1. Meal planning - A lot of my sunday is filled with cooking. I love to cook, but having to figure out what to plan for lunch and prepare my meals to be used as leftovers is a lot of work. During my first year of teaching, I brought frozen meals to lunch almost every day. I vowed after that year to never bring a frozen meal to lunch again, and I haven't. Packing real lunches is time consuming. Being able to make my meals just before eating them, like I do on vacation, is so very pleasant and not the least bit hard or time consuming. I'll miss that.
2. The alarm clock - I despise waking up to an alarm clock. Even hearing an alarm clock in a television show or movie makes my skin crawl. The reason I need the alarm is because...
3. The god-awful hour I need to rise in order to get to work by 7:30 in the morning. If I think too hard about it, it makes me want to cry. By the end of vacation, my schedule has done a complete 180 and I'm staying up almost as late as I have to get up in the morning tomorrow. The Monday morning after a break is painful. If I ran a school, it wouldn't start until noon!
4. Wardrobe - Figuring out and preparing an outfit for work the night before each work takes some time. There is no time in the morning for making decisions and ironing so the time is spent the night before. It's like meal preparation, deciding what to wear to work takes more planning time than the vacation wardrobe.
5. Art time (or lack there of) - The best part of break is having time to hole myself up in the office for an entire day/night in order to create. I've never been someone who can go work on a project for a few minutes here or there. Chunks of time are needed to be productive. Once work starts up again, those time blocks are few and far between.
Vacation is over...oh woe is me! Until I can figure out how to be professionally on vacation, it's time to force myself to sleep. I'll be threatening to throw that 5am alarm clock across the room before I know it.
The trick with the clothes is a sort of uniform. It doesn't have to look starchy like Agatha Trunchball -Pam Ferris- in Matilda. It can be very BoHo too, cute Valley gal or even Idaho town wear. All that's needed is once decided it becomes relatively fixed.
ReplyDeleteThe food thing is vastly more difficult. But I do think the trick that restaurants use might pay dividends. They don't make the sauce more that once a month then they freeze it. And really only potatoes that are truly rancid after freezing, but they are also one of the very few things that can be nuked and come out relatively intact flavour-wise. What I would do is sit down and price out those meals, remembering to cost your own time too. I'll bet you that getting a few takeaways will make real sense. You must, you see, price the prep time for work meals as if it's work. It's not free time. Then, if you actively decide to continue to cook all the work meals you can say to yourself I'm saving X number of $$$$. But put it away in an account of some sort. K's meals for Iguazu A/C, apply own destination. It'll still be a wicked bitch but you'll do it with a zingy bit of pep in your step and probably no small bit of forgoing of pleasure. For me it'd be the relative endlessness of it that'd get to me. And it's even worse for you have largish chunks of time when it's different.
Anyhoos, big hugs and lots of sympathy. Now go get em woman. And sit high in your new motor. :-)
The new wheels did put a little extra spring in my step this morning!
ReplyDeleteThe endlessness of it is exactly the feeling I get on Sunday nights, especially the ones after break. On particularly difficult-to-get-going mornings, Ive been known to whine, "and I've got to do this for the rest of my life." But it's all put into perspective when out walking the dog at 5am, and there are people who are leaving for work at that time. It could always be worse. ;)
The uniform idea is easier for men, I think, than women. However, I just saved an article his weekend about a woman who works in an art gallery who has claimed that she wears the same thing each day. It might be a take on your suggestion. I
Thank you! And I'm off!
I really feel for you on all counts.
ReplyDeleteHaving spent years (decades, actually) getting up far earlier than I wanted, I was thrilled to finally get to a point in life where that changed. Hopefully it will for you someday, too. I don't care what is used as an alarm...music, beeper, smart phone choices, or even another person...I hate being wakened out of a deep sleep, especially when it's still dark outside. Now that life rarely requires me to set an alarm, I've found that I can usually wake myself at a specified time on my own. I still set a Sunday morning alarm as a backup since I attend an 8:00 Eucharist each week, but usually I wake a good ten minutes or so before it goes off.
I can sympathize on the clothing, too. After all, it not only requires planning an outfit, but the undergarments as well. ;)
Yes, being woken up is painful and makes me grouchy. :) It is definitely more pleasant to wake up naturally, when it is actually morning and light outside. And it is definitely easier to get woken up when the wake up is for something OTHER than work.
DeleteIt was a good day though. It's amazing how quickly the old routine starts back up again - almost like vacation never happened.
My vacations were nice breaks from the training I delivered, the only downside was if a new class began on the Monday I came back. There was always a some prep that had to be done, so I would have to give up the Sat or Sunday for a few hours.
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