Archives for October 2023

Since I had stayed up past midnight and then didn’t sleep all that well I had a not-so-ideal start into the day. I’m suspecting that I have more hot flashes than I’m conscious of and that they disrupt my sleep but not to the point where I wake up all the way. It was just that when I woke up around 4.30 with the feeling of „Hot, hot, hot! Need to get the blanket off now!“ it felt oddly familiar.

I woke up at 6.50 with basically no energy. Part of me feels that that’s what I get from taking a weekend completely off. I have to say I find energy management completely puzzling.

Since I was so tired I did everything very slowly and skipped my whole morning routine because I didn’t want to push myself. The theme of not wanting to push myself continued throughout the day. And so I ended up skipping cardio as well. I woke the boy up at 11, then did the dishes, ordered takeout and picked it up and then we had lunch all three of us together at noon so that the boy could still get to university on time:

For once I did take the duck instead of the fried noodles:

The duck was very good but I’m not sure if Gung Bao sauce was the right choice. I sat there reading and playing games until it was almost time for teaching and only managed to do the dishes because my first student had canceled.

Teaching felt a bit uphill, I had the impression that both the students and I are ready for a week off.

After teaching I talked with my husband and the boy a bit, ate dinner, read some more, started writing this post and continued to think about what I wanted to talk about in coaching later in the evening.

Over the course of the day I had become super motivated to finish revision of book 2 until the end of the week which would have meant going through 30 pages per day but then I felt too tired and meh to actually do it. Which is what happens often these days.

I did try to reach someone at the IRS in the morning but couldn’t reach anyone. I’m starting to think the number on the letter they sent me is wrong. Anyways, I’m thinking of maybe not doing anything because the letter said that it was based on everything they had gotten up until September 29th and I sent my forms in on October first which was right on time. Though last year the exact same thing happened, they sent me a letter stating that I hadn’t sent the form when in fact I had.

That’s when you think that you’re reward for dealing with all the small, niggly unpleasant things is getting more of them.

Of course I went to bed too late again after a very fun and pleasant coaching call. Which means at least my mood is better right now. Yawn!

Today is an extra long teaching day and the day I go to the health food store and maybe the tea shop as well. And mail the gas meter reading and the wood shredding form. Being an adult is all I ever dreamed of…

I woke up at 6.50 and decided I had enough time to read for ten minutes or so before doing my morning routine. Right. Forty minutes later I slowly rolled out of bed. Skipped yoga and such, ate breakfast, talked with my husband while weaving ends in on the next two crochet blanket squares and then I started my day very, very slowly. I wrote morning pages and read stuff on the internet, went on Ravelry and read a bit more.

I did the dishes and finally got on my bike for a bit of exercise around 12.30.

This time I took the picture before reaching the next town over. Not pictured here are the hordes of people out and about, a lot of them in groups, some with little wagons holding coolers and blasting music.

Came back after half an hour to a husband who told me there would be lunch in ten minutes. We ate 20 minutes later. If I had known I could have taken a shower in between. Lunch was one of our very favorite meals, pasta e fagioli:

I took a nice break after that and when I looked up again I had almost finished „Hither, Page“ and the afternoon was almost done. I had had a big craving for licorice all afternoon and after hanging up the load of laundry I had started before leaving the house and doing the dishes a second time I walked to the supermarket and got myself some quality junk food.

By then it was almost time for dinner so I ate all the potato chips, gummy bears and chocolate.

Did Chinese, started writing this post, finally took a shower at 9 and watched some C-drama.

Today I will call my mother on the phone, plan out the week, maybe open the manuscript, maybe start sewing the buttons on the cardigan that has been almost finished since June and if the weather is nice enough we might eat lunch at a beer garden. It might be the last nice day for the year.

I did really well again yesterday.

Even though I went to bed at 11.30 and my alarm went off at 7 and I then fiddled with my ebook reader and downloading books first thing I did manage to squeeze a complete morning routine in. Was just taking my blood pressure cuff off as husband showed up for breakfast.

I didn’t stop moving much all day, did revision for 20 minutes, did some housework, changed the sheets on my bed and did the whole weekly cleaning thing all before we had lunch at 1.20:

I’ve been craving German food lately, I’m avoiding histamine and this kind of food makes that easier. I was very hungry at that point and the food tasted heavenly.

After that I took a bit of a break, found that ‚Merge Mansion‘ has a pirate event this weekend and played a bit, then proceeded to teach my first student of the day. After the second one I used my 2-hour break to deal with all the laundry and mop the kitchen and bathroom floors before teaching the last student of the day.

Ate dinner, started writing this post, did Duolingo and ‚Hello Chinese‘, watched an episode of „Storm Eye“ while sipping a beer and crocheting another square, read a few pages of „Hither, Page“ and turned out the lights.

Today I want to do some kind of exercise, not quite sure what kind, read, play the piano maybe, and spend a bit more than twenty minutes on the manuscript.

That was a pretty full week. And I’d like to take this weekend to recharge because the weekend after won’t be restful at all.

Knock on wood!

The change from an outdated php version to the new one was probably what did it.

Yesterday was a really full, busy and satisfying day.

I got up around 7, wrote morning pages and did yoga, woke the boy up, made breakfast and ran out of time for meditation. Had breakfast with my husband and with the boy, and wove all the ends in of the last two blanket squares.

In between my husband asked for my help with a mobility survey. He had been picked, probably randomly and we had answered a few questions which had resulted in a link to a longer survey asking everybody in the household where they went and how on Wednesday. Which was somewhat funny because that day the boy was the only one of us who had left the house. Husband and I both had skipped exercise and didn’t do any shopping.

There were a lot of questions like „how often do you have access to a car“, „do you have a driver’s license“, „how often do you use trains“ and on and on. Took me about half an hour to fill everything out. I had to look up how many kilometers it is to uni for the boy (34), 15 by train and the rest by subway.

I also liked the question about how far our workplace is from home (0 km) and how we get there (on foot). And if we work from a home office. Husband wanted to say no because we don’t do office work but I said yes because, well, that was the only option for working from home.

After that I actually opened the manuscript and revised for 30 minutes. Then hurried up with the dirty dishes, then went to the doctor’s office to renew my prescription and get the flu shot which took another 30 minutes, went to the small supermarket for the nice yogurt, then off to the big supermarket for all the rest and to the pharmacy for my pills. Came home at 1.15 to a husband who thought I must have had an accident or something because it took me so long.

I packed half the groceries away before finally eating lunch. I had been hungry for more than an hour at this point:

This is rice noodles with chicken, egg, bell pepper and all the herbs. Very good!

The boy came home while I was still eating and we talked a bit. Then I ate some chocolate while trying to read „The Misfit Mage and his Dashing Devil“ by MN Bennett. I do like the book and will probably read book 2 but it won’t become my favorite book ever. I did finish the book after dinner and started reading „Poet“, the latest Aubrey Faye.

I had to rush again after that short break because I still needed to take a shower before work. Managed to shower quickly enough that I could even trim my toenails. Phew!

Taught two students, had a break that I used to figure out how to sign up for the annual wood shredding thing. Taught three more students, ate dinner, finished the book, ate more chocolate, talked with the boy a bit, finally did the dishes and started writing this post.

Then I watched an episode of „No Doubt in Us” and did my daily Chinese even though it was already a little late.

Today will be super busy with all the housework but not much teaching and then – the weekend!