Friday, October 17, 2008

The World Outside My Office

My office has been quiet lately. Some things have changed in my work world, and I'm not quite as busy as before. I've been pumping up the marketing efforts (anybody need a great writer?).

On the other hand, the downtime came at a good time. My attention has been many other places lately. All summer, as I watched my beloved Phillies play baseball, my husband would ask, "Is it October yet?" meaning that he was waiting for baseball season to be over. Well, it is October, and the Phillies are still playing. Game 3 of the World Series will be on my birthday. It doesn't get much better than that.

But it is also football season, and football Saturdays rule this household. I can't quite explain the beauty of tailgating all day Saturday. Even some of my friends who enjoy tailgating don't understand how I, the anti-morning person, will crawl out of bed at the crack of dawn in any weather to sit outside with 100,000 of my closest friends, eating sausages from the grill and drinking a few adult beverages. But to me, it is almost like a vacation. I carry no mental baggage to tailgates. I refuse to discuss work. I don't think of problems in my life. I really truly live in that moment, for that day, and nothing else. We'll watch football on tv and then head to the stadium to watch football then back to the parking lot to watch football. It is pure bliss.

Then there is the Thesis of husband's, my essay class, which needs more attention, the impending trip of mine, the impending visit by the daughter and grandbaby.

With all this life going on, I'm grateful beyond words for the work I have, but equally grateful that I'm not in the deadline hell of September.