I’m trying to focus a little more on leisure time while I’m working a little bit less. I know this is weird because, of course, you are working less, so there is, by definition, more leisure time – but I don’t want it to sink into lost time reading the internet or sitting in my pajamas which is really my default mode. So I’m trying to plan (based on this newly released book – Tranquility by Tuesday) a big adventure and a little adventure each week. I feel like the planning/mothering/productivity book genre which I can sometimes focus on both to my benefit and to my detriment is dominated by rich, white women whose jobs are (incredibly) secondary to their husbands (which I acknowledge is pretty much my demographic – I’m mixed on if I’m a POC. It depends on if we are in Rockville/Texas, MIT/Harvard admissions, or nursing (subcategories: med surg vs peds) or unitarian-ing and it’s also up for grabs if my job is secondary to Jeremy. Except for the years I was home with the kids, I’ve always made more money than Jeremy, though I think Jeremy has the more globally influential (higher status) job). Also in that book genre is one white Georgetown professor who has three kids who advocates three hours blocks daily of “deep (uninterrupted) work” – never mentions his wife and/or three kids. What’s up with that?
Anyhow, that was a big digression. My big adventure this week was going axe throwing with Megan. I think I mentioned this adventure to someone else and they heard I was going “ass throwing” which is not what we did, I don’t throw people’s asses. I’d never gone ass throwing and was curious about it and Megan was game to try. We went to Chopt beforehand (Megan had never gone) and then to throw some axes.
It was outdoors, a little chilly and it required more skill than I thought we would need. It felt almost exactly like bowling, the turn taking, the incredible number of times that the ax clattered to the ground, unwilling to stick anywhere in the target (the gutterball equivalent), except for the added danger of a flying axe. haha. We had a good time, laughed a lot and played lots of games/variations on the target and I got a splinter from the axe. It was at the Sandy Spring adventure park, they opened up this new section. I think we would both prefer to spend the money doing the adjacent ropes course which we plan to do next spring together. It’s actually hard to find people who are willing to do this sort of goofy stuff.
We were both nursing arm “injuries”. Megan had gotten her covid shot over the weekend and was still a bit sore in her non-dominant arm. I’ve been nursing a shoulder injury in my dominant arm for 2(!) years now (starting from incredible pain where I couldn’t run for weeks at times because it radiated so much into my torso and made me incredibly worn out- then I had to email Paul – sorry, I didn’t run because my shoulder hurts which was true and strange sounding at the same time) and I had kind of given up on it ever getting better, but in the last 6 months, I’ve been able to do a push up without pain and hallelujah, I’m grateful for that. Now I want to learn to kayak which is all shoulder and I’ve been slowly rehabbing it very gently since I finished the marathon. I could still feel it protest a bit throwing the axe for an hour, but this morning, I’m pleased, the should isn’t too achy. Maybe I can learn to kayak.
