A little bit of joy
Hello everyone,
It’s been a bit longer than usual since I wrote one of these. I’ve been burning the candle at both ends and didn’t really have the energy to write, and also I didn’t have much to say.
As the teaching term winds down, this is my last week of full time work for a LONG time. The last 4-5 weeks I’ve been working 40 hours a week PLUS many weekends PLUS a lot of out of hours work on design, emails, meetings, etc.
All of that is by choice, and I don’t regret it, but it’s nice to have that period wind down.
Even during the really busy times, though, there were still moments that were really uplifting, and often these are the little things that actually make a week.
One cold day I was still hungry at work, and a librarian brought in a ton of pizza left over from a student activity. The first box I opened had my favourite flavour: capricossa with no anchovies. What a joy.
On what felt like the first day of spring here in the southern hemisphere I was minding students on an excursion in the city/downtown area. I got assigned at a checkpoint for a race, and almost no students came. So I was able to get an early lunch, then sit in the sun basking for an hour. Not a bad mid-morning job.
Today, I was supposed to be at a school in Eltham, where I work a lot. However I was getting very sick of the students there (one of the reasons I find teaching exhausting is never getting a break from kids that are tricky), but they didn’t need me this week, instead I’m at another school babysitting year 12s as they study for the final exams. So I have lots of time to write emails, newsletters, draw and sit quietly. I’m currently minding an advanced maths class, so I hope they don’t ask for help because my maths knowledge ends at Y10.
I’ve also been working with an editor/designer on an upcoming book and she’s just been a delight to work with. I realised I needed someone with a really strident voice for an upcoming project, and I reached out to someone I know. She came on board and it’s been delightfully productive working with someone who isn’t shy about pushing away my bad ideas and proposing good ones.
Finally, someone recently proposed a book and I was curious, so we met up. I’ve really enjoyed working with them and finding someone with a similar energy and pace to me. There’s been a lot of really enjoyable back and forth. I find that I am at my most engaged when I’m working in a faster way with some intensity - that draws out creativity and motivation. I know that’s not true for everyone and I’m happy working in different ways collaboratively, but it’s been really, really nice to have someone with whom I’m on the same page and don’t have to worry about overwhelming or overloading.
As we enter the last quarter of the year it feels like this year is almost done, business wise. While there’s a few things on (three book fairs, more printing to organise, a lot of workshops) there’s nothing new coming down the pipeline that’s really possible, so I can look forward to next year.
For the first few months of next year I’ll be taking it easy because (and my gf might hate me saying this), I have a baby daughter arriving in February. That’s been a really important thing to plan around (duh), so no book launches, no events, no travel for a few months after the baby arrives. That means summer is sort of an enforced quiet work period, and anything I do in 2026 has to come probably from May onwards. Because of that big chunk of time where I want nothing on, planning for 2026 is just a big thing atm, but of course many collaborators aren’t that prepared yet. But that’s ok.
Finally, this most recent weekend was the New York Art Book Fair, and then on the first week of October friends are selling our books at the ICP photobook weekend in New York. I have a lot of thoughts but want to wait until that second fair to share anything concrete.
Till next time.