Weekend

For the last several years, I've had the luxury of always having Fridays off. When I was consulting in Mozambique, not having to be in a client's office or otherwise on-call was one of my main criteria. Having Fridays to myself gave me a chance to catch up on jewelry making, errands, and life in general.

The 3-day weekend trend continued all last year, as most of the classes at CCA meet either Mon-Wed or Tue-Thurs. However, this semester I am taking a class on Fridays called Color on Metal that meets for 6 hours at a time. I am quite excited about the class, which involves enameling and patination, but am having to seriously adjust to a 2-day weekend. More than anything I'm aware that I must make those precious two days off count. I want to be sure I relax and unwind as much as possible, while having to put in studio hours and get homework done.

This weekend was a good one. Granted school hasn't hit a frenetic pace yet (although I have no doubt it will in about a week), so I was able to get in some good relaxation as well as be productive. I went to the studio, worked on several homework assignments, went to a friend's gallery opening with my mom and Rico, went to a party at our local pub, cooked a lot (waffles from scratch, turkey meatloaf, tortellini, salad, fried eggs), and went for a great hour-long jog with Rico this afternoon. The weather has been lovely, so there's definitely been some lounging in the sun on the deck with a glass of wine as well.

I feel better about the whirlwind that my life's about to become due to school. More prepared, more able to cope. I made some progress on organizing my office/studio, which definitely helped, and I've tried to put things in perspective in terms of the expectations I place on myself. Hopefully next week is a good one, and I'm able to hold on to the feeling of being able to swim and not sink.