Jess told me that last night at the party out at the Geek Country Estate. They were stern words, the words of a friend speaking the truth in love.

The problem is, I’ve cut back my efforts in some areas–namely, dropping work at TOTK.com Sports altogether, and dropping back my SGA involvement significantly–and then promptly filled up my spare time with other things.
So I basically took today off. Usually, my weekends are almost as frenetic as my weekdays. Today, I haven’t looked at my Visor to see what’s on my To Do list. I know what’s there; at this point, it’s mostly personal stuff, like working on my computers. Ostensibly, I skipped Jared’s wedding today to do these things, but in reality, I was skipping to take my day off.

And then I got a migraine right around lunchtime, which guaranteed that I would take the day off. I think someone was trying to pass along a hint.

I’m trying to decide what I’m going to cut back on, if anything. I think I might be able to just maintain lower levels of what I currently do while allowing myself more free time. Since I have mostly wrangled my sleep schedule into control–although I need to re-set the clock for next semester to be timed for work at 7:00 a.m.–I have found my productivity is higher. I think it can be higher still, although I’m going to try to allow higher productivity to allow for greater downtime.

I’ve been re-reading Tom Clancy’s Cardinal of the Kremlin again today. Unlike many of my bookhound friends, I re-read favorite books often. My paperback of CotK shows this; it’s beginning to fall apart. It’s the only Clancy I don’t own in hardcover, actually, and that shows.

The thing I’ve been happiest with of late has been reading for fun. Amy gave me Phillip Yancey’s What’s So Amazing About Grace? for Christmas. She got it on the advice of a friend, and frankly, I need it. I’ve let my theological study slack a bit, and also, I have found of late that reading at night slows my body metabolism and mental hub-bub better than any other night-time activity.

So, I’m about to turn down out the lights, turn on my reading light, shut the computer down, and prepare for bed. My great Timex alarm clock will play the sound of waves crashing on a far, distant shore as I read the story of Mikhail Semyonovich Filitov after his capture by the KGB. I know how the story will end, but it’s good to read the familiar pages. I find a little solace in routine, in going over past words. May it help me ease into rest, so I can do too much tomorrow.