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Get Shit Done Week, ending on a whimper …
The beauty of GSDW is that you’ve got a powerful psychological motivation for facing a bunch of shit that has been successfully avoided for a while. Some of the things I did this week, I’ve been needing to do for a very, very long time. And, now they’re done! Hooray!
Plus, the nature of the shit done over GSDW is that it results in immediate gratification — unlike so many of the things we do in academia, when rewards are delayed or are very intangible. It has been very satisfying to be able to scratch concrete items off the To Do list and to see concrete improvements around the house.
On the other hand, I noticed as GSDW progressed, a creeping resentment about the fact that I must set aside a week of my life in order to take care of this annoying shit — or, more to the point, that I can set aside a week because the nature of my academic life means that there are these periods of time in which I am not technically working (i.e., teaching) and in which I am not technically on vacation (i.e., laying on a beach). But, of course, we all know that devoting this week to projects means not doing some of my other work (research, writing, etc.) and that I will have to pay myself back for this time at some point in the future. I think this indicates that it is better to keep GSDW to a short week rather than a full seven days — or it might start to feel as burdensome as anything else would.
I haven’t done much today but I am (mostly) feeling better — or at least good enough to take off this afternoon for my yoga workshop. Then, I’ll be heading out for a little vacation, so it may be a few days before I post here again. Holla!
Alas, the dip in energy and mood that I experienced yesterday evening — and which I interpreted as a mild case of the blues — turned out to be the symptoms of an incipient illness. I was up late last night with a dry cough and this morning I was all achy and tired — but mostly cranky about this interruption to my ambitious GSDW plans. The crankiness morphed over the course of the day into free-floating anger — which turned out to be a good motivation for dragging my carcass off the couch and not letting the day slip away altogether.
Here’s what I managed to get done, between naps, glasses of Emergen-C, gargling with Dr. Gould’s Gargle, and catching up on the final episodes of “Dollhouse.”
1. Took the dog to the vet for shots, etc.
2. Cleaned closet, incl. sorting through clothes that need to go to Goodwill
3. Washed dog’s bedding
4. Started working on cleaning antique family quilt that was the target for some explosive cat vomit
5. Remade guest bed — which is more complicated than it sounds due to vomit incident mentioned above
6. Coupla loads of laundry
… does not quite rival yesterday’s super productivity.
1. To dentist for cleaning
2. Lunch with old friend who I haven’t seen in far too long
3. Bathing suit shopping again — this time I bought a suit that more or less fits, settling for something so that I could stop shopping. Gah.
4. Bra shopping — unsuccessful. Returned home and purchased desired bras from Amazon — what a topsy turvy world we live in, where you buy lingerie from the world’s largest online purveyor of books!
5. Mailed some stuff
And, because I was feeling a bit blue, coaxed Golden Boy to go with me and the dog to the dog park to enjoy the sunset.
Today has been more like the kind of day I envisioned when I instituted GSDW.
1. Took car in for oil change/tire rotation/tire balance
2. Went to Home Depot for supplies
3. Replaced broken toilet seat (No fat ass jokes, please, especially after my swimsuit post of yesterday!)
4. Mortared around new (okay, “new” a year ago) outdoor water faucet
5. Reprogrammed sprinkler system
6. Replaced old light fixture in groovy 50s lamp with new wiring (You will think I have mad repair skillz — but it was much easier than it sounds.)
7. Poured some red wine on the compost (after reading this)
8. Ordered a new compost frame (this one)
9. Made car rental reservations for vacation next week
I did a few other things today that don’t deserve being included on the GSDW list — but which I am going to throw in here, since I’m feeling boastful about what an incredibly productive day I had: I also went to two different stores to buy pet food, had a lovely lunch out with Golden Boy, went grocery shopping, scooped both cat boxes, practiced a little yoga, and made dinner (vegetarian chili). Oh yeah …
I didn’t get as much done today as I hoped, because I had to go in to my office, which is like a black hole where time is concerned. Oh well, here’s hoping tomorrow is better.
1. Had marathon meeting with colleague A about her article
2. Had marathon phone meeting with colleague B about New Project
3. Sent emails regarding New Project
4. Wrote 2 letters of recommendation
5. Wrote silly department PR thingee
6. Replied to student emails
7. Went bathing suit shopping
Yes, that’s right, I’m in the third circle of hell, also known as “shopping for a bathing suit.” Please note that this is not the de facto complaint women are expected to deliver: “Woe is me, I look terrible in a bathing suit! I am not ’swimsuit ready’! I have failed as a human being because my abs are not tight and I have cellulite.” Gawd, I am so over that self-loathing.
Nope, I am pissed at the swimsuit designers of the world for having absolutely no idea what women’s bodies look like or not giving a damn, if they do.
Case in point: Are the women of American lacking in the bust area? Because 99% of the bathing suits I saw today had foam padding. When I look around me, it sure doesn’t seem like most women need any extra material up there. As a women with plenty of natural bust padding, I certainly don’t need faux additions — I need SUPPORT. And that is almost impossible to find.
Anybody have recommendations for bathing suits made for actual swimming, with good coverage/support for actual breasts?
Today is the first day of my new Get Shit Done Week (h/t Redneck Mother). Classes are over, grades turned in — so I’ve undertaken to face some of the things that have been cluttering up my To Do list for months or, um, years. In this instance, GSDW is actually only going to last 5 1/2 days because I’m going to a yoga workshop next weekend — and then Golden Boy and I are getting the hell outta Dodge for a much-needed vacation. You can see my motivation — I have two fabulous rewards waiting for me at the end of this week, so I want to get as much accomplished in the next few days so I can indulge with a sense of just desserts.
Shit I Got Done:
1. Cats to vet for shots, etc.
2. Exterminator inspection
Okay, technically both of these things happened at the end of last week, but they were on my To Do list so I am giving myself credit here.
The exterminator spent approximately 3.5 seconds inspecting the spot where I saw winged bugs that may or may not have been termites, said “yup, sounds like you got termites” and then quoted us a price of $1500 for a “termite monitoring system” that will let us know whether we have termites. To which I said, “Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha …”
3. Repotted tomato plants
4. Top-dressed and dusted all house plants
5. Planted monkey grass
6. Worked on ailing trees
7. First stage in ambitious weed eradication project
And, what I am going to do next …
8. Read & comment on colleague’s article for meeting tomorrow
Yesterday when I walked in to my office building — which houses several departments, including the English department — there was a new addition to the foyer. Screwed to the wall by the elevators: a giant dispenser of hand sanitizer.
Now, I know that this is a high swine flu area — or, at least, a high swine flu panic area — but come on!
I’d like to find out just how much the university has spent on hand sanitizer dispensers, vats of hand sanitizer, and the labor to install/maintain said dispensers … perhaps approximately as much as we are NOT getting raises for this year?
Fairly spoiler-free review, I promise.
Sci-fi geeks have reason to celebrate! The new Star Trek movie is great fun — it manages to incorporate just enough of the familiar to satisfy long time Trek fans (of which I am one) with just enough of the big summer blockbuster aesthetic (can you say, “explosions”?) to be entertaining.
I have never been a huge Kirk fan (my heart belongs to Picard, thank you very much) so I don’t have a stake in the “can he replace Shatner?” debate — but I thought that overall the casting was the high point of the film. The actors were beautiful to look at and enjoyable to see in these new/old roles. Yes, I was even able to forget Sylar when I watched Zachery Quinto playing young Spock. There are a couple of poor casting choices in terms of minor characters — including one egregious “Cornel West in The Matrix” moment that will make you scratch your head and wonder what the hell they were thinking — but overall, I give the film and the acting high marks.
Unfortunately, feminist sci-fi geeks have less to be excited about. There is a conspicuous lack of female characters and the ones there are fall into one of two classic categories: loving but doomed or inexplicably absent mothers or love interests/sex objects. There has been an attempt made to give Uhura an actual area of expertise, rather than just being a glorified telephone operator, but she still doesn’t do much except be ogled at by one male lead or gaze affectionately at another. And yes, she’s still in the micro-mini skirt — when she’s not in her underwear. Sigh. Given that so much of contemporary sci-fi is dominated by ass-kicking females (Starbuck, Echo, that Terminator chick), you’d think they could have given Uhura some previously unknown fighting skills. But, I hope that now that this origin story is done, the film makers can put a little bit more thought into female characterization in the next film. (Are you listening, J.J. Abrams?)
In the end, though, I enjoyed the movie, enjoyed being back in that universe I know so well, and watching it with a huge laughing and applauding crowd who got all the in-jokes (red shirt, anyone?) made it all the more fun.
This insomnia thing is a fairly new phenomenon in my life. It started about a year ago, right after I sent out my book manuscript the first time. At the time, it seemed clearly linked to anxiety about the book but, unfortunately, it has stuck around and become a regular feature.
It’s a shame because I really enjoy sleeping. I like a good 8 hours and won’t complain about a few more. When I don’t get 8 hours, I am one cranky, bleary-eyed bitch. And yet, here I am at 4 am, once again awake and blogging.
By the way, blogging has turned out to be a great occupation for my late night/early morning insomnia; I catch up on my favorite blogs and regale all of you with the thrilling accounts of my insomniac worries. But, as I just learned, what you should absolutely not do at 4 in the morning is read Smitten Kitchen’s account of making home-made cinnamon raisin bagels — because it is just too cruel to be awake in the middle of the night without a piping hot bagel with cream cheese.
As I mentioned in my most recent insomnia post, one of the things that is worrying me is the foundation of our house. We’ve lived in our current house for a few years and even when we first bought it, we could tell that there were some things wonky with it — but I loved and wanted this house so much, and Golden Boy and I are so ignorant about all things house-related, we purchased it without doing the kind of investigation/research about the foundation, etc. that we probably should have.
Fast forward a few years, and the house has only gotten wonky-er. There have been a few disturbing developments in terms of cracks in the drywall, slanting floors, doorways and windows off-kilter, and so forth. But, we’ve been completely paralyzed about acting on it. We have no money to spare — are trying desperately to drag ourselves out of a huge debt — so I have a hard time motivating myself to even begin to investigate this problem, in case it leads to a huge expenditure. And, because we are both so ignorant about house things, we’re afraid of getting scammed by one of those corrupt foundation experts who will tell us we need to replace everything.
If I mention any of this to Golden Boy, his reply is usually, “thanks a lot for giving me something to worry about” — so I generally just keep my fears to myself. But, it is one of the prime insomnia worries for me — I lay in bed and think about whether our house is falling apart, what I could/should be doing about it, how much it will cost to repair, where we will get the money …. you get the picture.
Meanwhile, our garage is being over-run with ants, I found some suspiciously termite-like bugs on an exterior wall, several of our mature trees have developed soft, decaying spots on their bases, and our rain gutters are all messed up and spilling water onto the deck, so that the deck paint is wearing away and the wood is getting damaged. So, there are no shortage of home repairs that need doing — and no shortage of additional home worries to preoccupy my mind.
Sigh. I’m not making it any easier to go back to sleep. Next time I am going to blog about fluffy kittens curled up on soft pillows, making adorable little kitten snores … or maybe the sound of ocean waves as they roll in … and out … in … and out …
zzzzzzzzz …
1) The recent, abrupt departure of my yoga teacher from the studio where I have been practicing for years has placed me in a strange position. I can either continue to go to Nice Studio Dedicated to Particular School of Yoga and study with other teachers there. Or, I can follow my yoga teacher as she tries to build new classes at other studio(s). Either way, I feel like I am taking sides — getting embroiled in the fight between teacher and studio — and that it will impinge on my thinking/feelings about my yoga practice. This week I went back to Nice Studio for a class and it felt weird. But, when I got a message from my yoga teacher about her new class times/locations, I also felt weird.
I just want to practice yoga already!
2) My mother wants me to join her this weekend for a visit to my grandmother (her mom) for Mother’s Day. Sounds great, I want to go — but Saturday is an event on campus hosted by my department and specifically by a committee of which I am a member. The other committee members have basically taken the lead on organizing the event and I’ve been asked to just be there to “help out.” I am confident that my presence will not make any difference in the success of the event; my “helping out” would consist of standing around and chatting with the parents of the students. But, I will feel guilty about skipping it when I haven’t done anything to contribute to the event so far. On the other hand, I will feel guilty about going to a lame campus event rather than having a nice Mother’s Day weekend with my mom and grandmom.
Work / family balence, anyone?
Update: I coaxed one of my lovely, generous colleagues to take my place at the student event so I can go to grandma’s with a clean conscience. Whew.
