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....