Life at Home
So... classes have started, and my new challenge is to make myself a comfortable, productive and well balanced life while working from home. I've done very badly at this in the past, and I'm determined to do better this time. Having my income hanging in the balance may be good motivation: if I don't keep up in my classes I don't get unemployment. The first week has gone well, but that says nothing about whether I can keep this up for six months.
The cat is pleased to have me here, and comes and demands scritching when she thinks I've been sitting at the computer too long at a stretch. The current routine is to get up, get dressed, brush my teeth, put in my contact lenses and go out for a moderately brisk walk -- the first time I've scheduled regular exercise in some time. I started with about 20 minutes and have worked up to about 25, and I'm aiming for a minimum of four days a week. Not much, but better than the no-exercise that I've been getting. When the weather cools off, I may add another walk in the afternoon or evening.
I'm at my desk at 7:30 and after morning e-mail and netsurfing I'm ready to work at 8:15. Cooking and eating lunch is around 12:00-1:00, depending on how hungry I get. Midafternoon is a good time to go out and run errands: yesterday a grocery run. If I'm good and work all day without wasting time, then I don't have to work in the evenings.
Being productive is pleasant. I'm borrowing roswtr's term and bestowing on myself the accolade of Productive Lass on good days. A couple of days I have even been Unbelievably Virtuous Lass, but yesterday wasn't one of them, even though I did manage to ship off a package returning some pants that don't fit that have been sitting in my living room for months. But I didn't succeed in getting back to work (I originally wrote "back to earth," Freudian slip here?) after I got back from the errands.
On yesterday morning's walk, I was keeping an eye open for discarded feathers, which are the cat's absolute best favorite toy. When the Infamous Crows of Davis (very noisy) hang out in the alley here for a few days, there are plenty, but they haven't been around lately. But on the walk yesterday I found two areas that had nice fresh feathers scattered all over them and came home with a good twenty or so, which I stuck in the vase on the kitchen table.
When I got home from the grocery run that afternoon there were feathers all over the living room and kitchen floor. I still don't know how she did that -- the vase wasn't even knocked over. It wasn't sitting in front of an open window either, so it can't have been wind. I picked up most of them, left her a few to play with and told her she was a wicked clever cat. The vase is now in a cupboard with the door shut.
The cat is pleased to have me here, and comes and demands scritching when she thinks I've been sitting at the computer too long at a stretch. The current routine is to get up, get dressed, brush my teeth, put in my contact lenses and go out for a moderately brisk walk -- the first time I've scheduled regular exercise in some time. I started with about 20 minutes and have worked up to about 25, and I'm aiming for a minimum of four days a week. Not much, but better than the no-exercise that I've been getting. When the weather cools off, I may add another walk in the afternoon or evening.
I'm at my desk at 7:30 and after morning e-mail and netsurfing I'm ready to work at 8:15. Cooking and eating lunch is around 12:00-1:00, depending on how hungry I get. Midafternoon is a good time to go out and run errands: yesterday a grocery run. If I'm good and work all day without wasting time, then I don't have to work in the evenings.
Being productive is pleasant. I'm borrowing roswtr's term and bestowing on myself the accolade of Productive Lass on good days. A couple of days I have even been Unbelievably Virtuous Lass, but yesterday wasn't one of them, even though I did manage to ship off a package returning some pants that don't fit that have been sitting in my living room for months. But I didn't succeed in getting back to work (I originally wrote "back to earth," Freudian slip here?) after I got back from the errands.
On yesterday morning's walk, I was keeping an eye open for discarded feathers, which are the cat's absolute best favorite toy. When the Infamous Crows of Davis (very noisy) hang out in the alley here for a few days, there are plenty, but they haven't been around lately. But on the walk yesterday I found two areas that had nice fresh feathers scattered all over them and came home with a good twenty or so, which I stuck in the vase on the kitchen table.
When I got home from the grocery run that afternoon there were feathers all over the living room and kitchen floor. I still don't know how she did that -- the vase wasn't even knocked over. It wasn't sitting in front of an open window either, so it can't have been wind. I picked up most of them, left her a few to play with and told her she was a wicked clever cat. The vase is now in a cupboard with the door shut.