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!