explaining my life to strangers
I did nothing, was in a bad mood most of the day and went to bed past midnight after drinking too much beer. Hence no coherent blog post.
The highlight of the day was making and eating malfatti:
We’ll definitely do that again.
And I finished a blanket:
Today there will be walking/running, lots of teaching and more crankiness, I guess.
So much so that I stopped the painkillers.
I slept in until 6.30 and did my morning routine without the writing. I’m not quite sure if I’ll ever write again I seem to be rather blocked still.
The boy got up at 10.30 without prompting, that was unusual. I did the dishes and practiced Chinese and talked with my husband (there might have been another misunderstanding and resulting debate) and then I went for a walk instead of a run because of my back:
It was almost freezing outside but very pretty.
Full of people. I was listening to music and enjoying myself and really wanted to run but didn’t.
My husband made lunch:
There was quite the heated discussion over lunch and then the boy and I did the dishes.
And that was it for me for the day. I had lofty goals and plans but in the end I succumbed to the Saturday slump. Almost finished a novel, watched a lot of Youtube, the usual.
The boy and I watched an episode of ‚Eternal Love‘ over dinner and then I just kept sitting there, watching more Netflix for too long. Another talk with my husband, then I started writing this post and went to bed way too late.
Today there will be some yoga, the weekly phone call with my mother, lots of talking, I guess, and maybe I’ll even get something done. We’ll see.
I woke up early after a solid eight hours of sleep with my back hurting way less. Still decided to take it slow.
The boy had to go to school in person so we had breakfast together. Later my husband built a fire because it was freezing and then I waited for the piano tuner.
He did show up on time, which was good, but not wearing a mask – not so good. I was totally masked, of course, and asked him to wear his which he did. This time we didn’t talk much, I left him alone in my studio with the piano. I thought he’d be done after an hour so I donned my mask again and waited in the next room:
The piano was really out of tune, so it took a bit longer. Once he left I opened all the windows and disinfected the piano keys.
With all of that I did not start cleaning the house in the morning and then I failed to make myself do it in the afternoon as well. Which resulted in an easy day.
I helped a little with cooking, then the boy came home and showed us his report card. Looks good. Better than he thought, actually. Then we all ate cabbage:
After that I taught my first student of the day, lounged about, did lesson prep for next week, read the internet and then taught my second student of the day.
Had dinner, watched „Torchwood“ with the boy and celebrated his good grades and the science fair thing by sharing a bag of potato chips. Then we did the dishes, I started writing this post, watched some Chinese TV and went to bed.
Today I will go walking for exercise instead of running and maybe I’ll get to the cleaning, otherwise I’m not sure what I want to achieve. Not much, probably.
Though I wouldn’t have thought so in the morning. Turns out that taking painkillers reduces the back pain. Odd.
I’m a bit swamped but feeling better. Yesterday was busy, I got my new glasses, went grocery shopping, took two dozen pictures of the boy with the setup for the science fair, taught lots and lots of students, watched two episodes of „Put your head on my shoulder“ and went to bed early because I was just so exhausted.
The boy won third price in the physics division for the „Jugend forscht“-science fair. There were only eight entries so not as impressive as one would think but still.
Lunch was yummy as usual. Fennel is an old winter favorite for us but this was the first time this year that we had it:
Today there will be the piano tuner, two students and the cleaning of the house. No idea what else apart from watching an episode of „Torchwood“ tonight with the boy.
I woke up with continuing back pain and promptly fell back asleep. Did half my morning routine, no writing.
The day was packed and derailed almost right from the start. At the time when I should have dropped my glasses off to get new lenses the boy asked me where the other USB hub was and that made me tear through the house looking everywhere. Three times. I still haven’t seen it. Turned out the hub was not essential.
I dropped the glasses off, did some housework, practiced Chinese with Duolingo and got ready for my run. At that point I thought about staying home because my back was still hurting and I just wanted to stay home. I went out anyway, just as my husband came back from his run. Walking wasn’t pleasant but okay but when I started to actually run it – hurt. I went back to walking, tried again and decided I could just go for a walk.
Only that hurt as well so after just eight minutes I turned around and walked back home:
I felt a little defeated but decided to try if I could do bodyweight exercise and – I could. Slowly and very carefully but afterwards I felt a little better.
My husband made lunch a little earlier than usual because the boy had his science fair thing and was supposed to do his presentation right after lunchtime:
That was very yummy. The boy says the presentation went well. I hung up laundry and did the dishes and got ready to teach. Just as I was about to start the video call the doorbell rang. It was my first student of the day who thought we’d do the lesson at my house. Um, no. I sent him back home and rescheduled the lesson.
Did some admin and then taught one student after the other until I was rather exhausted. I also found out that both the way I sit at my piano while teaching and the way I sit while playing guitar while teaching hurt my back. So now I know where that pain comes from. When I try to sit in a way that ensures everything important is captured by the camera I twist in a way that’s not health for me in the long run. That plus no strength training seems to have been a bad combination.
Halfway through the afternoon I decided to cancel the virtual knitting meeting, I was just too exhausted, had a headache and the back pain and just wanted to do nothing.
I ate dinner, searched for premade book covers I might be able to use but didn’t find any that I liked, started writing this post, couldn’t quite decide what TV series to watch next, sat in front of Netflix for a while with my crochet blanket and went to bed.
Today there will be the walk to the health food store, yet more admin and all the teaching.
I didn’t sleep well and woke up early. Did most of my morning routine, made breakfast and then time got away from me and I didn’t manage to write new words. The boy went to school on time, I talked with my husband. Learned some Chinese, did the dishes and such and went out on errands.
I had to wait ten minutes at the post office before I could send my package, then went on to the health food store where I bought all the food. My husband has been inspired and is planning lots and lots of interesting meals. There are post-its on the fridge again so we don’t forget about any of them. But the big health food store didn’t have everything so I had to go to the other one as well.
Went back home, unpacked all the groceries and had lunch. My husband had made comics caseira:
When we were in Brazil we had that for lunch almost every day. This is chicken but you can also eat it with beef or fish. There is a sauce that goes with it that I don’t particularly like so I didn’t take a picture.
Then the boy and I did the dishes and talked until I threw him out of the kitchen to have a bit of peace and quiet before teaching. Just before I started teaching the second student of the day asked if we could move her lesson to the evening. The answer was yes, that is her regular time anyway, we’re just moving her lesson earlier every time we can because both of us would rather be done with lessons by six. When I called the first student her mother answered and she wasn’t home. Oops. Time had gotten away from them. So I said I’d call again half an hour later which meant that my nice one-hour break was cut in two.
I did some admin stuff and texted back and forth with the friend I had planned to talk to that evening. It turned out we were both pretty exhausted and stressed so we decided not to skip the call. I finally taught the first student of the day then did some more admin and taught the rest of my students.
While eating lunch we had had a bit of a family conflict. We’re all on edge again which really is no excuse but when my husband wanted to tell me about what he had read in Harari’s „Homo Deus“ and started a sentence with something like „the animistic period of human history“ I reacted badly. The discussion lasted all through lunch with my husband repeatedly saying that he wouldn’t talk to me about the book anymore.
When I came back to the kitchen after teaching that night I heard the boy and my husband talking about history and culture and such again and knew they were talking about the book again. So I said hi and then went to fold the laundry. They were having the same discussion my husband and I had started before lunch but the boy was much calmer and sensible.
I had dinner, the boy and I did the dishes after my husband left and then we spent about ninety minutes talking some more about history and the future and robots, as one does, and in the end I pulled out my eReader and we started reading the first few pages of Harari’s book together.
It is definitely not a book I would enjoy. Interestingly, all the topics he talk about are things I find endlessly fascinating but the way he talks about them does not mesh with me. And I find myself become picky and pedantic and every other sentence I start saying, „Well, yes but, um, no, don’t say it like this“ because while the things he says are not wrong per se many, many details are. And I’m not an expert in any of the things he is talking about but I have a suspicion he isn’t either which comes as no surprise because the field he is talking about is so vast that no one can actually be an expert.
So yeah, better not to talk about this with my husband.
I threw the boy out of the kitchen a second time when it was time to get ready for bed, opened a beer, started writing this post and read some more of the Harari book just to criticize it. Which doesn’t make for a pleasant reading experience, I should stop that and instead finish the non-fiction book I actually enjoy so I can start reading the other book I bought yesterday morning, Seth Godin’s „Practice“. I’m hoping for some easy motivation.
Today the boy will give his presentation at the „Jugend forscht“ science fair. He will stay home because the whole thing is online this year and attend from his room. I will take one pair of frames to the optician so he can put new glasses in first thing after breakfast. I will go running and I have a lot more admin and email to do. Then lots and lots of teaching until 7 pm and then I’ll go to a virtual knitting meeting right away.
This week is super-busy but I already decided that I won’t attend the conference thing on the weekend. I need some time away from screens.