What brings you peace?
Everything about today brings me peace. Well, almost everything. You know what I did for 90% of my time at work today? I sat in my office and got work done. I was even a tiny bit bored around 4:30. The summer program that I have been supervising since it started on June 2, officially ends on Thursday. But this week is super low key because there isn’t much left now that it’s the last week. Only a couple of classes that will end tomorrow and one that will end on Thursday. I had ChatGPT tally up the overtime I’ve been documenting and I have put in a little over 22 hours this summer. Those are the times when I stayed in my office after 5 doing work. Or did things at home or on the weekends for work.
Now that it’s all pretty much over…until it’s time to start planning for next summer, I was able to catch up on so many things today. Things that I have been telling people that I’ll take care of, though I had no definite time frame in mind for when I would actually take care of it given how busy I was. But today, I got so much done that someone even called and asked to talk on the phone about some of it because there were so many emails that I was sending that I had promised to send at some indeterminate time over the summer.
I’m pretty caught up and am now starting to work and plan ahead for the other things I’m responsible for outside of the summer program.
That gives me peace.
But also, and I’ve written about this before, my couch gives me peace. In fact, when I’m done with this post, written from a rain-soaked chair in my backyard, I’m going to go crash on my couch. Twenty two hours of overtime and the mental stress of being so busy for two and a half months have made me very tired. I’m looking forward to next Monday when I will be off. It’s the day after the Katy Perry concert and I have already promised my couch that we will be inseparable that day. Until then, I am going to channel my inner Sheldon Cooper and relish sitting in my spot. Leaned back on a new plush, velvety pillow I recently bought. My legs propped out on the equally fuzzy and velvety cover I have draped over the cushions. I will probably read when I go in. I don’t have the energy to pick up a knitting or crochet project. But just laying back and reading a book will bring me peace. It does that every night actually. That’s how my husband and I spend our evenings. In our spots on the living room furniture, watching tv with our assigned dog. Ethan with me on the couch. Millie with him on the loveseat. That’s how it goes. A peaceful scene on a peaceful evening. I am looking forward to that now more than I have all year.
Just as I predicted…my teacher friends are currently all revving up to start a new school year and I am powering down to rest after a busy summer. Quite the opposite of what I’m used to, but, as they loved to say on the news during Covid—this is the new normal. And as I like to say, I’m good with that.
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