At the end of June, Cj and I made the trek up to Freeman, South Dakota to catch a few friends and family who were gathering in the area. Our visit coincided with a rib festival, quilt show, and a reunion tour by Radar Ray and the Creekbusters. After eating mostly vegetarian the past couple of months, sampling and judging a rib from each vendor left me with a seriously full and dangerously grumbly belly. The only cure for what ailed me was sitting around a campfire, singing repetitive songs with homemade lyrics, drinking cheap beer, and catching up with old friends.
The two following weeks I couldn't seem to stop myself from planning activities... There are just so many important people, and so little time! Finally, Cj called me out on our excessive scheduling. He helpfully pointed out that, at some point, we need to leave time for things like writing thank you notes, and playing music, and replanting all the pots on our deck whose plants perished in the Great Heat Wave of 2012. And I remembered that I wanted to have time for those things too, and I knew it was time to back off.
The frenzy of social activities originates from two hyperactive squirrels in the back of my brain: One is the squirrel that is frustrated by the unfairness of having all of my favorite people in the world in one place at the wedding, and not being able to spend quality time with any of them. So of course I've been trying to spend quality time with everyone I know every free second ever since.
The other squirrel is driven mad by a sense of foreboding about this fall's law school schedule. I recently accepted a position on the staff of the Kansas Law Review. This position will likely be the most expensive gold star on my law school resume, paid for with any free time I might have had remaining outside of my normal academic work. I hope it's worth it, but it's not encouraging when law students a year ahead of me say "Congratulations" in the same tone of voice that they would say "I'm so sorry, I just ran over your puppy."
Ok so there are lots of reasons why it's great to be taking advantage of the summer by spending time with friends, but... yes, sometimes it's just too much. So I'm trying to be more intentional about leaving free space in my schedule.
Yesterday evening was quiet, and lovely. Cj and I cooked a simple dinner together, using some of our new cooking devices, which are overflowing our kitchen and camping out forlornly in the music room while they wait for permanent homes. Most of those kitchen gadgets are probably unneeded, but dang are they fun to experiment with.
We celebrated the sub-100-degree temperatures by eating on our back deck, and then biking the long KU hill to the Merc (our local organic granola bulk food grocery establishment), with empty mason jars in tow. We coasted the whole way home with our jars full of rice and lentils. The zero-effort roller coaster ride was totally worth hauling myself and my bike up that hill.
Back at home we watched Back to the Future, which, incredibly, I had never seen before. As with most classic movies that I should have seen as an 8 year old (other movies that have been on this list until recently: Edward Scissorhands, Labrynth, and Alice in Wonderland), my impression of the subject matter was totally inaccurate... I think I thought Back to the Future was going to be some sort of intellectual science-fiction masterpiece. As a result, I was in gleeful giggles most of the way through the movie.
I'm not done socializing or traveling for the summer yet. This weekend is my birthday, and next weekend is the annual Larson-Friesen trip to the Lake of the Ozarks. The following weekend Cj and I leave for our honeymoon in Colorado. Well, summer is for life and friends and relaxing and projects. Hopefully all in balance. At least this week was one significant step back towards equilibrium.
1 comment:
I have eaten a mountain of vegetables to combat the damage that was done to my body by ribs, beer etc. in Freeman. So glad you came! Balancing time is such an art, isn't it? I am still trying to master it. Good luck with social time, personal time and school! Also, did you know that I painted that bobcat on the gym wall behind the quilt in your picture? :)
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