Life on Sabbatical

 Technically, my sabbatical is ending this week. 

Actually, of course, I have another month before I return to campus, thanks to winter break. Nevertheless, maybe a retrospective is in order.

As I have mentioned to my friends and family, more than once, this was an excellent time to have a sabbatical. I hate online teaching with a fiery passion, so I would have been caught between a high-risk action or having a truly miserable semester. (I've already elected to teach what our university is calling "alt.hybrid" in the spring, which means f2f, but only half of the class meets each time.)

So that part feels lucky.

Beyond that, this sabbatical was wonderful. It is my life's dream, day after day with nothing planned. I sleep enough each night, get up when I liked, drink coffee all morning and write, write, write. 

I finished the sequel to Velocity, had it accepted, and have returned the first set of revisions to my (amazing) editor. Now I am writing another novel, though it's not quite the one I meant to write. 

I also wrote five or six short stories, and am working on three book reviews. 

And I read so many books, took long walks nearly every day, and put all our books in alphabetical order. I also took up crocheting, though I think that was more of a coping mechanism (related to the election) than anything else.

Honestly, if I were suddenly independently wealthy, I would live like this forever.