music, therapy, and me

I start back to work on Thursday this week which means that I have three more days of my first summer break to enjoy and work through. I figured out which houses would be for which note on the staff yesterday, so my planning for my Notation Neighborhood is progressing...slowly. I still have a sink full of dishes - need to get that taken care of immediately! Be right back... Things weren't as bad as I thought they would be with the whole dish situation - I had used almost all of the forks that I owned, but silverware was the only full section of the washer. Things are being washed now, so that chore is off the list. There are smaller things left to do, but the big one - those dishes are started. The end of break always comes too soon. I don't think I would feel that way if I had the entire summer off, but I have never had that experience, so I cannot say for certain. Anyway, I'm in the same old pattern of complaining, and I do not want to be in that sort of mood, so I am goi...

I have finished the first week (and first chapter) of John Pellitteri's Emotional Processes in Music Therapy book, written in 2009, and published by Barcelona Publishing. I am enjoying this perspective about therapeutic relationship and how emotion plays a part in all that we do and perceive. I am actually excited about what I am being challenged to consider, and it is only the end of the first chapter! I started off with the table of contents as well as the "About the Author" portion of the book. I like getting a bit of perspective about what I will be reading about and who ends up writing books like these. I know another person named Pellitteri, so I admit to wondering if there is a link between the Pellitteri I know and this one - I have no clue, but it is interesting to think about... ANYWAY... The author started off by discussing the relevance of emotion research to music therapy and why we need to know about it all. The author makes a point to indicate that the the...

This is exactly how much I accomplished yesterday on my Music Therapy Maker project... I looked at the pictures that I have in my clip art collection. Ugh. It's no wonder I never get anything finished. I have little to no follow through! This is very frustrating for me because I love making things and I get so much joy out of it all, but I just don't do any of it! Okay, enough of the self-castigation and shame spiral. Yesterday's book sent out into the world . So, I had big plans but didn't get anywhere on THOSE plans. I did get some of the little things done that I spoke about. There are lights in my closet now and I started taking things out of the closet and folding clothing into summer and winter clothing. I also finished my laundry, made my bed, took my latest book project to the post office, went to the Dollar Tree and remembered one of the things that I wanted to get there, read a couple of YA books for fun, and watched entirely way too much television. So, thing...

I am bored. This happens during breaks. There is just too much to do here at home, so I am overwhelmed and a bit depressed that I haven't accomplished much, and some denial about what I will actually get finished during the remaining time off from work, and disinterest in going back to work the way it is right now, so this all adds up to boredom in my mind. I am bored. I want to do so much, but I am not doing any of those things. In fact, I am just sitting here writing my THIRD blog post of the day - the other two were not really all that thrilling so were deleted. I am watching The Mandalorian because, why not? I have a package that I need to send out into the world later today, but the post office doesn't open until 8:30. That's 2 hours off still, so you know, can't do much about all that. I need to make the bed with clean sheets, start clearing out the closet and transferring winter clothing and summer clothing, and continue my ongoing quest for decluttering, all whi...

I was able to see the full moon last night for a little bit. This is a pretty big deal for me because a) I am a full moon type of person - waited to be born (3 weeks late) for the full moon and have always cycled with the moon phases according to Mom; b) I love watching the moon change its aspect with the days; and c) we haven't had any sort of clear skies for what feels like years here. It has been a long time of overcast skies without precipitation - what a waste! Last night, though, there were occasional glimpses of the full flower moon (in perigee, by the way) Anyway, I woke up very early (which is something I do on most full moon days) and decided to try to see the partial eclipse (from my area of the world) which happened this morning. I couldn't. The clouds are back and covered up the entire sky. There was no hint or inkling of anything above us except for clouds. I was a bit disappointed, but also pretty resigned to the fact that I do not get to see many of these types ...

The most important tool that I have ever developed for myself is my therapeutic music experience (TME) database. Oh, the benefits of this database!! Let me try to persuade you to set up your own database/system of keeping track of your ideas in the next few paragraphs as part of my TME Tuesday posts...are you ready? Here we go! When I was first offered the opportunity to write TMEs (now, it wasn't as much of an opportunity as it was a class assignment), computers were not really all that prevalent in our everyday world. Yep, I am that old. We didn't have cell phones that doubled as our storage link to the cloud and all that. I started writing my TMEs on index cards, and I continued doing that until I purchased my first personal computer of my very own. At that point in my life, I had two boxes full of index cards and lots of new ideas to put into the computer, so I started to figure out what I needed to do and then how to get those things done. I now have a database of TME idea...

Today is the first Monday of my break and day four of my new year. It is going to be an interesting day since it is my brother's anniversary (he's now divorced) and is my father's birthday. We will be getting together with his twin sister later today to celebrate their birthdays and to mourn his loss earlier this year. It will be a day of crying and laughing. We are going to try to celebrate more than mourn but we are also going to just be present for her. I am also going to send out a book that I made into the world. Someone actually asked for one of my little books, so it is heading out this morning. I will also go shopping for some food stuffs and some tissues. I need cheese and some go-withs to supplement what I already have here, so it should be a quick shopping trip. I may even go to Target (I don't go there often). I also have a book request from another friend, so I will be thinking about how I can make that book. The request includes some specialty papers (whic...

It is time to catch up a bit on my music therapy reading. I set a goal for myself of getting through 13 music therapy texts in this year. I have finished two books - well, three if you count the book on American folk songs that I read the first part of and then realized that is was mainly descriptions of song origins and how the American versions differed from the other versions. I may never finish that one. So, I guess I am only two books into my stack. With the next 10 days of break ahead of me, I can probably make some inroads into that stack! I am currently working on reaching my Goodreads goal of 250 books this year by reading cozy mysteries on my Kindle. I am not where I want to be on that goal either, but I am confident that I can catch up pretty well. See, the simple fact is that I love reading. It has always been my leisure activity of choice - to sit down with a book and see what types of things I can glean from the pages. While I love to read, I have less motivation when it ...

Yesterday was my birthday, and I spent it the way I hope to spend many more birthdays - quietly. It was a "work from home" day originally scheduled as an inservice day, so I had the opportunity to save some time and gasoline by remaining at home rather than heading to work. I didn't "work from home" much yesterday, but I will make up for that time in the next couple of days. I did spend some time making things in my craft room and then napping for a long, luxurious period. I had ice cream for dinner and then slept all night. It was a good day and hit some of the things that I love best about breaks from working. I am a bit more ambitious about today. This is the second day of my first summer break, and I want to get a start on some of the decluttering that I desperately need to continue. Spending time in my craft room yesterday demonstrated to me that I have too much stuff just sitting around that needs to be removed from my life without another thought. I get t...

Forgive me as I slip into my rant mode, because this rant is probably going to be prolonged and very opinionated and somewhat personal to my own experience. That's what makes a rant, a rant! Just so you know, you are welcome to challenge, support, or be completely offended by what I write - these opinions are my own and you are welcome to your own opinions about any and everything that I write about. If you want to talk things through, then feel free to leave a comment or contact me via social media. I will be happy to talk to you further! Now, please stay tuned for the rant... Disclaimer: This post was inspired by a vague post left by one of my music therapy acquaintances. I have no idea what the original circumstances were or what was said by any party or anything like that, so I am responding to the vague statements left by my acquaintance. I also do not believe that this situation is unique to music therapists. Read on for more. Rant in 3...2...1... Several years ago, I was a m...