Getting Into a New Routine...and Announcements!

At Girl Scout Camp, we used to sing a little ditty about Announcements that went a little bit like this...
There are all sorts of verses (many of them very rude because, you know, camp!), but I stuck with one of the most polite ones. Bella-cat included because, you know, CUTENESS! Check out my t-shirt at the end - my dad LOVES punny shirts and found many of them online this year! This is one of them - it felt appropriate for the current climate.

So, I'm starting a few get togethers on social media for the express function of connecting with my music therapy community - Mondays and Tuesdays at 7pm Central Time. This is so we can talk to each other about the things that are happening in our lives with people who understand it the best - each other! Mondays are for anyone - music therapists, students, interns, and Tuesdays are for interns only! There are details on how to register and get more information on the website right there on the home page. Please register so I can send you appropriate links before things get started.

So, I have finished the first two days of being "essential healthcare staff" at my facility. To decrease the amount of time that we are sharing with others, our work schedule has been significantly modified, and I am now doing all session preparation from home rather than breathing the air at work. This is taking some getting used to, but I think it will be doable for the near future.

I am missing the third of students who are not able to attend our school right now, but I know that most of them will be back at some point. It will be interesting to see what an extended time away from structure and educational services will be like once they return.

The worst thing about all of this is that my intern cannot return until we open back up for all of our students. This is because she is a volunteer rather than a paid employee (there are good and bad things about this), so she has to find things to do at home while I am finding things for her to do. We are going to shuffle some of her assignments around so this is not wasted time for her. While I am enjoying the foray into full-time music therapy with my clients again, I am missing the camaraderie of being around interns and students. Their enthusiasm for this profession is really contagious and reminds me every day about how lucky I am to be doing something that I love - AND GETTING PAID TO DO IT!

I celebrated my 27th anniversary yesterday - 27 years of being a professional music therapist doing music therapy things for most of that time (though not all of it) and being grateful that I am able to sing and play and make things that have to do with music and therapy and people and emotion...

It's been fun, and I am looking forward to the next decade (at least) of what will happen in this wonderful profession!

It's time for me to start my music therapy preparation day - first up? Making some free Earth Day visual aids that I found online - Click here to find all sorts of FREE resources to print and make! I may end up filming my file folder making process at some point - I need to clear things a bit in my living room first - for a "Make It With Me" type of video. Anyway, time to get started.

I hope that you are able to find things to do to keep busy in a productive way during this time of uncertainty and social distancing. Thinking of you. Thanks for reading all this!!

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