ScienceWoman has shared some thoughts with us about how her spring semester has gone; I'm still in the throes and can't reflect yet. Student end-of-semester projects, a journal paper to submit, a conference paper to submit, reviews for a conference to conduct, a dissertation to read to prepare for a defense, and two proposal defenses coming up, on top of wanting to garden, blog, camp, visit family, and watch Little Dorrit.
However, I have realized one thing: that, with busyness at work comes a sneaky pseudo-justification to drive to work. I think I don't have the 25 minutes to walk from my house to my office, so I justify driving by telling myself how I can use that time for something else.
The last two days I have actually walked at least one way to work. I realized that I really miss my walks to or from work because I have not noticed how spring is progressing, or how construction has been happening, or how houses have been selling, or had time to think big thoughts as the wander in seems to be the only time I do that. I didn't even mind (much) that it was bucketing with rain; seeing the flowers and thinking big thoughts more than adequately made up for a bone-chilling drenching little dampness.
I do see a little light at the end of the tunnel, however. I have my last lecture today; the next two weeks' lectures are "consulting time" for students to come in and ask questions about their projects. This also means I don't need to sit in my colleague's class anymore (where I would see how he told the story of our synchronous content), so my Tuesday mornings might free up a bit. I actually was done with prepping for class last night, and so could spend this morning catching up on some of those other items I listed at the top. My husband and I are planning to go camping this weekend, if it doesn't continue to pour, and I hope to get some reading (for fun, even!) done while offline.
Now, to make sure I don't overplan my summer...
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Very true.