It’s true I love my job. I’m good at what I do and I like doing it, and every workday when the alarm goes off, I hop right up (albeit a bit more slowly than in younger years) ready to start the day…but after a long weekend like this? Retirement sounds pretty good.
It’s nice to relax, spend the day doing the things I feel like doing, getting things done at my own pace, having time to set chores and projects down and just read for a while. Time to sleep in, go to bed late, plan excursions and enjoy the sunshine.
The first day I thought about work a lot. I am not as overwhelmed as I was a few weeks ago, but I’m still dealing with the aftermath of the crazy…and very much hoping it doesn’t heat up again, to that extent, for awhile.
It’s good that spring is here, and that everyone has their thoughts focused a bit more outside the office walls, a bit more outside emails. A bit more on the greening trees and budding lilacs. Every tree that can be in flower IS in flower, it seems and there is beauty everywhere your eye rests.
Today I went to a baby shower for a woman that works in my department, but whom I met originally through the AWC. It’s the second baby shower in the last 2 months…SIX women in our bookgroup are having babies right now…3 have already given birth and 3 have yet to do so. A lot of baby presents and baby talk and baby memories. I sort of envy them the time off, but I remember what it was like. I had never wanted to be home with babies and I did it for 3 years…that was enough for me. So, I guess a few long weekends in a row and vacation coming up soon should satisfy my craving for downtime.
We played fun baby-related games: a famous mother’s name on our backs when we arrived that we had to figure out with only yes or no questions…I was completely blank on mine and had to get a giant hint before the light dawned. Even knowing that I was a cartoon mother, still running on TV, with 3 kids, one of whom is very obnoxious, wasn’t enough to clue me in. D’oh, indeed! Then one of the organizers held a baby-themed quiz that included the following questions:
Where in the house should you never put baby, according to Johnny Castle?
Which species sees the male in charge of gestation and birth?
Which mammal has a gestation period of nearly 2 years? sperm whale, elephant, donkey or hippopotamus
What is the largest number of surviving human children from a SINGLE birth? 6, 8, 10 or 12
What is the highest amount of children born to ONE mother over the course of a lifetime? 15, 24, 48, 57, or 69
What can a child 7 months or less do that an adult cannot? stick out its tongue & cross its eyes, sneeze with its eyes open, lick its own elbow or breathe & swallow simultaneously?*
It was fun, and the food was good, but I’m babied out for the time being. I’ve been slogging through the magazine accumulation of years and am pleased to report that I have only 2.5 years left of Martha Stewart magazines to go through. I haven’t ripped out nearly as many pages as I thought I would, considering how pretty the publication is. I was originally more surprised about this, considering how I decimated the Donna Hays, but Martha’s recipes, while photogenic and appetizing, all seem to be so much WORK. Plus she has a bad habit of putting pretty pictures of the food in one set of pages, and the recipes all crammed around advertising in the back. I can’t be bothered. Much of the time, even when I look at one of the photos and think, “YUM that looks YUMMY” upon reflection and clear-eyed reading of the recipe, I realize…yeah, I’ll never make that. Not a chance.
The sky is so pretty, pale blue with fat white clouds floating leisurely by. I think I’ll go gaze at it awhile and not think about work for the few remaining hours of the weekend. I hope your weekend has been as nearly perfect as mine.
*Answers:
in the corner
seahorses
elephant
8 (octomom!)
69… BOGGLE. No kidding**
breathe & swallow simultaneously
**baha! no pun intended. Seriously. 69 kids. by ONE set of parents (though Wikipedia says the veracity of the story is under suspicion). Even the next highest amount on the list (39!) makes my uterus shudder.