music, therapy, and me

I am home from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and the World Congress for Music Therapy. I am recuperating from some pretty severe jet lag caused by my trip back home from the western side of the continent to the eastern side of the continent and then back to the middle of this continent - all in 24 hours. Vancouver was a beautiful city, with many beautiful things, but it was also a city that had lots of unhoused people who were shooting up on the streets. I have never seen heroin users shooting up before, and they were there, all over parts of the city. Apparently there are no prohibitions to using drugs as long as you only possess enough for personal use. As a result, there are many people who are using drugs and unhoused and with mental illness wherever you go. My therapist nature kicked in and wanted to problem-solve, but my attentions would be better focused here than there. It was interesting to see and experience. One of the things that struck me about the things that we did...

Today is travel day again. I am going to an airport that I have only been in once before - a VERY long time ago - and will be cooped up in a plane for about seven hours in total. Once I get home, I have to remember which parking structure is mine, scrape off snow and ice, and then drive for an hour to get to my house. It's going to be a very long day. Yesterday, Mom and I had a quiet day. We only left the house to send my boxes back to my residence. That's it. No shopping, no food, just being at home. Mom made grilled cheese for lunch and spaghetti for dinner. Sister and Mom went shopping after dinner, and I just remained where I was. When I am on vacation, I need these types of days - the very quiet ones - to help me find my rest. Tomorrow is set to be a lazy day. I have a meeting with my financial advisor and that's about it. I will do some unpacking and some cleaning and then just rest for a couple of days before heading back to work for the long stretch between spring b...

As of 3:05pm this afternoon, I will be on bereavement/personal leave and will be heading east towards my cousin's memorial service. I am both looking forward to being there and dreading it at the same time. There are way too many reasons to get into here, but this may be a difficult week for me. I am looking forward to my stay in various hotels as well as spending time with family members, but I am not happy about the fact that we are having to memorialize a family member. Visits centered around grief tend to be very wearing for me, so I am practicing my gracious escapes and breathing techniques to help me get through some of the more strenuous times ahead. The last part of our trip will be with the other side of the family and should be less emotionally charged.  I still have to get through two group sessions and observing my intern as she does three group sessions and an individual session. At that point, I am abandoning her to the responsibilities of an intern for seven work day...

Well, the doctor did not mention surgery yesterday. I now get to wear a compression glove on my hand pretty much all the time to try to get my left hand to be less swollen. My Occupational Therapist wants me to get the trigger finger going so that surgery will be recommended and accomplished before I am released from care. So, my job is to use my putty as much as possible to activate that trigger finger situation so I can get it fixed. I really wanted to have some conclusion to all of this, but I got more cloudy future. The good news is that I can debate what I want to do with my next break. I am debating a trip home at the end of this month because I have not been home for over a year, and I need to see my Mom and my siblings and get used to home without my Dad. I think I will wait for my July break to go home - that would get me away from having to hurry right now and would also let me do things that I need to get done here without having to stress about driving back to Kansas with a...

I am the type of person who tends to stick pretty close to home when I have time off from my job, and I have been forcefully reminded of why this happens this way this week. I am exhausted! I took the last two weeks for a trip to see my parents in Southern California and then a week in Kauai with my Mom and my sister and then a day back in California (just in time for the first big earthquake) and then had to drive back to my midwestern state just in time for a heat advisory. I arrived home early evening on Saturday and had Sunday to rest and get ready for returning to work on Monday. I am still not recovered from my recent experience, and it reminds me why most of my vacations turn into "staycations" rather than extravagant trips. Being in the company of others for that long wears me out. I need time to myself, and that is getting to be more and more important to me as I'm getting older. Don't get me wrong, the trips were lovely, but I spent more time ...

Vacation is over. It was a good time of "not being at work." and I am not ready to get going into the world of music therapy tomorrow, but that is the price of vacationing and then having to work right after vacation. I have three more weeks before my fall break starts - 13 days of solitude and getting things done around here.  I am, however, starting to think about how to do things around my various music therapy practices. It is absolutely fascinating how the brain will do things to keep itself entertained when there is nothing else to distract it. 29 hours of driving down the amazing interstate system of this country is a great way to get creative thoughts flowing. My dashboard has started to look like a bulletin board - there are color-coded (of course) post-it notes (of course) stuck to it. There are lots of ideas and thoughts and half-formed concepts that require a bit more work before they are finished up and ready to go.  This is the thing that I like about going ...

I am going to take a blogging break. For the next several weeks, I am going to purposefully vacate my current state and take a break from most things social media. I may still post the occasional thought on Facebook, but I am not going to spend any time posting blog posts or doing anything other than sitting on a beach and eating chocolate. (Seriously, that's what I'm going to be doing...well, that and driving in the car.) So, if you read this blog in the near future and are wondering where I am, it is easy to answer - I'm on vacation. Feel free to search through all the posts that I've written over the years. Some of them are interesting, some are pure dreck, but there are many, MANY years of thoughts about music, therapy, and me! Thanks, all. See you next month sometime!

I woke up in a bit of a panic this morning, wondering what I was going to write about for Cultural Considerations today. My panic may have been influenced by the argument going on in the apartment above mine - I couldn't hear what was being argued about, but I could certainly hear the emotion happening. It took me a bit of time to remember that it is Friday and not Saturday, so I still have some time to think about tomorrow's post. This is the type of thing that happens when I am coming to an end of a break - difficulty with time perception. My break has been full of the things that always happen during one week off - a bit of cleaning, lots of rest, and some return to creative exploration. I do better with all of these things when I have two weeks off. At the end of two weeks, I tend to be really bored with my own company, and I am itching to head back to work! I don't get that same itch when I only have one week off. Oh well. That's what I get for being a therapis...

This is the second blog post that I've written today. The first is a post-in-progress about "the Perfect Therapist" myth. I haven't really been able to bring it to a cohesive status, so I'm keeping it in my draft folder until I can really delve into the idea. Today, however, you will have to be content with something else. It is the second day of my break, and I feel like I got some things done yesterday. I did straighten my bookshelves and threw out some stuff. I have more to do (of course, I ALWAYS have more to do), but I made a good start yesterday. I also made my favorite cookies yesterday, so I have some good treats to eat today. I got out for a bit into the spring sunshine, started a book about making visual aids, and also took a nap! It was a good day. I am hoping that today is just as productive. I need to go purchase another hand mixer. The one that I inherited from my grandmother 27 years ago disintegrated in my hands just as I was starting to make c...

Happy Day after Christmas (otherwise known as the second day of Christmas), and I am presented out! We bombarded the three year old with his own stack before the rest of us started. That seemed to be a good strategy as Mr. 3 played with all of his stuff and let the rest of us open things. We did everything except for stockings yesterday, and I got to sleep at a pretty decent hour for me. I now am navigating the early morning hours as a guest in a house where folks sleep in WAY past the time that I get up, and I am reflecting on what it means to be a music therapist on vacation. Being on vacation is always a bit difficult for me. I used to feel guilty about leaving my clients, and then I realized that I did not play as large a role in their lives as they play in mine, so it was fine for me to be on my way for a couple of weeks during the year. Being away from them on purpose made them notice me a bit more. It also refreshed my creative spirit and therapeutic purpose, so win-win! I now...

I am not happy about the following statement.  Today is the beginning of the second part of our Extended School Year. I am not refreshed after my week off. I have not accomplished all that I need to accomplish (even though I did get lots done!). I am not ready for another three weeks of summer session. I am simply going through the motions because I have the promise of two weeks completely off after these three weeks of work. These transitions used to be better. We used to have an entire school staff that was on break at the same time. All of us would be gone during this time, but now most of our classroom staff members have to work during these breaks. We no longer have staff cohesion and opportunities to refresh together. Now the teachers get time off, and the classroom aides have to work double shifts because administration cannot find anyone to work direct care. When the teachers come back from time off, the classroom aides are not in good moods. It makes it diff...

I have been spending the week doing some strategic planning and finishing some goals. This has been a good week for me - I published a file on Teachers Pay Teachers and got confirmation that I can start my Composition and Creativity CMTE course this month. I've also come up with a new TME subscription idea and have started on all that planning and development. I have also made my front closet into an instrument and music therapy materials closet while rearranging my bookshelves to accommodate the other stuff in the living room. All in all, it's been a good week. One thing that you may find missing in my good week is music. I've been writing songs, drawing things, making plans, but I haven't been listening to much music. In fact, other than singing hymns on Sunday, singing a Sprite-induced song on my sister's answering machine, and one brief use of the ukulele when I was composing a new song, I haven't made any music at all.  I can feel the music building u...

It is time to say goodbye to ice! I no longer want to be frozen or slip sliding away. I do NOT want to build a snowman, and Frosty can hurry on his way. I'm finished!! I now have enough Paid Time Off (PTO) to take off another week at some point. I will need to spend some time thinking about when I want to do that - it has to be done by June 30 because of the contract year. So. I get to take some time off at some random time because I have spent all my snow days at work rather than at home. I like this system SO MUCH! Hate to say it, though, but I don't want any more of these days. I'm just outright finished with the novelty. It's not all that novel now - especially after three days in a row. Ugh. We are all feeling it. Students are ready to see their missing classmates and teachers. We want to have our regular schedule back. We really want to spend our time doing things that make us frustrated and challenged and that give us things to complain about. Too much rela...

I am getting myself and my home ready for a homecoming - mine. I leave and head out to my real home this time of year. I completely vacate everything that happens in my life here, in this state, for the rest and silence of home. I have an enforced rest from work and therapizing, and I love it. Today is the day that I get things ready both for leaving and returning. The leaving preparations are easy. Pack. Feed the cat, water the cat, ready the cat's hygiene needs, take out the trash, clean the sheets, clean the carpets, clean the kitchen, clean. The coming home preparations are a bit less easy. Arrange for the mail to be delivered. Have enough food that I don't have to immediately go grocery shopping. Organize the materials I will need to have to return to work on the 2nd for a day of behavior management lectures. Unpack. Get back into a work type frame of mind. When I am on my enforced rests from work, I find my creativity surging. I keep a small book nearby almost all...

It is the last day of my Fall Break (which is called the Fall Break because it comes before the Fall semester - the Winter break happens before the Winter quarter - the Spring break happens before the Spring quarter - it's not a perfect system, Janice, but it works for me. Snark!!) It is the last part of an extended break for a very long time. When I awoke, I was greeted by the news that a high school friend of mine passed away today. She was ill and had many health issues, so the news was not entirely unexpected, but it was not all that expected. This is the latest in a series of unexpected deaths that have occurred this summer. I am happy for her that the illness is over, but it will be strange to see posts on her wall that are not hers. My plans for today are to do as little as possible. I have to do some carpet cleaning today, so I need to clean. The laundry is finished (except for what I wore yesterday), but there are dishes to do and things to organize and store. I have a...

I have three days left of my Fall Break before we start the Fall semester at my facility. As I have said before, the beginning of the school year is the time that I tend to make (and keep) most of my New Year's Resolutions. This year is no different. The beginning of the school year has always been a good time for me. I was one of those kids who loved school and got bored over the summer without the stimulation of classes. I never quit learning, even during the summer, but the difference in routine always affected me.  My mother, wise woman, never let us watch television during the summer months. We were outside. We would go to Girl Scout camps (day camps and overnights). We always helped out at Vacation Bible School. We made many trips to the library to participate in summer reading programs. We would go to the evening concerts in Memorial Park. We would ride our bikes around and around the cul-de-sac. We traveled the length of our big back yards playing Little House on the Pr...

Today is the day I get some things finished. I am declaring it "finish things" day. I usually spend my vacations thinking that I can always do the next task later in my vacation, and then the vacation ends. At the end of vacation, my list is usually still very long. Not this time around. Today is "finish things" day. Here's what I want to finish today. File Folder Activities - I have a bunch of new things that I've made that need to be laminated. Laminating is not a problem for me, but cutting things out takes time, so I have to really be dedicated to finishing something to get it done. Today I will put all the little pieces onto the laminating film, run them through the laminator, and then start the process of cutting them out. I have the Velcro ready to finish things up - I just have to start. "Choose" signs for my clinic - I am starting off a new choice system using my large rolling cabinets and picture icons. This system has to be made...

Today is the first day of my longest break this year. It's not quite long enough for me to be completely bored with staying at home, but it's long enough to get some things done. I decided not to go home this break because I didn't have quite enough time to get home, get back, recover from the trip, and then get ready for work. So, I am staying here for my break. I like these types of vacations - the ones where I have little to no plans and can do whatever I want (with a little bit of money available). I try to "go" somewhere on Google Earth every day. In my past stay-cations, I've been to Bahrain, to isolated islands in the Pacific, to a secular temple in Texas, to Disney's birthplace, to places I would like to work, etc. I am going to make a list of places to visit vicariously during the next several days. In addition to using Google Earth to see what the place actually looks like, I also look at any websites I can find that relate to that particular...

My mid-summer break has arrived. I woke up several times last night due to significant thunder and lightning and more anxiety dreams (they are plaguing me lately for some reason). In about 2.5 hours, I'll be taking my car in to get some maintenance done, so this will be an expensive break, but that's what happens when you drive and drive your car. I was made aware of a music teaching position in the small town where I am a church choir director. Folks there have a vague idea that I do something with music, but they are not sure what it is that I actually do. They've been trying to get me to take that position every year for almost 20 years now - for some reason, the district can't keep a music teacher for longer than 2 years these days. Makes me wonder why. Yesterday was a pretty good day in my music therapy clinic. I was able to finish the week with no tantrums on my side of the wall (the other side is a classroom and the tantrums there are loud and intrusive!). We...

I started my break with a donation of two violins to the music therapy department. I now have to remember my string classes (good thing I still have my strings method instruction books) and remember how to play. Apparently there will be more instruments coming from a generous donor who got a hold of my therapy wish list. My department is rarely on the donation side of things for some reason. Our marketing director applied for a grant a while back, and she spoke to me about what I do at the facility so she could complete the grant. She was staggered at what happens during music therapy. She attended a couple of sessions and appeared to understand what went on. Later, I found out that she had a brother who had Down Syndrome and who loved singing and playing the guitar. He passed away recently, and I think that seeing our kids playing instruments and engaged in making music made her remember her brother. She brought us his guitar - a half-sized, very well loved instrument. After she spe...