that time again.

It’s time for work again.  In 11 hours.  Actually 10 and a half.  I would like to say I am thrilled, refreshed, and chomping at the bit to go to work again.  Unfortunately, there are approximately zero (0) things I would like to do less.  

But here’s a list of things I would rather do, for your perusing enjoyment.  And if you are one of those lucky independently wealthy individuals or unlucky unemployed individuals, you can use this list for ideas about how to spend your Monday.

• Watercolor.
• Mail my watercolors to all the people I love.
• Lay by the pool with my library books all around me. (Books include Leap Over A Wall, by Eugene Peterson, Etiquette, by Emily Post, The Circle of Simplicity, by a lady who’s name I can’t remember, and The Unexpected Legacy of Divorce, by Judith somebody.)
• Bake bread, and be around all day for the multiple risings and restings and long baking time.
• Go on a run so long that I would have to walk some.
• Go to Austin House of Prayer, which is only open during hours I’m at workie, and soak…
• Paint my dining room table white, instead of spinach-colored.
• Go buy fabric to sew curtains.
• With all my extra energy from the day, take my mtn bike to a great trail and have at it.

Okay, so I might need a whole week.  Which could be okay.  

What would YOU do with a day off?

i am alive.

i just had one of the best mornings that i’ve had maybe ever.  after my first work week (i loved it…feel a little like a fish out of water…but i think it’s going to be good), i got up this morning (since when did 7:00 am become “sleeping in”?  oh yeah.  this week.) and drove out to Johnson’s Backyard Garden, a local 120-member CSA, where i was going to do a work-share, which means i work and they share. 

produce, that is.  lots of veggies para mi.

 

as i picked little, stickery cucumbers off their vines, smelling the cantaloupes on the next row, i wondered, how have i lived without doing this? 

i love the dirt.

 

then i got to pick squash and zucchini.  (i want to open a restaurant called zucchini’s.  what do you think?)  then eggplant…  so beautiful.  like glossy purple jewels hanging thick on green and mauve plants.

 

then i rode a tractor!  will and jeff, two interns who work 6 am to 4 pm on the farm Monday-Saturday, recruited me to help them plant some little eggplant plants fresh out of the greenhouse.  i got to ride on the sweeeeeeeeeeeeetest tractor, called a transplanter, and drop little plants into the holes that the tractor poked into plastic and then filled with water.  it looked like this:

only i was where the guy in the picture is and jeff was where the girl is.  but it was so fun.  and i got to pick jeff’s brain about horticulture, agriculture, and austin culture.  good times.

 

then i got some amazing veggies i’m going to live on all week…squash, onions, cherub tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers…

 

and THEN i went to mandola’s with aunt chris and camille!  aunt chris treated me, even though i was dirty from working, and we ate eggplant-zucchini-goat cheese pizza and talked for two hours.  aaah.  thank you, Jesus.  for everything.