When I was younger, I would seem like it would take forever to get from February to December or from September to June. Sometimes, I'd have to make charts to count down the days until Christmas, my birthday, or the end of school. Now, my life seems to be in fast forward. I wake up, and it's almost the holiday season. I seem to measure my life by the projects at work. I remember people's children as being eight, and now they're magically college age.

One of my coworkers attributes the phenomena to a wrinkle in the space/time continuum. Another blames it on Dr. Emmett Brown's Flux Capicitor. Whatever the cause, it creates in me a need to slow down sometimes. I'm trying to use my hyperactive planning and organizing skills to create moments of opportunity in the spare time that I do have.

Here are some of the fun things we've done recently...

• We took an incredibly fun Segeway tour of downtown Richmond. (I want to take the one that they offer of the Petersburg battlefield.)
• I went with my nieces to beautiful Charlottesville, VA to pick apples and look at the tops of the trees from Mr. Jefferson's mountain. (We also went to my favorite dog store in the downtown, outdoor mall.)
• We went to the Richmond Folk Festival. This is a fun, outdoor fall festival each year, and it's free!
• My husband and I raced to finish Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. We had our own book club discussions during dinner.
• I went to a lecture about the life and death of E. A. Poe at our local library. It was great for the Halloween season. (The Poe Museum downtown is having an "unhappy hour" next week.)

Entertainment doesn't have to be fancy or expensive. Figure out ways to share time with others who matter to you. Check out your local paper, historical society, museums, and libraries. You'd be surprised at what's out there.

Unplug from today's technology and take some time to have an adventure!