Back to Work

Sharks at the GA Aquarium

My bereavement leave and vacation time is over, and it is time to head back to work. I spent much of the past week driving places and trying to get some sleep and failing miserably. I am still exhausted and cannot seem to catch up. Time to head back to work to spend time with my intern who will be graduating next week. I am starting to think about this graduation process as it is nearing. Interns are wonderful, and I sincerely miss each one as they move towards their unique futures. This one has had to deal with pandemic weariness and uncertainty placed within the ruse of the "new normal." She will be missed.

I will be alone until January, and I am looking forward to it, to be honest. I am ready for some time as therapist and not as supervisor. I want to rearrange my office space a bit to make it a bit more comfortable for me. I want to change how the desk space works to accommodate a couple of lamps so we do not have to work with florescent lights overhead. There are lots of things that do not have an organized place to live at this point. Since my constant quest is to be more organized than I am, I have lots of things to think through and move around. It is easier to do these things when it is just me in the music therapy room.

My room will be carpeted pretty soon, so there will be things to rearrange in the room as well. My next large cabinet is coming at some point, so I will be able to get materials out of the office space and into the storage area. I have to do something with the drum set - it cannot be left out in the room without becoming a huge distraction, but I don't have the space in my office to keep it set up and ready for use...yet. I also need a place to sit and watch interns when they are leading sessions - my current set up does not allow me to watch them when they are at the Promethean Board. That will have to change. I'm thinking I may need to make an observation station where I can watch what is happening but where my interns cannot make eye contact with me...Until the other storage pieces arrive and my intern leaves, I cannot do what I am thinking about because I need to be able to upend the entire music therapy room to make these things happen. I might be able to move things from my smaller cabinets in the office to additional storage in the music therapy room once I have my bigger cabinet for the room. I am hoping that my Orff instruments can be in the bigger cabinet which will open up a bunch of wooden shelves where I can put visual aids and less used instruments and materials. That would mean getting rid of one or two metal cabinets from the music therapy room which might make it easier to put the drum set up in the office area. Lots to think about while I am waiting for materials to arrive and for the time to move things around.

It is time to get ready for work this morning with the additional thought that the AMTA conference starts next Thursday evening (after my intern graduates), and that I have quite a bit of things to do in between today and next Thursday. I am taking the Monday and Tuesday after conference off for professional days to help me catch up on all the things I will miss during the weekend because of other things that have come up. That means that I have to finish my October digital file for students to complete while I am gone. That's the first thing that has to be done this week - finishing my digital file on bullying for use in two weeks. I need to find some lyrics, record a couple of my original songs, and then get some other resources ready for folks to use.

While I am still exhausted, I am also ready to get going again. I didn't miss work at all last week - there were too many things to do and people to see and driving to unfamiliar places to get to - thinking about work never entered into my brain. I know that work has to happen, so I may as well make some plans and then move into this next season with a form of enthusiasm. 

This week is pretty regular for me - lots of emails to send out, plans to make for our Monthly Music Therapy Meet next Monday, sing about january 2022 comes out tomorrow to subscribers, and music therapy stuff to do. Next week, things ramp up significantly - MMTM on Monday, Wednesday is a 12 hour day, Thursday is graduation day for my intern and the start of AMTA (thank goodness it is all virtual!), Friday is a day off from work with a Music Therapy introduction to a high school health class in the middle of AMTA presentations, Saturday is AMTA all day, Sunday is church and then AMTA, Monday and Tuesday will also be AMTA to get as much learning in as possible before returning to work on that Wednesday as the only music therapist on campus. I need to make plans for that week so I know what I will be doing with my groups and with my intern's former groups...for half a week...

It is time to go back to work.

I think I am ready...