A Note, In Passing
Life without a job is awesome, and you should consider it highly recommended. I'm consistently surprised by the number of things that I wouldn't ordinarily do if I had to go to work every day but which I now find compelling. Some of those items include:
hosted a family reunion for 25 in my own city (2 weeks)
spent about 6 days at Terminus in Chicago (my first convention since Star Trek, which was pre-high school. The Harry Potter fandom is fascinating and seems to have limitless energy)
visited my Lola for one week with my Mom (it's heart-breaking to see people you love grow old. it's brain-breaking to find what appear to be serious interactions in their meds)
found Jives, who is going to teach me hand-balancing! (many thanks to Seth)
finally taken a real anchor-setting course for climbing outside
volunteered to teach a Math-based apprenticeship for 6th-8th graders at a charter school in Oakland (proving to be more work than I even imagined...)
signed up for the GREs (and even started studying a bit, though the traveling has been interfering of late)
done some preliminary research on grad schools
learned the rudiments of solving a Rubik's Cube
volunteered once with Landmark (and got to see it from the inside)
learned to crochet (and have made almost all of an amigurimi monkey)
finally made it to the Japanese Tea Garden (during the free admission hours, no less)
spent time with folks in the middle of the day during the week (how cool is that?)
read several books I wouldn't have otherwise, thanks to amoken
transitioned from being square (in three dimensions) to being perfect (okay, so that one was compelling even with a job...)
I am already signed up to:
go to Cyprus for one week for a wedding
apply to grad schools (and hopefully get in somewhere)
visit my Mom in London for Christmas (I'll have seen her 3 times this year, which will smash all records since my senior year of high school)
visit my Dad (and possibly an ex-roommate) in NV before that (oddly enough, I've seen a lot more of my Mom lately, even though she lives on the other side of the pond)
head to the Virgin Islands for a New Year's Eve party (never been there before!)
take the fabulous Metalsmithing classes from the Crucible (many thanks to my friends and loved ones who chipped in to buy these for me *bows*)
participate in an art project by several fabulous friends
learn to juggle (finally. and learning to put my unicycle to good use wouldn't be too shabby, either..)
And I'm pretty sure I'll get around to the following as well:
visit zudini's family down south sometime
take a calligraphy class (Weaver Writing)
I'm sure I'm forgetting many, many little things (in particular, the list of errands that need to get done becomes staggering when you think you have all the time in the world to do errands), but it's great that life is so rich these days. It's so easy to turn down a trip to Cyprus or a week in Chicago or even a trip to visit your grandmother when it means you have to both take time off from work (those 15 vacation days are so cruel and unforgiving!) and leave your projects in a lurch (and when are you ever not in the middle of a project when you're working?). But what a sad state of affairs that is! Here's to hoping that I can keep my priorities straight even after I move on from this stage.
hosted a family reunion for 25 in my own city (2 weeks)
spent about 6 days at Terminus in Chicago (my first convention since Star Trek, which was pre-high school. The Harry Potter fandom is fascinating and seems to have limitless energy)
visited my Lola for one week with my Mom (it's heart-breaking to see people you love grow old. it's brain-breaking to find what appear to be serious interactions in their meds)
found Jives, who is going to teach me hand-balancing! (many thanks to Seth)
finally taken a real anchor-setting course for climbing outside
volunteered to teach a Math-based apprenticeship for 6th-8th graders at a charter school in Oakland (proving to be more work than I even imagined...)
signed up for the GREs (and even started studying a bit, though the traveling has been interfering of late)
done some preliminary research on grad schools
learned the rudiments of solving a Rubik's Cube
volunteered once with Landmark (and got to see it from the inside)
learned to crochet (and have made almost all of an amigurimi monkey)
finally made it to the Japanese Tea Garden (during the free admission hours, no less)
spent time with folks in the middle of the day during the week (how cool is that?)
read several books I wouldn't have otherwise, thanks to amoken
transitioned from being square (in three dimensions) to being perfect (okay, so that one was compelling even with a job...)
I am already signed up to:
go to Cyprus for one week for a wedding
apply to grad schools (and hopefully get in somewhere)
visit my Mom in London for Christmas (I'll have seen her 3 times this year, which will smash all records since my senior year of high school)
visit my Dad (and possibly an ex-roommate) in NV before that (oddly enough, I've seen a lot more of my Mom lately, even though she lives on the other side of the pond)
head to the Virgin Islands for a New Year's Eve party (never been there before!)
take the fabulous Metalsmithing classes from the Crucible (many thanks to my friends and loved ones who chipped in to buy these for me *bows*)
participate in an art project by several fabulous friends
learn to juggle (finally. and learning to put my unicycle to good use wouldn't be too shabby, either..)
And I'm pretty sure I'll get around to the following as well:
visit zudini's family down south sometime
take a calligraphy class (Weaver Writing)
I'm sure I'm forgetting many, many little things (in particular, the list of errands that need to get done becomes staggering when you think you have all the time in the world to do errands), but it's great that life is so rich these days. It's so easy to turn down a trip to Cyprus or a week in Chicago or even a trip to visit your grandmother when it means you have to both take time off from work (those 15 vacation days are so cruel and unforgiving!) and leave your projects in a lurch (and when are you ever not in the middle of a project when you're working?). But what a sad state of affairs that is! Here's to hoping that I can keep my priorities straight even after I move on from this stage.