How I'll Spend My Summer Vacation
So. I've decided to take out my very first student loan ever this summer so that, instead of getting a job as I normally would, I can stay home and read for my orals in the fall. After just about a week I've learned one thing: you can get an ASSLOAD of work done when you don't have anything else to do. I've been pulling at least 200, if not 300 pages a day. I've been eating nutritious homemade food. I've been to the gym 6 times this past week. I've been sleeping 7-8 hours a night. MY APARTMENT IS CLEAN. I don't know how long this utopia is going to last, but I'm hoping for forever.
The only problem is that I've become sort of a recluse (or, you know, more of a recluse than normal.) I wake up around 7:30, lounge around reading until about 3, head to the gym, come back, shower, and get back into my jammies to read more until I go to bed again around 11. My motivation to leave my apartment to do anything else (even go to a cafe) is practically nonexistent. During the normal school year, for example, the logic that I use to assess whether or not to go out goes something like this:
1. How much work do I absolutely need to get done tonight, and can I realistically get most of it done if I go somewhere else or run an errand? (Do I need to teach class tomorrow? Are there papers to grade that I've promised to hand back? Am I meeting with a professor, and do I know what I need to know to not look like a complete noob?)
2. Is (whatever I'm running out for) just a want (chocolate, ice cream, apples, root beer), or is it a need (toilet paper, coffee)?
3. How much time will it take? (Anything less than an hour has a good shot of making the cut.)
Lately, this process has been modified and substantially streamlined. Before I go out, I ask myself these two questions:
1. How bad do I need (whatever I'm running out for)? and
2. Does it require pants?
A "yes" answer to #2 is usually a deal breaker. If I can manage to just throw on something baggy, comfortable, and sporting an elastic waistband-- fine. Anything involving zippers and buttons-- practically unthinkable.
So this is how I'll spend my summer vacation...hope you all have a chance to take it easy, too.
So. I've decided to take out my very first student loan ever this summer so that, instead of getting a job as I normally would, I can stay home and read for my orals in the fall. After just about a week I've learned one thing: you can get an ASSLOAD of work done when you don't have anything else to do. I've been pulling at least 200, if not 300 pages a day. I've been eating nutritious homemade food. I've been to the gym 6 times this past week. I've been sleeping 7-8 hours a night. MY APARTMENT IS CLEAN. I don't know how long this utopia is going to last, but I'm hoping for forever.
The only problem is that I've become sort of a recluse (or, you know, more of a recluse than normal.) I wake up around 7:30, lounge around reading until about 3, head to the gym, come back, shower, and get back into my jammies to read more until I go to bed again around 11. My motivation to leave my apartment to do anything else (even go to a cafe) is practically nonexistent. During the normal school year, for example, the logic that I use to assess whether or not to go out goes something like this:
1. How much work do I absolutely need to get done tonight, and can I realistically get most of it done if I go somewhere else or run an errand? (Do I need to teach class tomorrow? Are there papers to grade that I've promised to hand back? Am I meeting with a professor, and do I know what I need to know to not look like a complete noob?)
2. Is (whatever I'm running out for) just a want (chocolate, ice cream, apples, root beer), or is it a need (toilet paper, coffee)?
3. How much time will it take? (Anything less than an hour has a good shot of making the cut.)
Lately, this process has been modified and substantially streamlined. Before I go out, I ask myself these two questions:
1. How bad do I need (whatever I'm running out for)? and
2. Does it require pants?
A "yes" answer to #2 is usually a deal breaker. If I can manage to just throw on something baggy, comfortable, and sporting an elastic waistband-- fine. Anything involving zippers and buttons-- practically unthinkable.
So this is how I'll spend my summer vacation...hope you all have a chance to take it easy, too.
