"All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy"

"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" -- that's an old expression used in James Joyce's gorgeous short story "Araby." The line popped into my head when I was driving home just now. I've been a little too much in the all-work mode lately and so today, well, I did a little playing. I don't want to turn into a dull boy now, do I? 

I'm nearly done with my correcting frenzy, and I'll get more assignments from another class next week, so I needed a day off. I went for a walk with my writer friend Elaine Kalman Naves, then I met my friend Gordana for coffee at our favourite cafe here in Montreal. And Gordana just happened to give me a book that has a lot to do with the necessity of play in our lives. It's called The Happiness Project : Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun and it's by Gretchen Rubin. Gordana, who also works in Montreal as a CEGEP teacher, is reading the book, too, and she thinks I'll like it as much as she does. She also wants me to underline my favourite passages so that we can discuss them at our next coffee date. So you can expect to hear something about this book in upcoming blog entries.

All this to say this is a crazy busy time of year for those of us who teach college, but sometimes... even a teacher/writer needs a play day. Hope wherever you are, you have something playful planned for this weekend, too!