Better-than-usual Friday
Last night I went to acupuncture, and while she didn't have any of the herbal supplements I wanted to keep taking at her Manhattan location, she agreed to needle me for anti-anxiety + pro-sleep rather than winding me up like a clockwork toy. Today I still feel kinda 'Ick' in the head, but noticeably less so than the rest of the work week.
Tho it seems like lots of ppl I know have been having a rough week sleep/dream wise. Srsly? Spring gets here and ppl stop sleeping properly enough to not be cranky all the time? I question this system :-P
Another weirdness, started eating rice again b/c I thought the accidental low-carbing was making me feel more run down. Started with brown rice, but too much fiber :-P. Then white rice, but this week I noticed it giving me some kind of sugar crash. So next week I'm back to low carb lunches with moar veggies, just to see what happens.
And I completely forgot to line up a new sleep doc this week. B/c I was too sleepy to remember all week. Damn you irony. But it was nice to sleep in this morning instead of going to see Dr.Jerk before work, yay.
Both talking and needling therapists seem on board with my 'save the spoons' life campaign. The needler especially, b/c she knows a lot of chronically unwell ppl who benefited (physically, emotionally) from starting their own work-from-home businesses.
Some of my social life doesn't seem to get it, tho I'm not sure if they're joking. I've been whining about this weirdness for 1.5-2 years, yeah its probably kinda important to fix. I went to one event Wednesday night, for a short story anthology, both of which I'd been looking forward to for a while. After this week, I am free of obligations. And the next time someone tries to whine me into attending an event, I'll just send them the Spoon Theory 101 essay.
Have had rather vivid dreams for most of the week (except Thursday nite after needles), and at least Monday and Tuesday nights had to do with me starting something new or wonderful, and someone else being a jerk and getting in the way of it. I think my unconscious mind is on board with me doing my own thing for a while.
But after reorganizing the kitchen this weekend, I realized I have too much tea. So I may be inviting more ppl over to help me use it all than I'd initially planned this spring. Yay?
It may be warm enough to work on the balcony this weekend. Not sure if I'm up for it tho, even if I just do part of the tasks. And I worry that once I've got it cleaned up, I will be motivated to buy a ton of random stuff. Do not want.
And as the month comes to a close, its time to pay teh bills. I keep a spreadsheet of spending/bills over the month, checking on it about once a week, and this month I'm not happy with myself. I seemed to do OK budget wise, but there wasn't enough cash in my checking account to pay off my credit card bill (no interest so far, I pay each statement in full). I think its partly b/c the card's billing cycle doesn't start/end cleanly on the 1st of the month, and even if it did some charges at month's end wouldn't show up until after the 1st. Also partly b/c I need to tweak the budget again due to the return of payroll taxes this year.
Oh well. I can wire $$ from my savings account, but I really don't *like* doing that. It feels like fail. Will tweak the budget, and reevaluate my relationship with credit. I just don't like using my debit card all the time, b/c it offers a business direct access to my checking account. The credit card offers a buffer zone.
The other thing I really need to work on - grocery budget. Since I started the dietary tweaking, its become clear that I'm spending less in the 'extras' column because I'm getting all of my impulse buying off in the groceries category now. And I didn't used to pay such close attention to it before, b/c y'know, its just groceries. And until last year my food needs were pretty cheap and basic. But between having to toss icky forgotten leftovers in the fridge (don't like that either :-P), and having a premium on freezer space for my smoothies & soup habits, AND the sad state of my bank account, I have to start working on a better strategy. Or really, any strategy at all.
When I worked on cutting back on 'extras' spending, it helped to put a weekly limit on it. And since I was writing all of my spending down in my dayplanner, it was not so hard to track. (Tho now I'm not sure if that helped more, or the fact that I'm too tired to go out and do anything and/or shop.) Its not always perfect, b/c weeks and calendar months usually don't match up perfectly, but Ima try it with the groceries.
This week I realized "Wait, I don't have to buy meat this weekend, I have enough organic chicken in the freezer!" And then discovered several other items I already had frozen that I could turn into an Indian-spiced dish for next week's lunches. So my decadent dinner-for-one Easter plans aren't going to happen, but there is hope for my spending problems. I already have all the ingredients I need (I think?) to try making paleo Thin Mint cookies. If not, I'll improvise, or do something else (meringues?). Or just eat gf/df/sf chocolate chips out of the bag.
For the past couple weeks I've been nomming away at some non and less-perishable foodstuffs, just to get rid of them and free up shelf space while not spending more monies (another part of why I started eating rice again). And by 'free up' I don't mean so I can put more stuff in there, I mean so things don't fall on me when I open the cabinet.
Mostly its things I was trying to make homemade Kind bars with, and banana bread has turned out to be a less drama inducing ahead-of-time breakfast. I've finished two bags of gf off-brand rice crispies with almond milk. I'm not a cereal person anymore, but this is about as much adventure as I can take. The dried apricots were OK too, not sure if I like them enough to keep buying them tho. I'd rather get fresh apricots and smoothie-ize them. I already had an almond problem. But I'm eating through the backlog, yay!
Costco is also off-balancing my budget attempts. Yes, the 200oz container of dish soap is cheaper by the ounce and I won't have to buy any again for a year. But it can really lop-side my budget. Mebbe I can stagger large non-food purchases on a monthly basis. (I'll get the giant tub of bleach next month, just $1 of it today for what I need to wash.)
Am mulling over whether to make the soy free chocolate part of the 'extras' category rather than groceries. I buy them in (fancy) grocery stores, usually, but it can really add up. Also things like soy-free mayo which they only have at the fancy bodega on main street, with all the other organic and weird products that they stock b/c they can charge extra for 'em. I could just finally suck it up and make mayo with a whisk (all 3 of my gadget attempts failed) but ... fatigue :-/ Ow arms ow.
Ooooor I could give up my anti-soy crusade and focus on teh sleeps instead, and go back to normal (dairy-free) dark chocolate. Some authorities say the soy lecithin in chocolate is too processed to be bad for my hormones anyway. Or, um, give up daily chocolate b/c the caffeine and sugar probably aren't helping me anyway. Duh.
And in line with the resurrection themes of Ostara and Easter, Ima try making one of those vision board thingies this weekend. For the ideal life I want to have, the first step on the path being my recent Spoon-Saving-Manifesto thingie. If I don't space out and forget, and or run out of printer ink. I don't really use my cork board for anything productive (except hanging the paper calendar) so its worth a shot, right? All the pagans are doing it nowadays, or something.
Oh, and my NYS sales tax was due on 3/20, and I need to open some kind of online account to pay them now, so it'll be a minimum of $50 this year :-P. So this *should* also be tax weekend.
There are lots of things I'd like to work on, but just haven't been able to get it together for one reason or another. But I've had one better night of sleep, and now its the weekend, so *crosses fingers*. Also, I got that live Bway recording of Rent on DVD from Netflix, yaaaay something to look forward to.
<3 Chrysilla
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, http://chrysilla.dreamwidth.org/
Tho it seems like lots of ppl I know have been having a rough week sleep/dream wise. Srsly? Spring gets here and ppl stop sleeping properly enough to not be cranky all the time? I question this system :-P
Another weirdness, started eating rice again b/c I thought the accidental low-carbing was making me feel more run down. Started with brown rice, but too much fiber :-P. Then white rice, but this week I noticed it giving me some kind of sugar crash. So next week I'm back to low carb lunches with moar veggies, just to see what happens.
And I completely forgot to line up a new sleep doc this week. B/c I was too sleepy to remember all week. Damn you irony. But it was nice to sleep in this morning instead of going to see Dr.Jerk before work, yay.
Both talking and needling therapists seem on board with my 'save the spoons' life campaign. The needler especially, b/c she knows a lot of chronically unwell ppl who benefited (physically, emotionally) from starting their own work-from-home businesses.
Some of my social life doesn't seem to get it, tho I'm not sure if they're joking. I've been whining about this weirdness for 1.5-2 years, yeah its probably kinda important to fix. I went to one event Wednesday night, for a short story anthology, both of which I'd been looking forward to for a while. After this week, I am free of obligations. And the next time someone tries to whine me into attending an event, I'll just send them the Spoon Theory 101 essay.
Have had rather vivid dreams for most of the week (except Thursday nite after needles), and at least Monday and Tuesday nights had to do with me starting something new or wonderful, and someone else being a jerk and getting in the way of it. I think my unconscious mind is on board with me doing my own thing for a while.
But after reorganizing the kitchen this weekend, I realized I have too much tea. So I may be inviting more ppl over to help me use it all than I'd initially planned this spring. Yay?
It may be warm enough to work on the balcony this weekend. Not sure if I'm up for it tho, even if I just do part of the tasks. And I worry that once I've got it cleaned up, I will be motivated to buy a ton of random stuff. Do not want.
And as the month comes to a close, its time to pay teh bills. I keep a spreadsheet of spending/bills over the month, checking on it about once a week, and this month I'm not happy with myself. I seemed to do OK budget wise, but there wasn't enough cash in my checking account to pay off my credit card bill (no interest so far, I pay each statement in full). I think its partly b/c the card's billing cycle doesn't start/end cleanly on the 1st of the month, and even if it did some charges at month's end wouldn't show up until after the 1st. Also partly b/c I need to tweak the budget again due to the return of payroll taxes this year.
Oh well. I can wire $$ from my savings account, but I really don't *like* doing that. It feels like fail. Will tweak the budget, and reevaluate my relationship with credit. I just don't like using my debit card all the time, b/c it offers a business direct access to my checking account. The credit card offers a buffer zone.
The other thing I really need to work on - grocery budget. Since I started the dietary tweaking, its become clear that I'm spending less in the 'extras' column because I'm getting all of my impulse buying off in the groceries category now. And I didn't used to pay such close attention to it before, b/c y'know, its just groceries. And until last year my food needs were pretty cheap and basic. But between having to toss icky forgotten leftovers in the fridge (don't like that either :-P), and having a premium on freezer space for my smoothies & soup habits, AND the sad state of my bank account, I have to start working on a better strategy. Or really, any strategy at all.
When I worked on cutting back on 'extras' spending, it helped to put a weekly limit on it. And since I was writing all of my spending down in my dayplanner, it was not so hard to track. (Tho now I'm not sure if that helped more, or the fact that I'm too tired to go out and do anything and/or shop.) Its not always perfect, b/c weeks and calendar months usually don't match up perfectly, but Ima try it with the groceries.
This week I realized "Wait, I don't have to buy meat this weekend, I have enough organic chicken in the freezer!" And then discovered several other items I already had frozen that I could turn into an Indian-spiced dish for next week's lunches. So my decadent dinner-for-one Easter plans aren't going to happen, but there is hope for my spending problems. I already have all the ingredients I need (I think?) to try making paleo Thin Mint cookies. If not, I'll improvise, or do something else (meringues?). Or just eat gf/df/sf chocolate chips out of the bag.
For the past couple weeks I've been nomming away at some non and less-perishable foodstuffs, just to get rid of them and free up shelf space while not spending more monies (another part of why I started eating rice again). And by 'free up' I don't mean so I can put more stuff in there, I mean so things don't fall on me when I open the cabinet.
Mostly its things I was trying to make homemade Kind bars with, and banana bread has turned out to be a less drama inducing ahead-of-time breakfast. I've finished two bags of gf off-brand rice crispies with almond milk. I'm not a cereal person anymore, but this is about as much adventure as I can take. The dried apricots were OK too, not sure if I like them enough to keep buying them tho. I'd rather get fresh apricots and smoothie-ize them. I already had an almond problem. But I'm eating through the backlog, yay!
Costco is also off-balancing my budget attempts. Yes, the 200oz container of dish soap is cheaper by the ounce and I won't have to buy any again for a year. But it can really lop-side my budget. Mebbe I can stagger large non-food purchases on a monthly basis. (I'll get the giant tub of bleach next month, just $1 of it today for what I need to wash.)
Am mulling over whether to make the soy free chocolate part of the 'extras' category rather than groceries. I buy them in (fancy) grocery stores, usually, but it can really add up. Also things like soy-free mayo which they only have at the fancy bodega on main street, with all the other organic and weird products that they stock b/c they can charge extra for 'em. I could just finally suck it up and make mayo with a whisk (all 3 of my gadget attempts failed) but ... fatigue :-/ Ow arms ow.
Ooooor I could give up my anti-soy crusade and focus on teh sleeps instead, and go back to normal (dairy-free) dark chocolate. Some authorities say the soy lecithin in chocolate is too processed to be bad for my hormones anyway. Or, um, give up daily chocolate b/c the caffeine and sugar probably aren't helping me anyway. Duh.
And in line with the resurrection themes of Ostara and Easter, Ima try making one of those vision board thingies this weekend. For the ideal life I want to have, the first step on the path being my recent Spoon-Saving-Manifesto thingie. If I don't space out and forget, and or run out of printer ink. I don't really use my cork board for anything productive (except hanging the paper calendar) so its worth a shot, right? All the pagans are doing it nowadays, or something.
Oh, and my NYS sales tax was due on 3/20, and I need to open some kind of online account to pay them now, so it'll be a minimum of $50 this year :-P. So this *should* also be tax weekend.
There are lots of things I'd like to work on, but just haven't been able to get it together for one reason or another. But I've had one better night of sleep, and now its the weekend, so *crosses fingers*. Also, I got that live Bway recording of Rent on DVD from Netflix, yaaaay something to look forward to.
<3 Chrysilla
Crossposted from Dreamwidth, http://chrysilla.dreamwidth.org/