Unwinding...

...is hard to do

Seriously, people. It is. At least it is if you're me.

Commencement ended eight days, two hours, and eleven minutes ago, and as of about ten minutes ago, I feel completely relaxed. I know, it's sad. It took me over a week to shake the feeling that OMG! I have stuff to do! Places to go! People to see! Presents to buy! And oh yeah! I! Must! Blog!

Husband-dear noticed it too, and kept telling me to slow down, take it easy, spend a day laying on the couch, but it just wasn't that easy for me. I mean there was stuff to do, people. Presents for teachers to buy. Christmas cards to send. Coffee to drink. But today, as I was on another grueling, long, and mainly cold ride (as apparently punishment is a part of my daily existence nowadays - do you think there's a problem for people addicted to exercise?), and started thinking about a funny topic for this blog (which you will all get to read about tomorrow, honestly), and then decided to, when I got home, bake cookies and clean the kitchen, I realized my break had just begun. You see, I only bake when I'm totally relaxed, and as cleaning is a sure fire way to get me feeling content with the world, I knew I was on the right track.  

And as usual, it worked like charm. I baked enough cookies to feed the entire neighborhood, and know that I'll probably have to run out and buy more supplies tomorrow. Seriously, I love to bake cookies around Christmas time. Seriously love it. Last year, when my in-laws spent Christmas at our house, I must have baked close to a hundred cookies in two days. So yes, anyone in the vicinity is more than welcome to stop by and get some, and there is no way I want to eat all of the (all it would do is have me exercise even more, and really people, the whole exercise thing is getting out hand as it is).

Anyway, I'm sure you're all wondering why it took me a good week to unwind. I mean, most people leave work, and are ready to party the same evening, why am I so different? Well, I pondered that too during my ride (at least all this exercising saves me a lot of money on counseling), and I have an excuse/answer for you. You see, this past year has been absolutely positively insane. It's probably been the most insane year of my life ever. And that's saying something.

For those of you not completely up to date with my life, allow me to summarize:
- I taught fourteen classes (the norm is eight classes over two semesters)
- I wrote two conference papers
- I traveled to two conferences
- I wrote a book chapter
- I completed two triathlons
- I competed in two adventure races
- I ran at least one 5k race (probably more, but I can't remember)
- I read the entire bible (fifteen minutes, every day, for a year)
- I offended large numbers of people, including students and staff
- I traveled to Holland twice
- I dealt with the youngest being hospitalized for a week
- I ran and biked hundreds of miles, and swam enough laps to probably swim from here to Maine
- I wrote a little over a hundred blogposts
- And finally, I spent a lot of time pitying myself and my busy life (and people, let me tell you, that takes up a lot of energy).

Obviously, I have no intention of repeating all of this next year, especially the first and eleventh one. And the last one too I suppose. Because, seriously, at this point I only have two weeks left of my break, and wasted an entire week getting ready to relax, which is really just extremely ridiculous.

Now you'll have to excuse me while I go and lay on the couch some. Or maybe I'll hang out in the kitchen and annoy husband-dear by singing "Santa baby". Or bake some more cookies...