I’m going to need to find something to do soon.
This summer has been a strange one. I’m largely staying at home as I did during pandemic times, and I’ve spent a lot of time working on projects.
I’m running out of projects.
I’ve prepped my classes for Fall semester, that time of year that comes in a month and a half. I’ll win NaNo today and finish Kel and Brother Coyote in 3 days. Proofing it will take a few more days and then I’ve run out of things to do.
This is even with afternoon naps every day.
Things I could do
I could, I suppose, finish Voyageurs, which is the thing I least want to do. I feel like I’ve lost the plot on that one. Literally lost. the. plot. I don’t feel like the second half goes with the first half. I don’t want the second half to go that long. I don’t — I’m whining.
I could start a new novel. It’s not that I don’t have ideas sitting on the drawing board.
I could concentrate on short stories and poems — I wrote what I think is a solid poem the other day. I might have gotten the knack back.
I could, I suppose, just nap some more.
I do, it turns out, have about three doctors’ appointments in the next two weeks, so maybe I’ll just get the stress cardiogram, the psychiatrist visit, and the setup for my cataract surgeries dealt with.
Or have fun and talk my husband into another writers’ retreat.
The luxury of choice
I’ve come off as very privileged right now. Think about it — most people have 9-5 jobs and maybe two weeks vacation. My husband works part time and has, at best, four-day weekends. No paid vacation. I have, more or less, a whole summer to do my internship supervision and, it turns out, enjoy free time.
This fall, I won’t have choices. I will have a solid semester with no vacation (except a couple three-day weekends and a week at Thanksgiving, so I shouldn’t complain). Semesters are pretty intense, so I will welcome the breaks. But I don’t have the flexibility I have in summer.
Still I have more freedom than most people do, and it makes up for the pretty slim pay. (Almost).
I guess today I will be grateful for my summer schedule and find a time to enjoy just being off work.
Words Like Me 