I get the feeling I’m missing out on something here.
I am now one sixth of my way through law school. At least I tell myself that so I can get up at 5:30am and get my butt on the bus (or bike, while the weather holds) for my beloved Mondays (and Tuesdays, and Wednesdays… you get the idea). School is fine. In many ways it is a luxury to learn and be at the mercy of such brilliant people. But these days it’s not school, per se, that is bugging me. It’s what school is making me do when it comes to making choices on how to use my time. (And I’m nagged by the persistent thought that there’s no reason why I didn’t feel this way when I was working all the time.)
Right now it is one of the last beautiful Sunday afternoons, and the days are quickly getting shorter. What am I doing today? Well, right now I’m avoiding schoolwork while Nick and Evelyn are at the store, but what I would *like* to be doing is any one of the things that makes me love fall more than any other season:
- Baking pies, cookies, muffins, tarts, anything with plentiful fall fruit and love.
- Walking… in the woods, in the Ped Mall, on the trail by my house.
- Exploring the variety of colors and smells that is autumn in Iowa, and sharing that with my daughter.
- Decorating my home with cheesy Halloween crap, especially the fake spider webs (can you beat the brandname of Spooky Stretch?!).
- Getting in one last trip to the lake for fishing and/or reflecting.
- Cozying up on a cool or rainy day with any book that doesn’t require me to learn the definition of “fee simple absolute.”
- Watching a movie and enjoying it on its merits, rather than spending two guilty hours knowing I should be working on that outline for class…
- Raking leaves, jumping in leaves, burying other people in leaves. Even when they are infested with those ladybug look-alike bugs that actually BITE.
- Shopping the last few farmers’ markets with an eye for bargains that will last for months: winter squash, potatoes, garlic and young apples.
- Cooking and daydreaming about this fabulous food season; and planning holiday meals and gifts around preserving the bounty we have now.
And I’ll leave it at that, while I go back to my reading for Contracts and Sales Transactions I. I miss you, “free time.”