The Day After the Busy Day

 

It is a rainy Sunday afternoon in Phoenixville. The rain is light but steady. So steady that it isn’t going to stop for the rest of the day.

It is also the Day After the Busy Day. It’s funny how often the Day After the Busy Day is a rainy Sunday.

I had known for nearly two months that yesterday, April 30, was going to be a Busy Day. Two of the biggest events in which I am involved happened yesterday. It wasn’t supposed to be that way. Phoenixville’s Relay for Life, which benefits the American Cancer Society, was originally scheduled for a weekend in May, but a venue conflict led to a rescheduling of the event. (You can support my Relay fund-raising, if you’d like, at my Relay page)

Meanwhile, A Whole Lot of LuLu, a huge vintage craft show held twice a year in downtown Phoenixville, was scheduled for yesterday as well. I share a vending space with my good friend Michael at LuLu and sell my Really Cool Notebooks. It is always a good time.

But Relay and LuLu on the same day? This was a scary proposition. Each event was long enough that I could participate in both, but this was going to equal one long day.

In the end, it was a great day. It started at 4:30 a.m., when I got up and assembled some new notebooks made from record album covers by the likes of Madonna, Molly Hatchet, Masters of the Universe, and the long-lost disco group Sheila and B.Devotion. I was downtown at LuLu from around 8:00 until 4:00. It was a typically fun LuLu experience, though my sales weren’t great. You can never tell about these things.

After packing up and heading home post-LuLu, I hit the scene at the Relay, which had been in progress since 10:00 a.m. I had a brief distraction, which led me to an impromptu grass-cutting session before spending the rest of the night at Relay, getting home just after midnight.

(And, to think there was a special 180th anniversary celebration at Laurel Hill Cemetery, where I’m a tour guide, yesterday. But my plans yesterday never included any sort of trips outside Phoenixville. I hope everyone at LHC had a great time though.)

A Busy Day. And, now, the Day After the Busy Day.

Sometimes the Day After the Busy Day can feel empty and dismal. I remember that’s how it felt the day after the closing night of the ninth grade musical, in which I was a cast member. Being part of the play had given me a feeling of belonging in my new school and the day after felt depressing.

Today feels different though. Today, I am embracing the brief window of emptiness that I am feeling now that LuLu and Relay are over for now. Rather than an emptiness that feels lonely, the emptiness feels like a pause to regain/realign my perspective. I know that more Busy Days are in the immediate future; there is no lack of activity in my life right now. However, my preoccupation with yesterday’s Busy Day had become encompassing enough that I need a few hours on this rainy Sunday to step back from busyness of any sort.

The Day After the Busy Day is the day to set the reset button.