Getting Lost Over the Summer

I always teach in the summer.  ALWAYS.  This summer, though, due to lack of enrollment, that is not the case, as mentioned in a previous blog post.  Now, I'm more than halfway into this "first summer I have not worked since I was 16 years old" and here's what I have to report:

• It is quite easy to get lost in your head in front of a computer when you do not have any hard deadlines.
• If you write enough prose poems in a row, everything you write, every email, Facebook status, blog post, seems like a prose poem.
• Writer's block doesn't happen to me when I don't have a million papers to grade, a million emails to respond to, a million questions to answer.  That's right. I have conquered him, that mean old Block. Apparently, all it takes is some free time.  Who knew?

• Gardening is fun. I mean, really relaxing and fun.  My porch currently looks like a suburban jungle.
• Anyone who tells you they do not start preparing for their Fall semester courses until the end of August is a damn liar, or, alternatively, my nemesis.  My unfinished syllabi are already haunting me in my sleep.
• Life at the university goes on when I am not there.  Really.  I went there a week or two ago for a technical training session and I got a parking ticket. Business as usual.
• There are two ways to get your work published:  Write a lot and submit a lot.  There is no easier way.
• Apparently, contrary to mid-semester belief, my house does not clean itself.  And the more time I spend in it, the more I realize what needs to be done.  I bought 9V batteries for smoke detectors today.  Okay, so maybe I have a little bit of writer's block.
• Every now and then, I check my email for no reason at 11:00 on a Sunday night and feel a pang of sadness when I see I do not have 75 students freaking out over an assignment due in an hour and I have no one to comfort, no one to console, no one to direct.  Then, I realize that  I have no one to comfort, no one to console, no one to direct.  And I smile. 
• Finally, and most importantly, I love my job.  I think about it when I am not doing it.  But this summer at least, I love poetry more.