Archives for January 2021

I woke up at six from the alarm. Sorry for not blogging yesterday, there wasn’t time after a very productive Friday.

Had breakfast, talked with the rest of the family, went on my run, encountered all the ice, felt defeated and walked most of the way:

Everything that’s white in the picture above is ice. Not the best for running. The weather was gorgeous, though, and very enjoyable:

I took a different way back.

Then there was lunch:

Afterwards I did the dishes, practiced Chinese for a bit and gave in some time around five. Because I knew I wouldn’t get anything else done I just sat down with my crochet blanket and Netflix.

Later there was dinner and more Netflix, this time with the boy, a very emotional episode of ‚Eternal Love‘ where we’re coming up against the ‚all is lost‘-moment and an also very emotional episode of ‚Torchwood‘. Then I started writing this post and got ready for bed.

Today there will be a phone call to my mother, some thoughts about what I want to achieve in the upcoming month and week, and not much else I guess. I’m still taking time off. No idea if that’s good or not but when you don’t get anything done anyway you might as well give yourself permission to slack off.

And I haven’t even looked at it.

I slept until six, wrote morning pages and made breakfast. Felt sluggish all day because I had finally gotten enough sleep.

Just when I was about to go out to the supermarket the window guy rang the doorbell. That window had been broken for ages, it was the small one in my husband’s studio and had had a crack down the middle for several years. Well, now we have a new window pane.

I went grocery shopping, came back, helped with laundry and ate lunch:

Then I totally failed to pre the day’s lessons, taught all the usual students, had dinner, watched some Netflix and went to bed early for once. Getting enough sleep that one night made me even more tired. Which is usually what happens.

Today there will be the cleaning of the house, some teaching, all the lesson prep and maybe I’ll take care of one or two small, niggly things that have been sitting there for ages.

And tonight the boy and I will watch an episode of Torchwood.

And then – the weekend.

And I decided to just let go of my goals for this month. I’m just too tired. Because while I did go to bed almost on time I also woke up an hour too early. Still short on sleep.

I was fortunate and didn’t have to shovel snow, I did wash a huge pile of dishes and then went out. The plan was to run/walk but in the end I just walked. That was strenuous enough:

Very beautiful and not as gray as it looks on the photo:

And more crowded than I would have thought but you can’t see it:

Meanwhile my husband had made Thai curry with shrimps:

Then I did the dishes again, had a bit of a break and taught all afternoon. Dinner, started this post, watched some Netflix and went to bed.

The boy reached another milestone, not only does he have his own PayPal account now, he also officially took over the Steam account. Many years ago, when he first started playing video games we just used my account whenever he wanted something. Now it turns out that I only have two games on there and I never play them anyway so yesterday he changed the whole thing to his email instead of mine. No more texting back and forth with security codes.

Today I will walk to the supermarket, teach lots of students and crochet while watching Netflix. I will also read some books. I bought „The Stoic Challenge“ by William B. Irvine. I’m sure that will make me all stoic, resilient and happy in no time.

Sometimes that’s just the way it is.

I did put loads of things up in the attic that had been standing around for months and got rid of some old clothes. I taught. I watched Netflix. I did the usual daily things. Lunch was delicious:

Today will be a super-busy teaching day. Plus running. We’ll see how that goes with all the snow we’re having. Plus a huge pile of dishes that I didn’t do yesterday.

I woke up at 5.30 after not enough sleep. Wrote morning pages. Picked up my phone and an hour went by just like that.

I had breakfast with the boy, then crocheted a bit while my husband ate his breakfast, was on the phone with my mother, helped her choose a data plan for her cell phone and booked the plan. Did some housework, practiced Chinese and went for a run in the snow:

After about five minutes or so I decided to stick to walking instead because it was tough going in the snow and there was ice underneath. Pretty, though:

And not crowded for once.

Went back home and took a shower while my husband took care of lunch:

Could have been a bit more but was delicious nonetheless.

Then I did the dishes, talked with the boy and then taught all afternoon. Afterwards I ate dinner, talked with the boy some more, talked with my husband and then my mother called to tell me that her cell phone had gone all wonky and she can’t call mobile numbers anymore. No idea what that is about. I’m pretty sure it can’t be the result of adding a data plan to her cell phone plan. Weird.

I had had lofty plans for the evening but by then it was already past eight and I was bone-tired so I just watched an episode of ‚Love O2O‘ and went to bed.

I’m really hoping to get some more things moving today. I have to remember that all that teaching is leaving me completely depleted by dinnertime. So planning to write or get anything done in the evening is completely pointless.

Today there will be the walk to the health food store and not quite as much teaching in the afternoon. Maybe I’ll fold some laundry.

I woke up early again after not enough sleep and then thought it would be a good idea to pick up my phone right away and that was basically it for the day. On my list there was strength training, yoga and planning my week but none of those things happened.

I did call my mother. My parents sold their house and moved to an apartment last week. Right now they are without internet or landline but I called my mother on her cell phone. Then she lamented that she didn’t have internet on there so I tried changing her prepaid plan to one that includes data. Unfortunately, this was the day the phone company decided to do maintenance on their website. So, with numerous phone calls and reading out of codes to each other I managed to set up an online account for her that will probably enable me to activate a data plan for her.

My father was very concerned that I kept calling her mobile from my landline because that’s so expensive. Well, turns out I actually have a plan that includes unlimited calls to mobile numbers in Germany. So yes, calling her cell phone from my landline is rather sensible.

I confess to having basically hacked her email because I guessed her password. This was not the first time I had to do this. Yes, I am trustworthy. The boy was a bit scandalized, though.

There was quite a bit of crochet and my husband made lunch. I did peel the potatoes and dice the carrots but these days my husband mostly cooks all by himself. Lunch was very good and I was very hungry:

The boy and I didn’t stop talking all through lunch. Afterwards we decided that giving the two of us wine with lunch is a really bad idea. My husband was a little overwhelmed. We did educate the boy about serial music, minimal music and Steve Reich while he kept telling us about noise, industrial and vapor wave. I still have no idea what those things are.

The afternoon just made poof. I did practice Chinese a bit. I also spent money on the handwritten font for my „Chinese Writer“-app only to realize that I had paid for that before. I hope to be able to get those five euros back eventually. I should have looked for ‚restore purchases‘ instead. Dumb. OTOH five euros are not going to break the bank so I’ll be okay with it.

I did spend some time in the afternoon helping the boy with taking a picture of his experiment setup for his paper. Turns out learning about composition and design does help in helping someone frame a photo after all. Huh. He finally managed to send his paper off. Then he had a scare because his laptop fell down and afterwards seemed to be broken but that was all cleared up later. Phew.

I heated some frozen pretzels for dinner, we watched an okay episode of ‚Star Trek:Enterprise‘ and I watched episode seven of ‚Love O2O‘. I decided to re-watch the series because it is actually good instead of trying out something mediocre.

I did some shoddy planning for the week and managed to go to bed almost on time.

And now for a brand-new week.

Today there will be running/walking, lots of teaching and not much more. I did research Yak Trax because the paths are still super icy and slippery around here. I’m pretty sure those won’t work with Five Finger shoes but I could maybe use my normal sneakers instead? We’ll see.