The Bliss of Idleness

It only lasts for so long. When I came home during undergrad - home to bed I'd slept in since I was 16, home to an inescapable familial role - I could only stand about three weeks before I was bored out of my mind and ready to get back to my college town. Things were different when I moved back to Harlingen during my year off - I didn't hunger for the faster pace of a bigger city, rather I embraced my small town anonymity, eschewing the company of high-school friends, such that every single moment was mine and mine alone (it was perhaps the transitory nature of that stint that made it not only bearable, but so enjoyable). Now, I've been home for 4 days, and am relishing the lazy days - since Stef and Caleb are both home, I stay home too, playing Halo and watching TV with them instead of grabbing a book and fleeing to the nearest coffee shop (which I'll do next week once they're back in school). This idleness is blissful; this is the break I've been looking forward to since the beginning of med school. With those damned condensed semesters, we never got a summer vacation; it was two weeks at most. Looking back, I suppose that minimized time for forgetting, but it also shortchanged me of the academic decompression to which I'd grown accustomed. After 4th semester, that break went down to almost nothing - I had to pack up and move from the island, visit my family, move to Miami, and study for the Comp in little over two weeks (Nicole and I buckled down, studied like crazy and passed with no problems, unlike very many of our colleagues, who took the beast too lightly, and had to take it again). Then, after 5th, we took a tiny break to visit Nicole's family, and then jumped back into studying hardcore. And now...I'm enjoying the laziness of doing nothing.

Dad, Stef, Caleb and I went out to the deer blind on the lease today. We didn't see anything but a coyote, but it was restful and enjoyable. I'd forgotten how gigantic this Texas sky is.

There's paperwork to send into the administration and Christmas shopping to ponder. There are movies I want to see, stores I want to visit, a stack of books I want to read, gallons of coffee yet to drink, weights to lift, and miles to run. It'll all get done, but right now I'm enjoying ease of my down-time.