Fun Friday: Actually Going to Work

Our current round of inclement weather is over, so I will be returning to work for the first time this week. To a Friday schedule where I only see the adults who are transitioning from school work to work for a leisure session rather than a music therapy session. It feels silly to go for one session, but that's how I get paid, so off I go!

Yesterday at this time, the temperature was -9 degrees Fahrenheit with wind chills that were dangerous. Today, the temperature is 4 degrees with no wind chill at all so it actually feels like it is 4 degrees outside. We will be experiencing spring temperatures by Monday - 60 degrees!

I am hoping that we do not have any more snow days. We have had eight now which means that we will have to make up a work day at some point. This is the first time this has happened since I stopped going in for inclement weather days, so I am not exactly sure how it will happen for me. In the 29 years I've worked this arrangement, we have only had to make up time once. Now it is twice.

I am looking forward to going back to work. While being on a break is nice, inclement weather days are not something that I can fully relax into - there is too much uncertainty about when we will return to our regular programming to achieve the level of rest that I crave. My supervisor did a great job of notifying us the day before about our schedule for the next day so I didn't have restless sleep checking to see if the superintendent had closed the schools.

So, this week has been a mess for me. I have had three days (Monday was a holiday so we already had that day off) of my own company, and it has been rough. I made it to the library on Monday, so I have had some new books to read. I also received a very large stack of books from Thriftbooks.com, so I have a high stack of books to read when I cannot make it to the library conveniently in April. I started to rearrange my kitchen pantry. I cleared out some of my old clothing. Nothing is finished, of course, but it is started. I did all of my laundry but didn't put it away. I went to my nurse practitioner for my annual well baby check and got my COVID booster yesterday (almost forgot it as well!). I have been stressed out about not thinking about topics to write about or coming up with ideas for presentations. My brain has felt like mush this week - very sluggish and not at all up to generating ideas.

I have about 30 minutes before I get into my car and head out for the day. I will get my water bottles filled, gather my ideas books, and bundle up because 24, while warmer than the past several days, is still not warm. I will go to work to organize and arrange things, plan and prepare, and spend a little bit of time with my adult clients. The day will end up with bus duty and then I will come home for the weekend. This weekend does not have any obligations, so I have another two days until I will go back to work for spring temperatures and plenty of client interactions. Three weeks until Spring Break (where I hope I can make up my inclement weather day - we will see).

There are benefits to being a school-based music therapist that are not present for therapists in other settings. Inclement weather days are one of those benefits.

My thoughts, though, are moving towards retirement. I have one year, four months, and a week until I retire from this job and move into a new position as something. I am not sure what I will do when I retire, but I will figure out something. I would love to continue to work as a music therapist, but I am thinking I would also like to do something else for a bit. I don't know what I would like to do, but I will figure it out.

My sister keeps asking me what I am going to do when I retire, and my brain just fries when she asks. I am not sure, and I am not worrying about it right now. I still have medical tests and procedures to go through which might change my plans. I still have over a year to work at my current job before I have to find something to do. I am not sure what will happen in this year, but I will investigate opportunities more starting in July 2025.

Meanwhile, it is time to focus on now. I am ready to head to my storage room/office and get things fixed up and moved around to accommodate the leaky ceiling in my old office space. I want more space, so it is time to get that going. I need to clean the floor in the old office space. I need to move the cabinets out of the old office into the storage room. There is much to do, but I will get some of it done today - not all of it, but some of it. Time to go. I hope to be back into my morning routine a bit more in the next week. Thanks for reading.