Time - One Thing I'm Looking Forward To

I spent the first week of April in Vermont with Jeremy and Bee, staying with my parents and driving Bee to accepted student days at three different colleges.

*This daffodil was just lying on the road as we walked to college event #1. It needed to be rescued.*

Each school is incredibly different, so the decision is not easy. May 1 is the deadline. Yikes!

We got to Vermont late on Sunday evening. Monday I drove to pick up Bee from where they’d spent the night. Tuesday I drove back to the same school with a colleague from Charlottesville whose son was checking out the place; I also wanted to see the town as I hadn’t had that opportunity. Wednesday Mom and Dad and I got up at 5 to drive to Averill for the day.

*More carpet removal. I believe this is the last of it.*

We got home at 9:30 pm. Whew.

Thursday, I drove to meet Jan Alexander in person. Jan and I are members of the admin team for Women Who Sail; though her boat (and her husband) is in French Polynesia, she’s in New York State helping her parents move out of their long-time house and into an assisted living facility. She got some drive time and we enjoyed a 3+ hour lunch, swapping stories and delving into topics that ranged from parents and homes to cruising experiences to budgets to fitness. It was amazing.

Then on Friday, we were out of the house at 6:30 am, heading to the last college of the week. By the time we left that school at 3 pm, the snow was swirling and visibility on 87 was maybe a quarter of a mile. 10 hours later, we pulled into the driveway and collapsed in our own beds.

I tried to figure out why the week seemed so incredibly short. Why I didn’t manage to get in really any of the things I wanted to get done. (Except the carpet. I really wanted to get that done.)

Sure, driving each and every single day didn’t help matters, and yes, I fully own that I chose those trips in the car.

Really, though, it was that spring break feels like it ought to be filled with time to do anything and everything I want to do. And it wasn’t.

Time when you’re cruising is more malleable. Yes, you need to take weather and tides/currents into consideration, and maybe even the state of your pantry. But in general, you’re not leaving at 6:30 am because you HAVE to be somewhere at 7:30 am and then leaving that place at such a time that you’re likely to hit some version of rush hour traffic. You might be choosing those passages (ie road trips) but if you choose to do a lot in a week it’s not because that week is all you have.

It’s a different version of choice.

Choosing time. I’m really looking forward to choosing my time.

*Winter scene from the OPO. You can barely see Snare Camp in the background.*