Getting Ready for It All

It is Monday, and I managed to wake up at 4am, and I am starting to get ready for returning to work. I am still testing positive on my COVID tests, but my work doesn't care about that at all. In fact, I am not even required to have anything negative. I will wear a mask until I no longer test positive on the at-home tests. To be honest, I will continue to wear a mask until the virus is no longer happening, so I will continue to be in the mask longer than anyone else at my facility. My asthma is back, so breathing is complicated at the best of times. Add in thoughts about COVID and this virus being more prevalent in my environment now, I don't think I will unmask for a very long time when I am around clients. I am glad that I have had the virus now - that lessens the guilt about bringing it into the facility - that's where I got it because I was not unmasked anyplace other than at work - with my interns and with other staff members.

I will be leaving in about an hour so I can get to work, go through my emails, get an evaluation finished and printed, and get myself back into a working frame of mind. I want to be independently wealthy and never have to work again, but that is not in the plans. I have to get my trash can from the curb before I leave. It has been sitting out there since Friday when it was time to put the trash out. Bad neighbor? Eh. It doesn't affect anyone but me, so I don't need to stress about it. In fact, I had totally forgotten about it until halfway through yesterday. I was in my pajamas so I didn't go out. I'll do that this morning.

Today's schedule includes three groups, one open time (which is reserved for a class that is not in existence at the moment), one in-group session, one individual session, and an intern mid-term evaluation/supervision time. After that, I'll go out into the heat and the muggy air for bus duty before finishing up the extra time that I give to my facility to accommodate my interns' schedule. Then I'll come home for some dinner and relaxation. I want to go to bed early tonight to help with waking up tomorrow. I managed to wake up today but historically, Tuesdays are more difficult than Mondays to get up and get going. My interns will be running all of the group sessions. They had an entire week of sessions without me, so I anticipate that they will have made the transition to group leader and will not need me for anything other than supervision and documentation of critical incidents. Getting some time alone without me is usually pretty good for any intern - it illustrates to them that they are capable of doing the job. They don't need me to be a music therapist - they need me for very little. There tends to be a different feeling of ownership after I have been gone that doesn't happen if I am present for the entire internship.

I am trying to not use any sick time for the next two and a half months. I am tired of being sick or injured or both. I want to be so much better in my health and body than I am at this point. I have not been whole since February. I have had three months of decreased salary because I have not been able to be at work. Fortunately, I am covered and protected under the Family Medical Leave Act so I still have a job even though I have run through all of my sick leave. For the next three months, though, I want to be present and healthy and whole. I have an appointment with my pain management specialist in early August, so hopefully I will have a routine or series of exercises  or other stuff to help me strengthen my back and make me better equipped to handle pain episodes like what I went through in March and April. I would have had this already if I hadn't come down with COVID - my original appointment was for the - sorry, cat fight next door - 27th of June. 

So, no need for sick time in the next 81 days. That is doable, I think. Today is the first day of the new contract year. There are 213 days ahead of me this school year. We have 12 days in this month. That's all. 12 days. Three weeks of four day weeks ahead of me. I can do this. It would be nice to have a full paycheck again. Especially since this paycheck is car registration paycheck.

I have little to do to prepare for music therapy groups today since my interns will be running groups. I have to complete and print out the evaluation for my junior intern today. The evaluation date was the last day of the contract year but I was still sick with COVID so we postponed it to today. Only one day late, intern calendar wise, but 11 days late on the regular calendar. If intern #34 is reading this, THERE IS NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!!! 

I have about 40 minutes left until I can head on out and get to work. I want to wipe things down on my desk and then get to work again. While I would really like to be independently wealthy and never have to work again, I know that is not my reality. There is absolutely NO chance that I will ever have the situation where I can not work. I think I would get very bored with a leisurely life very quickly.

Today will be the start of our transformation from "what we've always done" to something new. These next 12 days will include lots of uncertainty about the schedule for next year, changes in staffing, changes in clientele, changes in co-workers. All sorts of changes. I think I will be staying in my current room, I think I will continue to see every student at the facility, and I think that I will get the opportunity to stretch my concept of what music therapy and leisure skill development can be for my clients. I am choosing to be positive about these changes. There is no other way to proceed if I want to be healthy. I might get an office space back! I would really like that. I need a place where I can sit and watch my interns with students being far away. I also need my own space to work and get away from my interns. I also want them to have a space away from me. I am hoping that I will get a small space back for my own. If that happens, I can move things on the last day of school (a non-contact with client day) and get ready for the start of the new regular school year with a new place to work and think and store stuff. I am crossing my fingers that I will get back one of the closets in my current suite of rooms. If so, then I can move my computer and desk over to the closet and let the interns have their own spaces without my mess surrounding them. Of course, the closet that I will have available (probably) will not be wired for internet or phone, so that will be a complication. Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I get there...if I get there. Time to go.