daily journal

I mean, the morning went a little sideways because I hadn’t gotten enough sleep and that always makes it harder to get stuff done. Duh.

So no writing and I lounged in bed until it was time for breakfast, so no yoga or meditation either. But breakfast was nice and we talked a bit but not all that long because my husband had an early student.

I went online as usual and then ordered stuff on the internet for my mother-in-law. I did the breakfast dishes and listened to music and then it was time to start cleaning. And change the sheets and towels.

My husband made an omelette because he didn’t have much time:

The boy had used the morning to get some red tape stuff done that he had been dreading for literally months. Otherwise he spent the day at home.

I taught my first two students of the day, the used a short break to vacuum the annex, taught another student, cleaned washbasins and toilets in under 10 minutes and taught my last student of the day.

Another short break and then I met the boy for bodyweight training. The good thing was that it was a short session because by that point I was feeling a little dizzy already.

We finished exercising, then I ate dinner and then I felt pretty faint. I did Duolingo and started writing this post, waited until the boy had finished taking a shower and went to bed. The good thing is that my new typing gloves seem to help a little.

Today my husband and I are planning an actual excursion! Exciting!

In the end I went to bed too late the night before but I did my complete morning routine including ten distracted minutes of working on the manuscript. My blood pressure is still a bit high, harumph.

Husband and I talked over breakfast and I worked on the new pair of socks. There was the usual internet rounds, some tidying of the kitchen and then I biked to the supermarket while my husband went on a short run.
But before that I did some research about computer keyboards and typing gloves. And ordered some. And then realized that I don’t have anything to wear to a wedding in four weeks, and also don’t have a summer dress that fits me so I spontaneously decided to sew one and ordered fabric.

Grocery shopping went pretty smoothly and I managed to avoid not only the streams of students leaving on my way but also most of the usual senior shoppers. It’s a bit funny that my usual daily schedule is so similar to that of people in retirement. And that while I continue working.

Husband managed to time making lunch perfectly this time, everything was already in the oven when I came back with the groceries and I could unpack and put the away in peace. Hurray! 

Lunch was delicious:

And afterwards I ate a whole roll of Marabou chocolate for dessert. Ahem.

I started teaching a little later than most days but then taught all the way through past 7. At which point I was totally done. I ate dinner, read a bit (I’m almost finished with „Radiance“ and will read book 2 right after that.) and then watched a video about the psychological reasons for buying books one doesn’t read. I won’t link it here, it wasn’t very good.

To me that huge library of unread books is equal parts good intentions and FOMO. Every time I buy a book I am totally looking forward to reading it and think about how lovely it will be. Or helpful. Or that it is the next book in a series I enjoy. Or a book by a favorite author. And a part of me, the one that didn’t have money for books in the past, is afraid if I don’t snatch the book up now it will be gone. Which is a not irrational fear with traditional publishing. You want to buy book 3 in a series that came out ten years ago? Pity. But that is changing, of course.

Let’s see. So far this month – like two weeks in – I pre-ordered two books from favorite authors, „Copper Script“ by KJ Charles and „A Suitable Stray“ by R. Cooper. The last one is a book in a series I really liked. Well, I liked book 1 and 2, I bought book 3 but haven’t read it yet. I’m sure I’ll love those two as well, when I am in the right mood for those stories again. Both those preorders are due in May.

I also bought a novella by R.Cooper and two books of Sherlock Holmes stories in Chinese. Those two are graded readers and are just about easy enough for me to read. (Never mind that I already have two more of these books half-read already. But I was so elated I could understand most of one of them that I bought two more because I had this vision of myself reading some Chinese every day.)

I downloaded seven books that were free because six of them are comparable to the one I am about to publish and they looked interesting. The seventh one is a cozy mystery by a friend.

I bought „The Seven Day Stress Prescription“ by Elissa Epel because, well, stress and I could really need some help with that, and also it was only 3.99. I read the first few pages so far.

I bought book 2 and 3 of the „Wraith Kings“ series because Ilona Andrews recommended Grace Draven and the series and I am enjoying book 1 tremendously.

And that’s it for books I bought since May 1st.

If I don’t count the free books (and I stopped tracking those a while ago) that makes six books, seven if I count the one that will come out at the end of the month. So far I finished reading – three, four if you count „Radiance“ which I might as well do because I’m only three pages away from the end.

Well.

At least these days I buy mostly electronic books so while they clutter my ebook reader they don’t really clutter my house. I am not ruining myself even though spending less money on books might be a good thing. I will continue monitoring the whole thing and it will be alright.

And as I was opening my ebook reader to see how many pages I had left in the book I saw that every single book on there was blank and I got an error message that the item had been removed and was unavailable for download. I also saw that the device was telling me it had only 0.48 MB of storage when in fact that number should have been around 32 GB.

I restarted the thing several times, de-registered, re-registered, did a factory reset and all in all spent a fabulous long evening trying to deal with the issue. A quick internet search told me I was not alone, apparently Amazon is aware of the issue and working on it. Just wonderful!

So basically my whole evening imploded because of this issue. Meh.

Interestingly, when I decided to give up for the day and borrow my husband’s ebook reader, found that one with a battery almost dead and looked for another charger, my own gave signs of life again. I had to set it up again from scratch but at least it was working again. Phew.

Apart from my wrists getting more painful but I’m working on that as well.

I went to bed at a reasonable time, slept well, woke from the alarm, dosed off again, and then proceeded to do my complete morning routine. Including 15 minutes of working on the manuscript. Yes!

It is a weird feeling – as always – to write so slowly because all the characters have been sitting in that room talking over brandy for weeks now. At least that’s what it feels like in real time for me. At the point where people might read it it will be only a short chapter. Anyways, writing happened and that is a good thing.

When I was about to eat breakfast I realized I had forgotten to take my thyroid pills so I did that and then waited for half an hour. I talked with my husband and I finished a pair of socks:

They make me very happy and it is funny that I lined them up in a way that the stripes between the socks line up when they really don’t match at all. (The pattern is Black Rib by Anne Fletcher, the yarn is Supersocke 4-ply.)

Now I need to wind another skein of sock yarn before I can start a new pair.

I also spent some time researching computer keyboards because I found out that typing on my laptop might be a big factor in my wrist pain. I had first noticed it when doing pushups and similar exercises, then when doing yoga and only yesterday did I make the connection that the parts of my hands that are hurting the most are the ones that rest on the hard metal surface of the laptop when I type.

I do a lot of typing on my laptop, way more than on a real keyboard with the big monitor. Oops.

I almost bought a gaming keyboard the boy recommended for my purpose (White! And purple! With glowing keys (that I would never turn on)) before I decided to first try the small foldable keyboard I have to use with my shown while traveling. That one did work but I don#t really like typing on it and it is smaller than a regular keyboard which is bad for my wrists as well.

My dear son then reminded me that I actually do own an Apple keyboard and that I could maybe try that out first as well?

So this is the setup I started writing this post on at the end of the day:

But first I went out for my walk/run. Since I had felt so bad while running lately and since it was rather warm and already past noon I decided to repeat a day in the Couch to 5K-program that was all 1 1/2 minutes of walking alternated with 1 1/2 minutes of running and, what can I say, it was fun! I ran all the running intervals. Even the one that lasted for two whole minutes!

So I guess I’m making progress.

When I came back home my husband was in a veritable cooking frenzy, throwing food and tools around in a panic. So I sat down and chopped everything needed for the salad.

The boy even joined us for the meal. He had planned to go to uni, was too late for the lecture, decided to at least attend the practice thing after it, missed his train and was afraid he had lost the charging case for his earbuds and stayed home.

Lunch was good if a little late:

After lunch I talked with the boy briefly and played a silly time management game (no idea why I seem to enjoy these so much, I mean my life should be time management game enough), then I took a shower, taught a few students, used a short break in between to do the next task on my list for publishing, taught some more, ate dinner, talked with my husband a bit again and then started writing this post.

After that I did Duolingo, made a list for today, did my foot exercises, watched some C-drama and went to bed.

Today will be a pretty long day again so I guess apart from teaching a lot and going to the supermarket I won’t get anything else done. Well, that and starting a new sock.

I woke up from the alarm and while I did dawdle quite a bit I also managed my complete morning routine. Well, apart from opening the manuscript. I have now officially decided that I don’t have the mental space to think about the new story right now. I did research some website stuff, though.

But. I also decided that I need that structure of another 30-day yoga challenge, that it is perfectly fine to start the challenge right in the middle of the month and that I’m also okay with doing the one that is much easier.

The boy was actually up at roughly the same time as me in the morning which was a little confusing but great news.

I had realized I would need to renew a prescription that day which meant I had a lot of errands to do. My husband and I ate breakfast and talked a bit while I knitted, then I did my online rounds, brushed my teeth, did Duolingo, looked at the grocery list for the health food store, packed my bag and washed the dishes real quick while listening to classical music. I did not have time to dry the dishes as well but I left them in the drying rack, so I guess that was alright.

I then dashed off to the train station, ended up with 3 minutes to spare, took the train to the next town over, went to my gynecologist’s office and got my prescription renewed. Then off to the nice health food store in that town and when I was finished shopping I realized the next train back home was due only 5 minutes later.

I almost jogged with a full backpack of groceries but I made it. Just as I was stamping my ticket I heard the train approach.

Back in my hometown I picked up yogurt at one supermarket, my meds at the pharmacy and more groceries (plus chocolate) at the other health food store. I walked back home, dripping with sweat because it was a very warm day and I had worn a jacket that I definitely didn’t need in that weather.

I came back home to a husband who was busy grating potatoes for potato pancakes. So I put the groceries away and then helped him with the frying. Turns out I have more experience making these than he does. The dough was a bit too thick and next time we’ll probably use a different grater. The apple sauce is one my husband made from our very own apples and it was delicious:

After that I had a whole thirty minutes to relax, I spent most of them talking with the boy and then asked him to hang the load of laundry up that my husband had started.

Then I taught two students, used the break before the next one to research photos for a book cover, taught another student, waited for the next student in vain (always somewhat irritating because you can only sit there and wait, not actually do anything when you don’t know what will happen), taught another student, then the missing student showed up with a friend for the friend’s lesson (the two of them are learning a song that they want to play together). After that lesson and quite the lecture I gave the two about the evils of smoking it was time to change into exercise clothes and do bodyweight training.

I had been hungry for at least two hours at that point so I might have eaten a bit more than I actually needed.

I started writing this post, did Duolingo, made a list for today, did my foot exercises while my tea was steeping, knitted in front of TV and went to bed.

Today I will mostly stay at home and recuperate.

I woke up from the alarm, wrote morning pages and – didn’t manage to make myself do anything else until it was time for breakfast. The slump continues. I did go upstairs to wake the boy but it turned out he was already awake.

His day was even longer than mine, he left the house before 8 and was gone for almost twelve hours, with a lecture, a meeting about a seminar, lunch and then working in the lab. On his way back on the subway all passengers were asked to leave the train at one point and wait for the next one and the exact same thing happened later on the train as well.

My husband and I had a short and amiable breakfast and then he went off to work in the garden. I wrote my blog post, did the dishes while listening to an extremely beautiful piece of music by Sakamoto and afterwards to „Après un rêve“ by Fauré in a version for cello and piano. I’m fairly sure I sung the Fauré for an exam at university. I’d like to unearth the sheets music and try it again.

Then I went out for my walk/run and found – again – that I had a very hard time to make myself do uncomfortable things. I basically walked all through the second half even though I did quite well in the first. But even so the movement outdoors helped me get things sorted a little:

Lunch was ready when I came back and it was delicious:

I read and played games for a bit afterwards but set myself a timer because I needed to take a shower before teaching. I also finally refilled the two fountain pens that needed it, ha!

I taught two students and did some admin, then one more student and then I gave myself a kick to sit down and work on publishing stuff. So, first I learned stuff about the app that I use for knitting. Then I made a list of all the books I pre-ordered. And only then did I finally tackle the one thing that was weighing on my mind.

An hour later I had consolidated my publishing to dos, had set clear priorities for what to do first and second and so on, and then I had done some additional research for a few minutes and committed to which categories to put the book in and the keywords I’d like to use. Phew. Sometimes it’s better to make bad decisions than none.

Just as I was really digging in my husband showed up and said his mother was in a panic because the boy wasn’t home yet. I texted him, he said everything was alright and he was one his way back and I told everyone before I could continue working.

Then I taught my last student of the day which was very nice, talked with the boy who had a lot to talk about, then briefly with my husband and then finally ate dinner.

I started writing this post, did Duolingo, made a list for today, did my foot exercises, watched an episode of ‚Word of Honor‘ and went to bed.

I hope today will go equally well.

I went to bed early, slept well and then decided to completely skip my morning routine. Guess who didn’t do much the rest of the day either?

I was totally captivated by reading „All the Rage“ (very good book but it is making me very angry) but it also changed my mood, of course. Add to that my ambivalence about Mother’s Day and the fact that I was completely convinced that both my husband and my son would forget about Mother’s Day and the result was that I basically snapped at my husband first thing in the morning before he had actually said anything.

He had not forgotten about Mother’s Day.

He got hit with my complete tangle of emotions about all the things, including getting flowers (I love flowers, but they are bad for the environment and costly, I could also buy some myself, but…) and that resulted in a conflict that lasted for most of the day.

Lovely.

He then went outside and re-injured his trigger finger for this:

I am also all emotionally bunched up about publishing and the gazillion tasks that brings and was very aware of the fact that Sunday afternoon is basically the only free time I have.

Or at least that is the lie I tell myself. I mean, I’m writing this at 10 on a Monday morning. This is free time. I won’t start teaching until three. And yes, I want to go for a run, take a shower, eat lunch and do some housework before then but still. No free time. Sure.

But yesterday I called my mother on the phone, we only talked briefly (I don’t send my mother flowers either, by the way), then my husband and I talked some more. I planned my week while he was cooking and then there was lunch:

Then I did the traditional, sitting around waiting for the boy to show up and for the perfect point in time to actually tart working on the thing while playing silly games and reading. 

The boy showed up pretty late for only a minute or so and we negotiated an earlier start time for bodyweight training. He is somewhat pressed for time at the moment as well because in addition to his studies he is also taking part in a War Thunder tournament and has been playing a role-playing game on Discord with friends.

So I had a little more than an hour for the actual work I had been wanting to do.

I spent most of that on playing a puzzle game on my iPad and then managed to finally insert a really ugly sign-up form into my author website. ::facepalm::

The boy and I did bodyweight training. I ate dinner while he was taking a shower. We watched episode 2 of the latest season of ‚Doctor Who‘. It was solid and fun, very silly in places.

I watched an episode of ‚Filter‘ after that. That episode was only silly, nothing more. That whole thing with the alpaca didn’t need to be in there. At all. I’m not quite sure if I’ll continue watching. I might also just give up and rewatch ‘Word of Honor‘ for the third time instead.

Then I did that thing where you sit and watch ‚just one more short video‘ on YouTube and went to bed too late.

I’d say I’ll do better today but I already skipped yoga and writing. But still. The day isn’t done yet.