Let's see, where do I begin...
0 Comments Published by Oh Wayward One on 03 June 2009 at 6/03/2009 11:16:00 am.
May was officially the busiest month of my life, I think. I actually don't know where it went. I think I went to bed some night in the late 20's of April and woke up in a parallel universe. Or, maybe I just woke up on the 1st of June and it was some OTHER Wayward Child who had managed to slug their way through May? I don't know, but I'm kind of feeling like I'm living an episode of "Lost".
Anyway.
There was school.
There is a new string quartet.
There are the most ferocious work issues ever seen in our company's history.
There is the new Animal Peeps committee and the everlasting drama built into that.
There is the HHH.
There is getting up over an hour early in the dark every morning just to keep my head above water.
There is the constant battle between practicing viola (now) vs. practicing banjo.
There are Human Resources issues.
There is the website for the Animal Peeps I am behind on updating.
There is the newsletter for the Animal Peeps that went out THREE MONTHS LATE due to a giant debacle, and internal drama amongst the committee & associated characters (which of course goes out with my name in big fat letters under "EDITOR", so of course I'M the one to blame).
There is the other associated drama that goes along with being me. Naturally.
Let me think, is there any of the above that I even wish to go into in any amount of detail now that I finally have the internet back on and about a 10 minute break in which to write something that does not have ANYTHING to do with Health and Safety, Ergonomics, the Environment, or the prevention of cruelty to animals...??? ANYTHING??? Or would I rather just put the whole thing behind me and move forward???
Well I guess there's the whole thing about my successful time-management through all of this month. I think I handled it pretty well, even if it was at the expense of my own personal life and sanity. For example - anyone who knows me knows that I am the ANTI-morning person, as in I really REALLy hate waking up in the morning, and particularly hate waking up earlier than the sun. HATE IT. But for the entirety of the last month, I have been doing it (albeit begrudgingly) and have found that I'm doing my best work and writing my best stuff between the hours of 6:00 & 7:00 am. The Mr. wakes me up, he goes downstairs and starts working (he's in deep too), and I stay upstairs in bed with the laptop and go to town. He (being the champion best-husband-on-Earth that he is) brings me a coffee and then calls me when my time is up and we have to get the smoothie show on the road and motor off to the office. In that brief time, I have already usually accomplished 200% more than I would have in half a day behind my desk in the office. Unreal. Although I hate it, I can say at least by Age 33 I've discovered a good formula for TCB.
Tip: completing 3 major research papers at once and running an office, doing a 50-hour-per-week job, and singlehandedly running a non-profit magazine and playing 2 musical instruments (one which requires substantial daily practice time now that I'm playing with a group and have 10 years of rust to work out) is unreasonable IF it becomes the norm. Especially because I like to have a life outside of all that crap. But I guess this was just the temporary luck of the draw, so I'm not going to have a pity-party about it! There's a lot of silver linings in there, like, the quality of my research papers increased because I was working a lot more intelligently than I normally do. I didn't let my physical fitness slip because regardless of how exhausted I was I just bit through it and forced myself to keep going to the gym, yoga, HHH, etc. It all basically boiled down to the fact that Frau Meister *happened* to ring me and ask me if I want a place in her quartet in May. I just *happened* to have to take 2 very heavy-load courses in my degree programme this semester. It just so *happened* that our highest-maintenance client demanded his 900-page publication to be finished in May. etc, etc etc. This is hopefully not going to be the norm, it is hopefully going to be one of those character-developing experiences that people talk about.
At least I'm really happy to be playing viola again, but I'm not really happy about the discipline issue. What I love about the banjo is that it's only ME who requires that I practice enough during the week that if Jeremy comes over with his guitar on a saturday or something, that I can have my chops up to scratch and can hang. What sucks about being in a quartet is that it's 3 other pairs of beady little eyes staring at you over the wire music stands going "did you not polish up that bit you were supposed to work on last week???" ugh. So now, I come home from the gym or yoga or whatever, at whenever, normally around 8pm or something... my shoulders hurt, my head hurts, I need to eat something, and instead of flopping down for a mind-numbing evening of Burn Notice, I have to drag myself upstairs and stare Dvorak in the face for at least an hour, by the end of which I just want to be knocked out. But still have to shower and throw something in the crock pot for the next day (notice there isn't even "make dinner" in there anymore because there are literally just not enough hours in the day and I refuse to become a fast-food queen).
I put the final touches on my last paper at appx 11:30pm on Saturday night, and was even able to muster a phone call to the beloved brother-man for his big 3-0, and got a big rush of adrenaline from finally having put at least SOMETHING to bed. So sunday I could start fresh and I did - although I had to cram for a practice session with the geriatric quartet, which wasnt quite so fun. But I started out with a gorgeous run with the HHHs, which I'm still really enjoying BTW - they're a great bunch. Good fun, good people, running, and drinking. What more could you ask for. They're even doing a Christmas-in-June soon, which I can't wait for. I don't know if it will exacerbate or alleviate this hangover of homesickness I've been hanging on to since January. There will be the whole 9-yards... wassail, yule logs, santa, mistletoe, xmas trees, xmas music, etc etc. And of course the cold weather. What a bunch of expats. HA!
OH and another fantastic addition to May - one of my BFFs from Aus called to tell me she's (FINALLY) getting married. October or thereabouts, and would I be able to make it. I am frickin crossing my fingers because I need a vacation and that's the one I want!!!! It was great to hear Agent H's voice, I miss her sooooooo much. Then Alan called from the satellite phone from Angola last night to let us know HE's still alive, which was nice, because we haven't talked since Easter and I was worried he had fallen into the Atlantic or something. No strange parasites yet, no hijackings, no STDs from the local Good Time Girls of Angola. good boy.
OK I'm caught up. The Mr. has been good about putting some photos on The Other Blog - he is such an all-rounder. I don't know how he does it.
I'm thinking a weekend in Cape Town in July is in order.
Anyway.
There was school.
There is a new string quartet.
There are the most ferocious work issues ever seen in our company's history.
There is the new Animal Peeps committee and the everlasting drama built into that.
There is the HHH.
There is getting up over an hour early in the dark every morning just to keep my head above water.
There is the constant battle between practicing viola (now) vs. practicing banjo.
There are Human Resources issues.
There is the website for the Animal Peeps I am behind on updating.
There is the newsletter for the Animal Peeps that went out THREE MONTHS LATE due to a giant debacle, and internal drama amongst the committee & associated characters (which of course goes out with my name in big fat letters under "EDITOR", so of course I'M the one to blame).
There is the other associated drama that goes along with being me. Naturally.
Let me think, is there any of the above that I even wish to go into in any amount of detail now that I finally have the internet back on and about a 10 minute break in which to write something that does not have ANYTHING to do with Health and Safety, Ergonomics, the Environment, or the prevention of cruelty to animals...??? ANYTHING??? Or would I rather just put the whole thing behind me and move forward???
Well I guess there's the whole thing about my successful time-management through all of this month. I think I handled it pretty well, even if it was at the expense of my own personal life and sanity. For example - anyone who knows me knows that I am the ANTI-morning person, as in I really REALLy hate waking up in the morning, and particularly hate waking up earlier than the sun. HATE IT. But for the entirety of the last month, I have been doing it (albeit begrudgingly) and have found that I'm doing my best work and writing my best stuff between the hours of 6:00 & 7:00 am. The Mr. wakes me up, he goes downstairs and starts working (he's in deep too), and I stay upstairs in bed with the laptop and go to town. He (being the champion best-husband-on-Earth that he is) brings me a coffee and then calls me when my time is up and we have to get the smoothie show on the road and motor off to the office. In that brief time, I have already usually accomplished 200% more than I would have in half a day behind my desk in the office. Unreal. Although I hate it, I can say at least by Age 33 I've discovered a good formula for TCB.
Tip: completing 3 major research papers at once and running an office, doing a 50-hour-per-week job, and singlehandedly running a non-profit magazine and playing 2 musical instruments (one which requires substantial daily practice time now that I'm playing with a group and have 10 years of rust to work out) is unreasonable IF it becomes the norm. Especially because I like to have a life outside of all that crap. But I guess this was just the temporary luck of the draw, so I'm not going to have a pity-party about it! There's a lot of silver linings in there, like, the quality of my research papers increased because I was working a lot more intelligently than I normally do. I didn't let my physical fitness slip because regardless of how exhausted I was I just bit through it and forced myself to keep going to the gym, yoga, HHH, etc. It all basically boiled down to the fact that Frau Meister *happened* to ring me and ask me if I want a place in her quartet in May. I just *happened* to have to take 2 very heavy-load courses in my degree programme this semester. It just so *happened* that our highest-maintenance client demanded his 900-page publication to be finished in May. etc, etc etc. This is hopefully not going to be the norm, it is hopefully going to be one of those character-developing experiences that people talk about.
At least I'm really happy to be playing viola again, but I'm not really happy about the discipline issue. What I love about the banjo is that it's only ME who requires that I practice enough during the week that if Jeremy comes over with his guitar on a saturday or something, that I can have my chops up to scratch and can hang. What sucks about being in a quartet is that it's 3 other pairs of beady little eyes staring at you over the wire music stands going "did you not polish up that bit you were supposed to work on last week???" ugh. So now, I come home from the gym or yoga or whatever, at whenever, normally around 8pm or something... my shoulders hurt, my head hurts, I need to eat something, and instead of flopping down for a mind-numbing evening of Burn Notice, I have to drag myself upstairs and stare Dvorak in the face for at least an hour, by the end of which I just want to be knocked out. But still have to shower and throw something in the crock pot for the next day (notice there isn't even "make dinner" in there anymore because there are literally just not enough hours in the day and I refuse to become a fast-food queen).
I put the final touches on my last paper at appx 11:30pm on Saturday night, and was even able to muster a phone call to the beloved brother-man for his big 3-0, and got a big rush of adrenaline from finally having put at least SOMETHING to bed. So sunday I could start fresh and I did - although I had to cram for a practice session with the geriatric quartet, which wasnt quite so fun. But I started out with a gorgeous run with the HHHs, which I'm still really enjoying BTW - they're a great bunch. Good fun, good people, running, and drinking. What more could you ask for. They're even doing a Christmas-in-June soon, which I can't wait for. I don't know if it will exacerbate or alleviate this hangover of homesickness I've been hanging on to since January. There will be the whole 9-yards... wassail, yule logs, santa, mistletoe, xmas trees, xmas music, etc etc. And of course the cold weather. What a bunch of expats. HA!
OH and another fantastic addition to May - one of my BFFs from Aus called to tell me she's (FINALLY) getting married. October or thereabouts, and would I be able to make it. I am frickin crossing my fingers because I need a vacation and that's the one I want!!!! It was great to hear Agent H's voice, I miss her sooooooo much. Then Alan called from the satellite phone from Angola last night to let us know HE's still alive, which was nice, because we haven't talked since Easter and I was worried he had fallen into the Atlantic or something. No strange parasites yet, no hijackings, no STDs from the local Good Time Girls of Angola. good boy.
OK I'm caught up. The Mr. has been good about putting some photos on The Other Blog - he is such an all-rounder. I don't know how he does it.
I'm thinking a weekend in Cape Town in July is in order.
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