I got over to work just fine. I opened up my door shortly before 7 am and....nothing. I was half-hoping to find a piece of misdelivered mail or something on my porch, which would explain the noise I heard on the porch. Oh well. I'm telling myself it was a raccoon or something, or hoping it was a one-off thing.
(I might ask the secretary - whose son is a sheriff's deputy - if it's worth reporting or not. I mean, I don't KNOW it was someone trying to open the door but it sure as heck sounded like someone trying the handle on the storm door, and that's up too high for a raccoon or something to mess with, and I'm not sure why they WOULD, anyway).
But yeah.
I have this afternoon off now because my student can't weed today (but can on Monday, so I guess I come and help her then). Not sure what I'm going to do with it but I DO know I am going HOME for lunch and having a proper cup of tea and taking a little break midday, which is a really nice thing and something I try to do on the days I can get off campus after class (in the fall this is often but not always Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday. Some Thursdays are faculty meeting so I either bring a lunch and eat it in the meeting, or immediately after, and then keep working. Tuesdays I figure I just deserve a lunch at home - there are few enough treats I get in my life and that's a small one - and Fridays, if I am not gearing up for fieldwork, the same).
What is the attraction of lunch at home? Well, part of it, as I said, is the chance to have a proper cup of tea. I could do that over here but it would take more work (and storing-of-stuff; I use loose tea at home and so would need an infuser and a way to heat water and I'd probably want to keep milk on hand as I use it in some teas...) so I save the "proper tea" for at home. And there are more food options because although we do have a microwave here, it's kind of grotty and I'm not sure I'd want to heat stuff up in it. But the real reason is that packing a lunch at 6:10 am or whenever, I'm going for quick and easy to do, sometimes at the expense of "tolerable" - cup of yogurt, a couple of fruits, maybe a little cheese, maybe one of those "soft breakfast bar" things to function in the role of dessert. At home I can do more elaborate stuff and also do vegetables (because of the heating-up thing: there are few vegetables I can eat raw any more)
The main attractions of going home for lunch though are the few minutes of quiet it affords me - I'm not going to have people pounding on my door wanting to know if now is a good time to discuss that thing they want help with (Yes, I can say "no" to that, but) and I don't get the cheery textbook reps calling me wanting my "input" on things (Someday I will develop enough gall to work up a bill for my time and send it to them)
And also, most days, once I'm done eating, I take 20 minutes and do a bit of piano practice. I find my ideal is to do 20 minutes in the morning, 20 midday, and 20 when I get home. If I wait too late I'm tired and don't play as well (and I need all the help I can get: I'm slowly realizing I will never be better than mediocre and am trying to make my peace with that)
I also still have plans to go antiquing tomorrow, after New Pony. (Apparently there is going to be another Changeling, this one named Pharynx? Are they going to run through lots of anatomical terms? There are LOTS of ones for parts of an insect's leg - Trochanter, and Tarsal Claws, and Coxa....)
I think I do need to get out. (And I need to do some bigger fresh-food shopping - I do not like some of the local choices for that as well as the Sherman choices)
We're getting cooler weather, which I like and approve of. There was a story a couple days ago (here) that opined that because of changes in how we thermoregulate when we sleep, that's why we like being covered up at night and sleep badly when we can't be (like, when it's hot). I don't know. I find actually instead of getting *cold* when I sleep, I often feel cold when I first get into bed, but then wake up around 1 or 2 am and feel really warm. (This is not night sweats or hot flashes, I don't think it's pathological - I've always been like that). In warm weather I always sleep badly.
Upon rereading: the lack of thermoregulation can go either way, so presumably someone in too warm of a climate could overheat during REM sleep. That probably explains why I wake up from dreams and am TOO HOT and have to either kick off the blankets or actually even get up for a few minutes to cool down.
There's also some talk in there that our serotonin drops when we are dreaming? Weird. (And yeah, maybe THAT explains all the unfortunate, unsettling dreams I've had lately - not enough serotonin, which, in grossly-oversimplified language, is the "happy neurotransmitter.")
Also, they talked about weighted blankets. I sometimes wonder if I would benefit from one of those- they say they work on anxiety as well as other disorders. I can't quite see paying in excess of $100 for one (which is what it would take to get one big enough to cover me) without being able to try one out first. (There is a book that discusses how to *make* them, I suspect those plastic stuffing pellets are involved...). But I know I sleep better in the winter when it's cold enough to have a couple of quilts on top of me. For me, I think it is a kinesthetic reminder that "you're safe" - I feel exposed with just a sheet or nothing at all covering me, so I don't sleep well.
Sometimes, when it's really cold, I "burrito" up in a blanket in bed and I find I sleep really well like that.
I also approve of maybe being able to get my sweaters out early this year and start wearing them.
I still have vague plans to start the owl colorwork vest this weekend, even as I'm trying so hard to get to the point of doing the sleeves on the Grasse Matinee....we will have to see. (Saturday will mostly be taken up with the trip out, if I do wind up going....)
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