What a Difference a Day Makes
Ah, jazz standards. Nothing beats them for blog titles!
Yesterday, for the first time since August, I had a Friday with no scheduled work. [Actually, I technically had an administrative meeting to attend. But I seldom go to these, because the ghastly presentations there are seldom relevant to my little tiny ACUN. I thought about going. For about 35 seconds. And then I promptly forgot about it.] I almost can't believe that I wrote that sentence above---the first Friday since AUGUST?! What the crap is that? You'd think I had a real job or something!
But no, faithful readers, it's true; between working on a collaborative conference presentation and meeting schedules, this was my first of the academic year. You'd think that I would have done something spectacular; something utterly fabulous; at least something noteworthy. Instead, I lolled around in bed and read my latest issue of Real Simple, then I culled through my crock pot cookbook looking for recipes, then I went to the grocery store. I came home, made myself lunch, watched a bit of Oprah, perused the online sales at Banana Republic and J. Crew. For dinner, I treated Senor Fluff to broiled wild sockeye salmon, spicy collard greens and Yukon gold potatoes. He contributed the glasses of Sterling Cabernet and a bevy of bizarre rentals from Blockbuster (Music and Lyrics, The Host, and Marvel's animated Dr. Strange. That, folks, is the man I call my own).
It might not look like much on film, but it was truly, truly a treat. More than what I did was the beautiful silence in my head. Do I have a billion things to do? Yup, sure do. But they didn't have to be done yesterday. Sure, I could have done a load of laundry. I could have gone to the gym. I could have repainted my grody toenails. But here's my new thought. I live in the land of "shoulds." I should do more around the house, should exercise more, should keep on top of my grooming, I should grade more papers, I should write to my MIA students, I should be a better person, I should, I should, I should. And living in the land of should really kills the mood, you know?
I wish I could say that I came to this realization myself. In actuality, it's one that I pulled right off of my favorite horoscope website. In Brezsny's own words (or at least the ones I wrote down):
Hooray for Fridays, and the cessation of the shoulds.
Yesterday, for the first time since August, I had a Friday with no scheduled work. [Actually, I technically had an administrative meeting to attend. But I seldom go to these, because the ghastly presentations there are seldom relevant to my little tiny ACUN. I thought about going. For about 35 seconds. And then I promptly forgot about it.] I almost can't believe that I wrote that sentence above---the first Friday since AUGUST?! What the crap is that? You'd think I had a real job or something!
But no, faithful readers, it's true; between working on a collaborative conference presentation and meeting schedules, this was my first of the academic year. You'd think that I would have done something spectacular; something utterly fabulous; at least something noteworthy. Instead, I lolled around in bed and read my latest issue of Real Simple, then I culled through my crock pot cookbook looking for recipes, then I went to the grocery store. I came home, made myself lunch, watched a bit of Oprah, perused the online sales at Banana Republic and J. Crew. For dinner, I treated Senor Fluff to broiled wild sockeye salmon, spicy collard greens and Yukon gold potatoes. He contributed the glasses of Sterling Cabernet and a bevy of bizarre rentals from Blockbuster (Music and Lyrics, The Host, and Marvel's animated Dr. Strange. That, folks, is the man I call my own).
It might not look like much on film, but it was truly, truly a treat. More than what I did was the beautiful silence in my head. Do I have a billion things to do? Yup, sure do. But they didn't have to be done yesterday. Sure, I could have done a load of laundry. I could have gone to the gym. I could have repainted my grody toenails. But here's my new thought. I live in the land of "shoulds." I should do more around the house, should exercise more, should keep on top of my grooming, I should grade more papers, I should write to my MIA students, I should be a better person, I should, I should, I should. And living in the land of should really kills the mood, you know?
I wish I could say that I came to this realization myself. In actuality, it's one that I pulled right off of my favorite horoscope website. In Brezsny's own words (or at least the ones I wrote down):
The should part of your brain has a pinched scowl; the should part of your brain has appropriated the part of your brain that rightfully belongs to pleasure motivation.Word up to that, my brutha! Let's face it: there's no escaping many of the shoulds. So I'm going to bring the pleasure motivation back, or die trying. [There's a weird Timberlake/50 Cent joke in there somewhere, but I'll leave it to all of you to dig out.]
Hooray for Fridays, and the cessation of the shoulds.
Labels: solipsism
posted by kfluff at 3:06 PM
3 Comments:
That sounds like the dreamiest day ever. Oh, how I long for a day like that. Semester ends in....43 days now?
You know the best way to have that day? Totally avoid work. I just figured out, of course, that the effect of having such a day is that I'm well rested, chipper, and TOTALLY BEHIND IN MY GRADING, WHICH I AVOIDED ALL WEEKEND. What's the point at which it's just too embarrassing to hand back papers? Three weeks? Is that the cut-off?
I haven't been over to Free Will Astrology in ages, I forgot how much I love it! I'm glad you reintroduced me to it.
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