Thursday, July 23, 2009

Mañana, Siesta, No pasa nada...I´m in Spain

Hola Meltingpot Readers,

I´ve been in Spain for only three days and already I´ve fallen prey to the southern Spanish lifestyle. I eat, sleep, swim, read and repeat. I cannot for the life of me summon the energy to do much more than that. My children are in heaven because I say things like, "If you´re not too tired, after dinner (at 10pm) you can watch TV a little bit before bed." Who have I become?

It´s funny, I used to resist this descent into sheer laziness everytime I came to the south of Spain, but now I try to embrace it as I very rarely have the freedom to do so at any other time of my life. What´s more, ten days after I return to the United States, I begin my first full time job after seven years of freelancing. I will be teaching at Temple University in the journalism department with a real title of assistant professor, instead of adjunct. Cool, right? But with that title, comes pressure, and deadlines and homework and everything else I don´t have to deal with in this little piece of paradise. So...I´m giving myself permission to slack off. To read the five fantastic books I brought along with me during the day instead of in snatches before bed and in the bathroom. I am going to be satisfied if the most strenuous thing I do is take a long walk on the beach with my children. And I will not allow myself to feel guilty about it. This is a blessing and I am working on feeling gratitude.

The only "work" I must do is finish the final revisions on my novel. And given my current circumstances, where I am at peace and have so much time on my hands, working on my novel doesn´t feel like work. It is pure pleasure.

So, dear readers, thanks for checking in, and please continue to do so as I keep you posted on just how lazy I can be and what´s going on in my little world.

Peace!

8 comments:

JennyBHammond said...

Congrats on your new job!

And, yes, you're on...VACATION:-) I think you're supposed to eat, read, sleep. I do that when I go on vacation...and that's usually a Vermont destination!

Valerie M said...

Yea, Congratulations!
ABUSE your vacation.
Really, stress free is the way to be.

Professor Tharps said...

JBH,
Thanks. I needed that.

SweetKinks,
Stress free is really awesome. I could get very used to this and will try to remember this feeling when I´m back in the thick of things in the US.

KayB said...

Felicidades on the new job! Would you mind sharing which books you brought with you wo read?

evelyn.n.alfred said...

Congrats on the new job. Maybe you'll post later about the pros and cons of being a freelancer vs having a more structured job.
Be as lazy as you can on vacation.

nyc/caribbean ragazza said...

Congrats on your professorship (is that a word?)!!

And yes vacations should be relaxing. Enjoy.

Professor Tharps said...

KB,

Thanks for asking. I just finished the awesome Black Girl Next Door by Jennifer Baszile. Her story is so similar to mine, it's uncanny. I'm def. going to post these days about the books I'm reading.

Evelyn,
Thanks for the idea. I'll def. say one of the things I'm looking forward to having a regular job is a regular paycheck:)

Ragazza,

Thank you. I'm trying to keep that in mind. Relax. relate. Release.

ieishah said...

i'm thrilled for you about your professorship. (yes, that's word, girl!)

but kinda mad you quoted whitley... lol!!

enjoy my country!! will you be spending any time in barcelona? have you decided?