GranolaBox

It’s the Saturday after my first week back to work after shoulder surgery. I’ve come to some pretty important realizations during the seven weeks I’ve been out.

First, I really hate being away from the Queen of my Universe ten hours a day. Even though we had contractors working in the house Monday through Friday, and I was looped out on some serious painkillers we were TOGETHER and it was wonderful. We didn’t have to IM all day like we do when I’m at work, and I didn’t have to daydream about her because we were TOGETHER. Couples were meant to be together and industrial society has torn that away from us for the past 150 odd years.

Second, I know that I’ll be a model retired citizen. I’m not gonna be one of those people that retires and then works three jobs just to “stay busy.” I mean, I’ll work three jobs if I need to feed my family, but I don’t need a job to stay busy. I could get really serious about gardening, hunting and a lot of other things I’ll need to do to stay alive. When I retire, I’m going to retire. I’m going to putz around for hours at a time and nap at least once a day. That’s what humans were meant to do in retirement.

I also realized that I really love teaching, and really hate doing the administrative work that comes with being the head of my department. I made a list of things I like about my job and things I don’t like about my job. All the things I like were teaching related and all the things I didn’t like related to administration. So I resigned as department chair. Hallejulah. My Queen Bee (Not to be confused with the Queen of my Universe. Queen Bee is my dear friend and co-worker Elizabeth who was my annoying little sister in a past life and spends this life busting my chops and helping me stay sane at work) will probably take over for me so she can be everyone’s Queen Bee.

Finally I realize that I can’t wait for summer vacation. I really love my job and knowing that, as long as I can afford to commute the huge distance to work, it’s waiting for me every fall. One big difference is that I love my work, but I don’t live for it. Uh uh. I live for vacations.

Filed under: General Observations on May 10th, 2008