Thursday, March 01, 2007

Spring Break Wheeeeeeeeeeee!


I'm on spring break. Well, actually it doesn't start for another day--but I've been mentally on break for about two days--no, make that all week. Spring break is one of those wonderful gifts of being a college professor. Right when things start getting really wild BOOM you get a week off. According to a recent survey of IWU faculty the average work week is 60-70 hours per week during the school year. Spring break helps balance that out.

As for us, we are going to a sweet Amish-built log cabin off in the woods in Northern Indiana for a quiet week. When we tell people that they often ask, "What is there to "do" around there?" I just laugh. I already have enough to "do" around here. That's the idea--go somewhere where there ISN'T anything to "do!"

So don't come and visit me--I'll be busy doing nothing.

Back in a week or so.... not until after I'm done doing nothing ;-)
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Ahhhhhh just returned home ... I did pretty good doing nothing... only failed to do it some of the time when I slipped and did some grading and wrote a column.. but I did achieve these "goals:"
-Slept about 10 hours every night
-Watched the today show every day on a little TV with rabbit ears.
-Baked bread twice a day and ate it all (Sharon helped)
-Went to a video store that was selling out their old Video Cassettes and bought 20 at 80 cents each and watched half of them.
-Played video games until I got stuck at the second level (or fourth).
-Read a few books that were not serious.
-Took a few walks in the snow.
-Sat in the sunshine in the afternoons on the cabin's porch.
-Thought up wonderful ideas and never wrote any of them down.
-Took several naps in the afternoons
-Had a dozen or so of those "chats" women like their husbands to have with them.
-Drove to the nearby Mennonite-Amish town's library and browsed unseriously.
-Cooked every meal alongside Sharon then ate it all, leaving no leftovers.
-Came home wound down almost as much as I come home from backpacking.
-Got a serious case of "Spring Fever" that I plan to retain until summer.
ahhhhhhh... the joy of accomplishing one's goals!

5 comments:

pk said...

Rest - I highly devalued commodity in our go-go-go culture.

Thanks for reminding us that that is what we are really longing for.

Keith Drury said...

PK--Yes, it was a delightful time--sort of like one elongated "rest stop" on the trail. ;-)

David Drury said...

Nice to take 18 hours of that rest stop with you guys.

My kind of vacation:
Nobody to see
Nothing to do
Nowhere to go

Jess said...

Oh...it sounds so nice! Mark and I are headed to CO on friday for a week's vacation...our "spring break" since we don't get one anymore :). Looking foward to it so much!

Great goals...I set those for myself time and again... :)

Josh Jackson said...

Sounds a little bit like what I'm doing. But instead of cooking, I'm trying to figure out what motorcycle to buy for a ride through Vietnam. :) Thanks for pushing me to do this. Miss ya!