Perpetually Unfinished
Friday, February 03, 2006
Hi! I'm still here!
My lapse in posting has been due to several factors: a) a valiant attempt to put responding to personal e-mails ahead of the blog, with the result that I am damn near caught up on that, yay!; b) the week I spent in Iowa working 17-hour days; and c) the fact that I've never been too good at posting frequently in the first place.
But let's move on, shall we?
For the sake of anyone I haven't told, the whole "where's Alex's residency?/where will we live?" question has been figured out. Alex started his one-year residency in Milwaukee last week. As Milwaukee's about 2 hours from here, the plan is that he'll be spending weeknights in a cheap furnished room up there and weekends down here in Chicago. Yep. We'll see how it goes. I'm trying to be optimistic and keep in mind the possible benefits that will help balance out the obvious drawbacks. I must say, though, it makes for really glum Mondays...
Speaking of Mondays, I turned 24 last Monday. I had a wonderful birthday. People have asked me what I did, and the answer is "Nothing." Which is precisely why it was so wonderful. Actually, I spend a lot of time doing nothing-- what made my birthday so nice was that I didn't bother worrying about it. No "I should be working on X" or "I probably shouldn't be doing Y right now." And that makes all the difference, really.
I don't feel 24, though. It seems rather ridiculously old. You can at least call 23 your "early 20s," but now I'm inescapably "mid-20s," so it's like I'm practically 27 already somehow. 24 is a perfectly reasonable age to be doing things like getting married and buying a house and having kids-- people my age have been doing those things for years now, but there was the consolation that at least you could say they were on the young side or a little ahead of their time. But no one would say that about a 24-year-old. I don't feel old enough for all of that yet. I don't think 23 ever actually set in, either. 22 is about right; I think I'll stay 22 for the rest of my life.
It's funny, really; I feel much younger at 24 than I felt when I was 14. Oh, objectively I've obviously grown a great deal since then. But at the time, I was absolutely positive that I was as mature and competent and grown-up as I could be. I lost that certainty somewhere around 18 or 19, and I don't know if I'm ever going to get it back again!
Random guessing game: what in my house has the following label?
Blueberries and Cream
With soy milk proteins and scrumptious blueberry extracts.
Tune in next time for the answer...
And finally, a quick check-in on a few of my 2006 resolutions:
1. Write at least 15,000 words (of fiction or creative non-fiction) every month. Ouch! My grand total for the month was 2,143 words-- not even close! I think part of the problem was that I got off track early in the month, and then when I realized how far behind I was, I only made a half-hearted attempt to catch up because I knew how hard it'd be to hit the goal. For February, I've really got to do it slow-and-steady.
3. Do a full aerobic workout at least 3 times a week, often more.Other than the week I was in Iowa, I did manage to pull this off, so good for me!
5. Cook healthier and more creative foods on a regular basis. Well, I made lentil chili, a random experimental soup, lasagna, smoothies (the healthy fruit-and-yogurt kind), and I have plans for more.
6. Get more organized, physically and mentally. (Keep to-do lists and follow them. Set deadlines and goals for myself and stick to schedules. Stop falling behind on e-mails with people. And keep my personal possessions more neat and organized, both at home and at work.) I am almost caught up on e-mails! (Except for one that I'm 6 months overdue in responding to, which I keep putting off because now it needs to be really, really good to make up for how long it's taken me-- Danielle, if you ever read this, I'm sorry!) Also, so far I am 2 for 2 in the "getting the apartment straightened and presentable by the time Alex gets back for the weekend" department, which may prove to be a good motivator for me.
My lapse in posting has been due to several factors: a) a valiant attempt to put responding to personal e-mails ahead of the blog, with the result that I am damn near caught up on that, yay!; b) the week I spent in Iowa working 17-hour days; and c) the fact that I've never been too good at posting frequently in the first place.
But let's move on, shall we?
For the sake of anyone I haven't told, the whole "where's Alex's residency?/where will we live?" question has been figured out. Alex started his one-year residency in Milwaukee last week. As Milwaukee's about 2 hours from here, the plan is that he'll be spending weeknights in a cheap furnished room up there and weekends down here in Chicago. Yep. We'll see how it goes. I'm trying to be optimistic and keep in mind the possible benefits that will help balance out the obvious drawbacks. I must say, though, it makes for really glum Mondays...
Speaking of Mondays, I turned 24 last Monday. I had a wonderful birthday. People have asked me what I did, and the answer is "Nothing." Which is precisely why it was so wonderful. Actually, I spend a lot of time doing nothing-- what made my birthday so nice was that I didn't bother worrying about it. No "I should be working on X" or "I probably shouldn't be doing Y right now." And that makes all the difference, really.
I don't feel 24, though. It seems rather ridiculously old. You can at least call 23 your "early 20s," but now I'm inescapably "mid-20s," so it's like I'm practically 27 already somehow. 24 is a perfectly reasonable age to be doing things like getting married and buying a house and having kids-- people my age have been doing those things for years now, but there was the consolation that at least you could say they were on the young side or a little ahead of their time. But no one would say that about a 24-year-old. I don't feel old enough for all of that yet. I don't think 23 ever actually set in, either. 22 is about right; I think I'll stay 22 for the rest of my life.
It's funny, really; I feel much younger at 24 than I felt when I was 14. Oh, objectively I've obviously grown a great deal since then. But at the time, I was absolutely positive that I was as mature and competent and grown-up as I could be. I lost that certainty somewhere around 18 or 19, and I don't know if I'm ever going to get it back again!
Random guessing game: what in my house has the following label?
With soy milk proteins and scrumptious blueberry extracts.
Tune in next time for the answer...
And finally, a quick check-in on a few of my 2006 resolutions:
1. Write at least 15,000 words (of fiction or creative non-fiction) every month. Ouch! My grand total for the month was 2,143 words-- not even close! I think part of the problem was that I got off track early in the month, and then when I realized how far behind I was, I only made a half-hearted attempt to catch up because I knew how hard it'd be to hit the goal. For February, I've really got to do it slow-and-steady.
3. Do a full aerobic workout at least 3 times a week, often more.Other than the week I was in Iowa, I did manage to pull this off, so good for me!
5. Cook healthier and more creative foods on a regular basis. Well, I made lentil chili, a random experimental soup, lasagna, smoothies (the healthy fruit-and-yogurt kind), and I have plans for more.
6. Get more organized, physically and mentally. (Keep to-do lists and follow them. Set deadlines and goals for myself and stick to schedules. Stop falling behind on e-mails with people. And keep my personal possessions more neat and organized, both at home and at work.) I am almost caught up on e-mails! (Except for one that I'm 6 months overdue in responding to, which I keep putting off because now it needs to be really, really good to make up for how long it's taken me-- Danielle, if you ever read this, I'm sorry!) Also, so far I am 2 for 2 in the "getting the apartment straightened and presentable by the time Alex gets back for the weekend" department, which may prove to be a good motivator for me.
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