Relaxation at its finest

I love doing nothing. I swear I do. I've read and cooked and visited with family.

I haven't worked. I even said "no" to extra hours at the receptionist desk.

I haven't made plans to go see FutureHusbandGuy in his city.

I've done noting but be a bum, laying around and just doing nothing.

And I adore it!

Now, I must admit that tomorrow I do have official plans with XRayGirl to see a movie, go out for dinner, and to get pedicures. And I should probably do a load or two of laundry before I got out of town for my conference next week. But, as Scarlett O'Hara says, tomorrow at Tara because today my focus is to continue to be a bum.

Maggie the Layabout

The Lazy Day

I said I was gonna be lazy today and I meant it. I slept in until 10am. I sat on the porch drinking coffee.

I was called to sub 8 times and let the phone go to voice mail, and the boss of my weekend receptionist job called me to see if I wanted extra hours and I said no.

I watched a little television and read a little.

It was so nice to just veg out. I went out for dinner and watched a movie, The Vow (which was terribly disappointing). I even had a "Skinny Bee" Margarita, which is about 100 calories so I had the warm fuzzies.

What a great day! I'd like a few hundred more of them!

Mags

Could it be any more relaxing?

Wednesday's agenda:
Drank Starbucks
Made homemade chicken salad for lunch
Sat at Starbucks, reading for a few hours
Took a nap
Took a walk
Texted friends and fam
Visited a new library
Ate a steak dinner
Watched TV

Thursday's Agenda:
Drank Starbucks
Ate breakfast at the diner
Took a nap
Shopped at a vintage clothing store: got 3 shirts, 2 jackets, 1 sweater, 1 dress for $36
Ate homemade chicken salad for lunch
Read another book
Texted friends and fam
Went for a walk
Visited a small, privately owned books store
Went to an open mic poetry night
Ate fantastic BBQ for supper
Watched tv

What got accomplished on the agendas? EVERYTHING!!!!

Mags

Time to actually twiddle my thumbs, if I want

Here I am. The mom of a high school graduate. Wow. He's graduated and enrolled in college and only has the summer to chill out here and then off he'll go.

He has the diploma and it's signed. He had the party and it was a success (and we have a TON of cheesecakes and cookies left, if anyone wants to stop by for a little sweet treat!)

I'm relieved. And scared. And relieved. Did I mention I'm relieved?

Not only do I have this emotional stuff- whatever "this" is- but I have an entire week off. The only firm plan I have for the whole week is to go to Northern Civilization to see Lilith tomorrow. And since I have to be there to see her, I'm going a little early to take a free class at the scrapbook store, so I can do 2 fun things in one day (and I'm hoping she might be in the mood for a visit to Half Price Books.)

The rest of the week is just up to me. I can't transport kids since I'm no longer qualified, and it's not my week to do my part time receptionist stuff. I actually have a whole week off. I've been wanting a week off for how long??? I am so excited. I don't know where to begin.

And I realize that sounds like an oxymoron- where to I begin on a week off?

I can't remember the last time I had a whole week off with pay and nothing planned.

I'm excited. I have things I'd like to do but then again I also think I'd rather not plan any thing. Nor do I have the urge to make a list. I just an chilling.....

Mags

Spring Break so far

I've been a complete and utter bum since spring break started. Well, sorta. I did work a 15 hour day on Friday.

Saturday I slept late and hung out with XRay Girl for a little while. I ran some errands. i read a book. I made a card with Daddy-O. I just chilled.

Sunday XRay Girl and her hubby, and ITSam and I all went to see a movie (Source Code, which was pretty good) and then to Northern Civilization to hang out. We went to the bakery and used book store. The guys went to a hobby store. We had dinner and coffee. We just chilled out and had a good time and lots of laughs. Then we did ITSam's furniture and rent a movie we never finished because it got to be so late.

I was supposed to have a birthday lunch with my Sis-In-Law today but she's sick! (I hope you feel better soon!) I was supposed to have a day with Lilith tomorrow but she's going to visit with her mom who's battling cancer (so I completely understand that change of plans). I was invited to go shopping with Daddy-O and Curley today but since I didn't have any money I thought it was would be better to just stay home.

I slept in until noon and have just lazed around on the computer and made a pot of coffee. I'm going to read.

My big plan for the week ahead is to drive a return transport on Wednesday. I plan on reading and hanging out with ITSam in his newly furnished place. I want to watch movies and maybe scrapbook and maybe quilt. But my brain needs a rest so that comes first.

I love spring break.

Maggie

Lady of Leisure day

Today I have no school. We have a 'winter break' day. We didn't have enough snow days to date to take it away so I actually have the day off tomorrow while all other schools in the county- Mac's included- have to go to school.

My big plan for the day involves doing nothing but things I want. Which means I'll probably spend quality time in my pajamas, reading, drinking coffee and reading some of my back dated fashion magazines (which is a 40 before 40 item...). I might scrapbook, or not. I might read blogs, or not. I might answer emails, or not. I might watch movies, or not. Whatever I do, it will be what I want and it will be fun.

I worked hard this weekend with ITSam's help. We cleaned the attic, and got about 80% finished. I can now see the floor again. We actually dusted and vacuumed. we found a place to put almost everything. I still need to clean my closet but this is a huge undertaking. We also overhauled Mac's half of the attic (with his help.) I've done copious amounts of laundry all weekend so there will only be about 2 loads left today and I may or may not do them. ITSam cleaned the bathroom and I did dishes. He mopped the floor and I put away all that laundry. We worked hard. We did play some but mostly is was a cleaning weekend, all so I can be a bum tomorrow.

I got some super nice sheets for Christmas with a high thread count; these are a luxury and feel like silk. We put them on my bed. I shaved my legs. I have clean jammies. I have some of my favorite creamer and a clean coffee cup. Let the relaxing commence!

Maggie

I know you can't catch up on lost sleep but I'd like to try

On the weekends when I do my part time secretary gig I get all stressed out over Sunday. Sunday is my only day off and I get myself into a dither over it. Yeah, I know-- talk about needing to learn to relax.

Here's the thought process: there are so many things I want to do and there's not enough time in a day. I want to just read, watch movies, maybe get dressed and hang at my favorite coffee shop for a change of atmosphere and to be left alone- sometimes I like my alone time. I feel like I should just relax and a big part of me wants to do nothing more than relax and lay around but then I think about cleaning the garage, doing laundry, grocery shopping, finish my book club book, cleaning my room, gathering tax papers, responding to emails, paying bills... I think of all the things I SHOULD be doing. I argue with myself that I worked all week and almost all weekend so I deserve a day to just hang out. Then I look at the list of crap I should do.

What will probably happen is that I'll do the shopping, get my tax papers together and I'll do laundry while just hanging out here at the house and reading or watching Netflix. I guess it's a happy medium. I keep pushing the big chores to the back of my mind.

I think it's the thought that I worked 12 of the 13 days. The idea of that makes me tired.

I was telling Daddy-O that when I work on the weekend my Saturday mornings are shot. I always think I won't set my alarm because I usually can't sleep much past 8:30 am on a weekend. But for the last 4 or 5 Saturdays, I've gotten up between 11am and noon. I feel like I sleep the sleep of the dead. I think it's because I go a million miles an hour during the week and then the weekend gets here and I mentally crash.

I remember a few weekends when I lived in the Wild West where Friday night would roll around and I would make no plans. I get some groceries and movies on my way home from school and then put on my jammies around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. I would often crash by 8pm and sleep until nearly noon on Saturday. I would just lay on the couch and watch movies and nap all day Saturday. I wouldn't even get dressed or shower and I would usually go to bed around 9pm and sleep all night. On Sunday I would finally take a shower late in the afternoon or early evening and put on another pair of clean jammies. I remember the re-charging of the battery feeling of those weekends. I didn't do that often- I didn't need to- but when I did I was just a big slug, but come Monday morning, I was ready to dance back into the classroom and impart learning!

I'm wondering if my ability to crash on a Saturday morning and sleep until noon is a much shorter version of "re-charging my battery"? My body and mind finally meet up and realize I need to sleep for one long unbroken period of time?

Here it is, Sunday morning at 9:40am and I'm awake and blogging. I've been up for about an hour. No coffee or shower yet, but I've still been up for an hour. And after I hit 'publish' here I'll be taking care of those. Then I'll get the laundry going. And at least I'll be dressed and ready to go when I feel like tackling the grocery shopping.

And then I'll sit in front of the fire and read. Even if it's just for a little bit.

Maggie

Relaxing is necessary

This is the first weekend in about 8 months where I didn't have 'plans.' When I say plans I mean even things that were under my control that I scheduled, that were fun, when I was working or had obligations for Mac or family stuff. This is the first weekend I didn't make any plans to do anything, with friends and family, to work, not a single thing.

And I loved it.

Yesterday I slept until noon. My body must've needed the rest. Seriously, I didn't stay up all night on Friday; I was in bed by midnight. I lazed around in my pj's until almost 2pm when I decided to take Mac to a movie. But on the way to the theater, I blew a tire so ITSam drove out and changed the tire to the mini donut spare. (Mac and I tried to change it! We got as far as trying to the tire off and it wouldn't budge. Apparently the rim thingy was bent. It took Mac and Sam to both yank it off, after kicking it, swearing at it, and beating it with a tire iron... Anyway...) When we got back into town we stopped to see XRay Girl at the ice cream parlor and then I came home and read all night.

Today I plan on more lazy. ITSam and I talked about going to see Country Strong but with the mini tire I don't want to take my car out of town so that's off the list

It's really cold here today, the sort of day when you just want to stay inside. I might watch something off Netflix, or I might just read. I have about a million chores I could be doing but I just need to be a worthless layabout. I'm healthy and well and I just want to enjoy doing nothing.

Hope your Sunday is this relaxing!

Mags

Things we do for cash

I was thinking about all the things I've done for money. What prompted this thought was I got out of bed this morning at 7:45am. I work in education and this is Christmas vacation. Fellow teachers are probably wondering what in the heck is wrong with me and those of you not in education are probably wondering what the heck is wrong with me. Well... money.

I got out of bed to get ready to come to work at the school library for 2 hours. Before school was out for Christmas break, I had students begging me to let them check out books. Since so many of our kids don't come back after break (they either get sent home or to another facility) I collected ALL the books in an effort to cut back on losing materials. But I do have several readers who were begging me for books. So I VOLUNTEERED to open the school library this morning so kids on campus could come check stuff out. Now, I don't get paid in cash for doing this, but my boss is nice enough to see this was nice and offered me comp. time for each hour I spend here.

But the reason this seems like such a big deal is that I drove another 15 hour transport yesterday. I left at 9:30am and got back at 12:30am. Yes, 15 hours in a minivan with 5 teenagers, jacked up on sugar and caffeine and one who hadn't had her meds for 5 days. OMG!

So, while it doesn't seem like such a big deal to get up at 7:45 am to work at the library for 2 hours, it does on the heels of yesterday's drive. And, here I sit and not a soul has come in. Oh, I sent email reminders, one the day I planned it, a week ago. And again yesterday morning. I even asked them to RSVP. Guess I'll get comp. time for sitting here.

And since we went on Christmas break, I have worked a LOT of hours. The last day of school was Dec. 17. I went shopping on the 18th. I was deathly sick on 19-21. I worked on 22nd, 23rd, and the 24th. I was off on Christmas day and then I worked again on the 26th, 27th and then today, in the morning. I'm really NOT complaining nor whining. I did this to myself. I wanted the money. But as I sit here tired and aching and really wishing I was still at home in my nice warm new flannel jammies, I'm wishing I would've taken more time off to enjoy my holiday break.

There are 5.5 days left and I am not working any of them. I'm going to say no if anyone calls me to drive or answer the phones as the part time receptionist. I'm going to just chill. New Year Eve I actually have plans, a real date. I'm meeting my Photographer boss/ friend for dinner tomorrow night, and Curly and I are hanging out on Friday. Lilith and I are going to see each other at some point as well, but otherwise I am just chilling and doing some fun stuff with friends, obviously.

I would love to a take a "get away from it all" vacation. Maybe I should stash all my money and take a mini vacation... bwahahahahahahaha!!! It's a nice idea.

Being a bum for the rest of the day,
Mags

Time off

I don't have to work today. Anywhere! Yahoo!!!

When I first started at Alcatraz, the Principal told me my last day was Fri. Sept 22. So when I was arranging the start date for my other job at the other school, we discovered that the 22nd was a Wednesday. The lady I was speaking with and I both thought be just meant Friday, the 24th. I had worked at Alcatraz for a week when I learned it was really Wed. the 22nd was my last day. I never called the other school to change it and thought I would just take the 2 days off.

Then I thought I would be super mom and take Mac on 2 college visit days today and tomorrow. We even one scheduled for today and then he said he wasn't sure taking 2 off in a row was a good idea, AND he had lifting for a game on Friday so that might not be good either. So I figured I would chill tomorrow and enjoy a nice three day weekend.

His college visitation for today had to be cancelled at the last minute because he's in a club where high school kids agree to educate the junior high kids on topics that relate to peer pressure situations. This club has a day long training today so Mac had to go to that and we cancelled the visit.

So guess who has a loooooooooooooong 4 day weekend?!? Oh yeah, that's right. That's what I'm talking about! Me!! Whoot- whoot!

I sort of felt guilty, like I should be at school. And I was worried about going 2 days without pay. But then I counted it up and I'm still going to have a 9 day pay period instead of 10 so it didn't seem like such a big deal.

I also started thinking about "working". I taught in the Wild West from Aug. 2008-Dec. 2008. Then I was off for about three weeks due to moving and Christmas and paperwork but I started subbing around the second week of January 2009. And I subbed almost daily from then until May 2009. Then I worked ice cream and insurance for that summer, daily. Then I subbed for a few months when school started and then I finished that contract last year from Halloween until June 2010, then I did summer school at Alcatraz with only 1 week off.. Then I taught the maternity leave. I think it's okay for me to have 4 days off. I think I can use the relaxation time.

However, I'm still working on that dang Beowulf movie the kids made. Yeah, long story but we will finish it this evening; we have about 5-7 hours left to work. And I'm showing it tomorrow to the kids; I got permission from the new teacher. And I told them I would bring treats so I also have to either shop or bake. I also have to go to Mac's game tomorrow night. I'm supposed to go out for dinner for my birthday to a restaurant almost a 2 hour drive away on Saturday which seemed like fun when I agreed to it but now it seems like a long damn car ride just to eat at the Cheesecake factory. Sunday's big plan, which is the actual birthday, is to see Curley, and maybe hang with Sam.

For a weekend off, it seems busy. I have no idea how I get myself into these things.

But as for now, I'm going to lay on the sofa, drink coffee, and read a good book for a few hours.

Mags

A day for me, and me alone

I didn't go to work yesterday. I was beat to hell after the insane weekend. From Saturday morning at 7 am until Sunday night at 11pm I got about 4 hours of sleep. So I stayed home yesterday. I asked for a sub last week just in case I wanted to be off, and I was never so glad about anything in my life.

I got up at 7am to get Mac up and to say good-bye to Daddy-O. He was headed to Texas today, for at least 30 days, maybe longer. He was driving for the first time and should be there sometime today.

After the two of them were off, I read a book and feel back asleep until around 10:45 am. I fussed on the computer until around noon. It was awesome. I stayed in my jammies on the couch with no one home. I had the windows open and caught a great breeze.

ITSam brought me some lunch. Then I took a nap. For three hours. I thought I was tired but I didn't know I was THAT tired. But it felt so good to do nothing. Just nothing.

I finally took a shower and gabbed with mac after he got home from school. Sam and I went to run errands and have dinner. We rented some movies. I just chilled and was super mellow.

I love mellow. I want to do mellow for about 5 or 6 more days. Or weeks. Or years. I want to be hired to be mellow.

But today is back to the grind at Alcatraz.

Maggie

Dead man walkin'

It's the last day of spring break. I wonder if I can even technically call it the last day of spring break because even if we would've had school all week long I would still have the weekend. OMG- maybe the last day of spring break was 3pm on Friday, which is when school would've ended!

Okay, so not matter the semantics of today, today is the last day of spring break. I don't want to go back to school tomorrow. I don't know if I don't want to go back because I have to go to the dentist on Tuesday and I am NOT looking forward to that, or if I just don't want to go back because... well, it's middle school with 7 more weeks of classes to go and the kids are past caring?

I'm also such a procrastinator. I've worked on laundry in dribs and drabs all week long but still have a bunch left and of course, I left it until today. I have one stinkin' chore to do before Daddy-O gets home tomorrow- it involves moving a pile of leaves- and of course, I waited until today. In my defense, I had thought I would do it Wednesday, sort of the middle of break, but it rained and then I had to wait for the yard to dry.... okay, yeah, it sounds lame to me, too.

I had a good week-- saw all the girlfriends who live around here and had some quality girl time. Read at least 2 books; I realize that number is usually higher but... I saw 7 movies at the time of this post (could add a few more to this list today while I'm doing the laundry thing), spent quality time with Mac, had quality alone time, cooked a bit, ate out some, cleaned the kitchen and did one knitting project. I also spent a LOT of time being lazy, playing on the Internet, talking on the phone, and at the library.

All in all... not a bad way to spend a spring break!

So, did I mention it was only 7 more weeks until summer vacation?

Maggie Mae