Its the Weekend!

Hip-Hip Hip-Replacement! It's the weekend!

And more good news- I passed my PPD test. No tuberculosis. Always a good thing.

So before I talk about Friday's events, I have to take the time to talk about Time Warner Cable. My wireless router has been funky the past two days. It did have power even though it was plugged in. So I'd reset it (unplug and plug back in) and the lights would come on and then shut off again a minute later. Naturally, this really upset me. They took 11 days since my move-in date (Jan. 1) to plug in a wireless router and three days later it stopped working. So I got on the phone to Time Warner and I was NOT a happy camper and I made them very aware. I was transferred to commercial accounts and got a message machine. So I left a nasty-gram. Then I called back and said, "HEY. I got a message machine. I want to talk to someone NOW" so they transferred me to the national help desk... but its still a commercial account. I don't have an account number, nor do I have a phone line through Time Warner. So they transferred me somewhere else. I spoke to four people before landing on Rob. I told him how unhappy and ridiculous this was to get my damn modem fixed and voila! This morning Time Warner came out and replaced my modem. I am feeling very successful about the whole thing. As a result I am updating this morning, while enjoy my morning coffee and enjoying all the internet has to offer.

Okay. Friday. We got there, bright and early, 8am and had an hour free before sessions to read or practice. We have a huge intern manual to get through in the next few weeks. Sessions started at nine. We observed three clients in the morning and two in the afternoon. A few of the clients we saw will be on the intern caseload. It will probably be on my co-intern's caseload as I will be at Doty Day Hab on Fridays. One client is just the sweetest. I named him "Mr Personality" because he is just busting with this hilarious sense of humor. He walked out of the core room with our ITD, looked both interns once over and said, "You're fired." Haha. He also checked periodically in his session to make sure we were taking good notes. He's been on an intern caseload for many years and is used to people observing. If they have pen and paper, they should be taking notes! It was great.

We both got the go ahead from our ITD to continue practicing our improvisation skills. AND we had our first individual supervision. Our supervision time is a chance to bring whatever concerns or questions to the table. We were able to talk about adjusting and the reading and what I've seen so far. I've been kind of concerned, after 24 observations this week, about jumping into being a primary therapist for these clients who have been in therapy for years. I want to do the best I can do for them and as a new intern, I don't really know anything! I think my ITD said it best when she said, "This isn't uncommon. But you have to remember that your clients know WAAYYY more about music therapy than you do. They know what they like and how it has to be. And you will learn."

haha. How true. So a summary of thoughts for the first week? Its been amazing so far. The days are long, but the weeks are certainly going to pass quickly. I am concerned about being able to effectively balance the big parts of my life: internship, personal time, wramta, but I think that is one of the lessons that I'm suppose to learn while I am here. The next 8 months are going to be challenging but I am up for it. I have gone through a lot of big changes and there will be more, but I think I am ready to accept that. I think the extra semester in school made the transition into internship easier-- you that feeling of "its about time that I'm here." Doesn't make it any less overwhelming, but it doesn't keep me up at night. I think I'm going to be really different after internship, in a good way. But we'll see. My friend Stacey, who just finished her internship- woo hoo!- said that I will be surprised about the amount of growth that will happen. Unfortunately, it won't be in height.

I am thankful for the long weekend. Our ITD suggested that we take a little time to process but also completely disengage for a little bit and of course, PRACTICE! Next week brings more observations, practicing and reading. I can't wait to see how sessions next week differ from the ones we've seen this week. In the meantime, I have a list of movies I've been meaning to watch and I need to stock up on my sandwich stuff- well, bread mostly. That means (fanfare, please) = a trip to Wegmans! What a wonderful day to spend my weekend. At Wegmans. That's about it. Oh and Happy Birthday to my sissy. She's old now as of yesterday.