Mixing it up

I tend to spend a lot of time during the school day working on my own (when I'm not grocery shopping, at the gym or at a school meeting). I really enjoy working independently, as long as it is balanced out with people time. 

This year I've dropped one commitment and made a point of initiating more coffee times with friends. It's been a great strategy that I've enjoyed very much. I've been encouraged and spurred on in life and I hope my friends have felt the same way. 

One of those spontaneous coffee times was yesterday afternoon. A friend came several hours by car to CAJ for some academic testing for her daughter. I found out via Facebook and asked if she'd like to have coffee. Then only a few minutes before I was to meet her I discovered another friend 'in town' for the same reason. She's come from the other side of Tokyo via train. So I spontaneously invited her to join us. Though neither of my friends had previously met, we had a wonderful two hours chatting over coffee while they waited for their children to complete the testing.

Then today, my birthday, I went into the city to the office to help pack the latest issue of the magazine. It was a lovely way to spend my birthday, with colleagues: chatting while we did a fairly mundane task. A nice break from most of my work with the magazine which is usually is a pretty intense detail focus on words and ideas. 

So, it's been a good couple of days. Now tomorrow I'll have to knuckle down and get some more work done at home alone on the computer!