The things kids do...

You may want to bypass this first paragraph because it's going to be all about me missing Jeremy. haha! I love Jeremy with all of my heart.  He is the best thing that has ever happened to me.  I seriously do not know what I'd do without him.  I'm incredibly emotional.  I think about how much I miss him and I get all teary eyed.  I would say this is ridiculous, but the truth is when you love someone as much as I love him, it makes sense to be so crazy emotional about it all. I even wrote us a song for this entire experience.  I'm a smitten kitten, for sure! I get to see him this weekend and I absolutely can not wait!  

Ok, now I'll get to the real reason you guys are reading this, my internship! This week involved more observations.  However, I'm hanging out with all the kids that I get to work with for the next 7 months.  I love them all!  I saw high school kiddos yesterday and I fell in absolute love with one class.  They are seniors and clearly the coolest kids around.  A couple of them told me that I was "perfect" and I could do nothing but laugh.  They are going to be so much fun! 

Today, I hung out with all the elementary kids! Oh my goodness. Let me stick them in my pocket again please!  I have the cutest down syndrome kindergartner!  He is one of those that he is so cute you don't want to enforce the rules because all you want to do is hug him!  He pulled his chair and plopped it almost right on top of mine.  I knew at that point I was cool enough for him.  I saw a couple of other kids that are going to be fun and super challenging.   Warning: this next story may gross you out so skip the next few sentences if you have a weak tummy.  I went to a low functioning kindergarten class and this little boy gave a whole new meaning to picking your nose.  This kid straight up stuck his tongue all up in his nose!  The teachers were talking about it and I just thought hum, no way.  Then he did it in front of me and I didn't know if I was supposed to be grossed out or calling America's Got Talent? haha Maybe America's Funniest Home Videos would be a better choice.  

In an older elementary group, there was an AU girl and she was a big girl.  Not fat, just big.  I was trying to talk to her and this other boy.  Well, I must have done something she didn't like because her hands went straight around my throat.  I started feeling pressure and somehow or another I was able to get her hands off of my neck and keep the peace with her and everyone around me. I learned something at Queens working with my on campus client after all!  

I absolutely love what I do.  I'm so thankful God placed me in this internship.  It is going to be an awesome journey!  

LAMOTION

Sorry I didn't get around to talking about my day yesterday!  It was great, of course.

I saw a high school group in the morning.  These kids were all EBD (emotional behavioral).  Some of those kids were really chemically imbalanced, if you will.  The Music Therapist said she's seen them for 3 weeks now.  I did notice a lot of good things during the session.  First of all, they did a drumming activity where EVERYONE was given a chance to play.  It was really interesting that some of the guys thought drums were so not cool.  There were some rivalries in the class.  When one was asked to play the drum, and he was the only one who didn't, he responded with "That is so degrading.  The only way I'm playing that thing is if I'm hitting 'so-n-so' on the face".  It's really kind of scary around troubled teens.  The MT was very sweet and somewhat stern, but I felt she needed to correct these behaviors in a different manner.  I know that if I was working with those kids I would definitely have to show them I am tougher than I look.  The drumming was very effective because it allowed each student to play the therapist's drum.  However, the students had to pretend their desks were drums to learn technique. Desk surfaces and drum heads are completely different and that will make it difficult to transition in the next week when drums are available.  Oh the joys of low budget schools!  From what I've seen thus far, it is crucial to be creative in this field and realize that you make do and improvise A LOT!

The next school from yesterday consisted of mainly AU, EBD, and MID (mild intellectual disability).  With the AU and MID kids the therapist used great activities.  She did a rhythm of your name activity.  Each student had sticks to play the rhythms of names.  When their name came up, they student was allowed to play their own name rhythm on the drum.  That hits some academic and self-expression goals.    The next class was a group of EBD middle school boys.  It was quite funny because one kid tried so hard to intimidate my co-intern and I by giving us the stare down when we walked in to the room.  I just laughed it off, inside of course.  The activity in this group was a soundtrack for your life.  The kids had to pick a first song memory, childhood song, song of your parents, and song of now.  Each student was allowed to research each song on the computer.  Next week they will present and play their soundtrack project to their peers.  Great way to self-express.

Today, I had the honor of watching my primary supervisor in action.  She is completely awesome and everything that I want to be like in a therapist.   She had a movement activity using the "Seven Jumps" and the kids just loved it!  It is a learning how to wait song because they have to anticipate certain sounds in the song to coordinate them with the correct movements.  I don't know if I've ever seen happier children.  This therapist uses a schedule board with picture cards for activities during the session.  After each activity one child places the activity picture card in an "All Done" box and rings the "All Done" gong.  Awesome idea!  I will most definitely be picking her brain for more great ideas!

The second observation of the day was with AU elementary kids.  The only thing that shocked me about this observation was the relaxation activity that the therapist used.  I would never think to do that with this age group and population.  The older group did not respond well to the activity.  They were all about putting the lotion on their hands, but not so much being quiet and relaxing.  The Pre-K kids LOVED it and completely surrendered to relaxation.  One of the little boys in the group refers to this activity as "Lamotion".  haha So, I am now coining that phrase for relaxation with lotion.  The kids love smelling the lotion and rubbing it on their hands and arms.  By the end of this activity, the kids were so calm. They transitioned straight in to the goodbye leaving the students in a pleasant mood for their teachers.  I will definitely consider using this in my future sessions!

Tomorrow, my co-interns and I will be observing other principle therapies.  I'm looking forward to that!  After tomorrow, I'm headed to my home town for the weekend!  I can't believe my first week is over.  It's been so awesome.  I am so thankful God placed me in this internship.

It all went UP HILL after 7 am

Today I just couldn't get moving.  I woke up at 6am and was on slow mode.  It was ok that I was moving slow because I allow for such things in my schedule.  However, I can't account for other mishaps. I needed to pick up my co-intern at 6:45 and I didn't walk out of the house until 6:35.  When I did walk out the door I noticed that my aunt's Jeep was parked behind me so I rushed in to the house to find her keys (which is usually a challenge), rushed back outside and moved her car.  That took all of 5 minutes.  So, I was freaking out because I HATE TO BE LATE!  I finally get to the road where I turn to pick up my co-intern and even with GPS, I take a wrong turn.  Luckily,  I made it there at 6:50.  I was starting to get nervous because I didn't know how long it was going to take to get to the school or how bad traffic was going to be at this time.  I began typing the address in to the GPS to only discover that the GPS did not recognize the city name.  What? Still, I was calm because I have a built in NAV system in my Jeep, I just don't trust it.  Guess what? My Jeep's NAV system didn't recognize it either. Now, I'm freaking out.  My co-intern suggested just typing in the address without the city name as a search and of course it found the school, but under a different city name. (Don't worry it was the correct address, weird huh?) My story doesn't end here.  Next, I was still a bit flustered from all that.  I came close to running a stop sign in front of a guy leaving his drive-way.  So, he kindly waved the bird at me.  Lovely.  Then I spilled my chai tea on me, not ONCE, but TWICE.  Yes, twice.  What a morning.  After all of that, we somehow managed to make it to the school 30 minutes before the session began.

The sessions were great. Both supervisors were very different.  I saw the supervisor that scared me when I met her. After watching her, I think it's going to be fine.  Today I saw Pre-K kids and they were just absolutely precious.  The first group consisted of 4 of the cutest little boys.  One would answer a question and respond with a funny joke and they all had to repeat the joke as if it were their own.  I wanted to just take them all with me!  The music therapist did some sensory stimulation activities. For sight she used a Top that lit up, sound she used a plastic tube that you pull to make the noise (i'm not sure what it's called), for touch she used a soft feather boa, and finally for taste she used spray candy: sour apple and strawberry.  Oh my goodness the faces they made! =)  Too cute.  I got a lot of great ideas for session plans from this supervisor.  My co-intern and I try to take notes, if we are not being utilized for the session, in order to steal some plans.  In this particular class, I was able to watch OT in action before the music therapy session began.  That was interesting to watch.  Friday the interns will be observing all other principle therapies.  It gave me a chance to think about things I should look for that I can adapt in my music therapy sessions.

The second supervisor I saw worked with middle school aged kids.  The first group we saw consisted of EBD kids (emotional and behavior disorders).  They were awesome kids, just troubled.  This group was very different.  The music therapist used lyric analysis type activities.  One of her great ideas was using skewers for impulse control.  They break very, very easily so if the kids start abusing the skewers they don't get to play because they are broken!  Plus, it was an awesome way for self-expression because the desks have different textures which adds for a cool sound.  The next class was with an AU student.  The interaction was phenomenal!  The MT used extra-large rubber bands to engage the student to watch, listen, follow directions, and stretch the body.  I was nervous that I would get an eye put out by a rubber band, but the student kept it together!  The student was given simple directives and always responded.  It's so wonderful when everything goes like you want it to go! I know it's not always going to be that way.

Its nice that my day ended so much better than it began.  I suppose it really wasn't as bad as I thought, but it felt like it at the time!  Tomorrow is another south county day.  UGH...bring on the traffic!

Well that's not how I would do it...

Today was day one of observations. Awesome!  My co-intern and I were welcomed to Atlanta by getting stuck in traffic because...well it's Atlanta and there was an accident.  We were 5 minutes late, but luckily the first class we were observing was late as well! I'm thankful for understanding supervisors.  They know the traffic and only want us there in one piece, even if we're late.  But if worse comes to worse...I'll just camp out at whatever school I'm supposed to be at for the next day.

I saw great activities that I can use in my sessions.  I really enjoyed the first supervisor.  She is so talented and reminds me a lot of my 3rd grade teacher, Mrs. Faith, who made a huge impact on my life!  She had some down time between activities, which is bad!  She was aware of that and explained why you don't want that to happen, but she was having ipod issues.  So, it was nice to see that even a professional has her off days!  The only bad thing I could say about the first observation of the day is this:  there was no sanitizing instruments between classes.  I feel sick already.

The second observation of the day was completely different.  I didn't enjoy it at all.  I did pick up a few ideas that I could adapt.  There was so much down time between activities and it was not by accident or because of an ipod malfunction.  It was simply just because.  My professor from Queens would have torn this therapist a part, piece by piece.  Just so you know, as Jeremy would say, during this internship I will be working with a lot of kids with Autism from mild, moderate, to severe/profound.  So, in this session there were some mild kids, but they were still pretty low functioning.  They played a game where they chose "simple" questions from a basket and they had to try to read the question.  Well, these were questions like "Do you have a favorite song? If so, what is it?, In what state were you born?, Do you have a favorite instrument, etc"  They actually became worse.  These questions can be difficult for normal functioning individuals.  Not only that, but there was poor behavioral management in the group.  I was very disappointed in this observation.  No doubt this supervisor is qualified for the job and knows more about it than I, but... "well that's not how I would do it".

Day 2 of observations starts way too early! =)

Officially an intern.

Today was my first day as an intern!  I had no reason to be nervous because after all, first days are full of paperwork, introductions, and a whole mess of food that I should not have eaten.  I love my co-interns.  Ironically, 3 of us are all living in the same area.  The other intern is about an hour away.  Poor girl has a horrible commute.

My supervisors are crazzzzzy!  I'm so excited about my primary supervisor.  I loved her when I had my interview and I prayed deep down that I would get her!  Thank you God!  I have 3 other supervisors, one which includes the intern director.  She is totally awesome.  I'm a little nervous about one of my supervisors.  She wasn't at my interview so I never really got a "feel" for her.  I have this gut feeling she and I may not mesh as well as my other supervisors.  I know things like that happen, but I just want everything to go smoothly.  I believe the supervisors are going to be one of the biggest challenges in this internship.  All of my supervisors are different, which means they each will have very different therapy styles.  However, that is also a plus because I can take what I love from each supervisor and apply it to my personal style.  We had lunch with the supervisors today, all 12 of them.  They are so crazy, for real.  When they all get together they talk and talk and talk and eat and eat and eat.  They talk about their students.  Sometimes they even make fun of them, but not in a bad way but an "oh they are so precious" kind of way.  I loved it!  The interns just sat and laughed at the supervisors all during lunch.  I suppose we can call this Observation 1.  haha!

This internship is going to be ROUGH.  I'm going to be physically, mentally, and at times emotionally DRAINED.  There are so many things that I have to accomplish over the next 7 months.  Papers, book reports, assessments, plans...on and on it goes.  As I was looking through my notebook and facing that fact that I will have no life whatsoever these next 7 months, I was actually thankful.  I know that when this is all said and done with I will leave this experience being fully prepared in my field.  I will be proud of my accomplishments and proud of who I have become.  Plus, if I can help one child I know that I will have accomplished so much.  I'm so thankful that God has called me to do this.

On a funny note, I also learned today that apparently Music Therapy Department Chairs are ALL a little scatterbrained at times.  haha. Oh how it made me miss Dr. E.

Dear Diary....or should I say Blog?

Tomorrow is the "big day".  My internship begins.  I'm currently feeling every possible emotion: excitement, fear, joy, sadness, etc.  Wrap that up in a deep fried panic attack.  Then again, that may be all because of the chocolate covered coffee beans I just ate?  I know it's all going to be "fantastic" as my dear friend Natalie would say, but I can't help but feel this way.  


On another note, I would like to send out a shout out to my Aunt Sheri for putting up with me for the next 7 months.  THANK YOU!!!  I'm super thankful for this ridiculously HUGE bed that I will collapse in to over these next several months =)


Anyways, back to my internship.  I am so looking forward to getting to know my fellow interns.  I really do enjoy making new friends.  I do feel like these few people I will meet may just become close friends.  After all, we are all embarking on the same journey.  Maybe not hand in hand, but definitely heart to heart.  I may begin counting down the days until it's finished.  Is that bad?  


I miss my soul mate already.  It's crazy how you can take people for granted when you see them every day.  I would love to be around him.  Tonight I just sat on the phone and made him listen to me breathe, lol.  I didn't want to hang up because I knew he was on the other end of the phone.  He thinks I'm so goofy, but I can't help it.  It's just my child-like nature.  I can not wait until I am through with my internship and he and I can start "makin' plans" haha!  Well,  he IS the man God has for me so we might as well tie the knot. Besides, I love him way too much to not be with him forever.


I know I ramble a lot, but at least you can see what it's like in this head of mine during this entire experience.  Thanks for all of you who are and will be praying for me.  I love you all.  

It's just Thursday

Today something strange happened to me.  I realized that, no matter what age,  (certain) men are still complete horn dogs and look at women like they are just pieces of meat. Now, the realization of this fact is not the strange occurrence of the day, but what happened to me this morning at the gym...

First let me give you some background. I've been going to the gym in the mornings for a few months.  One morning I met this old white man with white hair.  Clearly, the amount of time he had been working out in the gym wasn't paying off because he still looked like he was hiding a few beach balls under his shirt.  This old gentleman decided to confront me one day while working out. ( Let me just stop here and say that I could write a book on the STUPID things men use as conversation starters).  He comes up to me and tells me how impressed he is with the ipod pocket built in to my shirt.  He thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  Me being a polite person simply just thanked him and hoped he would go on. NO! He keeps talking to me like we've known each other for years.  He talks about this and that.  My gosh. I must have a sign on my forehead that reads "Please tell me all about you. I'm dying to know". Then he tells me that he is a pastor at a church.

Ever since then I've tried to avoid him.  Well, this morning I was not successful.  He corners me.  (Now it's imperative for my story that you keep in mind he told me he was a pastor, a man of God).  So, he corners me and tells me, after eye raping me, that I was "looking good" and my body "figure" was looking really nice, all the while looking me up and down.  "Shoot me now", those were my exact thoughts.  I have grown accustomed to dirty men and their ways.  It has always been the dirty minded filthy looking men that say crap like that.  This time I was just so appalled that this PASTOR said that to me.  I'm pretty sure if I didn't love God already that I would stay far away from church after that!

You  know every time something like this happens to me I just sit back and thank GOD that I have a man who is old fashioned in the fact that he still treats women with respect.  It is so sad that in today's society treating women with respect has become a thing of the past.  I hate to see what men will be like in 5 years.