A rare behind the scenes tell-all about the night life of one teacher on summer break.
My summer days are filled with dogs, books, dog photography, coffee, cold drinks, snacks, and massive crib game losses. It really helps that SS6000 invested in a cabin that I can laze around at. Throw in a couple times out on a lake paddling (not nearly as much as we normally do) and this long summer teacher gig seems pretty glamorous.
But there’s a dark side to these weeks of sloth, something rarely shown in the glossy pages of social media.
While I’ve been open and honest over the years about my physical laziness ( a new low this summer with 2.5km strolls), bad holiday hygiene (very few selfies for public sharing and pretty much three to four days in the same clothes to keep things simple), and poor nutritional choices (it’s the afternoon liquids that are the main problem now that our chips and licorice stash is running low), I feel compelled to admit my true addiction:
Through the pandemic, I was committed to healthier time wasting (puzzles, audiobooks) but the blissful timelessness of this summer break coupled with impending doom (variants, wildfires and self serving federal elections) have drawn me back to the dark world of filling candy orders and exploding Wrapped Candies, Striped Candies, and Color Bombs. I remain proud of my refusal to pay for boosters or lives with cash, though I hit a new low by binge watching ads, exchanging my time and soul for just a couple more moves or a few more lives.
Another dark reality of the summer are the bouts of sleeplessness. With not a worry on my mind, the parasomnia nighttime craziness has been replaced with the simplicity of wideawakeness. It seems like my lack of physical and mental activity (other than my amazing Duolingo Spanish lesson streak) have finally caught up to me.
Audio books are my go-to strategy for drowning out the negative thought patterns and at least getting rest, but tonight I hit a new low, wondering if I should just do some planning for school. Readers, this is what rock bottom looks like. Admittedly, the thought only surfaced after my phone died and my brain was battling the mocking sleep sounds of others.
I don’t know what the next few hours will bring, but thanks to my ultra fast charger, this confessional, and the knowledge that my best sleep in the past two nights has been from 4:00 am to 7am, I am now prepared to return to bed and try again. I will put to bed the ridiculous night time thoughts of healthy eating and exercise goals, and dream of the new Candy Crush lives I will have in a few hours. I will not allow my sleep deprivation to impede my determination to shamefully win the weekly contest two weeks in a row.
And tomorrow night? I’ll be eating healthy during the day, cutting down carbs, limiting alcohol, and eating earlier. Maybe I will find some ways to earn back my “most valuable wife status” by finding some jobs to do. Not to mention that tomorrow will be the day I go for that morning run. And definitely, most definitely, I will either go to bed with my phone fully charged, or bring the charger with me.
Note: in the time it took to write this post, I lost another 90 minutes of sleep but my phone is at 100%.
