Hi! I’m just dropping in quickly to tell you that I have things to tell you about* but I haven’t had time to write about them. Work got busy, so I’m spending all baby-free time on that (getting paid for the actual number of hours I work is the biggest upside to going part-time and hourly), and when I stop for the night I’ve been deciding to go to bed rather than stay up to blog.
* That doesn’t mean big news. I have no big news. I have just have small Jack stories and updates that I keep meaning to tell you about.
Anyway, I have five more minutes to work before I start getting into my shower time, so I’m off.
John went to visit Tom this weekend, drink some beer, brew some beer, and talk about manly things (I assume), so I had a little over 24 hours to myself. Let’s see how I spent that time:
I cleaned the entire house. Seriously, that’s the first thing I did after John left. No reason I couldn’t have done with him home (and of course he would have helped), but that’s just how the timing worked out. I feel SO much better.
I went for a run. The weather was the warmest it’s been in weeks, so I went running for the first time since Christmas Eve. It was GREAT.
Took a LONG hot shower, put on my pjs, talked to Mel for an hour and got caught up on her remodel drama.
Ordered Indian food and watched the most recent two episodes of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Disappointing. The Indian food, not the TV.
Started a 1000-piece puzzle.
Went to bed with my book and read.
Got up early-ish, okay no, 9am is not early. But I woke up before 8 and then just didn’t get up.
Went to the gym. My calves protested yesterday’s run, but I think it was good to stretch them out… John has the car, so I walked. Not too cold (30s).
Had eggs and toast for brunch and spent more time on my puzzle.
Went to a local coffee shop for an hour or so to read.
I hit pre-trip panic mode early this time. It’s all work-related – no, it’s mostly work-related. I had to sleep on a wide-brim straw hat purchase to talk myself out of it. I buy hats and then I never wear them, so I really shouldn’t buy hats. The work-related pre-trip panic is about getting X number of things done or at least prepping things for other people to do before I take EIGHT WHOLE DAYS off. (It’s not going to be eight whole days. Something is going to come up, and someone is going to call, and I’m going to have to do something work-related. No, that’s pessimistic. No one is going to call. They can get along without me.) I can’t remember the last time I took that much time off. It wasn’t to move to Oregon, it wasn’t to go on vacation with Mel, and I don’t think I even took that much time off to go to France (might have been seven days), and that was over four years ago. My point, if I have one, is that I need to take vacations. Of course, we’ll take these days off, and then less than a month later, take more days off to drive across the country.
Anyway, pre-trip panic:
I have a million things to do at work before I go.
I have to buy a dress (yay shopping!) next week, which will cause more panic next week because time will be running short short short by then, but I don’t have time until then and – breathe – it’ll be fine because shopping for this will be easy.
And…okay, that’s mostly it.
I’m not stressed about packing, I’m not stressed about the trip itself…I suppose I’m starting to feel early moving stress, but that’ll kick in to high gear when we get back. For now, it’s pretty low-key.
Tuesday night, Frank Turner. Tonight, Sting. Tomorrow, THE WORLD!
I seriously doubt we’ll get to repeat Tuesday night’s excitement at tonight’s Sting concert (for one, I think our seats are in the nosebleed section), but it’ll still be fun and we’re taking tomorrow off work so we can wander around Portland for the day.
Work has been so nuts lately that it’s messing with my brain in every other aspect of my life. I haven’t shut down my work laptop in a week because I have too many open documents, emails, tabs, notes, anything you can think of, all unfinished. I’m disorganized, and I can’t find the time during the work day to fix it. I refuse on principle to take the time out of the rest of my day to do it because my work days have been getting too long already. That may not be the best plan, though.
So I’m disorganized at work, and because I feel like I can’t think straight for 9 to 10 hours a day (if I’m lucky), I can’t shake it when I stop working. I haven’t sorted through the mail in weeks (hope there’s nothing important in there), laundry is sporadic, basically only done when necessary, and I’m starting to worry about being ready for our trip next week. That worry was inevitable, of course, but I need to get a grip.
I know – I’m going back to my lists. That’ll work.
I’m running late today. I thought I had all the time in the world, but I just finished working, and I need to shower, and I only have 40 minutes before I need to leave for my massage this afternoon (yes, I have a massage scheduled). I don’t like the thought of being all rushed and tense when I show up for my massage, but I suppose when you’re rushed and tense, a massage is a good thing to have. Of course, I’m only tense because I’m rushed – why am I still typing? Gotta run!
I did manage to get it together today, at least partially. I ran this morning, had a relatively stress-free workday, and got ALL of the laundry done. Mostly done. The whites are in the dryer, and I really should go rescue them before they make a break for it. Maybe THAT’S what happens to those missing socks! They’re the most adventurous clothing items you own, so while you’re confused about how you ended up with one lonely sock, its mate is gallivanting about town. This would never have happened if you just got the clothes out of the dryer as soon as the cycle ended!
In other productive news, I helped Jess hand out Naval Academy promotional posters to local businesses at lunch, and I bought plane tickets for one of my next trips to Kentucky. (I also bought John’s birthday present, but don’t tell him that. It’s a surprise. I mean, he knows when his birthday is, and he knows I’m going to get him something, so I guess you can tell him I did. And I didn’t tell YOU what it was, so you can’t spoil that surprise. Never mind.)
My point, if I have one, is that I feel better about today than I did about yesterday. Even though I still haven’t made it to the grocery store.
We got to the end of last week, and I was feeling the stress of work (which was nutty last week), moving this coming weekend, not having done any packing yet, and being away all of this weekend just past (and therefore not being ABLE to pack), so I made a token effort to get started. I need some illusion of control. I taped a box together and pulled a few things from the bookshelf into it. It’s not enough, but it means I’m able to say we’ve begun to pack. I haven’t done anything else, but we really don’t have a lot left in the apartment anyway. We’ll pack up the kitchen (which is all half-empty cabinets), our clothes, and two not-full bookshelfs. That’s about it, aside from furniture. There, I’m justifying not being fully packed. Do I feel better? Eh.
This weekend is our last free weekend for a couple of weeks, and I’m afraid we’re trying to cram too much into it. Don’t get me wrong – these next couple of weekends are going to be fun. We just won’t be at home.
We’re sending pieces of the drumset to Will in Oregon, so we have to go to the storage unit and figure out how to pack and ship those pieces (cymbals, stands, etc. – he has drums).
We need to make a dent on our projects (getting rid of more stuff).
I need (want? no. need.) a pedicure. Molly’s graduation is next weekend, and I will be wearing sandals, and I have 90% of a toenail on that one toe finally. It’s time for my feet to look pretty again.
I would like to go to Athleta.
We may try to see the new Avengers movie. (If we don’t see it this weekend, it’ll be three weeks before we get to it.)
I need to run both days.
We have to (HAVE TO) watch the Derby.
We’re going over to a friend’s house to watch THE MATCH Saturday night.
John has to fix the belt and pulley and whatever on my car.
There’s probably more. Some of these things are definitely happening, and some I would like to fit in if I can, but that’s a lot more than we usually plan for in any one weekend. Where’s my down time? My reading time? My staring at the wall time? I NEED MY STARING AT THE WALL TIME.
We watched a LOT of TV yesterday (a LOT of TV), so to make up for it, we got up this morning, went out to breakfast at IHOP (John had a craving for pancakes – surprise!), went to Target and bought a coffee maker (we junked our old one when we moved), went to Wegmans for groceries for the next few days, went BACK to IHOP to retrieve the credit card I left behind, and were home again by about 11am. That’s about as much productivity as one Sunday can take, so we haven’t done much since then, but we feel pretty good about ourselves.
I’m just back from a run (the weather is perfect), so I’m ripping some CDs (this project is going to take a LONG time) while I cool down enough to get in the shower. Then, I imagine, more TV and dinner. Because we can!
I’ve lost it completely. I can’t concentrate on work because I want to work on packing and moving. I can’t concentrate on moving and packing because I want to focus on last-minute things (like packing) for next week’s vacation. I can’t focus on the vacation because then I feel guilty. For one, John isn’t going (it’s just me and Min), so it doesn’t seem fair to think only about that. Second, I feel guilty because I should be paying attention to house stuff and only house stuff. And work. But mostly house stuff. The end result is that I can’t pay attention to anything. I’m like a goldfish. Or Dory. Who are you again? I’ll just keep swimming.
Today has been nuts. I haven’t focused on one thing for more than ten minutes at a time all day. Someone just came over to ask me if I ever got an answer to a question I asked in an email I sent no more than 2 hours ago, and I had no idea what he was talking about. He had to actually show me the email before I remembered it.
Our house is still on the market. Riley is still with us (he’s doing okay – still excited about going upstairs, eating (he’s eating pretty well – better than ever, actually), and walks). We still have the same jobs (although I have finally updated my resume – progress!). I get to puppy-sit for Emily this weekend, and John has to go to a bachelor party. Emily is getting married in less than three weeks, and I haven’t taken my bridesmaid dress to get hemmed yet. But I will tomorrow! I ordered flats (I decided my sparkly peep-toe heels need to go back for the following reasons: 1) I’d take them off for dancing, anyway. 2) I don’t NEED to be the tallest bridesmaid (but I really really want to be the tallest bridesmaid). 3) No one needs to be peeping at my poor toe.), and they finally arrived today, so tomorrow I can take my dress and get it hemmed to the right length (to go with the shoes I’ll be wearing). And not a moment too soon.
Guys, I was so productive today. Okay, sure, I slept in, but then I went to zumba and had breakfast with John before he headed off to an out-of-town Springsteen concert, took Riley for a walk, cleaned the whole house, and THEN I sat in front of open windows with a pleasant breeze and did our taxes. Not particularly exciting for a Saturday afternoon, but it all needed to get done. And I feel virtuous. So much so that I will ruin the good of my morning workout and eat my weight inIndian food for dinner out with friends. And then I will no longer feel virtuous. But I will feel full of delicious food.
I blame my MIA-ness on overscheduling myself this summer. I have stuff going on most weeknights and almost every weekend, and work has been crazy so when I have an evening free, I mostly just crash. (We’ve been watching a lot of Buffy.) My Thursday nights just opened back up, though, since my tap class got canceled. Very sad. I only got to go to the one class. They say it’ll be offered again in the fall. I’m hopeful. I would like to use the tap shoes I bought.
My MIA-ness extends itself to the internet, so I was just catching up with The Bloggess, and I followed one of her links to this fabulous idea for a website. I have a bookshelves full of books I want to read, and I usually can’t decide what I feel like next. This will probably help me, although I have a book club book that I have to read next. I’ll use it after that one. I know John has this problem pretty much every time he finishes a book, so What Should I Read Next? should be very helpful.
Carnegie Mellon offers free online classes, and John and I have taken advantage of the Elementary French 1 course. It’s slow going, but it’s going. My weeknights are pretty well scheduled out for the summer. Monday is for jazz class, Tuesday French, Wednesday zumba, Thursday tap class. I was hoping for yoga on Friday nights, but that class didn’t materialize. It’s just as well – I’ll need a night off now and then.
I skipped April Fool’s Day this year. I mean, I was there for it. I was awake and active in the world or whatever, but it completely slipped my mind until fairly late in the evening, and I wasn’t aware of a single prank. This morning, John showed me the Firefly one on Reddit (which I can’t find right now). That was a good one, if mean. Oh, and I saw the Google Nose thing after I got home last night. I don’t mind missing it. I don’t usually do April Fool’s. It makes me wonder if that’s how April is going to go, though. Am I going to miss every other day? Or rush through the whole month? Maybe I’ll just view everything through my congested fog. That’ll be fun.
John has been really sick all week. I think he’s starting to get better, but he’s still miserable.
Book club tonight went well. There were only six of us, but I think that was okay. We had a good time.
It has been a CRAZY week. Like, crazy came to visit, snooped through my medicine cabinets, and then rearranged all the drawers in the kitchen. I can’t tell up from down.
I didn’t finish my book club book (the one I picked) until an hour before book club started. I’ve been too busy to read, but I had to have the book finished before people came over. I mean, I picked it. Failure was not an option.
Not having the house cleaned, not having the book read, not having enough time during the work day to think, and not having John to help (because he’s been so sick – not his fault) has made this week super stressful.
When I tried to log in to this site about an hour ago, I couldn’t do it. Kept screwing up the password. Lots of times. Might have had a bit too much wine. At least now I’ve picked up, washed some dishes, and I’m a little soberer (more sober is probably the right way to say that, but I’m in no condition to really tell) now. Soberer enough to find where I store my passwords and make sure I can log in. And here I am.
I have no idea what I’m going to read next. I’ve been so stressed out about finding time to finish my book club book that I haven’t put any thought into what’s next. Probably something I own already. Whatever it is, I don’t need to decide tonight since I’m going right to bed. And tomorrow I have a shopping day planned with Emily and then we’re going to dinner and then the ballet, so there won’t be any time for reading. Maybe Sunday.
I don’t understand why I’m still awake. I haven’t had an uninterrupted night’s sleep since Sunday night. I keep expecting to crash, and it keeps not happening. Now I’m really dreading it. Maybe I should make Emily drive tomorrow. Whoops. Today. It’s officially Saturday now.
I have not gone off the deep end, I have not fallen off the face of the earth, and I have not gotten trapped under something heavy. I’m here. Very distracted, but here. Except not really because I have to get on a plane tonight and go to a bridal shower tomorrow. And I’m not bringing my laptop. But I WILL come back. Very soon. I swear.
Today has been the longest day. At least three different times during the workday (and again just now), I was convinced it was Tuesday night (or possibly Wednesday). That much has happened since I woke up this morning (which, admittedly, was earlier than usual because it’s one of John’s boxing days – more on that later). Actually, not that much happened today that’s of interest to anyone I don’t work with, but it was a super busy day. And I got my year-end bonus. 🙂 Yay me!
Man! I completely skipped my online morning routine, too. Pause while I check Woot and XKCD. Better, and only 10 hours later than usual for a Monday.
I’m trying to reconnect with whatever feelings of calm I found yesterday while I was getting my nails done. I went to my favorite place, and they were completely empty. I was the only customer and no one seemed to be in the mood to talk (which was fine with me). It was so peaceful, utterly quiet except the god-awful muzak they were playing (which I tuned out as much as possible), and now I have awesomely hot pink toes. However, I also have a rock band playing in my basement (for the first time in months), so peace and quiet are nowhere to be found. Instead, I will play online and watch adorable videos, like this one.
