Week in Review

Well, the black dog is still lurking, but he (of course it's a he) isn't any worse than he was at this time last week. Is it better? Hard to say. What I do know is this: I was able to move through the week taking comfort in the fact that I did things to take care of myself.

 In fact, I managed to hit most of my goals over this past week: I went to the gym three times, I abstained from drinking from Monday until Saturday evening (and one of those nights, it was very difficult to remain sober; do you have any idea how hard it is to be the only sober person in the house?), I took my vitamins and meds every night, used my various lotions and potions and beauty supplies. I did do lunges, but didn't do core. I didn't write in my journal, but I did do some blogging. I drank a lot of water and I read two books and I didn't cry at unexpected times, or any time, really.

Here's what I've observed with my self-care

Drinking: When I don't drink, I don't go snacking on crappy food. When I don't drink, I'm not as sluggish. When I go several days without drinking, it takes less for me to get tipsy when I do drink again (more cost- and calorie-effective). All of these things are good incentives for me to keep up with this curtailing of the drinky-poos.

"Me" Time: Anyone who knows me knows that I need a hell of a lot of down-time, unscheduled times where I can just putter and do my thing, whether it be reading or straightening up my never-ending clutter or folding laundry or accomplishing world peace. Going to the gym after work really bites into this time. I'm going to need to work on thinking of gym as me time, or I'm gonna end up resenting it so much I never go.

And here's the goals for the coming week:

• Go to the gym a minimum of three times
• No drinking Monday-Friday
• Continue taking vitamins and medicine
• Do core and lunge exercises
• Continue using various lotions and potions

plus some new goals...

• When I step on the scale tomorrow, and when my trainer measures me, I promise NO MATTER WHAT not to berate myself but simply do better in the week ahead.
• Eat breakfast every day
• Read three books
• Keep blogging on...

Manic Monday: The Week Ahead

Manic Monday: The Week Ahead

Clearly, I've got my work cut out for me. Bring it on!

Manic Monday: The Week Ahead

As always, I let the picture do the talking on this one.

The Week Ahead...

I could say much about the goals, but I will let the picture do the talking.

(Also, they say that a picture is worth a thousand words...but what if the picture potentially CONTAINS a thousand words?)

The Week in Review

What I Read: What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank (short stories, of which I am not overly fond, but who can resist a title like that?), In the Company of the Courtesan, Because It Feels Good, and The Life of Pi.

What I Watched: Supernatural, The X-Files, Sleepy Hollow (oh, Ichabod! You can bear witness to me any time!)

What I Plotted: My upcoming Midwestern Adventure of 2014. (Woooo! 2 weeks in the Midwest in March! Party time!)

How I Felt: Lethargic. Sinusy. There's some nasty shit going on up there, let me tell ya.

The Good: I was on the wagon the entire week! And don't even have a tshirt to show for it. I managed to clean my desk at work, and plow through almost all of the work goals. And I blogged.

The Bad: I had one of my three allotted monthly days at work in which I felt very negative about things.

The Ugly: No exercise. None. I was a total blob.

The Pretty: On our travels through the tourist-glutted streets of downtown Palm Springs during Village Fest, Angie and I found a rather enticing little shop, Desert Artists and Imported Teas. It's a rather compelling combination of teas and tea accessories, frilly accessories, antiques, and some handcrafted items. Some items are of the Dolores Umbridge ilk, other items were downright lovely in their vintage dignity, but all of the items were total fripperies. My kind of place:

And while I won't be able to make discoveries like that every week, I purchased enough tea to tide me over for a while!

The Week Ahead...

For almost a year, we've been gearing up for this...the Sunnydale Writers Summit. 20+  authors/special people gathering together to party with the published text. Only, this is not the actual title of the event, nor the subtitle, but you get the drift. (The drift being my that my--truly--wonderful leaders envisioned something that could be great, huge, etc. but only too late realized the amount of manpower it would take.)

A few weeks ago, I realized that it was very much like a baby--we've spent 9 months pregnant with this motherfucker, putting sweat and worry and tears and anticipation into this, culminating in 2.5 days of labor. As Frog put it, "this baby's coming, whether or not we're ready for it."

My work schedule for the week is as follows: Monday 7 AM-12 PM; Tuesday 8 AM-12 PM; Wednesday 7 AM-7 PM; Thursday  7 AM-7 PM; Friday 7 AM-7 PM; Saturday 8 AM- 5 PM. Given these shenanigans, my goals for the week are fairly modest:

Health/Beauty: Gym twice, Bike once, Walk once, Nasal flush 3X , Pills daily, Dry 3 X, NO CHIPS OR SODA, Drink more water, Drink a glass of  V-8 1X daily, wear contacts 4X; wear makeup 4X, schedule labwork  for blood

Work: Kick ass with Writers Orgy!, do two more press releases; clean desk; Schedule party @ Las Casuelas, Revamp Comment Card, register for PLA Author Lunches, Get benefits sorted; write up books

Home: Remove Christmas tree, Pull 5 items from trunk, handwash blue blanket, sort a notebook

Creative: Work on blog, work on IU memories

Social: Locate Jen Tonsing, Message JoAnn, Wilma, Nancy; Send letter to grandparents; Schedule Paint Night, Awful Movie Night, and Time with Yvonne

Entertainment: Watch Agents of Shield, Sleepy Hollow; 1 episode of XFiles, 1 episode of Supernatural, Work on jigsaw puzzle; Finish Into Thin Air, Read Testament of Mary; read The Fault in Our Stars

Miscellaneous: Drop off dress; Deposit check, Do personal budget ($25 AAA; $200 credit card; $200 savings; $25 House; $25 Christmas; $25 Indiana Trip)

Self Help Shit: Read Cheryl Richardson, attend Spiritual Living thing

The sad thing is? This is a light week.