A bold statement

I think I have found the best ice cream.

Ice cream is one of my top food groups- it makes up a large part of my diet. I love ice cream. To demonstrate my love I offer this analogy:

Chic is to donuts as Lauren is to ice cream.

Anyhow, MAR-boy came over to pick up some items and we decided to try out Bill Wahl's Microcreamery. I've been wanting to try this place since mom visited at the end of May and I finally got there.

The ice cream, I dare say, is the best ice cream that I have ever had. The outside is cute- it looks like an old fashioned ice cream parlor. A big tile counter, flavors written in chalk and around the other side of the shop you can see them make the flavors. Its a cool experience.

I got a "Small" which is two scoops. They aren't very small, are they? ----->

They have all kinds of flavors that they make right on the grounds. I chose the Cookie Dough and the Peppermint Chocolate Chip.

And it was absolutely delicious. I was worried about mixing the two flavors but it didn't end up being an issue. The ice cream was so delicious- not easily melted with huge chunks of dark chocolate and perfect cookie dough and little chunks of peppermint. MMmm. Well worth the wait.

It was nice to see MAR-boy, although I can't help but feel a little sad. There was a certain finality about the whole interaction. We did the catch up thing and talking about future plans and then said bye and thanks and that was it. I mean, I wasn't expecting some triumphant return or petty exchange but I wasn't expecting to feel a little sad. I guess the whole "finality" feeling will be creeping up more and more as I prepare to finish my internship and life here. Since moving to Arizona, I've been in this space where I knew I wouldn't be in one particular place for too long and I think now I'm kind of craving that. Could this be what its like to want to settle down somewhere and sow roots? Eck. That sounds too much like an "Adult" (The A-word) thing and I refuse to call myself that. These past 2 years have been jam packed and frenzied. I think the conclusion of my internship marks the conclusion of this frenzied period and leads into a more "stable" and more "A-word" phase. Saying "goodbye" to MAR-boy is just the beginning of the goodbyes I know I will have to do. Still I can't help but look forward to whatever being an "adult" means. I suppose its not such a bad thing. :) I like growing older (as long as I don't have to grow up). And I'll really enjoy growing older as long as I can still eat as much ice cream as I want.

Briar Manor FTW

Wow.

I started my Saturday as I normally do: Catching up on my Hulu queue before getting out of bed. Well I cheated this morning and made coffee first. As I was settling down to watch my stories, my internet gave out. This has happened before, so I decided to get up and actually plug into the router. Well that didn't work. OKay fine.

I unplugged and plugged back in, shut down and restarted the router and my computer like 3 times. Still nothing. In the meantime I did laundry, cleaned up my apartment- productive things. I even went out for an errand and returned my "notice to vacate" at the front office. While there I asked for my account number so that I could call Time Warner to ask about my modem.

"Hello welcome to Time Warner"

I had a lovely conversation with my new best friend, Eliot. He told me that my modem was disabled because my payment was 16 days late.

WTF.

The apartment complex pays my utilities and internet/cable.

So I walked back to the office and told them what Eliot said. My internet is officially back. Lets pay our bills on time.

Today has been productive- I'm looking to start editing some monthly summaries this afternoon and start practicing my presentation (ack on Thursday!). Later today MAR-boy (I know he hasn't appeared in "And On That Note" for a while) is coming by to get some things he left here. We're going to go and try this microcreamery in Pittsford. I'm glad that I won't have to worry about his stuff-- its not really even stuff that I'd want. My ITD suggested I sell it on E-bay. It was sort of tempting.

Time for a snack and on to that documentation stuff!

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!

Walking Disaster

Today is just disaster. I am glad that I am home and that tomorrow is another day.

first disaster of the day:

1. Running out of gas.

I didn't run out of gas, but I was dangerously close to E. Normally this would not be an issue except that #2 disaster happened.

2. Left my purse at home

So I had no gas card, no drivers license, no insurance card. awesome.

3. A consumer became agitated and started pounding on cars in the parking lot.

I got a phone call in the office about the beamer with the california plates and to please check to see if there are any damages so that they can make arrangements to have it fixed. Well Great. No purse. No license. No AAA card. No nothing.

Luckily, there weren't any damages.

Kari came in later and gave me 7 bucks to get gas to get home. And here I am.

I did have a nice supervision today and we did go over Resumes and Cover Letters today. Our ITD gave us a very short list of possible graduate programs... as in, there are only a few that she has pre-approved. :) That was pretty funny.

I am just glad this day is over. I will hopefully have an easy breezy day tomorrow. My supervising therapist is away at a graduate school residency for the weekend, so I will have the office to myself and my ITD said that if I'm not feeling too hot then I can leave early. We all prefer that I get better before next week picks up- I have my big presentation and documentation and papers and evals (oh my!). Aside from my (almost) comical day and a silly little blunder, I'm feeling pretty good. I plan to do a lot of resting this weekend and working on my hand out for my presentation. That's all.

I went to work today!

I went to work today. But I didn't see any clients. I am feeling better although the afternoon was a little rough- I had that glassy look in my eye about 3pm. I did get some headway on my presentation. I anticipate that I will do most of the work this weekend--- like transferring my video clips to my tape and solidifying my outline and handout. After seeing Kari's presentation today, I have more of an idea of what I want to do and say. That helps a lot. I'm going to type those ideas into my existing outline and then hit the couch. BTW, Kari's presentation was fabulous. She is a rock star. I hope that mine will be as good as hers. I know that it will be different. However, it does turn out that the clients we picked have certain similarities. Its nice to draw on those similarities when I'm trying to figure out my presentation - but also figure out the things that I want to do differently. Kari had this beautiful and elaborate hand out and I think that I might want to do something a little more simple... we'll see what happens as it all comes together.

My presentation is really going to focus on the person that my client becomes in music. There are certain ways that this person is described in the chart is is completely opposite of what I observe in music therapy. I'm really going to highlight on how this person comes to life and can do anything despite whatever "dis"abilities present. That's the amazing thing about music therapy and about this Maslow humanist theory--- my client can fulfill any capacity or potentiality in music. I found the perfect quote from Maslow today that I will probably use in my presentation:

“The person in the peak-experiences usually feels himself to be at the peak of his powers, using all of his capacities at the best and fullest… he feels “fully-functioning.” He feels more intelligent, more perceptive, wittier, stronger, or more graceful than at other times. He is at his best… This is not only felt subjectively but can be seen by the observer He is no longer wasting effort fighting and restraining himself; muscles are no longer fighting muscles. In the normal situation, part of our capcities are used for action, and part are wasted on restraining these same capacities. Now there is no waste; the totality of the capacities can be used for action. He becomes like a river without dams.” (117).

I read that last line, "He becomes like a river without dams" and I just kenw that I had to use it to describe my client. My client also has some physical challenges--- so the muscles fighting muscles line really spoke to me as well. Anyhow, I felt really inspired by fidning that quote and its helped me get a move on my presentation. I have more focus which is going to help me, big time.

I did a lot today without doing much of anything. Although I did submit one monthly summary and started my final paper. My final paper is going to be sort of cool. I'm organizing and summarizing my entire experience based on our first piano in-service where our ITD gave us the rules for improvisation. It turns out those rules have been a lot more important than I had originally thought. It makes reflecting on my experience sort of fun and also ties into the actual musical part of my own transformation. There are things I wrote early on in my journal that are so clear now--- I had that sort of "whoa! how did I even know about that way back then?" reaction to a few of my entries.

Now its time to eat, type my notes and then crash. I think I actually will do sessions tomorrow. Our ITD is going to start doing some observations tomorrow afternoon in preparation for final evals AND tomorrow my ITD and I are going to sit down and talk about dates for last sessions. We have a few people figured out (Kari has all of her ending dates). It will be nice (But WEIRD!) to have that all figured out tomorrow. That truly does make this ending a little more real. I know I have to get through some big things first, but with ending dates, I'm sure the conclusion of my internship will certainly creep more into my mind. Lots of stuff happening and I've got to hit the ground running--- well with as much speed as I can while still managing to take care of myself and get better. We'll start right now with dinner. Goodnight!

back again

I am back in New York again- comfy and cozy on my couch.

My gilroy adventure was a whirlwind! I saw a lot of "my readers" and family and friends. I managed to sprain my ankle during the festival - just a little bit. And today I skipped work because I have a sinus infection and bronchitis. I think it was all the dirt and running around from the festival that caused congestion (as it usually does) and then having to fly all day yesterday probably brought things over the edge. But the festival was great. It was good to see everyone again- all the people who are apart of the Media team. They are my family for those few days during the year and for some, its the only time during the year that I get to see them. So I am glad that I was able to come back and work... even if I had to stay mainly at the media tent with my foot up on Sunday. I really love the garlic festival for that reason- that 3 days out of the year I get to see good friends and family. I think that's true for a lot of other people who have been involved for many years. The twitter project went really well. I think everyone was happy with it and it even got some media buzz and some of the followers were re-tweeting some of the posts. My sister and I were a great team with that (sometimes thats surprising)- she would text me with a message due to limited wi-fi at the cook off stage and I posted them from the media tent. It was fun to work with her this year.

Sometimes we really get on each others nerves (especially in the morning) but this year we were jamming and jiving. It made it more fun.

I posted a picture from Friday morning-- the Foster Farms Impostors were at the festival and we couldn't resist! ---------->

Julie came and picked me up Sunday night because I had a 6:45a flight out of SFO early Monday morning. It was good to hang with her in Gilroy and to hang with her up at her house. Its weird to think that this will probably be the only time we'll see each other in person until December. But I guess with any true and good friend the number of visits doesn't really matter as much as the ability to just pick up where we left off the last time. It was nice to see my family and be at home, even if it was just for a few hours a day. All of my flights were uneventful and on time. That's because I didn't fly Delta. Getting to Gilroy was really annoying as both of my Delta flights were delayed and completely full. Coming back, I was able to sleep on the plane (which is unusual), my flights left on time and only one flight was completely full.

Now I'm back in the ROC and trying to get healthy. I really can't come into work when I'm sick because I work with people who are also medically fragile. It's a good thing my supervisor said "Stay home" when I called this morning. I felt conflicted because I had these symptoms but I wanted to come in. My big presentation is next week, Kari's is tomorrow and I still have a ton of work to do on it. So the blog posts may not be coming as frequently in the next week because I really have to put all of my puzzle pieces together. I think I will have a better idea of how to do that after seeing Kari's tomorrow. She's been able to watch old case studies on tape and I know its going to be a stellar presentation. Plus she mentioned that there are Reese's mini peanut butter cups on the office --- which means I need to be there to eat them.

Oh well. Back to the couch and my bottle of red gatorade.

Oh! Other big news. My best friend from Chapman delivered her (HUGE) baby early this morning. A little boy, 9lbs and 15oz and 22" long. Her younger sister had one job and one job only aside from being there and that was to call and text me as necessary. I got an ecstatic phone call at 4am this morning with the big news. So now I get to be Auntie Lauren to this giant baby and I am very excited about it. I am planning on taking a trip down and visiting sometime in September.

Anyhow, Thank you all for the lovely trip home and I'll see most of you in a few weeks! These next 3.5 weeks are going to fly by and I have a lot to do. Once my presentation is done next week I will have to complete my final paper, final self evaluation, and final site evaluation. Not to mention the upcoming July summaries and the bits of August summaries. Also I will have to start transitioning my clients back to our ITD's caseload and start wrapping up my work plus observations! Phew. That's a lot. But as my mother would say, "you gotta finish the race." SO I'm going to work my hardest to be focused and get everything done. After my trip home, I've gotta change gears (and get better) and get back into the swing of things. I left feeling really balanced in my work and life, so I am hoping to get back to that place instead of the frantic cocker spaniel sliding down the hardwood floor wall. I'm going to get ready for bed now. Seems silly since I have literally napped all day (and I'm still tired!). I must have needed the extra sleep.

Signing off for now!

actual progress

I am packed and even am now (when I'm done) taking my suitcase to the car and taking out the trash- the last two things that I have to do this morning before packing up my backpack for work and trip. I'm putting everything in the car so I don't have to make extra trips back and forth from my apartment when I get back from work. I'm not going to have much time between then and my shuttle pick up. So, I'm saving myself a couple of trips.

I read something really distressing this morning. A music therapy friend/colleague/former classmate has a blog about his daughter. His daughter has a rare skin disease called Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB). I believe that its a genetic mutation where the body's skin cells are lacking a protein and therefore don't stick together. His daughter is just over one year old and undergoing a bone marrow transplant (BMT) clinical trial for EB. She's doing well in certain regards but the chemo and other stuff they have her on are just creating chaos in her body and add that to the medical community and people there that run on autopilot and have to be educated everyday in proper care for this little girl is/sounds completely frustrating.

Anyhow, Tim's story is amazing. Currently Bella (Tim's daughter) is not doing so well, bordering organ failure and another clinical trial for a drug to help her liver and kidneys. I wanted to send his family and specifically Bella some nice thoughts and all this morning and thought maybe you all might be interested in reading about this amazing little girl.

You can read her incredible story here:

http://careforanabella.blogspot.com/

Alright alright alright. I've got to get going especially because I have to stop for coffee this morning instead of making it. I'm out of my French Vanilla coffee creamer. And I have practically no food so I have to stop for a bagel or something. Timmy Ho's here I come!

See you all on the "best" coast in a few hours.

progress

Lauren is....

still not packed.

still leaving tomorrow

still not packed.