An Autumn Week in the Life

In the spring I participated in the Week in the Life project. You can see a few of my pages here and here. I knew then that I wanted my mini book for 2010 to include a week in the spring when we were in Boston and a week in the fall when I expected we would be elsewhere. When October rolled around, I luckily remembered my plan but had to really remind myself to pick a week to document before the year was up. Two weeks ago ended up being the week. 


My life is so full right now and moving at an incredible pace. It was harder to find space in the day for the camera, especially during the weekdays when I sit behind a desk during the good light hours. But somehow I managed to take at least a few photos each day. Now, as I look back through them, I'm struck by the incredible amount of activity I managed to fit into those non-office hours.

Internally, I never feel like I fit enough in. It's this thing I have. Call it ambition. Or an appetite for living. Or just plain foolishness. I don't know. One of my occasional mantras is a line from the Indigo Girls song Get Out The Map... "Why do we hurdle ourselves through every inch of time and space? I must say around some corner I can sense a resting place." It pops into my head from time to time, especially when I'm hurdling too much.


The photographic evidence suggests I fit in plenty, even when I feel like I've been napping a lot more than usual. With family and friends nearby to fill up my spare time, I've been recognizing the very fullness of my life lately. I've also been recognizing that I need stretches to sit or to lay down and nap. For this reason, knitting has re-entered my routine because I can sit and accomplish something on the couch.

I'm sure I'm not the only one hurdling myself through time and space. Here's just a slice of what kept me busy one week this fall.

Saturday:: An afternoon of napping followed by an epic 4-mile walk to get hockey tickets for an evening's game. And another walk to take the train to the game.

Sunday:: Visiting Matt's family for their Sunday routine. The evening back home included trick or treaters and prepping the bathroom for a coat of paint that was applied around 10pm (just squeezing in that one last activity before the weekend was over).
Monday:: A quick dinner of pierogies while cleaning up for a few visiting neighborhood knitters.



Tuesday:: A birthday dinner and a concert with and for my mom, who also has also fallen for one of my favorite bands. There was also a little side conversation at the concert with a friend from way back and his wife.

Wednesday-Friday:: The rest of the weekdays disappeared into a swirl of migraine, taking it a bit more slowly, dog walking, chasing fat squirrels up trees, and adding another layer of lime green paint to the bathroom. Monday night I framed and hung that photo that my grandpa took. Thursday night I went for a run, of sorts, since I'm trying to prep for a 5k in December, again with friends from way back.



Saturday:: Matt drove me to the airport and saw me off for a week away. I slept for 2/3rds of the flight, and then woke to manage an hour of work and a little knitting before landing. I packed four different knitting projects, as if I could somehow invent the time to finish three projects and start a new one. I did finish one and came close on a second.


I spent the next few days blissfully reuniting with my newly two year old niece.
She goes goes goes too. Her approach to life is pretty much to jump when she wants to jump (and when her adults let her). The second she's done jumping, she runs, or swings, or reads a book, or dresses up, or talks to her family, or plays with her friends, or listens to music, or paints with watercolor, or savors a popsicle.

Two year olds are great at hurdling themselves through time and space, followed by a nice long nap. Maybe it's just a stage I never outgrew.

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