Summertime Blues

Why do all good things come to an end?
“All Good Things (Come to an End)”-Nelly Furtado


Greetings folks! I just bought my flight home and it just hit me; my summer is almost over. Gone will be the leisurely days, getting up when I want, and the travelling (not the travelling but you get the point). When I get back home, it’ll be back to the daily grind, 5 a.m. workouts, wedding planning, long days and even longer nights as I lay in bed alone.

I am very grateful for the opportunity to spend most of the summer with my fiancé. We’ve taken this time to get to know each other even more, enjoy each other’s company and confirm what we already know; we’re made for each other. It hasn’t all been peaches and cream. Going from living alone to living with your significant other, even in a great relationship, provides some interesting challenges. Challenges such as, how to divide up the household chores, who pays for what, what side of the bed will each person sleep on and the who controls the remote? Thankfully these are all challenges we took on and took down. I’m sad to see the summer melt away but I’ve even more sad to have to get on a plane in a couple of weeks knowing while she may be coming to Miami with me, that she won’t be staying…at least not this time.

All in all I have no complaints about this summer. It would have been easy to take issue with the fact that I’ve been unemployed for the past few months. However, this “free time” has allowed me a few luxuries that being unemployed doesn’t allow me to enjoy. It has allowed me to get some much needed rest. If you’re a workaholic like me, the only time you stop working is when you’re sleep. This time off has really allowed me to see just how tired I was. The first two weeks of my vacation I slept 10 hours a day; abnormal for a guy who’s accustomed to 5 hours or less. Hell getting 6/7 hours of sleep in a night means I’m well rested. It also made me realize that there is no way I could have kept working at the pace I was without a vacation or experiencing a stroke. Thank God for the former as opposed to the latter.

I’ve had time to sit back, relax and travel. This summer I’ve been blessed to go to D.C. (of course), Detroit, Myrtle Beach and Chicago. While I don’t stop travelling during the school year, my travel is focused around quality time with the wifey and in the fall football. So being able to go to these places and not having to bring my laptop to do any work was an interesting change that after a while I thoroughly enjoyed.

The time off has also allowed me to get quite a bit of work done. You didn’t think I took the entire summer off did you? L.O.L. I’m way too much of a workaholic for that. I’ve been working generally the same number of hours, just a reduced number of days and have augmented the times. Instead of waking up at 4:30 for my 5 a.m workout so I can then be at work by 7 I’ve been getting up at 7:30 or 8, working out at 9 so I’m back at my desk by 10. I still don’t call it quits until sometime around 6, but since I’m on vacation that fluctuates. It’s much easier to get work done when the phone isn’t ringing off the hook, my email isn’t full, and everyone isn’t asking for something and wanting it done IMMEDIATELY. I thrive under pressure. The difficulty and enormity of a task doesn’t make me shy, it makes me eager. But I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have been enjoying the relative quiet and peacefulness work space I’ve had as of late.

While I will miss the summer vacation, and the lazy days and carefree spirit that comes with it, it’s time I get back on my grind, back to work and back to receiving a real paycheck. I’m going to miss you baby like crazy, but as the number of days we spend apart grows the number of days that we’ll have to endure this separation shrinks.

Thanks to everyone for reading. Until next time; Stay Up and Be Blessed!