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I admit, I've been doing precious little reading lately. It seems like everything in conspiring to make me put the books down instead of picking them up. Cooking, cleaning, helping out friends... Not that I'm complaining about having to help friends in need or cook good meals for myself and for R, but I admit I'd love to have a spare day in which I do nothing but sit around and read. Or at least some scheduled time to do nothing but sit around and read.
This is one of the things I miss most about having a job. (Besides the paycheques, I mean.) Even if I couldn't read while I'm on the clock, I'd have my breaks and my lunch, 15 or 30 minutes where I could read a book. I'd read on the bus to and from work, too, and depending on where my job was in relation to my apartment, that could be anywhere between 10 minutes and half an hour each way. Because I wasn't doing anything else that immediately needed doing or could be done, I'd read, and I'd get through a lot of books quickly that way.
But now that I'm unemployed and at home, I am, strangely, finding that I have less time to read because there's more at hand that I can do that should be done. It's one thing to not worry about washing dishes while you're sitting on a bus going to or coming from work. It's another thing to ignore the dishes that need washing when they're only two rooms away. I should be doing housework then. I have no real excuse not to.
It's sad when I want a job again so that I can have more free time. People who disparage stay-at-home mothers for being too lazy to go out and get a job don't know what they're talking about. Keeping a house is hard work, and usually thankless. A house is expected to be kept clean, so when it is, nobody says boo. Things are just how they should be, so why should any special thanks be given? But when it's messy, oh, that's when the excrement hits the rotating blades, so to speak.
R isn't like that much, thankfully. He has his moments, as we all do, but he's careful to show his thanks. He's appreciative when he finds out that I washed two loads of dishes in a day, even if the reason I washed two today is because I didn't wash any yesterday. But he knows I did something, and made this small place a little better.
And I have to admit, I don't find housework as onerous as I used to, now that I'm doing it more often.
I just wish I could read while washing dishes. I don't count audiobooks as "books read", so it doesn't count if I listen to a chapter or two of something while washing or dusting. No, I could books read as "books read", and that's the way it'll keep being until I lose so much eyesight that I have to rely on audiobooks all the time!
I'll have a little time to read more today, though. I'm going uptown to meet my mother for lunch (10 minutes reading on the bus, 20 minutes reading while I wait for her lunch break to start, 10 minutes reading on the bus home), so I'll have that little series of breaks to enjoy a good book in. I think I'll start Terry Pratchett's Nation, since the other book I'm currently reading is an e-book, and I don't fancy carting my laptop around with me.
And now, to enjoy a hot cup of tea! (Like anybody's surprised!)
This is one of the things I miss most about having a job. (Besides the paycheques, I mean.) Even if I couldn't read while I'm on the clock, I'd have my breaks and my lunch, 15 or 30 minutes where I could read a book. I'd read on the bus to and from work, too, and depending on where my job was in relation to my apartment, that could be anywhere between 10 minutes and half an hour each way. Because I wasn't doing anything else that immediately needed doing or could be done, I'd read, and I'd get through a lot of books quickly that way.
But now that I'm unemployed and at home, I am, strangely, finding that I have less time to read because there's more at hand that I can do that should be done. It's one thing to not worry about washing dishes while you're sitting on a bus going to or coming from work. It's another thing to ignore the dishes that need washing when they're only two rooms away. I should be doing housework then. I have no real excuse not to.
It's sad when I want a job again so that I can have more free time. People who disparage stay-at-home mothers for being too lazy to go out and get a job don't know what they're talking about. Keeping a house is hard work, and usually thankless. A house is expected to be kept clean, so when it is, nobody says boo. Things are just how they should be, so why should any special thanks be given? But when it's messy, oh, that's when the excrement hits the rotating blades, so to speak.
R isn't like that much, thankfully. He has his moments, as we all do, but he's careful to show his thanks. He's appreciative when he finds out that I washed two loads of dishes in a day, even if the reason I washed two today is because I didn't wash any yesterday. But he knows I did something, and made this small place a little better.
And I have to admit, I don't find housework as onerous as I used to, now that I'm doing it more often.
I just wish I could read while washing dishes. I don't count audiobooks as "books read", so it doesn't count if I listen to a chapter or two of something while washing or dusting. No, I could books read as "books read", and that's the way it'll keep being until I lose so much eyesight that I have to rely on audiobooks all the time!
I'll have a little time to read more today, though. I'm going uptown to meet my mother for lunch (10 minutes reading on the bus, 20 minutes reading while I wait for her lunch break to start, 10 minutes reading on the bus home), so I'll have that little series of breaks to enjoy a good book in. I think I'll start Terry Pratchett's Nation, since the other book I'm currently reading is an e-book, and I don't fancy carting my laptop around with me.
And now, to enjoy a hot cup of tea! (Like anybody's surprised!)
