I got home from work after 10 pm Wednesday night, and had a 3 hour drive ahead of me.  It often takes 3 and a half hours with traffic.  I had worked 8 straight hours, as opposed to the split schedule I had been accustomed to since January, so I figured I needed a little turnaround time to get ready for the journey.

That's why I left a little before midnight, and it was great!  Talk about the open road!

When I arrived home, there was a halo around the moon, and scarcely a sound to be heard.  I carried my bags up the stairs, and thankfully, my father waited until I was at the top to say, "Welcome home" from his bedroom.  He was still in bed, but would soon get up to work in his shop for a couple hours, as he has been known to do.

As he's said before (with a smile), "You can be wandering around India or the Grand Canyon or Harlem all by yourself in the middle of the night, but when you're in my jurisdiction, I like to hear the sound of the engine pulling into the driveway."

After saying the necessary "Happy Thanksgiving" I thanked him for waiting to utter his surprise greeting until I got to the top of the stairs, because otherwise I just might have dropped all my bags and fallen down the stairs.  Then I slept a lot.

When I woke up, it was almost time to eat!  It's strange to have wine and turkey so soon after waking...

Thank you, life, for living with us!

I am very thankful that I now report to work at 1:30 pm and finish at 10 pm, giving me ample time to get a normal amount of sleep after several hours of free time where I can focus on the larger writing project.  This is a welcome change from what I did before, which was get up at 7, be at work at 9, teach until 1 or 2, go home, move my car, nap, cook, eat, watch something online while eating, maybe read, write a little something, do any necessary errands which often involved grocery shopping, go back to work at 6, enjoy my time with the students until 10, come home, eat, write something, listen to music, and go to bed, perhaps at 1 or 2 am, and then repeat on 5-6 hours of sleep.  I've met many students who work 12 hour days or only sleep 3 hours per night, and I don't envy them.  I wish them luck in changing their schedules to better suit the need to rejuvenate.  I'm not sure how long this situation will continue, but it's a welcome change.  Now I know what it's like to wake up in the morning and have to go to work without feeling physically and mentally drained and looking forward to the next nap.  The past two mornings I've woken up and thought, "Huh... I'm rested... and I can take my time..."

Even if the schedule hadn't changed, I'd still be thankful for the three day week and being able to see my family for the most meaningful holiday of all.  I hope you enjoy incredible food with incredible people.

Thank you for reading!

A love of life combined with making life worth loving for all lives which could be swayed is the best way to approach the day, emitting love

Good news makes me smile!

We completed class today with a section about creativity.  They gave us four professions and had us discuss why they were creative: chef, surgeon, photographer, and jazz musician.  I must say that any day I get to give my best attempt at explaining improvisation, jazz music and creativity is a good day.

Several minutes ago I decided to look through my journal and other private writings files.  If you've been following this page for a while, you've probably noticed that I've produced much less this year than in the previous two years.  There are many reasons for that.  One of them is that I've been working (with people, mostly on my feet) twice as much this year (and at night, when I usually write).

Even so, even though quality is more important than quantity, I thought I'd been much more creatively productive this year, so I looked through the private writing I've done without posting online, and I've written 331 pages this year, so far.  That's double the amount I'd produced in the same time period last year.

All I'm saying is that just because you haven't read it up here doesn't mean it hasn't been happening somewhere...

Sharing Warm Days

3 people actually made eye contact with me, smiled, and said "Hello!" as I walked on the streets of Manhattan today