music, therapy, and me

I am exhausted. It is Thursday, I had a late night medication dose, and now I am trying my best to wake up enough to be safe as a driver. Today is the day that kids return to school in my facility. I have three groups and two individuals to share with my intern. I am hoping that the returning students will be happy to engage with us and the new students will be interested in music therapy. We will see. My session for today is with our intake classroom, so all the students present will be new to me and to the music therapy room. We will do something with Boomwhackers as I start my informal assessment process. Tomorrow, I will see the same students again, so we will do some cabinet exploration in that session. I also have a very enthusiastic individual as a client today. I love when clients are so into music that their therapy just flows. This client is currently engaged in some recording of improvised rap songs. I am learning how to support the client's singing and rapping through A...

Today is the last bit of time before the end of my winter break, and I am currently three airports away from my job. Today will be a "hurry up and wait" type of day - hurry through chores and to the airport. Wait for boarding time. Hurry through the second airport of the day to get to the next flight. Wait for the plane to land in airport number 3. Wait for the shuttle to the parking lot. Hurry into the car to get the heater going because it will be much colder there than it is here. Hurry to get into the heavy coat. Wait for the defroster to do its magic before hurrying home to get medications and a bit of sleep before going to the hand specialist tomorrow morning. I am hoping to squeeze a visit to the hospital in after chores and before going to the airport so I can see my Mom one more time. Nothing is a greater example of "hurry up and wait" than the hospital setting. We wait with Mom until the physician arrives and stays for 3 minutes. We wait to see if the phys...

It is officially 2024, and I am in a different state than the one I anticipated I would be in. I am still at home with the cat on the bed curled up next to me. I slept through the transition to the new year - much like I usually do - and woke up at 2:40 am - much like I usually do - to take a look at the new year. It is now 3:20 am, and I am very much awake and ready to get this new year going! Our new year is starting with a bit of uncertainty, but less than we had just a bit ago. My mother has received an official diagnosis after lots and lots of blood work, tests of various kinds, and food deprivation. It seems that she is avoiding surgery right now (thank goodness) and will be doing some antibiotics to fully recover. This is better than the outlook that we had yesterday morning when things were less clear to us all. So, our New Year has started with a parent in the hospital but a parent who is getting better. Hopefully this same parent will remember that she doesn't like being ...

Hello, friends. Welcome to my end of the year post - the one where I usually reveal several things and spend time ruminating on various quests and goals that I have established. Today, however, may not include some of that information because I am currently figuring out lots of stuff and am not sure if I am coming or going. My mom has acute pancreatitis and is in the hospital. I have extended my trip an additional two days so I can be around for support. My sister is helping Mom out the way she always does because she is close by, and I am glad that I can be here until Tuesday. My mom keeps telling me to "have some fun" while I am here, but that is difficult to do when waiting for doctors and tests and information. My sister and I went to the hospital yesterday to wait through a procedure and then waited with Mom to hear about another procedure that will be happening today. At this point, we are not expecting surgery, but we might be going through that if the procedure today ...

Well, my goodness. In the past 36 hours, so much has happened. Shortly after I finished writing about my day yesterday morning. my mother walked into the guest room and laid on the bed. I asked how she had slept and the answer led us to spend 14+ hours in the emergency room before she was FINALLY admitted to the hospital. She is there now, I have extended my stay for a couple of extra days to support my sister, and things have changed a bit for the near future. Now, this is just what you do when you are part of a family unit, but it has been a bit of an adjustment to make in the span of 36 hours. I went from having one more day today to two more days after today before heading back to the world of worker's comp doctors and my clients. Mom is less of a medical mystery than before, and I am thankful that we have a diagnosis that we can work with and through. So, I am sitting here, all alone in my mom's house (which has not happened for many years - IF EVER, keeping the cat compan...

Today is the day that I have reserved for packing, shipping, and thinking. My mother is currently really focused on giving things away, so I am going to be sending my first cornet, three handmade animal puppets, and my gifts from my sister and my mother back to my house today. I have lots of room in my bag to fill up, so I will start there, but I also have an almost full set of dishes to send back, so my shipping costs will be substantial this time around. I guess it is a good thing that we haven't been shopping this break. I need the money to send things back! This is my usual way of doing things a couple of days before traveling. I pack things up, take them to UPS, and then send them on their merry way. I am always surprised when I open up the boxes because I forget what items are in the boxes in the week that it takes to send them across half of our country. It is almost like another Christmas when my boxes arrive, and I open them up again! So, today's chore is to pack thing...

It is day seven of winter break, and I have four more days before it is time to report back to work for the rest of the 2023-2024 school year. I am sitting here, at 3:56 am, writing the second iteration of this post to try to analyze what is going on in my brain and body after an insomnia night. I get these every so often, and so I am not all that surprised that it happened after Mexican food and arranging a visit with a friend from junior high all the way up to now. Add in the full moon, and of course I am waking up over and over again! I am starting to get into the holiday funk that happens to me sometimes. I start to feel squirmy because there are things that I want to get done but can't because those things are there instead of being here. In addition, I want to play with all my Mom's crafting toys, but I am scared to because they are her toys and not my own. I know that she would be fine with me using the stamps and the punches and the dies and all that, but I feel like I ...