Best Laid Plans

Guess who had to miss the first two hours of work yesterday because she left the overhead lights on in her car and drained her battery?

If you guessed me, then you are correct.

I had all sorts of plans for those two hours, but I was not able to complete those plans. I started the first day with clients in a fog of frustration. The first session that actually happened (because I was five minutes late for a group that is almost ALWAYS 10 minutes late to the session but not yesterday!) was the one with "that client" and "that other client." They both made it through the session, doing the bare minimum, but NOT engaging in screaming, tantrums, or aggression. WIN!! I then finished the other three sessions on my schedule and poured myself into my car. The battery worked, so I went home.

One of my specialists called last night and left a message. I have to call him today. That increases my stress level a bit, but I will do it so I know what is happening. 

Anyway...

I am going to keep going. I have five groups today, including an earlier lunch because of the schedule of one of the groups. I have slew of new students to meet and get to know as well as a bunch of new co-workers. 

For about the first time in my history at the school, we had no new teachers start this year. Now, not all of our "teachers" are actually teachers at this moment, but they are all folks who have worked in the behavioral health technician role, so they know our students and are pursuing their education degrees. We are doing some sort of waiver/education/practicum thing that is part of the push to find educators in our state. Alternate pathways to credentialing, I guess. 

The start of a new school year is an interesting time in every school. My sister's new class group is starting to figure out how to be second graders in Ms. L's class. They have been together for two days now. Their schedule is changing and not quite set yet, but that's part of the start of the new school year.

My schedule is set and has been consistent for the past two years. The only difference is that we are now fully staffed and have all classrooms up and running, so I have had to put that class into my mental routine. The class has been on the schedule for the entire time, but it was empty, so I got an extra hour per week to work on other things. I have to give that up now, but that's a good thing. More time with clients always makes me feel happy.

The good thing about draining the car battery yesterday? I found my TME jumpdrive - the elusive drive from posts last week. It was in one of my reusable shopping bags in the back of my car that I started to fold while waiting for the AAA guy to come and spend 30 seconds with me getting the car started up. I am so relieved that this situation happened because I found my jumpdrive that holds all the TMEs that I have written and that my interns have shared with me over the years. Over 2000 files on that drive.

It is now on the cloud where I can get to it when I need it.

I am going to head out into the world with my packed lunch (chicken, almond, cranberry salad sandwiches, chips, cookies, and a ginger ale), get into a car with a fully charged battery, and do music therapy!

I had a request for the plate game today - I guess we can do that because I don't know what I want to do with my first group of students. That is the group that did not show up yesterday, so it makes no sense to do anything substantial in the curriculum or anything like that.

Anyway, it is time to get going into the world.

Tuesday - it is Tuesday, right??