Grand Adventure: My First Monday

Yesterday marked my first Monday without employment in over 19 years. Though I had every intention of waking up early with my husband, I did decide to sleep later after all. During the weekend, I didn’t have a marathon sleep night, and I deserved one. Anyway, I woke up at 10:30 a.m. and started my day.

I spent the morning finishing off a blog post that I wrote back in May but never published. I added photos and captions and looked over it all one last time before hitting publish. Looking back I cannot understand why I didn’t take the final steps to publish that post back in the spring. Sometimes I do not make sense.

After publishing the post, I did some freestyle writing, which for me is just dumping my thoughts onto the page. In the end, I wrote over 1700 words, and though it’s total garbage, at least I wrote it. So many people say that you just have to write regularly, even if it’s not good writing. Well, I accomplished that! I can put a checkmark next to “Do crappy freestyle writing.”

Then I took a 3-mile walk at our local cemetery. My husband and I have walked there many times through the years, but I’m not used to going there during work hours. I forgot that I cannot park near the office since people are working and meeting with the bereaved. During this time of year, I view my walking time at the cemetery as very limited since the number of daylight hours marks how long I can walk. For whatever reason, that always made me think about the scene in Bram Stoker’s Dracula when the characters are racing against the setting sun, hoping to catch Dracula before his strength returns. The good news is that I am not a vampire, and I have plenty of time to go there during daylight hours now versus while I was working.

Of course, I was about a mile into my walk when I realized that I did not have my Fitbit on my wrist. I felt panicked for a moment as if this lack of technology would ruin my walk. Somehow having a Fitbit track what I do makes it more real. My walking matters if the Fitbit monitors it; otherwise, my walking might be a rumor or fairy tale. Fortunately I got over the panic, and I will strive to remember to wear it next time. I do love some data!

Exercise and writing are two priorities in this career break. I’m definitely not a hand model, and my Fitbit is covered in sunscreen. That’s real life!

Other tasks in my day consisted of doing laundry and making dinner. Though that makes me sounds like a domestic goddess, nothing could be farther from the truth. My motivations are purely selfish. I ran out of clean clothes that I want to wear, and I want to experiment with the chicken tikka masala base I made.

Altogether my first Monday without employment felt fairly productive, and I managed to touch on some of my goals for this career break. Writing, sleeping, exercising, and cooking make me a very happy girl.