Free time.

What does a girl do when she has finally turned in her last paper for graduate school and therefore has some free time for the first time in at least three years? I shall tell you. She:

-Sees "El Secreto de Sus Ojos", the Argentine film that won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film (I love Ricardo Darin!). She also watches "The Lovely Bones" from Netflix, even if it leaves her less than impressed, as well as the documentary Crude on the case against Chevron/Texaco in the Amazon in Ecuador. Upon finishing the film, she feels both infinitely inspired and infinitely enraged. (You can learn more about the case here).

-Finishes reading both Freakonomics and Get Financially Naked: How to Talk Money With Your Honey

-Buys new gold sandals and orders her Mother's Day gift for her Mom.

-Takes a long, leisurely walk around her neighborhood, walking barefoot in the grass by her house.

-Cooks up some sauteed zucchini and tomatoes for dinner.

-Throws out 5 bags of things she doesn't need and packs 7 boxes of books in anticipation of moving in a few weeks.

-Contemplates all of the things she wants to do in the coming weeks: decorate her new apartment, do lots of yoga, cook her way through Viva Vegan!, see the Georgia O'Keefe exhibit at the Phillips Collection, go see the documentary Babies, spend time at farmers markets, plow her way through unread books, go to concerts and museums, and spend time with her now non-long distance and instead live-in boyfriend, who she has missed oh so very much.

-Thinks about how good her life really is!

{Photo credit: dml82}