Also since it is the end of the semester I recently had concerts for the two musical groups I am in. They went well and all that. And now I have two nights a week freed up without rehearsals. It is such a luxury! All of this free time coming my way. (Yes I still have finals and piles of grading, but give me my day or two of delusions.)
This reminds me, recently my friend was talking about how she was spending a lot of time planning for two party events coming up, and it reminded me that back in the day party-planning used to be my fall-back dream job. As in "I could quit school right now and just become a party planner!" It seems that everyone had some dream plan like this. A lot of my friends wanted to start a bakery, maybe make jewelry or knit. (I know some people who actually followed through, opening a cookie company and a gelato shop.) It is interesting to think that they were all very creative pursuits, and we were mostly all science types. I guess our brains were yearning for balance. From undergrad all through grad school I had these thoughts all the time: "I could just quit now and do X instead!" What I just realized is that I no longer think those thoughts! I don't get frustrated and say "I could just quit and do X" anymore. Apparently I am happy with my job! That's not to say things are perfect - I do sometimes dream of what I could do to make more money since I get paid crap, but that usually involves side things while I am still a professor. When it is very cold I sometimes dream of moving to Florida and teaching a class at a community college while spending the rest of my time lolling about on a beach. But in terms of the job itself I am actually happy. Yay! (Ask me again a year before tenure :))
