Thoughtful Thursday: Day 2 of 366 - Here We Go

Welcome to day two of this new year. I am preparing myself for a day of training and being trained as my faculty friends and I return to our school year today. I wonder what will happen next year when January 1 is on a Friday. Will we have one or two of these ridiculous inservice days next year, or will we just dive back into teaching?? I wonder.

ANYWAY.

I am trying really hard to get excited about the second half of this school year, but I am finding it difficult at the moment. I arrived home from a visit home yesterday - is that sentence confusing?? I arrived at about 3pm my time, which is significantly earlier than I usually arrive home from this type of trip, and I was greeted by the cat. I then went through a bit of a routine and then fell asleep around 7:30pm. The cat woke me up very early and did not allow me to get back to sleep, so I've been up for a long time now. It is currently 5:17am, and I have unpacked the materials that I want to take to work with me today, am finishing this blog post, and have caught up on all the social media that is calling me for attention.

I don't know about you, but I am looking forward to this new year. I have a new intern who starts with us tomorrow and a new practicum student who will be with us on Mondays from now until April. This both invigorates me and complicates my professional life significantly. My goal today, in between looking interested in what the trainers are telling folks and talking about my own part of the training, is to get some new groups and new treatment options ready to accommodate four music therapists in one music therapy room. It is time to dream big and then act on those professional dreams.

This week may bring a new car into my life as well. I have to call my car man to see if the car I ordered way back in October has arrived. If so, I will say "goodbye" to a part of my paycheck and to my faithful, four-wheeled companion of the past 7 years as I say "hello" to a new companion. I always feel a bit of guilt when I turn in a car - I tend to anthropomorphize my machines a bit too much - and that guilt continues when I drive past the car lot to see my abandoned companion sitting there, waiting for someone new. I am going to be sad to see this car go, but it is time.

In the meantime, I will be getting into my little car to head down to work. I am looking forward to seeing my current intern and to hear about what is going on in her life since we saw each other last year. I have some presents from my trip to share, but I think I will save those for tomorrow. We also have to do the crowning of the senior intern ceremony! Lots to do!

This whole "go back to work on a Thursday" thing is really disorienting. I have cancelled choir rehearsal for this evening, so I can start to acclimatize to the time zone and to the idea of being at work without having to complete any sort of additional work. I do need to get going with my product production - I increased my ink subscription to twice what I had before because I need to be making lots of visuals for my exhibition at the Midwestern Regional Conference. File folders galore! I have lots of things that I want to do and not enough energy to get them done at the moment. This will change.

Hopefully the cat will allow me to sleep a bit more tonight. We will be working to get things back to normal, but there are many things that need to be worked on before our form of normal is achieved. For example, the bag needs to be completely emptied and put away before the cat will finally relax around me. The sight of the suitcase is a tension builder for her. I will be able to do laundry and finish that task this evening after my day of ... sitting.

I wish you the best of years! I hope that your journey takes you places that you never realized you wanted to go, and I hope that it is a year of health, prosperity, and joy for you and the ones that you love!

Happy 2020, all!