Dear Marcie

Dear Marcie,

Thank you for being the BEST checkout clerk at Wegman's. You are personable but speedy and willing to share your favorite ice cream flavor. I appreciate you. Hope your kid does well at her track meet this afternoon,

Sincerely,

Lauren

That's right- Marcie got me in and out Wegman's quickly tonight. I had to make a quick trip because my friend Lisa Rae and I declared this evening Gin & Tonic Night. Basically that means we drink G&Ts and kibitz over video chat. Its something that we've done for a little over a year now. We started with wine and graduated from there. And it was kind of tricky for a while when she was working in Jordan- there's a 9 hr time difference. It's possible that G&T nights happened at 11am some days for me. Anyhow. Tonight we are going to catch up and relax.

In the meantime, I have a whole entire list of little things that I need to do around my apartment tonight- including clean. I have a lot to do, so I will be brief. My sessions went well today. I had originally planned to do a lot of paperwork this weekend, but I think that I am just going to relax and take the time to get everything in my house in order-- laundry, groceries, errands, cleaning. That will make things a lot better. Plus some thank you notes ! and my census- Oops. I better get to work.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend. Tomorrow is Lisa Rae's and my MOm's birthday! Yay. Happy Birthday. I love you both and wish I could be in like 5 places at one time to celebrate! xoxoxoxo

Documentation

Documentation is the Title today because that's all I did afternoon. And because Documentation was all I did this afternoon, I won't be typing a long post this evening. My sessions went well this morning and then I worked on documentation. My content has been good but I was told to read everything out loud. So I was feeling self conscious about my writing so I spent a lot of time on each summary- reading things out loud, making sure I was clear. I hope it pays off.

Tonight I am having a sandwich for dinner. I am really excited about this.

That's it! Couch time.

MST3K

MST3K-- Mystery Science Theatre 3,000 + Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban = AMAZING

Kari and I hung out at her place after work, made waffles and watched the MST3K guys comment while watching Harry Potter 3. It was hilarious. AND the waffles were delicious. We also played a few rounds of MarioKart on Wii. Wii and Waffles. Best afternoon.

Our ITD observed a few sessions today- those went fairly well. Thank goodness she is back. I needed her feedback.

The hockey game last night was a bust- sort of. The game was sloppy and the Amerks lost 2-o BUT we had a great time. The really loud guy who hates the refs was sitting in our section. And the guy sitting next to me was the one egging him on.

As you can see-- we were practically on the ice. We had great seats.

I really like that Arena. Its kind of small and the playlist of songs they have is hilarious. It seemed like every song they played in between was extremely random. Everyone was really mad that the Amerks were losing which made the intermission shows more entertaining. The emcee yelled "Let's hear some Playoff noise!!" and the entire arena was practically silent. Classic. There were a ton of fights and even a little blood--- all in all, a successful evening.

I have just some morning sessions tomorrow adn I will be working on end of the month summaries and a report update. I'm going to see how much I can finish up tomorrow. I am determined to be productive!

Winter Mix

What the hell, weather!

I woke up this morning and had to put my coat back on because it was pouring rain/snow. It was bizarre. My sister affectionately calls this stuff "Winter Mix."

I didn't post yesterday- mostly because I got home and was a blob on the couch. Lazy. I am really trying to keep up with all of this. Working on it.

Today was a really long day. The paperwork for end of the month stuff has already started. AND midterm evaluations are happening in the next 2 weeks. All of this stuff is really happening so fast. I can't get my mind around it.

Tonight Mar-boy and I are headed to GAME 7 of a 3-3 series for the Calder Cup. I think its for the Calder Cup. Its the Rochester Americans Hockey. Go Amerks! I'm excited about getting a few red hots (not white hots this time) AND Mar-boy said I could even have a slushy. I love slushies. Oh yea. And hockey. But mostly for the food and drink.

I just read on my friend's blog: "Where did April go?"

Yeah. I have no flipping idea where April went. I'd love to know if anyone has it figured out!

Gone Fishin'

And by "Gone Fishin" I mean that I read a book while Mar-boy and his dad were fishing. I made a deal with Mar-boy that I'd go as long as I wouldn't have to touch anything fishy. Here's the lake/reservoir place where Mar-boy and his dad fished. I felt a little funny reading my crazy liberal David Sedaris books in this little town. His little hometown is adorable- smaller than Gilroy and it has that whole western PA thing going on about it.

This weekend's PA extravaganza was exhausting- but fun. I met his college buds which was the most overwhelming part-- we went to a mutual friend's 21st Jungle-themed birthday party. After we left, we spent a lovely afternoon and evening with his parents and family friend. We went fishing with Mar-boy's dad and a dinner that his mom prepared (even though she was on a girls trip and returning later that night). When she got back, we had a competitive game night while we watched the Penguins game- I came in 2nd for the record. :) We played "What's Yours Like?" which I highly recommend. It was a lot of fun! His mom made us this wonderful breakfast this morning- waffles, strawberries, chocolate chips, whipped cream, coffee, and eggs and ham. She even had powdered sugar on the table in case we needed it. It was delicious.

We made it back around noon and now I am gladly on the couch and in my pjs.

I'm glad to be home and not socializing. My social skills are tapped out. Now I get to be sloppy and snarky and yell at the tv if I want. Its wonderful.

I'm going to eat a little dinner, practice a little piano, and catch up on my hulu shows. Later, I have a standing date to catch up with Julie tonight after she returns from celebrating her birthday.... so Happy Birthday Julie!

In terms of the coming week, it should be pretty "typical"- whatever that means. :)

Slowest Day Ever

Today was the slowest day ever. That's why I made this short movie to let you see our office. Yes, it was the slowest day ever.

Our ITD left after lunch and we didn't have any session, so I didn't have much paperwork to do. I could barely practice because the piano tuner was there working on all of the pianos and had all of them taken apart. Ack.

But it was a good day. I'm going to be hanging out at home tonight and getting ready for the PA weekend.

Now its time for dinner. hope the video works!

Whacky Wednesday

Today was fantastic. Our ITD was back again in the morning for a few hours- she got to observe Kari in a session which I was told went really well. At the current moment, we are in a piano shortage. Our pianos are being tuned and repaired.... and its a project that has taken FOREVER because the piano tuner is kind of.... an interesting character. He's tuned the pianos for our site for like 20 years but he still gets confused, can't remember how long we work, and trouble communicating when he'll be back and what has yet to be done. For example- he shows up at like 4p when we've told him repeatedly that we leave at 4:30. Soo... Monday, the three of us go across the hall to the upstairs therapy room and find that there is still some stuff INSIDE the MAIN piano which we were told was DONE--- this stuff inside prevents us from opening the lid. So both pianos (because the other piano is NOT done) are out of commission.

As a result, all of our sessions had to take place in the downstairs therapy room- which for a lot of clients signifies that its going to be a Somatron session. It has been quite an experience. To get improvisation sessions, we've had to make it look like the Somatron was broken and unusable. For some, its been confusing and some its been fine.

Monday, my first client hates the downstairs therapy room..

My first client of the day Monday has not been in the downstairs room for many years. In fact, this person hates that room. My ITD warned that he make kick, pull, push, and even spit. It could get ugly. I picked the client up and explained that we were going downstairs. They started by stomping both feet, kicked my foot, pulled me over to head towards the other room, a little spitting, and pushing me into the wall. Sounds pretty horrible right? I knew that the client would not be happy about this and those actions were one way of letting me know that this was not preferable. ha. Once we got into the room, everything was fine- which says something about the relationship that we have as client and therapist and really how powerful the music is for this individual.

Later that day I was socked in the arm and told to "F*** off" by one of Kari's clients who was upset about something else and not feeling well. It wasn't anything that I did.

Today I was nearly licked by another client! It was like slow motion.... seeing that little pink tongue come out and then pulling my hand away.

I guess the lesson is that this career path isn't always the most glamourous. Hell of a lesson to learn. At the end of the day, all of these things are communication of some sort. Maybe some people forget that and go straight to offended or grossed out, but at the end of the day, it really isn't about those people or about me. Its about the client and the music and growth that happens.

So today, I am just relaxing (especially after yesterday's headache) and enjoying my "me" time. Tomorrow night, Mar-boy and I are joining Kari and her husband for something... as long as it is not a cute activity. Kari and I decided that "double-dating" is too cutesy that our joint activity would have to be something awkward--- like bowling. So we may meet for bowling and bee-ahs ("beers" in Boston-ese). This weekend I'm joining Mar-boy for a road trip down to his alma mater in PA for a friend's birthday party.

My sessions tomorrow were canceled due to a piano inservice with our ITD. She's getting things done in the morning when she's feeling the best. So Kari and I have canceled our sessions to do some piano work. We need to catch her up on the things that we learned (or didn't learn!) while she was out.

That's the scoop. Back to quality couch time!

Tuesday

My apologies for not updating yesterday. I had a bad tension headache that set in about 3pm. By the time I got home, I was out. And by out I mean I couldn't do anything but lay on the couch. Mar-boy came over- for glee as planned- and brought dinner, but I had to bail on him by 8:15 or so and went to bed. I did sleep all night which was nice. I'm feeling better this morning, even though little remnants of my headache are still present. I'm hoping it will completely go away by the time I get to office!

Yesterday's sessions went well. I was able to get a lot of documentation done- as far as starting to organize my session notes. If I keep up with my documentation all month long, putting together monthly summaries is a piece of cake.

I have to finish getting ready for work! I hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday. I

Happy Statehood Israel!

MAR-boy's gig tonight was actually a celebration of Israel's statehood-- 62 years!

The music was fantastic.... Jewish people of all ages were waving flags and dancing and singing and clapping all evening.

One thing I noticed and so did MAR-boy (he is the drummer in the band) is that everyone else claps on 1 and 3... and then there was the catholic girl in the front row that insists on clapping on 2 and 4 (that was me).

No matter.

Everyone had a fantastic time.

It was fun to watch MAR-boy play and it was fun to hang out with the couple (Ben and Anna) who invited us over to Seder. Anna was particularly excited to see me there and was busy taking pictures of me and MAR-boy when the possible. She is very sweet. I am just worn out from all of the festivities and am now getting ready for bed.

Happy 62nd Israel!

Rainy Days and Mondays...

...are awesome. Today was only Monday. In fact, it was 60 degrees and sunny. Now sixty degrees and sunny feels like a heat wave passing through. Its so different from being in Arizona where 60 degrees and sunny meant unpacking my warm coat.

Today was actually a great day! Our ITD came back to work today! Although it was only for a few hours, it was so great to have her back in the office. Kari and I missed her - A LOT. She actually managed to do two formal observations of my morning sessions today. I was really nervous because she has never really seen me work, but everything turned out fine. She thought both sessions went really well and my observation skills, listening, and interpretation skills have improved dramatically. She said I'm getting more comfortable in using the piano as a clinical tool and that I am more "outer-focused"-- meaning not stuck in a concrete thought pattern of what chord to play when, what words if any to sing, how to interpret what the client is giving me. That's fantastic.

I got to update my ITD on all of my good conference news. In fact, I will say that I spoke with my parents yesterday about my conference blog updates. My mother got a little teary eyed apparently because I'm doing so well and in such a wonderful place. Let me just say that although they have always supported everything that I have wanted to do, they weren't too pleased when I wanted to transfer or move across the country. But after talking to them yesterday and hearing all of that, I felt more validated than I had all throughout conference. Thanks mom and dad! Love you guys.

Anyhow- tonight I am seeing Mar-boy in a gig tonight. He's the drummer in a Klezmer band here in Rochester, even though he is not Jewish. I am really looking forward to it. Kari's husband happens to be in town this week- so I think they are going to try and come out as well. They also have the 12 year old equivalent of Hannah Montana singing a few tunes with them! I am very excited. The husband of the couple that had Mar-boy and I over for Seder dinner is the bassist for this band. Apparently his wife is very excited that I will be coming to the gig tonight. Should be a good time!

I'll post a little update on the concert later! Dinner time. I've got to eat before I get my klezmer on!

Conference Take 2 (Pt. 4)

It was brought to my attention that the original post was WAAYYYY long. So I decided to break it up. You can read a post at a time to catch up on my awesome Las Vegas conference experience!

Sunday- Passages! Aside from little miscommunications, Passages ended up being beautiful. I did worry for no reason. As soon as everyone got there and we got started, it was fantastic. Everyone was at ease. The President of the professional board got up to speak before her presentation. She blind-sided me and started talking about how they enjoyed having me on the board and the work that I've done and the legacy of the past few student presidents. Then she presented a gift certificate signed by all the board members to buy some songs for my Beamz (thebeamz.com)! I said "thank you!" Actually I got sort of emotional about the whole thing because I am so going to miss being on the board and being connected like that with that particular group of people. It really has been the most incredible year of my life to date. So yea, I did get a little teary there, especially later when I explained it to my friend Stacey. All the presentations went well and they covered lunch for us!! Phew. Lillie's closing session was fantastic. The idea was to emphasize community building and using conference to keep our flames and candles lit (and not at both ends!). So we all had a chance to talk about what really inspired us about conference- could be anything. I won't go into detail about what people said, but it was very moving. I started crying. A lot of other people started crying. I did talk about seeing my MT family and friends, especially because I am so far away and seeing a plan come together beautifully. One of the students from chapman did talk about how there is a lack of community and coming to conference is reaffirming for this student, gives them hope about the future. This particular student named those of us who transferred and how she felt inspired by the things we were able to do etc. It was so touching. My heart broke for them, but I am also impressed and admire their determination to finish there. We wrapped things up, I passed the torch to the next president. Lillie gave a few final thoughts and said "safe travels" and no one moved. Everyone was still. A few moments later the circle heaved a collective sigh and then everyone started hugging each other. it was very powerful.

All in all, an incredible time. I felt leaving affirmed and drained. I am grieving my tiny loss of not being involved right now. But now is the time that I need to finish my training, get certified and then see how I can get my hands dirty. One thing at a time. Its a new era. I'm going to take notice of what I WANT to do instead of what I CAN do. I can do a lot but I will go crazy. So I have the luxury of picking and choosing what it is that I want to do. A lot of opportunities opened up over the weekend, I met and connected with a ton of people and I am feeling absolutely affirmed and confident and wanted. They want me to come back and get involved. Sigh.

The rest of the week has been weird. I've been trying to get back into my real life. Conference was like this weird event in space and time and now I'm back to the drastically different reality. Las Vegas vs. Brighton, NY? Yea. Culture shock. I've had the weekend to rest, be lazy, grocery shop and today it will be laundry- at some point. I actually fell asleep on the couch last night and slept all night. I had great supervision on Friday where I told my supervisor about all of this stuff. He seemed excited that I was generalizing- especially with the positive feedback. I've used my weekend wisely- lots of couch time. Mar-boy came over Friday and Saturday for eats and games and movies. He's a really great guy.

Anyhow, I have a massive pile of laundry to do and I still need to unpack. I'm getting on that. Just as soon as I get up off the couch...

Conference Take 2 (Pt. 3)

To sum it all up, I got my networking on- majorly.

Friday I escorted my media peoples, donned the showgirl outfit, got into grad school, and caught up with my Chapman mentor Helen. Okay, so I didn't really get into grad school, but I had the chance to actually speak with the director and network and connect with her. I'm really excited about that. The students had the first business meeting where we presented bylaws revisions and took nominations for offices. I also gave my Student President report at the Professional Business meeting next door. It was great to give my report there as well. Many of the professionals gave me applause and a few came up to me throughout the weekend to meet me or a few even told me what an up and coming professional I was and to keep up the great work and what a future I am to have. Did that sentence make sense? That particular person is someone that I sort of know, but a person that I respect and have learned about.

The best part of all of that was that I could take the positive feedback and compliments and just say "Thank you very much" or "Thank you, its been quite a year." kind of thing. Yay me! I'm generalizing- taking my goals from my first quarter eval and applying them - My Supervising Therapist was happy to hear this. :)

I had more meetings and more networking. I felt on fire throughout the entire conference. I felt like the professionals were noticing me and congratulating me for the work that I've done. They complimented the student board, but a lot of them were addressing me. Not to say that I did it all myself. I could not have done anything without the support of everyone else. But it was nice to be recognized for the work that I know I put into being President.

Our last board meeting on Friday was hilarious. My friend who happens to be the First VP elect and I were sitting at the end of the table. I've known him since I've started at Chapman and I love him dearly. Its been such an wonderful experience to continue on the music therapy road with him. Anyhow- we were out of control. In fact, I think we all were. We were all tired and mouthing off even with the recorder going. The secretary is going to have fun transcribing that stuff. The most hilarious part of the meeting was towards the end, after everyone had put up with us at our end of the table, my friend and I found our presenter gifts. They are keychains- guitar keychains that have the circle that spins in the middle. Oh man. My friend and I were absolutely stimming on the spinny thingy at the end of the table- but it shut us up. Hmm maybe you had to be there. It was funny.

Saturday I had breakfast with a music therapy from SD that I had never really met before and the director from the masters program. Like I said- I was on fire. Majorly networking. I went to a few sessions. We had a luncheon in the afternoon with silent auction - where I was offered wigs if I moved to LAS and we had our student business meeting. Elections were held and Hallelujah! there is a new student board. I am excited and have been busy prepping things to turn over to the new board. The new president is a friend of mine and will do a great job. I was worried at first, worried that she was going to spread herself too thin... this job is tough. But she will be great. She said the nicest thing. Part of her little speech in running for President was to continue the work that the current board started and the goals that I had set for the year. I was a little weirded out by this at first. But my friend Lisa Rae explained it in this way: Success is when people take what you've done and strive to take it 2x further. So I guess my term was a success if the next president is wanting to take some of the things I enacted to the next level (x2)! Now I'm less weirded out and more flattered and touched.

After every evening I had the chance to hang with my best friend from Chapman, Casey. She just got married this past summer and is expecting her first baby. So first and foremost it was wonderful to spend some time with her. But I didn't hang out with my college friends as much as I thought I would. At the end of the day, I was happier hanging with the professionals on the board and getting to know them better, shooting the breeze, swapping stories, talking about MT, learning about the history of the region and some of the people in it. That was more fun for me at the end of the day. I learned a lot, especially from the Rachels, in particular in our after hours hangouts. That was probably my favorite part. They both get exactly where I am in totally different ways. I love that. I could bounce a lot of ideas off of them- especially at this point in my life where I am not quite sure where I am going to end up at the end of my internship. I have a ton of opportunities and I'm not certain as to which ones I will take and there will be more by the time I finish. Just gotta wait and see.

A lot of my friends wanted to go out and drink, to get to The Strip and I just wasn't there, not interested. I had more fun taking late night walks to the corner market (where Lillie and I made fools of ourselves Wednesday afternoon- and later were Rachel and I made a scene--- okay, where I made a scene) and picking up wine or some other beverages and taking them back to the Hotel or just walking to the HardRock because it was so close. I think definitely that my heart is still in the western region, but I took my new focus and intern identity there. Yeah. I feel all adult-y and grown up.

Conference Take 2 (Pt. 2)

Thursday we had a board meeting to go over officer reports. It was exciting to report all of the things the students have accomplished in the past year. I was recognized in the minutes for the work that I'd done and got a few hints about some employment opportunities that may open up in the western region. hint hint. I'm thinking that some people would love it if I officially moved back to the region. Among officer reports, I found that were two people from "the media" present at our conference to learn more about music therapy. The board was trying to decide what to do with them, what to show them and the best way to present the best information. So I opened my big mouth and suggested that there be a media liaison that escorted them between sessions they wanted to see in order to ensure they were getting the correct information and saw the best we had to offer. Apparently suggested such an idea means you volunteer for it too. It was kind of nice to merge music therapy and what I've been doing in the festival the past few summers. I felt like a pro. I met with the two guys, planned their day to maximize their time and spent a few moments to answer any questions they might have. I was on fire. One of the guys sent an e mail Sunday evening thanking the conference chair and especially me for the extra time I spent answering questions - and he had a TON of them. That was really affirming.

So Thursday, in between the board meeting and meeting up with a co-presenter for lunch, I had the chance to check out the space at UNLV for the student one-day conference that coming Sunday. Yes- it was a whirlwind weekend. I am glad I got to see the space- especially before our student board meeting. It gave me a better idea of how the conference would run on Sunday. After that adventure and lunch, I had the chance to sit at the registration table with the AMTA Gov't Relations person and got to pick her brain for a few hours. It was also nice to see people as they registered and say hello- old friends and new friends.

By 5p the students had our own board meeting. Two of our officers were caught in this huge police check point, so they missed the meeting. We were able to catch up later. Out meeting ran right up to opening ceremony at 7p- which was a one-woman show by this performer, Kelly Clinton, who is also an advocate for music therapy. She happens to also be good friends with the conference chair- they used to play for Wayne Newton back in the day. I love Las Vegas. One of the other board members used to play trombone for Barbra Streisand a looong time ago. Naturally, I freaked at the news and had to ask her everything. She thought I was strange. Anyhow. The show was great. This woman puts on a wig and transforms- she doesn't even look like herself. She was able to come to a few other events in the weekend and I was able to visit with her. I told her that I wanted to come out and jam with her and she said that if I move to Las Vegas, I could have all of her wigs. Brilliant. She drives a hard bargain. I also helped her make the final decision to purchase a Las Vegas showgirl costume-- which I modeled Friday afternoon.

Yes. You read that correctly. Somewhere there are pictures and I am just waiting for people to send them to me. They were instructed to NOT post them on facebook. As you can imagine, it made for quite the splash. I was hearing about it all weekend. Fortunately, it wasn't a career wrecker, instead my bravery sort of impressed this person who is the director of the Masters program that I want to attend.

Conference Take 2

Phew, going to 2 music therapy conferences is ridiculously draining.

I won't recount the details of getting there because you can read those short updates below. I did finally arrive to LAS two hours later than expected. Once I got my bag and headed over to the hotel, I met up with Lillie, my advisor as president, in the lobby and checked into my suite. We walked over to my suite to put my stuff away- thankfully my suite was ready! And wow!! Our conference chair hooked me up!!! She put me up in the "Vegas Suite" which is a two story suite, with a jacuzzi tub in the staircase, double headed shower, kitchen and living area on the first floor with a half-bath there, plus a King sized bed. It was amazing. I saw the first VP later that afternoon and asked if she had something to do with my accomodations, and she said, "isn't that what you wanted?" Bahaha. YES. We laughed because for a good year I have been crazy over the suites with the jacuzzi tubs in the staircase and voila. I got one.

Lillie and I had lunch at the hardrock and played catch up. It was good to talk with her. She is doing well and was interested in hearing what I'm doing and all my woes. She holds a lot of experience as a music therapist and has really been a solid support for me in the few months leading up to conference. She pointed out that, at the root of it all, I have an important decision to make - you know at the end of the day. Do I hang on to all the stupid crap that stressed me out the past few weeks OR do I let it go and continue to build my professional relationships. Obviously the latter, but Lillie and I had a good laugh while I was trying to decide. I actually got to spend A LOT of time with her which was wonderful. We hung out in her room, where she told me her story of how she came in to MT and then by the pool. I couldn't rest enough to take a nap- by that time I'd been up for like 18 hours or something. I was too worried that I'd be missing something. So I took a bath in my jacuzzi tub in the staircase instead. It was fabulous.

Later that night was a symposium on music therapy open to the public moderated by the AMTA National Government Relations person. She is actually employed by the National office. She is absolutely brilliant and hilarious. I got to spend a fair amount of time with her, as well. After the symposium, we had our first board meeting regarding grants and money awards. Luckily it was done by 11. In reality I was up for 23.5 hours- and will probably never what to do that again. :) Jillian, the VP on the student board, arrived that evening and spent the night in my room. While I was in my meeting she was out catching up with Lillie. She came in about midnight or so. I was already semi-passed out with the Disney channel on- which she thought was hilarious.

She came in and had to break the news to me that Eric, who had planned the opening session and on the internship panel, was not coming to conference because of a new job. So she was getting reading for bed and said, "I have good news!" I perk up, "Oh tell me!" and she says, "Eric got a brand new job. Its like the best job in Oregon!" So I am excited for him and start asking her questions about it and she says, "Yea. He's got mandatory training this weekend otherwise he wont' be able to start work for another month which he can't afford, so I have it covered."

I was tired and the way she put it didn't really worry me, so I asked, "Uhh did you tell Lillie?" and Jillian says, "Yea." and I said "Did she say anything on how I might react?" and she started laughing. Apparently Lillie coached her on how to break the news to me. Hilarious! It worked. Perhaps these people know me a little better than I had thought. Okay- Thursday.

eck

I've been hitting snooze for almost an hour and a half and I'm still not out of bed. hmmmmm... this should make for an interesting day. Instead of getting ready, I am definitely updating blogs and chatting with Kari.

Okay, for reals now. Gotta get moving.

Getting behind

My apologies every one. I have not composed an entire conference update.

This was really one of the most incredible and affirming weekends of my entire life. It was fabulous. Everything turned out to be fabulous and of course, as always, I was worried and stressed for no reason.

I am still catching up on sleep as I was up for 23.5 hours the first day and caught the red eye Sunday night and didn't sleep much or very well. Some guy was in my foot space. You don't just put your knees in another person's foot space. Where is the common decency?

The last two days have been pretty rough, but I am trying to get my sleep schedule back under control. With that, I am getting to bed. But I will start working on a conference write up to give you a taste of what my Vegas weekend was like.

Goodnight!

Home

I made it home.

I'm on the couch.

I won't be moving for a few hours and then I will be going about my regular business.

I am exhausted.

A full update to come later....

Back at the Airport

Hello friends and family. I am back at the Airport. holy smokes. I am so exhausted that I can hardly think straight. In fact, I can't think straight. For being so drained and relaxed and oddly serene- perhaps its the exhaustion- I have a lot of tension in my neck. I need integrative manual therapy. my friend tried a technique on me this weekend and it was amazing. My tendons haven't felt that loose since having major tendon problems probably about 3 years ago. AND my neck was so loose, my shoulders were low, my neck was elongated- it felt amazing- this was one technique and only 15 minutes of treatment. I'm currently searching for someone who can do that in the Rochester area to at least find more information.

Anyhow- this will be brief as I cannot think. I am catching the red eye tonight, hopefully will sleep (that's what the G&Ts were for) and get back to Rochester around 11 tomorrow morning. Thank goodness I am taking the day off. I can't imagine even trying to get to work tomorrow. I think I will shop for groceries and see if there is anything playing at the movie theater. If I stay home, I will sleep all day and my schedule will by backwards. So the plan is to catch up with people and be in bed early.

I have about 40 minutes until my plane boards- thank goodness. I am trying to wait to fall asleep until I get all snug and un-cozy in my lame delta seat.

I hope I'm next to the window.

Trip. Pt. 2

Well hello.

I am using the wi-fi on the plane- very exciting. see my smiling face? yea.

Let me tell you a little something about trying to get anywhere on Delta Airlines. I'm fairly certain that Delta operates to make you almost miss your flights but not really. When I arrived to ROC airport, everything was just fine. I walked right up to the check-in counter and got my new tickets- i had an assigned seat, my bag was checked, I breezed through security. I got a paper and did the crossword and sudoku. Then they announced that the plane has mechanical problems- new plane. We had our tickets scanned at one gate and then boarded off another gate because there wasn't a computer down there. We left 45 minutes late. I only had a 90 minute layover in Atlanta.

We made it to Atlanta- with 30 minutes to spare by the time everyone got out of my way. I waited 10 minutes then boarded the next plane. This plane took FOREVER to taxi. We were like 10th in line to take off- we were running 15 minutes behind our take off time when the captain came on the PA to announce that a light came on. Just as we were next to TAKE OFF, we had to pull over to have the light checked out. So we took off almost an hour late. Delta disaster. I am exhausted and have not felt like sleeping.

The great news is I have my own personal TV- so I can keep up with my E!, FX and Bravo daytime programming while I surf the net. I don't have the brain power to work or anything. But I am having fun watching the map as we fly over the country. Right now (9:50a PST) we are just over Colorado- somewhere in the middle... like Colorado Springs. I never realized how East NY is until I started staring at this map. I am just looking forward to being in Vegas finally, getting my bags, checking into the hotel and hopefully being able to take a nap. I've been awake and stressed since 2:30am EST.

OH! I got tiny cards in a snack box today. that was fun.

Okay. well more e mails to answer and stuff.

I'll try and update at some point during the weekend!

Trip. Pt. 1

Ummm... yea. So I received an e mail from Delta at 12:44am saying that my 6a flight has been canceled and that I have been "rebooked." With Delta, you never know. So I am keeping my original pick up time so I can be there and find out what the heck is up.

I've always said I will never fly Delta again. If I don't have seats on this other flight already, then I am going to be very upset. Then I will be hungry, tired and upset. The trifecta of all things bad news.

I will try and update in Atlanta, if not, when I get to Vegas. Happy travels to me.

Frazzle Dazzle

I am still so frazzled. E mail after Email after phone call after phone call of things that have to do with conference that are making me bonkers. Thankfully my sister talked me down when I called home this afternoon. I was hysterical. Stupid stuff. My friend Alli gave me a great tip. I'm going to write this stuff on some toilet paper and flush it. Very therapeutic.

I'm in the final process of packing- pjs and bathroom stuff I won't need tomorrow, office stuff, copies, documents- all going in the suitcase. The shoes have already been selected and carefully packed. That was the first thing to happen. I don't expect to do much partying or typical Vegas stuff. I'm looking forward to just hanging with my friends and not getting sick. I'm also trying to have a bowl of soup when ALL of my spoons are in the dishwasher- I was not thinking ahead on that one. I'll have to improvise. :)

I've scheduled a taxi to pick me up tomorrow morning- EARLY like 4am pick up. I need to make one last stop at the bank. I have my boarding passes. I think I may be ready to go. Well... as ready as I'll ever be.

Happy Easter

Today I'm sort of between "Oh my god" and "I'm freaking out." I have a lot to do before I leave for Las Vegas and its certainly catching up to me. Above are photos from my weekend adventures. The first is our Easter dinner, followed by mar-boy working on the egg dying. The bottom two are from our hike on friday.

Easter was great. I fixed lamb and potatoes, Kari brought salad and Mar-boy brought dessert- peanut butter chocolate bars. Yum. Everything tasted delicious. While the lamb was cooking we watched some Eddie Izzard stand up courtesy of Kari and in honor of my Aunt elTee, we took a walk between dinner and dessert. Believe me, it helped. The smallest lamb I could find was 4.5 pounds- yea for 3 people! We each had roughly 1.5 pounds to eat each--- which no one accomplished. No worries, Kari took some home and I brought a little care dish for our ITD when we had our supervision party today. It was a lovely and relaxing day. I'm still stuffed. And I have to say that I'm getting pretty darn good at fixing this lamb.

Today was fine. Funky. But fine. I was starting to get all frazzled when my friend Alli called. She must have known that I was starting to get stressed. I do feel like I'm under a lot of pressure and taking a week off from work is always hard- especially when you want to see clients and there is paper work left to do. I have to pack- which I started by throwing a pair of shoes in a suitcase. I've sent out the agenda for our board meeting, put together a preliminary powerpoint for the general business meeting. I've started thinking about what I want to take on my carry-on and how I'm going to get to the airport Wednesday morning. I have a 6a flight-- so that means earlier pickup and that means I will be awake- REALLY early. Plus, I have a 9p board meeting that is going to go till whenever- which means with the time change... well, if I don't sleep on the plane or during the day, I coudl be up for 24 hours. Thrilling right? I'm trying not to think about it.

I am excited to go, but also anxious and stressed to get there. I can do early check in at the hotel in vegas so I can hopefully get my room when I get there and take a little nap, or at least unpack and bit and head to the pool. So far, that is the master plan. I hope they serve fizzy drinks at the pool. That would make my Wednesday complete. I'm crazy a club soda with lime. Club soda with lime reminds of this hotel we used to go to in Cabo that had a bar in the pool and I could get club sodas there. There was also a crab in the pool once and it was gigantinormous. Yes- it was that big. That's another story for another day.

I have to get packing!

Where the...

..... hell did this wind come from??!?!?!!

There are these crazy gusts of wind happening- leaves blowing all up everywhere. Today is was so still and not breezy.

This wind actually makes that wind noise- that's how hard its blowing out there.

Weird.

Thursday/Friday

Phew. Okay. the past two days. Ready? go.

Thursday- sessions, paper work and piano inservice. We learned the middle eastern style and major sevenths. I have a lot of practice. Kari and I grabbed some chipotle and settled in to watch some Cash Cab when Mar-boy arrived with Panda Paws ice cream. All in all- an excellent evening. Panda paws is like moose tracks ice cream, but with chocolate ice cream. Its like chocolatety goodness with mini reeses peanut butter cups. I also got to catch up with Julie for exactly 30 minutes-- I'm shocked that we were both available for the same 30 minutes. That's pretty unusual for these days.

Friday- my sessions went well today and I had a really good supervision session with my supervisor. We had a conference wrap up talk this afternoon that kind of put things in perspective- especially with my upcoming trip to Vegas in just a few days. We talked about the differences in going to conference as a student versus an intern. As a student and being involved on boards and committees, I felt like a top dog on campus. As an intern, I'm focused more on my professional life in the near future- I'm more focused on what style and approach of therapy-- I have more perspective on what is truly important to me professionally and I am definitely this tiny little fish in a big big pond. All of that is refreshing. I was able to just enjoy the conference and see all the things that I wanted to see- instead of being in meetings, being stressed about events and presentations. My ST reminded me to keep that in the back of my mind when people ask me to get involved. Its easy to find yourself on a committee right out of the gate- but I have so much time to build my professional identity before getting involved in association stuff. So I am keeping that in mind--- really that just means that I need to know my limits of what I WANT to do (rather than what I CAN do-- two very different things). When I'm done here, I will just be starting my professional career- its just the beginning. I should enjoy the conferences and association perks before I get carried away and involved. Its an excellent point- especially about limits. This means learning to say "no." I think after internship and knowing how crazy it can be, that I will be able to say that magic word when I need to. Anyhow, my ST provided a lot of perspective today.

I am getting excited to go to the Las Vegas conference. I feel so different than when I started and I can wait to see this familiar event and people with a fresh perspective and new "eyes" and mindset. I'm also curious to see if I fit in. I felt like I fit into the MAR quite well-- but maybe my new self will feel a little funny about the western region. I don't know its hard to say- but I am so excited to find out.

After work I met up with Mar-boy for a little Fallbrook Falls adventure. Its this waterfall in the middle of the tiny town where I work Tuesday/Friday. So we checked out the top of the falls and then made the treacherous hike down. It was so hot and humid today- 85. I never thought I would consider 85 hot. What has this east coast done to me? I felt pretty gross, but for some reason after huffing and puffing up the steep trail -- it is now painfully obvious that I am WAY out of shape -- I was in the mood for fries. So we ate at Applebees and then went back to his house to watch season 2 episodes of Weeds. Pictures of our hike will be up soon.

I got home about an hour ago to an apartment that was 86 degrees! This thermostat is possessed. Three guys came to my apartment yesterday to look at it and said that I needed to have it set on a temperature. I had it clicked all the way down. Apparently when you do that, it turns on straight heat. Ridiculous. I'm going to have to call them back tomorrow and ask them to take another look. The vents are still really hot. At this rate, I won't need to put my easter lamb in the oven, I can just leave it out on my kitchen counter. ugh. its so gross. I have all the windows open and the built in fan on the ac going to get some fresh air. It seems to be working pretty well. I may sleep on the couch tonight because its too hot in my room. We'll see. Tomorrow is supposed to be another warm one.

Tomorrow I am getting some conference stuff taken care of among other errands in preparation for Sunday's feast. I also need to do laundry and start packing for Vegas! Woo hoo. I can't wait to go and I can't wait to return to a normal schedule!

Good night everyone and happy easter weekend!