Long Lunches

Thursdays are long days toward the end of long weeks. Mondays are filled with port draws and staff meetings, Tuesday night is seminary classes and Wednesday I work the late shift at the reference desk. The first half of the week is full and requires lots of divided attentions and energies. Many people call Wednesday hump day, but for me, Thursday is more draining.

My coping strategy is to take a long lunch to deal with it. By noon on Thursday I am ready for a nap. Was a time I would just push myself, but life is too short not to enjoy every minute of it. So I build an hour and half lunch into my schedule and drive home to sit with Sugar and watch a movie or snooze in the chair. I take my time and don't rush. Put my feet up and thank God I have a job where I can be flexible about my hours.

Sometimes its hard to resist doing housework - cleaning up the kitchen or sorting laundry. Except I know I still do not have tons of energy and if I do that, I will not be up to finishing my work at the library or working with the choir, something I truly love doing. So I step around piles of stuff that have accumulated during the first half of the week, telling myself that when Saturday comes, it will get taken care of. Don't look.

Most days I am ready to go back to work and stay later than five. Its easier to go from the library to choir rehearsal without going home inbetween anyway. So it all works together well. This represents a major change for me, this idea of not just working from eye open to eye shut.

Space. Rest. Time. Build it in to your day. It works wonders.