Okay, yeah, I maybe partly take back what I said yesterday about the working man being the happy man. Except for 40 minutes spent practicing piano, and maybe a few moments online during the day, my day yesterday from about 7:30 am until just before 9 pm was entirely taken up with work-stuff: teaching, faculty meeting, grading, AAUW meeting...and I'm beat. And frayed. (Wednesday was not much better, as that was Youth Group).
I really find, more and more, I need time alone - time not spent working- to be able to recharge. I'm hoping I can get some of that time this evening (despite having an exam to grade, an exam to write, and I really need to clean house).
I look at my yarn and fabric and books and feel sad because I'm not using any of them at the moment. I had been planning on starting my TWILIGHT SPARKLE socks this week, but nope, no time to do that. (And I want to get a pair off the needles first). I also need to set together some quilt blocks to make them into a quilt top to get it quilted because there is a quilt I need to have done before October....(la la la, that's a little hint about the exciting family news I talked about last week).
I also want to get back to working on the Ropes and Picots sweater. I added a few more inches to the right front over break, and I do want to get this one done some time. (Yes, perversely, it is now 80 degrees every day and doesn't cool down much below 65 at night, and here I am working on a sweater)
Last night at AAUW the president did a little exercise...she gave us all sheets of paper (envelopes, actually) and had us write our name on there, and then we passed them around and (as anonymously as possible, though SOME of us (like me) have pretty recognizable handwriting) wrote a positive adjective or phrase to describe that person....and we then got to see all of what the other people wrote about us. (It's harder than you think...I don't know some of the people all that well. Some were easy enough - one woman I wrote "uplifting" for because she's always in a good mood and always positive to people, and another person I wrote "wise" for). It was...interesting...to see what I got back. I admit, I was secretly hoping for some big revelatory unexpected thing. But most of the comments about me centered on how organized, and how diligent, and how good at getting stuff done I was. I know it's churlish to feel disappointed at that, and maybe it's that diligence is a fairly rare trait these days (and I know some of these women have been disappointed by other people in other capacities), but frankly.... I don't know. If my "superpower" is being diligent, that seems like kind of a boring superpower to me. Or, I don't know, maybe I take it for granted. I guess I was hoping for something that would surprise me a little...I mean, I already KNOW how diligent I am, sometimes to my own detriment. (And maybe my reaction was colored by the fact that I was going on hour 13 of a 14 hour day when I learned that.)
Here's hoping I can carve out a little time to knit or sew this weekend.
2 comments:
Reminds me of something that was done at a Ladies Retreat I attended some years ago. Everyone came up with "faithful" for me and I, like you, was a little disappointed. Not sure why I thought that was a not-so-good descriptor because I've since learned to value faithfulness.
After I went through the period I call The Too Muchness, I am now ferocious about carving out and keeping my downtime. It's essential for peace of mind. I am mildly extroverted but I have got to recharge so I can give back my best.
I am itchin' to get down to the craft store soon. I finished the afghans I was working on and I want, no, NEED, to start on another. My hands get "yarn hungry."
Post a Comment