unforth | When in Doubt, Procrastinate

Well, I'm starting to feel intimidated by the amount of work that I have to do in the coming weeks, but it's all rather artificial stress at this point, so I'm trying to convince myself that I can take today off. It's not working that well, and I'm gonna try and get some work done later, but for now I thought I'd procrastinate a bit longer by writing up the last few days (weeks?). I always like it when I manage to procrastinate and also do something I've been meaning to do. :)

I last posted any kind of meaningful information on Nov. 8th.

One of my main activities in November has been finishing the moving and other similar activities. This ended up being a surprisingly stressful and time consuming activity, more because I kept not doing it than because I was. Far too many days, I decided that I just didn't feel like it, with the result that by the time that

ozziel arrived last Tuesday, there was still a lot to do, and not much time left to do it, with my last day of my lease being the 30th of November. While the reasons for this delay were understandable, still I wasn't pleased with myself over it. I mean, on my own, I couldn't really bring the car, and so up until Oz was here I was moving everything by hand in the bus. Not much fun.

Still, with his help, we finished. Two car loads of stuff to my new place, one car load to storage, two parking tickets, one pleasant chat with the ticketing officer, and a whole bunch of bruises later, and I had removed everything that I intended to remove.

Abandoned behind, were my desk and chair, my bed and bedding, two lamps, my wall fan, my sofa and loveseat, my papasan, my media stand, two bar chairs and a small kitchen/dining table.

The only piece of furniture that got moved was my extra kitchen counter. With help, my TV made the difficult transition, and so did the Kitchen aid and printer, and of course my dad's beloved ladder.

Of course, I needed to compensate for this by getting more furniture. I've spent a slightly sickening amount of money this past month in order to obtain a nice new sofa and chair, four lamps, a little set of drawers for office supply, a desk and chair, and a coffee table and end table. In addition, mom has helped me get two book cases and a room divider, which are the only pieces I've gotten that aren't here yet.

I've needed loads of other stuff, too, from a brand new George Forman (my old one was getting gross even though I always cleaned it) to about 30 picture frames so that I can finally get most of my art up on the walls (I've filled nearly all of them, and still have a few pieces not framed, but I'm closer than I've ever been...now I just need to finish hanging it all).

Understandably, I'm pretty freaked about money, and so I'm keeping the holidays regularly inexpensive, and managing without a few things I really need (the most obvious being any kind of warm clothing). Of course, I've also had several breaking moments, which means that if only I hadn't spent money on random crap I wanted but didn't need, I'd have a winter coat by now.

It's all good, though. I know that over the next 6 months or so I can pay down the new debt and move on. I just hate being at the beginning of the fiscal recovery process; I far prefer being at the end.

By far the most positive aspect of my day-to-day life over the last month has pertained to health and diet. About a week after I moved in, I started going to the gym, the fee for which is included in my maintenance fee, and which is just across the street. I go in the mornings, and while there are always other people there it is rarely busy. I'm on a 2 day on/1 day off cycle, which equates to 14 days of gyming every three weeks; I finished my third week on last Sunday and am now into the fourth week. On the first of the two days, I do an hour of cardio (usually 30 min of elliptical and 30 min of treadmill), and on the second day I do a half hour of cardio (either elliptical, arc or bike) and about 25 minutes of exercises (currently bicep curls, crunches and/or situps, over head press, chest press, and hip adduction and abduction).

With a lot of mental effort, I've managed to keep myself from the "escalation" mentality - instead of feeling that I have to do more and better every single time, I just try to do my best, whatever that is, each time. Most days, this has ended up being more and better, but not every time, and I've definitely felt better for not pushing myself.

The cardio in particular has been going very nicely. I went from barely being able to jog for 5 minutes at 6 mph to being able to jog for (the current record, from Mon. morning) 21 minutes at 5.7 mph (with about 5 minutes of 5.9 mph in there). I've raised the tension on the elliptical a whole bunch without changing speed, and I've gotten better about using the handles on the arc, which make it much harder.

Furthermore, while I wouldn't say I've been dieting, I've been as careful as I normally am about what I eat - salad and healthy choices as much as possible, despite the challenges of the holiday season. I eat when I get hungry, I cook healthy stuff, but I also had the second slice of pie on Thanksgiving.

All of this combined, I've been weighing myself at the gym on Wednesdays (though not today, cause it was an off day, I'll do it tomorrow). The first two times said 162 lbs. (note that this is post breakfast, right after I get off the machines, so I'm a bit heavy), the third was 161 lbs. Holding my weight steady while I continue to work out is definitely what I want to see. Even better, I weighed myself on mom's scale on Sunday morning.

When I first started making a bit of effort to lose weight right after Origins in early July, I weighed in on mom's scale (which measures a bit low) at 163 lbs. On Sunday morning, after two sizeable holiday meals (on Thursday and Saturday) I weighed 155 lbs. Needless to say, I was very happy about this.

Between the recent spate of cooking and all the exercise - with no mixed days - I'm very pleased with my progress in this part of my life. I'm pretty worried about the upcoming holidays. The hotel in DC will have a gym, and so I'm not concerned about that part, but the following two weeks are another story. I have no gym access at all in Bloomington or Chicago, and I don't even know where I'm staying in College Station yet. I intend to bring workout type stuff anyway, but I can't just jog - if I jog that many days for that long, I'll almost certainly get shin splints, I'm just not in good enough shape yet. So I'll have to figure out something, just don't know what. At worst, if I turn up in the gym on the morning Dec. 28th after doing nothing for two weeks, I'll consider it a win - mistakes will always be made, it's as much about resuming when breaks are taken as making sure that no dates are missed.

November was a pretty busy work month, but things went pretty well. December is turning out to be more busy than I wanted to be, especially considering how much personal stuff I have going on, but I'll just have to figure it out. I have a major grant due on January 22nd, but it turns out that the clients' boss wants us to submit a draft at the end of the first week of January, which changes my entire schedule. Sigh.

All in all, I've been managing to keep a pretty good balance between work and fun and busy and moving and play. I've gotten out to a few museums over the time in question, including the Met and that National Museum of the American Indian (the NYC branch). I'm still getting used to travel times from here; everything takes at least 15 minutes longer than I think it aught. The worst example thus far has been going to 1 Fordham Plaza. Ostensibly, the purpose of moving the Bronx was so that I'd be able to get to my work stuff in the Bronx faster. As it turns out, the 9 bus is such an inconvenient way to get to Fordham that I literally could have walked there in the amount of time it took to the bus. Next time (which is Saturday) I am walking, I've decided. Unless it's pouring or some such.

Meanwhile, the second worst example was what I talked about already, going out to QC. I think that in the future I'm going to drive to Queens. I don't like it, but I think it's almost necessary. I simply can't have it take that long every time. It's too annoying.

Still, I haven't let the travel keep me from doing the fun stuff, and that's what counts.
Thinking about it, there's not loads more to say. :) The exercise stuff has been the most pleasant for me. The rest...well, life is pretty good, though I seem to have spent far too much time whining in this post. ;)