Recent adventures
I've been LJ-quiet for the last two weeks. It's been busy in other sectors of my life. I'm still not writing much of anything, so here's what I've been doing instead:
Work
OMG, when is the foundry fire crap going to end?!? I seriously underestimated how long this would go on and how much of my productive time it would eat into, or how much mental energy it would absorb. My work has ratcheted up to the level of intensity of my old job without the emotional duress or fear of getting fired. On the plus side, it's still only 8 am to 4:30, rather than my old job which was 8 to 6. I'm definitely fully engaged and I think I take a lot of workload of managing this beast off the shoulders of my boss and her boss. For a first in my career, they seem to recognize that. I've been complimented many times for how I've organized the information and managed the project, plus my advice and input is valued, requested, and acted on. I'm called into meetings with our corporate HQ as the person most-informed about what's going on. However, I'm really stressed about all the other components of my job that aren't getting done. It's a continuous exercise in triage and the stakes are high.
Working Out
A couple weeks ago, I and a half dozen women at work started a Zumba (aerobic dance) class with an instructor, for two days a week right after work. I loved the first week so much that the second, I added a third day in a toning class the same woman taught. This week, I did it again and told her that any weekday she had any fitness class at 5 pm, I'd be there for it. I have very intentionally not weighed myself, but after the first week, my clothes didn't fit the same. My goal is not weight loss per se, but to become bad ass. After much contemplation, I had decided that it was impossible to be bad ass when the least sort of physical activity might leave me out of breath. I had not imagined that getting in shape would be so much fun! Not that the actual working out part feels good, but it's ... well, fun. Addictive. Makes me want to go back for more. I've been so pleased to learn the dance routines and the work-outs, learn the names of major muscle groups and how to salsa, to get more comfortable in my own skin, to learn to relax better, to get coordinated. It's so cool! And good research for Peter or any other fitness-minded character I might want to write.
Reading
This has been the thing that has most consumed my free time. In the last ten days, I've put down more than 700 pages in two novels. One is Night's Rose, a historical, paranormal romance and the other is Chronicles of Riddick, a novelization of the movie. I will say more of Night's Rose eventually in a discussion on terror_scifi, and I'll do a separate book review this weekend for Chronicles. But the reading has been a huge break from the last two years. I'm not done with it yet, either. My next project will either be the black family drama, Far From the Tree (I didn't intend to buy it and I thought it wasn't my type, but the damn thing has been lurking in my brain begging me to finish reading it), or The Lightning Thief so I can encourage my son in reading and satisfy my curiosity about the book. After those two, I'll take stock.
Other News
Work
OMG, when is the foundry fire crap going to end?!? I seriously underestimated how long this would go on and how much of my productive time it would eat into, or how much mental energy it would absorb. My work has ratcheted up to the level of intensity of my old job without the emotional duress or fear of getting fired. On the plus side, it's still only 8 am to 4:30, rather than my old job which was 8 to 6. I'm definitely fully engaged and I think I take a lot of workload of managing this beast off the shoulders of my boss and her boss. For a first in my career, they seem to recognize that. I've been complimented many times for how I've organized the information and managed the project, plus my advice and input is valued, requested, and acted on. I'm called into meetings with our corporate HQ as the person most-informed about what's going on. However, I'm really stressed about all the other components of my job that aren't getting done. It's a continuous exercise in triage and the stakes are high.
Working Out
A couple weeks ago, I and a half dozen women at work started a Zumba (aerobic dance) class with an instructor, for two days a week right after work. I loved the first week so much that the second, I added a third day in a toning class the same woman taught. This week, I did it again and told her that any weekday she had any fitness class at 5 pm, I'd be there for it. I have very intentionally not weighed myself, but after the first week, my clothes didn't fit the same. My goal is not weight loss per se, but to become bad ass. After much contemplation, I had decided that it was impossible to be bad ass when the least sort of physical activity might leave me out of breath. I had not imagined that getting in shape would be so much fun! Not that the actual working out part feels good, but it's ... well, fun. Addictive. Makes me want to go back for more. I've been so pleased to learn the dance routines and the work-outs, learn the names of major muscle groups and how to salsa, to get more comfortable in my own skin, to learn to relax better, to get coordinated. It's so cool! And good research for Peter or any other fitness-minded character I might want to write.
Reading
This has been the thing that has most consumed my free time. In the last ten days, I've put down more than 700 pages in two novels. One is Night's Rose, a historical, paranormal romance and the other is Chronicles of Riddick, a novelization of the movie. I will say more of Night's Rose eventually in a discussion on terror_scifi, and I'll do a separate book review this weekend for Chronicles. But the reading has been a huge break from the last two years. I'm not done with it yet, either. My next project will either be the black family drama, Far From the Tree (I didn't intend to buy it and I thought it wasn't my type, but the damn thing has been lurking in my brain begging me to finish reading it), or The Lightning Thief so I can encourage my son in reading and satisfy my curiosity about the book. After those two, I'll take stock.
Other News
- My taxes are done and I'll be getting a big refund, most of which I will set aside as emergency money. That will give me a solid four months of bill coverage if I ever get laid off again. The financial advisor told me to build up six months. I'm getting there!
- Next week the baby chicks should arrive. I bought 75ish of them of different breeds for my parent's chicken farm. I hope to take some decent pictures.
- Kids are healthy, I'm healthy, my parents are healthy, and my ex continues to be alive. Well, can't win them all, can we?
- Speaking of things that aren't going my way, I've fallen behind on my duties for my professional association as well as not having responded to my new attorney on the draft of the trust and will they drew up for me. The documents look great, I just haven't had time to do anything with them.
- I've given up the BDSM club. They're nice people doing nice things, but it wasn't working for me (ie, I wasn't getting laid). I'm going to focus on myself for a little while, and then start looking for meetups or some similar socializing activity.