One Hour to Go

I am getting ready to head back to work after a strange break. I'm not ready to be at work - another week of sleeping would be nice, but I am better than I was two Fridays ago about being a therapist. I am stressed because I have lots to do that I have to hurry up and wait for others to initiate. Sirens stopped at my neighbor's house this morning about 10 minutes ago - not a usual thing in this neighborhood. I can't see what is happening because they are my "over the back fence" neighbors. I am watching Canadian television shows in my time before leaving for work. I can check on my plans for this week's sessions from home, but I am not going to. That is something that can wait for my return to work.

Today is one of the days where I find being a therapist is a difficult thing. I am returning to a work situation where we have many new students, many familiar students will have left, and where classroom groups will have changed significantly. I am not sure who will be present in my second group today, We finally have enough teacher types to fill every classroom so I now have 13 classes to serve rather than the 12 of last month. My schedule changes a bit when summer sessions arrive (we go from a 5 day to a 4 day schedule), and it is now different because the open spaces are now full. I now have a five group day on M, T, and Th while W becomes a 6 group day. Once the 25-26 year starts, my session count will go to five groups on M, T, and W with 4 groups on Th and 2 groups on F. It will be interesting to try to get used to the new schedule. By the time it is familiar, it will be time to change it again.

I am creature who craves structure, and there is little to no consistency in my world right now.

So, changing schedules, changing classroom assignments, and changes in my physical environment are happening right now. I have to arrange my storage room/office before I leave for the next break. I will not be able to move things when I return for the second summer session, so I have to do it now. I will be walking into a maze of drum set pieces, tall cabinets, and stuff that needs to be organized into smaller space. It is time to start bringing things home as well. I am not sure if I will start that process now or not. It will depend on how much I get moved this week. I hope that I will be finished with the emptying of cabinets so they can be moved against the wall and reloaded. If I do not get that finished, I can come in on Friday to work without interruption.

Of course, much of this is contingent upon whether the temperature in my music therapy room is appropriate for human habitation. It has been going through its ups and downs recently. Also, there will be some renovations to the first half of the building I work in - at some point - that will include jacking up the building and working on the foundation. I am not sure that temperature regulation will be a priority until after the foundation is fixed. Of course, I have been requesting that the temperature controls be fixed since 2021, but that's not enough to actually fix things that affect me. So much going on.

It is time to inhabit my therapist persona rather than my "me" persona. I will tell my supervisor of my upcoming surgery and subsequent restrictions on my interactions, but that is all that I am going to share today. I will tell my friends tomorrow about the surgery. Blech. I really do not like talking about my personal stuff, but they need to know some of the details. After those conversations, I need to be MJ - music therapist rather than MJ - everything else.

We are going to be going over the country of the month - which I cannot remember right now - this week in sessions. We are going to learn a bit about the country and the music that is part of the cultures in that country. That's what we work on during the first week of each month. I have to come up with something to do in between parts of the lecture parts of the session, but that should be pretty easy. Next week will be games and then I will come up with something to do for week three of this session. Before I leave for surgery, I will figure out what we will be doing for the rest of the summer session. I think I will be around for the last two weeks of summer school, but it will depend on my recovery.

That's all I can focus on right now. Before I go, I want to start lecturing you all, readers, about making sure that you are doing regular colon cancer screenings. There is no substitute for a colonoscopy - NONE - so get things done. Prep is worse than the procedure, and I know what I know about my colon because of the colonoscopies that I have been through recently. This is a sneaky type of cancer - something that can happen without any sort of symptoms at all. Get screened!!

Time to be a therapist. I think I might get fast food for breakfast this morning. Fuel for the day ahead. See you tomorrow??

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