Two posts in one day?

Impossible but true!  I felt the need to post on my new blog because I just spent the past two hours (off and on, mostly on) reading my OLD blog: so impossible — and WOW, let me sum it up for you with two words: TEENAGE ANGST.  Five years of teenage angst in one location.  It’s really quite overwhelming.  (Don’t really know why I gave the link – trust me, you don’t want to read it.) 

It’s not that what I had to say about life back then wasn’t valid – it absolutely was.  It’s really interesting to read if only because my life was a little more turbulent back then than it is now, and my frontal lobe was a little less developed than it is now (not that I’m fully there yet, but I’m a heckuva lot closer!)  It’s also interesting because I wrote a lot a poetry in my late HS/early college years, and I haven’t written any poetry in years now.  I wonder where all my poetic imagination went.  It’s really weird.  Oh well, I enjoyed the trip down memory lane, and I think one of these days I’m going to save all the entries as PDF files so I have them for eternity – something tells me that if I think they’re funny now, they’re going to be HILARIOUS in another ten or twenty years…

Just another gratitude post

My first Thanksgiving away from home was really, really wonderful.  The food was delicious – a veritable potluck spread of your typical Thanksgiving staples, my contribution being a sweet potato casserole with pecan and brown sugar topping.  The company was fantastic – a combination of MW interns, former MW interns, and friends/family of former MW interns.  (Hence the jam session that took place after dinner)  The scenery was amazing – an outside feast with the sunset in the background.  And, rather unexpectedly, I got to watch most of the UT/A&M game, which is always nice!  But yeah… suffice it to say that I need to add #31 to the previous list: I am SO THANKFUL for my San Diego family!

It’s been a fairly lonely weekend, though, to be honest.  I’ve really, really missed Paul – at one point we thought he might come visit this weekend but that didn’t pan out (flying on Thanksgiving? no thanks) and right now the 25 days separating the two of us seem like an eternity.  I’ve gotten a lot of work done, to be sure – as well as a good running start on my Christmas shopping/Christmas crafting – but it’s just… I don’t know.  I just miss him.  Plus I think I may have tinged my right calf AGAIN (third time in two months?) so I’m not getting that endorphin release from my weekend long run and… ugh.  Okay, moving on.

At least there’s football.  Man, has there been a lot of football on this weekend.  I’m lovin’ it

One more thing I am grateful for: Muppets!

Hype.

One month from right now… I will have arrived in Texas, I will be with Paul, I will be celebrating Christmas with my family. 

I love it here, I really do.  I’m having a blast.  But beginning the countdown makes me very, very excited.  Especially since I think the month of December -with the ever-growing list of things to do that accompanies it – will absolutely FLY by.  MAJOR hype.  I can’t wait!!

30 things I am grateful for

So I am reading a book as a part of my internship entitled Smart Women Finish Rich, which – as indicated by the title – the author (David Bach) tells the reader (myself) the information they need to know to handle money as well as making the reader believe they are worth self-investing in their own futures.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have had much of this information before (thanks to my wonderfully financial-minded parents), but it’s always a good reminder, plus it also has some things I didn’t know.  One of the final exercises in the book is to list 30 things that we are grateful for (which seems incredibly appropriate because here comes Thanksgiving!!) and to share that list with family and friends.  I’ve done these sorts of exercises before, but here’s my 2009 version of 30 things I am incredibly thankful for in my life (in no particular order, just how they come to me)…

1. My parents, who never forget to tell me they are proud of me.

2. My morning drive which follows the ocean for a mile or so north of Torrey Pines State Park.  Truly a moment of bliss every morning.

3. Paul – my best friend, my other half, my soulmate.

4. The few precious moments before my alarm goes off each morning when I can lay in my warm bed and meditate on the rest of the day.

5. The perfect cup of coffee.

6. My lilbro – one of my closest friends and a blessing!

7. Music – the effects of which form not only the basis for my entire career but the cornerstone of me and my sanity.

8. My faith – the spiritual journey I’ve been on through the years that has brought me to where I stand today.

9.Red wine.

10. Smiles from strangers that always seem to come when I least expect them (and most need them).

11. Beautiful, wonderful friends – whom I am all quite far away from at the moment but I feel our hearts connected by one really long thread

12. All my memories from Longhorn band – it was an incredible ride, folks.

13. Any time I get to spend at a piano – I rediscover my first love more and more every day!

14. Letters and cards sent by family and friend at home.  It truly makes my day and I love you all!

15. The fact that I will never be enough by myself to tackle the big challenges in life – that God is there to help me.

16. Having dogs to play with when I come home currently.

17. The movie “Anchorman”.  San Diego jokes never get old!

18. All the mentors and teachers I have had over the years – I took a part of what each person gave me and am trying to make it into who I am today.

19. Donuts from that killer shop in Denton.  Can’t remember the name right now but geez, it is good!

20. My patients, who teach me more and more about life each day.

21. Watching the sunrise/sunset.

22. The most perfect weather ever imaginable.  It hasn’t rained once in the going on two months since I’ve been here

23. Trader Joe’s and their amazing food.

24. Being a Texan (to whom the phrase ” I wasn’t born in TX but got here as fast as I could” applies!)

25. Good health for myself and those around me.

26. College football season!

27. The Internet – it is truly amazing nowadays how easy it is to find infofmation.

28. Yellow cake w/chocolate frosting.

29.Laughter – it helps me get through each day!

30. Perhaps the biggest blessing of all – waking up and being alive at the dawning of each new day!

This is a song about conference…

… wonderful, beautiful conference! *is the only person laughing at the inside joke*

Anyway.

So from Wednesday to Sunday of this past week (good Lord is it already November 17th?!?) I attended the American Music Therapy Association National Convention, right here in my backyard (aka San Diego, CA).  It was incredible.  I met so many people, made new friends and lots of contacts, and recharged spiritually from getting to see friends and colleagues.  Some highlights for me:

1) A session on adaptive music lessons (aka adapted instructional music lesson techniques for kids with disabilities, my professional paper topic, the subject of all my geekiness over the summer, etc.).  Tons of resources, plus the whole session validated the work I have done with my percussion students.  Got me excited about possibly offering adaptive lessons in the future!

2) Dr. Patel’s speech on building bridges between neuroscience and music therapy in the future through research.  Similar speech, but not exactly the same, found here – probably the most informative 52 minutes you’ve had in a while.

3) Interestingly enough, one of my favorite sessions was one that I also disagreed with the most… a session entitled “Evidence-Based Practice from a Humanist Perspective”.  From this, I learned a couple of things: a) Humanism is not exactly what I believed it to be; b) I don’t do music therapy, I am music therapy; c) the way they look at “more behavioral models” (I can see the snarl on their faces as I type this) is totally skewed and overgeneralized.  But yeah, it was one of those sessions you have to attend in order to know better where you stand.

There was a lot more that I don’t feel like going into at the moment, but what I DO feel like is giving you 2.5 moments of listening pleasure:

You’re welcome. 

I’ve been compiling this list for a few days in my head, and now here it is for your viewing pleasure:

Observations about California (some good, some bad, some “eh”):

1) No frontage roads in San Diego.  Most frustrating thing EVER.

2) Due to #1, entering the freeways in CA is a really random experience – you have to watch very closely for signs and sometimes the entrance to the freeway is on the wrong side of the road/the end of some random street/etc.  Also, some freeway entrances are clovers and some are not… some are northbound-clover and southbound-not… and vice versa… like you have to know the intersection or be prepared to switch three lanes of traffic almost instantaneously.  Good times.

3) One more driving observation… No billboards in San Diego.  This is a good thing!

4) People in CA love their coffee.  No complaints there

5) I do not even want to know how much gas cost here in the summer of 08 when gas was over $4.00/gal in Denton.  Right now it’s about 50 cents higher than where Paul lives.

6) Nearly every female I know thus far in San Diego owns at least one scarf – not the kind that you use to keep warm in the winter, but the sheer kind that you use for the purpose of decorating your neck.  I only brought one such scarf with me, and I feel about ten times more hip whenever I wear it around here.

7)  My being from Texas is a novelty to many Californians.  Almost everyone I’ve told that I’m from Texas has responded with one (or both) of the following: “You don’t sound like you’re from Texas, you don’t have an accent!” or some variation on “your politicians are crazy/So everyone in Texas is Republican, right?”.  Le sigh.

8 ) If you want to sound like you are “from” San Diego, the most effective way to do it is to insert the word “the” in front of freeway names in casual conversation (e.g. “I was going to take the 805 to the 52 but it backed up, so I took the 56 instead”).

9) Almost nowhere in San Diego are there unprotected left turns.  It’s all arrows, similar to many places in the Houston area.  Probably safer, but nonetheless ANNOYING!

10) There are so many runners (and running trails, for that matter) in the San Diego area it’s ridiculous.  Makes me excited to get out there… so excited that the first weekend I was here I sprained my calf from overzealously racing up ridiculous hills.  Now I am taking it easy (mostly by running north-south not east-west) and my legs/feet/EVERYTHING are thanking me.

So there you go, 10 random observations about California and the people that live here.  Hope you enjoyed.  I’m going to spend this weekend doing work so that when freakin AMTA CONFERENCE comes to town this upcoming week I won’t fall behind!  Have a great weekend and BTHOO UCF

I’m yours

… I learned that Jason Mraz song on ukulele today.  I was amazed how simple learning chords on ukulele is overall – within 10 minutes of getting the thing out of the case I was jamming along on a 5-chord song.  Also on the list of uke songs I learned today – “Three Little Birds”.  I feel cooler by the minute

Did my first solo session at the hospital today.  I was surprised at how not nervous I was.  Guess I am growing!

In unrelated news, getting mail = happiness.  And I have had a lot of happiness in my life lately… Liz’s beautiful homemade save the date cards PLUS a totally awesome Halloween/miss you card from Erin and Travis.  And less recently, a cute penguins card from Lyd (with gas money… I swear I am going to go deposit that check soon Lyd, I’m sorry)… you guys/gals totally rock my face off, and every time I get mail (Joan, the lady I’m staying with, puts it by the sink in the guest bath) I feel so excited and blessed!!

Last bit of news for tonight: I have a HEADSHOT now.  Not super professional or anything (by this I mean that I took a bazillion pictures with my digital camera on timer and picked the best one), but here goes:

Not bad.  The San Diego sun apparently looks good on me.

a late night thought

So I need to get this off my chest.

If nothing else, I have learned in the past month the importance of washing/Purell-ing hands in the hospital.  To prevent the spread of germs from you to patient, patient to you, patient to other patient, patient to your instruments, etc.  I get it.  I really do.  I Purell my hands when I’m in the hospital twice for every patient I see (before + after) and sometimes more than that.  My hands are extremely dry, but I can live with that.

When I was at church today we were told about new regulations to prevent the spread of H1N1: no Communion cup, no holding hands during the Our Father, no shaking hands during the greeting or at any time during the service.  In spite of all my Purell-ing on the job, for some reason this troubled me.  Until this whole swine flu runs its course, I apparently need to go through life sanitizing myself from other people, from the warm feeling of someone’s hands supporting yours, from the firm and friendly handshake you get from your neighbor next to you in the pew.  Being that I’m in a long-distance relationship, I don’t feel another person’s touch very often, and strange as this sounds, I treasure it.  Maybe I’m gross.  I don’t know.  I’d be totally willing to carry Purell with me and offer it to strangers so we can hold hands and pray together.  I may even get sick… oh the horror!

In short, while I am generally a fan of cleanliness and preventing the spread of disease, I am NOT a fan of losing that element of touch that is so powerful.  People have held hands with each other for thousands of years and now all of a sudden we need to rub alcohol gel on our hands immediately after touching someone OR worse still, not touch someone altogether.  We all need our hugs/hand holding/bodily contact (don’t be crude!) that usually results in the transmission of germs.  It makes me very sad to live in a world where the need to stay clean out-needs the need to touch, to support, to heal each other.

Anyway.  That’s all for now I suppose.  Have a great week everyone!

Hey, it’s a new post!

So sorry guys (and girls!) about the lack of posting in the past week or so.  Honestly, I’ve spent the last week being as productive as my mind and body will allow me, trying not to fall behind, and taking as much in as I possibly can.  It’s a helluva lot.  I don’t feel overwhelmed yet (but ask me again when I have more responsibilities!).

Cool things I’ve done this week:

1) This morning I ran down at Mission Beach – there’s a concrete path there that runs along the ocean so I don’t have to run in the sand (which is good, my legs hate me enough already).  Interesting people watching, especially surfers wiping out

2) Stay at the hospital until 9:00 pm on a Friday evening doing music therapy sessions, which doesn’t sound very cool except that the sessions were AMAZING and the time seriously flew by!

3) Learn (a somewhat simplified version of) the guitar solo from Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” to use with a client.  That’s one small step towards complete badass-ness

4) Met some new friends at the TX/OU (sucks) game watching party in San Diego.  There are  A LOT of Texas Exes around here – over 100 at the viewing party.  Good to know I don’t have to watch games alone anymore!

5) Thought a lot about my future, job prospects, etc. (more on this later, too tired to write about it now)

And now I leave you with a small tidbit of hilarity – happy Monday eve everyone!

all are welcome in this place

So I’m sitting outside and don’t really want to do work. I’ve got a mug of yummy Peet’s coffee in my hand, the temperature outside is an extremely comfortable 67 degrees, and everywhere I look I see beauty around me.

See?  That’s my happy face. 

I don’t know what it is exactly about church music, but I’ve been to the same church twice now in SD and both times the music has made me cry.  Multiple times, both Sundays.  Naturally, as a studier of music’s effects on the brain, this makes me curious.  I don’t normally have crying reactions to music (one possible exception to this is the fourth mvmt. from Respighi’s Pines of Rome, extremely loud in surround sound).  To be sure, I am often emotionally moved, but the crying is a bit unusual for me.  The emotions that accompany said crying are definitely positive – I feel supported, I feel safe, I feel home.  Most of the music that incites this reaction is music I sang with the 11:15 ICC choir in Denton, an experience that was extremely positve, even tranformative, for me.  I’m enclosing Youtube videos of several of these songs (I’m doing the best I can to find versions that match what I remember):

“All are Welcome”

“You are Mine”

“We Have Been Told”

“Christ Be Our Light” (this actually is not the version I know, but I like the arrangement! Also, LOVE the guy dancing with the drum throne in back)

So there you go.  I don’t really expect anyone to look at the videos, although they are good – they’re mostly for my own benefit   I guess I’m going to continue to be my own research participant in my completely non-controlled study in why I can’t stop crying when I hear church music.  I’m going to go listen to that last link again now