Europe 2012 - Day 1: Madrid

After an approximately 7 hour and 45 minute flight, we landed  at the Barajas airport in Madrid. Out of all the countries we have landed in, Spain was probably the easiest country to get into. Normally, you have to fill out a customs and immigrations form, there is a long, long wait to get through immigration, then you get your luggage back, go through customs, and then finally leave the airport. In Madrid, the line at immigrations went very quickly, as the immigration officers seemed to be asking no questions, which is unusual. We also did not have to fill out a form this time. We were able to get our luggage and breeze right through customs and walk straight out to the taxi stand. I remember that we were exhausted, as we had only slept a couple of hours on the plane, but we were wide awake because we were so excited to be in Spain.

Anyway, we got a taxi rather quickly and dropped off our luggage at the Hostal Adriano, near Puerto del Sol in the middle of the city. It was around 9:30 and we had plenty of time to kill before our tour at noon. We went to the nearest metro station, bought a book of 10 tickets to share, and took the metro to the Atocha station to buy train tickets to Toledo for Saturday. It took a little bit of time, because we were still feeling our way around and getting used to using our Spanish again.

When we got back, we stopped and got a jamon (ham) and manchego (a Spanish cheese) sandwich. We thought Anya would eat the cheese; she normally doesn't eat a lot of meat here, but lo and behold, she actually wanted nothing to do with the cheese but ate a ton of ham. We ate in Plaza Mayor and waited for the free tour to begin.

It lasted about an hour and a half and took us through the older parts of the city. It was a really good thing to do on our first day, as it helped us to get a feel for the layout of the city.

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel to check in and get some rest. I had planned extra time to relax the first day, because I knew we would crash at some point in the afternoon. Anya had been sleeping in her stroller for most of the day, so she sat in the pack and play (provided by the hostal) and watched movies on the Ipad while Eric and I took a nap. Then, we got up and took showers so we could head out again. We took the metro to the Ermita de San Antonio de la Florida, which is a small chapel housing a large mural painted by Goya (a famous Spanish artist). Goya is also buried in this chapel. It was small, so we didn't stay long, but it was beautiful and free.

Next, we stopped a the grocery store to get something for breakfast and snacks (we had a refrigerator in the room so we could actually buy cold stuff), and then we ate dinner at a place called Casa Toni's, which was recommended by Rick Steves in his book. We ate various tapas (Spanish appetizers), including sauteed mushrooms, bread, olives, potatas bravas (fried potatoes with a hot sauce), and calamari. Of course, we had wine with our meal:)

After dinner, we walked around Puerto del Sol and Plaza Mayor and just explored a little bit, before stopping at Chocolateria San Gines where we had cappucino and churros. They were so good. Anya loved them and made a huge mess dipping them in the chocolate.

Though our first day was exhausting, it was great to be back in Spain (the last time had been in Barcelona in 2007). Because we both took Spanish in high school, we actually knew enough to decipher menus and signs and we could order food and buy tickets fairly easily. Anya had a hard time getting to sleep the first night, so we ended up putting her in her stroller and pushing her back and forth until she finally fell asleep. We only had to do this the first couple of nights (thank God!) before she became a pro at falling asleep on her own in a hotel room...

Europe 2012 - Getting There

Getting to Madrid took, quite literally, an entire day. We left the house very early in the morning so that we could get to the Louisville airport. We prepaid to park our car at a nearby hotel and take the free shuttle to the airport. After some research, we found out that it is cheaper to do this than to pay the parking fees at the airport. After checking our bags and going through security (somehow I got through without having to do any extra screening!), we had lunch at a Chili's inside the airport.

We were a little nervous about Ani's first flight, but she did great! In fact, she was asleep before we ever left the ground, and she ended up sleeping for most of the flight. Apparently, her ear tubes are still in, because she never seemed to notice the pressure changing and she never gave any indication that her ears were popping or anything.

When we got to Philly, we had several hours to spend in the airport before our flight to Madrid left. Once again, Anya fell asleep early on during this flight while watching the chipmunks movie on her own little TV. She loved it! We ended up waking her when the flight attendants brought dinner, though later I wished we hadn't. She didn't eat much and then didn't want to go back to sleep. After a lot of different kids shows and taking turns holding her, she finally fell asleep. Thankfully, we got a couple of hours of sleep, though we were still completely exhausted when we landed in Madrid a little after 8 in the morning, Madrid time.

More to come later about our time in Madrid...

European Vacation

It has been what seems like forever since I have posted in here. I certainly did not intend on allowing this much time to pass between posts, but it is what it is!

We just returned from a 16 day trek through Europe this past weekend. We are still fighting what is left of the jet lag and trying to get our house organized again. Between all the things we packed and all the things we bought to bring home, it is difficult to find time to put everything away. I hope to give a more detailed account of our advenures by the weekend, so stay tuned!

2012: Looking Foward

I always feel like I do things halfway when it comes to resolutions, but this year I figured I would really write them down and do my best to actually work on them. One thing I have to remember is that January 1 is just a day and that I don't necessarily only have this opportunity on this day. I can make resolutions anytime I feel the need to, though January 1 is just as good a day to start as any other. I have other ideas for things I'd like to do differently but I just haven't figured out completely how I want to do that, so some of my "resolutions" will just have to wait until later.

1. Maintain my weight. I feel really great about my weight, for once in my life. Even if I don't lose anymore (and I am on the fence about this), I want to stay at the weight I'm at. I plan to continue to follow Weight Watchers online, unless something like another pregnancy happens, and in this case, I will have to alter things a bit.

2. Exercise more regularly. Even though I've lost a lot of weight, it was not really due to exercising, and this is something I need to work on this year. The problem I have with exercise routines is that I feel like if I don't get everything "done" in a week that I planned on, I feel like I've failed. So I guess my plan is to just have a specific goal in mind with weekly exercise but not to dwell on it if it doesn't happen. Also, I will have to realize that there will be some weeks that the amount of exercise I want/need will not happen either, and that is ok. The weekly goal I'm shooting for is:

a. 1 exercise class (bellydancing, zumba, jazzercise, etc.)
b. 2-3 of one of the following:
-25-30 minute segment of interval walking on the treadmill with "weight breaks"
-25+ minute walks around the neighborhood, Newburgh trail, State Hospital, etc.
-Home workout video (dance, yoga, aerobic)

I should be able to keep track of these pretty easily, because I enter exercise on my Weight Watchers account.

3. Make music for myself. Things get so busy that I often forget about using my most successful coping skill for myself - music. I really miss having the opportunity to do this more often, but I think it is important. So how am I going to do this?

a. Start every day with music. One of my Music Therapy professors at SMWC mentioned once that she likes to start her day with even just a few minutes of music at the piano or on the guitar. She said this seemed to start her day off on the right foot. Ways I can do this include 1) playing an already-written song on the piano or guitar, 2) improvising on the piano or guitar, 3) singing a song a capella while getting ready or driving 4) listening to a song while getting ready or driving, 5) spending a few minutes working on a new song, 6) playing instruments or singing a song with Anya, 7) doing anything musical that helps to jumpstart my day

b. Be more comfortable playing the guitar. I am planning to take guitar lesssons for at least a few months so that I can improve my skills.

c. Write more songs. I really love songwriting, so I am going to make an effort to write at least 3 to 5 original songs this year. I already have 5 or 6, so having a few more to add to my collection would be great. Maybe someday I will be comfortable enough with my voice to actually record them!

4. Continue to read more. Reading has always been one of my favorite pasttimes and I'm happy to have a little more time to do this now that my Master's is finished. I have already started doing this in the past week or so, but I am hoping to read a little each night in bed. I have started a reading list on Goodreads.com so that I will always have ideas of books to read. I hope to read 12 to 15 books in 2012, including professional books about MT and music and books for personal enjoyment.

5. Write more. Writing is another thing that I used to enjoy. The past three years, I have written a lot for school but have not had time for writing other things like poems, songs, short stories, etc. I have several books on writing for self-discovery that have different writing exercises. I would like to spend a little more time doing this. I am going to make it a goal to do 1-2 writing exercises a week, even if I only have 10-20 minutes to do them. It will take me something like 5 years to get through all the exercises in the books at this rate, but it is at least a start and I just do not have the time right now to do daily exercises.

6. Have more deep, in-depth discussions in my life. This is a difficult one because time with friends is limited, but I do miss the late-night conversations I used to have with others in my college dorm room, at coffeeshops, or in the music lounge in the early hours of the morning when we were supposed to be practicing. Obviously, those are mostly things of the past since I don't have access to a lot of those friends and/or locations. So I've decided to post 2-3 questions a week on Facebook and invite my FB friends to reply to them. I will take the questions from a book I have called "If: Questions for the Game of Life." I know I'm a dork but I love questions and hearing others' thoughts on things. I'm hoping this will spark some more in-depth and stimulating conversations for me. This might also help me to keep in touch with people I don't talk to very often. And if I start to feel really ambitious, I may actually start a blog with my own responses to the questions, but we'll see how things go.

7. Develop my Music Therapy business. I have several plans for my business this year. Of course, the ultimate goal is to get enough contracts to be able to leave Cross Pointe so that I can be on my own.

a. Get my website up and running. I've had a website for a couple years now, but it has never been what I wanted it to be. Hopefully this year, with Eric's help, I can get things up and running the way I envision them. I will also include a professional blog about music therapy and other music-related topics.

b. Finish designing my Music for Wellness and Self-Discovery course and teach at least one section of this course this year. I have been working on this off and on for a few months and have several facilities who are interested in allowing me to teach it. I just need to finalize it and choose the location that will work best for my purposes.

c. Present at conference. I am hoping to write a proposal this spring to present on a specific topic at conference in October. I haven't completely decided on a topic yet, but right now I'm considering a presentation about using live music for relaxation. Many music therapists seem to use recorded music when facilitating relaxation experiences in music therapy sessions, but I actually prefer using live music and there are lots of ways I have used this in my work over the years.

8. House projects. We want to do a few things with the house, some of them are bigger deals than others. Here are just a few things:

a. Install new carpet in the other 3 bedrooms. We are hoping to do this in January/February.
b. Install new kitchen counter. This shouldn't be too bad expense-wise or time-wise; it's just going to be a big mess the day or two that it is being installed.
c. Install new kitchen floor - probably tile.
d. Organize closets and drawers. I have an ongoing list of things that desperately need to be gone through.
e. Paint the barn. We have been trying to get this done for a few years now and it just hasn't happened.
f. Paint the fence. This is another thing that we've been planning to do for awhile and it just hasn't happened yet.

9. Things to look forward to. We have some fun things planned for the year, including:
a. Our 3rd trip to Europe
b. A weekend trip to Cincinnati to go to the zoo
c. More than likely a weekend trip in October to celebrate our 6th anniversary
d. American Music Therapy Association conference again this year

I'm sure I will think of other things I want to do this year, but I think this is a good start. Ultimately, all of these things lead to taking care of myself. Self-care is beginning to be a huge issue in the music therapy world, as it probably is in other professions. Most people rarely take the time to do things for and take care of themselves, even though it is really important to do so. This past year for me has been a lot about self-discovery and learning to accept others' actions even when I can't change them. This is definitely easier said than done, but it's something I am slowly working toward. Looking at my life and being able to identify all the things I want to do differently to improve my quality of life makes me excited to see what the new year brings!

Books Read 2011

Here is my annual list of books I read in 2011. The beautiful thing about this list is that all of these books are books I read for pleasure.

1. Eden Close – Anita Shreve
2. White on Snow – Anita Shreve
3. Pins on a Map – David Boesch
4. Naptime Is the New Happy Hour - Stefanie Wilder-Taylor
5. Travels – Michael Crichton
6. Resistance – Anita Shreve
7. Handle With Care – Jodi Picoult
8. Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
9. Committed – Elizabeth Gilbert
10.Babyland – Holly Chamberlin
11.Sing You Home – Jodi Picoult
12.True Colors – Kristin Hannah
13. The Lost Symbol – Dan Brown

Christmas Card 2011

Christmas Letter 2011

It seems like 2011 has just flown by. I think having a little one running around the house seems to put everything into high speed. Anya celebrated her first birthday on June 4 with a big birthday party on what was probably one of the hottest days of the year. She got lots of gifts and enjoyed opening them. Anya started walking on her own at around 14 months and she has really taken off! Her vocabulary also now contains too many words to count. Though we can’t always tell what she’s saying, she seems to have a lot to say! Some of her favorite pastimes include doing her puzzle, riding in her toy car, serenading us at her toy piano, and telling poor Peanut Butter “No, no.” She is a busy little thing!

Eric and I have also been very busy. I completed my thesis in August which means that I am finally finished with my Master of Arts in Music Therapy. The bound copies of my thesis came in the mail in late November and it was so nice to see my name in print. I am still working part time at Deaconess Cross Pointe, though I have gotten more music therapy contracts over the past year and also have some other projects started that I’m hoping will amount to something this coming year. I will also be supervising music therapy practicum students from UE next semester. In addition, my piano studio has grown from one piano student to six students. Eric has now been working for Keller Schroeder for over three and a half years and has consulted on a variety of projects with various businesses around town. He is a Co-Leader for the SharePoint User Group and President of the Evansville Technology User Group. He is also taking an active role in working on the website for our neighborhood association.

Eric and I also both turned 30 this year. Eric had a 30th birthday/Halloween costume party and I had a travel-themed party followed by an adults-only game night at our house. I’m sure we would both rather stay in our 20’s, but I feel like we have accomplished a lot in 30 years. We have also both lost quite a bit of weight, making us the smallest we have been since we can remember, so that definitely makes turning 30 a little easier!

Things this year have been too hectic to get much done with the house. However, we did have new carpet installed in our bedroom, the upstairs hallway, the stairway, the family room, and the living room. It was a mess during the process but we were glad to get it done. We hope to install carpet in the other 3 bedrooms this coming year, as well as install a new countertop in the kitchen and a new kitchen floor.

With Anya being a little older, we were able to do a little more travelling this year than last year. In April, we took an extended weekend to St. Louis so we could visit the art museum and the zoo. Unfortunately, Anya got a cold that weekend and slept through most of the zoo, so we’ll have to go back another time. In July, we spent a week in Chicago seeing the sites, including a Food Tour, an evening boat tour, lots of Chicago-style pizza, the Lincoln Park zoo, the beach, the art museum, Shedd’s Aquarium, The Field Museum, and Navy Pier. We had a good time and Anya did really well. At the end of July, Eric and I had our first overnight without Anya and spent the weekend in New Harmony. We also spent a family weekend in Louisville in September and took Anya to the zoo, which she really enjoyed. In October, Eric and I spent a week in Jamaica at Sandals Whitehouse celebrating our anniversary, while Anya split the time with each of our parents. Though we missed her, it was really nice to get away. We did an evening sunset cruise, but the rest of the time was spent doing a whole lot of eating, drinking, and just lying on the beach. It was really nice to get away and we hope to go back someday. In early November, Eric got to go to a Colt’s game with his parents for his 30th birthday which he had a great time doing, though I’m sure he wishes the Colt’s would have played a little better. I also got the chance to go to the American Music Therapy Association conference in Atlanta in mid-November. I got to network and gather new ideas for sessions. Now that I’m finished with grad school, I am going to need the extra motivation! The weekend after Thanksgiving we also travelled to Cincinnati to see Eric’s dad’s family.

We are both looking forward to the new year and have a lot planned. Besides house projects, we are also planning another European trip and plan to take Ani with us. Our route this time will be Madrid, Budapest, Vienna (with a day trip to Bratislavia), and the Middle Rhine area in Germany.

Have a great holiday and a Happy New Year!!

Rachel, Eric, Anya, and Peanut Butter