Today is the first real day

Yes, that's right.  Today is the first real day of my leave.

While I am off doing leave things — sleeping past six am, seeing family and friends, eating cake — my ELL colleagues are in an all-day meeting.

random photo of a meeting from the internet

Before I was just doing summer things — trying out a paddleboard, riding my bike, going out to lunch, taking an afternoon nap — but now all those things are officially part of my leave.

Because if this were a normal year, I'd have to be in that meeting too.  I'm sure that the people leading the meeting are doing their best to make the information interesting.  However, the fact remains, those people have to sit inside in a chair somewhere, and I don't.

And I'm really happy.  I feel a little bit guilty, but not too much.  Now please excuse me, but I've got to go work on my novel.