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Aug. 14th, 2007 12:37 amI didn't go to work today. Originally, when I arranged with Lydia to take the day off, I thought I'd be going to OWL training this past weekend. I figured I'd want to take a day to reconnect with Alex afterward. Then the training was rescheduled... and it occurred to me (with a bit of a shock) that there was no real reason why I should cancel my vacation day.
So this morning I walked Alex to nursery school as usual, and then instead of going to the light rail stop I walked back home. I spent a long, leisurely interval reading, made myself some lunch, and then drove out to the mall to return some things and see Order of the Phoenix.
After the movie, I came home and put in an intense hour of work decluttering the living room. Not the most fun way to spend vacation time, perhaps, but it sure was satisfying to see things go. I filled up an entire kitchen-sized trash bag with junk, and another with neglected toys. Then it was time to go get Alex, and my normal life fell back into place.
It felt really weird to have a whole day with no parenting or work responsibilities. To be honest - and I'm embarrassed about this - I felt kind of guilty about it. I had been rationalizing the day off by telling myself that I was going to do a lot of cleaning - Michael's father and stepmother are coming into town this weekend, and they have very high cleanliness standards. But, unsurprisingly, that's not what ended up happening.
I don't know how I got into a place where I feel guilty taking one freaking day purely for myself. Well: my RA who has cancer is still not back to work, and yeah, that's put a lot of extra strain on me to stay in the lab. But obviously our studies didn't completely collapse when I asked Lydia if I could take today off. And Steve doesn't mind.
I wonder if I could manage to do this once a month, or every six weeks, or something. I think it would be good for me.
Some rather jumbled thoughts on Order of the Phoenix: ( spoilers below )I enjoyed the movie, but at the same time I found myself doubting it. I'm just not sure it works as its own story, independent of the book. I thought the individual scenes were well converted to film, but I'm not sure that it wasn't because I could fill in all of the connections and the backstory from having read the book.
So this morning I walked Alex to nursery school as usual, and then instead of going to the light rail stop I walked back home. I spent a long, leisurely interval reading, made myself some lunch, and then drove out to the mall to return some things and see Order of the Phoenix.
After the movie, I came home and put in an intense hour of work decluttering the living room. Not the most fun way to spend vacation time, perhaps, but it sure was satisfying to see things go. I filled up an entire kitchen-sized trash bag with junk, and another with neglected toys. Then it was time to go get Alex, and my normal life fell back into place.
It felt really weird to have a whole day with no parenting or work responsibilities. To be honest - and I'm embarrassed about this - I felt kind of guilty about it. I had been rationalizing the day off by telling myself that I was going to do a lot of cleaning - Michael's father and stepmother are coming into town this weekend, and they have very high cleanliness standards. But, unsurprisingly, that's not what ended up happening.
I don't know how I got into a place where I feel guilty taking one freaking day purely for myself. Well: my RA who has cancer is still not back to work, and yeah, that's put a lot of extra strain on me to stay in the lab. But obviously our studies didn't completely collapse when I asked Lydia if I could take today off. And Steve doesn't mind.
I wonder if I could manage to do this once a month, or every six weeks, or something. I think it would be good for me.
Some rather jumbled thoughts on Order of the Phoenix: ( spoilers below )I enjoyed the movie, but at the same time I found myself doubting it. I'm just not sure it works as its own story, independent of the book. I thought the individual scenes were well converted to film, but I'm not sure that it wasn't because I could fill in all of the connections and the backstory from having read the book.
