music, therapy, and me

Today is the last day of the mid-summer break that I get during our Extended School Year every year. Tomorrow is my return to my music therapy room, my current intern, and all my clients. There will be some new clients and other clients will be gone. A week is a long time in the term of a psychiatric residential treatment facility, and it is always interesting to see what happens during our breaks. It is also interesting to see how many emails come through during that time. Most of the ones that I receive have little to nothing to do with me... I am never really all that ready to head back to work during our breaks. A week off is just not enough time for me to finish up things at home, get bored, and then start getting ready to return to work. I only truly feel refreshed when we get into two weeks away from work. I don't get that length of time off anymore. We used to, but not now. Now, the longest duration of any break is about 13 days - not quite enough for me to get bored while ...

One of the benefits to having had COVID recently has been the absolute need to stay at home without going anyplace. I have been out of my house twice in the past (almost) two weeks, and I stayed in the car the entire time I was "out." I am getting ready to head out tomorrow evening (fully masked) to go to my friend's husband's celebration of life. I will also be spending some time with the lawn guy today - again, completely and fully masked. I may also go driving just to feel like I've been out. Yesterday, my first post in a long time started me thinking about some possible options for me. I have decided to be an exhibitor at the Midwestern region conference next spring. Right now, it is scheduled to be live, so I think I can pick up where I had to leave off in March 2020 when I was getting ready to have an exhibit for the very first time. I still have some of the products that I made back then, so I can just keep producing things for this upcoming spring event. E...