On Wednesday, I didn’t have any specific presentations or meetings but had lots of work to get through. I was making pretty good progress and was really in the zone on a presentation update when Amelia came away from school in her room for a minute, with the look of having something really important to tell me.
“Dad?” she asked.
I took out my earbuds and sat back. “Yes?”
“Did you know tarantulas are nocturnal?”
I confess…I did not know that. I told her that was very interesting, and she told me that they were learning about tarantulas in school. I said that was great, but she should probably get back to class and I should get back to work. She agreed, and off she went.
And for the next ten or so minutes, she came in now and then and regaled me with a new tarantula fact. There are more than 700 species. They come in lots of colors. It was all interesting information, but probably didn’t have a good place in the presentation about precast concrete in schools that I was working on.
When it got to be time for asynchronous learning, she asked if she could come nod work in my office, and I said of course she could. It’s always nice to have some company at my desk.
She got her work done, and then went off to play with Henry while I hammered through the rest of my work for the day. It was a beautiful, spring like day outside, so when I wrapped things up, I took the kids for a quick jaunt over to the red park near our house. There we payed some of our usual hide n’ seeek, superheroes, tag, and superhero hide n’ seek.
It was fun, and nice to be out in the warm, fresh air. Then we headed back home because I had a date to keep…with myself.
A few weeks ago, Erin got me a book called The Artist’s Way, and it’s filled with exercises and suggestions to connect with the creative force and get things moving. I’ve already found it super helpful, and one of the thing it suggests is making little artists dates with yourself, where you basically spend a little time on your own, either doing something fun or creative.
So I had a couple hours and decided to take walk around a local outdoor mall, and pull up an outside table at this little wine cafe. I had a nice glass of some Portuguese red blend and got quite a bit of writing done.
It was really, really nice to get away from the usual routine, just for a little while, to breath the fresh air, live in the moment and just write. I got a lot done and felt good about it.
On the way home, I picked up Chipotle for dinner, because they were doing a fundraiser for Amelia’s school. I ran into one of the other neighborhood parents in the parking lot and we chatted for a minute. This was someone I used to see every day at school pickup, and now it’s been months and months, so there was a real joy and comfort in that little reminder of normal life in the before times. And also hope that maybe times kind of like that aren’t so far away anymore. Here’s hoping.
