106 posts tagged “daily woes”

My day has been book-ended by trips to the doctor and now I am about to fall asleep to an episode of House on hulu.com. I had my annual mole check-up at the dermatologists where I discovered that there was nothing untoward going on and I even got praised for my obsessive use of sun screen. I love slapping on the factor 50 and wear it all year round. So what if I will only turn off-white in the summer it's better than freckling. The upside to spending so much time in waiting rooms is that I finally managed to finish The Persians and even squeezed in an initial reading of The Suppliants. Finishing the first play of the year makes me feeling like I've crossed my own Rubicon, and now I can get stuck into my courses.

Today will mostly be spent filing and making chocolate chip cookies. I hate filing but yesterday I almost had a heart attack when I open a letter confirming that my old 401(k) had been transferred to company X. I freaked the frak out as I thought someone had stolen a portion of my tiny pension pot. Of course there was a logical explanation and it was found at the bottom of my pile of "junk" post.  If I'd filled out the transfer forms in time and rolled it over to my current 401(k) then I wouldn't have the fun of spending a chunk of Monday trying to sort this out - joy! The chocolate chip cookies are reparation for making zucchini cake on Friday night. The cake tasted fine just a little blah, and it didn't knock my socks off like carrot cake. So I think gooey chocolate chip cookies are in order for tonight's treat.

I dragged my tired ass to yoga class last night only to discover that the credit crunch has infected my sanctuary.  From August my favorite yoga teacher will no longer teach any classes at the downtown Hoboken location she has been banished uptown to the new(ish) studio, and to make matters worse will only have an evening class come October. I've been going to this yoga studio for two years, loved the convenience of it being right next to the PATH station and the core dynamics program with my favorite teacher. The location is easy to get to from work and easy to get back to Jersey City. The uptown location (as the name suggests) is right at the top end of Hoboken so I would have to walk a mile up the main street to get to it. Obviously, when you get out of work at 5:30 and are rushing to get to a 6:15 class this is not possible. The other thing is that I have unlimited membership so for a flat rate of $99 a month I can take as many yoga classes as I want at the downtown location, if I want to do downtown and uptown then the price goes up to $125.  It also looks like they will be scaling back the downtown classes (hence my core dynamics classes being cut) so less choice for the same money really isn't making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Fingers crossed they change the policy otherwise I'll be looking for a new yoga studio and/or developing my own home practice. 

We got back from our European jaunt around 1am on Monday. Needless to say yesterday was pretty brutal and I was pretty envious that Alex had the good sense to take the day off work. It wasn't the smoothest holiday that we've ever had there was lost luggage, a stolen wallet and a side trip to the US Embassy in Rome. But all in all was a great trip, the ruins in Pompeii and Herculaneum were awesome as was the archaeology museum in Naples, and hopefully the photos will reflect that once I get around to uploading them (jet lag and Alex working away this week might speed that up).  It's nice to be back to the familiar routine and settle in for the rest of the summer. Our office started summer Fridays last week and this year I am going to try to take advantage of them.

W00t

• Ate at Blue Hills at Stone Barns and it was totally out of this world
• Got the bed to myself as Alex is working away so I can sleep diagonally
• Kindle when traveling is awesome
  
• British farces (Death at a Funeral is helping me unwind)
  

Meh

• Tardy about my 'Things on Tuesday' as I've been away for the last two days helping out at an event "upstate"
• Twilight - turgid teen tosh
  
• Really bad reaction to insect bites
• Missing Alex as he is working away 
• Need some yoga
• Midweek Netflix watching is stressful but necessary
  

I tend to do quite a bit of navel gazing during yoga classes, and by navel gazing I mean putting my introspective head on though I do literally spend time gazing at my actual navel as well. I find yoga quite mindless, especially when you filter out the mediation and the new age rhetoric, as all you are doing is breathing and following instructions for a series of poses. I like to think I do my best thinking on the mat, and today I was mulling over why I have been feeling so out of sorts. I managed to identify key ingredients that had been missing this week - escapism and thinking.

Escapism comes in many forms.  My favs are studying ancient civilisations and watching genre tv shows based on cool futuristic stuff (hello science fiction and fantasy).  I find that both of those things lead to thinking and that in turn leads to a happy me. Does this makes me an uber nerd? Because I really hope so. Last week was primarily about the day job, and in the evening I only had time to watch the Daily Show and Colbert. As much as I love Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert they are very much based in reality, and given that most of my favourite shows are on break for the summer there are slim pick-in's for programs that transport you to a galaxy far far away. 

Is it odd that a lack of Fringe, Supernatural, Battlestar Galactica, Chuck and Doll House disrupt my reality so much? Not really when you think about the Obama-BSG article the Onion ran a few months back. Dude, I am totally on the same page as I have an entire summer to fill before school and the new tv seasons begin in earnest. What am I meant to do till then?

Next up will be my summer sci-fi survival guide.

I think I was a bit hormonal this week. Had a wee mid-week melt down due to the ongoing sleep deprivation, discovering that instead of the Alitalia charge on my credit card I actually had an incorrect one from a totally different company and a few other dull things.  Cue much wailing and flapping of arms. Alitalia say that my flights are fine, and it might take a few weeks for the charge to go through - Italian! When I eventually got through to the company that had incorrectly charged my card (and after they had done somed poking about) they apologized for the mistake.  So no harm no foul. Next week should be better as Alex is going to be staying in a hotel a few nights (so he'll be closer to his project), but I am being "loaned out" so I'll be out over night at an event up state. Any how it's Friday night, there is still carrot cake, the temp has dropped enough to have tea, and I am catching up with Burn Notice (bliss!).  I predict a weekend of Flight Control, murder mysteries and madeleines. I might even find time to post the photos from Philadelphia.

Oh I do wish it was to stay in bed today, and rest my weary bones but alas I have just decided to skip yoga tonight. Having walked over 18 miles in Philly this weekend I think that I can safely skip one yoga class (even if I did have a bacon and egg sandwich for breakfast). So instead of yoga I will vegetate on the sofa (with a slice of carrot cake) and watch my latest Netflix rental - Vicky Cristina Barcelona. I will be clock watching until 5:30pm.  

OK so life isn't quite the French revolution, and may be because I am not distracted with school that bumpiness of life is registering with me more. It was a week of good and not-so-good things happening, and more importantly of good things not happening. I am of course referring to the abortive start of my office's whiffle ball season (or 'wimpy ball' as Alex likes to refer to it). I was all ramped up and then it's canceled because they are tarring the playground. The silver lining to that was that I made the most divine carrot cake that evening instead. This carrot cake is so good that you will want to enter an polygynous relationship with it and the cream cheese frosting. I was actually quite upset on Thursday night that we were home so late from the Diggnation Live event that we couldn't finish it off and had to wait till Friday.  I guess finally getting to see the Diggnation boys live was worth it and it was an excuse to get glammed up in a hand-me-down fancy frock. I've finally got around to upgrading my flickr account and will start popping all photos on it. 

W00t

• Bacon & egg sandwiches
  
• E2 Design series on PBS
• Carrot cake
• Bringing my own lunch
• 'The Consolations of Philosophy' by Alain de Botton
• British detective series
• Context Travel 
• Netflix
• Ankles and toes kissed by sunlight
• Second hand books
  

• Being on hold
• 5:30am starts
• Anticipating the stress of having to transfer air miles from me to Alex in order to book flight
• First game of whiffle ball was canceled (this does not bode well for the season)
• Skipped yoga after whiffle ball was canceled, going out on Thursday so miss my fav teacher so will have go tomorrow night to make up