So after the excitement of last night, I didn't sleep all that well. And then there was all sorts of street noise early this morning. So...yawn. I'm exhausted now.
I left Newport around 10 AM. I had planned to stop at a winery in Connecticut, but didn't have time when it came down to it (or I thought I didn't), so I skipped it. The big event of the day was a tour of Kykuit, the Rockefeller estate. I had wanted to take the 3-hour grand tour, but that was sold out, so I instead took the 2-hour and 15-minute classic tour, which just skips the upstairs rooms. This estate is different from the others that I've visited because this house was meant as a family home, rather than an entertaining home. There is no grand ballroom. There's a formal dining room, but it's not on the scale of the Hearst Castle or any of the Newport mansions. I was kinda in a bit of a sour mood through the tour for a variety of reasons (annoying kids on the tour that wouldn't stop talking, a slow & quiet tour guide who didn't take control, and me having not gotten enough sleep). So it wasn't my favorite house I've been to. It was nice, and I recommend it if you haven't seen a lot of these preserved homes from that era, but they're getting quite repetitive for me. Especially when a lot of the information is like "This is a drawing room. It gets its name from the English tradition of the women withdrawing to this room after dinner so the men could stay and smoke in the dining room. It's essentially a women's sitting room." Seriously. Same information at every house. There was a large collection of modern art in the basement, which was pretty neat and different.
After the mansion, I stopped at a place to get clam pizza, which is apparently a New Haven thing. I didn't quite get it. I like clams, and I like pizza, but together, it was weird. The salad I had was pretty great though.
I made it down to my friend's apartment in Manhattan right around 7 PM. I even managed to find a parking spot less than half a block from her building. I'm staying here for 4 nights, and I'm hoping to spend some of that time just relaxing and chilling out.
I did talk to the insurance claims representative from the company that represents the driver of the car from last night. We talked about the process for getting the work done I need. She said that she had heard there was a telephone pole involved in the incident and if so, the coverage may not be enough to cover everyone's repairs. But I don't know anything about a telephone pole. The girl did hit 3 cars and took out a traffic sign, but I didn't see a telephone pole of any sort hit. I told the insurance agent that and gave her all the information she needed. I just need to send her the pictures of my duct-taped-on mirror as well as the estimate and receipt for getting it replaced. As long as the coverage is enough for everyone, I'll then get reimbursed. I also called and made an appointment at an Acura dealership near my parents' house in Philly, so I'll be able to get that taken care of while I'm in town early next week. That'll be a relief.
Ok, I promised that I'd write about my thoughts about my schedule when I get back. No one reminded me, but I remembered myself. So if you know much about me (or even if you don't, you've probably figured this out from this blog), I am a planner. I like to plan things in advance and then execute the plan. I also like to fill up my schedule with a lot of activities. Over just the past year, I've taken dance classes, improv classes, watercolor classes, leadership classes, trained for and ran a 10K, stage managed 3 shows, attended trivia semi-regularly, done my big cook days once every 6 weeks or so, helped organize multiple silent auctions for my volunteer job, traveled extensively, attended a lot of shows, and a ton more stuff. And this is all in addition to my day job and normal living stuff like doctor's appointments and whatnot. So my life is generally quite busy. No wonder I had to hire an assistant to help me out with laundry and dishes and errands. Anyway, I have a lot of various avenues for finding activities to do. And I obviously have a lot of varied interests. So the other day, the fall calendar for University of Texas Informal Classes came out. I went through there and picked out the various classes that I'd like to take. Then I went through the Austin School of Fashion Design schedule and picked out the classes that I'd like to take. Then I went through the Ballet Austin schedule and picked out the classes that I may want to attend. And then I put ALL of those classes in my calendar (that's my process - put everything in my calendar and then trim it down). And with all of those things in there, obviously there are some conflicts, so I have to prioritize. But even if I limit what's on my calendar to only having one activity at a given time, my calendar is still full. Like really full. And this is where my dilemma comes in. I do like having a full schedule, but it can be draining. And I'm not sure that when I get home from this trip that I'll want to immediately jump back into the same lifestyle that I had before I left. I don't know if I'll want to be as busy as I've been. Or as stretched thin. I might. I might even want to do more - push myself more or something. But the point is that right now, I don't know what I'll want. So I'm trying to resist registering for all of the things that I think I want to do in order to give myself an opportunity to settle back in and figure it out at that point. I have to keep reminding myself that the classes will always be available. If I don't take an oil painting class in October, there will be another one in November. And December. And January. I just have a habit of wanting to take everything now. So my current plan is this. When I get home, take the first week to get settled into my apartment, deal with all the business of being back in town (get my cats, get my hair cut, probably get my car serviced, cook a batch of food, etc.). Then week 2 is going to be about getting back into my day job. I even ruled out any classes that started that week from possible ones to take. At the end of that week, I'll evaluate where I am and decided if I want to add in one class/activity. I am only allowing myself to add in one class/activity per week. So if at any point, I'm starting to feel overwhelmed, I'll know that's my current limit. The limit may vary over time, but I just want to allow myself to have space in my life. I'm pretty sure that I'll always be a "busy" person, with lots of things going on. But I don't want to be busy just to be known as a busy person. I want to choose things for a purpose and do things because I really want to do them, not just because I had an evening free in my calendar.
Tomorrow's plan: not sure yet. Maybe relax, maybe head out into the city. Tomorrow we have theatre tickets though. To a show that I know very little about, other than having seen the movie and seen a performance on the Tony's.
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