Life as the 2nd VP in a Ginormous Healthcare Union

I am always busy. No, really. I mean it. I have a full time job and I’m a mom. That’s enough for a lot of people, but I also am a student with classes and homework nearly every night of the week. I am the chair of a demanding local in a rebuilding phase. I’m the HEU representative for the VLC. I own an Arbonne business. I’m training for a 10k race. Sometimes I travel for work. I’m busy. There is little free time in my calendar. I’ve said it in other posts. It’s still true.

I dream of free time. Oh. If I had more free time, I’d hike. Or I’d sew a new dress. Or I’d bake muffins. I love doing all of these things. It’s no lie that I want to do them. But then something will happen to open a free slot in my calendar. Like yesterday. And then a second one in a row. Like today. And… because I didn’t PLAN how to fill my free time, I’m inert, paralyzed with this gigantic expanse of free time. With nothing but options and my own company to fill the better part of two days, I’m bored stiff.

So I took up knitting.

The dollar store and YouTube got me started. I mean, since the issue here is that I learned to knit yesterday, making a sweater is out of the question. I’m just happy to know how to cast on and knit a few rows. I don’t need to know how to cast off. Assuming I ever finish this whatever it is I’m knitting, I’ll learn to cast off in the future. And since I haven’t got any clue what I’m knitting (looks like a dishcloth, but I  bought enough yarn to knit an entire table runner) it doesn’t matter if I know how to cast off.

I fill my time with projects like this. It’s not that I need to know how to make a table runner. (It would cost me less to go buy one and it would be prettier.) It’s that I need to feel busy. And so, in a basket beside the couch, there is a bag of glitter, a set of knitting looms, and martini shaker. (Don’t judge me.) Each represent a need to fill free time.

Tomorrow, class starts back up! I am less than a day away from having my calendar go KABLOOEY again, with free time gone with the wind. Thankfully, knitting will wait.