Back In the Saddle Again

"Vacation" is over for me. It's time to start getting back into the routine of writing every day, working on music therapy tasks and projects, and moving the knee around so I can keep up with my clients in about a week. I am more than ready to get back into work routines. It's been a long month  of recovery, holidays, and changes. I'm still waiting for a phone call from someone about physical therapy, and I need to talk to the insurance company, but the rest of the time needs to be spent getting organized and coordinated for getting back to work. I have never spent so much time away from working in my career before. It has been strange and not something I want to repeat any time soon.

Anyway...

I am a bit trepidatious about going back to work. One of the things about working with a population where treatment is changing from long-term to more acute care models is that many of the clients I knew before Thanksgiving will be gone. There will be many new faces that will not know what music therapy is - they will only know what music sub plans are like. That's not music therapy. That's something that is time-filling.

I am worried about the state of my room and my equipment. Even the adults in my facility (the ones who are supposed to be "in charge" and "responsible") often struggle with things like using materials safely and putting things back from where they were obtained. The last time I was gone, folks broke a new-to-me karaoke machine, two microphones, and tried to take apart my drum set! This time around, I took my guitar home, locked all the cabinets, loaded up the sub plan boxes, and took the drum set apart myself. Hopefully there will be limited things to pick up, move around, and rearrange when I get back. I have a lifting restriction of 5 pounds. My guitar is 5.8 pounds, so I will not be able to get many things moved in my room. I hope folks were respectful and responsible.

If I could pick up my guitar (without restrictions), I would be playing and singing, but I can't, so I guess I will play my ukulele (good thing I bought two at AMTA this year - I didn't even plan it!! Serendipity right there!) and learn some new chords on the instrument. Right now, I've got C, F, and G down, but I need to get some more chords under my belt so I can play more songs. Probably not this one, but who knows what I'll do in this last week of vacation. 

It is time to get back into what it is I love to do. Music Therapy. Music therapy with my clients. Music therapy stuff for other music therapists to use in their sessions.  Music therapy thoughts and ideas. Time to start thinking and doing. It's time to get back in the saddle again!