Wednesday, August 22, 2007

What happened to summer?

If my phone records are any indication, I'd guess about a third of my summer was spent on the phone. I'm not complaining, just looking for a decent explanation for why I'm staring at the downward slope of August, will be at new student orientation all day tomorrow, and have the first day of the class I help with on Tuesday when it feels like summer only began a few weeks ago.

Truth is, time management became a bit of an issue for me this summer. I got really busy at work. I started spending a significant portion of my evenings on the phone. Many weekends were spent getting to know L. There's a certain amount of energy that I derived from all of that, but at 42, there's only so much staying up 'til midnight and getting up at 5:00 I can take!

The first sign that things were out of control was the decision to hit the snooze button when the alarm went off and grab 30 more minutes of sleep. The only problem with that is that meant ditching my morning ritual of coffee and journaling before I run. It worked okay for a few weeks, but it finally caught up to me week before last and I started noticing a familiar weepiness and edginess and general narrowing of my vision to the point of feeling disconnected and powerless.

L. and I acknowledged our need to negotiate an ending time for our much-beloved evening conversations, and doing so has helped considerably. I've gotten back on track with getting up on time and journaling again. The difference it makes is undeniable.

The lesson in all of this for me is that if hitting snooze to get 30 more minutes of sleep means I miss journaling, it's not worth the extra sleep, no matter how tired I am.

I'm still troubled by how quickly the summer passed though!

6 comments:

PPB said...

Up til midnight and up at 5---that's like combining adolescence and old age! So wrong!

Yankee T said...

zoom! I cannot believe how fast time goes.

Marie said...

I admire your discipline. I really, really do. Can you pass some this way?

Patti said...

Summer does that to me too, I want to stay up late and get up early. But it doesn't seem to be working out. I also write in the morning, I'm doing The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. Trying to live a more creative life!

Sue said...

Summer passes far too quickly indeed.

SassyFemme said...

There's just now way I could exist on five hours of sleep all the time. I'd be cranky and useless.

My summer seems to have gone by extraordinarily fast this year.