Time

This is my second summer break with no real obligations since the summer of maybe sophomore or junior year in high school.  I've had a job or classes every summer since, which seems a bit weird as a teacher.  I've only been teaching for 3 years now, but contrary to popular belief, we have a lot going on in the summer most years.  Last summer I took a class every week day in July, and the summer before I was working as a substitute teacher.  This summer I have it pretty easy, and although I've already spent a handful of days in my classroom, and most days I think about how I could improve my students' learning, I have already felt the boredom of having too much time.

Griping about having too much free time isn't going to win me much pity, but having too much time is an interesting thing to me.  All school year I am slammed with obligations right and left, and I have to make time for myself, at the cost of other, possibly more important, things.  And then summer hits, and time slows to a crawl.  The problem isn't really the free time, it is more that I have free time and nobody else does.  Girlfriend is working and busy with rec. soccer and other things.  Housemates are busy working.  I find myself doing things by myself a lot, learning guitar, taking photos, jogging and biking--which are fun, but I am realizing again that I am a social animal, and I wish I had more events during the week that I am doing with others.

Having nothing planned for this day and the next few is also a bit of a bummer.  I like free time, but I think having at least one or two things a day to look forward to makes life much less lonely.  That said, I didn't have anything planned yesterday, which turned into a few hours of pickup ultimate and then going to an amazing Sounders game with my housemates who had an extra ticket--which broke me out of my loneliness slump pretty quickly!

I'm planning on biking out to Mercer Island today, which is about 20-25 miles round trip (my longest bike ride ever?), and then dinner with the folks.