despite a lack of sleep
For no particular reason, I got no sleep at all the night before last. Maybe jet lag kicked in late, because I’d slept fine the previous two nights. If it had to happen, it was the right night for it; I was able to talk to Ted after his meeting (I’d texted him that I was awake, so he knew it was OK to call at 2:30AM. Then I periodically would roll over, figure I was still awake anyhow, and fire up the iPad to watch a bit of the debate or its commentary. If I had to be sleepless, at least there was distraction.
Ted’s meeting makes it sound a bit more like we’ll end up working rather than quitting and going on the road, but it’s all still up in the air for at least a few more weeks. Management isn’t being dilatory; there’s just a lot going on in our company at present and they have a lot to plan out. It’s all good stuff and if you know the company we work for it’s all been in the news; one of the reason we even considered taking on new jobs instead of taking the year off we planned is just that this is really the wrong time to think of leaving this company. I do really regret the idea of a year off to travel and work on our own projects; the flip side is living in a city we love, with interesting work at a company we like (and things like salaries and health insurance), close enough to go to our lake house on weekends. So on the one hand I’m sad, but on the other, it’s sort of hard to complain, especially as it’s by our own choice (if the choice is offered, that is).
As for the debate, in a way I feel sorry for Mitt. He meant to say good things: “I hired more women in high-level jobs than any other state governor and I implemented family-friendly policies like flex-time.” Too bad for him that it came out more like “I think women are an interchangeable commodity that you can hire by pulling any random name out of a binder, and you hire them because it loks good to hire women rather than because they might be the best person for the job and diverse viewpoints in the Cabinet are good for the Commonwealth. And anyway it’s more important for them to be home making dinner for their men.” The reason I’m only sorry “in a way” is that I do think it betrays his real attitude rather than just being due to a lack of facility with words. Possibly it’s both; a lack of the verbal skill to hide his real opinion.
Despite the lack of sleep, I got two gratifying things done yesterday. First, I wrote and sent my resignation letter - I might not need one, if I’m doing an internal transfer, but I wanted to give two months’ notice (not required by my contract but standard here) and I probably won’t know for sure in that time frame. I also came clean to my mother; during a Skype call I told her I was knitting a Christmas stocking for the nephew, and showed it too her. I was afraid she’d be a little upset, even though my brother didn’t think she would be. She wasn’t thrilled that he was baptized, though she’s too fair and respectful of her DIL to say so, and she would of course prefer it if bother her children hadn’t married non-Jews, though she loves the SIL and DIL in question and again, respects our choices. I was afraid that a Christmas item from me would just grind the point in, but she didn’t seem to mind. I did mention that I was switching the religious symbols (drums, camels) for secular ones, but she just shrugged and said they had camels in Israel anyway. (I’m switching them to reindeer; I put in snowflakes in place of the drums, which had the added advantage of my not having to knit three colors in a single row.) It may have helped that I first showed her the progress on the lap blanket I’m making for her, which is much bigger and also very pretty, purple and soft. (Also with a cool complex cable, though as a non-knitter I don’t think she fully appreciated that part.)
Luckily, after the white night, yesterday I had the day off from working out. I need to get back to being more consistent. I’m considering going back into at least a part of the marathon rowing training plan from Concept 2 UK, starting with Cycle 2, because I need to get my meters up before the Holiday Challenge. We haven’t decided when we’re going to have our stuff packed and shipped, so we may not have the full amount of time to conplete the Challenge and thus have to do more meters each day (the minimum requirement this year to get it does is just over 6000 per day). I’ve got the whole month of November with no travel planned, so there’s no excuse or disprutions.
I did sleep all the way through last night, but don’t expect to accomplish anything more gratifying than this blog entry and 7km on the erg today.
Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.