How I love the offseason

I am so happy to stay in bed until 8:00 on a Saturday. Actually I do prefer to be up by 7:00 but the point is that I don't have to go anywhere today! I can listen to Frank's show on KLCC or a variety of great radio shows on KRVM, I can watch woodworking shows and cooking shows on PBS, can play around in the yard or do what most people do on Saturdays, clean the house.

There is always some part that hasn't been cleaned in (literally) years. I am not a great housekeeper, though my training was comprehensive growing up in a family of sisters. We always cleaned on Saturday mornings in my memory, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning the bathroom. I do not do any of those things weekly, sorry Mom. There are many domestic chores I just put off until I am disgraced by the state of things. Cleaning the stove, the oven, under the sink, in the corners...just takes way too much time.

I use the excuses that I work for myself and am a fulltime artist and those things just take priority. I also have to take care of my body and mind in my spare time and maintain my house and shop and have most of the pressures that most people have in the 21st century, but there are many things I just opt out of and updating my house and keeping it in shape for visitors just doesn't happen. I have had the same curtains for decades and my decor changes minimally unless it is time to paint. In contrast to the *normal* American lifestyle I am something else.

When I think of the hundreds of thousands of dollars I would have needed to have *kept up with the Joneses* all these decades, I feel very fortunate that I made the choice to opt out of consumerism. I do still have to buy things and in big stores I feel the seduction of things I just like or love and want to own...and see the way certain things would improve my life, but that money is pretty hard to earn and it seems way better to save it and use it on things like my art. If I had a big family or even a live-in partner I guess I would have been forced to make different choices. I envy those who have big comfortable houses where people can gather and stay and eat big meals and have the counter space to do things easily without moving other things out of the way, but the amount of time needed to clean and maintain big houses is far too expensive in my view, and I am not the sort to hire people to do my work. I do not want any servants.

I run around in the circles of ethical choices and am aware that one plane trip will tip the balance of all of those plastic things I've kept out of the landfill and all those car trips I've opted to bike or walk on instead. I'm okay with feeling that sometimes it's in balance and sometimes not. I can wish for things that are in opposition and just know that I won't get all my wishes.

Time is what I want, my time, to do with as I please. That's what I get in the offseason when I am not trying to retail anything and not consuming much either. I enjoy the round of work: doing the books and taxes, deep-cleaning the few parts that need it the most, working on my Jell-O art and my research. I put up a big table in the livingroom and spread out both the Jell-O and the research and just go from one to the other with lots of snack breaks and a day of yardwork if the sun comes out. I get a chance to enjoy cooking or baking something. I write, read, and just take my time to do things. No pressure.

The trick will be to do so much of this that I am sick of it by April and ready to start Market again. The Jell-O Show will be the last Saturday in March, and then I will get two markets before I go to Australia. When I get back I will be turning 65, which probably will not be a big deal. I do wonder how I got this old.
Then all the hoopla building up to OCF, and another year goes around. I guess that is how I got this old. It will be my 40th year of being a member of Saturday Market. Time flies when you are keeping it simple too.