Busy.

     Ironically, I started this post yesterday but got too 'busy' to finish it and when I came back to it today it hadn't saved properly and I don't know what happened to it so I'm going to start again.


     The concept of 'busy' is very relative.
     Yesterday when I woke up I said to Earl, "Today is going to be a busy day." and he giggled.  I suppose that waking up at 7 instead of 5 like I did in my employed life was already reason for his laughter, but it got me thinking about the relativity of the term.
     When I made the statement I was thinking ahead to my day: volunteering at the cat shelter in the morning; coming home to a photo shoot of Earl's work, already underway in the middle of the kitchen; working on Earl's upcoming art show submissions; blogging (aaaannnd maybe getting a bit lost in Twitterville); preparing for my tutoring sessions; actually tutoring for two hours; a bit of grocery shopping; and more art show submissions (why are they all due at once?  My job as Earl-wrangler has been busier than usual this week, for sure).  Then there was the unexpected excitement of the power pole that came down - fortunately we didn't lose power like some.
     In my employed life, I would have been much 'busier' - teaching at least three classes, prepping for the next day, maybe getting coverage thrown at me in my one prep period, coaching or running extra-curricular activities before and/or after school, lunch and/or hall duty, organizing school activities or field trips, marking student work, conferencing with other teachers or parents, attending PD sessions, providing extra help to students, mentoring new staff - sometimes all in one day!  (Did you know that teachers are more prone to UTIs than any other profession?  It's because there's never time to go pee.)


     Time seems to go just as fast this year, but the way I spend it is very different.  I thought I would have all the time in the world to read and write when I became unemployed, but I still never seem to have enough time, because I seem to be busy all day.  
     I've known people (one woman in particular with whom I worked for the past few years) who do more in a day than I ever have in a week.  And I don't think I'm a lazy person - I enjoy being 'busy'.  I think our bodies and minds will work as hard as we push them to, but that different people have different capabilities in this regard, and there's a difference between being physically busy (such as running a lot of errands) or mentally busy (such as multi-tasking on different projects while sitting in front of a computer).  I don't know if it has to do with intelligence, or stamina, or stubbornness, or what.  And I think we easily adapt to a slower pace of life, but it's not always as easy to gear up to a faster one (witness Monday mornings, post-vacation performance, etc.).
     So while being fairly busy myself over the past two days (yup, today was another busy one!  But I got to see my uncle today, and the art show submissions are all in, and the house is clean, and the laundry's done, and today's blog is almost written, and dinner is, well, in the freezer in the form of frozen pizza, but at least there's a salad to go with it...), I've also spent time contemplating the concept of busy, and my final conclusion on the subject is that it depends on our expectations of ourself more than anything.  And hoping tomorrow is less busy so I can read a book.