Snow Days, Reader Problems, and Our Anniversary

Yesterday, I had a legitimate snow day off work. At the time, it seemed pretty cool, other than the fact that it snowed all day and we were stuck at home. I managed to get some work done from home, but going in today (after a four hour delay to recover and shovel out of the white stuff) was rough. That day off threw me for a loop, messed with my deadlines, and gave me a stack of work that needed immediate attention. So yeah, great in theory, not so great in practice.

Having said that, having the day off did give me the chance to completely devour Cress like I wanted to, and devour I did. Was it good? Heck yeah, it was good. I’m so contrary though. I wanted to read it all in one sitting, and then I did, and now I wish I would have made it last longer because I loved it so much. In hindsight, I should have stretched the fun out over a few days. But every time I told myself to do that, I couldn’t put it down. Reader problems, man. Also, now I have to wait for the fourth book, but at least I’ll have an excuse to re-read the series before that one comes out (like I really need an excuse. Whatever. I do what I want!).

Today was our four-year wedding anniversary. Go Team Us! We didn’t do anything celebratory other than get dinner at Subway, but to be honest, we never need a reason to do things together. We don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day either. However, as may have become apparent for anyone who’s read this blog long enough, we often randomly decide we need to have a nice dinner out together, or we’ll go walking together, or we’ll take a trip together….the theme is that we do a lot together for no other reason than we have a blast, and I’m completely okay with that.

We made it to the gym, which was a challenge because I really didn’t want to go. My back has been sore for a few days, and the cold makes me want to hibernate. I’m always glad afterwards, though. I started an audiobook to listen to when I walk and when I’m taking it easy at the gym (thanks, Humble Bundle). I’ll do a review when I’m done, but it’s making me a little uncomfortable. It’s creepy, yet I almost think it’s supposed to also be slightly romantic? I’m intrigued.

I’ve also decided to go ahead and start revising an older writing project, one that is actually one of my favorites. I send the first draft for an alpha reading and will start doing active revisions once the feedback is in. Trying not to do too much stuff at once since I don’t want to burn out on revising, but it feels good to move these projects along.

Other things accomplished today: watched some Coursera videos, started organizing and packing the back room, and finished my grocery list.

Now time for some well deserved sleep.

A.

February Goals and Progress with Revision

This past weekend was spent doing almost nothing. I think I was still fighting an infection because the stomach pain from the sickness I had last week didn’t go away, so I wasn’t feeling up to doing anything besides sitting around and reading and watching cute movies on Netflix. The highlight of the weekend (or lowlight as it were) was probably a bad haircut, though realizing it as a bad haircut was kind of a delayed reaction. Either way, I’ll be rocking the headbands for the next few weeks. My hair grows fast, though.

My stomach pains seem to have gone away. I’m avoiding soda and carbonation until I know for sure, but today was good. I was even able to walk on my breaks and get a workout in at the gym before we headed home. We’re waiting for a big snowstorm to hit. The city of Manhattan and the university and all the schools are already closed for tomorrow. My place of work is still open, however. If it’s not too bad in the morning, I’ll probably still go in. Current projects are much easier on my dual monitors. But if it’s bad in the morning, I’m prepared to work from home.

Since we’re into a new month, I’ve been trying to come up with some good goals for February. My writing goals included putting together the second draft of my novel and sending it to my beta readers, a goal which I accomplished tonight. I’ve set the deadline for the end of this month, which means March will be more revision and formatting. But now, other than the small bit of anxiety I’m getting with actually putting my work out there with the intention of maybe publishing it, I can rest for a few weeks and focus on some other things.

Seriously…even if this book doesn’t happen and even if everyone who reads it hates it, I’m going to feel good about the fact that I’ve gotten this far.

The two main goals for this month are going to be to finish my current/newest knitting project and to recommit to three days a week at the gym. Though I’ve been active (with the exception of last week, which turned into a seven day rest to heal from my illness), I haven’t been putting in the gym time, which is fine, except I’m paying for the membership. Since this might go away soon, depending on the job and money situation, I feel I should take advantage while I have it. Once the weather gets warmer, I’m going to be putting my goal focus into walking and running goals, so might as well take advantage of the gym while the weather dictates.

I may come up with some other goals later. My brain is all over the place right now.

It’s past my bedtime and work is likely to still happen tomorrow, so I’d better get a shower and get some sleep.

Side note: Cress releases tomorrow! I can’t wait! I’d be tempted to stay up until midnight to download it, but that will lead to starting it, which will lead to staying up all night reading it, which means nothing would get done tomorrow, and I need to be functional.

A.

 

 

Training and Office Shenanigans

It doesn’t feel like Wednesday. In fact, most of the day I’ve been stuck on the fact that it’s Tuesday, when it’s not. This week is flying by. Even today went fast and it wasn’t a good day for me. This morning, I let the stress of things get to me, and I didn’t seem to have the mental capacity to get as much done as I like to. I have one of these days at least once a week, sometimes twice. Maybe it’s a brain defrag, but it’s kind of uncomfortable and makes me feel bad. By the end of the day I was rolling with it, but up to that point, things were kind of rough.

I lost track of time last night, and by the time I realized I hadn’t blogged, I was too tired to think. It was another busy day with nothing major to note. Jon’s ankles were hurting, so he was going to take a rest night and I was going to walk the track.  But when I got out there, the parking lot was a sheet of ice, and I wasn’t brave enough to trek across it, especially since I was out there by myself. My balance still isn’t great, and I have a fear of falling on the ice. So it ended up being a mellow night at home. I made up for it today, though.

My day started with some office shenanigans. Even being in a low mood, this cracked me up, as do the daily events in the lives of our resident elf and nutcracker.

Our team really enjoys their breaks.

Later in the day I did some training as part of my job transition. Some of it involved working with html code, a subject that makes me think of Jon and his infinite love of all things web design. My work won’t be that detailed, but what I learned was pretty interesting.

Besides the elf and training, another highlight of the day was that the new app from Six to Start came out today. I’ve been waiting for The Walk to come out since I first heard about it a couple months ago, and I bought it right away, considering it my Christmas present (one of them at least).  Since Zombies, Run! has done wonders in keeping me motivated to move more, I’m hoping The Walk gets me up more at work and gives me incentive to utilize my breaks and lunches for some extra step time. It did the trick today. I finished the first chapter/mission at work, walking on first break and half of my lunch.

As for the app/game itself, so far I like it. There are still a few things I have to figure out, but it looks like I can run it at the same time as Zombies and I can use it with a radio app if I’m tired of my playlists. At the moment, I can’t use it on the treadmill because it acts as a pedometer and tracks the walking you do. I’m still nervous on the treadmill, so I still hold on to the rails while walking. At some point though, maybe I’ll be comfortable to let my arms swing and I’ll wear my armband.

I was able to test this out after work when we went to the gym and on top of my work walking, I got another thirty minutes in: twenty on the treadmill and then several laps around the track. We cut it short to make it to a geocache event in one of the local parks. It was a quick flash mob, so we weren’t there long, just long enough to sign the book, do a quick geocache toast, and visit with some fellow cachers. It was cold, but fun. We each got another cache container, so at some point in the near future we’re going to have to hide something. Before we left, we were visited by a cop who’d seen the cars and the people and wondered what was going on.

I wasn’t feeling up to working on any knitting projects tonight, so I took the evening off in favor of working on some writing. I’ve been using my UfYH timer to do twenty minute stretches of revising my novel between ten minute breaks on Pinterest and Twitter. This last twenty minute stretch is devoted to finishing this post. Then it’s off to shower and read before getting some sleep.

Word on the street is that we’re going to get some nasty weather this weekend, possibly in the form of freezing rain on Friday. Do not want! I’m looking forward to our work holiday party, and I don’t want the weather to jack up our plans. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

A.

 

Cold Mornings and Long Walks

Last night was bitter cold. So was this morning and this evening. I have a hard time doing anything when it’s this cold. There are moments when it physically hurts me to be in it. Granted, that’s probably my fault for not wearing enough layers, but still…the cold doesn’t agree with me.

No post last night because the night got away from me. Once we got home from work, I put in some time on an editing project for awhile. Somehow I dragged my butt back out of the house to go to knit night down at The Wicked Stitch. I finished part of a knitting project and got to visit with my friend V, who is a writer and a knitter as well, so we talked about our current fiction projects. Well, she’s a writer. I’m not sure if I can call myself a writer, but I think I get a few weeks of grace after Nanowrimo, right?

Because of our chat, I was in the mood to do some revising, so I got caught up in that at home later on, and by the time I even thought about opening a blog post, I was exhausted. So that was that.

Today was busy but productive. It’s definitely been one of those weeks. It wasn’t bad, though. The current excitement is the upcoming holiday party at work. Some years I’m kind of bah humbug about the whole thing. I didn’t even go last year. But this year, I think it’s going to be really fun, and my current plan is to totally get my dance on. The awesome thing is that I think I’ll have the stamina this year. I’m debating letting Jon skip out though. Once the dinner is over, the poor guy will probably just end up sitting there all night doing nothing while I shake a tail feather. At least that’s how it plays out in my head.

We went to the gym after work. Today it felt like a huge accomplishment because the cold makes us both want to come home and do nothing. But I knew if I did that, I’d feel crabby all evening, so we pushed ourselves to go. I walked the treadmill for almost sixty minutes again. I came up just three minutes short, though I probably could have made it. But Jon was done and I was hungry and I was just waiting for my zombie mission to end. I found out you can do the missions with no distance or step tracking, so you still get the supplies and the story, but you don’t have to hold the phone. Which is good for the treadmill, because I haven’t yet found my balance on that thing yet.

At home, I did some knitting, watched “Once Bitten” (one of my favorite movies), and putzed around on the computer. All around, pretty low key. Now to do some Pinning, then shower, then head to bed. Tomorrow’s Friday! Hanging with Forsh after work, but then I’m not sure what the weekend is going to bring. We have tentative plans, but they’re all up in the air right now. Just going to roll with it and see what happens.

A.

Special Ingredient Tuesday

It was a pretty low key Tuesday.  The special ingredient in the title refers to the weird chocolates my friend brought to work. She picked them up in Seattle, and they consisted of some crazy flavors, like basil and ghost chile. Some were really good. Some were just plain weird. They all seemed to make us a little goofy for five minutes, but I think it was just one of those days.

We made it to the gym after work. I bumped my resistance up to the next level finally. I think I’ve just been lazy about it.  I finished Tuff Turf and started a movie called Deathwatch, but I wasn’t too excited about it. I rearranged the Netflix queue to change up the movies and push the TV shows closer to the back. Otherwise, there are movies on there I’d never get to. Our queue is like five hundred items long.

After that, we went shopping. There were some Naked juices on sale, so we picked those up, along with dinner for tonight (tacos) and tomorrow (chicken tenders and fries).  Then we came home. I did some editing and called the final winners of the silent auction from Saturday. The plan is to finish off the night with a shower and some Zoolander.

I’m absorbing the quiet days in preparation of the upcoming weekend.

A.

 

Getting Back into Alignment

It was a pretty rough Monday morning. Yesterday was spent mostly sleeping, so this morning I had that “too much sleep” hangover. I was also still sore. I might not have been so sore if I had pushed myself to go take a walk at some point yesterday, but that didn’t happen, so whether it would or would not have helped, I was still sore most of today. My back was in knots, so I hobbled more than walked. Luckily, the work day was good. It stayed busy enough to pass quickly, but not so busy I couldn’t get stuff done.

After work, I went to the chiropractor for an alignment. My regular doctor wasn’t in, so I saw one of the other doctors there. They’re both really good, so I didn’t mind, and I didn’t want to wait three days considering how jacked up I felt. Like magic, when the doc was done, I felt about ten times better. I still have some residual and alignment soreness, but everything was loosened up so I could at least walk normal again.

I picked Jon up and we went to the library to renew a book. While there, the message on the dashboard came on saying my oil was low. I had him check, and sure enough, we were getting dry. So we took an unplanned trip to the quick lube to get that taken care of. I was due for an oil change anyway. In fact, I was overdue. I tend to look at the dashboard stats, which isn’t always the best idea, since the percentage on the dashboard doesn’t necessarily take into account all the driving we’ve been doing. So technically, I was about a thousand miles past (one mark against my attempts at full adulthood).

Luckily, there wasn’t a leak, and the change was done in ten minutes, probably less. The guy at the front desk there reminds me of Michael Cera. He’s really friendly, and they’ve always done good work for me. Eventually I’ll have to take the car somewhere for a major tune up, but for now, these guys have been quality.  So yeah, it changed our plans a little bit, but nothing drastic. Also, Monday afternoon seems to be a great time to get an oil change.

For exercise tonight, we decided to walk the mall. I’ve been wanting to walk outside, but it was raining and I didn’t want to get caught in a downpour. Also, since I’d just been to the doctor, I had to take it easy, so we didn’t do any zombies or C25K, we just kind of strolled around the mall. We had a pretzel snack, and we stopped in one of the stores we’ve never visited. It’s a food store that sells kitchen items but also all kinds of teas and coffees and little snacks, as well as candles in the back room. I tried some roasted chestnut coffee, and we bought some wafer cookies to try.

At home, I worked on some projects. Now that Tengaicon is over (the event portion of it anyway), I feel a little bit more relaxed about handling some other things. Current projects include Tengaicon follow up, editing my friend’s book, and getting through a Coursera course. After I finished the first one, I haven’t put much time into any more and have dropped several of them. I kind of want to do this one, though I’m going in knowing that I probably won’t finish with a certificate. I’m going to read the excerpts and watch the lectures, but I’m not much of a message board person, so I doubt if I’ll get full credit.

I also put away laundry and debated picking up my knitting needles, but decided against it. Might take some knitting to BOW this coming weekend, but just not ready to get into or finish a project. I still feel like I accomplished something tonight. Tomorrow is a gym day. This week we can meet one of our goals, but with BOW happening, we won’t meet both. Unless I count the walking I do there, which I might, especially if I do the mini-walk. But as a couple, we’re taking it easy and just focusing on one.

But now…bedtime.

A.