Well, summer vacation is now officially past, and the grind of the school year has begun. I'm often asked if things slow down for me during the summer. The short answer is "yes, sort of."
We've talked about this in the office, in fact. One might think, that since school is out, the pace would slow. After all, we don't have classroom of the week pages, or a handful of high school sports, or other school activities to be at every night. That is true.
But the rhythm of summer, at least in our office, is a different one. Instead of the regular assignments that come on a weekly basis, there's a lot of one-time stuff. Most of our towns have some sort of summer festival, and those are important. We're also working around staff vacations, which means those of us still in the office have to pick up a little bit more.
It's almost harder to have a schedule like that. We don't necessarily get weekends off because that's when many of the festivals are. They're fun but can be exhausting.
When school starts, though, there's almost a sense of relief. We're back to a rhythm that we're used to, that we're in nine months of the year. It takes a little time to get used to it, but it's nice to be able to know how a "normal" week will play out. I know I'll be at games every night and most weekends. I will miss the occasional night at home, lounging on the couch with popcorn next to me, a book in my hands and a ball game on TV. But if it happens, I won't take it for granted.
