Today was the first day of the semester, so I went back to work. I can’t tell you much of what I did there beyond “talked to people.” I can tell you that I spent part of the afternoon figuring out that I am going to need every single one of the allotted 225 hours just to fulfill the goals I set for myself. But I can also confirm that once I meet those goals, I will have skillzzzzz, a decent idea of what’s going on with the elderly population in this area, and some specific information about the rise of dementia as compared to increasing life spans.

Also, the conference room next to the administrator’s office is not good for having conferences. I should use the family room down the hall for that. That room is, however, somewhat better than the hallway where the conference was initiated (not by me).

I think the thing I am most excited about is planning and implementing group activities in our memory care neighborhoods. I need to get busy designing that program. I figure I will need about 14 sessions for the semester.Okay, 12. I’ll also need time to do pre- and post- program analysis. Have I mentioned that I love what I do?

The workday ended in a scramble when I texted three of my children to see if they were home, and only one responded, but he was still on the bus. My mother was still at her place 45 minutes away instead of here where she usually is on Monday afternoons. So much for stopping on the way home and getting the stuff for tacos, like I had said I would do! I raced home instead, to find all six of the children at home and expecting said tacos. We’ll be having sandwiches tonight and tacos tomorrow. Things happen and they are, on the whole, pretty understanding kids.

Once I counted the heads and delivered the bad no-tacos news, I sat down to blog. But before I opened this screen, I refreshed my application page at University of Maryland-Baltimore. All my credentials have been received except the final transcript, which will go out in May. My app is complete. So now I wait. Until March. I feel quite a bit like a lake in a storm. Excited on top, so it looks a little choppy, but cool and calm underneath like very deep water. My grades are excellent, at least two of my four references are stellar. I am assuming the third is at least good and the fourth is at least pleasantly neutral. UMB required that I ask the director of my current program and my field supervisor each for a reference. I’ve never had the director for a class, and we have spent maybe five minutes face-to-face. She actually emailed to ask why I selected her for the reference, and I explained the situation, apologized for putting her on the spot, and asked her to please do the best she could.

I’m going either way. My acceptance or rejection will only determine timing and funding.