New adventures, part iv

It's been six weeks of freedom.

I have to make up stories about how I've been spending my time.  In fact, I've started a daily diary listing my activities, on paper, for my own use.  Otherwise I'd wonder myself.

I am writing a book.  That's my primary activity. I'm 75 pages in and have the overall plot sketched out.  I am thrilled that I'm managing to write consistently.  I allocate a minimum of 2 hours and/or 800 words daily, every working day to writing.   It's often longer.  Today was 3.5 hours and over a thousand words.  I guess that's slow, but I've always been a relatively slow writer, even as a professional.  I'm okay with that.

The rest of my time generally gets taken up doing more of the kind of thing I'd be doing evenings and weekends if I were working.   Before it got so hot, I did some baking.  In fact, I experimented with baking over charcoal.  I do some housework, and yard work, and shopping.  I cook meals that are much more elaborate than I'd ordinarily prepare on weekdays. I sometimes go bird watching during the day, or explore parts of town that I might not ordinarily visit.  We've acquired and preserved strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. We did a weekend camping trip, but were able to stretch it to pretty near 4 days because we had no real need to rush back.

Primarily, I don't have to ration my time.  That started out feeling luxurious, but now feels quite normal.

Two weeks in....

Tomorrow will be two weeks since I semi-volunarily became a free agent.  That is, it's been two weeks since I've been laid off.

So, how have the first two weeks been?  And what have I been up to?

My predominant emotion continues to be one of relief.  After months of waiting, it's finally over.  And every single day I've had at least one involuntary grin as I feel the elation of realizing that the whole beautiful summer stretches ahead of me.

But....it isn't all roses.  Despite the fact that it was past time to leave,   I spent part of my first two weeks on feeling left out.   I'd cared passionately about the projects I'd been working on, and the projects that I hadn't been permitted to work on for the last year of that job.  I always care passionately about my work, if I enjoy it at all.  It's hard to just turn that off.