I was going to ski today. But then the DH’s car popped a flat, so I need to stay home and deal with it. Annoying, because this was the main day I had planned to ski (modified plan, original would have been Tuesday and Thursday) this week. It doesn’t help that I know the slopes will be crazy because of Spring Break…I’m wishing I was skiing in some respects. But my attitude is changing because my circumstances are changing, in ski bum life, in writing life, in horse life, in work life, in home life.
Much as I’d like to ski and play on the mountain, the reality is, I’m still dealing with a strained back muscle that doesn’t want to heal quickly. It is improving and getting better, but it’s taking its own sweet time. I can still ski and ride horse, for example, but riding horse was painful this winter at times and it’s one factor in my going exclusively Western again. Skiing has been less painful than riding but I have found myself tiring more quickly and feeling colder–a secondary impact but a real one. The back issue has meant I’m not spending as much time on leg conditioning, and I’m also using legs more than my core to deal with conditions, so the legs tire more quickly. And the boot liners are probably packing out a little bit, which contributes to ski control issues. So I’m working harder and tiring more quickly, because I’m less efficient.
Oh well, it’s just the season. But other changes mean I also have less time to play on the slopes.
For example, my writing life is also changing. I want to be able to publish as many works this year as I did last year (seven, nonfiction and fiction alike). That’ll be doable, simply because I am writing special education posts for a psychology blog. Two of those per month, which means a twice-monthly deadline. A deadline I control, but a deadline nonetheless.
I also have an invite for an anthology, and I am definitely going to do my best to have a story ready.
Then I have something to send to the Angry Robot open reading, but it needs revision to be more competitive.
And then there’s the Netwalk Sequence, which also needs work and much revision.
Plus I want to develop more political writing outlets as well as more professional writing outlets. Netwalk and the political pieces will play well into each other, and the professional work will also fit together.
IOW, writing stuff is starting to come together but I need to spend more coherent time dealing with it. This is the week I had slated to do just that…but here I am, Wednesday, and I’ve not really gotten to setting up the structures I need to make things go well. So I don’t have time to go play on the slopes. Needs to be done.
Work is also coalescing. Let’s just say that I am realizing that perhaps we are starting to piece things back together after the drastic economic cuts of two and a half years ago. It has been horribly traumatic for all involved–students, staff, community–and only now are we perhaps starting to recover in a small, slight way. Outsiders really don’t get how horribly severe cuts can impact individual schools. It takes extraordinary leadership to recover and maintain after such cuts…and if it’s not present, then time gets lost.
Furthermore, I’m realizing how I can apply Interpersonal Neurobiology to my particular educational role. A lot of what I do well involves small group or one-on-one work with highly defended kids who have either poor school behaviors or poor academic behaviors. Or both. In middle school, a lot of time needs to go into coaching these kids and that is a labor-intensive job. It takes hours, days, weeks, and months to build a foundation of trust and turn things around, time I haven’t had. It’s not something I’ve been able to do a lot of these past two and a half years, not until now. I didn’t realize how much I’d missed that intensive level of intervention, and four more hours gave me that time back.
And then there is the preretirement preparation here at home for the DH. It’s getting to be time to simplify and reinvent things…which also takes a lot of thought and work. Which is also a part of why I’m dropping the English stuff.
Anyway. That’s a bit of what’s going on. Lots of change, much for good but it’s all still change nonetheless. And now I need to get going on daily life during spring break.
Good grief, I could use another week.
