Balance

Orientation for faire is on Saturday and that can mean only one thing; I no longer have time to procrastinate. I love faire more than I can say, but to do something you love often you have to pay a price. For me that price is any semblance of free time.

I suppose having every weekend between now and Memorial Day Monday being taken up is already a huge sacrifice of time, but that is not the end of it. Since my weekends are now filled with 10 hour days on site, I must now use every weeknight I have to accomplish everything else in my life. When I think about things like the gym, grocery shopping, weekly standing social engagements, a metric ton of sewing, and trying to keep the house from looking like it should be receiving FEMA assistance, I just get exhausted.

Weeknights really are not sufficient for doing everything I need to do. Of course I could have saved myself some of this stress. I could have spent the last few weekends scouring down the house so it starts the run in pristine condition and is therefor a little easier to keep clean. I could have started some of my sewing projects. I could have been doing a lot more than watching Best of I Love the 90's on VH1 and reading and catching up on the DVR. I didn't. I was lazy.

Why was I lazy? Why did I waste these last precious free days when I could have been productive and therefore saved myself a little stress down the line? Why did I do this to myself?

Simple, because they were the last days I will have to do nothing for a long time. I mean even after I finish my sewing and can get the house into order, those free weeknights will never be totally free. I will have been at work all day long, I will still have to make dinner and clean the kitchen, I will still probably go to the gym, I will still have to do something mildly productive. The only way I will get a day of rest is if I take a day off of work.

No I am happy with my lazy weekends. I wasn't completely unproductive either. I bought almost all the material needed for this year and washed it all and have pressed almost all of it. I got the material for the costume pieces I am making for other people. I got my new cutting table in and mostly set up*. I cleaned out my closet as well as completely cleaning and reorganizing the sewing room and faire closet. All very productive things.

I also watched VH1 Best of <fill in the blank> for most of one day, watched some cheesy movies, read a few books, and spent copious amounts of time snuggling with the new kitten and the husbeast (and the other animals too).

You have to have balance in this life. You also have to know to look ahead and anticipate what is needed now to survive what is to come. Sometimes you need a couple of days of being useless to weather the storm of crazed busy that is to come.

I think I am ready for the storm.




*This is a custom built table that is rather large (7x5) and is now in our garage. The thing is that the six legs for the table aren't labeled. I mean they are labeled front right, back right, front left, back left, and center, only the frame isn't labeled. So while we know which legs go in the front and back, there is no indication on the frame which side is the front and back, or left and right for that matter. We played musical legs for a while and in the end decided the best thing to do was have the original builder over for dinner and make him assemble it for us. And then we will mark the legs and the frame.