Fun Friday: Figuring Things Out

Picture of a red bud tree in bloom (my mom always complains that the buds and flowers on these trees are purple and not red.)
This will probably be a short post because I got out of bed an hour and a half after I woke this morning. I do not have much time to write, but I do want to keep up with my named posts, so here goes.

Today is Friday (thank goodness), and I have a chance to write about something fun... for me, at least.

I am a puzzler. I especially love logic puzzles, and I am very drawn to real-life puzzles. I manufacture puzzles at times just so I have something to solve. Right now, my biggest puzzle is how to do better with using the materials that I have to support music therapy services in my clinic.

Here's how this particular thought got started...

For two weeks now, I have had sessions that I have lots of things that supplement at various places. For example, I have lots of instruments that would have supplemented my unit on the Pacific Island cultures very nicely, but they are at home and not at work. I did not take them into work for this week because I did not remember that I have said instruments until I was in the middle of the sessions on Monday. EERGH!

So, I am now on a quest to create a database that includes a list of all of my materials, cross-referenced with my session themes for each month, and linked to therapeutic music experiences (TMEs). I am also going to shift my TME file a bit - adding a new category for how to include more ways of experiencing the TMEs that I present to my clients. 

I am at the starting point of this quest. I have (almost) an entire day where I do not have client interactions, so I will be figuring out some of the details of this journey today while two fans are installed in my room to help circulate the hot air around this summer since my facility cannot afford to replace the air conditioning unit that I have been complaining about for three and a half years. Fans will be installed later today. Whee!

My favorite thing about figuring things out is that there is no clear path. There are so many ways to proceed, and I will probably end up trying them all! Right now, I have a vision where I can type in my culture of the month and see everything that has been tagged "Pacific Islands" - TMEs, session strategies, books, visuals, games, digital resources, powerpoint presentations, you name it! I then want to click on specific listings and see where those things are stored in my music therapy storage - home, work cabinet #1, etc. I went down a rabbit hole yesterday when looking at barcode scanners and different systems for cataloging things. I have decided that I really don't need those systems right now, but they are something to consider in the future.

Who knows where I will be headed next?? Certainly not me. If you have a good format for what I'm thinking about, would you let me know? Thanks.

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