Friday: December 1 - Let's Go Into the Busiest Month of the Year!

Egad! Gadzooks! How did it get to be December 2023 already? I am simultaneously ready and not ready for this month to be here. Christmas presents are being received at their destinations, but the shopping is not finished yet. This is a month of extra worship services, programs, caroling parties, surprises, trying to stay organized, practicing music, figuring out solutions to problems that aries, and figuring out how to play a bunch of music while working on making my finger work again. I am sure that all of you are feeling the same way - here we go...

It is time to get into my ultra organization mode. I want to make sure that I am arriving at all the things I need to be at and that the changes in my routine are not forgotten. In addition to being the busiest month of the year, it is the one where I get overwhelmed very easily.

So, to help me not get too overwhelmed, I engage in some self-care practices that work for me. I avoid all shopping unless it is in off-peak, early morning hours. I do not listen to Christmas music outside of my work roles. I rely on my planner more during this month. I also try to reserve time for decompression and energy renewal. This month requires lots of patience and consistency from me for my clients, so that takes some changes in my energy level. It takes more energy to remain still and consistent than it does to go bat-crap crazy with the season. I cannot sustain a high energy season hoopla for very long, and I really do not want to burn through all the energy that I have.

The reward for making it through the next 24 days is (hopefully) a trip to my childhood home. I tried to do this last year, but the weather turned nasty on the East Coast, so my trip was canceled at the last minute. I really hope that will not happen this time around because I have not been home for Christmas since 2019. We had to postpone our Christmas celebration until Spring Break last March since I could not get out of my state. I am hoping that I will be able to get to the West Coast this year by Christmas Day.

I am sitting here, at my computer, enjoying the thought of December and simultaneously dreading December. In addition to celebratory things happening, I have appointments and maintenance things and all sorts of other personal type things going on that have to be navigated. I am hoping to be promoted to rehabilitation with my finger this afternoon. I am going to need some occupational therapy guidance so I can bend my finger. At the moment, I cannot bend my ring finger enough to do chords. I am also experiencing pain when I bend the finger at all, so I need some structure to stretch the joints. So, I will (hopefully) be going to OT pretty soon. That will just be added into the other things that I have going on.

In the music therapy room, my intern will be starting some termination talk. We have to extend the internship a bit, so the intern will be returning after break to finish up the clinical hours necessary to get to the magic number of 1020. We will be navigating through termination together. We do not do termination of clients from music therapy based on how the facility is run, so my interns focus on their termination of their time at the program. A couple of staff members are already complaining that the intern will be leaving - this happens with every intern, so I am used to this response, but it is always funny to see who reacts and who doesn't. I know one client will be happy that I will be back at the front, but the rest may not be as happy to see the intern leave. Oh well. I am the therapist, so I remain...

...well, for two and a half years, at least.

I have an intern applicant to interview soon for a June position. I do not have any interns before June 2024, so I will be spending time working on organizing and task boxes and getting my internship program updated for the last interns that will come to my program. I will also work on my work YouTube channel. I have to figure out what email address I used to set up that channel - it may have been my facility-specific email address...I wonder. (I've tried every other email so far, so that's the only one that is left.) Once I can figure out how to get back to my creator studio, I will be making some more videos to share with my students on non-school days. We are focusing on some programmatic changes in our school based on some of our situations, so I am thinking that I can make the most impact through the YouTube channel right now. The suggestion for other areas were to provide learning activities, so why not translate that into videos for the music therapist? I do not have worksheets or things like that, but I do have playlists and original songs and social-emotional learning videos.

For now, though, it is time to go. The weather is rainy but not too cold, yet. The middle of the day may include some snow, so I have to get myself ready for falling temperatures. I have to go to the doctor this afternoon, so I will be leaving work as soon as my 8 hours are finished (AKA - right after bus duty). I am hoping that the workers' compensation doctor's office will be calmer than it was the last time I was there but we will see. It was tense the Friday before Thanksgiving, let me tell you! I am hoping that we are a bit calmer today. After that appointment, I have to navigate Friday night traffic and construction. I hate driving from the city on the main highways, but I do not have much of a choice. See you tomorrow?

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