This week’s locked Patreon post, with a totally different cat drawing.)
The West Virginia visit was very cool — five days of interesting meetings and talks, surrounded by a couple of days on each side doing long-distance driving, which I always enjoy. This last week, slightly less cool. I absolutely enjoy my grad students; lots of exciting things are underway; I am looking forward to seeing my mom; the weather is finally breaking. And yet: less cool (except temperature wise, I suppose).
I know why I am feeling somewhat stagnant, and I know what the solution is (or solutions are: more than one thing means more than one solution). I’ve known for days. So, why didn’t I? As soon as I asked the question that way, I realized, all work and no play. I need something that is a categorical goof-off.
Like, say, going to the renaissance festival. Which I am doing this afternoon, I hope! I somehow never eat an iconic turkey leg, but I do walk into every shop, I imagine myself in a princess cap or holding a ceramic mug with a dragon wrapped around it. I listen to real people making enjoyable sounds. I smell things. I am sure I’ll come back with a slight sunburn and sore feet, because that’s what always happens, but even that is part of the fun.
But before I go, there is work I want to have done this morning, because it certainly won’t get done after I get back. Does that defeat the purpose of dessert, to eat all the broccoli first? Three-year-old me would have said, absolutely. Adult me says, all work and then play afterward, very sensible. Still, I already have basically goofed off for three days in a row — and if it wasn’t high-quality goofing, that’s on me because I could have gone antiquing or looking into mysterious boxes or sightseeing, but I didn’t.
So, this coming week, what do I want to do?
- All the emails
- All the schoolwork
- Get back to writing first thing in the morning
- Finish the American Tour revisions; all the AT emails
- Make order out of chaos in my office at work
- (How about something playful, Kij?) Keep drawing cats
- (Surely you can think of something else!)
More anon, dear people.
