Good morning (and afternoon) sunshine!

I just had drinks with friends on a work night for the first time in more than two years!

In 2015 I was up at 7 and at work from 9 until 1, with a break until 6, and then would work until 10.

In 2016 I was ecstatic to get moved from mornings to afternoons so I could get a full night's sleep and avoid the necessary afternoon nap situation.  The catch was that I still had to work until 10, shifting my body clock about 5 hours behind every once else I know.  As I've been a night owl since my early teens, I was already a few hours behind everyone else.

Working until 10 for more than 2 years has made it very difficult to maintain social relationships.  I know there is always the weekend, but as I've written before, I'm usually pretty socially fulfilled by my job by the time the weekend rolls around.  When I had a split schedule, I was too exhausted to spend many weekends in social activities.  When I got the night schedule, I found that I naturally felt like staying up until 5 or 6 on weekends, and sleeping well past noon, something I hadn't really done since I was in my early 20's.  That made it hard to get up and seize the day, and my friends were usually ready to turn in much earlier than I was.  When I visited home, I'd be on the exact opposite schedule of my parents.  It was pretty comical how I would be returning from a starlit walk in the forests and fields at 3, 4, or later, and my father would be waking up to start the day and work in his shop.  Then I would sleep the day away and they would be ready to turn in about six or seven hours after I'd gotten up.  Most of my hometown friends have children (or have been early birds their whole lives), so they're more like my parents (or other 30 something's).

Thus, there are some great people I would love to get back in touch with, although I have maintained face to face relationships with a precious few.

In addition to the anticipation of catching up with old friends, I'm actually pretty giddy about all the small things.  When I get out of work, the sun is still shining.  In fact, a few days a week the first thing I do is move my car for street cleaning, and I can see our star sparkling on the Hudson River, a little more than an hour before sun set (my schedule changed last week, just in time for spring).  I don't have to rush to buy necessities before the stores close, and I can return people's phone calls during the week, because they're not asleep when I get out of work.

Admittedly, it has been a struggle to change my body clock.  I'm not an early riser, and haven't been since I was 9 years old.  I've always found it much easier to just power through and stay up later, even if I'm on barely any sleep, than to wake up early and feel enthusiastic about the situation.  My body is starting to figure out it should be able to fall asleep some time before 1, and hopefully, some day, well before then.  That said, it's still getting confused here and there and keeping me awake, paradoxically tossing and turning while simultaneously exhausted, a few times until 2 or 3 (or 5:30 am on my first Monday night, which didn't make any sense).

That said, I'm hoping that I will adjust by the time things get really beautiful in upstate New York, and then getting up early, getting in the car, making my way to a wilderness paradise and finishing a hike before sundown will actually be feasible.

Of course, there is another aspect of this situation which is far more important than the schedule change, which is the students.  I work full time in midtown now, with students who are mostly visiting the US and have the wherewithal to afford tuition in that part of town.  I said a beautiful good bye to my night students on the Upper West Side, some of whom I have had the pleasure to know for more than two years.  But that's another story.

Peace!

U am, while living awesome yummy enthusiasm

I am happy because you do what you love, and you do so very very very well

A day to celebrate being alive and living a life you love.  I am doing so with reading the writing of others and my own, editing writing I've already written, adding new writing to the pile of previously written writing, appreciating having just spent quality time with many family members (mother, father, aunts, uncle, three cousins, cousin-in-law and their new son), and listening to the greatest music in the history of the universe

Women's Day (International)

In my world, it is always International Women's Day.

That said, it has recently come to my attention that not everyone has exactly the same job as I do (who knew?), so I agree this day is a beautiful way to raise awareness of inequality in this country and all around the world.

However, I still think that the world would benefit from treating most days the same way

I live in New York

I was on the way home from a night out having a few drinks with a friend, and I had to transfer trains at Times Square.

I walked upstairs and immediately noticed someone immediately noticing me from about 50 feet away.  A former student, from China, and her friend.  I'd taught her two years ago.  I was happy that she was able to recognize me.  I congratulated her on getting married since I'd last seen her, and learned that she'd had to spend the past year back home without a green card, but she was happy to be back with her husband.  Apparently her friend had also gone to our school, but had been in a different class.  I wished them a good night and went to the 1 train.

I decided to rest my eyes once the train got moving, but after a couple minutes I could feel someone hovering over me and then touching me.  This usually doesn't happen on the subway, so I was relieved to see a former student from Ecuador grinning at me.  I'd just taught him in November and December.  He'd been the driving force behind a fun night out with the evening class around the holidays, and now he was riding the train home with some of his extended family, only one of whom spoke English.

A few hours before, my friend and I had been walking along 7th street in search of a drink, and noticed a downstairs bar which inevitably reminded us of Cheers, at least from the outside.  We didn't go in though.  Regardless of the resemblance, we had a feeling that nobody would know our names.

Perhaps something knew all the friends I was about to run into

Winking

This student walks up to me after a couple weeks of class and asks, "What did you study in university?"

I say government, but clarify that my thing is writing, not politics, although, when you're interested in people and how they interact, the two can become inseparable.

"When can I read your book?"

I give some amalgamation of standard responses I usually give.  "Thousands of pages," "organizing essays and short stories of various lengths," "there's already a book on Amazon and probably at least one or more between my web log and my private writing.  And then there are all the other ones I know what to write but just need time to write."  These situations represent the few times that I am not happy with the words coming out of my mouth, because I've said them for so long with so many experiences in between them.  I always seem to be extolling the virtues of jumping right into the water or tearing the band-aid off all at once or downing the quadruple shot of tequila without first inquiring just how much alcohol it contains (or who would even order such a thing in the first place), but I never seem to do so with respect to entering the professional realm of writing.

The next day a different student, whom I have known for a year now, had her final class.  She very graciously gave me many compliments, saying I was good at teaching, and that I introduced her to many great sources of learning.  I've known her since she was at a much more intermediate level, and I've witnessed her struggles with the language, and I've seen her improve, almost always with a smile on her face.  If you ever teach and you care at all about what you're doing and the people for whom you're doing it, this will inevitably happen to you from time to time.  It feels good, and I highly recommend everyone teach something at some point in their lives.  I can't say that efficiency would be the ultimate goal of giving everyone some teaching experiences, because the profession certainly involves development of valuable skills with time and perhaps for some an inherent talent.  That said, there would be an abundance of learning intrinsic to the festival of so many people sharing their knowledge and/or wisdom.  Even though some tend to be more endowed in those departments than others, everyone has unique perspective when it comes to universe journeys.  More importantly, I think everyone deserves to have someone come up to them and make them feel good about sharing what they know and what they do.

Of course, that feeling couldn't remain pure forever, because the student from the previous day couldn't help but overhear the compliments and added her own two cents.  "I agree that you are a good teacher, but what I really want is to read your book tomorrow!  Just do it!"

As I sit here writing, reading and digesting new ideas, exploring new music, getting through each day and thinking about how to improve upon present and future situations, I hear her again: "Where's the book?  Where's the book?  Where's the book?  Just do it!"  I wink back at her.  The reader reminds me that she isn't really there, she's just in my memory.  I wink at the reader.  I am reminded the reader can't see me, unless said reader has another tab open in a web browser and I happen to be winking in a photograph, a situation whose likelihood I would be hard pressed to estimate this early in the morning.  At this point, the reader informs me that the narrative is starting to get a little loopy.  I thank the reader for reminding me of reality, something writers can sometimes have difficulty separating from fantasy, if such a separation exists.

I get up and go to the mirror.  I wink at he, who, at present, is my sole editor.  He winks back immediately, but with his other eye, always offering a new perspective.

Speaking of which, on Sunday I saw something new and beautiful in my neighborhood that I had never seen before, that I couldn't have seen without being in the exact right place at the exact right time.  That experience gave me faith that I could embrace the present without past regret and move forward into my dream.  I hope my editors will be there with me, winking

A huge smile, hug and thumbs up to all those walking today!