I keep having ideas that would make great posts, but by the time I'm done work, etc. and sit down with my personal computer I'm too tired to actually write them. Ugh ( Read more... )

So, in preparation for having to provide my own health insurance, I stepped onto the scale for the first time in ... well, it's been a while. And oof: 10 pounds higher than anticipated. Still (slightly) below what my private freak-out number would've been, but close enough that it's time to get serious about getting back into shape. Not that I've ( Read more... )

Well, the blow has landed, and it's neither as good as I hoped, nor quite as bad as I anticipated. My hours are going to be halved, but over the next 3-4 months, rather than immediately, giving me enough time (if I'm able to use it wisely) to prepare for losing health insurance, etc. I have enough in savings that I can give the school until ( Read more... )

I gotta say, when you've already survived 3 rounds of severe budget cuts, the 4th is kind of just "eh, might not be a bad thing to have to find a new job, given how this one has gone over the last 14 years ( Read more... )

This summer I managed to cheat myself out of a proper vacation. For reasons it made more sense for me to work the equivalent of one day a week instead of taking a full block of time. I, like a chump, decided to spread those hours out across the week instead of shoving them all into Mondays so that I could have a nice 6 days off in a row. It seemed ( Read more... )

Sing with me the song of burnout ( Read more... )

The family stuff has resolved itself, about as well as could be humanly hoped, given the various factors involved. My ability to focus on anything is completely shot: a year's-worth of massive emotional pressure has suddenly been removed, and I've metaphorically fallen over now that there's nothing to push against ( Read more... )

It's raining as I write this; the grass will be nearly incandescent green when the sun next shows itself. We have asparagus just starting to poke through the soil, like enormous pink worms. Our side garden is being overrun with thistles--the awful kind with no structural integrity, so that no matter how deep you dig them up, most of the roots ( Read more... )

I've mentioned Habitica.com before, which I've been using since the beginning of the year to keep myself organized and moving more-or-less forward. One of the aspects I don't think I've really dwelt on is the actual in-"game" incentive to get things done, and to explain that, I need to step back in time for a moment and explain that as a kid, I ( Read more... )

Written March 8:
I'm going through a bit of a rough patch right now--not the first time, won't be the last time. The thing I'm trying very hard to remember is that it also won't be forever. When you're in the middle of the Doldrums (to borrow a term from The Phantom Tollbooth), it tends to feel like that's all there ever was or will be. Right now, ( Read more... )