I heard back!

Hi there,

I got an e-mail yesterday from the school saying that they'd like to schedule another meeting with me to talk about my experiences there (presenting and touring) and to talk more about "possibly working together." Looks like this meeting will happen when I return from conference. Probably good timing. I will be all refreshed and ready to go--- although extremely tired but in a good way.

yayayay!

PS. I have to rant about something.

Why do people spell "ridiculous" wrong all of the time? I often see it as "rediculous." Why do they do that? that drives me nuts.

Thursday

Its Thursday and I haven't heard back yet. The end of the week is rapidly approaching, just saying.

Its another rainy dreary day. All I have to do today is go over my presentation and teach a piano lesson-- which does involve driving down to Gilroy. I had hoped to bring Peaches, but its too rainy. Oh well.

Hallelu!

The kitchen situation has been resolved. I shall be making my coffee in the kitchen tomorrow morning!

Thanks to Lizzie for basically solving the mystery!!

Wednesday

Clean house. Clean Clothes. Even Clean Dog.

I gave her a bath today and now she smells like doggy roses. Simply delightful. We are getting along famously.

The internet went down today and I managed to fix it all by myself. This is no small personal feat as the panic room (the closet that stores all of the TV, internet, gaming devices) is enough to make me panic. Go me.

Getting ready for conference next week! I can't believe its already that time of year. I am looking forward to seeing my friends- especially the ones that I only get to see at conferences once or twice a year.

Tuesday

Yesterday I found out that one of my clients in my afternoon session is 97 years old. She is super sassy and energetic during the session. Fantastic.

My sessions went really well yesterday AND I picked up my score-- looks fantastic. Today I will give it a good listen and follow along- I didn't do that last night. I played through it instead. AND I have to pick up my keyboard manual and look at how to program patches so that I can just switch through sounds easily. I've never done that before and I'm not quite sure how to do it. So if I can't find the answer, then I can reach out to someone I know that has the same keyboard. maybe he will know how to do it.

On my way back from picking up my score I got a hankering for this tiny little mexican restaurant. So I called my friend and asked her to join me for dinner. It was delicious! I hadn't been there in years And I hadn't seen my friend in a few good weeks. It was nice to catch up.

Today I am coming down to Gilroy for lunch and to have my cousin look at my car again. My lift gate is doing something strange. Run a few errands. Pick up my keyboard manual. and then head back up... I have one load of laundry, some documentation, and some reading to do up here. loving my down time

Monday Monday

I made my coffee in the dining room today. Still no luck with the kitchen outlets. I will attempt again after my sessions today.

Obviously there is little to do around here except update my blog and make coffee in the dining room.

This pace of work/no work feels like my last semester at ASU (without the 72 degree winter pool days). I kind of dig it. It gives me time to work on my stuff and take naps. Although somedays (like this morning) it feels a little hard to get excited about working. But I know that once I get there and get going that everything is going to be great and that I always enjoy what I do. Its the getting there. That's my process.

Kitchen Update

I can't seem to figure out how to get the kitchen back in full working order. I guess I am not doing it right.

I finished most everything on my list except for laundry. That will have to wait until tomorrow when I am done with my Monday sessions. Oh yeah, I am working tomorrow. I had forgotten about that until the early afternoon. The nice thing about housesitting is that I only have to drive 20 minutes to get to work tomorrow. I can sleep in! I did my session plans... but I also managed to get through my presentation for conference and trim it up. Its almost ready to send to Maggie for feedback.

Tomorrow I am also going to pick up my score. I am playing in another children's theater show at the end of April. They are doing a production of Starmites and I can hardly contain my excitement. The show was written in the 80s which means that I get to use various Synthesizer sounds on my keyboard. I got my recording tonight and I am picking up my score to start picking out synth sounds. The show has 2 keyboards... so its hard to tell from just the recording which part I will be playing and which sounds I will need... which is why I need my score. I am looking forward to giving it a good listen and following along in my score. I am fairly certain that there is a need for electric piano and perhaps a harp sound. I can't wait. Being in the pit for this show (and the show I did in February) makes me feel like I have more of a social life than I actually do. It makes me very happy and its fun to make music in this way-- its different from the usual.

Tomorrow also marks the beginning of the week which means I should hear from the school this week. I also managed to brainstorm a little bit about putting a program together for the school... just in case.

Time to get ready for bed!

Short Jokes

Not height jokes my friends, electrical short jokes.

I shorted out a few of the outlets in the kitchen this morning. Serves me right I guess, I wanted to mix it up a little bit and have toast AND coffee this morning.

I have to reset the outlets in a particular order. It has yet to work, but I am confident that I'll be back up and running here. I still want toast and the other half of my coffee.

Yesterday was rather uneventful.

Today I'm going to go grocery shopping and work my presentation and take peach on a walk if the weather holds out. She thinks if she looks extra cute that I will let her up on the couch. Not gonna happen. She's got a little cabin fever with all this rain. Perhaps we both do. Its hard for me to get motivated when its the perfect weather to bundle up on the couch, watch movies, read books and take naps. But then I get restless that I'm not getting anything done. Maybe I'll design my ideal music therapy program today... that will help procrastinate on the things that I should be doing today. :) siigghhhh

Peach Sitting Day 01

Oh Hai there.

Today is day one of dog-sitting my lovely god-dogter, Peaches. She's currently chewing on "blue chewy" on my foot- a favorite pastime. I don't mind. It keeps her entertained, especially on a day where we won't be going for a walk outside. I'll have to chase her around the house later to work up a good pant. Things are very quiet here. It's nice. On this rainy day I have some nice music going and am finally getting around to reading some of the books I've been meaning to get through. I started "The curious incident of the dog in the nighttime." Its good so far.

I plan to do a lot of reading while I'm here and also finishing up my presentation for a music therapy conference happening in just two weeks. Yikes times flies.

On the School front- the AED told me that she'd follow up regarding my presentations and services some time next week. So at least I have a vague timeline of when I will hear from her. We will see!

Stay tuned for bulldog adventures throughout the week.

The Pay-off

Phew. I feel happy and relieved.

My presentation went really well today. The staff in attendance really glommed onto the video clips and asked some great questions relating to the clips at the end. There was a speech therapist and an occupational therapist there and they asked if I ever did co-treatment. I told them I am dying to try something like that. Which is definitely the truth. That is something that I would like to do.

Anyhow, the presentation was great. My friend's mom was there (she works there) so it was nice that I could see her and show her what I've been doing all this time. I was then additionally invited over this weekend for some homemade authentic Indian food. Its a win-win.

Now I guess I play the waiting game and see when the AED (assistant executive director) gets back to me. I'm not quite sure what the next step will be, but I am sure anxious and excited to find out. My friend Maggie is in the middle of developing a program in a similar setting in Chicago. We've been shooting ideas back and forth to each other. It is sort of like being in AZ in again when she'd come over to study and have dinner and we'd spread all of our materials out on the kitchen table and listen to the carpenters. Well... that last part about the carpenters happened only once. There's nothing like belting out "don't you remember you told me loved me babbbyyy...." while trying to grasp music therapy research methods.

I digress. I guess now I have to think about what kind of program would fit their needs best and what that means in terms of hours and compensation. Will it just be a contract job or something more? Personally I hope for something more - maybe part time to start but it would be okay to be a contractor for a little bit- if that's where I needed to start.

I suppose only time will tell. :)

the 11th hour

It isn't the 11th hour yet. Yet.

I've just decided to restructure my entire presentation for tomorrow. Its consistently running like 20 minutes over. I've got to allow time for the experiential and the video clips.

So instead of working on it, I've decided to blog about it.

which means different handouts to be printed tomorrow morning. shoot me in the face.

I've decided to combine parts 1 and 3 and end with part two and some amazing video clips. bbbllaarrggghhh

It's just another day...

Today I was blessed by one of my clients, started a dance party, and was spoken to in Mandarin. I don't know what they were saying, but it sounded like they were yelling at me. I don't think they were...

oh well.

Just another day on the job.

great sessions today... but now its time to finalize my presentation for Thursday.

Sunday Funday

This Spring Forward day wasn't so bad. Not so different from the other days, except that I did notice that all of the bikers were out today in the east bay.

I made it home and am now enjoying a nice cold beverage whilst I update they ol' blog and finish up my documentation for today.

I had four great sessions today.

I could start to see tiny differences in my morning client. Some of the movements are more fluid and the amount of singing this client is doing has greatly increased--- all excellent developments. Plus there was a keyboard set out.... turns out that going back to my training and approach seems like a good fit for this particular person. It was easier to facilitate some things sitting side by side and using the piano is going to be beneficial in the overall treatment plan for this individual.

Its sort of amazing to note how different each session is. It shouldn't be a big surprise. I'm different at each hour (even minute) of the day, I'm working with different groups, different goals, different dynamics. Each Sunday workday feels like an epic journey.... but more like one of those books where you get to a certain part in the story and you can either choose to go to page 11 to chase the squirrel or flip to page 45 to save the universe. You know... those pick your own ending books.

This week is going to be busy- I have the second presentation at that school, a couple of sessions on Tuesday, a dentist appointment Wednesday morning and will be finishing out the week housesitting with my favorite lady bulldog, Peaches. I also have to madly prep for conference including my presentation AND this other thing I'm helping out with at conference. Anyhoooowwwww..... one day at a time.

Back to my documentation and back to my ice cold beverage.

Dear Daylight Savings

I hate you.

please bring back my hour. now.

love,

Lauren

Eck. Have to be up for my four sessions today. No cup of coffee could make this okay right now.

Being dramatic? yes. most definitely.

Time for some of that coffee.

Success

I'd call today's presentation a SUCCESS!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my biggest fears today was that the participants were not going to be participatory. That was something I could not control ahead of time. I wasn't worried about knowing my stuff- that I can control. It was the other stuff.. the uncontrollable stuff.

I started my "hello" song and they all became animated and started singing along. I knew right away that they were going to be a great crowd to present to and that all the experiential things I had planned would work well. It was an excellent presentation. I was able to say all of the things that I wanted to say and also show them some of the experiences I might use and corresponding goal areas and rationale. btw, thanks bri- that hello song you sent was a real crowd pleaser.

The assistant executive director (AED) was there as well. She seemed to like what I presented and said that all of my experiential stuff was great- spot on with the age appropriateness. I finished with about 10 minutes left for questions. One person said, "so when's the first session?" which made me feel good. I left feeling positive about a future with this particular organization.

I still have one more presentation to do next week at the school. The AED said that the energy there is totally different. I remember from the quick tour I did with her. The general atmosphere is definitely different. I told her what I planned to do instead of the experientials which is to show some video from a case study I did during my internship. I think that is going to fit the mood a bit better.

I am relieved and energized. I feel like I really can do this and make this happen. I am excited to polish up my next presentation and give it another go. WOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Lauren's First In-service.

It's time for Lauren's First In-service.

Tomorrow I am giving my first presentation (as a professional) to a private school for kids with autism. They are interested in incorporating music therapy into their program but are currently (to my understanding) trying to find the perfect MT. I would argue that I am the perfect MT for the job.

My presentation is organized into three parts: Part I is a general overview of music therapy and my own specific approach. Part II is the practical demonstration of experiences that target some of the goals they work on at the preschool. Part III is more indepth about the process of music therapy: referral, assessment, delivering services and documentation (to, most important, show growth over time and the need for services).

I'm feeling good about it... except for the sinking feeling I have about having enough handouts. I don't know how many people are going to be there tomorrow afternoon. And that the experiential stuff is going bomb. blech.

well I actually have to practice now.

Send good ju-ju tomorrow afternoon and special thoughts towards the number of handouts I'm bringing.

pure genius

Hi there.

I subscribe to a few different channels on youtube... one of them being Miranda--- the superstar from tacoma, WA who is a youtube sensation because she sounds so bad.

In reality, Miranda is played by an incredibly talented individual from southern california. She also posts videos and video-blogs (vlogs) as herself. They are hilarious.

Recently, she spoke with her 3 year old niece (who also has her own vlog channel) and created a song from the quotes from her niece. Its genius.

you can find it here

please take a few minutes to watch it. its hilarious and well done. I've been laughing about it all morning.

"Happiness is very happy.... if I just don't get an owie"

Motown Thursday

I deem today "Motown Thursday"

I've got my Tammi Terrell and Marvin Gaye going this morning. I went as far as to pull some of my records from the basement and hook up the turntable. Its my ultimate feel good music.

It also makes me feel productive. Let's hope it works its magic. Gotta get some other prep things done for this upcoming presentation AND catch up on my documentation for work. Blech. :) I do have a piano lesson this afternoon and I always look forward to that.

Music Therapy Story of the Week

Back at Chapman, one of our professors would tell us a music therapy story of the week from all of her work.

Here are a couple from yesterday:

In my late afternoon session on a locked dementia unit, I was playing a familiar song the piano and trying to encourage the clients to sing and play along. in the meantime, this woman (We'll Call her GN), who has observed a few sessions (she's getting her advanced degree in gerontology), was interacting with on the clients. And I got this story from GN after the session.

So GN was interacting with one of the clients. They were kind of moving across the room. This particular client was not interested in sitting down much, but she loved moving around the room with GN by her side. I guess this client was talking with GN, except that it was a string of absolutely incoherent thoughts. In the middle of one of these random strings, the client started singing along to the music with everyone else. She had snapped back into the here and now, into the current reality, and discontinued her thoughts and began actively participating. GN was stunned.... and so was I to tell you the truth. The dynamic of the session is unlike any session I'd done before... so it can be hard for me to gauge what's going on for each person. GN was amazed at the way the music brought this person back.

I thought that was pretty darned amazing.

There are some characters in that particular group.. including my new boyfriend. He's probably 85 or so. But he sits in the session pretending he won't participate (even though he sings along quietly to every song and plays the drums quietly so that no one will see him), but he totally does. And he looks like he enjoys it. I went to collect his instruments after the session and instead he took my hand, gave me a wink, and told me how great it was. There's also another woman who is sooo sassy. She told me I "was the greatest thing she's ever done." Which I took to mean that she enjoyed the music immensely. She kept complimenting my piano playing. Tomato- Tomahto. This same woman came to sit on the couch next to the piano. So I moved my big bag of boomwhackers so she could sit down. She told me that I should never have to move any of my stuff for anyone.... and that I should have someone else do it for me.... which I took to mean that I should find a nice man that will move my big bag of boomwhackers so that I don't have to??? Its hard to tell. But the sentiment is there. She cracks me up.

Anyhow, I meet a lot of characters.

In the early afternoon session, I do a huge drumming group at a day program for older adults. They have a large group of retired nuns there. I was starting out with "You Are My Sunshine" which I find, most everyone likes. This nun came into the session. I gave her a drum and invited her to sing and play along thinking that "she's a nun. Nuns are great." This woman looked me in the eye and said, "Well I will, but not to this song," in a very saucy manner. Hilarious.

I love the people I get to work with.

Avoidance or Good Therapy Boundaries???

In school they try to teach us about keeping your own ish separate from the music therapy session-- like "leaving your stuff at the door." Apparently the therapy sessions that you are responsible for are NOT in fact about You. The focus is always the client or group you are working with. Its an easy enough concept to understand, but sometimes its difficult to carry out, especially if there is stuff happening that you just can't get around.

At some point, if the therapy work or client is going to stuff because of things in your own life, its best to take a day to get your self back together. No one wins if something about the therapy will not be effective.

As someone who likes to sweep things under the rug, this is an awesome concept! Shoot. Something happens? Nope, can't deal with it now, I'm about to go into a session. At least thats how I was in school. That changed quite a bit during my internship. I think the thing for me to remember is that even though I get to push things aside, they will still be there when I am done for the day. and I WILL have to deal with it.

So take Sunday. I'm coming down from playing 7 consecutive shows of Guys and Dolls from the previous 3 days... I'm minding my own business, walked out to the car to see bits of my car all over the street. I called my dad in a panic! I had to get up to see my clients! I had to work! Long story short- my boss covered my morning session and Mom hung out with me all day while I stopped at my other three settings. It was nice to have my mom around in between sessions so that I wasn't by myself and obsessing over my car. When I had finished for the day, there was no time to deal because I went straight down to downtown SJ and finished up the last show of Guys and Dolls (bringing my tally up to 8 shows in a weekend) and then had to strike and pack up all of my stuff and haul it to the car. By the time I had everything packed in the car and the parking machine would not take my paid-for ticket... I had just burst into tears. I was so tired, my body hurt, I was mad that some jerk messed up my car (although completely repairable and paid for) and I still had to work the next day.

So I had a nice little cry and conversation with my friend Stacey and enjoyed my drive home. Then I crashed!

I'm feeling normal again. And it helped that I had fabulous sessions yesterday (which I will save for another post today.... I need a cup of coffee first). Followed by a fabulous surprise birthday party for my Auntie.

Today I slept in and it feels pretty darn good.

Everything in the end catches up with you, but I am thankful to have down time between these things to rest up and take care of myself.