Thoughtful Thursday: Leaks Happen

It is time to figure out something to think about right now...

On Tuesday morning, my intern opened his office and then came to my office door. "Mary Jane, did you know the ceiling fell down?" "Nope." Sure enough, there had been an air conditioner leak situation and ceiling tiles were in a soggy mess on the floor and dripping from bowed tiles that hadn't yet broken. There was a huge puddle on the ground, and one of my cabinets was directly under the drip that just kept going over and over and over. Ugh. It was not the way I wanted to start my week.

It was an absolute mess, and I know our maintenance guys pretty well, so I started moving things out of the closet into the main room so we could start the process of drying out. There was water everywhere, and things were completely soaked. Some of my electronic toys and music games were immersed in water, and other materials had to be tossed. I have learned several lessons from this situation that I would like to share.

First. Lamination is a wonderful thing! I had to throw away bits and pieces of my laminated materials when the laminate was cut against the edge of the materials rather than including a generous margin of sealed laminate. Anything that got wet had to be tossed. I can't risk mold or mildew in my music therapy services, so more laminating and sealed margins from now on - NO EXCEPTIONS!

Second. You cannot be significantly attached to any one thing in your music therapy life. Always think about what will happen if you cannot replace a specific thing. I have a great game, Dropbox, that got soaked. They do not make these anymore. The box is no longer usable, but I think the game itself is fine. I managed to save the mixing board and the cards, but I will no longer store that game in the box (mainly because the box has disintegrated, but also because THE BOX DISINTEGRATED!). I will find a water resistant way to store this game in my music therapy room from now on. I love the game so much, and you can't find it anymore, so I have to figure out a way to protect the game. I have found many other things that will need to be protected as well. Guess I will be investing in plastic containers more than I already have.

Third. It is important to be able to adjust to any situation. I cancelled music therapy on Tuesday morning, but we have traveled to classrooms for all other music therapy sessions. I had to take out everything that got wet and clear the office area so we could dry out the carpet and clean up the soggy ceiling tiles. My interns have had to figure out how to do music therapy outside of our expected environment. I am treating this like a learning experience and focusing on flexibility and being able to envision many ways to do music therapy.

Fourth. Make digital copies of important documents. One of the binders of stuff that got completely waterlogged had some of the documents that I got during my internship. I have no idea how to get a duplicate of one of the documents, so I will be bringing this particular article home to iron out and scan. Once it is scanned, the likelihood that it will be lost forever is significantly lessened.

Fifth. Things happen that are beyond your control. In my case, it tends to be water-related. I should probably just know that if something happens in my area, it will be water-related. The number of floods and breaking pipes that I had to deal with during my apartment life is high. Very high. Like, once every two years type of high. It was a mess. I am hoping that my life in my house will be less adventurous since I no longer have upstairs neighbors, but we will see...

Anyway, I am hoping that the carpet has dried out enough to put my interns' office back together again. The maintenance guy found the problem with the HVAC system and no more drips but the ceiling tiles are still bowed and there are gaps in the ceiling now where we are waiting to find the spare tiles so they can be replaced. In addition, I want things to be very dry before I go back into storing things there - I do not need mold or mildew in that room. Once things are dry, I will be reconfiguring the room. Obviously it is not a great idea to store things under that particular place again, so that space will change.

Now though, it is time to get my shower finished and head out into a sunrise so I can get to work a bit later than usual.