Week one, sleepy progress.
My attempt at unf#$%ing my life is already running into some road blocks, but I think I just need to stick to my guns. Sho only *one* literary event this week (of two), and it'll be the one tomorrow. Right now I just want scrambled eggs with hot sauce, followed by naps.
Monday nights are just so tricky to deal with. I don't get out of work until 9:30pm, the trains are slower (or almost shut down like for last week's weird late nite construction), and any icky weather that happened after normal closing-time hasn't been cleaned up (also like last week). By the time I get home its usually 10:30-11pm or later, and I need to eat something b/c I can't sleep hungry. But if I eat something that's too complex, too close to bed time, I wake up with a stomach ache. And b/c I'm strung out and tired, its easy to get distracted from bed-time. If I manage to get into bed by midnight, I can get a bit less than 8 hours, but that's usually not the case. I got 10 hours Sunday night, but I'm not sure if this will help noticeably in week 1.
Tuesday nights are also a bit cramped time-wise, b/c I get out of work from the slightly-later shift of 6pm, and then have to be up for the earliest shift the next morning. And if I didn't get enough sleep on Monday, all bets are off. And losing track of one's resolutions early in the work week can spell "Whups" later on. Luckily I've written them all on the internet this time?
I've also had a weird muscle spasm in the base of my thumb for two days. No idea why. What new bs will I have to deal with now, body? And I've been super forgetful so far, but that could be normal now. At least I have acupuncture this week. And I cancelled my appointment with the sleep doc, so that's a nice subtraction from my drama totals this week. Tho now I need a new sleep doc.
As for recent accomplishments ... meh. I cooked my noms for the week on Saturday, and also a big pot of beef stock that didn't turn into beef jello when chilled. So... is it stock-y enough? Froze most of it, and will probably not be making any more until autumn, because WARM (in theory, not yet reality in NYC). Most will probably get used in weird cooking. I've put the kebosh on super-weird cooking, but I have some one-pot type recipes that like teh stock. And while I've found good gf chicken stock at CC, not so much with beef, even at other local shops.
Mostly I just get oddly excited about seeing marrow bones in the (less good) supermarket, even tho they're usually not full of squishy marrow, or cut correctly for roasting when they are. So it was an impulse buy, and I didn't want them cluttering the freezer. Tho now there are two 8-cup tupperwares full of beef almost-stock in the freezer instead. They're just more ... regular shaped now. Blah.
Saturday I also listened through the new Neverwhere radio series again, start to finish. And then another scifi'ish series called Hothouse, and some Ray Bradburry stories, all on BBC Radio's website. So glad I finally figured that out.
O wait, I did go to the New York Whole Beads Show on Friday, with my friend Rachel who is also taking a hiatus from improv due to not feeling well. But she is crafty and curious about jewelry stuffs, and I had a 2 for 1 coupon for tickets and a tax id number, so fun was had. Yay, accomplishment of fun! Well... except for the beadshow hangover after.
Before leaving for the morning (I took a half-vacation-day at work so I could go when the show wasn't crazytown), I took a close look at my 'focals' stash to decide what I didn't need to buy. So I blew my whole budget within the first hour on a bag of focals that I like using, from a vendor I like buying stuff from, and from there figured that I'd just browse while showing Rachel the wonder of shiny things. But then I found a vendor I usually get lots of semiprecious stuff from, and I hadn't checked my basic-beads stash that morning. So ... way overblew my budget, and when I got home realized I had some doubles.
Also, poor Rachel had to see me in frippery-hunter-magpie mode which I'm a little embarrassed about. But she got some nice shinies, and we may hang out at my house in the future so I can show her how some shiny things work. I may borrow the idea of "Introvert Parties" from another jewelry artist I know in the near future.
Sometimes retail therapy jump starts my creative drive, but not this time. At least going with a friend helped keep me going. But once I got to work in the afternoon I was more than happy to sit at my desk and do *desk work* for the rest of the day. My feet, hips, back, and neck were all very peeved at me.
Hit Costco on the way home, which didn't work out like I'd hoped. Tho very quiet late on a Friday, so lucky. Despite warnings from my CC buddy, I forgot that they sometimes just don't have the fresh veggies I want in stock. And yet I walked out with a bag full of plant matter for less than $20, so that was pleasantly weird. Realized I could make lazy lunches with the giant package of sausage I had at home already. Usually I use those for at-home dinner, but why not? Me = tired, and only had Saturday for chores. But CC really just drained whatever I had left to cope with, whups.
And Sunday I went to the parents house for an early Easter dinner, b/c they'll be traveling next weekend. We ordered pick up from Outback Steakhouse, which mostly turned out OK. We successfully managed the GF menu for me, and the steak and veggies were fine (tho now I'm spoiled by being able to fry my own steaks, lol). Tho the house salad on the side came covered in croutons (lol, but could have picked off with ease) and a ton of grated cheese (inedible, but its not like they specified DF, or any other deets about their style of house salad). Mom gave me a ton of extra crudite veggies to take home with me instead of the salad.
And while I'm trying to avoid soy for the most part at home, I had a bunch of US-standard-mayo based dip and a dark chocolate bunny to see if the soy did anything to me. Also not sure if there was any dairy in the bunny b/c they didn't label it, but other items in this store's dark chocolate section are usually fine. Was kinda queasy for the rest of the day, and very lethargic for the last couple of days, so I'll probably keep opting for the expensive soy-free mayo and chocolate for everyday. Overpriced, but that keeps me from eating more of it, right?
And once more, no kitty to play with :-(. Oh Georgie, hope you're having a good time in the summer lands. I miss my kitteh, and also having a cat I'm only mildly allergic to for occasional snuggles.
But otherwise, it was pretty relaxed for a visit home. The parents will probably be coming to see me in Queens mid-April for mom's b'day, and now that I need to stay GF/DF I've recommended Bareburger in Forest Hills. B/c if they had put any grasshoppers in their salads at *that* locations, the local mommies brigade would have driven them out with pitchforks and torches by now.
Post-beadshow, my budget looks a little tight, but mostly OK. However, my credit card bill looks... too big. Especially considering I've been spending less 'extras' monies and shopping a lot at CostCo which doesn't take them. I'm mostly sure its not fraud, just me not keeping track of my purchases properly. Tho this is also the new card, so I'm not used to when their statement balance is, I just know it doesn't cleanly start on the 1st of the month. I wonder if there's some way I can have them change that. So this weekend when I pay the bills, I may have to transfer more back from my savings account, which irks me to no end.
Next month, I REALLY have to check my grocery-spending habits. Like OMGWTFBBQ. Its like all the silly over-spending I used to do on improv classes and beads got transferred over to food. Naughty Chrysilla. But my moratorium on fancy cooking should help with that. And my anal-retentive new habit of writing down item prices should also help plan ahead for how much cooking I can afford each week/month.
I do actually need to restock on czech crystals and seed beads for the bead kit I take to work, but I can wait on that until April when my financial karma resets itself. And I'm doing this craaazy thing where I match up the supplies into projects *before* ordering them, woooow.
Y'know, the cold weather doesn't bother me so much as ALL THE COUGHING I have to hear every day at work. So I don't so much want Spring to start as I want flu-season to end. And now *I'm* coughing, so I'm concerned one of these little jerks has made me sick for a third time in three months :-/
While cooking on Saturday, I also finally put all of my boxes of tea into a larger, clear container so I stop putting them in stacks that fall over. And I have a lot of tea. Might have to start having tea parties just to get rid of some of it.
And there's tarot for this week:
I'm a bit fuzzy headed right now, but taking this reading as a good sign for my planned hermitty time. Tho the Hermit himself didn't actually show up. *shrugs* I gotta figure some stuff out. And if I get bored, make some more shiny things. And take pictures of them.
<3 Chrysilla
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, http://chrysilla.dreamwidth.org/
Monday nights are just so tricky to deal with. I don't get out of work until 9:30pm, the trains are slower (or almost shut down like for last week's weird late nite construction), and any icky weather that happened after normal closing-time hasn't been cleaned up (also like last week). By the time I get home its usually 10:30-11pm or later, and I need to eat something b/c I can't sleep hungry. But if I eat something that's too complex, too close to bed time, I wake up with a stomach ache. And b/c I'm strung out and tired, its easy to get distracted from bed-time. If I manage to get into bed by midnight, I can get a bit less than 8 hours, but that's usually not the case. I got 10 hours Sunday night, but I'm not sure if this will help noticeably in week 1.
Tuesday nights are also a bit cramped time-wise, b/c I get out of work from the slightly-later shift of 6pm, and then have to be up for the earliest shift the next morning. And if I didn't get enough sleep on Monday, all bets are off. And losing track of one's resolutions early in the work week can spell "Whups" later on. Luckily I've written them all on the internet this time?
I've also had a weird muscle spasm in the base of my thumb for two days. No idea why. What new bs will I have to deal with now, body? And I've been super forgetful so far, but that could be normal now. At least I have acupuncture this week. And I cancelled my appointment with the sleep doc, so that's a nice subtraction from my drama totals this week. Tho now I need a new sleep doc.
As for recent accomplishments ... meh. I cooked my noms for the week on Saturday, and also a big pot of beef stock that didn't turn into beef jello when chilled. So... is it stock-y enough? Froze most of it, and will probably not be making any more until autumn, because WARM (in theory, not yet reality in NYC). Most will probably get used in weird cooking. I've put the kebosh on super-weird cooking, but I have some one-pot type recipes that like teh stock. And while I've found good gf chicken stock at CC, not so much with beef, even at other local shops.
Mostly I just get oddly excited about seeing marrow bones in the (less good) supermarket, even tho they're usually not full of squishy marrow, or cut correctly for roasting when they are. So it was an impulse buy, and I didn't want them cluttering the freezer. Tho now there are two 8-cup tupperwares full of beef almost-stock in the freezer instead. They're just more ... regular shaped now. Blah.
Saturday I also listened through the new Neverwhere radio series again, start to finish. And then another scifi'ish series called Hothouse, and some Ray Bradburry stories, all on BBC Radio's website. So glad I finally figured that out.
O wait, I did go to the New York Whole Beads Show on Friday, with my friend Rachel who is also taking a hiatus from improv due to not feeling well. But she is crafty and curious about jewelry stuffs, and I had a 2 for 1 coupon for tickets and a tax id number, so fun was had. Yay, accomplishment of fun! Well... except for the beadshow hangover after.
Before leaving for the morning (I took a half-vacation-day at work so I could go when the show wasn't crazytown), I took a close look at my 'focals' stash to decide what I didn't need to buy. So I blew my whole budget within the first hour on a bag of focals that I like using, from a vendor I like buying stuff from, and from there figured that I'd just browse while showing Rachel the wonder of shiny things. But then I found a vendor I usually get lots of semiprecious stuff from, and I hadn't checked my basic-beads stash that morning. So ... way overblew my budget, and when I got home realized I had some doubles.
Also, poor Rachel had to see me in frippery-hunter-magpie mode which I'm a little embarrassed about. But she got some nice shinies, and we may hang out at my house in the future so I can show her how some shiny things work. I may borrow the idea of "Introvert Parties" from another jewelry artist I know in the near future.
Sometimes retail therapy jump starts my creative drive, but not this time. At least going with a friend helped keep me going. But once I got to work in the afternoon I was more than happy to sit at my desk and do *desk work* for the rest of the day. My feet, hips, back, and neck were all very peeved at me.
Hit Costco on the way home, which didn't work out like I'd hoped. Tho very quiet late on a Friday, so lucky. Despite warnings from my CC buddy, I forgot that they sometimes just don't have the fresh veggies I want in stock. And yet I walked out with a bag full of plant matter for less than $20, so that was pleasantly weird. Realized I could make lazy lunches with the giant package of sausage I had at home already. Usually I use those for at-home dinner, but why not? Me = tired, and only had Saturday for chores. But CC really just drained whatever I had left to cope with, whups.
And Sunday I went to the parents house for an early Easter dinner, b/c they'll be traveling next weekend. We ordered pick up from Outback Steakhouse, which mostly turned out OK. We successfully managed the GF menu for me, and the steak and veggies were fine (tho now I'm spoiled by being able to fry my own steaks, lol). Tho the house salad on the side came covered in croutons (lol, but could have picked off with ease) and a ton of grated cheese (inedible, but its not like they specified DF, or any other deets about their style of house salad). Mom gave me a ton of extra crudite veggies to take home with me instead of the salad.
And while I'm trying to avoid soy for the most part at home, I had a bunch of US-standard-mayo based dip and a dark chocolate bunny to see if the soy did anything to me. Also not sure if there was any dairy in the bunny b/c they didn't label it, but other items in this store's dark chocolate section are usually fine. Was kinda queasy for the rest of the day, and very lethargic for the last couple of days, so I'll probably keep opting for the expensive soy-free mayo and chocolate for everyday. Overpriced, but that keeps me from eating more of it, right?
And once more, no kitty to play with :-(. Oh Georgie, hope you're having a good time in the summer lands. I miss my kitteh, and also having a cat I'm only mildly allergic to for occasional snuggles.
But otherwise, it was pretty relaxed for a visit home. The parents will probably be coming to see me in Queens mid-April for mom's b'day, and now that I need to stay GF/DF I've recommended Bareburger in Forest Hills. B/c if they had put any grasshoppers in their salads at *that* locations, the local mommies brigade would have driven them out with pitchforks and torches by now.
Post-beadshow, my budget looks a little tight, but mostly OK. However, my credit card bill looks... too big. Especially considering I've been spending less 'extras' monies and shopping a lot at CostCo which doesn't take them. I'm mostly sure its not fraud, just me not keeping track of my purchases properly. Tho this is also the new card, so I'm not used to when their statement balance is, I just know it doesn't cleanly start on the 1st of the month. I wonder if there's some way I can have them change that. So this weekend when I pay the bills, I may have to transfer more back from my savings account, which irks me to no end.
Next month, I REALLY have to check my grocery-spending habits. Like OMGWTFBBQ. Its like all the silly over-spending I used to do on improv classes and beads got transferred over to food. Naughty Chrysilla. But my moratorium on fancy cooking should help with that. And my anal-retentive new habit of writing down item prices should also help plan ahead for how much cooking I can afford each week/month.
I do actually need to restock on czech crystals and seed beads for the bead kit I take to work, but I can wait on that until April when my financial karma resets itself. And I'm doing this craaazy thing where I match up the supplies into projects *before* ordering them, woooow.
Y'know, the cold weather doesn't bother me so much as ALL THE COUGHING I have to hear every day at work. So I don't so much want Spring to start as I want flu-season to end. And now *I'm* coughing, so I'm concerned one of these little jerks has made me sick for a third time in three months :-/
While cooking on Saturday, I also finally put all of my boxes of tea into a larger, clear container so I stop putting them in stacks that fall over. And I have a lot of tea. Might have to start having tea parties just to get rid of some of it.
And there's tarot for this week:
I'm a bit fuzzy headed right now, but taking this reading as a good sign for my planned hermitty time. Tho the Hermit himself didn't actually show up. *shrugs* I gotta figure some stuff out. And if I get bored, make some more shiny things. And take pictures of them.
<3 Chrysilla
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, http://chrysilla.dreamwidth.org/