Wednesday: Eighteen Days Until the Next Conference

Creativity Camp is finished, so it is time for my next projects! I tend to do this to myself, but I enjoy having several projects going at the same time. In addition to meetings and conferences, I have some written projects to produce. All of this as I try to figure out if I have enough ideas to sustain my life as a music therapy consultant with a small business.

It has been almost a month since I retired from my full-time job as a music therapist in a psychiatric residential treatment facility school. I have not received my first pension payment yet - it is due to arrive in nine days - so, I am currently running my life on my savings. I am paying lots of money for my health insurance, and I am nervous about how I will survive financially during the next couple of months, but I am trying to sustain a new quiet life. One where I can create, interact, support, and benefit fellow music therapists from my home with a bit more freedom than my recent job offered.

In 17 days, we will be gathering to talk about music therapy with adolescents. I have two presentations to prepare. In addition to presentations, I have two networking - information sharing sessions to arrange as well. I am looking forward to this conference - it is another passion project of mine - generating ideas and sharing information for a neglected population in the world of music therapy.

In the meantime, I am doing the administrative tasks for the conference and camp, working on a new sing about songs edition, and trying really hard to start up a routine here at home. I am also signing up for different Zoom groups and classes to keep my brain occupied. I am working on making my environment more pleasing and easier to navigate, but that always takes second place to crafting and doing music therapy things. I haven't played a guitar since June 25th. I am feeling the itch to get a new guitar - all of the ones that I have are in various degrees of disrepair. I want to spend some time writing songs which I have not done much of yet. It is time to sing a bit more as well. I will investigate the different singing groups in my area to see if something will work in my wide open schedule.

Lots is happening on this Wednesday. Most of it is stuff that I am here at home, but I will go to the library this morning and follow up with grocery shopping. After that, who knows what I will do until 6:30pm when I will be joining a discussion with other therapists who work with folks with specific diagnoses similar to my former clients. I have to keep reminding myself that I am joining this group so I don't forget. I asked for the link several months ago and completely forgot. This evening, though, I will NOT forget! I need the networking opportunity.

'Tis the season for thinking about things, I guess. It is time to start working on some more CMTE opportunities and a renewal of my intern webinar topics and meetings. So much to do and so much time to do it in! I am feeling pretty spoiled these days with the amount of time that I have in front of me every day.

See you soon, reader. I appreciate you!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Anticipation Builds...

Ask any school teacher about the week before break and you will get the same response each time - ugh. We are entering that week at my place of work. I am dreading it, but am also looking forward to it. My plan is as follows - clients choose what they are going to do in (some) sessions. Last week, we played Name That Tune. Now, I always fix the games where I get points when my students display unsportsman-like behavior or inappropriate interactions with each other or where I stump everyone in the room with my music selections. I also always cheat at the end with the reckoning of points. Always. I lost. We set it up so that they get to choose what happens in the next session (with guidance from me) if they win. If I win, it's business as usual. Three of my groups will be choosing what they are going to do during their therapy hours. I anticipate lots of karaoke and movie watching during those three hours. I am getting ready for a short week as well as experiencing the week...
Read more

There's Always Something...

I am starting to fill up the gaps in my music therapy schedule with individual music therapy treatment times. This is a great feeling. I'll start individual treatment on July 11th when we come back for our second session of our Extended School Year. I'll get things going for three weeks, reevaluate, and then start up again when the regular school session starts. I am excited about getting back into this type of therapy. I've missed it, but there's something else going on. I'm a bit scared. You would think that my 23+ years of being a therapist would make things lots easier for me to jump back into this type of therapy interaction, but I am a bit scared still. I think most of these feelings have to do with forced light duty and almost a year of being out of my comfortable routine. I know that some of these feelings are rooted in fears of being hurt again. I don't want to be hurt again. I know that many of these feelings are somewhat irrational, but they sti...
Read more

Going on a Squeegee Hunt

One of the songs that I sang over and over and over again as a song leader in Girl Scouts was "Going on a Squeegee Hunt ." Now, you may be wondering what a "squeegee" is - good question! It is an imaginary creature that was probably invented by some obscure girl scout in Southern California many, MANY years ago! Anyway, similar to the traditional children's song of " Going on a Lion/Bear/Tiger Hunt ," the song takes you through a sequential process over, under, around, and through various obstacles towards a goal. Today, as I am sitting here writing, I am thinking about the poor squeegee being hunted. It is just in its cave, trying to do its squeegee things without interruption, when suddenly, BOOM! Some Girl Scout arrives to poke it! The poor squeegee does what it can - it jumps up and chases the Girl Scout all the way home!! This has not been a good work week. It is amazing how people will make mountains out of molehills. Here is the deal. I se...
Read more