fair Warehouse sale was a social event I could not resist!

My sister is a second grade teacher in California, and she gets these invitations on a regular basis. She has taken me to the warehouse near her in CA, but it has always been closed. That has been a cruel experience - being so close, yet still so far away!

Yesterday, my world opened up with my own invitation and my own warehouse to explore.

I entered the room, fastpass in hand, and started to walk down the aisles. Now, Scholastic hosts book fairs in schools across the country. When book fair season is finished, they send back the extra books and sell them for dramatic discounts to teachers and other school personnel. The warehouse is only open to the public for a short amount of time. I went to the first aisle and just stopped in shock. Seven feet of books to choose from. About 20 rows of shelves. About 50 feet of shelving per row. Oh my.

I was able to escape nirvana with 14 books and only spending $48.86 this time. Unfortunately, they gave me another coupon so I will be returning. Hopefully I will be able to get over my feelings of overstimulation and will be able to focus on purchasing books that will enrich my clients' music therapy experience. I think there will be lots of things that I can use in my practice, but, for the moment, I will just revel in the bliss of books.

I hope that there is something in your life that produces the feelings that I experienced for a short time yesterday. Find that thing and enjoy it! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear AMTA

Dear American Music Therapy Association: I am debating long and hard about remaining in this relationship. I have been in this relationship since college, and this is not a decision that I am taking lightly or without great cost.  I am not happy with what you are bringing to this relationship. Now, I have been a selfish partner over the past several years - mainly because I am not feeling like we share a common mission anymore. It is easy for me to place the blame on you, but I know that this is not all on me. I have tried to be invested in communication and support and understanding, but everyone comes to a time where enough is enough. I am trying very hard to decide if the benefits that you provide to me are worth the feelings that I have about where I think you and I are going. I am not sure that our destination is the same anymore, and this makes me sad. To be completely honest, I am only in this relationship these days for the music therapy interns. I don't think that is a hea...
Read more

Songwriting Sunday: Repetition

Image
One of the things that I find to be helpful with my client population (children, adolescents, and young adults with dual diagnoses) is repetition of phrases, lyrics, and music. As a result of 30+ years of working with this population in various iterations, I have found that my clients respond the most to songs with three repeated phrases to prime their responses with a different phrase to communicate the important part of the experience. DISCLAIMER: This is not a definite way to write music for clinical interactions. This is what seems to work well with my particular group of human beings. Don't go to your supervisors and tell them that I told you that this is the ONLY way to write music - It is NOT! You have to find what works for your clients and for their clinical goals. Since my clients respond well to this type of song, I tend to write songs in this format more than any other. What I have found is that my clients remember these songs more than the ones that I do in different f...
Read more

Being An Internship Director: On Hiatus

Image
It has been long enough since I have had an intern that I am seriously feeling like I have little to say on the subject. At the same time, I am currently writing Chapter 5 of my general internship handbook, so I am able to write about being an intern and what types of things to think about during this important time in our professional development. It is a strange place to be in, and it is one that is a bit challenging for me. Right now, I have had three vacant internship positions since the beginning of the calendar year. I will have a vacant position next month and that will be an entire year of rejected offers. In the past nine months, I have offered positions to three applicants who have declined. It is interesting how people complain that there aren't enough internship programs, but programs like mine are empty. I guess there aren't enough internship programs that pay large stipends (which mine cannot) out there. I get it. It is interesting to me how we have moved from an ...
Read more