music, therapy, and me

It is the dawn of day three of the regular school year, and I just plain old don't want to go today.  This is not uncommon for me around this time of year. I am feeling pretty arthritic and tired and crabby, so I just don't want to leave my bed and go anywhere. I know that I need a paycheck, so I go anyway. Once I'm at work, I am completely happy to be there, but it is the process of getting there that I do not like. It was hard to get upright this morning. It doesn't help that today is a Wednesday. We have six groups today. I am tired just thinking about it. Once September starts, Wednesdays are my choir rehearsal nights, so the day is full from dawn to past dusk. So, I usually feel this way on Wednesdays. The rest of this week will be really easy. We see three groups on Thursdays and two groups on Fridays. I am filling the gaps in our Thursday schedule by adding in push-in groups for some of our classrooms and scheduling some individual sessions. My Fridays are being ...

Today is the day that I go towards one of the best and most challenging events of my year - the AMTA National Conference. At one time, my conference time was full of meetings and deep thinking and actively helping others. Now, not so much, and that has been an interesting challenge in itself. I seriously contemplated not going to conference this year, but I was accepted to present, so I decided to go. I waver between being glad that I am going and anxiety episodes about the entire experience. One of my fondest memories of my undergraduate education is sitting around a table with my music therapy cohort, banging our fists, and yelling, "It just doesn't matter!" over and over again. We did this to help us relieve the stress that came along with senior classes and the internship uncertainty. For me, however, it became a mantra to remember. This will be my quest for this conference - to remember that events that seem huge to me really are not that huge - in fact, most of ...

Ugh. I have to go to work today and do music therapy.  Most of the time, this is a good thing, but I'm just not really feeling it right now. This is probably due to several things. First, no one in my family is having to work right now - they get to hang around the pool, go to the beach, and go do touristy things whenever they want. Second, it is hot and sunny here. I don't do very well on hot, sunny days. The humidity just wears me out and makes me hurt everywhere, so I don't look forward to heat advisories and high humidity. Third, I am tired. Just plain old tired. There is no good reason, but I'm tired. So, today it is taking an effort to get myself up and out the door. I will be fine once I get started, but I'm not getting started easily. The day started before my alarm light went off. (I can't use an alarm clock because they startle me too much. Imagine every day starting with a startle reflex. It's not pretty, and the cat hates when I bolt out of...