Sick Days and Work Days

I've been pretty well stuck in the house for four days now, and I have to admit I don't mind. When I feel bad I just want to hole up like a hurt dog and wait for it to go away. Today I feel the bug dragging its tailfeathers out of my head so the end is in sight.

I can still get things done when I'm not well; that's the advantage of being self-employed. Yesterday I completed my sales tax filing for the state, sorted a mountain of paper, planned a program, wrote three poems, wrote my blog, read half of a book, shipped some eBay sales, prepared a contract for a school performance in April, and worked on plans for an upcoming ghost stories workshop in March. I also watched a silly movie (Bringing Up Baby with Hepburn and Grant, so funny), pet the cats (a lot!), researched a couple pieces of old glass and did a little housework. There were also birds to watch, a hubby to discuss plans with and two dogs who wanted some attention too.

So downtime is not necessarily idle time; it's just different. It has given me time to catch up on some things that I'd back-burnered and that's a good thing. I still have a ways to go to be caught up,  but I really don't want to stay sick just to do that! So I will have to keep my focus on these chores I totally dislike for a while longer. February will be, I can see, my paperwork month.

I'm also considering how to reorganize my work space one more time. One cause of the paper backlog is that my eBay stuff blocks my access to my file cabinets. There just isn't enough room in an 8x10 room to run two small businesses, especially if one of them requires a lot of storage space. I am not sure what I can do to improve the situation, but I must do something because my left-brain self hates disorganization, and that is the best word to describe my current work space. (Being a left-handed person, I usually operate in my right brain which seems to need chaos to be creative, but I am somewhat ambidextrous and a Gemini to boot so my two sides are at constant war with each other.) I will be doing a lot of thinking and planning this month, and March will probably be when I actually start making changes. The paper mountain is enough of a challenge for this month.

I've had time to read some books I bought and shelved, thinking I'd get around to them eventually. Eventually apparently has just arrived. First on the list was The Witch of Hooker Hollow and More Folklore by Vernon O. Griffin, a book I bought used online and really enjoyed (I got lucky and got it for a reasonable price but it's fairly rare apparently). Such strange tales of death omens, witches, and old-time remedies, along with some funny fishing tales and other reminiscences of a boy growing up in the mountains. Another one I'm reading is Belled Buzzards, Hucksters, and Grieving Specters: Appalachian Tales Strange, True, and Legendary by Gary Carden and Nina Anderson (it's a lot more available and affordable). Just the title will tell you this book is right up my alley. Both are giving me food for thought as I prepare for the ghost stories workshop in March.

When employed outside of home I used to chafe at not being able to go to work and do my job. Now when I'm sick, I stay home--and still do my job. I like this better, although I find it a little surprising that in order to get a break from work, I sometimes just need to leave home; in the past this was a sanctuary from work. It is still my sanctuary, although it's a little different now. But some time on the porch, or reading by the fireplace in the log room or messing about in my kitchen restores my inner peace and gets me ready to once again climb the mountainous to-do lists.

Copyright 2012 Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.