Oof — the semester has started, which means my schedule is more packed than it’s been for a while. I need to cover the Shops Fri / Sat / Sun, and I teach Tues / Thurs, and Wed is my day for recording the podcast + SLF work, which means Monday is my day off.
On this Labor Day, it feels particularly appropriate to note that one day off / week is actually insufficient for me at this point in my life — if I tried to do that, I would fall down. Maybe when I was 20, I could’ve done it, but at 54, I need to pace myself a little. (When we think about labor and society, we need to factor aging bodies into the mix…)
The Shops are doing well enough that I decided I can afford to budget for some more stable staffing going forward, huzzah!, so I now have Izzy and Jen (the Serendib House apprentices) scheduled to cover the end of each day. So if you’re looking to see me at the Shops, I’ll typically be there Friday 10-4, Saturday 10-4, and Sunday 10-3, and then they’ll cover the last two hours of the day. After six hours there, I start getting pretty tired!
It’s also doing well enough that I bought some pretty autumn tissue paper for the Shops. It’s been fun offering people the choice of the three patterns — they get excited picking. So pretty!
Today, I started the day by panicked remembering that I had promised to do a Le Guin thing for Tor, and I said I’d do it by Friday, which was already an extension from the first due date, and I had of course completely forgotten it on Friday. So I did it this morning and sent it off and hopefully it’s not actually too late. [fingers crossed] It’s for a podcast, and I talk about Le Guin and economic inequality and Barthes’ “Myth on the Left” and the Overton window, so a particularly appropriate piece for recording on Labor Day.
Now I’m going to get dressed and take Kavi to go return my loaner car and get my repaired car ($2500 in repairs and maintenance, oof, and a good $1500 of that was my careless fault, sigh).
Then she and I are going to do some driving practice (trying to get her license before she leaves for college), and have a nice lunch together, and do a little college shopping at Oakbrook mall. She wants boots for northern CA, which seems appropriate. Nordstrom? Are there other good shoe places there?
This afternoon, planning to make some cement pots, as I’m getting a little low at the Shops. I gave myself permission to not work today, because it’s my day off, but I actually do kind of want to make the pots. 🙂 Jennifer is coming by to help, unless I decide I’m too tired after driving with Kavi and cancel on her.
Whew!
I am not a good model for the 40-hr work week, obviously, but I do very much appreciate unions winning that as a social norm for some of us.
