Friday, May 29, 2009

Sitting Outside on a Warm Spring Evening

It's hard to describe the feeling of freedom I've been experiencing over the last couple of weeks. And if you've never been a Residence Director or maybe an apartment manager or worked in a job that required your residence to be your place of employment, you may not understand the kind of freedom I am talking about. 

See, for the last four years as we've worked as RDs we've experienced a sort of... bondage... though that's not the best word for it, I can't think of a better one right now. While students were on campus there was always an expectation that we would be available no matter what time of the day or night. And to some degree that was true. So it caused me to feel like if I didn't want to talk to anyone (who doesn't have those days?) or if we were ill or just needing a reprieve we would have to shut ourselves up in our house. And even with the blinds closed, the door shut and the lights off, there were still bound to be students who came to our door for one thing or another. Seriously, sometimes even going from our front door to the car was tricky. Sometimes it seemed as if they were watching from their dorms to see when we would go outside (or wait in the lobby in York Landreth as the case was for three years) and then make a bee line for us.

Now granted, when we had a student come to our door with his head split open because he pushed the bunk bed above him off of the pegs, that was a legitimate need. But, really, it's not my problem that you've forgotten your key at 3 o'clock in the morning. 

Okay, back to the freedom part. 

This evening I am feeling sort of tired, and it's been around 87 degrees today in Portland. Not a dry heat like we enjoyed last weekend in Ellensburg. I don't feel like doing much. So I made a cup of herb tea (mom will be happy about that) and am currently sitting outside in my garden chair next to my fuchsias and petunias, blogging about the experience and enjoying the cool breeze the... hum of the freeway... and... the sirens... Hm, now that I pay attention to the sounds, it's not so peaceful, but that's not the point. The point is that I can sit outside with a cup of tea and my dog at my feet and enjoy the freedom of being outside without feeling obligated in any way to socialize or take care of any sort of issue. 

It's nice.


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