Archives for September 2019

Which is a bit absurd.

Because what I totally forgot to mention in yesterday’s post was that instead of going to bed at a sensible time I stayed up until eleven, finishing „Looking for Group“ (very good and completely un-put-downable for me) and then I was so tired and exhausted that I watched Youtube videos about packing for an hour before going to bed. Yes, that as dumb.

I slept like a log but only for 5 1/2 hours. Which meant I really didn’t want to get up when the alarm went off. I lay around in bed for another 45 minutes without doing any morning routine-things just because I was still super-tired.

Got up too late, made breakfast barely in time but – and that’s the thing I find rather interesting – despite being so tired that it felt like only half my brain was working I was finally able to focus and to write for twenty minutes after the boy left for school.

My theory is that this is similar to the effect when students with ADHD can study better while listening to the radio. As if my brain stops running in circles because it’s half asleep.

Of course we all know by now that the first after a short night is not really the problem. The real problem will be today.

My husband showed up, we did all the usual things, I reached the point knitting my second toe sock where I need to make a decision about how and where to start making individual toes and then we did some housework stuff.

And I wrapped my father’s birthday present, and got the package ready. Went to the post office to mail it, then finally went to the library to renew my card but – the library was closed. I went to the health food store and back home again where my husband was wrestling with a recipe for pasta salad in English. The salad was delicious:

While I was out my mother-in-law had come back from her first cataract surgery. My husband helped her get upstairs but other than that she was fine on her own.

We did the dishes while the boy was still eating lunch, the boy and I talked about the birthday party he’ll attend on the weekend (not my father’s, my parents live too far away to visit them for just two days) and then it was time for teaching.

After teaching the boy and I did some bodyweight training for thirty minutes, I brushed my teeth, went off to bed and spent some time reading. Not until midnight this time.

Today there will be running and teaching and all the usual. Some more writing, I hope.

My morning went pretty well up until 6.15 or so when I opened the novel and fond that writing was not going to happen. My brain seemed to be still asleep. And the rest of me wanted to go into hibernation as well.

I did get out of bed on time and made breakfast, the boy showed up looking remarkably tired and glassy-eyes, seemed he had studied for his PE test instead of going to bed. Bad choice.

My husband was feeling all tired as well, maybe it’s the weather.

We did go off to run and I actually did run, mostly, the first half of the way but then my willpower was depleted and it was more of a stumble and walk. I’m now doing intervals of 10 minutes of running followed by 1 minute of walking. Since someone asked in the comments, today’s run was:

• 5 min warm-up (I walk.)
• 10 min running
• 1 min walking
• Repeat intervals four times then
• 5 min of cool-down (walking again)

I tend to check my phone more and more often the longer I’m out and past the halfway point I often give up on trying to run completely. But I’m getting better. But I just saw that from here on it will be basically all running all the time so I might have to repeat the last two weeks or something.

Here are picture I took. In the rain:

When I was coming home I was dripping everywhere. I undressed in the bathroom and hung everything on the rack above the bathtub.

Then we made lunch:

Something paella-like, started because we had a lot of leftover rice. It was very good.

I did the dishes, then sat around reading. I started another novel yesterday after having finished „Three Alarm Fury“ which was, um, nice. I’m still on an Alexis Hall kick and started „Looking for Group“. I like it very much. It is about two guys meeting through online gaming and falling for each other. Which is not something I have read before. I have to look up stuff constantly because I don’t know any of the gamer acronyms. I asked the boy constantly at breakfast but he didn’t know them all either. Urban dictionary is my friend.

I then decided that I really needed some chocolate and braved the drizzle to buy chocolate bars at the nearby supermarket. As you can tell the „no sugar“-thing is going swell. It did help to lift the brain fog a little, at least. I think I need to buy dark chocolate again.

I still didn’t manage to get anything done but finally made a list for the next podcast episode. And I got hold of the mother of yet another potential new student. She had left a message in the morning. So I called her back ten minutes later but nobody picked up. So I left a message. And tried again. And again. And again. And again five minutes before my first student was due where I finally could talk to her.

And that just shows how much better it is to call someone on the phone because it’s so much faster. Not.

And then there was the teaching. Still with the headache that’s due from having tension in the neck and shoulders. I started this post, finally did a few stretching exercises for my headache and for my knees, brushed my teeth, got ready for bed, opened the novel again, stared at it and went to bed.

Today will be errands and the health food store and then teaching. Strength training in the evening. I should stretch after strength training to avoid getting another headache. Oh, and I should definitely send my father’s birthday present off so that there is a faint chance of him getting it on his actual birthday.

That’s just so totally me, having the present planned for weeks, ordering it in time and then not getting it out the door.

Hurray! I won’t have to spend today shivering under a blanket!

I woke up at 5.30 shortly before the alarm. Did my whole morning routine up to eating breakfast and for once managed to not dawdle. Yeah! I did not manage to get a second session of writing in but, well, it was a Sunday. In my shiny new schedule there are two days a week off from writing so I’ll be okay. I wanted to have a plan that gave me a reasonable chance of finishing early.

Then my husband had breakfast and told me about his new guitar. He changed the pickups on Thursday and tried them extensively on Saturday. Where I apparently was way too zombified to listen to him, oops.

I did some stretching and then the dishes and such. We made stuffed bell peppers for lunch. Since we started too late we also had a pretty late dinner:

Dishes again and a nice break.

Then my plan was to plan the upcoming week, prepare the next podcast episode, do some laundry, help the boy study for his PE test, help him buy some new shoes and some other stuff. In reality my husband popped into the kitchen while I was planning the week to talk to me about which guitars we have to potentially lend to a new student of mine. And some other stuff.

So I finished the planning and then the boy came downstairs. Helping him study didn’t go well. I tried pulling up some Youtube videos to show him how the swim techniques he had to learn about look in real life but he was more interested in bitching about how dumb the text was so we decided he’d better study on his own.

And then we looked for new shoes for him. He needed a new pair of everyday shoes, a pair of slippers and then he wanted some boots as well. No leather. It was interesting how similar our taste is. And how often the shoes we both liked best were the most expensive. But we also both agreed not to get those.

When we were finished I remembered that the Birkenstocks I’m using as slippers are starting to disintegrate, looked on the website of my favorite barefoot shoe brand for a replacement, saw that the slippers I like were on sale and bought a pair. 

All of that took about ninety minutes so there was barely time to hang up the load of laundry my husband had started before it was time for strength training. Second week of getting back to strength training. I did well with the exercising last week, my Fitbit tells me I exercised for a total of 6 hours and 43 minutes all week. Not too shabby.

Then we watched an episode of Star Trek, I started writing this post while the boy took a shower and my husband practiced guitar and then it was time for bed.

Today I want to go running, teach and do all the things. Let’s see what the new week will bring.

I overslept.

Woke up at 6.30, thought my alarm hadn’t rung but it must have and I slept through it. (I have it on my Fitbit and it’s silent.) So most of my morning routine went out the window. Read while eating breakfast. Pulled the crochet blanket out to finish the last round and realized that all that was left was one loop and weaving in two ends. So, apparently I finished a blanket.

We did the dishes, the boy showed up, I went running. I am now at eight minutes running and two minutes walking. It was rather cool but I liked it:

Then I did my knee exercises, took a shower and helped with lunch a little:

I had cravings for bakes beans and egg for more than a week and finally I got to eat them. The red beet salad is homemade with beets from our garden.

Then I had a strict plan. Do the dishes, take a one hour break for reading, then start writing and an hour later do some sewing.

Well.

I was just ready to start writing when the boy came downstairs, asking for my help. So we finally filled that form out that he needs to be able to attend that workshop thing in October. And talked about some more stuff. Forty minutes later I opened the novel again and started staring at it for some time. I made barely any progress.

And all the time, basically since Thursday, I had had cravings for sweets. None in the house, though. And the kitchen was freezing. Way colder than I like. While the sun was shining outside.

So I dressed and went out to a supermarket. Came back with a pile of gummy bears, licorice and chocolate for me and the boy. Also broccoli, bread and toothpaste. As one does.

I ate all the sweets while reading.

Until it was time for dinner. And Star Trek.

Went to bed, read some more and turned the lights out.

Which means I will have to do all the weekend things today. That will be fun for sure!

Well, I did stay up far too late (finished reading the book) and therefore was tired all day but. I did wake up from the alarm and for once did my whole morning routine start to finish. Which includes two writing sessions.

I did finish the second of those before my husband showed up. Crocheted some more and finally got the first border round finished.

And then it was time to change the sheets and clean the house. Before going to the climate strike event in town. I was a little afraid that there would be only ten people standing around but it was rather full. And we met a lot of people we know. I tried taking a picture but something went wrong so I can’t show you.

We did leave a little early because we still wanted to get lunch before we had to teach again. And tried a burger place for the first time. Very yummy. This is me:

And my burger.

We went back home with half an hour to spare, I taught some students including another potential new student, watched a bit of the workshop about pacing, then the boy and I did a little strength training, I ate some cheese, watched some extraordinarily bad episodes of Star Trek (interesting double whammy, highly unusual), started writing this post, wrote in my journal and went to bed.

Now I’m very much hoping to repeat the good parts of yesterday today. So writing, exercise and moving some projects forward.

So let’s hope there will be no Saturday slump today.

Woke up at 5.30. I should have been all refreshed with the amount of sleep I was getting but didn’t. I basically spent all day in a brain fog.

My morning went well, though, I did the whole morning routine including writing a few new words. Then breakfast on time. And then I worked on the crochet blanket while my husband was having breakfast.

We talked about guitar parts. And brain fog.

Did some chores, walked to the supermarket and helped to make lunch:

I did the dishes right away and then, um, nothing. Read stuff online, watched a video about productivity, fell into an internet hole following links until it was time to get ready for teaching.

I taught two singing students, started writing this post and that was it for the day.

For most of the day I felt like crawling back into bed. My mind felt fuzzy and sluggish. I opened the novel several times and tried to write but just couldn’t brain.

Research on what to do when one has a foggy brain was of no help, by the way. The tips I found were: eat healthy, get enough sleep, exercise, drink enough water, take breaks, learn how to handle stress.

Duh.

Yes, those are good tips. For most things. The problem I’m having is that I already do all these things. I’m getting a consistent seven to eight hours of sleep, I drink large quantities of water and mint tea, I exercise more than recommended, I meditate and eat fresh, home-cooked meals. I don’t think there’s a lot to tweak there.

So. I’ll be slowing down even more and will try to remember that the beginning of the school year is always crazy and hits me pretty hard. And that I’ll feel better in a week or two when things will settle down.

But today will be rather busy again, I want to clean the house and attend the local #climatestrike-thing with my husband. The boy’s school will be ending early so that the students can attend as well. The plan is to meet up there and then go for a quick burger afterwards.

From there we’ll go back home, hopefully in time for teaching. I’ll be seeing another potential new student as well. Bonus points for the strength training I didn’t do yesterday and then it will be the weekend!

Phew.